64 



those concerned for the Crown to prosecute them, and to abate by legal 

 process.' 



Counsellor Alcock, (Evidence, p. 488,) after quoting this opinion, 

 gives additional authorities as to the repression of public injuries, and 

 states, ' now so far as the injury to the public fishery is concerned, if 

 this weir takes fish, assuming it is an illegal mode of proceeding, it 

 is not a question which these cot-men can try in this shape ; it is a 

 public injury which can only be redressed by indictment,' yet (at page 

 454) he had previously exhibited the difficulties of laying such an 

 indictment, and (at page 490) states, ' I think they must leave it to an 

 indictment, if an indictment is maintainable at all? 



In the words of Judge Perrin, ' it is difficult and dangerous to define 

 the right to abate a nuisance; but it is also dangerous to allow a 

 multitude of men, relying upon their own views of the law, to proceed 

 to assert their rights in this manner.' 



It is to be hoped that sufficient powers will be given by the legisla- 

 ture to prosecute illegal weirs, and that the lower classes will not 

 again resort to these means. Such acts of violence are greatly to be 

 reprehended, and add unhappily to that ill character from which this 

 country seriously suffers, and which a long continuance of peaceable 

 conduct can only remove. 



CHAPTER VII. 



MANAGEMENT UNDER THE BOARD OF WORKS. 



THE immense pressure on the Board of Public Works during 

 the famine of 1847 prevented them from furnishing a Report 

 for that year. The sixteenth annual report, dated July, 1848, 

 containing a special report on the Fisheries, combines the years 

 1847 and 1848. The ' General Observations' contained in this 

 report, exhibit the remarkable manner in which the Sea Fish- 

 eries of Ireland were affected and suffered by the distress of 

 the two previous years. The market was greatly diminished by 

 the impoverishment of the bulk of the people, with whom, fish 

 being only an accessory food, it took all their means to buy the 

 more necessary kinds. 



The remarks of the Commissioners are valuable, and their 

 conclusions deserving of attention, as to the advantages of 

 developing and relying upon our Sea Fisheries as a source of 

 industry and trade, as well as a means of sustenance. In order 

 to direct the exertions of private enterprise to the formation of 

 a fishing trade, the proposal of the Commissioners to organize 

 a few fish-curing stations on the western coasts as an example, 

 was adopted by Government, and the sum of 5,000, (advanced 

 by the Reproductive Loan Society,) was applied to that 

 purpose. 



To revert to the Salmon Fisheries. The decreased produce 

 of the year 1&47 is attributed by the Board as owing, not to the 



