THE SALMON AND CHANNEL FISHERIES, 173 



and if the offence is continued after three months, then the 

 forfeiture to be 100 marks a month ; half to the king, and 

 half to him that will sue for the same by action of debt, 

 with the like penalty against the heir of the offender. 



By all these acts it plainly appears, as Lord Ellen- 

 borough said, "that the erection of weirs across 

 " rivers was reprobated in the earliest periods of 

 " our law. They were considered as public nui- 

 " sances (stating the words of Magna Charta) ; 

 " and this was followed up by subsequent acts, 

 " treating them as public nuisances, forbidding 

 " the erection of new ones, and the enhancing, 

 " straitening, or enlarging of those which had 

 " aforetime existed." — And this act of Edward IV. 

 plainly says, not only that wews but locks shall be 

 destroyed under certain penalties. And if diffi- 

 culties occur in enforcing the payment of those 

 penalties ; if they are public nuisances and en- 

 croachments upon the rights of the public, they 

 still continue indictable offences ; and it is well de- 

 serving the consideration of all lawyers, whether 

 these weirs, fish-locks, and fish-coops, erected across 

 rivers, and streams connected therewith, so de- 

 structive to the fisheries, are legally erected and 

 cannot by some means or other be removed. We 

 see what the before-mentioned acts say upon the 

 subject ; and as it was admitted in 12 Co. Rep., 

 that the statute of Hen. VI. " was in full force," so 

 there is no reason for doubting, but that this sub- 

 sequent one is equally so, as it does not appear to 



