§ Resolutions [8th November] reported.
§
Resolution 1 agreed to.
2. "That a sum, not exceeding £8,314, be granted to Her Majesty, to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March 1889, for the
881
Salaries and Expenses of the Office of Her Majesty's Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues, and of the Office of Land Revenue Records and Inrolments.
§ SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL (Kirkcaldy, &c.)said, he did not wish to oppose the Resolution now, but before it was finally disposed of he desired to express an earnest hope that in the promised inquiry the Chancellor of the Exchequer would have full regard to the very great gravity of the question involved in reference to the management by the Commissioners of Crown Rights in Scotland. Nobody who had travelled among the fishermen in Scotland could doubt that this was a very serious matter, and he could tell the Chancellor of the Exchequer there was reason to fear an unfortunate outbreak of popular feeling in Scotland in connection with this subject. There was no finer race of men than the fishermen of Scotland, but they had been sorely tried; things had gone badly with them, and a grievance of this kind was apt to breed mischief. He wished the right hon. Gentleman to appreciate the serious character of the grievance and the gravity of the situation when these men found themselves suddenly deprived of popular rights they had enjoyed from time immemorial. Whatever they might be technically, they were in the eyes of the people of the nature of common rights, and it was a serious thing to deprive them of those rights behind their backs by the technical process of devolution of authority by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests. It constituted a serious and material injury; and in these days, when sporting rights were enlarged, and when so many serious questions arose between landlord and tenant, it was calculated to inflame popular resentment to find that after secret arrangement had been made with landlords' agents, the Commissioners, by the transfer of rights and on consideration of small payments, gave landlords the power to deprive fishermen of foreshore and other rights they had always considered theirs. The discontent engendered was even more serious than attended the agitation of crofter grievances, for crofter rights were stolen away many years ago, whereas this other appropriation only seriously began about 1883–4. Foreshore and sea salmon fishing hitherto enjoyed had been made away with to landlords for small sums 882 of money, and under circumstances that gave grave reasons to suspect jobbery and collusion between land proprietors and the Commissioners. He hoped the Chancellor of the Exchequer would treat this as a very serious question, and have in view not only stopping further alienation of Crown rights, but also the intervention of Parliament in cases where the circumstances would justify it.
§ Resolution agreed to.
§ Resolution 3 agreed to.