84 BRITISH FISHERIES 



or directly instituting scientific investigations. 

 All this activity would have come to an end, not 

 necessarily because it was expensive or useless, 

 but because it was in direct contravention of the 

 prevalent doctrines of political economy. Police 

 duties the Commissioners would have relegated 

 to the Admiralty — and we know now that fishery 

 superintendence at sea has always been grudgingly 

 performed by the naval service ; the collection 

 of statistics would have been entrusted to the 

 coastguard — and this was the means latterly adopted 

 in England, and which has resulted in the most 

 faulty system of statistical collection yet devised 

 by any European country ; scientific work would 

 have been left to take care of itself, as it has been 

 in England, with the result that assistance from 

 public sources has been obtained only under the 

 greatest pressure. Fortunately, the recommenda- 

 tions of the Royal Commission of 1863 left the 

 Scottish organisation practically untouched. 



So much for the commercial side of the functions 

 of the Fishery Board. A later series of enactments 

 developed what we may call the purely administra- 

 tive side, while leaving the branding system pretty 

 much as it was. The Fishery Board (Scotland) 

 Act of 1882^ dissolved the old "Board of British 

 White Herring Fishery," and constituted the 

 present Fishery Board in its place. Under the 

 Act the Board came to consist of nine members, 



^ 45 and 46 Vict. c. 78. 



