FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 235 



fishermen, concerns fishing vessels and the other imple- 

 ments of a fisherman's calling : next to the locus in quo, 

 or the fisheries where the industry is plied, and here the 

 regulations affecting the protection of spawning-beds can 

 be dealt with. 



Thirdly, those salt-water fish over which the right of 

 capture is most frequently exercised, and their close times, 

 where they exist, will deserve a few remarks ; and, lastly, 

 other matters which concern the protection and regulations 

 affecting the subject generally will be treated of. 



CHAPTER I. 



A CARDINAL point on which modern legislation affecting 

 sea fishermen hinges is the Fisheries Act of 1868 (31 & 

 32 Viet, c. 45). Its objects were to give effect to a Con- 

 vention into which this country and France had entered, 

 and to amend generally our sea fishery laws. 



The first of its objects does not directly concern the 

 present subject, but falls properly beneath an essay on the 

 International Law of Fisheries. 



Since, however, many of the articles of the Convention 

 are incorporated in the clauses of the Act for the express 

 purpose of regulating the relations of the British State with 

 British fishermen, and as the common-sense and untech- 

 nical language of this Treaty clearly indicate throughout 

 the main principles which must underlie the relations borne 

 by any State to its own fishermen, the Convention itself is 

 worthy of careful consideration. In addition to containing 

 the text of the Convention, the Act itself, by repealing 

 either wholly or in part more than sixty previous statutes, 



