GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



inclosed, whereas the former is always open: the 

 next in degree to a free chase is a park ; and the 

 next to a park is the franchise of a free warren. And 

 a forest comprehends in it a chase, park, and war- 

 ren ; and for that cause the heasts of chase, and the 

 beasts and fowls of warren, are privileged within a 

 forest as well as the beasts of forests are. 



I shall here elucidate the subject by a quotation 

 from Blackstone's Commentaries. 



" As to all inferior species of game, called beasts 

 and fowls of warren, the liberty of taking or killing 

 them is another franchise or royalty, derived likewise 

 from the crown, and called free warren; a term 

 which signifies preservation or custody : as the ex- 

 clusive liberty of taking and killing fish in a public 

 stream or river is called a free fishery ; of which, 

 however, no new franchise can at present be granted, 

 by the express provision of magna charta, c. 16. 

 The principal intention of granting a man these 

 franchises or liberties was in order to protect the 

 game, by giving him a sole and exclusive power of 

 killing it himself, provided he prevented other per- 

 sons. And no man, but he who has a cha^e or free 

 warren, by grant from the crown, or prescription 

 which supposes one, can justify hunting or sporting 

 upon another man's soil ; nor indeed, in thorough, 

 strictness of common law, either hunting or sporting 

 utall.* 



* It is b^it justice to observe, that this doctrine of Mr. 



M % 



