456 INTERNATIONAL LAWS FOR THE 



up to his contracts to the letter, and those who resort to 

 unfair trading soon meet with their reward in the shape 

 of failure. The answer to the question is, that these trades 

 are firmly established, and the banker, rather than lose 

 business, has adapted himself to the methods and dealings 

 of the merchant ; and so it should be with the Scotch 

 bankers, for it cannot be denied that Government has now 

 firmly established the Scotch fisheries, by means which 

 reflect great credit on the originators, and having done so, 

 should leave the general law of commerce to carry on and 

 increase the prosperity of the trade. 



Another argument against the point put forward in 



favour of the retention of the brand, viz., that it is not 



. 

 compulsory, and that those desiring it can effect a higher 



standard of cure, is, that wherever there are free and open 

 markets in this and other countries, the opening sales of a 

 day or season rule, to a great extent, the prices of sales 

 effected after, and a cargo or two of herrings of inferior 

 quality, sold at the opening sales of a market, always tend 

 to damage, to a smaller or greater degree, the prices of 

 those sold after, notwithstanding that they may be of better 

 quality ; so it is with branded herrings. A few parcels of 

 Government-branded will spoil, to a certain extent, the 

 sale of unbrandeds after, irrespective of a possible higher 

 cure, as individual skill and judgment in buying have been 

 so much dispensed with, owing to the Government brand, 

 which really means the skill, and, it may be, too, the im- 

 partial judgment of another fallible mortal in the shape of 

 the branding officer. The number of skilled buyers, how- 

 ever, is doubtless on the increkse abroad, in consequence 

 of the discrepancies which have occurred in parcels bearing 

 the Government brand, which cannot be denied, as quota- 

 tions from foreign markets show that on the same day, in 



