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during the severe storms of snow, and expect to bring them through winter in a healthy and hardy condition. To such the entire loss of the early spring-grass, afforded by the undrained bogs, is a heavy sacrifice. The species of grass which grows upon the drained lands, and especially near the drains themselves, is peculiarly destitute of sustenance, tough and unfit to be eaten by the sheep; and thus hundreds, nay thousands, of acres have been rendered sterile whose former fertility only caused disease, because sheep were admitted to them when in a weak and unhealthy state. We have some reason to believe that this truth begins to be felt, and that judicious farmers (always maintaining the system of draining to a certain extent) may be now disposed to qualify its excess, and restore a part of their spring-heads to their natural character, observing, of course, a careful system of herding, which shall exclude from the dangerous food the weaker and more exhausted part of their stock. This would of course be attended with benefit to the fisheries by restoring a more equable state of the river.

The other main cause of the scarcity of salmon, and which threatens the total annihilation of the fisheries, rests on moral circumstances, for which it is far more difficult to find a remedy; for while erroneous practices may be corrected when the cure is to be applied to passive nature, it is almost impossible to remedy those evils which spring from the clashing interests, passions, and prejudices of mankind.

We have stated that the activity and success of the means adopted in the lower fisheries, and particularly at their outlets to the sea, by help of modern invention and industry, exerting itself to meet the increasing demand, have had a great effect in altogether intercepting the passage of salmon, during the lawful fishing season, to the upper parts of the river. Taking the Tweed for an example, there are now no fisheries above Kelso which afford any considerable rent to the proprietors. Those of Makerston, Mertoun, &c., are let for inconsiderable sums. The streams about and above Melrose, in which Halieus was so successful under the guidance of the late amiable and lamented Lord Somerville, are now of no value; and those at Yair Bridge, where within the memory of man ninety-nine salmon (we mark the exact number) were taken in one day, are now totally unproductive.

Were it not for the peculiar habits of the salmon, it might be justly argued, that the upper proprietors must submit to this loss as one incidental to their local situation, which gives them only a reversionary right in such fish as escape the nets of those placed lower down the river,-which are now so very few, that scarce one occurs without bearing the mark of having encountered a mesh in his passage. But then it is to be considered that the upper streams

are

are those in which the fish deposit their spawn, and that during the whole close-time or breeding season, when the salmon, by law,ought to be undisturbed, their safety, and that of the shoals which are to supply the demand of the next season, must rely upon the protection afforded them at that period. Accordingly, all nets and other obstructions are removed from the river, and the fish ought to be permitted to ascend to the very heads of the streams uninjured, for the purpose of depositing the spawn. The plain handwriting of Nature, as well as the regulation of municipal law, seems to prohibit the killing of the fish at this season, when they are said to be foul, are most uncomely to look upon, and even when smoked (the only mode of using them) are accounted a very unhealthy and deleterious food. The penalties are also very high, sufficiently so to prove totally ruinous to the class of persons by whom the laws of close-time are infringed. Yet neither the fears of punishment nor of poison have any effect in preserving the spawning fish, which are destroyed in the upper parts of the river, and the brooks and streams by which these are fed, with a degree of eagerness which resembles a desire to retaliate upon those who engrossed all the fish during the open season by destroying all such as the closetime throws within the mercy of the high country. The proprietors and better class of farmers do not indeed partake in these devastations, but they witness them with perfect indifference, perhaps not without a sense of gratified revenge. As they neither have the amusement of angling, nor the convenience of a fish for their tables, when the salmon are in season, it is not of the least personal consequence to them whether the breed is preserved or destroyed, and they are as indifferent to it as a man who has no game of his own, is to the extent of poaching on a sporting squire's

manor.

The proprietors of the lower fisheries, the only persons whose purses are interested, may, indeed, prosecute offenders in the proper courts; but the country in which the spear and torch are so actively employed during the black-fishing, as this species of poaching is called, is wild, mountainous, and thinly inhabited, so that it is difficult to obtain such proof of delinquency as is requisite for conviction. If water-bailiffs are sent from a lower part of the river, they must encounter, as strangers employed in an obnoxious office, much difficulty and even danger. If they desire to engage officers within the district for this species of preventive service, the office will not be accepted by any with the purpose of discharging its duties with the necessary activity, in a case where the whole peasants of the country make common cause, and where the gentry are totally indifferent. It is only by enlisting these last in the cause, that a predominant authority, constantly exerted, might probably lessen this great evil. For two or three years after the last Tweed act was passed, we believe the laws were

better

better kept both at the mouth of the river and in the upper country. But at present the destruction of the spawning fish is universal, and joined to the engrossing activity with which the fish are prevented from ascending in the lawful season, must necessarily compel the salmon to leave the river; for even the strong instinct which induces the salmon to return to the stream in which it was bred, will give way under such unremitting persecution as the river at present undergoes-while, to use a vulgar but expressive phrase, the two classes of persons inhabiting the upper and lower banks are 'burning the candle at both ends.'

Neither do the upper and lower heritors, as they are called in Scotland, play for equal stakes. It is true the occupation of Halieus and his philosophical companions are nigh lost in the upper districts. But the loss is that of sport merely; whereas that which may be suffered at the mouth of the river shall affect patrimonial interest, to the extent of several thousands a year.

