But, as the Commissioners very justly of inferiority for curing purposes of trawled say, differences of opinion upon the point fish over drift-net ones are really of very little moment. The question is not whether the trawled fish yield an article as delicatelooking and tempting to a connoisseur as the drift-net fish, but whether they furnish so cheap and nutritious a food that there is an abundant demand for them.'

Neither have the Commissioners been

altogether, because it is not a benefit to any rings.' Can any one be surprised if the one; shrimps were never intended for food. following treatment congeals the herring's Any body can see that. What man could blood, which, being incapable of flowing at fill his belly with shrimps? It is a ridic- the gutting, blackens the backbone, and ulous thing to suppose that they were ever ultimately the fish itself?— intended for food. Only look at them!' 'We have ourselves seen,' the Report conThat part of the Report which relates to tinues, 80 crans, or upwards of 90,000 berthe objections brought against so-called rings, arriving in one boat, under the burning trawling for berrings, corroborates the con- heat of an August morning, shovelled into clusions arrived at by the Commission of baskets, and then conveyed in carts, late in the 1863. One of the Commissioners who sat morning, to the station of the impatient curer. on the present inquiry, namely, Professor If the general catch is large, the herrings must Huxley, was also engaged in the previous be again heaped up in the curing-pits." one; but as the other two were not members of the previous Commission, it was 'thought desirable to investigate the matter anew, and independently.' The principal alleged objections to taking herrings by circle-net fishing were, that it caused a diminution in the supply of fish by scaring away the herrings from the localities where circle-net fishing was allowed; that the fish caught by this method were often so damaged as to be rendered unfit for the purposes of the curer; that it is a wasteful mode of able to find any satisfactory proof that fishing, by destroying a number of fry and trawl or circle-net fishing for herrings is, a quantity of spawn. The result of the when properly managed, in any way wastecareful investigation of each of these objec-ful or destructive to the spawn and fry: tions satisfactorily and convincingly nega tives all of them. The Commissioners have 'We are of opinion,' they say, 'that it has demonstrated, from the Fishery Board re- been, and may be, a very important means of turns, that the fishery of Loch Fyne has suf- supplying the market with an abundance of fered no diminution by the operations of fish, and that not unfrequently under circumthe circle-net fishermen, but that, on the con- stances which preclude the capture of herrings by the drift-net fishermen. And whatever trary, it has steadily progressed, making may be the case as regards herrings, it is cerallowances for, fluctuations, during the pe-tain that a method of fishing precisely similar riods when circle-net fishing was prosecuted, to the so-called "trawling" has been practised and they state that the result established in taking pilchards from time immemorial on for Loch Fyne is found to apply to the west the coast of Cornwall, without any suspicion coast of Scotland as a whole. They affirm, having arisen that it is destructive to the brood with reference to the quality of trawled of the fish, or that it in the slightest degree inherrings, that the evidence laid before them, jures the fish for curing purposes.' and the experience of the Irish, Norwegian, We need dwell no longer on this part of Newfoundland, and Labrador fisheries, prove the subject, but will only remark that the that trawled fish, when properly handled, various complaints against certain successare fit for the purposes of the curer; that ful modes of fishing, made by fishermen the reason of their occasional inferiority for who have neither the energy nor inclination this purpose is the reckless mode of pur- to adopt them themselves, appear for the suing a system of fishing, in the constant apprehension of being caught in the violation of the law. And further, they state that the defects of trawled herrings, where they exist, depend very much upon the mode in which they are treated after they are caught; that it is a matter of their own observation that herrings may be taken by In reviewing the complaints of one class the trawl in considerable quantities, alive, of fishermen against another, the Commisand perfectly uninjured,' whilst there is the sioners have very wisely and fairly assumed evidence of fish-curers to prove that drift as a postulate, that, primâ facie, 'one class herrings may, if badly managed, fall into of fishermen have as much right to use the the very same condition as that which is al- sea for the purposes of their trade as any leged to be characteristic of trawled her- other. No one has any vested right, or ex

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most part to be utterly untenable. It is, we think, impossible to read the evidence, and not to agree with the Commissioners, that none of these complaints are of sufficient gravity to render special legislation necessary or desirable, except as a matter of police.'

