FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 173 



Ten years ended 1821 . 2,488,961 barrels 



,, 1831 3,543,799 ,, 



1841 4,873,043 



1851 6,070,759 



1861 6,348,528 



,,1871 . 7,220,082 



1881 9,434,869 



In comparing these figures it must be recollected that 

 the mesh-of-net law continued in force from the commence- 

 ment of the period till the end of 1868 ; that all nets but 

 drift-nets were prohibited from 1852 to 1868 ; that a close 

 time (from January 1st to May 3 1st) was in force from 

 1 86 1 to 1868. Also that up to 1868 the Returns included 

 the Isle of Man, and up to 1850 part of England as well. 



The good of the people, by the preservation of a valuable " Prpmotive 



legislation. 



property and an important source of food supply, was the 

 ground on which the State based its legislation for the 

 protection of the fisheries. The good of the people, by the 

 encouragement of commerce and by providing employment 

 for the poor, was the ostensible motive which prompted the 

 later statutes, whose direct object was the promotion of the 

 fisheries. Another motive, indeed, underlay that which was 

 first put forward as the ground for this legislation, and 

 comes more distinctly into notice as the fisheries increased 

 in importance, and as the power of the country extended ; 

 for we find that the Legislature frequently refers to its 

 anxiety to keep up the supply of seamen for manning the 

 navy as a reason for " promoting " the fisheries. 



The great development of maritime enterprise which interest of 

 England witnessed in the reign of Henry VIII. and his encouraging 

 immediate successors encouraged the State in the notion of * 

 fostering the fisheries as a " fruitful nursery of able seamen 

 for the public service." In Norway the fisheries were at 

 one time made a direct source of revenue by taxation ; and 



