THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 505 



barrels, was expressly renewed. By this enactment the 

 whole of the ancient herring legislation of the United Pro- 

 vinces was virtually re-established, although the essence 

 of it had already been, so to say, crystallized in the law of 

 1 80 1. It was not easy to apply the tangled mass of the old 

 Republic's fishery laws to the modern kingdom, or indeed 

 to make out what part of the countless Resolutions of the 

 States-General and the States of Holland, on the subject, 

 was still lawfully in vigour, and what part repealed. There 

 was now, in short, too much general legislation on sea- 

 fisheries ; and a simplification was found necessary. To 

 promote this end, without detriment to the principles of the 

 existing laws, the King, on February 2Oth, 1818, laid a Bill 

 before the States-General, the leading idea of which was to 

 leave all detailed working rules to the provincial authorities, 

 under Government approbation, and have only general 

 precepts laid down in the law of the realm. This law, 

 promulgated on March I2th, 1818, (Staatsblad No 15) was 

 the last general statute regulating sea-fisheries in the 

 Netherlands. It contained the leading principles of the 

 system on which fishery protection was built, and its 

 several clauses have been an object of much debate down 

 to the final overthrow of the system in 1857. For these 

 reasons I have found it expedient to add a translation of the 

 full text of the law of 1 8 1 8, as Appendix D. to these pages. 

 The law, as will be found upon perusal of the said 

 Appendix, repeated the outlines of the system in vigour 

 ever since the beginning of the ancient Republic, and de- 

 scribed in Part II. Chapter L, of the present essay. It 

 moreover contained one important novelty, viz., the utter 

 prohibition from importing any foreign herring whatever, 

 whether for transit or for home consumption. Both under 

 the Republic and by the law of i8oi,it had been permitted 



