128 



hand in hand with administrative liberality. To this statement 

 the Scotch Fishery alone affords an exception. What inference 

 should be drawn either from the rule or from its exception, the 

 reader will determine for himself; but it does not seem too 

 much to affirm on experience of the past, that whatever value 

 to individuals may be set on any assistance which Government 

 may hereafter think right to afford the fishermen, through any 

 better-directed system of encouragement, the trade must still 

 eventually stand or fall by the spontaneous efforts of the parties 

 interested, and the stimulus of remunerating markets." 



Since the above observations were written many circum- 

 stances have arisen in Ireland that affect the question. Facili- 

 ties for the distribution of fish have increased, by the formation 

 of numerous roads, and by means of transit by land and sea 

 through the agency of steam. An unprecedented famine has 

 desolated the western parts, compelling the fisherman to part 

 with the implements of his trade, and obliging him to enter 

 the Poor-house. A concurrence of the potato failure and the 

 low price of corn, renders the cultivation of small portions of 

 poor land an employment which many would gladly relinquish, 

 to devote themselves exclusively to fishing, if the requisite 

 means were available. Yet an occupation such as coast-fishing, 

 necessarily scattered, unusually insecure, the profits of which 

 yield no immediate revenue to the lords of the soil will hardly 

 be locally fostered without the aid of external assistance. Our 

 fisheries of the deep sea will probably attract additional 

 capital, but those less favourably circumstanced will rarely do 

 so, save perhaps in the formation of a few isolated curing 

 stations. 



Turning to the encouraging example of the Scottish Fisheries, 

 we find that these prosperous settlements on the coast pro- 

 ceeded from the desire of great chiefs of clans in the High- 

 lands to relieve the land population, and to organize a produc- 

 tive division of labour. " The British Fishery Society," formed 

 in 1786, has effected great and permanent improvements in 

 parts of the north of Scotland, previously in as depressed 

 a condition as portions of this country. In the formation or 

 improvement of harbours it was aided by Government grants, 

 but all other works, " roads, houses, curing-houses, and the 

 settlement of fish curers, through whom the home and foreign 

 markets have been opened to the industry of the people, have 

 all been accomplished at the expense, or through the exertions 

 of the landlords." 



The amount of paid up capital of the Society is 28,277 

 105. Sd. Only six dividends of 2 per 50 have been declared 

 during the sixty-two years that the Society has been incorpo- 



