210 STATUTE LAWS RELATING TO 



tence is, that the act shall not destroy any fish-lock 

 lawfully erected. If it destroyed any thing that 

 was lawful, it would be the first instance of the 

 kind that was ever heard of. A lawful right can 

 be taken from no man without remuneration. Here 

 the meaning is clear enough, but the provision is 

 altogether unnecessary. — The concluding sentence 

 is, that the act shall not extend to the present 

 modes of taking fish therein, (that is, to the fish- 

 locks,) other than and as are in this act prohibited ; 

 (that is, that no lime shall be used in such locks to 

 destroy the salmon or the spawn, or any engine or 

 obstruction to destroy the spawn, or impede their 

 passage to the sea.) The construction, then, 

 which I put on the whole of this section is, that 

 the act does not extend to or legalize any fish-lock, 

 nor does it prohibit any such, nor shall it extend 

 to the present methods used for taking fish in such 

 fish-locks, other than such as are by this act pro- 

 hibited, which are those before mentioned. From 

 hence I conclude, that if the act shall not extend 

 to make fish-locks lawful, nor yet suffer them to be 

 destroyed under an idea that they may be unlaw- 

 ful, and that if it does not extend to the modes of 

 killing fish in such fish-locks, or to any other, ex- 

 cept such as are prohibited by this act; then, I 

 say, that this act leaves these points in question 

 still open, and has nothing whatever to do with 

 any fish-lock. It does not, in its own language, 

 in its very words, " extend to" them ; it neither de- 

 clares them, nor the modes of taking fish therein, to 



21 



