THE ENGLISH GAME LAW. 429 



snipe, quail, or landrail, or any conies, are required to obtain and have 

 annual game certificates, but that all persons who before the commence- 

 ment of this act were required to obtain and have such certificates, shall 

 after the commencement of this act be required from time to time to 

 obtain and have the like certificates ; and all the powers, provisions, and 

 penalties contained in such act or acts shall continue in as full force and 

 effect as if this act had not been made ; and that all regulations and pro- 

 visions contained in any act or acts relative to game certificates, so far as 

 they relate to gamekeepers of manors, and to the amount of duty for 

 game certificates to be charged upon or in respect of gamekeepers of 

 manors in the cases specified in such act or acts, shall extend and apply 

 to all gamekeepers of lands appointed under this act as fully and effec- 

 tually as if they were gamekeepers of manors, and were expressly men- 

 tioned and charged by such act or acts.* 



VI. Every certificated person may kill game, subject to the law of 

 trespass. Proviso as to gamekeepers. And be it declared and enacted, 

 that every person who shall have obtained an annual game certificate 

 shall be authorized to kill and take game, subject always to an action, or 

 to such other proceedings as are hereinafter mentioned, for any trespass 

 by him committed in search or pursuit of game : provided always, that 

 no game certificate on which a less duty than three pounds thirteen shil- 

 lings and sixpence is chargeable under the acts relating to game certifi- 

 cates shall authorize any gamekeeper to kill or take any game, or to use 



caused, it is far better to put up with this than to sanction the wholesale 

 poaching which has long been carried on. 



The sellers of live game are loud in their denunciation of the sale of 

 dead game out of season, and this practice, we believe, is not defended by 

 any but the Manchester school. In that city game is sold nearly all the 

 year round, and probably there are many dealers there in the dead article 

 who would retort upon our specious correspondent. There is, however, 

 far more difficulty in detecting these gentry, for a dead grouse or a phea- 

 sant may be stowed away in small compass out of sight, whereas a living 

 one requires air and room. " Scotch pigeons" are only sold to those who 

 arc known to be trustworthy law-breakers, and though the Association 

 have succeeded in obtaining evidence of the sale of black game in several 

 instances, we believe it was chiefly because of the leniency shown to Cas- 

 tang, the defendant in the first case, in not pressing for the full penalty. 

 Tin- Society, however, did not wish to do more in his instance than assert 

 the law; but hereafter, I believe, it is their intention to press in every 

 case for the highest penalty which the magistrates will inflict. Black 

 game are no more fit to be shot before the 20th of August than pheasants 

 are prior to the 1st of October, or partridges in the month of August ; and 

 though occasional mistakes may bo made, they cannot possibly account 

 for the enormous numbers that have been annually sold in Leadenhall, 

 Newgate, and Hungerford markets, before the commencement of the 

 proper season. 



* The certificate for England and Scotland is 4?. 10^. ; for Ireland, 3/. 3s. 

 The latter may be exchanged for the former by paying the difference. 



