The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-08 00:00:00

Am,rican Humour.

Irish drollery has long been proverbial. Rich in
imagination—prone to exaggeration, careless in
expression, and fluent in speech--the Irishman,
with his ready reply and his comical way of putting
things, makes his " bulls" tell with more effect than
other men their truisms. But the irrepressible
Yankee is "taking the wind" even out of his sails,
and fast attaining the highest reputation for a wit
and drollery which has an equal advantage with the
Irish of bcing original and national, such, indeed,
as no other nation can imitate. ARTEMCIS WARD is
an excellent sample of the American style, though
he.is too polished and intellectual to convey a real
idea of the general type of Down-East humour.
SAM SLICK is a charming specimen ; though books
cannot fully convey to the mind the effect of the
individual. The American humorist is a man with
a grave, serious face—never more grave and serious
than when exciting shouts of laughter from all around
him. A keen sense of the ludicrous, and a happy
knock of seizing on it, are strongly his characteris-
tics. lle has a fitting way of conveying the pic-
ture in a national phraseology, and then handling
that picture in all its aspects in a dry, droll
manner, which never loses the serious guise under
which it is shrouded. Many American humorists
hit the question at issue by a quaint story, more
powerful than the strongest argument, though
the hearers may not at first perceive the drift till
the point is made. The late President LINCOLN
was an admirable example of this. The speeches of
the American yachtsmen at the banquet at Cowes
were full of fun and " chaff," delivered in that
peculiar American manner which is irresistibly
comic to the English. There are few people who
more enjoy jokes than the English, and though
themselves not given to drollery, they appreciate it
highly in others. ARTEMITS WARD is the greatest
success of the seascn, and we venture to say that
there was no dinner during Christmas week where
there was more merriment than that to which we
have alluded at Cowes. Nothing could be more
effective than the line taken by these celebrated
yachtsmen. Instead of disturbing digestion by
dreary platitudes, they sent their entertainers home
with sore sides and muscles strained by unwonted
exertion—benefited and refreshed by an unusual
exercise. The American is known to the world
mainly as a trader, and the world is now only be-
ginning truly to learn the national character. De-
mocratic institutions and a keen sharpness in trade,
have generated an erroneous impression. The true
American is a most imaginative being. Poetical,
witty, prone to exaggeration, and with high-flown
sentiments and imagery. He combines all these
with a rare practical &latitude which has deceived
foreigners. The war has exploded a host of errors
held in Europe of the American people, but it is
hard to uproot the prejudices of a century. The
freer intercourse now establishe3, and the fact that
on this side people have been generally compelled
to acknowledge that they were wrong is producing
an effect ; it is probable that, not long hence, the
American character will be more truly appreciated,
and when it is European statesmen will be less
liable to blunder when dealing with American
questions.—AnDlo-American 7 imes.

The Salmon Fisheries Commission.

The special commissioners concluded their sittings at
Preston on Friday afternoon, for the Ribble, when, at the
appointed hour, judgment was deliverei in the case of the
Clithcroo weir. The Chairman (Mr. Paterson) delivered as
elaborate judgment in this important case. Mr. Garnet; be
said, had been served with a notice, as the owner of &fish-
ing mill-dam on the Ribble, at Low Moori-Clitheroe ; and,
on the one side, it had been contended that such fishing
mill-dam was illegal; and, on the other, it was contended
that the commissioners had no jurisdiction—that even if
they bad, the weir was in all respects in conformity with
the law, and not in contravention of the act 1861, and so
that there was nothing as to which they could make any
order whatever. Considering first the question of jurisdic-
tion, he said they had to inqui▪
reinto fixed engines, fishing
weirs, and fishing mill-dams, and if this was any of these
throe things, it could only be a fishing mill-dam, which
was defined by the statute to mean "a dam used or in-
tended to be used partly for the purpose of catching or
facilitating the catching of fish, and partly for the purpose
of supplying water for milling or other purposes." This
dam, according to the evidence, was a solid wall of ma-
sonry, built right across the bed of the Ribble, at a part
where it is not navigable. Ho thought an agreement dated
1829, which had been produced, showed that there had
been added since that date a row of planks along the top
of this stone-work, thus addi▪
ng about 20 inches to the
height of the dam. At the end of the dam was a sluice
leading to the mill. On the other side was a part of the
dam, next the right bank, called a baulk, which was a piece
of wood, about 17 feet long and 30 inches wide, which was
moveable on a hinge at one end, so that it could be lifted
up, and when so lifted it made an opening in the dam itself
of a triangular shape. There was no cub cruive or artifi-
cial apparatus, put behind any part of the darn for catch-
ing fish. The mill, during most of the four dry mouths of
the yekr, absorbed the whole of the water of the river,
so that the natural bed of the river, below the dam,
was left all but dry. Then when the baulk was suddenly
opened, the flow of water down the natural bed of the
river enticed the fisk up to the dam, and they crowded at
the foot of it ; and if the baulk be suddenly shut again the
fish could be taken either by hand as they lay stranded
or by nets in the few pools in which water was left. They
thought that the fact of there bang no box or cruive
close to the dam itself was immaterial, because, though
a box was the usual feature of a fishing mill-dam, it
was only so because in most cases without it fish
could not be easily
caught, and where, as in this
case, fish could just as readily be caught without the
aid. of a box or cruive, this was not the less a fishing
mill-dam, if in point of fact, the dam had been used to
facilitate the catching of a fish. The commissioners
thought the facts satisfied the definition given by the
statute of a fishing mill-dam, and that it was imma-
terial whether the owner fished with the aid of the mill
dam occasionally or constantly, nor did they think it
made any difference whether the milling power was so
much more valuable than tho fishing power that the latter
was insignificant in proportion. On the whole they consi-
dered this a fishery
min-dam, and that therefore they had
jurisdiction. After some remarks on the application of
sec. 23 and 25 of the Salmon Fishery Act to this case,
which the commissioners thought did not take this case
out of their jurisdiction, the chairman said they had to con-
sider next the nature of the issue to be raised before them,
and he said they considered they had no concern with a
more matter of complaint that might arise between A and
B, but they presumed they had to deal with only those
cases in which public rights had been infringed by reason
of the violation of some maxim of public policy as declared
by common law, or by express statute. This being their
view, the question was whether there was any ground of
public policy in the common law or the statutes which
prohibited any dams being made Which hindered fish from
passing. He said it was unnecessary in this case to con-
rider u hat eras the doctrine of the common law, for there
was a statute applicable to this very run which seemed in
point. He then quoted 1 Geo. L; stet. 2, c. 18, sec. 14 of
which contained a preamble stating that the several acts for
the preservation of fishing had proved ineffectual in certain
rivers, the Ribble being one, and therefore it was enacted
that any person setting "any bank, dam, hedge, or slouch
net or nets across the said rivers" should forfeit £5 for the
offence, and the justices should demolish the banks or
dams. This remained unrepealed until the passing of the
Salmon Fishery Act of 1861, so that since 1774 to 1861 any
dam in the Ribble and other rivers named, so far as it hin-
dered the fish passing or going up
to spawn,was
been illegal, and the enactment embodied this principle,
that, as mill dame were not excepted from the operation of
and had