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to be habitually punctual in his money dealings. But, with 

 respect to sobriety, directly hostile testimony has been offered, 

 even from the same districts. It appears undeniable, that an 

 abuse of ardent spirits prevails among the fishermen in towns, 

 but exists to a less extent in the smaller fishing villages. As 

 this vice exhausts too large a portion of the earnings of the 

 poorer classes generally, the Commissioners must include it 

 among the causes which operate injuriously on the Fisheries. 

 It is an evil which can only be abated by raising the condition, 

 and multiplying the comforts of the fishermen, by the influence 

 of a practical education, and by a change in those fiscal laws 

 which are found to promote a pernicious consumption of the 

 article. In the exercise of their calling, the fishermen are 

 accused of evincing strong prejudices ; and a very common dispo- 

 sition to combine for the purposes of intimidation, and to make 

 their own will the law against all rivals and competitors. Such 

 practices are not unknown in different kind and degree among 

 other tradesmen ; and though they may disappear as civiliza- 

 tion advances, they still constitute an evil that excites a frequent 

 cry for redress." 



The Fishermen of Ireland generally were found to occupy 

 small portions of land, and to depend for subsistence from that 

 source more than on the sea, " and their condition w T as mainly 

 determined by the local circumstances of agriculture." Great 

 distress was apparent, traceable to various causes ; but in some 

 places, however, the well- equipped, skilful, and prudent fisher- 

 man was represented as able to support a family, without land, 

 on a scale of comfort superior to that of other labourers. Their 

 inferiority in equipments and skill, was at once the cause and 

 effect of the low condition of Irish Fisheries, and must exist 

 until better are possessed. " The proposition of adding to the 

 existing plan of National Education, schools of special instruc- 

 tion in useful employments, is daily gaining ground in public 

 opinion. Such instruction is recommended for agriculturists, 

 by the Poor Inquiry Commissioners ; and its importance for this 

 object was pointed to in 1803, by Mr. Jefferson, late President 

 of the United States. ' The charitable schools,' he observes, 

 ' instead of storing their pupils with a lore which the present 

 state of society does not call for, being converted into schools 

 of agriculture, might restore them (the pupils) to that branch, 

 qualified to enrich and honour themselves, and to increase the 

 productions of the nation.' " 



MARKETS. The quantity of fish, both fresh and cured, 

 obtained from Irish fishermen, was found to be insufficient to 

 meet the demand, fully demonstrated, as to cured herrings, by 

 the great importation of them from Scotland, and also corrobo- 

 rated as to dried fish, which was nearly all imported. The 



