66 THE FISHERIES. 



men occupy a field for fishing operations which has 

 scarcely an equal, being the same fishing-ground on 

 which the Isle of Man fishing-fleets carry on such 

 large and profitable operations, but that their defec- 

 tive equipments and uncultured state render success 

 hopeless. V^^e may here casually observe, that the 

 sales of fresh fish effected by the Manx men in the 

 Dublin market alone, during a great part of the pre- 

 sent summer, averaged £100 daily. 



We might, if it were necessary, enumerate a long 

 train of towns, villages, and fishing-stations, with 

 which we are familiar along our eastern shores, all 

 of them in the same depressed and neglected state, 

 or the immense resources of the locality known only 

 through the visits of rival fishing-fleets. We feel 

 coerced to ask, how it is, that we stand with folded 

 arms, and allow our people to seek distant Atlantic 

 shores, or Californian mines, when the more whole- 

 some mines of native industry remain unexplored 

 beside them. 



Our Bill proposes that the Lords of the Treasury 

 be empowered to advance money on loans in aid of 

 the coast-fishing population. This is the pivot upon 

 which the whole question in relation to the sea-fish- 

 eries hinges. Our fishermen cannot emerge from 

 their present state without aid; but where is the aid 

 to come from ? If landed proprietors are willing to 

 encourage the fishing population and establish fishing 

 villages on their estates along the shore, it is pro- 

 posed, in such case, to enable them to take up money 



