62 THE FISHERIES. 



wilfully neglecting those created things that are so 

 lavishly spread out around us. Let us not cease to 

 hope that this great industrial resource will be now 

 impartially developed, and that England will at 

 length perceive the folly and injustice of allowing 

 to lie waste the fisheries of our Irish sea-board ; 

 thus neglecting a vast source of prosperity to us, 

 and of strength and naval advantage to herself. 



We now proceed to consider the measures neces- 

 sary to call into active existence the fisheries of Ire- 

 land. 



A grant in aid of a loan-fund to encourage and 

 assist the native fisherman will be our first require- 

 ment : here we are met on the very threshold by 

 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who, buttoning up 

 the pocket of the United Kingdom, declares posi- 

 tively, " No money :" we answer ; — then the fish- 

 eries must slumber for another century. Sir Wil- 

 liam Temple, in 1673, proclaimed that the fisheries 

 of Ireland were a hidden mine under water ; we in- 

 sist upon the same thing now, but still the mine has 

 never yet been worked on any suitable or national 

 scale. We have just exhibited to view, in one loca- 

 lity, a fishing fleet of two hundred sail successfully 

 and profitably engaged on our shores, and to pro- 

 cure for our suffering population some share in these 

 their own native fruits, is surely a matter devoutly 

 to be wished for ; we shall endeavour, therefore, to 

 suggest something feasible, if possible, something 

 which may be thought practicable — in fact, to do 



