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directors, unreasonable charges were made for the transit of 

 fish by raihvay. That was a matter to which pubHc 

 attention would, he hoped, be more and more directed, 

 and that railway directors would see it to their interest to 

 do something to promote the cheaper transit of fish to the 

 London market. He had also referred to the somewhat 

 vexed question of the London market, which had also been 

 referred to by Mr. Burdett-Coutts and Mr. Sayer. He 

 thought it only right to say, that as far as he had been 

 able to judge, and during the last year he had some 

 little opportunity of judging, he did not think the Billings- 

 gate salesmen deserved the harsh things that were some- 

 times laid to their charge, for he believed they were, as a 

 whole, an honourable body of men. Billingsgate was, 

 after all, only the wholesale market ; it was in a most 

 difficult and incommodious situation as regarded the 

 narrow streets by which it was surrounded ; but surely the 

 Billingsgate salesmen were not responsible for the width of 

 those streets and the deficiency of access. The market 

 was an open market, any one might go and purchase there, 

 and though, no doubt, there was a great deficiency of 

 markets where the poor could obtain their supplies, it 

 would be hard on the Billingsgate salesmen to lay that 

 to their charge. He hoped the question would be treated 

 fairly and candidly, that no undue regard to vested interests 

 would prevent the Corporation from doing what might 

 be their duty with regard to providing suitable access to 

 their own market, and that the Billingsgate salesmen would 

 be willing to meet, as far as possible, the public demands, 

 and that all might be done in a kindly and friendly spirit, 

 in order to accomplish the object which they all desired, 

 namely, the supplying of the poor of London with fish at a 

 lower rate than heretofore. 



