114 THE HERRING FISHERY 



of the United Kingdom, in frustrating this insane 

 attempt should never be forgotten. There is, 

 as a rule, no more thankless task than the 

 endeavour to influence for the public good 

 a field of public opinion in a highly technical 

 and abstruse matter. Those who have studied 

 naval questions, and who know that from 

 Salamis to Trafalgar the sea has always beaten 

 the land, should remember with gratitude 

 and respect the names of those persons and 

 bodies who, in the face of powerful opposition, 

 in the end prevented the ratification by Mr. 

 Asquith's Government of the terms of Sir 

 Edward Grey's criminal Declaration of London. 

 The Association of Chambers of Commerce 

 of the United Kingdom in March, 1911, made 

 a determined stand against the Declaration 

 notwithstanding the attitude of the Liverpool 

 Steamship Owners' Association. (See their 

 Report presented February 6th, 1911. The 

 views expressed in that Report have been 

 proved by the war to be wanting in fore- 

 sight.) 



Out of the navigation laws, as has been said, 

 grew the British mercantile marine and the 

 British Navy, but while no one would wish for 

 an instant to belittle the Navy, few have a good 

 word for, or even remember the laws which 

 made it possible to build and man, equip and 

 maintain the naval service as we now know it. 

 Few people have even heard of the Navigation 

 Acts, fewer still know that they arose from dis- 



