10 



1st. The gentlemen, or proprietors, claim 

 a private and exclusive right of fishery in certain 

 parts of the river, as a free fishery, a several 

 fishery, or a common of fishery,* acquired by 

 them either by purchase or descent. Under 

 one or the other of these titles, they say, they 

 are entitled, not only to fish what they term 

 their respective parts of the river, as they may 

 think proper, but to exclude all other persons 

 from a participation in the amusement of fish- 

 ing, or at least an equal enjoyment of it. 



2ndly. The public on the other hand con- 

 tend, that the gentlemen possess no such ex- 

 clusive rights, that the fishing in the River 

 Thames, as well as every other navigable 

 river, is common to all the King's subjects; 

 and that unless the party claiming such ex- 

 clusive right, can product a Grant from the 

 Crown, or can prove a Prescription, and such 

 grant is antecedent to the first year of the 

 reign of Richard I., or such prescription be 

 legally proved, the presumptive right is in 

 favour of the public claim. 



* For the distinction of these several sorts of fishery, vid. 

 2d. Black. Com. 39., and Schultes on Aquatic Rights, p. 62, 

 et seq. 



