FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 197 



There is every reason to hope that such a united effort 

 will be made to deal with some, if not the whole, of the 

 matters above referred to, and others connected with the 

 " police of the seas." At a Conference held at the Hague A proposed 



new Con- 



last May (1882), a Convention was signed by the represen- vention. 

 tatives of England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Den- 

 mark, with provision for the subsequent adhesion of Norway 

 and Sweden, " the object of which," to quote its own words, 

 " is to regulate the police of the fisheries in the North Sea 

 outside territorial waters." Lord Granville has given notice 

 of his intention to introduce a Bill giving force to the pro- 

 visions of that Convention, and when full effect to it is 

 given by the authorities of each State concerned, the 

 fisheries of the North Sea will be under a system of super- 

 vision, which will provide a remedy against such " lewd 

 outrages " as Queen Victoria's, as well as Queen Elizabeth's, 

 subjects have been subject to. All fishing boats will be 

 marked in such a manner as to be easily identified ; their 

 fishing gear will be similarly distinguished ; " devils " and 

 their like will be forbidden altogether ; the prosecution of 

 offenders will be facilitated ; disputes between trawlers and 

 drifters will be rendered less frequent ; * and generally the 

 fishermen will be subject to a control which will secure the 

 peaceful, orderly, and, let us hope, profitable and safe 

 prosecution of the important industry in which they are 

 engaged. 



Where the State interferes either in its own waters, or in Necessity for 



impartiality 



conjunction with its neighbours in the deep sea, to adjust O f State 

 disputes between one mode of fishing and another, or to regu ' 



* By the English law, and also in the French Convention, it is 

 provided that no trawler shall come within three miles of a drifter. 

 This enactment will, under the Convention, be applicable to all vessels 

 in the North Sea. 



