60 



or persons of an inferior rank, cannot by any 

 general words be extended to a superior. So 

 a statute treating of deans, prebendaries, par- 

 sons, vicars, and others, having spiritual pro- 

 motions, is held not to extend to bishops, though 

 they have spiritual promotion. Deans being 

 the highest persons named, and bishops being 

 of a still higher order." 1 Black. 87. 



And we have before seen that Sir Edward 

 Coke in his remarks on the Stat. of Westmin- 

 ster 2., 13 Edward I. c. 47, distinctly states 

 " that this statute, providing for the protection 

 of the Rivers Humber, Ouse, &c. did not in- 

 clude the River Thames, that not being named in 

 it, and that the general words extending only 

 to inferior rivers, it did not include a superior 

 one." And as ponds, waters, rivers (without 

 name) are here only mentioned, by the same 

 mode of reasoning as well as by the general 

 construction of the statutes, no waters of a 

 superior nature than those described in this 

 Act would be included in its operations. 



In addition to these observations it must 

 also be remembered, that there is not a single 

 conviction for fishing in the Thames to be found 

 in any of our law books. Where the offence 



