DUTIES OF POUNDKEEPER. 269 



peril of tlie person who brings it. There is no judgment, no direction, 

 no written warrant or examination to be had by him. When is the 

 trespass committed by him ? He does nothing to ratify it. He only 

 takes the cattle, as he is obhged to do, at the peril of the persons who 

 bring them. If wrongfully taken, they are answerable, not he. It 

 would be terrible if a pound-keeper were liable to an action for refusing 

 to take cattle in, and were also liable in another action for not letting 

 them go. If he goes one jot beyond his duty, and assents to the tres- 

 pass, that may be a different case. When cattle are once impounded he 

 cannot let them go ^\dthout a repleyin, or without the consent of the 

 party. Upon their being released, he is entitled to legal fees. If he is 

 guilty of extortion, there is another remedy. The law thinks him so 

 indiflPerent a person, that if the pound is broken the pound-keeper can- 

 not bring an action, but it must be brought by the party interested." 



And so in Rex v. Bradslmw, Coleridge J. defined the dutij of a hay- 

 ward: " We may take it that the duty of the hay ward is to keep the 

 lanes clear, by impounding stray cattle that he may find there ; but 

 that with respect to stray cattle found on private land the hayward is 

 only the private servant of the parties, if they send for him. I should 

 be certainly inclined to ask whether there is any authority which lays 

 down that a hayward is bound to go into private fields. If there were 

 extensive commons in this parish, I should hold them to fall within the 

 same rule as the lanes. It is true that if these cattle had got to the 

 pound and been rescued from it, the defence would have been pound- 

 breach, but in some places the offices of hayward and pound-keeper are 

 distinct, and held by separate persons. If the hayward had driven 

 cattle to the pound, which he had found straying in the lanes, I should 

 have held that they were in the custody of the law from the first, and 

 that the rescue of them on their way to the pound would be indictable ; 

 but here, till the cattle got to the pouud the hayward was merely act- 

 ing as the servant of Mr. Stone, on whose land the cattle were found, 

 and therefore at that time a rescue of them was no more indictable than 

 if Mr. Stone had himself been driving them to the pound, and they had 

 been rescued from him ; and till those cattle had got to the pound I am 

 of opinion that they could not be considered in the custody of the law, 

 and that the rescue of them was therefore not indictable." 



The treatment of animals in the pound is fully provided for by 12 & 13 

 Vict. c. 92, ss. 5 & 6, which enacts that every one who impounds an 

 animal, " in any pound or receptacle of the like nature," shall provide 

 it with a sufficient quantity of fit and wholesome food and water, under 

 a penalty of 20s. ; and that in case an animal is left so unprovided lor 

 more than twelve successive hours, any one may from time to time enter 



