FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 175 



made with this object was by no means uniform. Liberty 

 in one direction had to be hedged by restriction in another. 

 Encouragement to fishermen to go abroad had to be 

 followed by penalties on their non-return. Bounties on 

 exportation caused such an impoverishment of the home 

 supply that bounties had to be offered to induce the trade 

 to supply the London markets. The indiscriminate encou- 

 ragement of the fisheries was often incompatible with the 

 laws made for their protection. On the other hand, the 

 operations of the press-gang among the fishing population 

 so interfered with the industry the most necessary men 

 being often carried off to man the navy that first " har- 

 pooners," and then all those engaged in foreign fisheries, 

 had to be exempt for a certain period from impressment, 

 or the industry must have languished. 



The history of this phase of fishery legislation proves 

 indeed, as has already been seen in considering the course 

 of protective legislation, how many varied considerations 

 call for notice in dealing with any single branch of the 

 fishery question, and it serves to show how far-reaching, 

 and often how subversive of its ' original intention, both 

 sweeping and piecemeal legislation on this intricate and 

 complicated question may be. 



One of the first Acts of Parliament which may be fairly 

 included in the category of " Promotive Legislation " is 

 2 & 3 Ed. VI. c. 19, which abolished fast-days, and which 

 is interesting as an example of the extent to which the 

 fisheries and fishery legislation influence, and are influenced 

 by, external and apparently remote causes. The Reforma- The Reforma- 

 tion had just been accomplished, and the people of this fineries. * 

 country, in throwing off the dominion of the Church of 

 Rome, had abolished many practices originated by its 

 authority. One of these was the observance of fast-days 



