CHAPTER II 



THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF 1863 



THE fishery laws in 1863 were in a state of great 

 confusion. I have only mentioned a few of them, 

 but there was really a great number. 1 Most of 

 them were obsolete and were not enforced. Of 

 those that were enforced, some were unnecessary 

 and others were positively injurious in their 

 effects. The Scottish Herring Trawling Acts 

 belonged to this latter category, and it is evident 

 that it was because of the effect of these en- 

 actments that the attention of Parliament was 

 directed in 1863 to the general question of 

 the condition of the British sea-fisheries. A 

 Royal Commission 2 was therefore issued in that 

 year, with very wide terms of reference. The 

 Commissioners were directed to inquire : (i) 

 whether or not the value of the fisheries was 

 increasing, stationary, or decreasing ; (2) whether 



1 See the second schedule of the Sea-Fisheries Act of 1868. 



2 The members were Professor Huxley, Mr (afterwards Sir) J. 

 Caird, and Mr G. Shaw-Lefevre. 



