THE ENGLISH FISHING SETTLEMENTS. 319 



tended dues. The directors were also urged to have the 

 question of ground-leave finally settled on a fair basis, and 

 to secure that a similar arrangement be made with Seaforth 

 in respect of packing houses, store-houses, and lodgings, 

 at Stornoway. A petition couched in similar terms was 

 addressed to the King himself. A previous statement of 

 grievances had embodied suggestions, for the appointment 

 of deputy-judges to administer justice in all matters con- 

 cerning the fishing ; the exemption of the petitioners' 

 vessels from all taxation ; the legalising of information 

 taken on oath ; the ejection of all fishermen from Lewis, 

 except those holding certificates from the Council of the 

 Corporation ; and the opening of negotiations in respect 

 of an import tax recently imposed on herrings shipped 

 to Flanders. 



The directors of the Corporation at once adopted vigorous 

 measures for the protection of their representatives in Lewis. 

 Letters were addressed to the Privy Council of Scotland, in 

 the sense indicated by the petitioners, and the King was 

 approached to lend his support to the protest. The directors' 

 proposal for settling all future controversies in respect of 

 wrecks, or pretended wrecks, in Stornoway Harbour, and in 

 respect of the fishings generally, was eminently practical. 

 Four judges were to be appointed to hear and adjudicate 

 upon all fishing disputes, and the King was requested to 

 command that in future, the parties were to bring all such 

 cases before this Court for trial. Charles entered heartily 

 into the proposal, and declared at a meeting of the Council 

 of the Corporation, that he would not permit their employes 

 to be interrupted in their work, by officers of the Scottish 

 Admiralty questioning them about pending disputes ; he 

 would only allow them to be questioned by the Council, or 

 by such judges as the Council might appoint. 



The King wrote the Privy Council of Scotland about the 

 complaints from Lewis, and charged that body to bring 

 the delinquents to justice, and to restore to the petitioners 

 their goods, if they had been taken from them unlawfully. 

 The lords and barons of the lochs of the Western Isles 



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