until she should marry Cléomadès and be crowned. The three sisters of Cléomadès slept there too, close by her side. Beside her bed their beds were made, for they wished to show her all the love they could, both for their own and their brother's sake. . . . Lady Ynabele broke to her the truth about her mother's death. Her heart was so filled with pain and grief that she fainted quite away from sorrow when she heard the Queen's words. Grievous was the news to her. But the girls threw their arms about her and did all they could to comfort her. With all their kindly arts they consoled her, so that she was somewhat comforted.'

The simple, natural expression of family affection, comparatively rare in medieval literature, is abundantly developed in Adenet's poems, and from it he has obtained some of his best effects. The respective families of King Floire in Hungary, of Aymeri de Narbonne, of Cléomadès and of Clarmondine, seem bound together by no common ties of affection. For example, when Blancheflor, after accompanying Berte on her way to her husband and a new home, finally parts from her, we have this dialogue:

"Daughter, I am going back now, and shall give your love to your brother. If all does not turn out well with you, I shall die of grief. I am going to take away with me this ring from your finger, and shall often kiss it with tearful eyes." "Dear mother," says she, "I feel as if I had a knife thrust into my heart." "Daughter," says the Queen, choking her emotion, "be joyous and glad; I am delighted that you are going to France. For in no country are the people more gentle and true”' (203-221).

Despite the lack of information about the life of Adenet, we are fortunate to have such a corpus of his poetry. From a study of this poetry some idea may be gained of the state of the poetic art and inspiration in France at the end of the 13th century. The narrative poetry which had preceded him had been profoundly impersonal. We do not know, and we are not greatly concerned to know, who put to words the throb of the nation's pulse in the primitive epic songs. Their very impersonality enhances their nationality. Adenet's poems, on the other hand, leave no doubt as to the personal satisfaction which he took in his authorship. Though clinging almost pathetically to the heroes of whom his forerunners had loved to sing, he is, in spite of

himself, a member of the new generation, and a victim of new demands in literature. He is a personage with a professional reputation. Of this period of transition A. Lecoy de la Marche has well said:

At the end of the reign of Saint Louis . . . the French race was already fully matured and civilised. Mauners were sensibly refined; they were soon to become effeminate. Just as there was still to be found a certain number of knights of the old style, so there was a school of classic poets, so to speak, who still cultivated the great Carolingian epic. But we can see rising a new chivalry, more elegant, more refined and gallant, and this too has its peculiar kind of poetry: namely, the poems of chivalry properly so called-the interminable romances of the Round Table.' ('Le treizième siècle,' p. 184.)

From the indistinct background of the Middle Ages this poet projects himself with a real personality. He is still a trouvère, a ‘finder' of legendary lore, but with a grain of art added. We have seen how he found his material and what he did with it. The next few generations witness many changes; among others, history turns irrevocably into prose, and modern personality stands out at last, with lyric or didactic poetry as its expression, in Guillaume de Machault, Eustache Deschamps, Alain Chartier, Jean Lemaire, Christine de Pisan, and Charles d'Orléans-the elegant forerunners of the French Renaissance. Gaston Paris has called the 14th and 15th centuries an epoch of transition in literature. But the authors of these centuries look forward rather than backward; they are preparing a new birth rather than burying the dead. Adenet, for his part, is medieval-one of the last craftsmen to try to put old wine into new bottles. When the death of Charles IV brought to a close the direct line of the Capetians in 1328, the curtain was rung down on medieval France and on the school of poetry to which Adenet by inheritance belonged.

WILLIAM WISTAR COMFORT.

Art. 7.-THE TERRITORIAL WATERS AND THE SEA FISHERIES.

1. Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. Annual Report of Proceedings under Acts relating to Sea Fisheries for the year 1911. [Cd 6291.] London: Wyman, 1912.

2. Thirtieth Annual Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland, being for the year 1911. [Cd 6182.] London: Wyman, 1912.

3. Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland. Report on the Sea and Inland Fisheries of Ireland for 1911. [Cd 6473.] London: Wyman, 1912. 4. The Sovereignty of the Sea. By T. Wemyss Fulton. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1911.

