THAMES, a certain jurisdiction, though not undisputedly exclusive, appears to have been immemorially exercised over both the fisheries and navigation of a largo portion of the Thames by the mayor and corporation of London. In early times, when fisheries were probably of much greater importance than they are at present, the mine kind of encroachments upon them by private individuals which were so often made the subject of complaint in other parts of the kingdom were also practised in this river. In 1405 an order was issued from Sir John Woodcock, then lord mayor, enjoining the destruction of wears and nets, from Staines to the Medway, in consequence of the injury which they did to the fishery and their obstruction of the navigation. By 4 lien. VII., c. 15 (1487), the mayor of London and his successors were invested with the same authority as conservator of the fish in "all the issues, breaches, and ground overflown as far as the water ebbeth and floweth from out of the river Thames," as he had within the river itself. Before the river was artificially embanked and the adjoining lands drained, this extension was probably of considerable importance. During the reign of Elizabeth, in 1584, an order was put forth by the mayor for the purpose of settling the proper times in which various kinds of fish were to be taken. It prohibited fishing in certain parts of the river, and forbade the taking of the white-bait or " bloodbag." The right of the corporation, however, to the conserva tion of the river about this time was disputed by the lord-high admiral, and some litigation took place, in which the corporation was uniformly successful. James L in the third year of his reign granted a charter to the city, in which the immemorial right of the city to the office of bailiff and conservator of the Thames is recited and confirmed. The same rights are also confirmed and settled by various other charters and acts of parliament. The result was to vest in the corpo ration the conservation of the river, the regulation of the port and harbour of London, and, as is said, the actual property in the soil of the river, subject only to the jus regium of the crown. The com mencement of the city's jurisdiction was marked by a stone, with apocryphal date, called London Stone, placed on the north bank of the river, a short distance above the present bridge of Staines, and its termination on the south shore, by the formerly navigable creek of Yantlet, separating the Isle of Grain from the mainland of Kent, and on the north shore by the village of Leigh, in Essex, placed directly opposite, and close to the lower extremity of Canvey Island, thus extending a distance of eighty miles, over nearly the entire course of that river through the metropolitan valley.
After much litigation between the City of London and the Crown, the conservancy of the river, which involves the control of the fisheries, the regulation and control of the watermen and of the shipping, the cleansing of the river, the removal of obstructions, erection of stairs, licensing mills, and other such duties, has been vested, by act of parliament, in a Board of Conservancy, to whom the powers of the corporation have been transferred.
Conservancy of the River Thames ; Stow, Surveil of London ; Pulling, On the Laws, &c. of the City and Port of London.) TIIAM3fUZ, in Hebrew )l id, is the tenth month of the Jewish civil year, coinciding with our June or July ; it has twenty-nine days, and in the present year (1861), it will begin on the 9th of June and end on the 7th of July. The name does not occur in the Bible, as a month at least ; the passage in Ezekiel viii. 14, "women weeping for Tammuz," having no known connection with the month. Benfey, who has a short dissertation on the name in his Dfonatona men,' p. 164, seq., denies the identity of Thammuz and Adonis, first advanced by St. Jerome in his commentary on Ezekiel. In the copies of the calendar of Heliopolis the name is written ectaiCa, eaapouC, and eaaa. A fast is kept on the 17th day of Thammuz, in memory of the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, according to most authorities, though some say it was iustituted to commemorate the breaking of the Tables of the Law by Moses, Exod. xxxii. 19. In somo calendars a feast is mentioned on the llth day, to celebrate the destruction of a pernicious book tending to discredit the traditions of the Rabbins. In the Syrian calendar now in use, Thamuz is the fourth month, as it was among the Hebrews when the year began with Nisan.