APPENDIX. 95 



grievances require to be redressed, and numerous exist- 

 ing evils require to be rooted out altogether ; but among 

 the various classes who have a right to complain, none have 

 a greater than salmon fishers, and all connected with sal- 

 mon property. I particularly allude to Scotland,, although 

 convinced that England and Ireland are not in a better 

 condition. However, ever since the present Fishery Act 

 for Scotland came into force in the year 1828, the salmon 

 fishings of Scotland have been on the decline. Jn all 

 the history of fishings, we meet with seasons better and 

 worse than others, and may always expect to do so ; for 

 in part, the prosperity depends on the fluctuation of sea- 

 sons, but even with all these uncertainties and natural 

 causes, we would not, and could not have had a general 

 and gradual decline in the fisheries, if the natural habits 

 of the salmon had been unfettered and freed from the un- 

 just and unsuitable Acts of Parliament whereby they are 

 trammelled, and the fish forced to decline. We might 

 yet have a season or two not so productive as previous 

 years, but we could never have reached the brink of ex- 

 termination on which we stand just now ; for it is a plain 

 matter of fact, that no salmon river now, even the very 

 best, is worth one-fourth of the value it possessed thirty 

 years ago, and very many of them that were productive 

 at that time must remain henceforth tenantless, as now they 

 will not pay the outlay for watching and working them. 

 Thirty years ago you might have gone over the length 

 and breadth of the land, and on the whole not found a 

 salmon river without a tenant, and all tenants thriving on 

 the produce ; but now you will find two-thirds of the 

 fisheries in the hands of proprietors, and no wise man 

 will take a compliment of them. What has become of 

 all the respectable companies and firms that occupied the 

 Scotch fisheries thirty years ago ? We may here say that 

 they are gone. They fought honestly and honourably 

 against absurd legislation, until they were forced to fall 

 in the conflict, and their loss may now be mourned all 

 over the fishery world. But yet with all these facts 

 staring our legislators in the face, and I assure you they 

 are far from being exaggerated, they have looked on with 

 the g-eatest apathy for many years, though quite sensible 



