68 



Extracts from Letters Patent of Lords, fyc., granted by James the First, in the 

 Seventeenth year of his Reign, to Henry Lord Folliott, Baron of E ally shannon, 

 relating to the Salmon Fishery of Bally shannon, now held in Fee by Colonel 

 Conolly, M.P. 



" Ac etiam totum erecum, baiam, sive flumen de Bealashanny, alias Bally- 

 shannon, videlicet, ab alto mare usque ad rupem sive occasum aquae communiter 

 vocatum, The Salmon Leap, alias The Fall of Asheroe, prope castrum de Beala- 

 shanny, ac etiam omnia stagna, gurgites, insulas,et rupes, invel prope prsedictam 

 baiam vel flumen prsedictum, ac solum et fundum et aquam praedicti creci, Baiae, 

 stagni, sive fluvii. Ac omnem terram aqua coopertam ibidem, ac etiam lotam 

 piscatoriam, et libertatem piscandi AD CAPIENDOS SALMONES ET OMNIA ALIA 

 GENERA PISCIUM quorumcunque in vel extra prsedictam baiam et flumen 

 prsedictum, cum omnibus aliis libertatibus piscandi et privileges, advantagiis, et 

 emoluments quibuscunque prsedictis premissis qualitercunque spectandis sive 

 pertinentibus in fluvio Earne et aliis fluviis ad Lough Earne pertinentibus dictis 

 comitatibus Donegal et Fermanagh, vel eorum aliquis. Ac etiam totum et integrum 

 fiuvium et aquam de Earne praedictam ab alto mare usque ad Lough Earne, et 

 fundum et solum corundum in comitatibus Donegal, Fermanagh, vel eorum 

 alteruter. 



The above extracts from the original charter sufficiently show the vested 

 rights of the proprietors of the Ballyshannon Fishery. 



Extract from the Ballyshannon Herald of October 1, 1841 : 

 " To the Editor of the Ballyshannon Herald. 



" SIR, A half sheet of your paper was sent to me, some time ago, containing 

 an account of proceedings in Ballyshannon on the 30th of August and the 

 beginning of September, and certain letters connected with the administration of 

 justice in Ireland at that time. Until this day I did not observe some under- 

 scorings, and a note in that paper, which a friend pointed out to me as intended 

 to draw attention to a letter from Mr. N. MacDonald, the Under-Secretary. 



" It seems the circulator of this paper is impressed with the idea, that a letter 

 from the head quarters of Government is at all times sufficient to remove 

 doubts and difficulties ; but the despatch of Mr. MacDonald leaves matters as 

 much as ever in doubt. The Secretary communicates nothing officially from the 

 Castle, and perhaps it is as well so. A decision, in accordance with that of the 

 country, was notnecessary ; and had the Lord-Lieutenant been advised to decide 

 otherwise, he would have been as wisely counselled, as if he had been brought to 

 offer opposition to your headlong waterfall. 



" When the tendency of expressions is to be decided on, Lord Fortescue esteems 

 the vox populi too much to set up his opinion, formed from such a trial as that 

 before Mr. Drummond, against the declared conviction of the inhabitants of a 

 country, present at the trial, acquainted with the accused and with the witnesses, 

 and knowing, better than the judge who tried the cause, what has, or has not, a 

 tendency to disturb the neighbourhood in which they live. And let me borrow 

 from one of England's greatest lawyers, pleading before one of her mostcelebrated 

 judges, a few farther observations. ' My Lord, if the independent gentlemen of 

 England are better qualified to decide from cause of knowledge, it is no offence 

 to the Court to say, that they are full as likely to decide with impartial justice, as 



