The Express.
London, England, 1847-03-11 00:00:00

IMPROVED FISHERIES.

- - - ------..
Ste,—While some are labouring to discover apeman for
all the ills of Ireland, I would rather recommend that every
one should do his part in some particular department of
improvement. It is, perhaps, • necessary attendant on an
au of general circulation of sews, that too many minds
are occupied with vast general questions, and too few with
the personal and practical question--what shall I do ? The
general question is, just now, how shall a large, starving
population be fed ? I, by no means, would presume to give
any general answer. Irish pauperism arises from •
complication of causes. Is it not by a complke-
tion of remedies that it mast be removed ? Among
these remedies are mentioned the employment of
labourers on works of public utility ; the devoting the land
to con and other cereals, instead of to the precarious, ruinous
note.° ; and the raising of human nutriment from every
available source. Under this last head I would, once more,
endeavour to call public attention to the subject of improved
fisheries. In doing this, I may sum up the remarks which
have already appeared in your paper. The various views
taken of this subject may be comprehended under a few
questions : Is there a store of fish to repay the cost
of proposed improvements ? Are such improvements
practicable and valuable ? And, could markets be
found for an increased supply of fish ? To the first
question we may say yes" without any deliberation.
For every fish taken, hundreds might be taken. The fishing
of the Scotch cotter tenants who merely go out during about
six weeks in the year, and take the fish that come to
their hand, affords no example of what might be done in a
systematic way by men enabled, by the support of good
capital, to devote their whole time to the fisheries. The her-
ring fishery is well known to be precarious, as it is dependant
on the unexplained m•grations of the shoals that visit our
coasts; bat the deepma fishing, which I recommended in a
former letter, would afford • regular and profitable employ-
ment if maintained in steady operation by sufficient capital.
The banks en the southern and western coasts of Inland
abound with fine fish. Success there has nolimit in nature
but is limited by the inefficient means in the hands of poor
fishermen. Yet, even with these inferior means, the success has
often been such that, in some seasons, large quantities of
fish have been thrown on the land as manure, for want of
• ready market. Ireland, with abundant stores on her own
touts, has been in the habit of importing about 200,000
barrels of herrings from Scotland end Shetland. Why ?
Because the fisheries of these coasts were under better
management. I dismiss, without further remarks, the
question of a plentiful supply.
The second question regards the practicability' of improve-
ments. These improvements respect both the extent and
the mode of fishing. As to the former, it is evident that
• company with capital, can carry on fishing against diffi-
cultism which would suspend the work of scores of small
fishermen whose hopes may be rained for months, by
the foundering of a boat or the decay of nets and lines.
With regard to the employment of steam-tugs as a protec-
tion and assistance to fishing-smacks, former remark' may
suffice. On another improvement suggested, a move de-
tailed explanation may be given, as it appears to have im-
portance. Of mune the chances of means are increased
according to the number of hooks kept in the water. But
the long line used at present has this disadvantage, that it
keeps the fish on the hooks, often for several hours, by which
their quality is deteriorated ,• so that fish taken singly by
the band-line fetch a higher price, To remedy this, and
to combine the advantages of both hand-line and long-line
fishing, I recommended an apparatus certainly more ex-
pensive than that used at present, but which might 'rosily be
employed by e fishing company. It is simply a long
line (say from half a rails to more) floated on the
surface by Gorki, and anekored at each end. Its potion
would be marked by troop. From this line be sus-
pended a number of hatted and baited lines, each having a
separate float, so that one fish might be drawn up as soon as
caught. A number of boats, according to the length of the
line, would attend to the floats, which would not preventthe
boatmen from wing hand-lines at the same time. By this
means it is evident that one fiaherman might do the work of
several, and this is only one of many improvements that
might be made. Next comes the question of finding ready
markets. Would • supply of hatter and cheaper fish than
we have at present widen the market 1 It may be noticed
hen that the plan of par sal curing, to keep fish
for • few weeks, would itßtate the extension of markets.
Fisheries must be conducted with a regard to the mesas of

