37 
true also that they are enormously costly to ‘work, and 
they cause the maximum of irritation and trouble: But 
still we are supposed to welcome such improvements on 
poor old Nature and political economy. In the whole 
Exhibition, in return for the thousands of pounds spent 
by the Fisheries Committee, there is not one solitary fact 
or bit cf practical information which was not well known 
and recorded twenty years since. Not one solitary proof 
of any good done, 
You will note I speak warmly about the fishermen. I 
know them. I have spent scores, nay, hundreds of days, 
and often nights, alone on the sea with them, and have 
have been in their confidence, and have learnt to un- 
derstand them. Their occupation differentiates them 
from landsmen, and a landsman has difficulty in under- 
standing them, but once get over this difficulty and they 
will compare very well indeed with any of our work- 
ing population. I speak with deep feeling on this ques- 
tion. I hada crew of four men whom I employed when 
at work, and four more decent, obliging men I never had 
as companions. Three of them were teetotalers, the other 
a very sober man. At one swoop I lost them all. They 
were all drowned at the post of duty when the 
‘Southport and St. Annes lifeboats were wrecked. These, 
sir, are the men now being hunted, prosecuted by the 
‘score, and made into criminals for fear a few small 
