57 



the salmon-fishery alone that the spirit of improvement is 

 to be repressed, because, forsooth, of certain antiquated 

 and absurd enactments in the Statute-book ? Or is there 

 any one good reason which can be assigned, why a vast 

 public benefit should not be secured, where the means are so 

 obvious, and the opportunity so naturally presents itself? 



The public advantage which would be derived from an 

 extension of the Salmon-fishery, by the legalizing of stake- 

 nets, needs scarcely be pointed out. 



(1.) In the first place, it would break down, in favour 

 oftJie public, that unjust monopoly, which has already too 

 long subsisted in favour of a single class of proprietors. It 

 would give to every heritor along the coast, that natural 

 use and enjoyment of his property, from which he ought 

 never to have been excluded. It would open the general 

 market of the country to a wide and extensive competition. 

 And by securing an inexhaustible supply, it would, at a 

 moderate and comparatively steady price, place within the 

 reach of all classes of the population, as an ordinary article 

 of rich and wholesome food, what is at present to be found 

 only as a luxury at the tables of the opulent. 



(2.) Nor would the resulting benefit be confined to this. 

 The quality of the Salmon caught, would be as much im- 

 proved, as its quantity would be increased. The Salmon of 

 the ocean, is well known to be infinitely superior to the Sal- 

 mon, which is taken in the fresh- water. From the moment 

 it seeks the rivers, it loses its strength, diminishes even in 

 weight, and gradually sickens, and becomes emaciated and 

 diseased. The firmness and richness of the sea-fish is by 

 this time gone ; and the Salmon now grows comparatively 

 soft and insipid, at certain seasons absolutely unwhole- 

 some. 



