The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-21 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 21, 1869.

The most interesting result of the Prince of
WALES'S recent tour in foreign lands is the invitation
to the PRINCE IMPERIAL to visit England. The
friendly intercourse which now generally subsists
among the Royal families of Europe is an innovation
especially due to the reign of Queen VICTORIA. In
former days the "divinity which hedges in a king"
exercised the most stringent influence upon the
personal movements of the Sovereign. Like the King
of SPAIN, who was roasted to death because he dared
not move from the spot, in close proximity to the
stove, where he had been placed in the State recep-
tion room, Royal victims submitted, without a
murmur, to a life-long State imprisonment. Royal
marriages, entered into from political motives, took
place before bride or bridegroom had beheld a glimpse
of the other's countenance, and it was only at the
head of his army, hi the character of an invader, that
King or Prince ever cared to enter the dominions
of a brother Sovereign. The changed aspect
of affairs which we witness in the present day is in-
deed remarkable, and is only the fitting consequence
of the more friendly relations which exist among the
different peoples of the earth. Conspicuous among
all the nations of Europe, England and France, fore-
most in history as rivals and as foes, are now happily
equally foremost and equally remarkable as faithful
friends and good allies. When the ashes of the
Great NAPOLEON were brought to Paris to be in-
terred "in the midst of that French people whom he
bad loved so well," Lord PALMERSTON, speaking
as the mouthpiece of England, expressed a hope that
all feeling of mutual animosity between the two
great nations might be for ever buried in that
grave. That wish may be said to have been realised
when, a few years later, during the reign of another
NAPOLEON, the Queen of ENGLAND stood in
the lnvalides by that grave, and when also
"that other NAPOLEON was greeted with ac-
clamations in the streets of London. The
most friendly and intimate relationships now
exist between the various members of the families
of NAPOLEON THE GREAT and those of the " most
powerful, the most constant, and (but, alas ! not
in his experience) the most generous of his ene-
mies." As a new attestation of this fact, the pro-
posed visit of this young NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

" The young Astyanax of Modern Troy,"

to another, and a very different Prince of WALES,
is a matter of especial interest, and of very
general satisfaction. The PRINCE IMPERIAL will
himself be too young to understand the full signifi-
cance of an event which will probably prove a very
delightful episode in his youthful experience. Later
on, however, he will learn to appreciate that good
sense and high moral courage which have enabled
his father not only to realise the desires
and accomplish the work of his great predecessor,
but—a yet more arduous and apparently impossible
task—have enabled him by peaceful means to secure
a conquest which the sword of NAPOLEON was power-
less to achieve, a conquest over public opinion in
England and national susceptibility in Frapce which
has rendered innocuous the remembranceof Waterloo.

IT is now some eight years since the Legislature in-
terfered to prevent the extermination of the salmon
from British waters by special enactments for its
protection. Previously to 1861, the salmon fishery
of England had been subject to no regulations, save a
few common-law traditions of most respectable
antiquity. It was the general rule that the salmon
in the sea and navigable rivers belonged to the public,
and that the salmon in unnavigable rivers belonged
to the owners of the property adjacent to the banks.
Before the Magna Charta, the Crown claimed the
prerogative of granting exclusive rights within certain
limits. The charter, reserving all existing rights,

'orbade this granting of monopolies for the future,

But no restrictions were imposed as to the time and
mode of fishing, there was no inspection of rivers, no
attempt was made to purify the water or remove
obstructions, and nothing was clone to introduce salmon
into suitable, but unfrequented, rivers. A merciless
and barbarous war of extermination was carried on
against this most valuable article of food. The
Act of 1861 forbade fishing with spears and the like
instruments ; the nets must be of a certain size so as
to avoid the useless destruction of small fish ; the
fishing was restricted to the season—from September
to February inclusive ; and penalties were imposed
for the violation of these and similar provisions.

Inspectors were appointed to promote the growth of
this fishery, and to guard more effectually Pgainsi

breaches of the law.
have been very beneficial.

These enactments
We are, indeed,

as yet far from the realisation of Mr. FRANK
BUCKLAND'S dream of salmon as " food for the
people," but the fish is much more plentiful, and con-
siderably cheaper, than it once was. Moreover,
instead of a prospect that the salmon would speedily
disappear altogether, the presages of the future are
very encouraging. The eighth annual report of the
inspectors affirms that the fisheries are in a highly
satisfactory condition. The cultivation of salmon is
spreading throughout the country, whilst the actual
quantity of fish captured and sold has greatly in-

creased. The returns from the leading London
markets shew that the sale of Scotch salmon in
1868 was greater than in 1865 by one-third. The
capture of fish in English rivers has more than
doubled. And though the importation of salmon
from Norway, Holland, and Ireland has greatly
fallen off, yet the value of the sales at Billingsgate
have risen nearly one-fourth in four years. Last
year was very unfavourable to this fishery, but the
inspectors are confident that the number of young
fish in the rivers is great beyond precedent.
This result is encouraging as a practical demonstra-
tion of the improvement to be effected in the salmon
fisheries by careful cultivation. But the work
already done can be accepted only as an
experiment, and as an instalment of what
it is possible to do. The salmon now
spawning in British rivers is but a fraction of
the quantity which ought to be found there. The
capabilities of our streams are by no means utilised
to the fullest extent. Very many rivers which were
naturally fitted for the growth of salmon have
been ruined by divers agencies, of which pollution by
sewage, mines, and manufactures, and obstructions
by weirs are the chief. The inspectors very care-
fully consider the possibility of purifying these pol-
luted streams, removing these obstructions, and thus
bringing the much-coveted fish back to places which
they once favoured, but from which they have long
ago been expelled. Of course the salmon fishery
must not be promoted at the expense of manufac-
tures and navigation, but the inspectors have not
been regardless of industrial considerations. They
make out a clear case that much improvement can be
effected without injury—nay, in some cases with
positive benefit—to the rivers for other purposes.
For example, it is now a well-established fact that
sewage is a valuable commodity, which ought not to
be thrown away. The proper mode of utilising it
is no part of this question, but it is clear that sewage
cannot be tolerated in our rivers, where it is
most noxious. The " separate system" of
drainage, by which the rainfall is carried to the river
and the sewage retained for better purposes, is full
of promise. The pollution of streams by mines
and manufactures is still more serious. The subject
is a very extensive one, and is now being dealt
with by a Commission ; but the inspectors are sure
that this nuisance might be greatly mitigated without
any loss Whatever. The tin-plate manufactory of
South Wales was formerly conducted on a principle