198 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



reconcile conflicting interests, it is bound to act with the 

 strictest impartiality and only upon the fullest information. 

 This unfortunately has not always been the case. For 

 many years, for instance since the time of Charles II., if 

 not earlier special legislation has existed in Cornwall, by 

 Seiners v. which seine owners have been afforded greater advantages 

 than drift-net fishermen have enjoyed. In 1662 (13 & 14 

 Ch. II. c. 28) drift-nets were prohibited from coming within 

 a league and a half of the shore between June 1st and 

 November 3Oth. On the face of it, such a law was only 

 enforcible within two-thirds of the limits to which it pro- 

 fessed to apply. Possibly it was intended as much for an 

 "encouragement to navigation" by forcing boats out to 

 sea as for a special boon to the seiners ; but the privi- 

 leges which it afforded to the latter, who use a kind of net 

 only applicable to fishing within a short distance of the 

 shore, were continued by 16 Geo. III. c. 36, which imposed 

 a penalty on line fishermen, in Devonshire and Cornwall, 

 fishing between July 25th and December 25th. This Act, 

 however, adopted the somewhat fairer policy of enacting 

 that seiners must keep within a certain distance of the 

 shore, although the limit fixed, twenty fathoms, was insuffi- 

 cient for the purposes of the fishery. An amendment Act 

 (4 & 5 Viet. c. Ivii.), on the other hand, went to the opposite 

 extreme in directing that within the limits of the " stems," 

 or seining stations, no drift-net boat, or vessel other than a 

 seine-boat, should anchor at night-time within 1200 fathoms 

 of the shore, and that no person should fish with hooks or 

 with any net other than a seine within 1000 fathoms of the 

 shore at any time. These provisions, it is true, only ex- 

 tended and still extend to St. Ives ; but the Sea 

 Fisheries Act, 1868, practically applies them to the whole 

 coast of Cornwall (except that part which lies east of 



