[27] THE STATUS OF THE FISH COMMISSION. 1165 



At the close of the late Exhibition His Eoyal Highness the Duke of 

 Edinburgh, remarked: "The example of the United States is well 

 worthy of imitation by the European nations which have large stakes 

 in the fisheries; " and H. E. H. the Prince of Wales stated that "• he was 

 pleased to admit that in very many things pertaining to the fisheries 

 England was far behind the United States." 



" If there be," wrote, in 1879, Sir Rose Price, author of The Two Amer- 

 icas, '• any race of people who exhibit more shrewdness than others in 

 their ability to grasp and manipulate the apparently indistinct elements 

 of what may lead to a commercial success, or be of ultimate benefit to 

 their nation, those people are the Americans. No Government throws 

 away less money in useless expenditures, and no representative assembly 

 more narrowly criticises waste, yet the Americans subsidize considera- 

 ble sums of their national revenue for the purpose of restocking the 

 rivers of the Eastern States by artificial culture, and with praiseworthy 

 considerations their Government supports several ably conducted estab- 

 lishments from which fish ova are distributed gratis to all those who 

 choose to apply. The very railroads assist this enterprise, and some by 

 moderating their tariff, and others by generously conveying the ova free 

 of charge, give every possible encouragement to what their common 

 sense tells them must lead to so much national good. To expect an 

 English Government to exhibit the same amount of foresight, or to prac- 

 tice a similar generosity, would be to credit them with virtues which have 

 yet to be developed. The American example, however, should not be 

 lost sight of." * 



Professor Huxley, commenting upon an address delivered at the con- 

 ferences of the Loudon exhibition by the present writer, said: 



" The great moral of the United States contribution to this Exhibition, 

 and especially of the contribution which Mr. Brown Goode had just made 

 to the conferences, was that if this country, or any society which could 

 be formed of sufficient extent to take up the question, was going to 

 deal seriously with the sea fisheries, and not to let them take care of 

 themselves as they had done for the last thousand years or so, they had a 

 very considerable job before them ; and unless they put into that or- 

 ganization of fisheries the energy, the ingenuity, the scientific knowl- 

 edge, and the practical skill which characterized his friend Professor 

 Baird and his assistants their efforts were not likely to come to very 

 much good. One of his great reasons for desiring that the subject 

 which Professor Goode had put before them should be laid distinctly 

 before the English public was to give them a notion of what was 

 needed if the fisheries were to be dealt with satisfactorily; for lie did 

 not thinJc, speaking with all respect to the efforts made by Sweden, 

 North Germany, Holland, and so forth, that any nation at the present 

 time had comprehended the question of dealing icifh fish in so thorough, 

 excellent, and scientific a spirit as that of the United JStates. 



*The Fishiug Gazette, London, III, p. 65. 



