10 



Still, either the force of the Crown, or concession to its repre- 

 senting the majesty of the nation, sometimes endowed it with 

 the greater rivers as sturgeons and whales are entitled " royal 

 fish," and were anciently claimed as prerogatives le roy.* 



Circumscribed to often less than one-half of the island, (the 

 remote territories remaining either under the rule of the Irish 

 chiefs, or of Anglo-Norman lords, who as little acknowledged 

 the laws, and failed to temper their sway with the native 

 patriarchal code,) the authority of the State was yet frequently 

 and beneficially directed to the circumstances of our rivers. 

 The valuable fishery of Limerick was constantly under notice. 

 The weirs erected there, probably by the Ostmen or Danish 

 settlers, (whose ' cantred' or district king John reserved in his 

 charter to De Braose,) are styled in records ' the king's lexf 

 weyres ;' and the passage or ' king's share' in them is still 

 known as the ' Mona-rea,' or gap of the king. The profits of 

 their use were paid into the exchequer, or often temporarily 

 applied to local uses. The piscary freedom of the Liffey, the me- 

 tropolitan river passing under Dublin castle, as near the centre of 

 government frequently received its intervention to remedy intru- 

 sion. In 1 2 1 8 the lord lieutenant was directed to cause an inspec- 

 tion of the water-course, for the removal of all impediments to the 

 entrance of merchandize, and passage to and fro of fish ; a com- 

 mand repeated in 1 220, in reference to a water-head constructed 

 by the prior of Kilmainham for the use of his mills. Edward I. 

 appointed Richard de Beresford and others to survey the weirs 

 in the Liffey, between Dublin and the town ( de Saltu Salmonis,' 

 (Leixlip), and to inquire by a jury by whom the weirs there were 

 used, and whether otherwise than was warranted by ancient 

 usage, and to abate all nuisances. Pourprestures, or encroach- 

 ments on the water of the Boyne, came frequently under the 



considered as such in all countries where the feudal polity has prevailed ; though 

 the making grants, and by that means appropriating what seems unnatural to 

 restrain, the use of running water, was prohibited for the future by King 

 John's charter Blackstone, on " The Rights of Things," book ii., chap. 3. 



Its provisions did not extend to Scotland, and hence the unlimited power in 

 that kingdom in this respect. But fixed engines for fishing were forbidden by 

 an act of Robert the Bruce. 



* Charters conferring exclusive privileges of fishery became frequent in Ire- 

 land in the reigns of Elizabeth and James. The patents of monopolies made by 

 those monarchs created general discontent, and, under Charles 1., tended partially 

 to the overthrow of the monarchy. They were much increased in Ireland by 

 Strafford during his government, and were included in the grievances laid before 

 Charles by the Irish Parliament in 1640, not being disputed or annulled with 

 the same vigour as in England. During the same period, iniquitous violations 

 of prescriptive titles of centuries old to land frequently occurred. 



t Lex or lax is Danish for salmon. Hence Leix-lip, or the Salmon-leap ; in 

 Latin, saltus salmonis, from whence the barony of Salt, county Kildare, derives 

 its name. The Danes possessed the maritime parts of Ireland before their 

 expulsion or amalgamation with a cognate race, the Northmen, and carried on that 

 commercial enterprise for which the Celtic tribes have never been remarkable. 



