186 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



the mainland of America had other attractions, and Parlia- 

 ment found that, instead of increasing the supply of men 

 for the navy, it was giving facilities for the fishermen to 

 place themselves far beyond the reach of the press-gang in 

 a new country which promised them unbounded liberty and 

 abundant means of subsistence, if not wealth. So special 

 enactments were devised to enforce the return of the fisher- 

 men by prohibiting settlement in the island of Newfound- 

 land, forbidding the desertion of the crews to the mainland, 

 and so forth. But these Acts, though seriously hindering 

 the progress of Newfoundland, were ineffectual for the 

 object in view, and had ultimately (5 Geo. IV. c. 51) to be 

 rescinded, and thus one more thread in the web of legisla- 

 tion which Parliament had spun round the fisheries was, 

 after having been broken with impunity, removed by the 

 authority that had created it. 

 " Promotive " The only form of directly " promotive " legislation now 



legislation 



and the existing is in the shape of a law giving authority for the 

 fisheries. appropriation of portions of the foreshore for the purpose 

 of oyster or mussel cultivation. But the expense attending 

 an application for such a grant is often so great as to pro- 

 hibit the very class of persons who might be expected to 

 utilize it to the best possible advantage viz., fishermen and 

 others with local knowledge of the capabilities of a particu- 

 lar spot from availing themselves of the opportunity which 

 the law is intended to afford them. The profits which may 

 be realised from the cultivation of a few square yards of 

 ground adapted to the requirements of oyster or mussel 

 culture, and the great advantage which ensues from the 

 application of different methods to small areas immediately 

 contiguous have been shown in the experience of the 

 concessionnaires at the French oyster-breeding stations at 

 Arcachon, and other places, where it often happens that 



