29 



It may also be noticed, that the question of the expe- 

 diency or inexpediency of allowing stake-nets to be 



* the rivers of fish, every kind of engine which was incora- 

 ' patible with keeping the rivers in a full supply of fish. 

 ' There was no intention that the inferior heritors should be 

 ' deprived of any part of their right, in order to give the supe- 

 ' rior heritors more valuable fishings. That purpose would 

 ' have been quite illegitimate.' 



Lord Gillies said, that he had no doubt that the upper herit- 

 ors ' are wrong in their proposition, that it was any part of 

 ' the object of the legislature to prevent inferior heritors from 

 ' monopolizing the Salmon. They meant to preserve the breed ; 

 ' and not only do I conceive that such was their object, but 

 ' that, neither in point of justice or expediency, could they have 



* had any other object. In the first place, IT WOULD HAVS 

 < BEEN INEXPEDIENT to prevent Salmon from being caught in 

 ' the greatest possible quantity, and the nearer the sea the better, 



* as thcjish are the most likely to be in a good and Jinn state. 

 ' In the next place, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN UNJUST to deprive 

 inferior heritors of the natural advantages arising to them from 

 ' their actual situation. Many such advantages there are, and 

 ' they are inseparable from property. One man has an estate 

 ' near a sea-port, or adjoining a great turnpike road, and he 

 ' has benejits thence arising, which place him in a better situation 



* than the generality of his neighbours* In the same way, where 

 f a person has a Salmon-wishing, his property is enhanced in va- 

 ' lue by it ; and where it is near the sea, the property is still 



* more enhanced than if it were situated far up the river. All 



* these are adventitious benejits resulting from natural situation. 

 ' Such are the benefits enjoyed by the lower heritors in the 

 ' present case, and it would have been A MOST ABSURD AND 

 ' UNJUST POLICY, if the legislature had intended to prevent 

 1 them from catching as many Salmon as they could/ 



