INTERNATIONAL REGULATIONS OF FISHERIES ON THE HIGH SEAS. II5 
provisions respecting the modes and the times of shooting the drift nets, and 
the construction details of trawls, etc., would have been either futile or mis- 
chievous had they been enforced. 
Some attempt was made to enforce the provisions relating to the numbering 
of fishing boats, and cruisers were occasionally sent among them to preserve 
order; but there was no serious attempt to enforce such regulations of the 
fisheries themselves as did not meet with the wishes and conveniences of the 
fishermen, except with respect to territorial limits and to the close season in 
the English Channel oyster fishery, the regulations of which were enforced for 
several years following 1852, at the instance of the French Government. 
In 1866 the commissioners appointed to inquire into the sea fisheries of the 
United Kingdom reported respecting the convention act of 1843: 
It is obvious that the majority of its regulations, so far as they affect methods of 
fishery and not matters of police, are either superfluous or impracticable or injurious, 
their evil tendencies being only neutralized by the circumstance that they are disregarded. 
And even were the provisions of the act requisite or expedient, the highest legal authori- 
ties are so completely at variance concerning the interpretation and the limits of the 
application of the act, that it must be regarded as an extremely defective piece of 
legislation.” 
For the purpose of revising the convention of 1839 and the regulations of 
1843, a new convention was signed at Paris on November 11, 1867. It applied 
beyond the territorial waters of both countries, “to the seas surrounding and 
adjoining Great Britain and Ireland, and adjoining the coast of France between 
the frontiers of Belgium and Spain.” 
The details of this convention were more definite and much i complicated 
than the regulations prepared in accordance with the convention of 1839. 
Instead of 89 articles there were only 42. The principal changes were removal 
of all restriction on the size of mesh and on the forms and construction of beam 
trawls, etc., and an extension in the termination of the oyster season from April 
30 to Juners5. Also animprovement was attempted in general supervision and in 
methods of enforcing the regulations governing the conduct of the fishermen. The 
articles of this convention are given in full in Appendix B (page 158 of this paper). 
To carry into effect the provisions of the convention of 1867 was the prin- 
cipal intention of the British sea fisheries act of 1868 (31 and 32 Vict., ch. 45), 
which repealed the convention act of 1843. Reciprocal action in France failed, 
however, and the provisions of the new convention were never made applicable 
to French boats and fishermen. And the convention act of 1843 having been 
repealed by the sea fisheries act of 1868 (sec. 71), there was an absence of mutual 
regulations until 1877, when the provisions of the convention act of 1843 were 
revived by the fisheries act of 1877 (40 and 41 Vict., ch. 42, sec. 15) so far as 
regards French fishermen, “until the day when the convention of 1867 might 
be brought into operation by action of the French Government.” 
@ Report of the commissioners, p. LXXIV. 
