The herrings are shipped off for market, which formerly was chiefly confined to foreign ports especially those belonging to Roman Catholic countries, and only a small quantity reserved for home consumption; but of late years the home consumption has greatly increased, and the commissions from foreign parts have neither been so numerous nor so large as in former years. The great increase of inhabitants in London appears to be the cause of the former, as the less rigorous observance of Lent, and other fish days, in Popish countries, is the reason assigned for the latter. These reasons will receive farther confirmation from the following account of the demand for herrings for foreign consumption, in 1755. In that year there were cured in Lowestoft and Yarmouth 70,000 barrels, which were consigned to the following ports:— To Leghorn 13,000 barrels Naples 7,500 ,, Venice 5,700 ,, Genoa 5,500 ,, Ancona 4,500 ,, Cadiz 900 ,, Trieste 700 ,, Civita Vecchia 700 ,, Bordeaux 500 ,, 39,000 ,, To Holland 13,000 ,, Home Consumption, chiefly in London 18,000 ,, Total 70,000 barrels From hence it appears, that out of 70,000 barrels of herrings cured that year, only 18,000 were consumed in England. Since that time the demand for herrings for foreign markets has further declined, and that for home consumption has increased in the same proportion. The quantity of herrings properly termed a barrel is 1000, though oftentimes 800, as when the fish are picked; the antient method of packing red herrings was in cades, containing 600; but that is a method observed now only in the packing of sprats. In the year 1776 the herring merchants of Lowestoft were much alarmed with apprehensions of the utter extinction of their fishery, and, consequently, with the total ruin of the town. Some merchants belonging to Liverpool, the Isle of Man, and Dunbar and Caithness, in Scotland, having introduced the method of curing herrings into these parts, and set up a red herring fishery in opposition to Yarmouth and Lowestoft, endeavoured to become their rivals both at the London as well as the foreign markets. But, after repeated attempts, their schemes proved totally abortive, through the superior quality of the Lowestoft herrings; and, consequently, the fishery at Lowestoft was thereby re-established upon a more permanent foundation than before.