APPENDIX. 101 



reconcile interested parties to the curtailment of the pre- 

 sent open season. He showed his desire to amend the 

 law partially, rather than leave it in force all over the 

 country ; and I remember quite well his applying even to 

 myself to lend my very humble assistance in having the 

 River Tay and its tributaries placed under a local act, so 

 as to revert to the olden time of closing in August, to 

 do which I readily assented, although originally and for 

 many years I was favourable to a general law, as pro- 

 vided by his (Mr. Home Drummond's Act) ; for under its 

 provisions I had become perfectly satisfied, as I am more 

 and more convinced, that a great deal of mischief has 

 been inflicted on the public as consumers of salmon. It 

 is my opinion, and always has been, that the laws that 

 regulated salmon fishings were enacted much more for 

 the benefit of the people at large as a body, than for 

 that of those very few persons who are proprietors of 

 salmon fishings; and, acting on this conviction, I have 

 uniformly endeavoured to show to the magistrates and 

 councillors of towns, that their constituents had a direct 

 and deep interest in the laws that regulate the salmon 

 fishings ; because the abundance and consequent cheapness, 

 or the contrary, of that most nutritious fish is a matter of 

 manifest importance to the consumer. 



" I say then fearlessly, virtually speaking, that salmon 

 belong to the people, that their careful protection is a 

 popular right, and consequently any undue destruction is 

 a popular grievance; and if so, that these principles should 

 guide the legislature and be acted on in Parliament, in 

 defiance of all selfish views and individual claims whatever. 

 So decidedly do I look on salmon as national property, 

 that I consider it a duty encumbent on all magistrates to 

 lend their best aid towards the alteration of the law, and 

 to do all they can to increase the quantity for sale when 

 sound and good, as well as to prevent foul fish find- 

 ing their way into market in August and September. 

 The markets of London, Leeds, -and Manchester, are no- 

 toriously supplied with foul salmon in these months, 

 which are easily known by the huge milts and roe they 

 contain, and which none but foul fish have. 



" No well-informed person will deny that salmon are 



