MR. JAMES WILLIAM LOWTHER (Cumberland, Penrith)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he is aware that considerable discontent exists amongst the fishermen on the coast of Cumberland adjacent to the Solway Firth as to the unequal terms under which they and the Scotch fishermen respectively carry on their industry of salmon fishing in the same firth; whether he is aware that this feeling is partly due to the difference in practice between the Scotch and English shores of the Solway as to (1) the size of the mesh of the nets in use; (2) the annual, and (3) the weekly close times in force; whether these points of difference and of dissatisfaction could be allayed by legislation which would assimilate the practice on these three points, leaving to a future occasion the solution of the more difficult question of the extinction of the fixed engines on the Scotch shore; and whether he would confer with the Secretary for Scotland with a view to framing a Bill which would carry out this limited object?
§ MR. MUNDELLAI quite recognise that in narrow waters such as those of the Solway Firth it is desirable that the fishery regulations should be the same throughout. But in this case serious difficulty arises from the fundamental difference between the English and Scotch law relating to salmon fisheries. I do not think that 1852 it would be convenient to deal with a part of the subject only, and it would certainly be impossible to legislate upon it this Session.