196 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



letter; and, although the Convention of 1843 has been 

 revived by an English Act, whereby provisions of doubtful 

 practicability touching some of these points have been 

 re-enacted, so far as French offences against English 

 fishermen in the Channel are concerned, the broad result 

 is that no machinery exists for preventing or punishing 

 acts committed at sea, which would never be tolerated for 

 one moment within the three-mile limit 



If the " Belgian devil," by the outcry it has occasioned, 

 leads all the States interested to bestir themselves, and 

 place their relations with fishermen and the fisheries on a 

 proper footing in such matters as these, its recent appear- 

 ance as a cause of strife among the fishermen in the North 

 Sea will not be regarded as an unmixed evil. 

 Prevention of The enquiries regarding the " devil " have resulted in 



social abuses , 



at sea. bringing to light another evil which equally deserves and 



demands repression. " Floating grogshops of the worst 

 possible description, uncontrolled and unregulated by any 

 superior power or force whatsoever," and known as 

 u coopers " or " bumboats," have lately been introduced 

 among the fishing fleets, tempting the fishermen with vile 

 spirits under pretence of selling water and provisions, and 

 taking advantage of their solitary and often monotonous 

 position to induce that taste for drink which is only too 

 easily acquired, but against which, as a rule, our fishermen, 

 when left to themselves, have been proof; these boats are 

 officially declared to be the cause of " evils which not only 

 include theft, gross breaches of trust, assaults, violence, 

 robbery, obscenity, and smuggling, but even in not a few 

 cases result in violent deaths." The repression of such a 

 nefarious traffic is surely an object which not one State, 

 but all, in a united effort, should have at heart in their 

 many-sided relations with fishermen and fisheries. 



