59 



not one-twentieth of the extent of the Society's fisheries, are 

 leased for & 9 725l. per annum ; and this is to be accounted for 

 by the extreme vigilance exercised by the men appointed to 

 watch the breeding rivers in the close season. 



It appears that the present government has taken up the 

 question of the salmon fisheries ; and, to an application which 

 I made lately to Lord Eliot, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, 

 I have received a very polite reply, acquainting me that the 

 government has it in contemplation to introduce a new Fishery 

 Bill s and that the great importance of the subject is admitted 

 by them. Indeed, when it is considered that the County of 

 Donegal has been, for the last four years, burdened with an 

 augmentation of police, stipendiary magistrates, and water-guards, 

 solely on account of the pretended necessity of putting down 

 disturbances created by fishery or poaching disputes, it is time 

 for the government to bring this subject before Parliament. 

 Can any one defend the conduct of a government that would 

 patiently allow magistrates to remain in the commission of the 

 peace who are either illegally fishing themselves, or allowing 

 their servants to do so ; and then, as magistrates, sitting in 

 judgment, and deciding on what are, in fact, their own cases ? 

 I have been informed that, although one of the lessees of the 

 Foyle fisheries applied last year to the magistrates (the Rev. 

 J. M, Staples, Mr. Carey, and Mr. Hugh Lyle,) sitting in 

 Petty Sessions at Moville, for summonses against the poachers, 

 they even refused to give him summonses to bring up the 

 offenders before them ; and the poachers continued to take 

 the fish with impunity, and that to the large amount of 1,OOOZ. 

 sterling, or more, during the season. 



It has been argued by some of the persons engaged in these 

 bag-net fisheries, that they merely fish for salmon at the mouth 

 of the river, and in the salt water, or where the river meets the 

 sea, to establish a right of the subject ; and yet, in the case of 

 the Ballyshannon river, the Rev. Mr. Tredennick carried his 

 fishery to such an extent, that he made a trade, and traffic, and 

 profit of it, and he has publicly and boldly declared that he will 

 continue to do so, notwithstanding the general odium and dis- 