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clusive interest, justifying him in so occupy-ish limits during the breeding seasons, and ing the sea as to prevent others from fishing quarrels arose in 1837 and 1838 between in his vicinity. For example, if a line-fisherman shoots a line of three miles, he has no right to say that no trawler shall work near it, so as to run the chance of working over it or destroying it; he lays his line at his own risk, with the knowledge of the danger, and subject only to a remedy at law, if it can be shown that the trawler wilfully or negligently damaged it.'

the fishermen of France and those of the Channel Islands; hence the origin of the Convention, whose object was threefold:1. To define the limits of exclusive fishery all round the coasts of both countries; 2. To provide regulations for preventing collisions between the trawlers and the line and drift fishermen in the seas lying between the coasts of Great Britain and of France; 3. They consider that there would arise a To settle the limits of the oyster fisheries fair case for legislation, if it could be clearly between Jersey and France. Now, accordshown that a given mode of fishing is by far ing to the ninth article of this Convention, the most profitable, but is impeded, or pre- British subjects were to have the exclusive vented, in consequence of another and less right of fishing within three miles of lowprofitable mode of fishing being carried on water mark along the coasts of the British over the same ground. But that, if two or Islands, and French subjects similar rights more modes of fishing are carried on at the on the coasts of France. In bays not more same time, subject to certain unavoidable than ten miles in width, the three miles are to losses arising from their mutual interference, be measured from a straight line connecting unless it be clear that a larger supply of fish the two headlands.' It appears that, in purwould be acquired by restricting the use suance of the eleventh article of the Conof one of them, it is the interest of the pub-vention, which provides that, with a view to lic that no such restriction should be made. With respect to the third question which the Commissioners had to consider, viz., whether any existing legislative restrictions operate injuriously upon any of the seafisheries, it is necessary first of all to say something about the practical working of existing laws.

The fisheries are either unrestricted or restricted. Upon certain kinds of fishery no restrictive legislation has taken place. There is none, for example, upon line-fishing. Any person is at liberty to catch fish, with hooks, when, where, and how he pleases; unless, indeed, he is limited by Art. 57 of the Convention Act, which prohibits the setting of fishing implements in any place where herring or drift-net fishing is going

on.

prevent the collisions which from time to time took place on the seas lying between the coasts of Great Britain and of France, between the fishermen of the two countries, a commission should be appointed to prepare a set of regulations for the guidance of the fishermen of the two countries, a code of regulations was drawn up and confirmed by the respective Governments in June 1843, and was on this side of the Channel embodied in an Act of Parliament, dated August 1843, popularly known as the Fishery Convention Act. This Act embraces other subjects than those contemplated by the Convention. It contains eighty-nine articles, some defining the boundaries and the limits of the exclusive fisheries between Jersey and the coast of France, others providing There is no restriction upon the size for the numbering of all fishing-boats, both of the mesh, or the moke, of the net used in British and French, others regulating trawldrifting for pilchards; nor upon any net fishing, defining the size of net, length of used in sprat-fishing or lavidnian-fishing; beam, etc., and the distance trawlers may nor in respect of the time of the year at fish from herring-boats; others regulating which these fish may be caught. There is the herring-fishery, others mackerel-fishing no restriction upon the taking of any kind or oyster-fishing, others giving rules conof shell-fish (save oysters), except so far as cerning nets, or instructions as to fishing on such may be involved in the regulations af- the Sabbath day. According to the sixth fecting nets and other fishing implements.' section of the Act, the Queen has power to The restricted fisheries are such as are either suspend the operation of these articles with (1.) the subjects of general rules, or (2.) respect to the fisheries on the coast of Irethose which are limited by special regula- land, and an order in council did, on the 23d tions. As relates to the first division, mo- of August, 1843, 'suspend the Act with redern legislation, in respect to the sea-fish- spect to the fisheries on the whole of the eries of England, may be said to date from coasts of Ireland, so long as such fishery the Convention entered into between this should be carried on exclusively by the subcountry and France in 1839. Certain inju-jects of Her Majesty. As foreign fishermen ries, it had been alleged, had been commit- have never been known to fish off the coasts ted by French fishermen fishing within Brit- of Ireland, the Convention Act has, in vir

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tue of this order in council, had no operation on that coast.' Now it appears that there are great differences of opinion among the legal advisers of the Crown with regard to the limits within which this Act operates, whether, in fact, it has any operation within the three-mile limit from the shores of this country.