5. British Fisheries: their administration and their problems. By James Johnstone. London: Williams and Norgate, 1905.

No less than three several Committees, appointed by Government, are at the present moment investigating the conditions of our sea fisheries or the regulations under which they are conducted. In June 1912 Mr Asquith appointed a Departmental Committee 'to consider if it be practicable or desirable to extend for fishing purposes the limits of territorial waters, and whether prohibition or further regulation as to the methods or times of sea fishing are desirable, more particularly in relation to trawling for herring, and to report accordingly.' On January 1, 1913, Mr Runciman announced the appointment of another Committee to advise the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries on the elucidation through scientific research of problems affecting fisheries. About a month later a third Committee was appointed 'to enquire into the present state of the inshore fisheries and to advise the Board as to the steps which may with advantage be taken for their preservation and development.' The appointment of these Committees raises anew the whole question of fishery administration in the British Isles. To understand properly the bearings of the question of the extension of the territorial waters on the future prosperity of our sea fisheries, a brief summary of the changes that have taken place during

the past few years and an estimate of the present condition of the fisheries are necessary.

From time immemorial, sea fishing has been a recognised means of livelihood for a large number of seafaring and longshore men; but, like many another industry, commercial sea fishing showed relatively little progress until the introduction of two modern features-steam and the capitalist. Since that time, about thirty-five years ago, a change has taken place which is nothing short of revolutionary. In commercial fishing naturally every effort is made to catch as much fish in as short a space of time and with as little expense as possible, regardless of what the consequences may be; and since, as the nearer grounds became exhausted, virgin grounds further from the home ports have been exploited with success, the industry has, up to the present at any rate, so far as the gross weights and values of fish landed are concerned, shown a steady and progressive advance. How far this will continue in the future is to a large extent a matter for speculation. In this article we intend to review the growth and tendencies of the industry and to outline the legislation which the facts established by science show to be requisite.

The progress of the sea fisheries during recent years is illustrated, mainly from the statistical side, in the annual reports of the various Government Departments concerned. For England and Wales the central fisheries authority is the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, which publishes annually a 'Report of Proceedings under Acts relating to the Sea Fisheries.' No indecent haste marks the appearance of these reports, that for 1909 appearing in September 1911, that for 1910 early in 1912, that for 1911 in August 1912. For Scotland the central authority is the Fishery Board, which also publishes an Annual Report. In Ireland there are two authorities, the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, and the Congested Districts Board; the former body administers fisheries in the non-congested, the latter body in the congested areas. Statistical information on the sea fisheries of the whole of Ireland is contained in the Annual Report of the Department. A comparison of the statistical returns of fish landed in the British Isles during 1911 with the returns for 1885,

the first year in which fishery statistics for England and Wales were systematically collected by the Board of Trade, shows that the weights and values are practically double what they were. In 1885 the weight of fish landed was 580,000 tons and the value just above 6,000,000%., whereas in 1911 the weight was nearly 1,180,000 tons and the value exceeded 11,400,0007.

All modern methods of sea fishing on a commercial scale may conveniently be grouped under one of the three following heads: (1) a method involving the use of a movable or drag net, the highest modern development of which is the trawl; (2) a method involving the use of a fixed or drift net; (3) the use of baited hooks attached to lines. While there are other methods employed for the capture of sea fish, such as weirs or stake-nets, it may be said that they are negligible as a means of supplying the markets of our huge industrial centres, and that, but for the three methods indicated above, the taste of fresh sea fish would be unknown to the majority of the population of these islands. Fishermen may therefore be divided into trawlers, drifters and liners; and, since the interests of these three classes are to some extent opposed, it is found that the history of the sea fisheries records a good deal of animosity between the various groups-an animosity which has not been without effect on legislation. At one time, and that not a very remote one, the fisherman of our coasts did not devote himself exclusively to any one branch of fishing; but with the coming of steam-power and the capitalist a remarkable change has occurred. The jersey-clad fisherman of independent and picturesque type, so favourite a theme with artists and poets, who with his little sailing craft exploited the waters within reach of his native village, is rapidly disappearing. In his place we have the 'deck hand' who mans the steamship owned by a limited liability company. This 'deckie' with his bowler' hat and clogs has usually no more knowledge of seamanship than a ploughboy. Forty years ago the bulk of the fish consumed in the British Isles or exported from our shores was caught either in the North Sea or in the immediate neighbourhood of our shores by sailing vessels. Since that time the gradual ousting of sail by steam has taken place, and at the same time the area