APPENDIX. 167 



has been effected solely by the development of the 

 Sea-fisheries. 



The cant — in an impoverished country — about 

 capital, and competition, was not then raised ; but 

 Government, in co-operation with the Scotch gentry, 

 set to work to open out to these starving populations 

 this vast field of industry, on a suitable and national 

 scale. Funds were procured, fleets were equipped, 

 harbours were built, and at present Scotland supplies 

 not only Ireland but the half of Europe with cured 

 fish ; the value of herrings alone, caught annually on 

 the coasts of Scotland, averaging about one million 

 sterhng : the quantity caught in 1849, (Vide report 

 of the Scotch Commissioners of Fisheries) being 

 1,151,979 barrels. These are the results in Scot- 

 land ; but how, let us again ask, were these results 

 obtained? Could the starving population of those 

 coasts, supply these funds, equip these fleets, build 

 these harbours ? 



We are told to follow the example of our English 

 and Scotch neighbours — I wish we could copy them 

 in some thinq-s. These results were not brought 

 about without ample Government grants in the first 

 instance — continued to the present day, and now all 

 amply repaid in the prosperity and national wealth 

 created. There is at the present moment at Edin- 

 burgh an efficient executive department for the fish- 

 eries, consisting of a Board of Commissioners, forty 

 well-paid Inspectors, an armed cutter or two from 

 the Royal Navy, to preserve order on the fishing 



