THE FISHERIES. 95 



our rivers and estuaries, was a most unfortunate and 

 mistaken act of legislation ; interfering with the free 

 navigation of our rivers and harbours, and the per- 

 sonal liberty of the subject ; being in direct opposi- 

 tion to the provisions of our most ancient statutes ; 

 and in derogation of Magna Charta itself, or the 

 clause in it which prohibits the use of kidels, or fixed 

 nets, except upon the open sea-coasts. The Fishery 

 Act of 1842, we conceive, was passed in contraven- 

 tion of all these ancient statutes, and of the common 

 law, being subversive of the right of the subject to 

 the free fishery, and free navigation, of the waters 

 of the great harbours and estuaries of the kingdom. 

 The Act in question, indeed, might have been inti- 

 tuled, " An Act to make the rich richer, and the 

 poor poorer," since it transferred the public right of 

 fishery, from the poor, who exercised it from time 

 immemorial, in our harbours and estuaries, to the 

 landowners, who possessed land upon the shores. 

 Our opinion, therefore, as to the impolicy and injus- 

 tice of that enactment, remains unaltered. 



But a grave and diflacult question remains : will 

 the Legislature now consent to retrace its steps, and 

 make void those titles which have become vested 

 under the Act of 1842. On public grounds, we 

 would say, yes; and that a strong and vigorous Go- 

 vernment should meet an acknowledged public evil 

 with a resolute and vigorous hand. This, however, 

 is an important question in a legal, and perhaps also, 

 in a constitutional sense, upon which the Government, 



