The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—A welcome New Year's gift is just pre-
sented to the public in the Report on the Sea
FiSheries of the kingdom. More opportune assu-
rances could never be given than are here offered to
us by the Commissioners. At a moment when we
are apprehending with only too much reason a
scarcity of meat, it is something to learn that there
is no danger of a scarcity of fish. Nor should any
reader imagine that the two things are not to be
compared. London consumes as much Ash as beef.
It is estimated that about 300,000 fat cattle, repre-
senting about 90,000 tons of beef, are taken for our
annual supply. But it is also estimated that
80,000 tons of " trawled " fish—that is, fish of the
larger and finer kinds—enter into our year's con-
sumption, independently of sprats, herrings, and
shellfish. There is great reason, therefore, to re-
joice at the announcement that, if the supply of
beef should be diminished, that of fish is not likely
to fail. In fact, the Report before us will gratify
most people, though it will astonish many, and per-
haps displease a few. We shall best recall the sub-
ject to the public mind by repeating the particular
instructions which the Commissioners received.
They were directed to ascertain, first, whether the
supply of fish was increasing, stationary, or di-
minishing; secondly, whether any of the modes of
fishing in use were wasteful or injurious ; and,
thirdly, whether the fisheries were prejudicially
affected by legislative restrictions. It will be
understood, of course, that the question is entirely
distinct from that of the salmon fisheries and pisci-
culture in general, which has recently been dis-
cussed. It concerns our Sea Fisheries alone, and
originated in an alarm entertained for the per-
manence of our supplies. Many persons were of
opinion that, in consequence of destructive methods
of fishing, the supply of fish was falling off.
We were eating our corn, it was said, in the
blade, and destroying the sources of future
harvests by wanton and improvident antici-
pation of our stock. We scoured the very bot-
tom of the sea with nets so small that no fry
could escape them ; we destroyed the spawn of the
year, and we drove away all the fish that we could
not catch. That was the story bandied about from
mouth to mouth, especially by rival fishermen, and
it acquired no little plausibility from the high mar-
ket price of fish. However, the public will now be
glad to learn, once for all, that there is no ground
whatever for hese alarms, and that they are, in fact,
just as unreasonable as the fishmongers' charges.
Although the Commissioners were favoured, of
course, with copious evidence to the contrary, they
" have had no difficulty in coming to the conclusion
that on the coasts of Great Britain the supply of
fish is increasing, and that it admits of progressive
increase." It is amusing to observe how the whole
truth came out. In the very places where the gra-
dual decline of the fisheries was most strongly in-
sisted on it was ascertained that there had been a
gradual increase in the men, boats, and general
machinery employed in the trade. There had also
been a gradual and, indeed, extraordinary increase
in the quantity of fish forwarded from the coast by
railways, insomuch that on four specified lines the
aggregate weight, which had been about 12,000 tons
in 1856, was upwards of 40,000 tons in 1864. No
doubt, the improvement in boats and gear repre-
sents also an extension of work. New fishing-
grounds are brought into service, and the old
grounds are more thoroughly fished. But the Com-
missioners tell us distinctly that the nearest and
most frequented fishing-grounds continue to be as
productive as ever. One of these yielded more
fish in 1863 than in any previous year. The
fact is, the whole story, as gathered by the Com-
missioners, might have been actually worked out
by the light of reason without any evidence at
all. What has happened is precisely what ought
to have happened according to experience and
precedent. Railways have revolutionised the fish-
ing trade. The coast towns have no longer a mono-
poly of supply. Fish trains carry off every boat-
load as it is brought in, till fish becomes as dear at
the seaside as it is a hundred miles from the coast
—perhaps dearer. The great towns of the interior,
too, can be reached from many more points than.
formerly, so that the supply is largely augmented.
At the same time, as in a hundred other instances,
the consumption has increased too, so that the de-
mand keeps pace with the supply, and the price is
pretty well maintained. At Manchester, where
statistics were obtained, it was found that the price
of fish during the last ten years had undergone very
little change. On this subject, however, we must
needs interpose a remark or two. The price of fish
is altogether an unnatural price. We take the case
of London, which, in this instance, is simply the
case of all towns alike. It has already been said
that, ton per ton, the supply of prime fish to the
metropolis is just about as plentiful as the supply of
prime beef. But now look at this difference. The
fisherman receives for his fish about £7 a ton ; the
farmer gets for his beef fully £6O a ton. This, it
will be said, is merely a difference in intrinsic value.
