SALMON LEGISLA TION IN SCOTLAND. 497 



an upper or a lower proprietor, they might safely be left to 

 do so. Again, the chairman need not necessarily be a 

 permanent one he may be elected at every meeting, as in 

 the case of the Tweed Commissioners. 2nd. Let the 

 chairman be one who is neither an upper nor a lower 

 proprietor, and who would therefore be entirely unbiassed 

 in the decision of questions which might arise between the 

 two classes. No doubt there are difficulties in the way of 

 this solution, but we feel convinced that it is the only just 

 one, and warrants the attempt to surmount the difficulties. 

 It ought to be as easy to get a chairman as a clerk, or if it 

 is not considered advisable or practicable to attach even a 

 small emolument to the office, recourse might be had to an 

 ex officio appointment from among the county justices or 

 other responsible officials in the district. 



Another consideration which operated to the discourage- 

 ment of any united or vigorous action on the part particu- 

 larly of those proprietors whose interests were not very 

 great, was the provision of 23 of the Act, that the 

 necessary funds for the due administration of the Act, 

 including salaries of clerks, expenses of watching and 

 prosecutions, &c., were to be raised by an assessment 

 imposed by the Board on the several fisheries in each 

 district. The task imposed on the proprietors was thus 

 neither altogether easy nor always particularly agreeable, 

 while in addition to their personal trouble, they were to 

 find all the funds from their own pockets. It is not to be 

 wondered at if the proprietors in many of the less im- 

 portant districts considered that the end would not repay 

 the means. 



The next circumstance which militated against the 

 success of the Act on the subject of District Boards is 

 the provision contained in 4, that each river in Scotland 



VOL. I. E. 3. 2 K 



