214 THE FISHER Y LA WS. 



of Parliament. These Acts extend over a space of seven- 

 teen years, from 1861 to 1878. Every one of them, after 

 the first, refers to its predecessors, and in various ways 

 modifies parts of them. Every separate Act also deals 

 with many distinct branches of the subject, or fragments 

 of such branches. No authoritative consolidation has ever 

 been undertaken, and the state of the law on any given 

 point can be ascertained only by collating and piecing 

 together all the clauses of the several Acts which have 

 any bearing upon it. The provisions of the Acts are 

 also heterogeneous in respect of their extent, both as to 

 the subject-matter and as to local application. Some deal 

 with salmon only, some with specified fish other than 

 salmon, and others with river fish generally. Some of 

 those which deal with fish other than salmon are neverthe- 

 less applicable only to salmon rivers. Sometimes parts of 

 different Acts deal with the same matter in such terms that 

 it is by no means easy to say whether the later enactment 

 was or was not intended to supersede the earlier. Many 

 details are left to be filled in or varied at the discretion of 

 the central or local executive authorities. The result of 

 such a condition of things (which is in no way peculiar to the 

 Fishery Acts, but is the normal condition of English statute 

 law) is that it is difficult to obtain a connected view of the 

 effect of existing legislation as a whole, and still more 

 difficult to communicate it accurately to others, especially 

 when those others are understood to be likely to take the 

 exposition on trust. It may be useful to mention that a 

 consolidated .reprint of the Salmon Fishery Acts, with 

 proposed amendments, was prepared by Mr. Spencer 

 Walpole, and may be found in the annual report of the 

 Inspectors for 1878, presented to Parliament and published 

 in 1879. 



