as we hoped it might, to draw the attention of our earnest Reform-agitators to the grievous defects and evils of the Military Administration of the Empire, and, as before remarked, to the large and wide field for their exertions which it exhibits. He who runs may read in the appointments to high position at home of the officers inculpated by the Crimean Commission, and in the manner in which it is sought to throw discredit upon the honest and truth-telling Report of that Commission, that whatever might be the progress of Reform in the Civil Service, however great or limited may be the concessions regarding it that have been and are being made to public opinion -(and those concessions so far as they have gone, are real and valuable)-it seems to be determined not merely to resist its progress in military matters with the vis inertia of that least responsible and most arbitrary of Government Departments, the Horse Guards, but as it were to put into active practice the military tactics of "carrying the war into the enemy's country" by boldly and in the face of day rivalling the most flagrant and unblushing deeds of the old corruption-times. Surely our ardent Reformers will not be daunted by this plain defiance, daring though it be, but will accept the gauntlet thrown down, and proceed to teach Lord Hardinge, and whoever were his accessaries, in this outrage upon public opinion, that the day is gone by for ever when such practices could be allowed to escape with impunity.

A significant though rude and coarse phrase, which is said to have been frequently heard in the lines of our Allies during the long siege of Russia's southern stronghold, should help to call the attention of our Reformers to Military matters :-"The English are an army of lions, led by asses"! was the pithy sentence pronounced upon our forces by the French. Whether our epigrammatic neighbours meant to include the regimental officers or not, under the not very complimentary designation just given, we cannot say, but there is of course no doubt that they meant it to apply in its full force to the leaders of our army; and as these have in their time been regimental officers, it is not easy to see that any line is drawn at all between the grades. And certainly whenever and wherever any separate responsibility has chanced to fall upon a mere regimental officer-one of those opportunities which the Frenchman, soldier-born and soldier-bred, is ever sure to turn to advantage and to personal distinction-our officers of the subordinate, as of the higher grade, have won the praise of

most chivalrous gallantry and most unhesitating self-devotion, but not one iota more. Military science has been shown to be to them as it were a sealed book, owing to the grievous defects of their military education. It is true matters have in some slight degree been improved theoretically in this respect, as a certain examination formidable on paper to men of imperfect teaching, has been established now some years, but in practice and reality there has been little value in it, as a few months' assiduous cramming has helped scores of incompetent men over it, and enabled them to attain the desired object of promotion, when they as quickly forgot the ill-assorted and undigested lesson they had to get up in such haste,

To examine into the causes of the inefficiency of so many of our brave officers-inefficiency not only as to the higher branches of military knowledge, but often as to matters of the commonest necessity in the field-(it being always understood that we do not speak of mere fighting at close quarters)-is then an object of vital interest and importance. Incapacity and blundering in military affairs has assuredly cost us the loss of at least one half of the gallant little army we sent to the Crimea the very flower of our army as then existing. No man can with any confidence predict, in the present lowering state of the political firmament of Europe, that peace will be enduring. No statesman will deny that there are elements of confusion and disruption abroad, that may ere many months set roaring war once more between powerful states, and once again task all our resources to bear our inevitable part well and effectively in the strife. It therefore instantly imports us to look to the administration and management of our military affairs, to see if the defects and evils therein proven by the bitter experience of the war just concluded are being remedied. Perhaps, fortunately for us, the Horse Guards have given a very startling proof that such is not the case. We might have gone to sleep in over confidence, we are suddenly awakened to increased distrust and more energetic action. Here then is the field, and a good and wide field for our Administrative Reformers, where all their energies will find employment, and where, by well directed and well sustained agitation, they must accomplish most important and most beneficial alterations and reforms. To aid them in the task, by exposing so far as our ability permits, the evils most crying for immediate remedy, will be our task and a labour of love, in the succeeding number of the IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. VI.-IRISH FISHERIES.

The Fisheries, considered as a National Resource, with Comments upon the Laws relating to them; being a collection of Articles on the state of the Irish Fisheries. Published at different periods. By Robert Worthington, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Dublin: Edward J. Milliken, 15 CollegeGreen, 1856.

IN the last Number of the IRISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, we commented at some length upon the able pamphlet of Captain Symonds, respecting the objects of "The London and West of Ireland Fishing and Fish Manure Company." We now turn with much pleasure to a little volume which has very lately made its appearance, and which is a compilation of articles, written from time to time by Mr. Worthington, an Irish Barrister. Unlike the work of Captain Symonds, Mr. Worthington's treatise relates principally to River Fisheries, though we must not omit to state, that he devotes no inconsiderable space to the discussion of those of the coasts and deep seas, and to the insertion of excellent suggestions for their full development, and of well-grounded beliefs in the highly remunerative results which would be likely to follow the adoption of such a course. Those who are even moderately acquainted with the valuable nature of our Salmon Fisheries, must see at once the usefulness of any undertaking set on foot for the purpose of reforming the abuses which have almost threatened their speedy extinction, and there are few Irishmen with any pretence to patriotism and just feelings, who would not gladly behold such an important element of the wealth of the country preserved from this fate. If any analogy could be instituted between the right of the commonalty to fish our rivers "ad libitum," and the right of the tenant to receive adequate remuneration for the permanent improvements which he has

