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their experience into it ; nnd it is only on those terms that Gloucester has become what it 

 is. All attempt was maile at Salem, under tiie best auspices, to carry on this business 

 witli tlie best(il()ucester lishermen and most experienced men concerned in it, l)y a joint 

 stock company; but in tlie matter of deep-sea fishing, " the Everlasting" seems to have 

 "fixed liis canon" a;;;ainst its prosperity, except upon the terms of frugality and 

 laboriousness. 1 1 never lias succeeded otherwise;, and scarce on those terms, except it 

 be with the aid of bounties from tlie Government. 



Now, we say tliat tlie whole bay-fishing for mackerel is made prosperous simply on 

 those terms; llia't it is no Treaty gift tliat has created it, but it is tlie skill and industry 

 of tlie risliermeii, the capital iiiv(>steci by tlie owners, and tlie patient, constant labour 

 and skill of the owners in dealing with tlieir fish, after tliey are thrown upon tlieir hands 

 on the wharf, and they have paiil tlieir fisliermen, that has given to it any value in the 

 market. I do not tliiiik it is worth while to speculate upon the (question wlu'ther fish in 

 the water have any money value. I can conceive that fish in a pond and that tisii that 

 cling to the sliore, that liave a habitat, a domicile, like shell-fish, have an actual value. 

 Tliey are :ire to be found. It is nothing more tJian the apjilication of meclianical 

 means that 1, rings them into your hands. ]}iit certainly it is true that tlie value of tiie free 

 swiniming tisli of tlie ocean, pursued by the deep-sea fisliermen, with line or with net, 

 must be ratlier metaphysical than actual. To pursue them re(|uircs an investment of 

 cajiilal ; it recpiires risk and large insurance; it re(|uires skill, and it re(|uires patient 

 labour ; and wlien the fisli is landed upon the deck, his value there, which is to be 

 counted in cents ratlier than in dollars, is the result of all these things combined; and if 

 any man can tell me what proportion of those cents or dollars which that fish is wortli 

 on tlie deck of the vessel is owing to the fact that the fishermen had a right to try for 

 liim, I think he will hav(> solved a problem little shor*^ of squaring the circle, and his 

 name onglit to go down to posterity. No political economist can do i^ I will not say 

 that tlie tisli in the deej) sea is worth nothiiKj ; but, at all events, the right to attempt to 

 catcli it i> but a liberty, and the result depends upon tlie man. 



If tliere can be no other fisiiery than the one which you have the privilege of 

 resorting to, then it may be of great value to you to have that privilege. \f there be 

 but one moor where he can shoot, the person who is shooting for money, to sell the 

 game that he takes, may be willirg to pay a high price tor the privilege, liut recollect 

 that the fisliing for the free-swimming fisii is over tlie whoh; ocean. The power of 

 cxteiuiing it a little nearer shore may be of some value — 1 do not say that it is not — but 

 it strikes my mind as an absurd exaggeration, and as an utter fallacy, to attempt to 

 reason from the market value of the fisli there caught to the money value of the privi- 

 lege so extended. The fisli are worth, I will say, 12 dollars a barrel, but what does 

 that rein-esent wlien the American merchants, Hall and Myrick, both tell us that the 

 value on the wharf at Prince; Ivlward Island is aliout 3 dol. 75 c. a barrel? Well, 

 sui)p(ise the mackerel to be worth W dol. 75 c. a b.irrel on the wharf in Prince Edward 

 Island, what does that reju'esent ? Is that a thing whicii the United States is to pay 

 Great Hritainfor? IIas(.ireat ih-itain sold us a barrel of pickled mackerel on the wharf ? 

 lias aiiyliddx done it ? 1 think not. Tiiat repn-sents the result of capital and of many 

 branehi's of labour. Then, if you ask, " What is the worlli to Mr. Mall or Mr. Myrick 

 of the mackerel on the deck of tlie vessel ?" I say it, is next to nothing. Tlie fish will 

 perisli if he is not taken care of. Skill is to be used upon him then; what costs money 

 is to be used upon him, ice and piekle, and he is to be preserved. All this to the end 

 that he ma\ eventually, after a great deal of labour, skill, and capital, be sent to tlie 

 market. Iiul recollect that the vessel from whose deek he was caught cost 8,UU0 dollars, 

 ll(>eolle( t that the men who maintain that crew and feed them, and enable {\\v.m to 

 clothe themselves and follow that pursuit, are paying out large sums of money. 

 Heeolleet that the fisherman who catches tlie tish has, as the result of many years' labour, 

 which may be called an iiiveslment, learned liow to catch him; audit is by the com- 

 bination of all these cau.ses that at last the fish is landed. Now, in my judgment, it is 

 purely fallacious to attempt to draw any inference from the market value of tlie fish to 

 the right to extend )our ptu'suit of those animals nearer the coast than before, or to the 

 markit value of any right to fisli over a certain portion of the ocean, when all other 

 oceans are ojien to yon, and all other fisheries. 



Your Honours, of course, recollect tiiat the mackerel fishery, taken at its best — 1 

 don't ('online myself to the inshore fishery — I mean the mackerel fishery of the bay 

 and the gulf, at its best, the whole of il is of a greatly decreasing and precarious 

 value. I speak only of the salted mackerel that is sent into the United States. The 

 lake fish are fast becoming a subslitute for salt mackerel. I will call your Honours' 

 attention to two or three rather striking proofs which were not read previously 



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