FOR GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 33 



The concluding words of the report of this Select Com- 

 mittee are worth repeating just now, when another Committee 

 is about to sit : " Your Committee feels that it may be laid 

 down as an indisputable axiom, sustained by experience, 

 especially of late years, that while the extent of our coasts 

 and the natural facilities they afford for navigation are 

 limited, the trade of the country, and consequently its 

 shipping, are capable of and destined to an indefinite ex- 

 pansion, and that the only way, therefore, by which the former 

 can be rendered commensurate for the requirements of the 

 latter is by supplementing the natural facilities which we 

 possess by the construction of great national works upon 

 our coasts, such as your Committee have ventured to 

 recommend." 



St. Ives refuge harbour, from the nature of its position, we 

 have seen would be both a fishing harbour and a port of 

 refuge for passing vessels, serving both a national and a local 

 purpose ; on this account the writer is strongly of opinion 

 that the enclosing breakwaters should be built at the national 

 expense, but that any special construction for fishing boats 

 should be charged as a loan at 6 per cent, interest, 3 per cent, 

 being esteemed interest on the loan, the other 3 to remain 

 payable in diminution of the loan until cleared off. 



PENZANCE, MOUNT'S BAY. 



A harbour of refuge has long been proposed here, on 

 account of the exposure of the anchorage in this bay to 

 the south-east gales. The numbers and size of the fishing 

 boats have much increased, and the small harbours are 

 often crowded, and dangerous to take in a gale for want 

 of some outside shelter to break the force of the sea before 

 approaching their entrances. The breakwaters of a refuge 



VOL. IX. E. 4. D 



