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question which they ought to have thrashed out in 
England, namely, whether the public carriers of this 
country, in the shape of railway directors, were merely 
men absolutely controlling the transit by independent 
companies, or whether they were not amenable to Parlia- 
ment even for the freights which they charged. He 
maintained that a correct view upon this subject had been 
taken by their friends upon the other side of the Atlantic ; 
upon that view they acted, and it was the view upon which 
English fishermen should ground any complaint they had 
to make. If the International Fisheries Exhibition had 
not been inaugurated by the gentlemen who were on the 
- Executive Committee, and notably by the Prince of Wales 
and his illustrious brother, they would never have had a 
chance of getting things put right; and if they were to 
lose the opportunity they now had of sending forth some 
strong resolution upon the subject, there was no use in 
meeting in that roorh, or of talking of the rings of Billings- 
gate, &c. The thing to alter was the rates at present 
being charged. He might mention that he had lately 
noticed a case reported in the paper of an action brought 
against a railway company for loss occasioned by fish 
being destroyed in transmission, the fish being carried at 
the risk of the owner, and a verdict was recovered against 
the railway company. It was not generally known that 
when fish was carried at the owner’s risk that the company 
were liable for any loss which might be occasioned, and there- 
fore he thought it as well that the facts should at once be 
made public. It was all nonsense to say that poor people 
would not eat fish ; the fact was, that they could not obtain 
it at a fair price, and unless the railway charges were con- 
siderably reduced, it never would come within their reach. 
Mr. ROBERT Gibbs (of Banbury) hoped there were some 
