2 5 6 



and years must elapse for its thorough trial, but we believe 

 it will we believe so because we have great faith in the pro- 

 gress of that grand nation ; but on the other hand we do not 

 believe it will cure all ills, for it is a principle contrary to 

 reason that fishermen should destroy and government 

 reconstitute. But to clear this question from the density 

 of the waters, we must fancy ourselves on land and sup- 

 pose that in working the mountains of a nation the same 

 means were adopted, viz., unrestricted felling of trees 

 and wood, the government being charged with replenish- 

 ing them at the cost of the State. The system would 

 render the mountains still more costly and unproductive, 

 for if the nursery grounds contained enough trees for re- 

 stocking them, they would not replace those cut down in 

 their natural size. 



This is the weak side of the system, as establishments 

 conveniently distributed along the coast are not sufficient 

 to maintain the fundamental equilibrium of production, if 

 when young fish are drawn out of the waters they are not 

 returned to acquire maturity, and for this the action of the 

 law, in a restrictive sense, is necessary at the present time. 



Besides, to ensure the completeness of the system, it is 

 necessary that these establishments should be of sufficient 

 number and possess suitable conditions for the reproduction 

 of the various edible species, as otherwise what the system 

 would gain on the one side, it would lose on the other, and 

 this presupposes a heavy outlay on the construction and 

 maintenance of the hatcheries. 



We do not wish to censure a system, adopted with so 

 much success in the United States, which assumes that the 

 best way to ensure perfect working is to leave it in the 

 hands of the workers to spontaneously guard their own in- 

 terests without the intervention of the State, because by this 