The most probable mode of redeeming these fisheries from almost sure ruin would, perhaps, be a compromise, by which the upper heritors should be admitted to share such a portion of the fish for their sport and their table as they formerly enjoyed-they, on the other hand, exerting themselves, as they have the means of doing, to prevent or punish those who transgress during closetime. But we have no expectation of such an agreement. If, for example, it were proposed to afford a free use of twenty-four hours per week in addition to those already conceded between Saturday and Sunday night, it would probably be difficult to induce the inferior proprietors to sacrifice one-sixth part of their immediate weekly gains even for the probability of securing from destruction the fishery out of which these gains arise. Or, indeed, if the proprietors of the lower fisheries took a more expanded view of their own interests, and judged it worth while to make a partial sacrifice to preserve the whole, it might still be found difficult or impossible to reconcile their tenants, whose interest is of a temporary character, to submission to a loss which would affect their profit immediately, in order to secure the prosperity of the fishe ries at a period when they might be let to other persons.

We are happy, therefore, that a sport which we have admired is recorded in Salmonia-where the descendants of those who have witnessed or shared it will read of it with the same feelings wherewith the present generation peruse accounts of the chase of red or fallow deer, wild boars, or wild cattle.

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We must now conclude with the parting address of the Coryphæus of Salmonia to his party, p. 270.

'I have made you idlers at home and abroad, but I hope to some purpose; and I trust you will confess the time bestowed upon angling

has

has not been thrown away. The most important principle perhaps in life is to have a pursuit-a useful one if possible, and at all events an innocent one. And the scenes you have enjoyed-the contemplations to which they have led, and the exercise in which we have indulged, have, I am sure, been very salutary to the body, and, I hope, to the mind. I have always found a peculiar effect from this kind of life; it has appeared to bring me back to early times and feelings, and to create again the hopes and happiness of youthful days.'

ART. X.-1. A Letter to an English Layman on the Coronation Oath, &c., and the Present Claims of the Roman Catholics in Ireland. By the Rev. Henry Phillpotts, D.D., Rector of Stanhope. London. 1823.

2. The Coronation Oath, considered with Reference to the Principles of the Revolution of 1688. By Charles Thomas Lane, Esq., of the Inner Temple. London. 1828.

3. The History of the Policy of the Church of Rome, in Ireland, from the Introduction of the English Dynasty to the Great Rebellion. By William Phelan, D.D. Dublin. 1827.

4. Substance of Two Speeches, delivered in the House of Commons on May 10th, 1825, and May 9th, 1828. By Sir Robert Harry Inglis, Bart. London. 1828.

5. Letters to a Friend on the State of Ireland, the Roman Catholic Question, and the merits of Constitutional Religious Distinctions. By E. A. Kendall, Esq., F.S.A. Dublin. 1828.

6. Letters to His Majesty King George the Fourth. By Captain Rock. London. 1828. 12mo.

7. Captain Rock Detected; or the Origin and Character of the recent Disturbances; and the Causes, both Moral and Political, of the present alarming Condition of the South and West of Ireland, fully and fairly considered and exposed. By a Munster

Farmer. London. 1825. 12mo.

8. Protestant Principles: exemplified in the Parliamentary Orations of Royal Dukes, Right Rev. Prelates, Noble Peers, and Illustrious Commoners; with the Constitutional Declarations of Irish Protestants, against the Roman Catholic Claims. which is prefixed an Address to the Protestants of Great Britain and Ireland. London. 1827.

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IN that dialogue concerning the state of Ireland, which shows

that its author, Spenser, was not less highly endued with political sagacity than with poetical genius, one of the interlocutors notices, as prevalent in those days, an unhappy opinion that 'through the fatal destiny of that land, no purposes whatsoever which are meant for her good, will prosper, or take good effect;'

' which,'

'which,' saith the speaker, whether it proceed from the very genius of the soil, or influence of the stars; or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of her reformation; or that he reserveth her in this unquiet state still, for some secret scourge, which shall by her come unto England, it is hard to be known, but yet much to be feared.'

This melancholy opinion, which, while it prevailed, was likely to paralyse good intentions, and prevent good purposes, has been disproved by time; insomuch that if we looked for examples of the great benefit which wise measures may produce, even when undertaken under circumstances the most unfavourable, they might be found in the history of Ireland. The plantation of Ulster may be instanced in proof of this; because a race of colonists were settled there who had been educated in the Protestant faith, and accustomed to obey the laws, or at least to aeknowledge their authority-the condition, moral and physical, of the inhabitants is so much better there than in any other part of Ireland, that it has not been found necessary to enforce the Insurrection Act in any of the counties then planted there by James I. It is an Irish author who says, that for its superior civilization, the comfortable circumstances of the peasantry, and what he calls the moral more than the legal policy of the province, Ulster has more the aspect of an English than of an Irish county.' The introduction of the linen manufactory is another instance,-the staple trade of Ireland, and that to which, in those parts where Ireland may be called prosperous, it owes most of its prosperity. Two facts relating to that manufactory are worthy of special remembrance : -Strafford, who introduced it, and expended upon the experiment no less a sum than thirty thousand pounds of his own fortune, was rewarded by hearing the measures, which he had taken in furtherance of this most useful design, charged against him as grievances by the Papists and Puritans of the Irish parliament, who conspired against his life. The other noticeable circumstance is, that Ireland, upon which the Romish religion has brought, and is bringing, so many and such tremendous evils, has, in the single case of this its staple trade, incidentally derived great benefit from it: the perfection of that manufacture was brought about by the revocation of the edict of Nantes; government having aided with adequate funds, for carrying it on, a Huguenot, whose family had been, for many generations, linenmanufacturers at St. Quintins. The church of Ireland affords a third example :-When Laud and Strafford undertook to reform, almost indeed to re-edify that church, it was said, by an Irishman, that the king's priests were as bad as those of the pope. They were described as an unlearned clergy, which had not so much as the outward form of churchmen to cover themselves with, nor their

persons

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