By no means. Although there is so very wide a
discrepancy as regards the producer, there is little
or none as regards the consumer. Any householder
can discover upon calculation that a pound of fish
costs him actually as much as a pound of beef or
mutton. In point of fact, while the fisherman who
brings the fish to Billingsgate gets only 3d. or 4d.
a pound for the best sorts, the buyer is charged ls.
or is. 6d. a pound by the retailer. The Commis-
sioners think some check might be put upon ".this
extravagant rate of profit" by a daily return of Bil-
lingsgate prices, inserted upon official authority in
the newspapers. It is clear enough that such a
profit will bear a very large curtailment.
HERALD.—The Secretary of State for the Colonies
has taken the opportunity afforded him by the annual
meeting of the Society of Ancient Druids to inform
these venerable gentlemen, and through them the
world, that in issuing a commission to inquire into
the origin and suppression of the rebellion in
Jamaica, and in suspending Mr. Eyre from his
functions as Governor of the island, he has not in-
tended any slur on the character of this dis-
tinguished official, nor meant to impugn in
any way the manner in which he has per-
formed his duties in a most eventful crisis. Mr.
Cardwell must entertain very peculiar notions
as to the feelings of a gentleman placed in
such a position as Mr. Eyre ; he must have singular
ideas as to the manner in which a public servant
expects his services to be appreciated by his em-
ployers. The Ancient Druids must be very ancient
indeed in their notions, very much behind the
world in their views of things in general, and of
the treatment appropriate to governors of colonies
in particular, if they can accept this statement of
Mr. Cardwell's as a satisfactory explanation of his
extraordinary conduct in this matter. To those
who take a simple common-sense view of it it does
seem that to degrade a man from his post, if only
for a time, is an extraordinary way of rewarding
him for having saved a colony ; that to put a go-
vernor of an important dependency on his trial as a
criminal is not the most likely'method of recom-
mending him to his subjects, or investing him with
that prestige with which the British Government is
in honour bound to invest those lieutenants to whom
it has entrusted so important a charge. The accu-
sation made against Mr. Eyre by the faction whose
foolish bellowing has frightened the Government,
into this blunder of superseding him is graver than
the charge of misgovernment : it is an accusation of
nothing less than murder. The commission, if it
means anything, is intended to put Mr. Eyre on his
trial on this charge. The deputation that waited
on Mr. Cardwell made no secret of their desire to
hang the Governor of Jamaica, and the Secretary
did not reprove them when they gave open expres-
sion to the wish. A man who in England is placed
on his trial on a criminal charge may be acquitted
or condemned, but he is thenceforth a disgraced
man. He cannot be admitted into society ;he can-
not succeed in any profession or employment ; he
is incapable of discharging the duties of any public
office. Such is the dishonoured future which our
paternal Government, at the dictation of a mob
of fanatics, has prepared for the energetic ruler
who, for having rescued from anarchy and ruin
the Pearl of the Antilles, deserves a mural
crown for good services to the state. Mr. Eyre
has received the thanks of both Houses of the
Legislature in Jamaica, the approbation of every
white man in the colony which, but the other day
was threatened with destruction, the applause of the
immense majority of the people of England. There
is not a servant of the Crown in any part of the
world, there is not a gentleman in England, who
could better have performed his duty under such
trying circumstances. Instead of recdiving, as he
doubtless expected, the approval and thanks of the
Imperial Government, Mr. Eyre is solemnly dis-
graced and put on his trial. Whatever the issue
of the investigation may be—and all the news from
the island encourages us to expect the triumphant
exculpation of the Governor—Mr. Eyre can never
resume his functions with any credit or satisfaction
to himself or to the 'Home Government ; he is more
or less disqualified from holding henceforth any
position of trust or emolument under the Crown. It
becomes clearer every day that in no particular has
he failed in the discharge of his duty. The accusa-
tions levelled against him were derived from a chaos
of imperfect and partial information. The negroes
shot or hung by the officers of her Majesty's troops
were either notorious by the part which they took
in the Morant Bay murders, or apprehended in
flagrante delicto, in arms against the Queen. It is
not true that the Maroons were " let loose on an
unoffending population," or shot down indiscrimi-
nately all whom they met. They were employed
to hunt down a few of the leaders of the insurrec-
tion who had fled for refuge to a mountainous
Part Of the country unknown to the whites. It