69 



directed to withdraw, while the magistrates 

 considered their judgment, the gentleman, 

 however, claiming this private fishery, remain- 

 ing in the room the whole of the time. 



At length the parties were recalled, and in- 

 formed that the magistrates admitted that the 

 authorities offered by their solicitor had consi- 

 derable weight in their opinion, but that they 

 felt it their duty to convict them in the penal- 

 ty, on the ground that the defendants had not prov- 

 ed the locus in quo was in the River Thames ! / 



It was in vain for the solicitor to urge that 

 such proof was unnecessary, as the information 

 stated the offence to have been committed in the 

 private fishery of A. B. in the River Thames. Or 

 that if such evidence was necessary, and did 

 not appear, the defendants were entitled to an 

 acquittal, as the information was not support- 

 ed by any evidence of that fact, which was on 

 the part of the informer indispensably neces- 

 sary. That every magistrate there was a com- 

 missioner of that river, and knew the locus in 

 quo as well as his own fish-pond, and that 

 many of them claimed a similar right with the 

 said A. B. The conviction was persisted in, 

 and the defendants were told, they might ap- 



