180 



STATUTE LAWS RELATING TO 



so material a branch of the legislation of this coun- 

 try, yet there is no occasion for their being en- 

 larged or extended. Trespasses against the fish- 

 eries may be brought before the sessions, and there 

 tried by a jury in the first instance ; this would be 

 decisive at once, and more congenial to the spirit of 

 the English constitution. 



That dreadful instrument the spear, (used only in 

 the breeding time, when the destruction of one female 

 fish is the extermination of so many thousands) was, 

 it is likely, unknown in those days. It is now used 

 both by day and by night ; and it is thought that 

 more fish are destroyed by the latter than in the 

 former : but this point has been treated of more at 

 large in another place. 



The penalty of 20s. was altered to 51. by the 

 1 Geo. I. ; but then that penalty only applied to 

 particular rivers mentioned in the act, not one of 

 which is in Devon, where are some of the finest 

 rivers in England for the breed of salmon j the act, 

 then, is not general. 



Every steward of a leet is subject to a qui tarn 

 action for not giving the statute of Eliz. in charge 

 to the jury. On the whole, this act of Eliz., if put 

 in force, would be very beneficial in many points. 

 The best parts of it, however, are turned to no 

 account, and its defects, though numerous, are not 

 supplied. Still I understand the law to be, that no 

 salmon can be taken by any device, engine, or other 

 means than by the fair and lawful net. This alone 

 is of incalculable value if properly enforced. 



