THE SALMON AND CHANNEL FISHERIES. 177 



was not a very wise act for the legislature to de- 

 clare, in the 43d of the late king, that all salmon 

 taken in the Dart, Teign, and Plym, between Fe- 

 bruary and November, should be deemed season- 

 able, unless they had the power of making them so ; 

 because they ought to have known that the greater 

 part of the salmon in the early part of the year, and 

 all the old back, or spent fish, are not only unsea- 

 sonable, and uneatable, but are absolutely poison- 

 ous. Lord Chief Justice Wilmot was mistaken 

 when he said that " an act of parliament mowed 

 down every thing before it." It cannot mow down 

 or change nature, with all its power; it cannot make 

 a salmon seasonable that is fit only to be thrown 

 to the dunghill, or make that fit to be eaten which 

 is poisonous. If those who gave their assent to 

 this extraordinary measure had been compelled 

 first to eat half a pound of unseasonable salmon, 

 I rather think they would have paused and consi- 

 dered a bit before they committed so palpable and 

 outrageous an absurdity. We must give this act 

 of 2 Eliz. full credit for fixing the size of salmon 

 not to be taken, and the mesh of the net by which 

 they are to be taken. This is also entirely new 

 and valuable matter, and we may reasonably infer, 

 that as the act says they shall not be taken " by any 

 "other engine, device, ways, or means whatsoever," 

 those destructive and abominable engines called 

 fish locks, and fish coops, are altogether unlawful 

 and indictable. This appears to me to be as clear 

 as the noontide sun. It is equally true that no one 



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