FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 169 



insufficient, if not absolutely incorrect, information. If, for 



instance, when the rivers were being blocked by pound The example 



of the 



locks, provision had been made for facilitating the ascent Thames, 

 of salmon, the Thames would, in all probability, have been 

 stocked with salmon to this day. This would almost 

 certainly have been the case if, in another fit of oblivious- 

 ness of fishery interests and of hygienic and other interests 

 too the State had not omitted to prevent, before Pre- 

 scriptive Rights stood in the way, the inordinate pollution 

 of rivers. Even now, if that giant among polluting agencies, 

 the Metropolitan sewage system, could be removed, the day 

 might yet return when salmon fishermen should ply their 

 nets within sight of the Houses of Parliament, and under 

 the shadow of that Church of St. Peter which, according to 

 the old legend, was endowed by the great Apostle himself 

 with a tithe of the salmon fisheries of the river on whose 

 banks it stands. 



When the apprehensions of the Legislature for the future 

 of the salmon fisheries, in consequence of its forgetfulness, 

 was really aroused, it took the course which it had never 

 before adopted, or adopted to little purpose, and directed 

 the most exhaustive enquiry into the history and prospects 

 of the fisheries. On the result of that enquiry, and on the 

 ashes of the old laws, the existing Acts were passed, and a 

 similarly exhaustive enquiry has preceded every modifica- 

 tion of the first of the series. It is needless to follow, in 

 equal detail, the development of the Scotch and Irish laws 

 relating to salmon, as their administration is guided by 

 principles similar to those which direct the English laws on 

 the subject. Sufficient has been said to show the growth 

 of this one branch of fishery legislation viz. that of inland 

 or freshwater fisheries and we may resume the considera- 

 tion of the other branch, that relating to the sea fisheries. 