'The better opinion appears to be that it has not, on the grounds-(1.) That the Act is penal, and is therefore to be construed strictly; (2.) That the policy of the Act extends no further than the obligations under the Convention; (3.) That under the Convention, the obligations of this country extend no further than the enforcement of the regulations outside the three-mile limit. Within that limit, where no Frenchmen may fish, there is no obligation whatever arising out of the Convention, but this country is entitled to carry out what municipal laws and regulations it pleases.' The anomalous character of the Act, if it has no operation within the three-mile limit, is thus pointed out by the Commissioners

unrepealed, except so far as it relates to the supply of fish to Billingsgate, by 9 and 10 Vict. c. 346. So very restrictive are the orders of this Act, that if it were enforced, every description of sea-trawling and shrimp-fishing would be practically prohibited. One provision of this repressive Act was that all nets, excepting those used to take herrings, pilchards, and sprats, should have a mesh not less than three inches and a half from knot to knot; the consequence would be that fish of 6 lbs., or even 10 lbs., would pass through such nets. It appears that in England there is no board or public office whose special duty it is to make any regulations or bye-laws re specting the fisheries. Orders in Council have in some cases been made for the enforcement of or in restriction of the Convention Act; the Customs officers have, under that Act, the power of seizing nets, and the Admiralty have from time to time placed cruisers upon various parts of the coast to enforce observance of the Convention on fishermen, both British and French, The cases which come most within their who frequent it for the purpose of fishing. cognisance are such as arise out of the herring-fisheries on the north-east coast of England, where considerable numbers of French boats resort every year to prosecute the herring-fishery, and where at times disputes arise between the fishermen of the two countries; and in the English Channel, where, at the instance of the French Government, the regulations with respect to the oyster fishery have been strictly enforced since

'If this contention be right, there is in Great Britain a code of rules minutely regulating the boats, nets, modes, and even times of fishing of nearly all orders of fishermen, who fish beyond the three-mile limit of the coast, and of bays of less than ten miles' width; but, with certain possible exceptions, to be mentioned below, there is no law which in any way affects the fishermen who fish within the three-mile limit. They may fish with what boats, or gear, or mesh, or wherever or whenever they please, without interference of the law; if, however, they use their nets beyond that limit, and they are such as are contrary to the pro- 1852.' visions of the Convention Act, they are liable The legislation with regard to the seato have them seized. For example, the Con- fisheries in Ireland has for many years been vention Act forbids the mesh of a trawl-net to in the hands of the Commissioners of Pubbe less than one inch and three-quarters from lic Works, who have had an almost abknot to knot, with the plain intention of pre-solute authority to make regulations with venting the taking of fish below a certain size; so that if a trawler, using a mesh of only one respect to the different modes of fishing inch from knot to knot, take care to confine carried on there.' Now, although the Board himself to bays and creeks, where it is alleged is possessed of almost unlimited powers, the destruction of small fish does most harm, the policy which it has pursued in exercise he is free from prosecution under the Act, and of those powers has been one, as far as poshis nets cannot be seized; but if he goes be- sible, of non-interference with the fisheryond the limit into deeper water, where he is probably less likely to take young fish, he is men; they say— liable to be fined £10, and his nets may be seized and condemned.'

Another objection to the Convention Act is, that it operates upon the French and English fishermen only. The Belgian and Dutch boats may, in the absence of any treaty engagements between their countries and ours, fish when, or where, and in what manner they please.

The Commissioners next comment upon an Act, 1 Geo. I. c. 18, which appears to be

'We have been frequently urged to restrain particular modes of fishing, on the plea of their being injurious; whereas, in general, it was their effective results and novelty that occasioned the complaints against them; the objections chiefly arising from the competing interests of persons or communities who had habitually pursued different and probably inferior systems; and occasionally originating in some old-established prejudices, or assumed peculiar rights.'

