THE LAWS OF ANGLING. 465 



was seized-in-fee of a several-fishing ; and that the 

 plaintiff with others endeavoured to row upon his wa- 

 ter, and with the nets to catch his fish ; and that for 

 the safe-guard of his fishing he took and cut the nets 

 and oars : To which plea, the plaintiff demurred : 

 And, there, it was adjudged by the whole court, that 

 he could not, by such colour, cut the nets and Oars; 

 and judgment was thereupon given for the plaintiff. 



Doubtless, our forefathers well considered, that man 

 to man was a wolf*; and therefore made good laws 

 to keep us from devouring one another, and, amongst 

 the rest, a very good Statute was made in the three" 

 and-fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth ; whereby it is 

 provided, that in personal actions in the courts at 

 Westminster^ (being not for land, or battery,) when 

 it shall appear to the judges, (and be so by them sig- 

 nified,) that the debt or damages to be recovered 

 amount not to the sum of forty shillings or above, the 

 said judges shall award to the plaintiff no more costs 

 than damages but less, at their discretion. 



And now, with my acknowledgment of the advan- 

 tage I have had both by your FRIENDSHIP and your 

 BOOK, I wish nothing may, ever, be that looks like 

 an alteration in the first : nor any thing in the last, 

 unless, by reason of the useful pleasure of it, you had 

 called it, the ARCADIA of ANGLING ; for it deserves 

 that title : and I would deserve the continuance of your 

 friendship. 



Since the writing the foregoing discourse, the laws 

 of this country, relative to fish and fishing, have un- 

 dergone such alterations as would, alone, justify an 

 addition to it : but as it has, of late, been objected, to 

 all laws that assign an exclusive right in any of the 

 creatures of God to particular ranks or orders of men, 



* A melancholy truth so universally acknowledged as to have given 

 occasion "to the proverb, Homo bomini lupus. Vide Erasmi ' ddagia.' 



