"Cornwall or Devon, with any drill net, trammel, " or stream-net or nets, or any other nets of that "sort or kind, unless it were at the distance of one

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league and a half at least from the respective "shores, upon the penalty of forfeiture of the said "nets so employed, or the full value thereof, and "one month's imprisonment without bail or mainprize."

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I think that there can be little doubt, but that among "the divers pernicious disorders and abuses "crept in by the licentiousness of the times," in contemplation of the legislature on the passing of this act, was the destruction of the young fry and brood of fish in the shallows, which made it necessary that these fishing trammel-nets or trawl-nets should keep a league and a half from the shore; instead of which, and in utter disregard of the act, they sweep the bays, shores, and creeks with their trawls, destroying every thing that comes into them, both great and small, old and young.

This is a very serious evil, and is one great cause of the scarcity of the best sorts of channel-fish; yet it is remediless as the law now stands, because no prosecution can be enforced under it but by an information at the suit of the King's AttorneyGeneral, where the expenses and difficulties are so great that no man will interfere. But great as this evil is, amu ch greater one remains to be stated, for the 1 Geo. I. c. 28. entitled "An Act," among other things, "for the Preservation of the Fry of Fish," after reciting by the 4th sect. "that whereas of

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"late years the brood and fry of sea-fish has been greatly prejudiced by the using of nets of too “small mesh, and by other illegal and unwarrant"able practices, it is enacted, that after 1716, if any person or persons shall use at sea upon the "coast of England, any trawl net, drag net, or

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any net whatsoever, for the catching of any kind "of fish (except herrings, sprats, or lavidnian), "which hath any mesh or moke of less than three "inches and half at least from knot to knot, or which "hath any false or double bottom, end, or pouch, "or shall put any net or nets though of legal size, " or mesh, upon or behind the others in order to "catch the small fish which would have passed through any single net of three inches and half "mesh, all and every such person and persons so "offending shall forfeit all and singular such net " or nets so used contrary to the true intent and " meaning thereof, and also £20 to be recovered by distress, and in default of payment to be com"mitted to the county gaol for a year, the penalty "to be divided between the informer and the poor, "and the nets to be burnt." The seventh sect. of the same act, "for the further preservation of "the fry of fish," makes it penal to take unsizeable fish, and mentions the size under which fish ought not to be taken.

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Now, after such an explicit act as this, can it be believed that these trawlers, I believe to the number of 100 from Brixham alone, should fish with nets in the bag of which the fish are caught and

suffocated; having a mesh so small as to take fish not larger than a sixpence; and that close upon the shore, where the young fry principally swarm, without the least regard to the law of the land, or to any one single thing but what they very injudiciously suppose to be their own private interest. From the smallness of the mesh the consequence is that the bag of the net is so completely choked with mud, sand, and sea-weed, that nothing but water can pass through. The effect of this pernicious practice must be so self-evident to every man's senses, as to require neither reasoning or proof to convince him of the national mischief that it must of necessity produce. Thousands of millions of young fish, and the roe of fish of all the best qualities, are thus destroyed, contrary to the intent of the present law, and for want of an effectual one to check the evils complained of.

About twenty years ago, curiosity alone induced me to go a little way to sea in a trawl-sloop, merely to see the operation of the trawl-net, and the mode of catching fish therein, without any reference to the law; for I then had thought nothing about it. After the net, which was extended upon a pole thirty feet long, had been at the bottom about half an hour, it was drawn up, and several fine fish were taken out. But when the bag of the net was emptied of all which it had collected at the bottom, during half an hour upon a pole thirty feet long, I could not refrain from expressing my astonishment at seeing its contents. To state any opinion upon

the quantity of young fry and eggs of all descriptions, sorts and sizes, thus destroyed, from the size of half-a-crown to that of sixpence, and thence to a pin's head, would be absurd. The mass appeared to be countless and incalculable; and, exclusive of the quantity discernible by the naked eye, there must have been a still much greater quantity that would require the aid of the glass to identify it. However, after the fishermen had separated the saleable from the unsaleable fish, the latter being kept for their own private purposes, the useless dead mass of fry and pea was shovelled back into the sea, as food for gulls and other animals, instead of having been allowed to increase to its natural dimensions, and become food, rich and abundant, for our own support and enjoyment.

On making some enquiries on this subject of a very respectable gentleman of Brixham, he told me that he had seen a whole boat-load of little useless fish and fry of this description taken from the trawlers, and thrown into the sea. Now this trawl-net is thus drawn, upon an average, ten times a day, by one hundred vessels from one port. Let the public then reflect, and let a calculation be made, if possible, (but the details baffle all calculation) what a destruction must be effected by the practice at large! - a a destruction contrary to sound policy, and contrary to the express letter and true intent and meaning of a salutary act of parliament. Though this national grievance is known to many, yet no man moves a finger to remedy so

crying an evil; an evil which, without a cure, will in a few years destroy the little that remains of our channel fishery.

There is also a considerable difficulty to convict under the Act of George I. for taking unsizeable fish; and therefore it is so much evaded, as to be quite useless and inoperative. The avowed object of the Act, as stated in the preamble, is to preserve the fry of fish; -and yet the fry of fish are destroyed to the greatest extent. The spirit of the Act is violated in every part; and yet the innovators commit no legal offence. The words of the Act are, bring to shore, sell, offer to sell, or exchange.' The fishermen do neither; and yet they infringe upon the spirit, the true intent and meaning of the Act in every part. Such as are so small as not to be saleable, the fishermen keep and use themselves, for what they call tea fish. The fish that are so small as to be good for nothing, are thrown into the sea. So that they neither "bring to shore, sell,

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offer to sell, or exchange them;" and yet they violate the spirit of the Act in every respect. The interest of these fishermen would be much better promoted by attending to the beneficial and wellmeaning provisions of this and the former Acts, than by using such destructive nets, and fishing in prohibited situations, which disturb the resorts of the old breeding fish, and are so detrimental to the young fry.

This appears to me to be an interesting and important subject, not only from the object of the