TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 191 



amongst the general community, and in England and Wales alone, where upward 

 of a quarter of a million of children are annually swept away from preventible 

 disease, which enervates those who survive. Four labourers, -who have had the 

 advantage of this improved physical and mental training-, are proved to be as effi- 

 cient as live or more of those who have not. I am prepared to show that by ad- 

 ministrative improvements in the application of the principles in question, double 

 the population may be physically and mentally trained well at the expense of 

 educating the existing numbers ill. 



On Local Taxation for Local Purposes. By R. Dowden. 



Dr. Whewell on the Method of Political Economy. 

 By Henry Fawcett, M.A. 



On Co-operative Societies, their Social and Political Aspect. 

 By Henry Fawcett, M.A. 



On the Province of the Statistician. By J. J. Fox. 



On Sanitary Drainage of Towns. By J. Hitch m an. 



On the Sijstem of Taxation prevailing in the United States. 

 By E. Jarvis, Boston, U.S. 



On Serfdom in Russia. By Dr. Michelsen. 



On the Economical History and Statistics of the Herring. By J. M. 

 Mitchell, F.R.S.S.A., one of the Secretaries for Foreign Correspondence 

 of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, fyc. 



. The author said that he read this paper with the view of drawing public atten- 

 tion to the great national importance of the Herring Fishery on the British coasts; 

 and stated that the propriety of affording every encouragement and protection to 

 it has been already affirmed by this Association, in its proposing for one of its 

 objects " The improvement and extension of the British Fisheries ; " and the author, 

 in pointing out its importance, quoted the following extract from Baron Cuvier's 

 ' Natural History of Fishes,' vol. xx. pp. 30, 31 : — 



<• Far son inepuisable recondite le hareng est ime de ces productions naturelles 

 dont l'emploi decide la destinee des empires. La gTaine du cafier, la feuille du the", 

 les Apices de la zone torride, le ver a soie, ont moins influe sur les richesses des 

 nations que le hareng de l'oeean septentrional ; le luxe ou le caprice demandent 

 les premiers, le besoin reclame le second. La peche de ce poisson fait partir 

 chnque amiee, des c6tes de France, de Hollande, des lies Britanniques, des ilottes 

 nombreuses pour aller chercher dans le sein d'une mer orageuse, la moisson 

 abondante et assuree que les legions innombrables presentent a la couraoeuse 

 activite de ces peuples. Les grandea politiques, les plus habiles e"conomistes, ont 

 vu dans la peche du hareng la plus importaute des expeditions maritimes; ils 1'ont 

 sumommees la grande peche. Elle forme des hommes robustes, des marins intre"- 

 pides, des navigateurs experimentes. L'industrie que s'empare des produits de ce 

 peche sait en faire l'objet d'un commerce, source des richesses inepuisables." 



Many Acts of Parliament for the purpose of encouraging the fishery, from an 

 early period downwards, had been passed by the Legislature; but, owing to the 

 want of the knowledge of the natural history and habitat of the herring, they 

 proved either injurious or abortive, although bolstered up with bounties and pre- 

 miums ; and the fishery would not have become of any importance had not a local 

 board of unpaid Commissioners been established, with efficient officers acquainted 

 with the localities, so that the fishery might be prosecuted with success at the 



