THE 



MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



VOL. V.] MARCH, 1828. [No. 27. 



SALMON FISHERIES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



THESE fisheries are regulated by law not by one law., but, after our 

 manner, by several contradictory as a whole, and, taken singly, partial 

 and oppressive ; partial, because they have been prompted by the cun- 

 ning of the few ; and oppressive, because where the few are the promp- 

 ters, the claims of the many will be sure to be overlooked ; enacted, 

 therefore, not on a fair and full view of the whole circle of circumstances, 

 but on the suggestions of a crafty self-interest, working, by frauds and 

 concealments, its wily course to the sanctions of an easy and confiding legis- 

 lature, credulously we shall not say contemptuously sacrificing to impu- 



be 

 and 



equally so, that such are the facts that laws are too fre- 

 quently smuggled through the senate that they are passed hastily, and on 

 imperfect evidence that rarely is there any ground for variety of enact- 

 ments that what is suited for one spot is suited for another and, con- 

 sequently, that the same law should cover the whole surface of the coun- 

 try. Why, it may be asked, should there be any laws at all relative to 

 wild and wandering animals ? To protect private interests. But what 

 private interests relative to salmon fisheries can require protection ? Is 

 the salmon a river fish ? No but it frequents rivers, and, for a season, 

 lives in them ; therefore, it comes within the precincts of private pro- 

 perty, and, as long as it is there, may itself be considered as private pro- 

 perty, and must as such be protected. But what national equity is there 

 in making rivers private property ? Nay, if every foot of land to the 

 water's edge be such, of what value is the open river ? Let it go all. 

 We do not yet, as in China, bivouac on the waters. 



But what is the pretence by which those who seek these protecting- 

 laws cover their purposes ? The benefit of the community, of course : 

 that is always the ostensible reason for all enactments, though, nine times 

 out of ten, private interests are the real and ultimate objects ; and so it is 

 in the case of the salmon fisheries. The ostensible purpose is the welfare 

 of the country to exclude unwholesome fish from the market, and 



M. M. New Series __ VOL. V. No. 27. 2 G 



