THE LAIRD OF ARDROSS. 91 



not published, at this time of day, the opinions of his 

 late father, expressed, as they always are, with the ut- 

 most frankness, and very often with the most thorough 

 contempt for lawyers. We, of course, read the book 

 with the allowance reasonably due to the fact of its be- 

 ing the production of a disappointed litigant ; we laugh 

 at its lively sallies at the expense of interested wit- 

 nesses, making out a case in favour of stake-net fish- 

 ing ; we admire the grimly facetious civility with which 

 the Laird of Ardross thinks it decent to speak of the' 

 Judges of the Court of Session, whose acquaintance 

 with fish, and the ancient statutes thereanent, he holds 

 so cheap. Still, though the history of the salmon be 

 now more correctly known, there is substantial stuff in 

 the book worthy of the attention of all interested in the 

 salmon fisheries, and we like it all the better for its 

 fresh piquant style. There is evidently sport in store 

 for us when we find the chapter on Mr Kennedy's Com- 

 mittee having for its motto certain lines from the French, 

 intimating that "the world is full of asses, and that, if 

 we would not see them, we must get into a hole and 

 break our looking-glasses."* The prospect of some- 

 thing racy thus held out is abundantly verified. The 

 late Laird of Ardross modestly professes that an oar 

 would suit his hand much better than a pen. That it 

 would have been dangerous for any man to presume on 

 Mr Mackenzie's inability to bespatter an opponent with 

 well-aimed printer's ink is proved by the vigour with 

 which he assails every witness on the stake-net side 

 of the question. For instance, the Committee ask Mr 

 Halliday, " Are there a great many salmon which come 

 into friths that do not go to the rivers^ but return again 

 to the sea?" " There are a great many." "Do you 

 mean that they are going down from their own natural 



* " Le monde est plein des fous, 

 Et qui veut n'en voir, 

 Doit se nicher dans un trou 

 Et casser son miroir. " 



