HOW TO MAKE TROUT-FISHING 



For all who have the true interest of the sport at heart 

 the position has become threatening. The cry for free fishing 

 has gone forth ; candidates for Parliament are peppered with 

 questions about it at election times, and the parliamentary 

 candidate, no matter what his particular political plumage may 

 be, is a peculiarly plastic creature, prone to move along the 

 lines of least resistance ; and whereas the prevalent concep- 

 tion of self-government seems to imply the confiscation by 

 the majority of the property of the minority, nobody need be 

 surprised if some fine day the Mother of Parliaments should 

 decree that all fishing shall be free. Now we anglers know 

 very well in what free fishing would result. It would mean 

 that it would not be worth any man's while to preserve, protect, 

 or improve angling water. The Scottish Trout Anglers' 

 Association are fully aware of that, and have prepared a Bill, 

 which was introduced into Parliament last year, whereby, if 

 I remember right, the sheriff of any county in Scotland may 

 direct the appropriation of private fishing rights and bestow 

 them under certain conditions upon local angling clubs. It 

 may occur to old-fashioned constitutionalists that there is 

 nothing inherently different in angling rights from rights in 

 any other form of property, and that this specious form of 

 nibbling and filching will not stop there ; but I do not here 

 propose to follow that line of thought, which might lead into 

 the murky atmosphere of political controversy. My purpose 

 is to draw attention to the almost indefinite extent to which 

 good angling might be developed in many parts of the British 

 Isles, without trenching upon anybody's rights. If that were 



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