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BOARD OF AQRICULTUKE. 



touched upon here, the one of most general interest, and the one 

 which gets, oftener than any other, into the taw — the general rule 

 is, that every man is bound to keep his cattle upon his own prem- 

 ises. That was the absolute English common law rule, and by the 

 statute it is only qualified, as the gentleman has told you, in one 

 single instance. There is only one solitan^ exception, as I under- 

 stand the law, and as I understand him to have laid it down, and 

 that is, in adjacent closes, in premises occupied by yourself and 

 by your neighbor ; and there the provision is, that you may com- 

 pel him to build his half of the fence ; or, if he refuses to build it, 

 then the law allows you to build his half, and you have a claim 

 upon him for that portion which he should have built. Then, all 

 that being accomplished, if through his fault cattle break through 

 into 5'our premises, you may recover damages from him. If they 

 break through from your fault, then you cannot recover. 



Mr. Lebroke. And to make it entirely clear, the neighbor's 

 fault can only be from not keeping up his particular part of the 

 fence. 



Mr. Robinson. Yes, that is the proposition. You see how very 

 narrow the exception is. The general rule is absolute, with that 

 sole exception, that you should keep your cattle upon your 

 premises. 



Now with regard to enforcing your rights at law. The difficul- 

 ties in the way of impounding have been fully stated. It is a 

 resort to which I never advise any client. The reason is, that all 

 he is to gain out of it, if anything, is the sale of the animals ; he 

 gets nothing until he gets through the long and tedious process, 

 and comes finally to the sale. lie gets that by virtue of a title 

 either in himself or somebody'- else. Well, it is not an ordinary 

 contract of bargain and sale, where latitudes are given, and where 

 courts and juries may come in to aid and assist, and give a fair 

 construction to a binding obligation. It is a statute sale, and the 

 title is acquired, purely and simply, by virtue of the statute alone, 

 and the owner of the beast is not a party to it, in any single step 

 it takes. What does the law say, and wisely say ? It says, where 

 you attempt to enforce a statute title you must follow every iota 

 in the statute, or else your title fails, and you are a trespasser from 

 the beginning — ah initio. Therefore lawyers never advise impound- 

 ing. There are other and serious difficulties. For instance, in 

 most of the towns there is no pound, and no pound-keeper. It is 

 a complicated, troublesome and expensive process. 



