APPENDIX. 141 



debate on Mr. Anstey's Bill, that further amend- 

 ment is necessary. Mr. Napier special pleaded a 

 little, by stating, that the ambiguity was not in the 

 law itself, but arose from the construction put upon 

 it by those who administered it ; but Mr. Napier 

 forgets that magistrates sitting at Petty Sessions are 

 not likely to bring very great acumen and legal re- 

 search to bear upon the subject. Be this as it may, 

 one thing is certain, that the law itself is very defec- 

 tive in some respects, and in others is so doubtful 

 that, to use a familiar expression, it is quite easy 

 " to drive a coach and six through it." 



A clear and concise Act is what is wanting, not 

 the voluminous Acts at present on the statute book, 

 nor yet Mr. Anstey's Bill, containing 83 quarto 

 pages, and 182 clauses — enough to puzzle a whole 

 bench of magistrates ; and practically the effect of 

 such legislation is, to make the law a nuUity. Ano- 

 ther objection is, giving to the Commissioners any 

 power to make bye-laws. In many matters of the 

 utmost importance, but involving great technical dif- 

 ficulty, the Legislature evaded the difficulty by giv- 

 ing to the Commissioners a power to decide those 

 questions by making bye-laws ; the practical effect 

 of this is, that the Commissioners make no bye-laws 

 at all, and thus evade the difiiculty the Legislature 

 itself felt. I may instance the close-season question, 

 which is the Alpha and Omega of any measure in- 

 tended to improve the Irish Salmon-fisheries. Why, 

 the Commissioners have had it before them for the 



