250 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



a larger proportion of each crew, including besides regular 

 hands, "fishing landsmen," was exempted from forced 

 service, and commanders of press-gangs became liable to a 

 penalty of 20 for impressing exempted fishermen. Their 

 freedom from press-gangs, now a subject of antiquarian 

 interest only, and the ichthyological discovery made by 

 Parliament in 1810 are not matters of importance for this 

 essay. The vast importance of sea-temperatures and the 

 migration of fish, both of which materially affect the Fishing 

 Industry, would fall beneath an Essay on the Natural 

 History of Fish, and not in one showing the relation of the 

 State to Fisheries. The quaint manner in which a natural 

 history fact was announced by Parliament in 1810, may 

 doubtless have amused the late Mr. Buckland, if ever he 

 read the Act, the latter portion of which, however, contains 

 provisions of present use. By these enactments penalties 

 are imposed for the breach of contracts for fishing voyages, 

 and for hiring or enticing apprentices from fishing vessels. 

 Magistrates, besides determining difficulties between masters 

 and men generally, are to issue warrants for the arrest of 

 absconding hands, who, under this Act, become liable to a 

 5 penalty : and all ship-captains and others harbouring con- 

 tracted fishermen become liable to a penalty of 20. The 

 prosecution must be within three months, whilst the penalty 

 was equally divisible between the prosecutor, and, at that 

 time, Greenwich Hospital. The latter moiety reads some- 

 what like a small quid pro q2w for exemption from press- 

 gangs. 



In 1854 the Principal Merchant Shipping Act was passed, 

 and in 1862 it was amended by another. By section 13 of 

 the Act of 1862, fishing boats are subjected to the opera- 

 tion of the whole of the third part of the Act of 1854, with 

 the exception of twenty-eight of its sections. The re- 



