FISHERMEN AND FISHERIES. 263 



to the Duchies of Lancaster or Cornwall, the consent of the 

 Woods' Commissioners, or of the Chancellor of Lancaster, 

 or the Duke of Cornwall respectively, must be first obtained ; 

 whilst any shore landowners may claim compensation under 

 the Lands Clauses Acts. The orders further will not abridge 

 a private fishery granted by a local Act, or by Royal grant, 

 or immemorial usage, such as are frequently weirs. To 

 afford publicity throughout the district, the Third Part 

 of the Fisheries Act, together with the order itself, and 

 the subsequent Act confirming the order, must be sold by 

 the grantees to any applicant for sixpence, and the Board 

 of Trade is to report annually to Parliament upon the 

 working of the grants it allows. 



For judicial purposes, the area of the grant is held to be 

 in the county to which it is opposite ; and if only the bed 

 is properly marked out, all oysters in it are held to be the 

 property of the grantees. This must be noted as a restric- 

 tion on title by " occupancy," which prevails in regard to 

 almost all other sea-fish. He who is first to catch a 

 herring is the only lawful owner of it, but it is as illegal 

 to fake an oyster from an authorised bed as a fowl from 

 a poultry yard. 



All oysters removed from a granted area remain, not- 

 withstanding removal, the property of the grantee of the 

 bed. The only title to such must be derived either from 

 the owner of the bed himself or through sale in market 

 overt ; the person selling in the latter is scarcely likely to 

 be a thief, and, if he is, it has long been a general principle 

 of English law that the publicity he has courted gives him 

 a title, not as a reward for his audacity, but simply as a 

 matter of legislative convenience and to avoid endless 

 disputes. 



In regard to the removal of oysters from an authorised 



