94 ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES. 



the 2d Hen. 6th, c. 15. Be it therefore enacted, 

 that the said act of the 2d Henry 6th, c. 15, shall 

 stand in full force as if here further recited, and in 

 addition thereto or explanation thereof, be it fur- 

 ther enacted, that no such net or nets, shot as 

 aforesaid into or across any river or rivers, for the 

 purpose of taking salmon, or fish of the salmon kind, 

 shall remain stationary at all, either in the hand or 

 fixed to any thing whatever ;* but the same net or 

 nets so shot into the water for the purposes afore- 

 said, shall constantly be kept in the regular or 

 ordinary motion or act of drawing, without stop- 

 ping at all from the shooting of such net or nets 

 until the drawing thereof to shore ; and any per- 

 son or persons so offending against this act in the 

 last mentioned respect, or against the said recited 

 act of Henry 6th, and shall thereof be convicted by 



* The statute of Henry 6th proves this to be a very old 

 practice, which is greedy in itself and hurtful to another's right 

 of fishery ; it however continues to the present day. Thus 

 the more we investigate this painful subject, and find out all the 

 abuses and villanies that are practised upon it, we are almost lost 

 in wonder, that there should be such a fish as a salmon in exist- 

 ence. They seem to be practised in all quarters, and by all per- 

 sons, high, loiv^richy an&poor; — to have engaged all the qualities 

 of the human mind, except its wisdom, and all the propensities 

 of the human heart, except its goodness. Ingenuity itself 

 seems to have been tortured to find out expedients for erasing 

 this valuable fish out of the book of nature. — The penalty, too, 

 under the statute of Henry 6th, is not practically recoverable ; 

 it is therefore necessary, that such penalty should be placed 

 upon the same footing as the other penalties of this act, that is 

 to say, made recoverable before the magistrates. 