With respect to the fisheries of Scotland,

and the Scotch seas, whatever force it may possibly have for persons domiciled in Scotland, fishing within the limit of three miles from the cannot apply to Englishmen and Irishmen fishcoast, or bringing the fish into Scotch coasts, ing beyond the limit. And thus the Closetime Act is practically a prohibition to Scotch fishermen to do that which English, Irish, or foreign fishermen may do with impunity, so long as they do not bring their fish into Scotch ports.'

the Acts which have been passed bear almost entirely upon the herring-fishery; we shall confine our remarks with regard to the laws enforcing restrictions upon particular fisheries to their bearing upon the Scotch herring-fisheries. And here, as the Commissioners have pointed out, there are several and large anomalies. The herring fishery was at one time free on all the coast of Scotland during the whole year, but in 1860 an Act was passed enforcing a closetime between January 1st and May 31st, The Government very promptly put a during which time it was illegal to take stop to this state of things, and in 1865 herrings on any part of the west coast south passed an Act repealing the Close-Time of the Point of Ardnamurchan; between Act absolutely to the north of the Point of the Point of Ardnamurchan and Cape Ardnamurchan; and limiting close-time to Wrath the close-time was between January the months of February, March and April, 1st and May 20th. What have been the and a portion of May, to the south of that practical effects of the enactment of this Point. close-time? Let us hear the Commissioners. They have been

spe

The Commissioners give us some information with regard to the Board by which 1. To make illegal, and punishable by fine umberland and in Scotland is in some rethe herring-fishery on the coast of Northand imprisonment, on the west coast of Scotland, that which is not only legal, but is spects controlled. The Board sits at Edincially taken under the protection of a Govern-burgh, and is called the 'Board of British ment Board, on the east coast. Ardrishaig White Herring Fishery;' it was constiand Anstruther are within a day's journey of tuted in 1808 by the 48th Geo. I. c. 110. one another. Last spring a person in Anstru- It has been placed in a difficult position by ther might catch and cure any quantity of her- the repressive legislation of recent years. rings; and on his giving due notice to a Go- Consisting as it does of many members of vernment officer, the latter would have been

bound to inspect his cure, to see that his bar-high social position and of professional rels were sound and of the right sizes, and standing, the views of the Commissioners finally to place an official stamp of approbation have in general been more advanced than (whereby the sale of the herrings abroad would those represented by the Acts which they be facilitated) upon all those which came up to a certain standard of cure. If his fellowcountryman at Ardrishaig had attempted to do the same thing, the boat in which the herrings came ashore, and the nets by which they were caught, would have been seized, and he him

self might have been imprisoned and heavily fined.

were obliged to enforce. These Acts have therefore been put into operation with as little severity as possible. Trawlers have thriven under the administration of the Board, which never hesitated to express their opinion that the Acts which they were sometimes forced by selfish interests to bring into active operation were unwisely conceived, and were prejudicial to the interests of the fisheries. The powers of this Board extend only to those places where the mode of curing herrings according to the system of the white-herring cure ob

2. To reduce the population of some of the Western Islands to misery and starvation, while abundant food was lying in front of their doors, by preventing them from taking herrings. 3. To destroy, or greatly impede, an important branch of fishery, by preventing the use of herrings as bait for codfish. 4. To require the introduction of a special tains. The herrings, having been previously police, and to introduce a habit of smuggling, gutted, are placed in barrels with interposed and a spirit of disobedience to the law, among layers of salt, so that they are preserved in an orderly and well-disposed, though very a moist state, instead of being dried and poverty-stricken population. smoked like red-herrings. The chief demand for herrings thus cured is made by the Russians and people of Central Europe. The functions of the Board are, primarily,

5. To produce all these results without a shadow of evidence to show that the enforcement of a close-time has a beneficial effect upon the supply of fish, or in any way promotes the public interest; though without doubt the close-to superintend and regulate this branch of time is exceedingly convenient for the curers, the export trade, by seeing that the measin its twofold effect upon the labour market and ures used between the fishermen and the curthe herring market." ers, and the barrels in which the curers sell fish to the foreign merchants, are of the proper size; by inspecting the herrings. when cured, and attaching an official brand

