April 3, 1919] 



NATURE 



85 



simplifying the existing fishery law and administration 

 is hopeless. No one interested in the development of 

 British fisheries believes in the economic fallacy con- 

 tained in the first sentence I have quoted from your 

 pages. To quote Mr. Secretary Cecil in 1563 :— "The 

 causes of the decay of fishing must be the lack of the 

 use of fishing, which must be divided into ij partes, 

 small eating of fisshe in ye Realme, and not selling of 

 it abroad." Both these causes have operated during the 

 war. It is our purpose to remove them both. As this 

 is not always understood, I shall be glad if you will 

 publish this declaration, which can. be taken as 

 'official" on behalf of every branch of the fishing 

 marine, to which the nation owes its freedom in igig, 

 as it did in 1588. G. C. L. Howell. 



National Sea Fisheries Protection Association, 

 Fishmongers' Hall, E.G. 4, March 24. 



I ENTIRELY agree with Capt. Howell, and think that 

 the road to fishery reconstruction, in the national 

 interest, is marked out by the lines of the propaganda 

 of the National Sea Fisheries Protection Association. 

 I am sorry if it should appear that anything in the 

 views put forward in the Times correspondence and 

 articles is misrepresented in the note in Nature of 

 March 13. but it seemed to me that Lord Dunraven's 

 letter did suggest such an antithesis as that to which 

 Capt. Howell refers — that fish which is scarce and dear 

 might be more profitable and more easy to handle than 

 fish which is cheap and abundant, and that while the 

 former condition might possibly be preferred by the 

 ■distributing trades, the latter condition is that which is 

 favourable alike to the nation as a whole and to the 

 consumers in particular. In order to make it impos- 

 sible that the former condition might be established. 

 Lord Dunraven seems to suggest sotne form of 

 nationalisation of the fisheries ; this would also, he hopes, 

 create revenue. The National Sea Fisheries Protec- 

 tion Association, on the other hand, seeks to secure 

 the same object bv its advocacv of a strong Imperial 

 administration — a sounder method, it seems to me, for 

 better than State revenue would be a prolific fishery 

 population retaining its individuality ; and largelv in- 

 creased British exports would be preferable to Lord 

 Dunraven's Colonial imports. The note was intended 

 to be purely descriptive, and so my personal opinions 

 were not expressed. 



The Writer of the Note. 



Coal in Thrace. 



T AM much obliged to Prof. Louis for his interesting 

 information (Nature, March 20, p. 45). 



I assumed the coal to be anthracite on account of the 

 assertion that the use of the bellows extinguished it, 

 while it encourages the combustion of bituminous coal 

 by a fuller supply of oxygen. The high temperature 

 needed for the burning of anthracite would not be 

 attained, I fancied, owing to the cold blast. 



The geographical description does not apply to 

 Pontos. 



There is another "wonder" cited by Antigonos that 

 has a possible bearing on the coal district of Thrace. 

 He quotes Eudoxos as saying : " It is related that in 

 the Thracian Sea. at the mountain which is called 

 Sncred, during certain times bitumen (asphaltos in the 

 Crreek) is borne on the surface." 



TTie Mare Thracicnm in Kiepert's atlas extends 

 from Thrace north of the Hellespont to the coast of 

 Thessaly. The " Sacred Mountain " is probably Mount 

 Athos, which in vulgar speech is still called " Hagion 

 Oros." Edmund M'Cliwb. 



80 Eccleston Square, March 24. 



NO. 2579, VOL. 103] 



THE MACHINERY OF GOVERNMENT A 

 " A MAN \yithout a purpose," said Carlyle, 



•^*- "is like a ship without a rudder." 

 What Is true of an individual is in this case true 

 of a community : a people without a common 

 purpose can make no permanent progress. It 

 must stagnate and ultimately disintegrate. In 

 the last resort a free people can only be held 

 together by either of two means : custom or com- 

 munity of purpose. It is not difficult to see that 

 anything — and not least the machinery of Govern- 

 ment — which facilitates the coherence of free 

 people, whether in a single State or in a world 

 commonwealth, and their co-operation towards 

 the fulfilment of a common purpose, makes for 

 the welfare and advancement of mankind. 



During the war many English customs have 

 been broken down, but the consequent tendency 

 towards disintegration has been more than 

 counterbalanced by the increased sway of a com- 

 mon purpose. Higher efficiency and more rapid 

 progress have consequently become apparent ip 

 multifarious departments of the national life, as, 

 for example, the exhibition of British scientific 

 products held in London last summer, and re- 

 peated this winter in Manchester, has shown in 

 the case of scientific industry. But with the sign- 

 ing of the armistice community of purpose began 

 to lose its hold, and disintegration threatens to 

 set in. Labour leaders are warning the nation 

 against it, and leading articles in the Times are 

 echoing and emphasising their warnings. 



How is this danger to be avoided? New habits 

 and customs take time to form. Moreover, as 

 we may perhaps learn from the Americans, bond- 

 age to custom causes many of the evils that result 

 from other kinds of fetters. So the prosperity, 

 progress, and even preservation of the State 

 demand, above all, community of purpose. Per- 

 haps spiritual ideals alone can supply it, and the 

 essential emotional drive towards its realisation. 

 But, whatever the purpose be, some central 

 Government is needed to plan and to direct the 

 advance towards it. This — and not merely to 

 police the route — is the function of the Govern- 

 ment of a State. 



In the past, of course, this function is very far 

 from having been fulfilled, whether by Ministers 

 of the Crown, who determine policy, or by the 

 permanent Civil Service Departments, which pursue 

 it. When Mr. Gladstone entered Parliament in 

 1832 he thought his first concern would be with 

 questions of the succession to certain unstable 

 European thrones, A dozen years later, after 

 a close connection at the Board of Trade with the 

 leaders of British industry and commerce, he held 

 a very different view. But it has taken a long 

 time for these industrial statesmen, these leaders 

 of British activity outside the House of Commons, 

 to see in the Government and its principal Depart- 

 ments the natural centre and focus of their activi- 

 ties in the service of the State. The process is 

 not yet complete: nor have some captains of 



• ReportofiheMachinery of Government Committee. MinKiry of R*con- 

 ttruction. (Cd. 9130.) (H.M. Stationery Office.) Price 6</. net. 



