17 



and observed in all points." The same statute directs that the English 

 ones of Westminster, Merton, Marlbridge, and Gloucester shall be ob- 

 served in Ireland, saving always the good customs and usages of the 

 land. 



The statute 23 Edw. III., c. 1 & 2, confirms the liberties of the Irish 

 church, and of the great charter. Eighteenth Report Irish Record Com- 

 mission. 



An unprinted Act of 25 Henry VIII. repeals all grants made of the 

 fishery of the river Bann, since the first year of his reign. Another of 

 28 Henry VIII., c. 37, exists 'for making sufficient gaps for boats in 

 all weirs on the Boyne and other waters in Meath and Uriel ; and giving 

 all persons liberty in company with a sheriff, and obliging sheriffs, 

 mayors and portrieves, with the posse comitatus, to make such gaps.' 

 Statute Rolls in Chancery, quoted in above. 



The Act of 23 & 24 Geo. III., c. 40, contains this section < And 

 whereas it is necessary that a king's share or space of twenty-one feet 

 should be left open in every river for the free passage of fish, in order 

 to increase the species ; and whereas, there are instances of persons who 

 form a complete chain of obstructions across great rivers, thereby 

 stopping the progress of salmon and all other fish to the fisheries 

 which lie above them: be it enacted, that no person shall form any 

 such (except in chartered or patented rivers), but shall leave a free 

 passage, or king's share, of at least twenty-one feet clear in the deepest 

 part.' Any person injured by the erection or continuance of weirs 

 which have been, or may be, erected contrary to law for the purpose 

 of catching fish, was to serve notice for abatement. No suit for reco- 

 very of the penalty provided, by civil bill, was to be entertained where- 

 on a title for the erection appeared. Penalty, 20 on conviction, and 

 20s. per diem for its continuance after notice. 



By the 14th section, 'nothing herein contained shall be construed to 

 repeal any law now in force against the erection of any such weir, or 

 for prostrating the same.' 



26 Geo. III., c. 50, s. 8, repeals the penalty of 20s. per diem for con- 

 tinuing a weir after notice ; and enacts that any person unlawfully 

 erecting or keeping up any weir upon any river, after notice given, 

 shall forfeit 50 with costs of suit. By s. 8, if continued for seven 

 days after judgment, any person may prostrate it. 



S. 10 provides that this shall not extend to the prostrating of any 

 weir of which the proprietor has had uninterrupted possession for 

 the space of thirty-one years, or who holds the same by a patent or 

 charter grant, saving to all persons all rights and remedies for asserting 

 thereof, and not giving any right to erect or maintain any weir, but 

 such as the laws now in being give. 



PRIVATE Rights appear by early records to have obtained to but 

 small extent in the tidal parts of rivers in comparison with the number 

 of rivers and the multiplicity of proprietors. Archdeacon, or Mac Odo, 

 of Bawnemore, in the county of Kilkenny, lord of the manor of that name, 

 owned three weirs below the borough of Thomastown, and the right of 

 half the fish caught opposite his land. Baron Shortall had another weir 

 on the Nore. Denn, of Grenane, owned 'five fishing weares,' near 

 Thomastown. The Baron of Brownsford, (the beautiful seat now called 

 Woodstock,) had two ' salmon weares' near his castle. The priory of 



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