he upper proprietors a
chance of having good fish, and a corresponding inducement to take
care of them. Nobody would be so much benefited as the owners of
fisheries at the mouths of rivers; they would be the first takers,
and would still get the lion's share of all the fish that ascended
the river. If this regulation were enforced, the expenses of
conservators might be defrayed by levying a small tax, in the
shape of a licence for angling, which all true sportsmen would be
glad to pay if it gave a reasonable prospect of a well-stocked
river. Now matters are getting worse every day, and notwithstanding
the enormous fecundity of the Salmon (a large one producing 25,000
ova in a season), they are now extinct in some rivers where they
used to be found in my recollection, and in others where they were
once abundant they are now very scarce. No one need to wonder at
this, when he is told that gangs of poachers are on the look-out
for them all through the spawning season. In one winter, some
years ago, I am credibly informed that two hundred Salmon were
taken in one stream within five hundred yards of the spot where
I am now writing. It is nobody's business and nobody's interest to
prevent this, and therefore it goes on openly night and day.

Are there no influential gentlemen in the House of Commons who
will take up this matter and endeavour to get an equitable and
comprehensive law passed for the preservation and increase of the
breed of Salmon? It is a matter of even national importance, and
if duly provided for and properly attended to, I see no
improbability in the supposition that Salmon would again be as
abundant as they were when the apprentices on the banks of the
Ribble stipulated that they should not be compelled to eat Salmon
oftener than three days in the week. The apathy of country
gentlemen in this matter is to me unaccountable. I have some
reason to believe, however, that Government have at all times been
so far from lending their influence to the promotion of any
attempts to amend these laws, that they have obstructed rather
than assisted them, most probably from an idea that the
preservation of the fish would interfere with manufactories. If I
thought that this would be the case, I should not say a word on
the subject; but I am very far from holding such an opinion. So
far from this being the case, I assert without hesitation that
weirs need form no obstruction to the free passage of fish, and
that without