IS 



fisheries, the prices which they had been in use to receive, 

 could not be maintained. 



This, however, was a ground of alarm in which the 

 public was interested in a sense directly opposite to the 

 private and exclusive interests of the river proprietors. It 

 was one, accordingly, which the latter never ventured, 

 and could not venture to state. There was thus some 

 difficulty in getting up a different pretext on which to 

 found the defence of their monopoly. But at length 

 this was thought to be discovered in the ancient Scots 



O 



statutes already mentioned, which had been passed in 

 dark and rude ages, centuries before stake-nets, or any 

 thing resembling them, had even been thought of; at 

 a time, indeed, when there was neither capital nor enter- 

 prize for such an establishment. -when there was not in- 

 dustry and activity among the people sufficient for its 

 success, and when there was not even a market for the 

 produce. The language of these statutes, unfortunately, 

 was general, and at the same time obsolete and of doubt- 

 ful import ; and the usages and interpretations of later 

 times, in the gradual progress of the art, had attached 

 meanings to it, by which the enactments had acquired a 

 very extended operation. 



Founding upon these statutes, therefore, the upper he- 

 ritors on the Tay applied to the courts of law for an in- 

 terdict or injunction against the use of stake-nets in that 

 river or frith ; and they were but too successful in their 

 application. After a long and patient investigation, and 

 a discussion conducted on both sides with great learning 

 and ability, and after much diversity of opinion among 

 the Judges, it was at length decided by the Supreme 

 Court in Scotland, and the decision was affirmed by the 

 House of Peers on appeal, that according to the existing 



