THE FISHERIES. 101 



were driven on technical and intricate subjects to 

 rely on hearsay evidence, or the i\illacious authority 

 of parUainentary reports ; of the weight, or, rather, 

 of the vahie of which they could not judge ; and 

 thus decisions were arrived at, and by-laws and re- 

 gulations made, subversive of private property, and 

 injurious to the interests of the pubhc. We cannot 

 better illustrate our ideas upon this head, than by a 

 quotation from an article in a recent number of 

 Blackwood's Magazine (upon a totally different sub- 

 ject however), which very clearly expresses our 

 views. In reviewing the merits of a recent pubhca- 

 tion, and descanting on the difficulties encountered 

 by any party, anxious to form a correct judgment 

 on matters of opinion, without the aid of independent 

 knowledge^ the reviewer proceeds : — 



*' He may form a perfectly honest and a perfectly sound judg- 

 ment, as far as the data before him are concerned ; but unless 

 these data contain all that is required for the formation of a just 

 opinion, or unless his own acquaintance with the case can supply 

 the deficiency of the documentary evidence supplied him, he may 

 be led into the strangest fallacies, and his decision may be utterly 

 worthless." 



And further on, he observes : — 



•♦ Written evidence, whether statistical or other, is only availa- 

 ble and safe in the hands of a man who can sift and test it." 



In the import of these observations we fully and en- 

 tirely concur. Had even one of the Commissioners 



