necessity of a legislative inquiry, preparatory to an amend- 

 ment of the laws by which that fishery is regulated. 



In early times, the Salmon fishery of Scotland attract- 

 ed, perhaps, a greater share of the attention of the Legis- 

 lature, than any other matter of public police. As a branch 

 of national subsistence, it was eminently important in an 

 age when agricultural industry was scarcely awakened ; 

 and, instead, therefore, of being abandoned to casual oc- 

 cupancy, or attached as an appendage to the property 

 of land, it was considered as constituting a separate estate 

 in the crown, to which a right could be acquired only 

 by special royal grant. But, in the exercise of this right, 

 the interest of the public, or, at least, what was then 

 considered to be the public interest, according to the nar- 

 row and imperfect views of the times, was not lost sight 

 of; and various provisions and limitations were framed 

 by the Legislature, which, however inefficient, and even 

 hurtful, some of them may now appear to the sounder 

 knowledge and wider experience of the present times, 

 had the preservation and security of that interest alone, for 

 their object. 



The professed and well meant intent of all these en- 

 actments, was one equally important to the public, and 

 to the proprietors of the fisheries, the propagation of 

 the Salmon species, and the protection of the fry, or 

 young brood of Salmon, against the rapacity of indivi- 

 duals, and against the consequences of injudicious and 

 destructive modes of fishing. This object was attempt- 

 ed to be accomplished in two ways : partly, by limiting 

 the period during which the fishery might be carried on ; 

 and partly, by prohibiting the use of those devices and 

 modes of fishing, which were calculated to prevent the 

 spawning fish from reaching the grounds in which the 



