IV— SPECIAL ARGUMENTS IN REGARD TO REGULAT- 

 ING THE SEA-FISHERIES BY LAW. 



ARGUMENT OF SAMUEL POWEL, ESQ., DELIVERED IN 

 THE RHODE ISLAND LEGISLATURE. 



This question of the protection of the fisheries of Rhode Island is one 

 demanding the most careful examination. 



The most important aspect is the supply and cost of valuable food 

 supplied by fisheries. 



How shall the amount be rendered most ample and how shall the cost 

 be reduced to the lowest price 1 



An able committee, with great labor, patience, and care, have devoted 

 much time to the subject. They have taken a vast deal of testimony, 

 and, at pages 22 and 23 of their formal report, they give us this deliberate 

 opinion upon the subject, in these words: "The opinions — depend. 77 

 And again, on page 23, they say: "As was anticipated — irreconcilable.' 7 



At pages 29 and 30 the committee admit the testimony of Mr. Tall- 

 man, to the effect that forty-five years ago the menhaden-men pulled 

 up their nets to allow scup to pass, lest they should cut their nets ; that 

 ten years afterward (i. e., 1835) " We sold them at ten cents a barrel, 

 for manure." 



Now, bearing in mind that the present constitution dates in 1812, this 

 authoritatively fixes and establishes the custom of netting scup as ex- 

 isting seven years, say, prior to the constitution. This is a very impor- 

 tant point in one aspect of the case. It is the testimony adduced by the 

 committee, and not by me. At page 30 they farther state : " Ten years 

 after [i. e., 1815] we begun — knowledge." Now, our committee met 

 many witnesses face to face ; they had witnesses representing both in- 

 terests, and their secretary himself had the previous winter represented, 

 as a sort of conusel, the appellant interest. And with all this, the best 

 means of reaching an opinion, tliev have told us, (pages 21 and 22 :\ 

 " The subject," &c. 



Now, besides taking personal and written testimony, our committee 

 have earnestly examined the most important documents and reports, 

 both upon our own and upon the fisheries of foreign couutries ; and 

 with perfect frankness and sincerity they show us what I must display 

 to you in regard to the wandering fishes of the mighty ocean, to which 

 families the scup belong. The United Kingdom (English) report (cited 

 at our report, page 15) asserts that, notwithstanding the most careful 

 inquiries, there was no instance where it was statisfactorily proven that 

 various nets and weirs, " used in bays or estuaries," have " been per- 

 manently injurious to the supply offish," while, on the other hand, it is 

 proved that, in certain bays and estuaries, such fishing has gone on for 

 years without permanent injury to their fisheries. 



A Frenchman disputes this in some degree ; still it is the deliberate 

 opinion of the British official report. Then our committee cite a coun- 

 ter-report of the commissioners of inland fisheries of Massachusetts, 



