14 
and years must elapse for its thorough trial, but we believe 
it will—we believe so because we have great faith in the pro- 
gress of that grand nation ; but on the other hand we do not 
believe it will cure all ills, for it is a principle contrary to 
reason that fishermen should destroy and government 
reconstitute. But to clear this question from the density 
of the waters, we must fancy ourselves on land and sup- 
pose that in working the mountains of a nation the same 
means were adopted, viz. unrestricted felling of trees 
and wood, the government being charged with replenish- 
ing them at the cost of the State. The system would 
render the mountains still more costly and unproductive, 
for if the nursery grounds contained enough trees for re- 
stocking them, they would not replace those cut down in 
their natural size. 
This is the weak side of the system, as establishments 
conveniently distributed along the coast are not sufficient 
to maintain the fundamental equilibrium of production, if 
when young fish are drawn out of the waters they are not 
returned to acquire maturity, and for this the action of the 
law, in a restrictive sense, is necessary at the present time. 
Besides, to ensure the completeness of the system, it is 
necessary that these establishments should be of sufficient 
number and possess suitable conditions for the reproduction 
of the various edible species, as otherwise what the system 
would gain on the one side, it would lose on the other, and 
this presupposes a heavy outlay on the construction and 
maintenance of the hatcheries. 
We do not wish to censure a system, adopted with so 
much success in the United States, which assumes that the 
best way to ensure perfect working is to leave it in the 
hands of the workers to spontaneously guard their own in- 
terests without the intervention of the State, because by this 
