ment, and how, when it is vicious or improper, it may occasion the greatest ambiguity and confusion. There is a passage in Tibullus (i. 5. 47.) which at first sight seems favourable to "Gamma's" views; but in it the collocation is as bad as it is possible to conceive, while the syntax serves to neutralize the error which the juxta-position is apt to create. It is as follows: "Vidi ego qui juvenem seros desisset amores." Here "juvenem," which belongs to the antecedent, is improperly, or at least compede metri, thrust into the relative clause, which produces at once great inelegance and obscurity. But were the words of each clause kept distinct from those of the other, they would then become interchangeable ad arbitrium scriptoris ; thus: "Juvenem ego vidi, qui seros desisset amores," or, Ego juvenem vidi, qui seros desisset amores," or, " Vidi juvenem ego, qui seros," &c. But to return to the subject more immediately under consideration, it appears that, by sinking the prominent words "Dextrâ lævâque duo maria claudunt" into a parenthesis, "Gamma” has involved himself in inextricable difficulty. Parentheses are purely supplemental and explanatory. Every sentence ought to be complete in itself, supposing what is parenthetical removed. But how lame and inefficient would the passage become, were this simple and legitimate operation performed! The point of the sentiment would be utterly lost. Hannibal's object was to impress upon the minds of the troops that they were hemmed in by two seas, and had not a single ship to look to for escape; that they must conquer or perish: consequently the effect of the contrast depends upon both facts being directly and forcibly stated. This view is confirmed by the very first words of the passage,-" Nescio an majora vincula majoresque necessitates vobis, quàm captivis vestris fortuna circumdederit." In the received reading, the difficulty is purely syntactical, and the question is how to dispose of "habentibus," supposing a new sentence to commence at " Dextrâ lævâque," &c.; but as too much, perhaps, has been already said on a subject in which a limited number only feel interested, and as the Editor's present business is neither annotation nor emendation, he will leave it in statu quo ante bellum. He has an opinion of his own, however, which, right or wrong, he will produce on compulsion. In common with the readers of the EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, the Editor has perused with pleasure and instruction the criticisms and remarks, always ingenious, often profound, and in not a few instances peculiarly happy, with which his learned friend has sought to illustrate many passages of great nicety and difficulty; and he trusts that what he has now said, in some sort in his own defence, will be considered by his able collaborateur as the best proof he could afford of the respect he entertains for the talents and acquirements of "Gamma," as a writer and a scholar *. Editor. On Music. WHEN soft the strains of music flow Upon the evening's holy sigh, How brightens into life the glow Of things that were, to Memory's eye! Then as the small breeze sinks and And o'er the air-harp softly dies, "Tis as the voice of early years, Past pleasure's echo, from its urn; We greet the magic thrill with tears, And weep as o'er a friend's return! Oh! then we live those moments o'er, As festal lights, on some sweet shore, It is proper to certify the reader, that this note was in types before the Editor had an opportunity of observing the emendation suggested in the P. S. to "Gamma's" paper, and which certainly throws much light on the passage. THE SALMON FISHERY THE author of the Pamphlet, the title of which we have given below, has rendered an important service to his country, and merits the grateful acknowledgments of the public, for the masterly and unanswerable manner in which he has exposed the present defective and pernicious state of the law, in regard to a great and valuable branch of national industry, as well as the total futility of the arguments by which a pitiful junto of monopolists have endeavoured, in order to promote their own private and selfish views, to obstruct its extension and improvement. Approaching the discussion with a perfect knowledge of the subject, even in its minutest details, and grounding his reasonings, not on general or speculative principles, but on facts established by the most unquestionable evidence that of observation and experience he has examined the question in all its bearings, met fairly and fully every argument put forward in defence of one of the most unjustifiable monopolies presently in existence, and demonstrated, to the satisfaction of every man who has not a private and personal interest in shutting his eyes to the truth, the absolute necessity of an immediate legislative inquiry, preparatory to an amend ment of the laws relative to the Salmon Fishery. Such being the character of this most able and merito rious performance, remarkable, no less for the clearness and logical precision of the statements and arguments, than for the complete knowledge of the subject which it displays, we shall make no apology for submitting to our readers as extended an outline of its contents as our limits will possibly permit. After some general remarks on