OYSTER FISHERY LEGISLATION. 975 



VII. The term "British Consul' in this Act shall 

 include any Consul General, Consul, Vice Consul, or other 

 Consular Agent. 



VIII. The said Act of the Sixth and Seventh of Her 

 Majesty, and this Act, shall be read and construed together 

 as one Act. 



Now it appears fej that these regulations (1833) were 

 seldom enforced, partly owing to the just complaints made 

 by the owners of private beds against a law which pre- 

 vented them moving their oysters from one part of their 

 beds to another, or clearing their beds by dredging in the 

 summer months, and partly on account of legal difficulties 

 in the way of prosecution for infringement of the regula- 

 tions ; and it was not till the year 1852 that restriction as 

 to close time was generally enforced and observed by the 

 fishermen of Jersey and in the Channel, the French 

 Government having called upon the English Government 

 for the strict execution of the Convention as regards oyster- 

 fisheries. 



" The enforcement of the close season (the Commis- 

 sioners say) worked a revolution in the oyster trade. It 

 had been the practice on the beds off Jersey, and off the 

 South Coast generally, and in most of the bays, to dredge 

 throughout the summer for the oyster brood ; the small 

 oysters thus taken were laid down in beds along the south 

 coast of Langston Harbour, Chichester Harbour, New- 

 haven and Shoreham, and to the eastward on beds in the 

 mouth of the Thames ; and comparatively few oysters 

 came to market which, had not lain a year at least on some 



(e) From the Report of the Commissioners on the Oyster Fisheries, 

 which was published the beginning of 1866. I shall confine myself, as 

 far as possible, to an abstract of this document. 



