rty miles off. Yet the people round about,
many of whom were short of food, were doing nothing to catch them, but
expecting Providence to supply their wants. Providence, however,
always likes to be helped. Some people forget that the Giver of all
good gifts requires us to seek for them by industry, prudence, and
perseverance.[15]

Some cry for more loans; some cry for more harbours. It would be well
to help with suitable harbours, but the system of dependence upon
Government loans is pernicious. The Irish ought to feel that the very
best help must come from themselves. This is the best method for
teaching independence. Look at the little Isle of Man. The fishermen
there never ask for loans. They look to their nets and their boats;
they sail for Ireland, catch the fish, and sell them to the Irish
people. With them, industry brings capital, and forms the fertile
seed-ground of further increase of boats and nets. Surely what is
done by the Manxmen, the Cornishmen, and the Cockenziemen, might be
done by the Irishmen. The difficulty is not to be got over by
lamenting about it, or by staring at it, but by grappling with it, and
overcoming it. It is deeds, not words, that are wanted. Employment for
the mass of the people must spring from the people themselves.
Provided there is security for life and property, and an absence of
intimidation, we believe that capital will become invested in the
fishing industry of Ireland; and that the result will be peace, food,
and prosperity.

We must remember that it is only of comparatively late years that
England and Scotland have devoted so much attention to the fishery of
the seas surrounding our island. In this fact there is consolation and
hope for Ireland. At the beginning of the seventeenth century Sir
Waiter Raleigh laid before the King his observations concerning the
trade and commerce of England, in which he showed that the Dutch were
almost monopolising the fishing trade, and consequently adding to their
shipping, commerce, and wealth. "Surely," he says, "the stream is
necessary to be turned to the good of this kingdom, to whose sea-coasts
alone God has sent us these great blessings and immense riches for us
to take; and that every nation should carry away out of this kingdom
yearly great masses of money for fish taken in our seas, and sold again
by them to us, must needs be a great dishonour to our nation, and
hindrance to this realm."

The Hollanders then had