the attention bestowed, in early times, on the Salmon Fishery of Scotland, on the object and intent of the different enactments relating to it, (namely, the propagation of the Sal mon species, and the protection of the fry, or young brood),—and on the causes which have hitherto prevented this important and greatly improvable branch of industry from occupying the consideration of the Legislature and the public, the author proceeds to state, historically, the different modes of Salmon-fishing practised in this country. Till within the last thirty years, these were extremely rude and imperfect. The oldest of which we have any account was called a croe, or cruive, and consisted of a dike, or mound of earth, stone, or wood, running across the river, from bank to bank, and having certain boxes or traps, formed generally of close spars or wattled work, placed at intervals, for detaining and entangling the fish in their passage up and down the river. A species of this engine, and in many respects resembling the cruive, but used only within the influence of the tide, was termed a yair; and both forms were completely calculated for preventing the transit of the fish, and utterly inconsistent with the propagation of the species, as well as destructive to the brood, not of the salmon only, but of all kinds of fish frequenting the river. The most simple mode, however, was by the moveable net or seine, or coble-net, which is too well known to require description; and though less destructive than the cruives and yairs, yet, by the weights attached to the lower side of the net, in order to sink it to the bottom of the river, along which it is trailed or dragged, and by the closing of the meshes, it is found, at certain seasons, to be extremely pernicious to the fry, in their progress to the sea. The toot-net was an improvement on the coble-net, which it in some respects resembled; but it was much larger and stronger, extending to an indefinite length from the beach into the water, and secured at its extremity by an anchor. Another apparatus, called the stage-net, was also in Observations regarding the Salmon Fishery of Scotland: especially with reference to the Stake-Net Mode of Fishing; the Regulation of the Close-Time: and the necessity of a Legislative Revisal of the Antiquated Scots Statutes at present applicable to these subjects, Edinburgh: Bell & Bradfute, 1824. 2d Edition. troduced at some stations on the Tweed and Solway, and was of more complicated construction, the fish being conducted, by a long line of net-work, into a species of gins or traps, called pock-nets, placed below a wooden platform, on which the fisher stood to watch, and to raise them to his stage or platform, the moment they were secured. None of these modes of fishing effected any material improvement upon the produce of the fisheries; but the deviation from the old, rude, and inefficient apparatus, had set the spirit of invention to work, and the result was the discovery of the stakenet, for a discovery it was, and a very important one too. The first net of this construction was erected in the Tay, about the year 1797, by Mr John Little, one of the Solway fishers, and a person of much ingenuity and intelligence in other matters; and the success of the experiment soon exceeded the most sanguine calculations. This gentleman had taken a lease, for himself and three brothers, of the Salmon fisheries on the estate of Seaside, where the width of the frith is not less than two miles, and where, previous to this time, there had been little or no fishing whatever. The apparatus he at first used was the tide, or floating-net, employed in the Solway, and so called, because it was constructed in such a manner that the operation of the ebbing-tide closed the net and secured the fish. It was soon discovered, however, that this apparatus was susceptible of a material improvement. The entrance to the inclosure of the net, as originally used on the Solway, closed the instant the tide began to recede; but it was observed, that, for some time after this had taken place, the fish continued to gambol on the banks, and that many might still be caught, were the net so constructed as to admit them. "Instead, therefore, of the former entrance, which, like a valve, opened and shut with the tide, the net was now so constructed as to leave the passage always open; but with such a degree of intricacy in the chambers, or divisions in the body of the net with which it communicated, that the fish, after being led from one to another, found themselves completely entangled, and could not again get into the passage out. By this highly ingenious invention, which at once displayed and depended upon an intimate knowledge of the habits of the salmon, the operation of the net was extended to the ebb as well as to the flood-tide; and its produce was, in consequence, much greater than ever." The success of the new apparatus was prodigious, seven thousand salmon-a quantity equal to a fourth or fifth of the previous produce of the whole river-being caught in one season, in a single net at Seaside. Stake-nets were now erected at different stations, not merely in the upper part of the river, but on the verge of the ocean itself, and were attended with nearly equal success. The fisheries of the Hon. Mr