made upon his holding, under such circumstances, many grave doubts might be entertained as to whether any restrictions which interfered with this natural and just right should be suffered to exist. But such a comparison would be ridiculous in the extreme, and could not last a moment; properties of this nature are as sacred, and as well founded as any others can be; as they are not parcelled out here and there in small divisions, the public can have no claim whatever upon them, and a demand upon the proprietor to relinquish his right to reap the benefit of his fisheries, would be as reasonable as to ask him to deliver up his mansion, and his landed estates. A fitting proof of the wise intention of Providence that this source of wealth should be regulated and developed by individual, or commercial enterprise, is afforded in these plain facts, first, that it would forfeit its existence by the establishment of any other system; and secondly, that the effective carrying out of either of these legitimate plans, would be necessarily attended by advantages to the country at large, a thousand fold greater in the increased abundance and cheapness of the Fish Markets, than those to be obtained under the auspices of communistic principles. Mr. Worthington, it will be easily observed in the passages which we will subsequently cite, brings to his work much practical knowledge, talent, energy, and skill, added to which he evinces no ordinary amount of information regarding the ancient Irish Fishery Enactments. Occasionally we receive unmistakeable evidences of his patriotic nature, and behold vivid signs of an ardent longing for the appearance of what in many instances he justly supposes would confer solid benefits upon his country: and it is with the most unaffected sincerity, we offer him our humble sympathy, at the same time entertaining a reasonable hope that his excellent suggestions may be acted upon at no distant day.

In his opening chapter Mr. Worthington, having descanted upon the almost total decay of the English Salmon Fisheries, and the great falling off of those in Ireland and Scotland, showing how, owing to its scarcity, Salmon is a dish almost unknown to the poor, and dwelling upon the fact that England is completely dependant upon Ireland and Scotland for this fish, while by the aid of steam we are enabled to lay the produce of every river in the country, on the London tables, in such a state of freshness as to satisfy the most fastidious appetites, then favours us with some interesting historical matter, relative to the ancient charter and patent weirs of Ireland.

This leads us into a short digression, and a few observations, concerning the history of the ancient charter and patent weirs of this kingdom. No doubt, at a remote period, a necessity arose for a fixed mode of capturing salmon in our rivers, for the supply of markets in chief cities or towns: the imagination must be vivid, which can conjecture a time when the rude angling tackle of our ancestors was alone regarded as a means adequate to the supply of the public wants. We learn from undoubted records, that at a very early period of our history, purprestures, or weirs, were used in this country for the capture of salmon, and were, for many centuries, subjected to legislative control; hence the origin and the title of the Salmon-weirs, or great Salmon-fisheries of this kingdom; they existed certainly when the Danes held sway in Ireland, and were subsequently confirmed, or granted by the Crown, by charter, or patent, to corporations and others, who had acquired territorial rights. In this manner rights of several fishery were founded; a large proportion of those fisheries falling into hands of monastie institutions being annexed to abbeys, and other religious houses, The weirs of Lismore, of Gill Abbey, and many others, were amongst the ancient possessions of the Church. The Abbots of Mellifont possessed three weirs upon the Boyne, and upon a writ of Monstrans de droit, in the reign of Edward III., their title was held good. St. Mary's Abbey at Dublin, enjoyed a special grant of fishery in the waters of the Avon Liffey; and in the year 1220, the lordly Prior of Kilmainham had to submit to an inquiry, respecting his title to the structure, which forms the present Island-bridge weir. At Limerick, in the recent trials respecting the title to the great lax-weir and Fishery, now the property of the Limerick Corporation, the title was deduced from a charter granted by King John, in the year 1202, to William de Bradosa. These, not to mention numerous other instances, will be quite sufficient to carry back the title of those obnoxious purprestures, at all events, into a pretty remote antiquity.

An act passed in 1842 interfered materially with acknowledged rights, and declared that those ancient weirs and fisheries founded by our ancestors, and handed down to us by corporations, were monopolies. According to Mr. Worthington, a bill introduced by Mr. Connolly, the member for Donegal, is calculated to remove the injurious effects of that act, and to substitute others in their place, by means of which these fisheries may be placed in a position from which unexampled prosperity can be derived.

The Bill proposes to prohibit the use of fixed engines within the mouth, or within two miles of the mouth, of any river or harbour, in all cases in which a prescriptive title to use such engines cannot be shown; and the length of possession which should constitute a prescriptive right, is proposed in this (and in all other cases relating to fisheries) to be a period of forty years. For this proposed period