He thus escaped incarceration in a county gaol and the discomforts attending the same. This dodge, continued the Telegraph, is much in vogue with persons in the provinces. Unfortunately for the veracity of the London journal in this instance, it contained several important errors, as pointed out in a published letter from Messrs. J. & S. Langham, of Hastings, as follows: “The writer, in his indignation against smugglers in general and George Beard in particular, has displayed much ignorance in the matter. First, it is not true that Beard was convicted at or even in the neighbourhood of Hastings, but in the Court of Exchequer at Westminster. Second, as to his surrendering into custody in London instead of in the country (which he could not do) the facts are: At the commencement of the prosecution, he, with two sureties, entered into a recognizance that he would pay the penalties or surrender himself to prison - that is the Queen’s prison (the legitimate prison for Crown debtors), and the proper mode of satisfying that recognizance was for the defendant to go before one of the Barons of the Exchequer and be by him committed to such prison. This Beard did in due time, and thus satisfied the exigency of the recognizance, exonerated his bail, and saved the Crown the trouble and expense of taking him in execution and conveying him to a county gaol.”
The Fishery
The western mackerel voyage, for which the boats set out soon after Christmas, proved itself a failure, and the men were nearly all in debt. Of the 50 or 60 boats, which at home or away had been seven months in pursuit of mackerel not more than 4 or 5 could pay their expenses. Never to the oldest man on the beach had there been known such an unfortunate season. There was also very little of other fish caught all along the coast. The weather had been too fine and quiet. The boats had lain beached in the roadstead for two and three weeks at a stretch.
The herring season was, however, as greatly successful as that of mackerel had been the reverse. This turn of good fortune happened on Sunday Oct. 31st, when the fishermen netted in each boat from 8,000 to 18,000, and continued similarly successful for several days. The fish were sold at about £15 per last of 10,000. Many were sent off to Brighton, London and other towns, involving the several processes of counting (with its sing-song of “four-and-twenty”, “five-and-twenty” etc.), salting, washing, packing and forwarding. On the following Wednesday the sight was -
