The rational pleasure of
999 people ought not to be checked because the last of the thousand acts
as a blackguard. This point, too, bears upon the question of
steam-launches. A launch can pass as softly and quietly as a skiff
floating with the stream. And there is a good deal to be said on the
other side, for the puntsmen stick themselves very often in the way of
every one else; and if you analyse fishing for minnows from a punt you
will not find it a noble sport. A river like the Thames, belonging as it
does--or as it ought--to a city like London, should be managed from the
very broadest standpoint. There should be pleasure for all, and there
certainly is no real difficulty in arranging matters to that end. The
Thames should be like a great aquarium, in which a certain balance of
life has to be kept up. When aquaria first came into favour such things
as snails and weeds were excluded as eyesores and injurious. But it was
soon discovered that the despised snails and weeds were absolutely
necessary; an aquarium could not be maintained in health without them,
and now the most perfect aquarium is the one in which the natural state
is most completely copied. On the same principle it is evident that too
exclusive preservation must be injurious to the true interests of the
river.
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