THK GAME LAWS. 31 



Of Trafficking in Game, fyc. 



Though the penalties for buying and selling game 

 are very severe (and which no doubt would be in- 

 flicted were it publicly exposed for sale), yet it is a 

 thing almost as commonly done as trafficking in any 

 legalised commodity; nor will this regular business 

 ever be put a stop to, while the great landed-property 

 men so strictly prohibit honourable sporting on their 

 manors. However, it will be necessary in this place 

 to give an abstract of the different statutes relative 

 to this head; the first of which we find to be that of 

 the 1st of James I. c. 27, s. 4, by which it is enacted, 

 that if any person shall buy or sell any deer, hare, 

 partridge, or pheasant, such person shall, on convic- 

 tion before two justices (or at the assizes or quarter- 

 sessions), forfeit, for every deer, forty shillings; for 

 every hare, ten shillings; for every pheasant, twenty 

 shillings; and for every partridge, ten shillings; half 

 to the informer, and half to the poor. But pheasants 

 or partridges reared by the hand or brought from 

 abroad are not included in this act. 



It is enacted, by the 5th of Anne, c. 14, s. 2, that 

 if any higgler, chapman, carrier, innkeeper, victualler, 

 or ale housekeeper, shall have in his possession any 

 hare, pheasant, partridge, moor or heath game (un- 

 less where a carrier is transporting such game for a 

 qualified person), or shall buy, sell, or expose for sale, 

 any such hare, &c., such offending person shall for- 



