ON THE CHANNEL-FISHERIES. 75 



fisheries upon the sea coast of Devon and Cornwall, 

 would be attended with very great public and private 

 benefit ; but the laws now in force are very inade- 

 quate to the above purposes, being not sufficiently 

 explicit, applicable, and severe, to prevent the il- 

 legal destruction of fish by the sundry means adopt- 

 ed and practised by poachers and other ill-disposed 

 persons ; be it by this Bill therefore enacted, that 

 the Act of the 58th of his late Majesty King George 

 the Third, c. 43. and all, other local Acts for parti- 

 cular rivers, be repealed, and the same from the 

 passing of this Act are hereby declared to be re- 

 pealed in every part thereof; and be it further 

 enacted, that the magistrates assembled in the 

 county quarter sessions for every county in these 

 realms of England, Scotland, and Wales, shall 

 have power, and they are hereby authorized (first 

 examining if they shall think proper such witnesses 

 as may be necessary on the occasion) to put all 

 rivers and branches of rivers in England, Scotland, 

 and Wales, where salmon are taken, in defence for 

 any time not exceeding one hundred and fifty days 

 in each year *, and to vary the same, having re- 

 spect to each particular river, and the time when 

 salmon may be in season therein, according to eir- 



* Perhaps it would be better for the Legislature to put all 

 rivers in defence during the six winter months of the year, as 

 no salmon ought to be caught but in the six summer months, 

 beginning with April and ending with September ; and it would 

 relieve the sessions from being pestered with applications by 

 interested individuals to put different rivers in defence at dif- 

 ferent times of the year. 



