THE SALMON AND CHANNEL FISHERIES. 181 



33 Geo. II. c. 27. 



No person shall take, have in his possession, or sell un- 

 sizeable or unseasonable fish. Any person may seize the 

 same with the baskets, and charge a constable with the 

 offender and with the goods, and carry them before a ma- 

 gistrate ; and on conviction before such magistrate the 

 same to be forfeited and delivered to such prosecutor, and 

 the offender shall forfeit 20s., half to the prosecutor and 

 half to the poor where the offence is committed ; on default 

 by distress ; to be committed to hard labour not exceeding 

 three months, unless sooner paid. Justices may remit the 

 penalty to one half. 



i 

 Those who attempt to put this beneficial act in 



force must keep in mind that they cannot seize any 

 unseasonable salmon taken upon Dart, Teign, and 

 Plym, because the parliament have made all fish 

 taken upon these rivers between February and No- 

 vember wholesome and seasonable, in law, though 

 they would poison a horse, in fact ! 



We have next in order of time to consider this 

 notable statute, in which we shall have something 

 to applaud, but much to censure ; and ample jus- 

 tice shall be done both to its good and bad pro- 

 perties. Being but a local act, and of confined 

 operations, I should not have noticed it, did I not 

 conceive that it contained some most pernicious 

 enactments deserving of public animadversion, as 

 well as some principles that cannot be very easily 

 comprehended, applying to three such rivers as 

 the Dart, the Plym, and the Teign, which, if 



N3 



