must be aware, who has attended to the legal discussions 

 which have taken place since the introduction of the 

 stake-net mode of fishing. Nay, so forcibly was this view- 

 urged by some of the Judges, in advising the Tay case, in 

 1812, that they deprecated the very idea of the statutes 

 having been framed for the private interest of individuals, 

 as * inexpedient, ' absurd? and ' unjust f as ? abominable? 

 as an ' imputation on the Legislature? * 



* The observations of the late Lord Meadowbank, and of 

 Lord Gillies, on this subject, are well deserving of attention. 



Lord Meadowbank, (whose opinion, by the bye, was hos- 

 tile to stake-nets upon the law of the case), said, in explanation 

 of the grounds of his opinion, in favour of the pleas of the up- 

 per heritors, that f / by no meanf rest on this, that the legislature 

 ' would have been even justified in depriving the inferior heritors, 

 ' on the estuaries at the mouths of great rivers, of their right of 

 ' Ashing in airy manner they pleased, upon any principle or pur- 

 f pose of destroying their monopoly. They could NOT BE jus- 

 ' TIFIED if they had done so. It would have been AN ABOMI- 

 ' NABLE ACT to have destroyed the right of the fortunate pro- 

 ' prietors, who had their valuable interests within reach of the 

 ' sea, in order merely to have favoured the naturally less pro- 

 ' ductive fisheries of the upper heritors. // mould have been 

 ' just the same thing as to have prohibited a proprietor on the sea 

 ' shore from cultivating the better sorts of grain, fyc. upon his lands, 

 ' in order that the proprietors situated on the mountains might 

 ' not be outdone by him. It is so ABSURD, that there can be no 

 ' ground for it. It is AN IMPUTATION UPON THE LEGISLATURE 

 ' to suppose so. The only legitimate purpose they could have, 

 ' was to preserve the fry, and favour the increase of the fish. 

 * ery generally ; and, on that footing, they were entitled to 

 ;'- stop every engine that they thought might tend to displenish 



