Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the Tweed Acts
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the Tweed Acts is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in the The Hawick Express on 18 december 1903.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the Tweed Acts
Either Fundamental alterations or absolute repeal.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the prospective Unionist candidate, having been asked for his views on the Tweed Acts, the following letter has been received for publication:—
- Sir, — I beg to acknowledge your letter asking me for my opinion upon the subject of the Tweed Fishery Acts. I paid some attention to the matter during my recent pleasant visit to the Border Burghs. So long as the law is on the statute book the police have no option but to enforce it; but the law itself, dating back, as it does, for nearly fifty years, seems to me to need either fundamental alteration or absolute repeal. All private legislation seems to me to be open to criticism, and these Acts contain some particularly vexatious provisions. I should like to see no law upon the subject of fishing save the general Salmon Fishery Law of Scotland. This does of course at present apply; but it is complicated by the existence of the private Acts. Even the general law of fishing should be administered in a broad and liberal spirit, and a marked distinction made between the man who transgresses it out of pure love of sport, and the man who does so in order to resell the fish which he takes. — Yours faithfully,
- ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
- Dec. 14th, 1903.
