tons which are exported from this country, we shall arrive 

 at the consumption of fish in the United Kingdom, 

 viz., 550,000 tons. That is the contribution which the 

 British fishermen are making to the food of the United 

 Kingdom. I know that large figures of this character 

 make a very small impression on most people, and perhaps 

 I shall make them a little more intelligible if I tell you 

 that in point of weight 550,000 tons of fish are about 

 equivalent to a drove of 1,500,000 oxen, and that they 

 would supply every man, woman, and child in these islands 

 with a dish of fish three-quarters of a pound in weight on 

 one day in each week thoughout the year. 



I will now examine the Duke of Edinburgh's figures in 

 another way. Of these 615,000 tons of fish, 372,000 tons 

 are taken off the coasts of England, where I may say there 

 are 42,000 fishermen ; 216,000 tons are taken ofi"the coasts 

 of Scotland, where there are 48,000 fishermen ; and some 

 26,000 or 27,000 tons are taken off the coasts of Ireland, 

 where there are 24,000, or, according to the Duke of 

 Edinburgh, 20,000 fishermen. The Irish inspectors estimate 

 the number, I think, at 24,000. In other words, in England 

 eight to nine tons of fish a year are caught for each 

 English fisherman ; four to five tons are taken in Scotland 

 for every Scotch fisherman, while rather more than one 

 ton is taken in Ireland by every Irish fisherman. When 

 I recollect that the Irish waters are swept by English, 

 Scotch, and Manx fishing boats, and that consequently 

 a large proportion of these 26,000 tons must be taken 

 by vessels foreign to Ireland, I am a little at a loss to 

 conceive what the 24,000 fishermen of Ireland are doing. 



Of the 615,000 tons of fish, 110,000 are exported from 

 this country ; 42,000 tons are carried direct by sea to 

 Billingsgate ; of the remainder, 272,000 tons, or nearly 



