( 103 ) 



it, that is important" (p. 120). " Sometimes an owner 

 is careless of his rights, and tolerates strangers, wlio, 

 knowing this lenience, invade his fields to angle or fish 

 with nets, especially to angle. This, however, is a gratuitous 

 concession on his part, and he can at any moment, without 

 notice, resume his rights, and treat all such intruders as 

 trespassers. Whether the land on which the trespasser goes 

 is waste or cultivated, fenced or unfenced, it is equally 

 a trespass for him to go there without the owner's permis- 

 sion. This has always been the law, and is still the law, as 

 regards all rivers and streams whatever" (p. 120). "Some- 

 times the inhabitants of a village or town set up a claim 

 to angle in a part of a river or water on the ground of 

 of ancient custom. * * * In such cases the acts of such 

 anglers are more likely to be referable to the license of the 

 owner, who, if he pleases, may allow all the public, or a 

 portion of the public, to angle there. But no length of time, 

 during which such acts are capable of being explained on 

 the ground of license, can prevent the owner putting an end 

 to such license. He may resume his original rights at any 

 moment, and withdraw the license, for no man ought to have 

 his rights abridged, by acting liberally towards the public 

 or his neighbours." " It may happen that after a number 

 of years' use by the public promiscuously of the angling 

 in a particular water or river, the public may begin to claim 

 as a right what at first was merely a license, and litigation 

 may arise as to whether the public have acquired the right 

 or not. There seems, however, no trace of any such right 

 beinsc established in this way." 



CVI. " The chief substantial interference with a 



common fishery is where a weir or 

 Fishing weirs only legal in s i m ii ar contrivance exists. As already 



England, provided they were . ^ ~ «7 



so prior to Magna Charta. De- Stated, SUCll Wdl'S VLYQ, prima jade, a 



clared a nuisance and regulations mi i sance anc l illegal" (]). 103). 



aflecting those which are legal. O VI u "/' 



" Lord Ellen borough, U.J., said: — the 

 erection of weirs across rivers was reprobated in the earliest 

 periods of our law, and they were considered as public nui- 

 sances. Magna Charta ancl subsequent Acts so treated them, 

 and forbad the erection of new ones, and the enhancing, 

 straitening, or enlargening of those which had aforetime exist- 

 ed" (p. 39). " No fishing mill-dam or fishing weir is legal, 

 except it be ancient, and even ancient fishing weirs must 

 have a free gap, and ancient fishing mill-dams must have 

 a proper fish-pass, and no fishing is allowed at the head or tail 