carriage, especially (be extension • f railwe)-s ; but as those
means of quick carriage are multiplied, and inland markets
are opened, fisheries itso may be rater:did along our coasts,
giving employment to considerable numbers of the poor, and
increasing to a great extent the 'tack of food for the people.
To conclude I thiuk it a very desirable thing that gentle-
men of intelligence and honourable motives should direct •
their attention to improved fisheries, not only with regard to
Ireland, but including Scotle•td, England, the Shet-
land and certain i•lands, where the land cannot
flunky the whole of the pupulation. Though once
a fisherman, I prefer the land to the water, and •
would not call away one peasant from the plough to a
fishery ; but among other means of employing the unera- •
ployed, these now slag :god may take a place. I would add
a hint, which may be laughed at, th ough I cannot r e any
absurdity in it. I should like to see some of the enterpris-
ing among the aristocracy, who have estates on our coasts,
engage in improved fisheries, Apart from consideratioal of
profit, it would he a generous amusement. The progress of
population r. aily seems likely to drive our !porting whin to
the are, and make them adopt old Isaac Waiton's motto,
. Let us go a-fishing." The noise of a piscatorial aristo-
cracy may be ridiculed ; but worse sdsice might be given
than to forsake the pheasants end follow the fish.
It would have the great advantage, that such em-
ployment (regarded merely as sport) would require
no such waste of land and of nteans of subsistence, as
is now required to insure a bonne of pheasants. The absur-
dity lies, not in my proposition, but in the present sporting
habits of the aristocracy contrasted with the frightful desti-
tution that is extending. The time has come when every
thing that can be dune to afford honest employment, and to
increase means of human subsistence, must bo done. As
one part of this great work, I am glad that you bane given
me an opportunity of recommending improved fisheries.
Ar 4 OLD FISHERMAN.

SCOTLAND.
EDINBURGH, MAitcw 9.
_ _ _

The latest accounts from Howl-shire show that food
rioting still prevails to a dangerous extent. A new
irethod of preventing the shipment of grain is to
break open the granaries and mix the different kinds
of corn, &c., a plan which has twice been resorted to
in the above county. Dingwall has hitherto been the
chief scene of disturbance in that quarter, and, ac-
cordingly, 100 men of the 27th, under the command
of Lieut.-Col. Goodman, have arrived there from Inver-
gordon, ca.-rying with them thirteen prisoners, of •
whom eight were females.
Dr. Chalmers has addressed a letter to the Edin-
burgh newspapers, in which he earnestly solicits pub-
lic attention to the extent and intensity of Highland
destitution. Speaking of remedies, he says:
Is it right in the government to abstain from their grants
in the hope that we, the public, will do all? We are aware
of their loam for the employment of the able-bodied; but
we have a very strong impression that, without their
gratuities, there is the utmost danger that many in a state
of helpless infirmity, or of Metes forlorn widowhood, will
be left to perish. It is an utter delusion that the sum we
have raised, of about 80,0011., is at all competent to meet
the present exigencies of towards half a million people. i
And s this the return for our doing thus much that
we am to receive at the hands of a paternal go-
vernment ? Can there be a more direct bounty or
temptation for a public doing nothing, or doing
little, than to find that where a put lie do much, the
return made for it is, that they shall be left to do
all ? Would they only do by us what we have been given
to understand they are now doing by the relief committees
in Deland,—that is, giving pound for pound on all that
is raised among themselves,—we verily believe that on the
impulse thus given to our future additional subscriptions,
we should be enabled at leant to keep our suffering High-
landers alive. And what, after all, we should thus obtain
at the hands of government,_for the relief of our Scottish
famine, is certainly not one half of the tithe of what the
Irish famine will cost them. But let us never forget that
the failure of any one party to acquit themselves of their
duty can never exonerate us from the obligation to sequit
ourselves of ours. Whether the government will hear sr
wiz forbear, it is our cleor and imperative business to see
that not one of cur fellow-countrymen, be they men, women,
or children, shall die of hunger.
A Lseouttro ALAHMIST.—On Monday evening, the
Rev. J. D. Smith (one of a deputation from the Irish Con-
gregational Union),_ delivered a lecture on the alarming
condition of Ireland, in Argyll-square chapel, Edinburgh.
The lecturer succeeded in keeping his audience in a perfect
roar of laughter ; and so much prized wan this mode of
treating the subject that they gave occasional rounds of
rapturous applause. The reverend gentlemen proved him-
self an admirable story-teller, and a very saccomful mimic.
BIRTH-PIACI or Bra lone Moons.—lt having been
asserted that the premises in Argyll-street, occupied by the
Glasgow Atheneum, arc part of the house where the hero of
Curunna was born, the Constitutional has dispelled the
romance of this emaciation, by declaring the true locality to
be " Donald's Lend, French linen Close, north side of the
Trongatc, a little east from Candleriggstreet, and just oppo-
site to the Leieh Kirk." Captain Cuttle could not have
given the " bearings " more luminously.
PROVINCIAL.

A FATAL STABBING -CASE Octiirred in Liverpool on
Monday. John W. Hines, a young sailor, went to a house
of bad repute kept by cue T. Kearns. A quarrel ensued.
Hines, it is alleged, drew his knife, and stabbed Kearns in
the neck and also in the chest. He then ran home to his
lodgings. The wounded man expired in a few minutes.
Hines has been arrested, and now awaits the result of tke
coroner's inquest.

