114 THE FISHERIES. 



having at . her command the accumulated wealth of 

 ages ; foster and encourage the British Fisheries 

 (we prefer calling them the Scotch Fisheries) by 

 Parhamentary grants, and Government aid, and — let 

 the Irish Fisheries develop themselves, by the ordi- 

 nary processes of capital uninterfered with, and free 

 competition. 



The result follows : capital lias it all its own way ; 

 the Irish Fisheries languish and lie waste ; while 

 Scotland, until very recently, exported to Ireland 

 cured iish, to the amount of from £200,000 to 

 £300,000 annually : even in our present prostrate 

 condition, she exported to us for the year ending 5th 

 of January, 1852, (as appears by the Report of the 

 Commissioners of British Fisheries) 81,340 barrels 

 of cured herrings ; the exports of the same article, 

 for the same period, to all other parts of Europe to- 

 gether, only amounting to 182,659 barrels ; so that 

 Ireland took nearly one-half of the gross total of 

 export ; and if we had not been in our present de- 

 pressed state, it is not improbable that our imports 

 of Scotch herrings, and other cured fish, might by 

 this time have readied half a million sterling. 



But another view of this subject, of our Irish 

 Sea-fisheries, may be taken : it may be argued, 

 that independently of the humane duty of j)rovid- 

 ing remunerative employment for the starving po- 

 pulation of our coasts, and thus reducing the pres- 

 sure of rates upon the land, Government aid to our 

 fisheries is a measure of political importance, with 



