THE GAME LAWS. 15 



law is not fairly practised; as it awards half the 

 penalty to the informs : the statute does not suffer 

 the informer to be the ivitness; so, in these cases, 

 the lord's attorney's clerk frequently becomes the 

 informer, pro forma, and thus enables the keeper 

 (the witness)) to obtain fifty shillings. What a temp- 

 tation to perjury ! 



I shall conclude this article by the following cases^ 

 which very well illustrate some points of a game- 

 keeper's authority, as well as the practice of the 

 courts of law: 



The following came on before the commissioners 

 of the assessed tax act for the division of St. Albans, 

 in the year 1812. A servant of the Hon. and Rev. 

 W. Capel, vicar of Watford, informed against Hol- 

 Hngshead, Carter, and Wilson, three keepers, ap- 

 pointed by the Earl of Essex, for the manors of Wat- 

 ford, Bushy, and Parksbury, charging them with 

 having incurred penalties of 20/. each, for using a 

 gun for the purpose of killing game without having 

 procured such certificate as is directed by the 48th 

 of his present Majesty. The Rev. Mr. Capel was 

 himself the only witness to substantiate the charges, 

 and he swore that he saw Hollingshead, on the 17th 

 of September, shooting on the manor of Watford. 

 On producing the certificate for 181 1, it appeared to 

 be granted for the manor of Cashio, although that 

 granted to him in 1810 was for the manor of Wat- 

 ford ; and it was contended to be a mere clerical 

 mistake, in inserting the word Cashio instead of Wat- 



