Paris, according to the registers of
1786,.................................2,800,000        28,000      1750

Twenty-seven other cities, lighted
by M. Sangrain,........................ 800,000         8,000       500

Rouen,..................................500,000         5,000       312
Bordeaux,...............................600,000         6,000       375
Lyons,..................................300,000         3,000       187
Other cities, leather and light,......3,000,000        30,000      1875
---------        ------     ----
8,000,000        80,000     5,000

Other calculations, or say rather, conjectures, reduce the consumption to about half this.  It is treating these conjectures with great respect, to place them on an equal footing with the estimate of the person before alluded to, and to suppose the truth half way between them.  But we will do it, and call the present consumption of France only sixty thousand quintals, or three thousand seven hundred and fifty tons a year.  This consumption is increasing fast, as the practice of lighting cities is becoming more general, and the superior advantages of lighting them with whale-oil are but now beginning to be known.

What do the fisheries of France furnish?  She has employed, this year, fifteen vessels in the southern, and two in the northern fishery, carrying forty-five hundred tons in the whole, or two hundred and sixty-five each, on an average.  The English ships, led by Nantuckois as well as the French, have never averaged in the southern fishery, more than one fifth of their burthen, in the best year.  The fifteen ships of France, according to this ground of calculation, and supposing the present to have been one of the best years, should have brought, one with another, one fifth of two hundred and sixty-five tons, or fifty-three tons each.  But we are told, they have brought near the double of that, to wit, one hundred tons each, and fifteen hundred tons in the whole.  Supposing the two northern vessels to have brought home the cargo which is common from the northern fishery, to wit, twenty-five tons each, the whole produce this year will then be fifteen hundred and fifty tons.  This is five and a half months’provision, or two fifths of the annual consumption.  To furnish for the whole year, would require forty ships of the same size, in years as fortunate as the present, and eighty-five, communibus annis; forty-four tons, or one sixth of the burthen, being as high an average as should be counted on, one year with another:  and the number must be increased, with the increasing consumption.  France, then, is evidently not yet in a condition to supply her own wants.  It is said, indeed, she has a large stock on hand, unsold, occasioned by the English competition.  Thirty-three thousand quintals, including this year’s produce, are spoken of:  this is between six and seven months’provision; and supposing by the time this is exhausted that the next year’s supply comes