nothing but diminished takes to the residents, it is not to be wondered if they consider themselves victims of an undoubted wrong. Nor is that all. In addition to being driven from the market, they find that the operations of their rivals have often the effect of driving them from the sea. Not only are they beaten in the race by fair running, but they are liable to be tripped up and crippled by their antagonists. It is as though the tram-cars of a prosperous line were not content with running omnibuses and cabs off the road, but actually ran them down as well.
From the operation of these various causes, a state of feeling has arisen that cannot be better described than by a few extracts taken from the evidence given before the Commission that has recently investigated the subject, and to whose appointment we shall shortly refer.
"665. Instead of seeking to keep clear of the fishermen and the lines, they [the trawlers] take away the lines intentionally; and they not only take away the lines, but they try to drown the fishermen."
"696. My wife, while selling fish the other day, found a woman in Aberdeen got the jaundice through eating fish caught by the trawlers."
"3608. Make no wonder though you hear of murder on the high seas betwixt fishermen and trawlers."
"4871. To tell you the truth, gentlemen, there is no tongue can tell you the trials, and the disadvantages, and the grievances we have to meet with at sea. It is one thing to sit on this bench before you, gentlemen, to try and express it, but it is another thing to be on the ground and feel it."
"7820. I will tell you what I think about them trawlers, sir, – there is a lot of the scum of Hull gets into them. I believe a soldier can be a trawler fisherman."
"3164. Every one abandoned it [trawling]. Why? Because they were doing evil."
"9863. Some people say that trawling is a discovery of science, but I think that no science is good that destroys nature, which we know trawlling does. At the beginning of the world the Almighty fixed his canon against all destroyers of animated nature, and told her to be fruitful, and multiply and replenish the elements."
Frequent representations, in the shape of letters and complaints, in language and spirit similar to these extracts, having been made to the Board of Trade and other authorities, the President of that Board appointed a Commission in September 1883 to
"inquire into and report upon the complaints that have been made by the line and drift-net fishermen of injuries sustained by them in their calling, owing to the use of the trawl-net and beam-trawl, in the territorial waters of the United Kingdom; and to ascertain how far these complaints are well founded, and whether any, and what, legislative remedy can be adopted without interfering with the cheap and plentiful supply of fish."
The Report of this Commission has lately been presented to her Majesty, and is now accessible to her subjects in the form of a Blue-book. Between the general reader and a Blue-book there exists a natural antipathy, which, however justifiable on ordinary occasions, is in the present instance to be regretted. A subject like trawling, affecting a class so interesting as the fishermen, and a question so important as our fish-supply, cannot fail to have some attractions, especially in those northern regions that lie around the cradle of 'Maga,' which are the principal battle-ground of the opposing forces. We therefore propose to put before our readers a few of the present aspects of the trawling
