FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 239 



and signals are regulated, like lights, on the same principles 

 as those contained in the Merchant Shipping Acts. 



The Act of 1843 (the 6 & 7 Viet. c. 79 before referred 

 to) was in its main principles repeated by the Act of 1868, 

 which repealed it. Its objects were similar, and its inten- 

 tion was to preserve peace and good order amongst fisher- 

 men generally, and to carry into effect the Anglo-French 

 Convention previously signed by Lord Aberdeen and 

 M. Ste Aulaise. The numerous restrictions on the size of 

 nets and meshes were, as before stated, not repeated but 

 repealed ; nor was the enactment that British trawlers, by 

 carrying at the masthead a red vane, should be distin- 

 guished from British drift-boats, whose vanes were to be 

 of red and white. The distinction made by this legislation 

 between " weaker " and " stronger " boats is worthy of note, 

 and also the fact that the former because " more exposed to 

 bad weather," were allowed recourse to otherwise pro- 

 hibited ports. 



So far as the jurisdiction of British courts over French 

 subjects is concerned, the convention embodied in the Act 

 of 1843, and not the Convention embodied in the Act of 

 1 868, now prevails. The latter Convention was not to take 

 effect until a fixed day, but the day was never subsequently 

 fixed (although the first Convention ceased before 1868), and 

 until 1875 the British courts had no jurisdiction under 

 either Convention. (Parliamentary Blue Book. Messrs. 

 Buckland and Walpole's " English and Welsh Sea Fisheries 

 Report," 1879, p. xxx.) In 1875, however, the first Con- 

 vention was revived. These facts must be noted in this 

 essay for two reasons, firstly to show that the Fisheries 

 Act of 1868 is far more a piece of home legislation than 

 one of international importance ; and secondly to make 

 clear the fact that although the Act of 1868 repealed 



