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note the advance of public sentiment in Great Britain 
as to the necessity of protection to the sea fisheries in 
territorial waters since the publication of the report of 
the Trawling Commission of 1863. of which Professor 
Huxley was president. At that time there was little or 
no knowledge of the life history or the spawning habits 
of the different species which were the object of the 
commercial fisheries. There were no statistics upon 
which to build satisfactory conclusions. The commis- 
sion was forced to rely entirely upon the conflicting 
testimony of those engaged in the fishing interests. 
In speaking of the perplexities and embarrassments as 
to the conclusions to be drawn from the conflicting 
testimony of the fishermen, the Commission states 
as follows: 
‘Fishermen as a class are exceedingly unobservant 
of anything about fish which is not absolutely forced 
upon them by their daily avocations, and they are con- 
sequently not only prone to adopt every belief which 
seems to tell in their own favor but they are disposed 
to depreciate a comparison of the present with the past. 
Nor in certain localities do they lack the additional 
temptation to make the worst of the present, offered by 
the hope that strong statements may lead the State to 
interfere in their favor with dangerous competitors.” 
The general conclusion of the Commission upon 
which the advocates of free fishing in this country base 
their protests against any interference whatever by the 
state in controlling their operations is as follows: 
“1, We advise that all Acts of Parliament which 
profess to regulate or restrict the modes of fishing 
pursued in the open sea be repealed; and that unre- 
stricted freedom of fishing be permitted hereafter. 
“rz. With respect to inshore fishing, although the 
evidence, so far as it is conclusive, appears to us to 
prove that the taking of small and immature fish has 
not yet produced any injurious effect upon the fisheries, 
