146 SALMON-FISHERY OF SCOTLAND. 



if the nature of the salmon in Scotland were different from 

 that of those in Ireland. It ought to be always kept in view, 

 that the regulation of close-time, and the suppression of poach- 

 ing, are two quite different things. The close-time which 

 existed previous to the present Act in Scotland has been 

 observed these four hundred years, during the period the 

 salmon-fishery was in its most flourishing state. The present 

 proprietors made no application to Parliament to have it 

 altered. The alteration has been made most unnecessarily by 

 Messrs Drummond and Kennedy, and has been made greatly 

 to the injury of the fishery, of its owners, and the public : all 

 that was wanted by the proprietors being, as we have said, 

 mere protection against poachers ; and to this our legislators 

 ought to have restricted themselves, if the legislative mania 

 would have allowed them to do so, on points which they did 

 not understand. 



