32 THE BRITISH FISH TRADE. 



sizing ? The cotton manufacturers might very possibly 

 undertake to pay a small fee for the privilege of such a 

 guarantee, and the Government might consequently obtain 

 a remunerative duty. The folly of such a course would, 

 however, at once prevent its adoption. Government, it 

 would be said, has nothing to do with the manufacturers. 

 It must leave them to attend to their own business, 

 and to bear the consequences of their own errors ; or, if 

 they are dishonest enough to commit them, to suffer the 

 penalty which sooner or later attends fraudulent practices. 



Nor is it quite clear that the brand does afford the 

 guarantee which it is its whole object to supply. Com- 

 plaints of the bad quality of branded herrings occasionally 

 reach Scotland from German buyers. Those who desire to 

 see the complaints themselves will find samples of them in 

 the " Appendix to the Report of the Select Committee on 

 the Herring Brand." It was broadly stated to that Com- 

 mittee that the brand was awarded to a low average of 

 cure ; it was stated that even this average was not main- 

 tained. Its existence, therefore, was alleged to discourage 

 improvement, and to afford no real protection to the 

 curer. 



It is said, however, that the brand has the effect of 

 placing the small curer on a level with the large one ; and 

 that its abolition would give an advantage to the large 

 capitalist whose private brand would be known, and so 

 tend to ruin the smaller one. It is an obvious reflection 

 that this argument, if it be sound, is applicable to other 

 industries besides that of the curer ; but it is equally 

 evident that it is no part of the function of Government to 

 try to remove the advantageous distinctions which men 

 have secured from their own industry or from their own 

 skill. If a large curer has from his success succeeded in 