.......-
RiPRESENTATION or WAIMALL.--11r. Robert Scott, the
present member, retires. There will be a contest between
the Hon. E. R. Lyttleton, eon of Lord Hatherton, who
stands on the moderate Whig or neutral interest, and Mr.
Charles Forster, a barrister on the Oxford circuit, whose
father represented the borough in two parliaments, who is
supported as a free trader and a townsman by a very nume-
rous section of the elector.. There is some talk of Mr. Ser.
jeant Wilkin's standing on the Conservative interest. The
constituency numbers nearly 900, and a large proportion o.
it are small nail and other manufacturers, just above the
rank of mechanics. The free trade party are stated to be
displeased with Mr. Littleton in consequence of his having
refused to attend a free-trade dinner which took place last
_ _

801171 R EXPLOBION AND LOSS OP FOUR LlTlO.—Bir-
mingbam, Wednesday.—lntelligence has been receivtd here
to-day of the explosion of an immense boiler at the iron
works of Messrs. Davie and Bloomer, Gould's-hill, near
West Bromwich. The accident is stated to have arisen en-
tirely from neglect on the part of the man employed to super-
intend the working of the engine, the boiler of which is
represented to have been one of the strongest ever manu-
factured; it was, however, suffered to get nearly red-hot in
consequence of an inadequate supply of water hence this
accident, which has been productive of the most terrible re-
sults. The foreman and three others were either killed on
the spot or have since died. Of fifteen men and boys
picked up after the accident had taken place, the
majority have sustained such dreadful injuries that it is not
expected they can survive. Such was the force of the ex-
plosion that a great part of the machinery employed at the
works was completely shattered to atoms.

A CAB! OP DEATH PROM AREINIC hag occurred at
Derby, and the coroner's jury, after a lengthened adjourned
inquiry, rkturned an open verdict, to the effect that the
deceased died from the effects of poison, but how or by whoa
administered no evidence appeared.
NORFOLK.

THIS SPIkDY MEMOVAI,OPNUISANCIIS,—The first CMG
in Yarmouth under the Health of Towns Act was heard
on Monday at the police court. An information was laid at
the request of the Paving Commissioners against J. Mend..
ham, Depot, for having deposited on land in his occupation
• quantity of matter of
.an offensive and noxious character,
calculated to have an injurious effect upon the public health.
The matter was certified to be a nuisance within the
meaning of the act of parliament by two qualified medi-
cal practitioners. Mendham at once admitted the fact of
the matter complained of being on his premises, but had
no idea he war violating any act of parliament by per-
mitting it to lie there. In fact, the place In which it woe
deported was a muck-bin, built expressly for ita reception,
and had been so used for a very considerable period. There
were • great many other nuisances in the town of a precisely
similar description. The defendant had an order served
upon him to remove it, and is liable for the expenses attend-
ing the information, and for the cost of obtaining the medical
certificate. The magistrates wished it to be publicly known
that it was their wish and desire to enforce the law as ea.
tensively as the interests of the public may require. Parties,
who have grievances of this kind to complain of, should,
they said, at once lay an information under the Paving Act,
and obtain the certificate of two legally qualified medical
practitioners, when the grievance should be speedily. removed.
CAMBRIDGESHIRE.
ACCIDINT TO Mr. GUNNlNo.—ibis venerable and highly
esteemed gentleman, who is now in his 83rd year, and has
held the office of Senior Esquire Bedel for more than half a
century, met with a very *emus accident on Tuesday evea-
tog. He had written • letter at the Philosophical Rooms,
and was proceeding with it to the peseoffice, when, in All
Saint's-passage, he happened unfortunately to tread upon a
piece of orangsapeel, and fell with considerable violente upon
the pavement. It was feared, at the time, that he had either
dislocated the hip joint, or fractured the thigh bone. He
was removed as soon as possible to his own residence at
Nownham, accompanied by his friend and relation, Dr.
Thackeray.

Col. Sir W. R. Crawyio—n-,Thart., has issued an address to
the electors of Great Marlow, declaring himself a candidate
ea the ant vacancy.

TIE CHAMIEL IRIANDS.
11'1.110%1mm= Cerdew R. 8.,
and fair Therms Le Breton, accompanied by J. Walker.
Req., peeseedied ea Thursday last to inspect the site or the
=breakwater at St. Catherine's Bay. Formal pee-
the ground where the new north pier is to be
balk. ess eyes% the contractors by tie committee of km-
' bows, • Walaroday, when than gentlemen proceeded to
the s.merked out for the inner line of the harbour. Oa
aryl there, Mr. Walker indicated to the orgigeratore the
. knee ef Se weeks ; Judge Sisson then Wei mein,
and threw ik at nand into a barrow theerK
of the comatkeee did the same, and the • - •
out at some &Mance by a labourer. . pm* inert
took off dwir hats, end the very leo: ; bluest
the undertaking, saying, " Dieu Three
cheers were then given by the pergola "• • evege..'
pany separated. The work, of the sc SSW ,
soloed forthwith. All the dis •
island can then have ample employment. V sac •