51 



protection, are some of the different bases on which to test the 

 true powers of maximum productiveness. 



To complete the analysis of the First Report of the Commis- 

 sioners : At its close they allude to the 1 12th clause of the Act, 

 by which they are required to introduce, with the annual reports 

 to the Lord Lieutenant, for the purpose of being laid before 

 each house of Parliament within three weeks after the com- 

 mencement of each session, such Statistical Account of the 

 fisheries as may be practicable) or may be directed by the Lord 

 Lieutenant ; this they " understood to be to the extent of col- 

 lecting such information as they can conveniently, and not to 

 employ distinct means for the purpose, unless otherwise directed 

 by your Excellency." 



General or sufficient Statistics do not appear to have been fur- 

 nished, at least to any desirable extent. A more active inter- 

 pretation of this clause would have led to results already 

 serviceable. The importance of our Fisheries in the scale of 

 the resources of the country would be better understood, and 

 more justly appreciated by statesmen, who are now compara- 

 tively uninformed of the attention to which they are really 

 entitled, while ideas of their capabilities, often exorbitant, 

 might have been reduced within rational limits. 



The Second Annual Report, dated 2nd June, 1844, again 

 premises by alluding " to the principle of the Act being that of 

 the least possible Government interference." The Commis- 

 sioners (it states) " most readily adopted that principle, being 

 fully impressed with the conviction that it was the only one by 

 which there could be a chance of the Fisheries being established 

 on a basis of permanent progressive improvement. We cannot 

 conceal, however, that disappointment has been created in the 

 minds of many who were anxious for, or felt an interest in 

 the promotion of the Irish fisheries, that a much more general 

 direction and management, accompanied by more detailed regu- 

 lations, was not undertaken by the Fishery Board." This 

 exhibits the wish of persons solicitous on the subject, for a 

 more active administration ; and they were probably in daily 

 experience of the need of, and impressed with the advantages 

 that would result from it. 



" If we felt the propriety of avoiding, as far as possible, 

 minute regulation, we were still much more deeply impressed 

 with the impolicy of a contrary course, when the demand for 

 rules and by-laws involved restrictions on the free modes of 

 taking fish by any engines or devices in the open sea. 



"We have been frequently urged to restrain particular modes 

 of fishing, on the plea of their being injurious, whereas, in 

 general, it was their effective results and novelty that occa- 

 sioned the complaints against them ; the objections chiefly aria- 



E2 



