20 



On reference to the document it will be seen that it was 

 determined to discourage ideas of reviving aid to the Sea 

 fisheries from the public purse, through former objectionable 

 means or by extensive government establishments. 



It was evidently and wisely contemplated to give, under 

 certain reservations, facilities for the introduction of improved 

 methods of fishing in the sea ; but, with regard to their applica- 

 tion to rivers, to question the propriety of stake-nets and weirs, 

 on account of their injurious tendency. 



With respect to the administration of the laws, the advan- 

 tageous consolidation of them into one statute, rendered per- 

 spicuous and accessible, and the giving their execution into the 

 hands of the local authorities and tribunals of the country, were 

 among the most serviceable designs. 



However, the absence of question as to the justice of the 

 introduction of stake-nets, especially where a ' common of 

 piscary' prevails, or, of allusion to the need of a governing 

 control, leads to a conjecture, that the peculiar difference 

 between the river fisheries of Ireland and those of Scotland, 

 the existence of public rights to a far greater extent in the 

 former, had not been borne in mind. Perhaps it was believed 

 that the Scottish system of management by the river proprie- 

 tors was applicable to this country. From that supposition it 

 may have proceeded that the principle of ' self-government* 

 had so much stress laid upon it.* This doctrine, advantage- 

 ous as it is for the well-being and progress of society, may be 

 carried to an extreme, particularly where mixed rights, both 

 commonable and private, exist in an indefinite and vulnerable 

 description of property, and therefore where the mediation 

 and impartial arbitration of intelligent government officers, or 

 the strong arm of power may be frequently required. 



The Commissioners concluded their inquiries f at the end of 

 a year, having principally directed them to the Sea fisheries. 

 They reported : that the Salmon fisheries were by no means 

 in a satisfactory condition, as well from insufficiency of existing 

 laws as from the systematic breach of their provisions : 

 " that the diminution of fish throughout the south of Ireland" 

 (where public rights exist to the fullest degree) " was refer- 

 able to causes within the reach of legislative control" : that a 

 frequent non-observance of the close season, and a universal 

 prevalence of poaching (in some cases amounting to a total 

 annihilation of the fisheries), especially required immediate legis- 



* The acknowledgment of its partial failure is to be found in the " Sugges- 

 tions" themselves, where allusion is made to the association of the Claddagh 

 (Galway) fishermen, having a self-appointed chief, and yet whose violence 

 sometimes required to be checked by government armed vessels. 



f The Report on the Salmon Fisheries is dated 4th November, 1836, and 

 signed by Charles Arthur Walker, esq., M.P., chairman ; by Sir John Burgoyne 

 and Sir Charles Morgan ; and by B. T. Ottley, J. Radcliff, J. R. Barry, Henry 

 Townsend, H. R. Paine, and William Stanley, esquires. 