Here we have another anomaly:

'The close-time which is enacted for Scotland

are

The Commissioners with good reason

to all that come up to a certain standard; take the herrings of the Stornoway curers by attending upon the export of British without any brand, and that not more than white-cured herrings, to inspect them, and half the herrings cured in Scotland ascertain that they are in proper order be- branded. Moreover, the branding system fore exportation. In addition to these du- is objectionable as a matter of commercial ties, the Board is expected to aid in the en- policy, for why should Government grant forcement of the Acts of Parliament re- this exceptional contribution from the publating to the herring-fisheries, for which lic purse to the support of a particular purpose it employs police and a cutter, trade?' and is assisted by the loan of steam-vessels by the Admiralty. It receives and restores say— lost fishery property; furnishes returns and statistics from Scotland and the Isle of State should undertake to guarantee the good'We have been unable to discover why the Man; and finally, it has to administer a ness of a barrel of herrings rather than that of Parliamentary grant of £3000 a year for a barrel of pork, or of a bale of cotton, or of the improvement and building of fishery any other commodity; and why, in this sole piers and harbours in Scotland only. The instance, among the enormous foreign commerBoard consists of unpaid Commissioners, cial transactions of this country, the Governand is provided with a paid secretary, clerks, ment should interfere between buyer and seller, and fishery officers, two sergeants of police, and caution in the transaction of his own busiand relieve the former of that necessity for care nine fishery constables, the commander of a cutter, his mate and crew, and the engineers of the Board.' We are then told that the actual cost of this establishment to the country is nearly £7000 a year.

ness which is incidental to every other branch of trade.'

To sum up this whole matter, the Commissioners state that they have found the The jurisdiction of this Board in England laws relating to sea-fisheries complicated, is confined to Northumberland, because at confused, and unsatisfactory; many restricpresent that is the only county in which the tions even of late date never enforced; and system of the white-herring cure is prac- they add that many of these restrictions tised. Every curer of herrings, according would be extremely injurious to the interto this mode of treatment, must give notice ests of the fishermen and of the commuto the Board that he is going to cure; then nity if they were enforced; that with rethe fishery officer comes and inspects, sees spect to these and others, the highest legal that a barrel of a particular size is used, and authorities are unable to decide where and no other, and that a particular measure is in what precise sense they are operative; used, and no other; if the fishery officer is with regard to England, leaving the oystersatisfied in these respects, and with the fisheries for the present out of consideration, quality of the herrings to be exported, he that the sea-fisheries are practically under affixes his brand on the barrel, for which op- no restriction, or next to none; that those eration the curer pays fourpence. This of Scotland, on the other hand, are actively brand is a certificate that the barrel of her- superintended by a Fishery Board, with derings contains the proper quantity, and fined powers, and supported at a cost of comes up to the official standard of excel- £7000 a year to the country; that the fishlence. eries of Ireland are legally under the control

But it is optional with the curer whether of a Board which possesses almost unlimited he will have the brand affixed or not; 'so powers, but that it is the practice of the long as the barrel is of the right size, the Board to exert these powers as little as herrings it contains may be putrid without possible, and only under pressure from the fishery officer having the power to con- without; the Commissioners therefore condemn them.' sider that the functions of these Boards, so far as the sea-fisheries are concerned, might cease without any injurious effect upon the fisheries.

With regard to this branding system, much has been said both in favour of it and against it. The only admissible argument in its favour are those derivable from its ef- With regard to the Convention Act, the fects upon the foreign trade in white her- Commissioners entertain no doubt that as a rings.' It is granted that the branding sys- whole it ought to be repealed, but that it tem is beneficial to the curers and mer- would be of great advantage to make cerchants, and thus acts favourably upon the tain articles of that Act the basis of a fishermen; but there is also plenty of evi- special Sea-Fisheries Police Act. We have dence to show that the herring trade would already referred to the great uncertainty probably be equally prosperous without it. there is with respect to the scope of the It is alleged that foreign merchants readily | Convention Act, while we are told that with