OUR SEA FISHERIES. 215 



fishermen carried them, that they have landed at our 

 fishing villages by hundreds at a time and caused 

 serious riots ; while as regards the fishing upon our w 

 grounds, it has been practised to a very great extent 

 indeed fleets of French and Dutch boats taking the 

 living out of the mouths of our poor fishermen, and 

 often sailing through their nets and destroying their 

 gear, regardless of the consequences, or the destruc- 

 tion they caused. 



I was not satisfied with reports of these matters ; 

 but being in Northumberland during the herring 

 season of 1861, I went to Bamburgh and North 

 Sunderland, where these occurrences were taking 

 place, and saw and inquired for myself, and conse- 

 quently am able to give tolerably correct evidence 

 of the facts. The French boats were in the habit of 

 coming in and fishing within a mile of the shore, 

 though the treaty limits are three miles. Now it 

 seems, to say the least of it, a strange sort of reci- 

 procity laid down in this treaty; for while French 

 fishermen are permitted to fish within three miles of 

 our shores, our fishermen are not permitted to fish 

 within three leagues of theirs. The French boats had 

 occasioned a good deal of damage and mischief to our 

 boats, and it was not until a great outcry had been 

 made by the press, that active measures were taken 



