THE FISHERIES IN 1863 7 



of the legislation of the first half of the nineteenth 

 century. It will be seen, then, that it was for 

 the most part spasmodic in its inception and 

 restrictive in character ; that it usually applied to 

 temporary conditions, and when these passed away 

 as they usually did the legislation remained, and 

 burdened the statute-book with futile, unnecessary, 

 or injurious enactments. 



The chief code of fisheries legislation in England 

 was contained in the Convention Act of I843. 1 

 The quarrels of fishermen of different nationalities 

 have always been a fruitful subject for legislation, 

 and it was in consequence of such disputes that a 

 convention was arranged in 1839 between this 

 country and France, and embodied in Acts of the 

 Legislatures of both countries. These Acts gave 

 the fishermen of each country the exclusive rights 

 of fishing in territorial waters, that is, within an 

 imaginary line drawn round the coast three miles 

 distant from low-water mark, and from a straight 

 line joining the headlands of bays and estuaries not 

 more than ten miles apart. 



Within these territorial limits each country 

 made its own fishery laws ; without them, on the 

 high seas, the Convention Act supplied a code 

 of regulations which applied to the following 

 matters : 



i. Numbering and lettering fishing boats, and 

 the flags and lights carried by these. 

 1 6 and 7 Viet. c. 79 (1843). 



