FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 171 



fisheries. In 1808 the Act 48 Geo. III. c. no directed Th e herring 



fisheries. 



that no net for the capture of herrings should be used on 

 the coast of Great Britain with a mesh of less than one Law o f mesh - 

 inch from knot to knot ; but the fact was lost sight of that 

 the herring fisheries and the sprat fisheries are often carried 

 on simultaneously in the same localities ; and as no pro- 

 vision was made for the size of mesh or description of net 

 to be used for sprats, or for prohibiting their capture, it 

 frequently happened that the sprat fishermen in the Firth 

 of Forth caught large quantities of herrings ; and when the 

 Scotch Herring Fishery Board, established by the same Act, 

 seized, under its powers, the nets so taking herrings with 

 an illegal mesh, the sprat fishermen forcibly opposed its 

 officers, and serious riots ensued. Thus the first real effort 

 to enforce the provisions of a " protective " law in regard to 

 the sea fisheries resulted in disorder. Parliament attempted 

 to enforce the law of 1808 by enacting, in 1851, that 

 " whenever the herring fishery is commenced or carried 

 on," no net of any kind, except drift-nets of the legal one- Law of nets, 

 inch mesh, should be used. The sprat fishermen, who used 

 seine-nets and scringe-nets, resented this further interfer- 

 ence with their industry, and when, in 1860, the repressive 

 Acts were made more stringent, they so resolutely opposed 

 them that a compromise was made by which they were 

 allowed to fish in a certain part of the Firth. 



In the meantime the prohibition of all nets except drift- 

 nets had seriously interfered with the operations of the 

 fishermen in Loch Fyne, who were accustomed to use the 

 " circle-trawl " or seine-net in preference to the drift-net. 

 Although no question of interference with any other branch 

 of the fishing industry existed here, the law was enforced 

 against the circle trawlers, who rebelled against it ; and once 

 more serious riots ensued. These disorders induced the 