Maule, and of Mr Dalgliesh of Scotscraig, which formerly let for a few pounds, now became of great value; and a corresponding increase took place in the value of all the fisheries in the Frith of Tay; while, by one of those fortunate coincidences which sometimes happen, the method of preserving salmon in ice, by which the fishers were enabled to send them to distant markets, was discovered by the late George Dempster, Esq. of Dunnichen. Without this last discovery, the preceding improvements in the mode of fishing would have been of comparatively little importance; the increased produce would indeed have occasioned a fall in the price of the commodity in the markets contiguous to the fishing-stations; but this advantage would have continued purely local, and would, in a little time, have ceased to have been felt. Now, however, the fishers are enabled to send the salmon fresh as they come from the sea, to distant markets; and the benefit of the discovery has thus, in every sense, become a national one. A new source of wealth was thus opened up; and while proprietors found that their fisheries were, in many instances, nearly as valuable as their estates, a considerable number of individuals received employment as fishermen, seamen, &c.; wealth was rapidly acquired by all persons concerned with the fisheries, and, what was of no less importance, the public were supplied in greater abundance, and at a cheaper rate than heretofore, with an article of superior quality *. This improvement, however, was not confined to the estuary of the Tay. Stake-nets were speedily extended into other friths, particularly in the North; and although, from the want of knowledge and experience, the success of these attempts was not equal to that which attended the fisheries on the Tay, yet, everywhere, the produce exceeded all former experience. These results excited the greatest alarm in the "upper heritors," as they have been called, the proprietors of the old river fisheries. The new mode of fishing was obviously not suited to their stations, and it threatened with destruction the monopoly which they had so long enjoyed. It was undoubtedly true, that a great improvement had been effected in a branch of public industry; that a cheaper, better, and more wholesome article had been supplied for the general consumption; that employment had been afforded to a much greater number of fishers, seamen, &c., than could have been supplied, while the old, rude, and inefficient methods continued in use; that a portion of the national capital had been directed into a channel where it could be profitably employed, and that the value of property on the shores of friths and estuaries had been enhanced: all this was selfevident and indisputable; but still the monopoly so long enjoyed by a few inland lairds, to the manifest injury of the public, was endangered, or, which comes to the same thing, believed to be endangered, and what signified talking of the public advantage, when they were to be the sufferers? Accordingly, upon the principle that every improvement which they judged prejudicial to their private interests should be arrested, the proprietors on the Tay, and other rivers, clubbed together, and used every effort to put an end to the new mode of fishing which had been adopted in the friths. And to aid their exertions, a hue and cry was, as is usual in all such cases, immediately raised. They asserted that such prodigious captures of salmon could not be made without the most pernicious consequences; that the breed of salmon would be destroyed; and that, unless stakenets were prohibited, the species would soon become extinct. Whether these persons believed what they asserted, it is unnecessary to inquire at present; the author of the able pamphlet before us has demonstrated, that never were fears more completely groundless; but there can be no doubt, that this clamour was weli calculated to work on the ignorance and credulity of the public, and to mask the real object which the monopolists were now contemplating; namely, the putting an end to an improved method of fishing, which supplied a quantity of fish ten times greater, and of a richer quality, and in better condition, than had ever before been brought to market. This, however, (says the author,) was a ground of alarm in which the public was interested in a sense directly opposite to the private and exclusive interest of the river proprietors. It was one, accordingly, which the latter never ventured, There and could not venture to state. was thus some difficulty in getting up a different pretext on which to found the defence of their monopoly. But at length this was thought to be discovered in the ancient Scots statutes already men. tioned, which had been passed in dark and rude ages,-centuries before stakenets, or any thing resembling them, had even been thought of;-at a time, indeed, when there was neither capital nor enterprise for such an establishment,when there was not industry and activity among the people sufficient for its success, and when there was not even a market for the produce. The language of these statutes, unfortunately, was general, and at the same time obsolete and of doubtful import; and the usages and interpretations of latter times, in the gra dual progress of the art, had