t> THE SHOOTERS GUIDE. 



destroying game. And the possession of game, by 

 Will. & Mary, c. i>3, s. 3, subjects an unqualified 

 possessor to an imprisonment of not more than one 

 month, nor less than ten days, to be whipped and 

 kept to hard labour. These two last statutes may, 

 however, be regarded as a dead letter. 



I have yet to notice the most illiberal as well as the 

 most curious part of the statutes that relate to qualifi- 

 cation. The act last enumerated (4 & 5 Will, and 

 Mary) specifies, that if any inferior tradesman (what- 

 ever property he may possess), apprentice, or other dis- 

 solute person, shall hunt, hawk, fish, or fowl, such 

 persons may be sued for wilful trespass, the first time 

 he conies on any person's ground, and if found guilty, 

 must pay the full costs of suit. See the article 

 " Committing Trespass." 



Inferior tradesman is a term which at this period 

 certainly conveys no definite idea : it nevertheless 

 shows the spirit of the times, and exhibits the admi- 

 nistration of the Royal Revolutionist in no very fa- 

 vourable light. However, this ridiculous statute may 

 be said to sleep on the shelf; yet, not so much from 

 the forbearing disposition of strict game-preservers, as 

 from the very honourable judicial hostility which the 

 modern bench has almost uniformly manifested 

 against the frivolous and vexatious enforcement of 

 those parts of the Game Laws, which are in direct 

 contradiction to common sense as well as to the re- 

 ceived notions of justice, and strongly mark the be- 

 sotted and superstitious ignorance of former times. 



