§ MR. CAIRDsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the absence of the Lord Advocate, Whether it is the intention of Government to alter or repeal the recent Laws on the subject of the Herring Fishery in Scotland, which the Royal Commissioners appointed in 1862 to inquire into the operation of these Laws reported to have "unnecessarily restricted the operations of Fishermen; to have repressed invention by prohibiting new and more productive forms of labour; as calculated to be destructive rather than conservative in relation to the future supply of Herring; and, although beneficial to certain class interests, as prejudicial to the consumer of Fish and to the public generally?"
§ SIR GEORGE GREYin reply said, he had communicated with the Lord Advocate, who was at present in Scotland, and ascertained that a Bill effecting some alterations in the existing Law was in preparation, and would soon, he hoped, be introduced.