attached meanings to it, by which the enactments had acquired a very extended operation. Founding upon these statutes, there fore, the upper heritors on the Tay ap plied to the courts of law for an interdict or injunction against the use of stake. nets in that river or frith; and they were but too successful in their application. The superior quality of salmon caught in friths and estuaries, compared with those caught in rivers, is known to every one. After a long and patient investigation, and a discussion conducted on both sides with great learning and ability, and after much diversity of opinion among the Judges, it was at length decided by the Supreme Court in Scotland, and the decision was affirmed by the House of Peers on appeal, that, according to the existing Scots statutes, the fishing of salmon by stake-nets, in rivers, friths, and estuaries, is unlawful. The example of the upper heritors on the Tay was followed by those on other rivers. And, in consequence, all stakenets have been removed, not only in the Tay, but in most of the friths in Scotland. If in any frith they are still allowed, it arises from the forbearance or tolerance of the upper heritors; for it is now a settled and unquestionable law in Scotland, that any one proprietor, whether actuated by private hostility, or by real or imaginary interest, may put down, or prevent the erection of stake-nets in the frith or river in which his fishery is situate. In the course of the discussions to which these various law proceedings have given rise, but more especially, perhaps, since the use of stake-nets has been prohibited, the public has discovered that those nets have not the pernicious tendency attributed to them; and a gradual revolution has accordingly been wrought in public opinion on the subject. But although eight years have nearly elapsed, since the illegality of the use of stake-nets in friths and rivers, under the existing law of Scotland, was finally declared, yet no effort has been made by the proprietors of the fisheries in the friths, to avail themselves of this change in the public opinion, and to obtain relief from their fetters. They have submitted to them calmly and quietly,-charmed, one would almost believe, by some potent spell, which it is impossible to dissolve, and have allowed their own fisheries to return to their former state of non-existence. The upper heritors have not been so idle; but have kept united, carefully watching over the welfare of their monopoly. Nay, in some districts, schemes have actually been laid to take advantage of the lethargy of those most interested; and, by smuggling a bill through Parliament, to rivet, by the force of a modern statute, the absurd and noxious fetters already existing. And in other districts, emboldened by their former success against the fisheries in the friths, the river proprietors are now aiming a deadly blow against a discovery,-for it truly is one, -even more valuable and splendid than the original. This is a matter which it deeply concerns the public to attend to. VOL. XIV. At the time when the use of stake-nets was prohibited, the tenants, and those who had been practically engaged in the stake-net fisheries, had large capitals invested in them, which could not be diverted into any other channel of employ. ment but at a very great loss. They, however, have not remained so inactive as the proprietors of those fisheries. No sooner were they driven out of the friths and estuaries, than, with an enlargement of view, and an elasticity of invention beyond all praise, they extended the field of their operations into the proper ocean itself. And it is now discovered, and by the test of experience put beyond all doubt, that stake-nets may be used with success ON THE OPEN COAST, AND ALL ALONG THE SHORES OF THE SEA. This last discovery has only been made within these few years. On various parts of the East coast, stakenets have been erected, and, everywhere, with the most complete success. At Woodston, the property of Lord Chief-Commissioner Adam,at Duninald, the property of Mr Arklay,-at Rossie, and several other contiguous stations, on the open seacoast, near Montrose, the fishery has been prosecuted with remarkable advantage. The same result has been attained on the Aberdeenshire coast. Between the Don and the Dee, eleven stake-nets were lately erected, and the same invention has been employed at various places, on the coast near Peterhead, and in the Murray and Cromarty Friths. But the practicability of this mode of fishing was, till lately, so completely unknown, that though grants of river-fishing have existed from the earliest times, the right to the sea-fishing still remains in the Crown; and, at the present moment, a number of applications on the part of landed proprietors, for grants of a right of fishing on the sea-coast opposite their respective estates, are under the consideration of the Barons of Exchequer. All such applications are now opposed by the proprietors of the river fisheries. And even where grants of sea-fishings have already been obtained, these proprictors-perceiving, that, by this new discovery, if its operation be not checked, their monopoly will, after all, be equally endangered, as it was formerly threatened to be, by the fishings in the friths and X X |