288 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE HERRING-FISHERY. 



" The returns of the coast-guard officer, given to me, 

 show the number more than doubled. 



" The whole of the Keport from which the above ex- 

 tracts have been made, with the evidence upon which it 

 was founded, is deserving of attention, as expressing the 

 unanimous opinion of that day. 



" It was ordered to be printed, 20th June 1817. 



" The next parliamentary inquiry was in the summer 

 of 1833, by a ' Committee on the British Channel Fish- 

 eries.' 



" Thirty witnesses were examined before this Com- 

 mittee. 



" The inquiry embraced several very important sub- 

 jects. 



" Before I close, it may be proper to mention, that in 

 addition to the statutes to which I have before referred, 

 as exclusively affecting the fisheries of the coasts of 

 Devon and Cornwall, the whole coast of England and 

 Scotland is included in the statutes for the regulation of 

 the British white herring-fishery, now thirteen in num- 

 ber, commencing with the 48th George III. cap. 110, 

 passed into law 1808, and ending with the lith and 15th 

 Victoria, chapter 26, passed in 1851. I have carefully 

 examined all these Acts, and I find that up to the passing 

 of the 6th and 7th Victoria, chapter 79, passed in 1843, 

 known by the name of the Convention Act, only one of 

 the statutes passed for the encouragement of the British 

 herring-fisheries contained any restrictive regulation as 

 to engines, — namely, the 48th George III. cap. 110, section 

 12, regulating the sizes of meshes of herring nets ; so that 

 the Convention Act, a comparatively recent enactment, 

 and to the provisions of which Scotland is subject, was 

 the first measure of legislation restraining trawling on the 



