pilchard; they believe it to be an unlucky fish, and that it will
rot the net that takes it. The Cornishmen do not think so, for

they find the pilchard fishing to be a source of great wealth.
The pilchards strike upon the Irish coast first before they reach

Cornwall. When Mr. Brady, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, visited
St. Ives a few years ago, he saw captured, in one seine alone,

nearly ten thousand pounds of this fish.
Not long since; according to a northern local paper,[13] a large

fleet of vessels in full sail was seen from the west coast of
Donegal, evidently making for the shore. Many surmises were made

about the unusual sight. Some thought it was the Fenians, others
the Home Rulers, others the Irish-American Dynamiters. Nothing

of the kind! It was only a fleet of Scotch smacks, sixty-four in
number, fishing for herring between Torry Island and Horn Head.

The Irish might say to the Scotch fishermen, in the words of the
Morayshire legend, "Rejoice, O my brethren, in the gifts of the

sea, for they enrich you without making any one else the poorer!"
But while the Irish are overlooking their treasure of herring,

the Scotch are carefully cultivating it. The Irish fleet of
fishing-boats fell off from 27,142 in 1823 to 7181 in 1878; and

in 1882 they were still further reduced to 6089.[14] Yet Ireland
has a coast-line of fishing ground of nearly three thousand miles

in extent.
The bights and bays on the west coast of Ireland--off Erris,

Mayo, Connemara, and Donegal--swarm with fish. Near Achill Bay,
2000 mackerel were lately taken at a single haul; and Clew Bay is

often alive with fish. In Scull Bay and Crookhaven, near Cape
Clear, they are so plentiful that the peasants often knock them

on the head with oars, but will not take the trouble to net them.
These swarms of fish might be a source of permanentwealth. A

gentleman of Cork one day borrowed a common rod and line from a
Cornish miner in his employment, and caught fifty-seven mackerel

from the jetty in Scull Bay before breakfast. Each of these
mackerel was worth twopence in Cork market, thirty miles off.

Yet the people round about, many of whom were short of food, were
doing nothing to catch them, but expecting Providence to supply

their wants. Providence, however, always likes to be helped.
Some people forget that the Giver of all good gifts requires us

to seek for them by industry, prudence, and perseverance.[15]
Some cry for more loans; some cry for more harbours. It would be

well to help with suitable harbours, but the system of dependence
upon Government loans is pernicious. The Irish ought to feel

that the very best help must come from themselves. This is the
best method for teaching independence. Look at the little Isle

of Man. The fishermen there never ask for loans. They look to
their nets and their boats; they sail for Ireland, catch the

fish, and sell them to the Irish people. With them, industry
brings capital, and forms the fertile seed-gronnd of further

increase of boats and nets. Surely what is done by the Manxmen,
the Cornishmen, and the Cockenziemen, might be done by the

Irishmen. The difficulty is not to be got over by lamenting
about it, or by staring at it, but by grappling with it, and

overcoming it. It is deeds, not words, that are wanted.
Employment for the mass of the people must spring from the people

themselves. Provided there is security for life and property,
and an absence of intimidation, we believe that capital will

become invested in the fishing industry of Ireland; and that the
result will be peace, food, and prosperity.

We must remember that it is only of comparatively late years that
England and Scotland have devoted so much attention to the

fishery of the seas surrounding our island. In this fact there
is consolation and hope for Ireland. At the beginning of the

seventeenth century Sir Waiter Raleigh laid before the King his
observations concerning the trade and commerce of England, in

which he showed that the Dutch were almost monopolising the
fishing trade, and consequently adding to their shipping,

commerce, and wealth. "Surely," he says, "the stream is
necessary to be turned to the good of this kingdom, to whose

sea-coasts alone God has sent us these great blessings and
immense riches for us to take; and that every nation should carry

away out of this kingdom yearly great masses of money for fish
taken in our seas, and sold again by them to us, must needs be a

great dishonour to our nation, and hindrance to this realm."
The Hollanders then had about 50,000 people employed in fishing

along the English coast; and their industry and enterprise gave
employment to about 150,000 more, "by sea and land, to make

provision, to dress and transport the fish they take, and return
commodities; whereby they are enabled yearly to build 1000 ships

and vessels." The prosperity of Amsterdam was then so great that
it was said that Amsterdam was "founded on herring-bones."

Tobias Gentleman published in 1614 his treatise on 'England's Way
to win Wealth, and to employ Ships and Marines,'[16] in which he

urged the English people to vie with the Dutch in fishing the
seas, and thereby to give abundantemployment, as well as

abundant food, to the poorer people of the country.
"Look," he said, "on these fellows, that we call the plump

Hollanders; behold their diligence in fishing, and our own
careless negligence!" The Dutch not only fished along the coasts

near Yarmouth, but their fishing vessels went north as far as the
coasts of Shetland. What most roused Mr. Gentleman's indignation

was, that the Dutchmen caught the fish and sold them to the
Yarmouth herring-mongers "for ready gold, so that it amounteth to

a great sum of money, which money doth never come again into
England." "We are daily scorned," he says, "by these Hollanders,

for being so negligent of our Profit, and careless of our
Fishing; and they do daily flout us that be the poor Fishermen of

England, to our Faces at Sea, calling to us, and saying, 'Ya
English, ya sall or oud scoue dragien;' which, in English, is

this, 'You English, we will make you glad to wear our old
Shoes!'"

Another pamphlet, to a similar effect, 'The Royal Fishing
revived,'[17] was published fifty years later, in which it was

set forward that the Dutch "have not only gained to themselves
almost the sole fishing in his Majesty's Seas; but principally

upon this Account have very near beat us out of all our other
most profitable Trades in all Parts of the World." It was even

proposed to compel "all Sorts of begging Persons and all other
poor People, all People condemned for less Crimes than Blood," as

well as "all Persons in Prison for Debt," to take part in this
fishing trade! But this was not the true way to force the

traffic. The herringfishery at Yarmouth and along the coast
began to make gradual progress with the growth of wealth and

enterprise throughout the country; though it was not until
1787--less than a hundred years ago--that the Yarmouth men began

the deep-sea herringfishery.
Before then, the fishing was all carried on along shore in little

cobles, almost within sight of land. The native fishery also
extended northward, along the east coast of Scotland and the

Orkney and Shetland Isles, until now the herringfishery of
Scotland forms one of the greatest industries in the United

Kingdom, and gives employment, directly or indirectly, to close
upon half a million of people, or to one-seventh of the whole

population of Scotland.
Taking these facts into consideration, therefore, there is no

reason to despair of seeing, before many years have elapsed, a
large development of the fishing industry of Ireland. We may yet

see Galway the Yarmouth, Achill the Grimsby, and Killybegs the
Wick of the West. Modern society in Ireland, as everywhere else,

can only be transformed through the agency of labour, industry,
and commerce--inspired by the spirit of work, and maintained by