315 



ADJUDGED CASES. 



Sussex Assiies, 1808 Hebben v. Luff. This was an 

 action to recover a penalty, for a breach of the game laws, on 

 the statute of the 9th of Anne, Cap. 25. sect. 2, which gives a 

 penalty against any unqualified person, having game in his pos- 

 session, and makes the mere having of it, evidence of an expo- 

 sure to sale. Mr. Courthorpe having stated the law, next pro- 

 duced evidence of the fact, which was proved by two game- 

 keepers, who beiqg on the watch early in the morning, heard 

 the screaras of a hare, upon which they looked about, and dis- 

 covered a hare in a trap, not far from the cottage of the defen- 

 dant ; they lay in wait, expecting that the person who set the 

 trap, would come to see what it produced : they saw the defen- 

 dant come to the trap, and take the hare out : upon this they 

 came out of their concealment, but the defendant seeing them, 

 threw the hare away, and denied that he had had it ; they, 

 however, found the hare at a little distance from him. 



Mr. Serjeant Best submitted to the court, that this was not 

 such a possession, as the act meant, when it made possession, 

 an exposure to sale. 



The judge, on referring to the act, declared he did not wish 

 to extend the game laws, but the words were so very positive, 

 that he did not know how to get over them, it in express terms 

 made all possession of game, by an unqualified person, an ex- 

 posure to sale. The jury found the defendant, guilty. 



At Leicester assizes, an action of trespass, commenced by 

 Earl Ferrers against Mr. Randall Lovell, for shooting in his 

 lordship's preserves, at Thrussington, was tried at nisi prius ; 



the plaintiff obtained a verdict ; and the judge (Mr. Baron Gra- 

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