266 THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE WITH 



were to be erected on it without the express sanction of 

 the Board of Trade. 



1875 was a year of legislative activity, and the Sea 

 Fisheries Act of 1868 was materially amended by a short 

 express Act (38 Viet. c. 15). Any oyster company, 

 established by any local Act passed since 1863, and subject 

 to the control of the Inspectors of Fisheries under the 

 Salmon Fishery Act of 1861, was thenceforth deemed to 

 have obtained an order under the Third Part of the Sea 

 Fisheries Act of 1868. It became subject to the Board of 

 Trade, as if it had been originally established by the Act 

 of 1868, and the powers over such a company vested in the 

 Salmon Inspectors ceased ; whilst any provisions in the 

 local Act at variance with the control of the Board of Trade 

 given by the Sea Fisheries Act were repealed. The growing 

 preponderance of the Board of Trade in all commercial 

 matters, whether connected directly with trade, like 

 Fisheries, or, less directly, like Bankruptcies, has before 

 been noted. The third section of this Act affords a further 

 exemplification, and nothing in the Sea Fisheries Act of 

 1868 was to alter the regulations in the Merchant Shipping 

 Act of 1862. This had the effect of enforcing for fishing 

 vessels the one "bright white light," and not the two 

 vertical lights of the Fisheries Act, and has been elsewhere 

 mentioned. The second section enables an Inspector of 

 the Board of Trade to examine upon oath when he con- 

 siders the desirability of the cesser of a several oyster 

 fishery, in the same way that he may (under section 32 

 of 31 & 32 Viet. c. 45) when he holds an inquiry as to the 

 desirability of establishing a grant. 



In 1 876 the protection afforded the more-favoured oyster 

 was extended to crabs and lobsters and their spawning-beds. 



