i4 Oft Manorial Clams, Jan. 



co:>fidcred as the property of the Crown, but granted with the 

 manor itfelf to an inferior lord, under the ancient forcft laws, 

 and has been, for many centuries, a fertile fource of ftrife 

 and difcord to the more fpirited inhabitants of this and other 

 countries. The regulations concerning this fubjeft of legifla- 

 tive wifdom, might feem indeed to have been invented with 

 no other view ; for though it were not probable that the lord 

 of a manor, fo granted, would have sny difpute with his fupe- 

 rior or grantor, yet the opportunities of haraffing his inferiors, 

 by efforts of petty tyranny, were fuch, as perpetually to em- 

 bitter the minds, and indeed ultimately to debafe the chara6ter, 

 of both the oppreflbr and opprelTed. After a part of the lands 

 ■within the manors had been alienated fo generally in fee-fimple 

 during the reign of Henry VII. and in fubfequent times, the 

 purchafers of fuch lanSs, or their heirs, now become free- 

 holders, very naturally conceiving themifelves interefted in the 

 game, in proportion to their acquifitions of landed property, 

 except in cafes of free warren ; the difficulties of preferving 

 the monopoly of this objc£l of diverfion and luxury, in the 

 hands of the manorial lords, were much increafed. Hence 

 arofe the apparent necefiity of applying to the Legiflature for 

 a new code of game laws, the partiality and injuftice of which 

 are not more glaring than their abfurdity. 



This famous code is ably explained by that excellent com- 

 mentator on the Laws of England, Sir Wm. Blackftone, in 

 the following words, (Vol. IV. p. 408. 4th edit.) " Another 

 *' violent alteration of the E^nglifli conllitution, confided in 

 *' the depopulation of whole counties, for the purpofes of the 

 *f King's royal diverfion ; and fubjeding both them, and all 

 *' the ancient forells of the kingdom, to the unreafonable 

 •' fevcrities of foreft laws imported from the Continent, 

 *' whereby the flaughter of a bead was made almofl. as penal 

 •' as the death of a man. In the Snxon times, though no man 

 ** was allowed to chafe or kill the King's deer, yet he might 

 •' ftart any game, puffue and kill it upon his own ePcate. But 

 " the rigour of thefe new conilitutions vefted the fole pro- 

 ** perty of all the game in England in the King alone ; and no 

 ** man was entitled to difturb any fowl of the air, or any bead 

 *' of the field, of fuch kinds as were fpecially referved for the 

 *' royal amulement of the Sovereign, without exprefs licenfe 

 " from the King, by grant of a chafe or free warren •, and 

 *' tliofe fran;hifes were granted, as much with a view to 

 */ preferve the breed of animals, as to indulge tlie fubjeft. 

 " From a fimilar principle to which, though the foreft laws 

 *• are now mitigated, and by degrees grown entirely obfolete, 

 ** yet from this root has fprung a badard flip, known by the 

 '^ name of the G.ip.ie L.;w-. '•""• r.rri^eJ to, and wautoning in 



