APPENDIX. 143 



quires skill, capital, and outlay ; but to pi^oduce it 

 from the rivers requires no outlay at all. The sal- 

 mon produce themselves. All that is required is a 

 good law. Is it not sinful, therefore, to evade the 

 question, and withold a proper Act of Parliament, 

 which those who understand the subject, know per- 

 fectly well would make salmon so abundant in three 

 years, that the price would not range higher than 

 4d. to 6d. per lb., from the large quantity that would 

 be thrown upon the market. This is surely such a 

 public question as the Government ought at once to 

 look after. At present the fisheries are at the mercy 

 of the Commissioners, who are eminent as engineers, 

 but cannot be supposed to know much about Salmon- 

 fishing. To restore the fisheries is not an engineer- 

 ing question, and as gentlemen of that profession form 

 a majority of the board, it is almost impossible that 

 the questions left to them can be properly decided. 

 Let us have positive enactment, and then the Com- 

 missioners will do well enough. 



Island Bridge, May 1850. 



The Select Committee of the House of Commons 

 appointed in 1 849, to inquire into the present state 

 of the Irish Fisheries, have reported to the House, 

 that the interests involved are too important, to be 

 suffered any longer to depend, upon the ambiguous 



