74 
A few years later, in the literature of the Sea Fisheries 
Exhibition, we find Sir Spencer Walpole declaring in 
reply to a statement that fishermen. decimated the shoals 
of fish approaching the shore to spawn :— 
‘‘ Even assuming it were possible, I doubt whether 
any harm would result. No one would think a farmer 
improvident who brought one-tenth of his herd annu- 
ally to market. A fish reaches maturity much more 
rapidly than an ox, and is some thousands of times 
more productive than a cow. Why, then, should it be 
improvident for a fisherman to do what no one would 
think a farmer improvident for doing? In short, 
though I doubt the possibility of decimating a shoal of 
fish, I should regard such a course, if it were practic- 
able, asabout the best use the fisherman could make of it.” 
And further— 
‘‘ While I am opposed on the one hand to the im- 
position of unnecessary restrictions on fishermen, so I 
am opposed on the other to all patronage simply as 
such, because I believe the best part of the British 
fishermen is the independence which they enjoy; and 
God forbid the independence which they have won by 
their own efforts should be taken away from them by 
the patronage of other people.” 
The same authority pointed out that the prohibition of 
trawling in the loughs and bays of Ireland had not resulted 
in an increase of the Irish fisheries. 
It is a relief, after reading the reports of the Lancashire 
Sea Fisheries Board, the assurance of superior wisdom, the 
