FUTURE SALMON LEGISLATION. 185 



were suppressed by statute, the suppression including 

 the fisheries not only of private persons, but also the 

 fisheries retained and worked by the Crown itself. Those 

 Acts were dealing with the only kind of fixtures then 

 known, and they made no scruple of suppressing them in 

 all positions where they were considered hurtful to the 

 lireed of fish and " the commoun weill." Yet at the 

 present day we are told that it would be monstrous to 

 legislate to the same effect regarding modes introduced, 

 so to speak, only yesterday, and which are exercised, not 

 only without special rights conferred by the Crown, but 

 under rights conferred with a view to the use of quite 

 different modes. The salmon-fisheries of Scotland may, 

 as to the present question, be looked at as consisting of 

 two divisions : in one division wc have the great majo- 

 rity of the fisheries in number and value, situated in 

 rivei's and estuaries, and Avhich have existed from time 

 immemorial ; and in the other division we have a very 

 much smaller number and value of fisheries, situated on 

 the sea-shores, which came into existence centuries later 

 than the others, and acquired any considerable value only 

 within the present generation. The former were, five 

 hundred years ago, subjected to certain restrictions, which 

 it is said it would be robbery to apply to the latter even 

 now. 



Of course, when the question is one of legislation, 

 and not of litigation, to talk of, " prescription," as many 

 do, is no better than nonsense. The modes of fishing 

 suppressed by the old Statutes just cited, and various 

 other practices suppressed by various other Statutes, had 

 incomparably longer prescription than the engines now 



