SAIMON-FISHEEY OP SCOTLAND. Ill 



therefore obviously neither in a river, nor in the sea, but in 

 the mixed water of the frith, composed of both river and sea 

 water ; yet no alternative is left to the jury but to find, upon 

 their oath, that it is in the one or the other. This is placing 

 the jury in a pretty predicament. The Court might just as 

 well force them to declare, upon their great oath, whether a 

 mule was a horse or an ass ! It is an excellent specimeii of 

 the manner in which matters are conducted. If the jury 

 system is to be introduced into Scotland in all cases, in the 

 simple way it is practised in England, and it would be an in- 

 finitely greater boon to the country than the Catholic Act was 

 to Ireland, the Legislature in sending down the Act should 

 send some English judges along with it, to infuse a little com- 

 mon sense into the proceedings, and prevent juries being 

 forced to find, upon their oaths, that mules are either horses or 

 asses, instead of being a compound of both. 



It is needless to cite further instances of the practice in the 

 Court, it being quite clear that the salmon-fishery must con- 

 tinue in its present anomalous state, imtil a return is made to 

 a proper construction of the statutes. The sooner, then, the 

 better — ^for until that be done, robbery, and spoliation of pro- 

 perty, and injustice, and a constant waste of expense in litiga- 

 tion, must continue to take place. "We would, therefore, re- 

 commend to the Court to adopt at once the teue common- 

 sense construction of the statutes. All mortals are, doubtless, 

 liable to err. It is the lot of that proud two-legged animal 

 called Man ; but it is only the self-important vulgar soul that 

 persists in its errors : generous minds are ever ready, even 

 impatient, to acknowledge and repair the evils which may 

 have arisen from those they have unconsciously committed. 

 If interdicts were granted in every instance against new 

 engines, it would prevent much injustice taking place, and save 

 the rights of many an injured individual : but these the Courts 

 almost uniformly refuse to grant. They do not consider that, 

 in suppressing a fixed engine, its owner loses in fact nothing 

 which he possessed before ; while every hour it is allowed to 

 stand deprives the owner of some river or other of a portion of 

 his property — of property that has been purchased, like all 



