Vlll PREFACE. 



such a sea of trouble, expence, and danger. No 

 position is, indeed, more true than the homely 

 one, that that which is every one's business, is no 

 one's. I well know the difficulty of bringing per- 

 sons forward on public undertakings, where there 

 is not some strong incentive of private interest — 

 something which operates more powerfully on the 

 mind than principle ; but on the present occasion 

 it may be said, that the city of Exeter is particu- 

 larly interested in the success of this question ; for 

 the principal part of the salmon and sea-trout 

 which are taken in the river Dart, are sent thither 

 at a very exorbitant price ; when, if these fish were 

 as plentiful as they would be if the laws were put 

 in force, the metropolis of Devon, with a very 

 great and still rapidly increasing population, toge- 

 ther with the whole county, (and what is said of 

 the river Dart and the county of Devon applies to 

 every other river and county in the kingdom,) 

 from such an example, would have abundance of 

 this rich fish, at a reasonable and moderate price. 

 At present, as Mr. Heald lately observed of the 

 practice of the Court of Chancery, " It is enough 

 " to make a man's blood curdle in his veins, who has 

 " a head to think or a heart to feel" to see the 

 wanton and wicked devastation that is every day 



