60 • COMMISSIONERS OF INLAND FISHERIES. 



the people to be secure in their persons, papers and possessions, 

 against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. 

 And again in section 17, 'The people shall continue to enjoy and 

 freely exercise all the rights of fishery, and the privileges of the 

 shore, to which they have been heretofore entitled under the charter 

 and usages of the State,' etc. These illustrations, and others might 

 be given, show that the term 'people,' as used in the constitution, is 

 broad and comprehensive, comprising in most instances all the 

 inhabitants of the State. Article 2 as amended by article 7, however, 

 defines the qualifications necessary for electors; and, inasmuch as 

 the Constitution provides no mode for obtaining the consent of the 

 people except by the expression of it through the votes of the electors, 

 we think that the consent of the people mentioned in article 4, section 

 13, means the consent of the electors manifested by the majority of 

 their votes. We find nothing to warrant its restriction to such of 

 the electors as are taxpayers, and we are of the opinion, therefore, 

 that the word 'people,' in the section under consideration, is to be 

 construed to include registry voters as well as taxpayers." In re the 

 Incurring of State Debts, 19 R. I. 610, 613. As all the inhabitants of 

 the state, men, women and children, citizens and aliens are interested 

 in the franchise, and as all cannot fish for lobsters, and but compar- 

 tively few do, it is manifest that if the interests of all are to be con- 

 served the fishing must be carried on for the ultimate benefit of the 

 people of the state and not merely for the profit and emolument of 

 the fishermen engaged in the business, whose conduct in the premises 

 must be unselfish enough to include the interests of those who camiot 

 personally attend to the matter. According to the United States 

 census for the year 1910 the total population of this state was 542,610, 

 and according to the report of the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries, 

 there were, in the year 1909, engaged in lobster fishing in the public 

 waters of the state, 381 men, and there were used for the purpose 

 during that year, 248 boats and 23,220 lobster pots. The commis- 

 sioners also estimated the number of pounds of lobsters taken in that 

 year from the public waters of the state to be 1,395,983. Even if we 



