Fa 
assumption of almost infinite ignorance on the part of 
practical fishermen, and the impertinent, patronising ac- 
count of how he teaches them their business of Professor 
Herdman, and the sickening account of the progress made 
in turning our free, independent fishing population into 
criminals of Mr. Dawson’s reports to turn-to this summing 
up of the case by Sir Spencer Walpole, a man who knows 
the men well, has won their confidence and esteem, and 
has taken the trouble to study the fishermen, their in- 
terests and characteristics, as well as the contents of the 
stomachs of cockles. 
It is a curious thing, but so completely has Mr. Walpole’s 
identity been obscured by his long and successful govern- 
ment of the Isle of Man, and since then his skilful conduct 
as General Secretary of the Post Office, that he is constantly 
referred to as ‘‘the late Mr. Walpole.’ Professor McIntosh 
himself falls into this error. He is, however, still very 
much alive, and will, I hope, enjoy for many years 
the well-deserved honours conferred upon him by his 
sovereign. 
| Sir Spencer Walpole, K.C.B., does not thinkit would be 
a good precedent for him, as a retired public official, to re- 
enter the arena of fishery politics, but he permits me to say 
that nothing has transpired since he and Mr. Buckland held 
their exhaustive enquiry round our coasts to alter in any 
way the opinion which he then formed. 
