THE FISHERIES. 61 



We have seen how British industry prospers ; but 

 there is a substantial grant for the control and ma- 

 nagement of the British Fisheries, whilst almost no- 

 thing is conceded for the culture of our own. The 

 Select Committee of the House of Commons (1849), 

 upon the state of the Irish Fisheries, have reported 

 to the House — " That the want of proper funds and 

 effective machinery has constituted an impediment, 

 sufficient of itself to defeat the intentions of the 

 Legislature, by disabling the Executive from giving 

 them their due and practical effect." As a com- 

 mentary upon this passage, and with reference to the 

 unexampled success which has attended the adminis- 

 tration of the British Fisheries, we would say : — give 

 to Ireland the same advantages, and soon a similar 

 scene of prosperity and industry will develop itself — 

 encouragement, and due and full development of our 

 fisheries, is the just claim which we prefer. 



If some Seer or Sybil could be consulted in some 

 Celtic Delos ! — at Tara's Hill, or in the shadowy 

 Glendalough, and if the question were demanded, 

 What remedy was there for our unhappy and for- 

 lorn state ? we doubt not the mystic response would 

 be, " employ and educate ;" in these — employment 

 and education — will be found the true means for our 

 moral regeneration, and the balm for those social 

 evils which are agitating the land and dispersing our 

 race. In the fisheries there is an unbounded field 

 for industry and employment. Let us avail our- 

 selves of it ; nor longer incur the responsibility of 



