GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 245 



was ever given by statute : the one by 1 Jac. I, 

 e. 27. altered by 7 Jac. L c. 11. and virtually repeal- 

 ed by 22 and 23 Car. 11. c. 25. which gave authority^ 

 so long as they remained in force, to the owners of 

 free warren, to lords of manors, and to all freeholders 

 having 4()L per annum in lands of inheritance, or 80?. 

 for life or lives, or 400/. personal estate (and their 

 servants), to take partridges and pheasants upon their 

 own, or their master's, free warren, inheritance, or 

 freehold : the other by 5 Ann. c. 14, which empowers 

 lords and ladies of manors to appoint gamekeepers to 

 kill game for the use of such lord or lady ; which 

 with some alterations still subsists, and plainly sup- 

 poses such power not to have been in them before. 

 The truth of the matter is, that these game laws do 

 indeed qualify nobody, except in the instance of a 

 gamekeeper, to kill game : but only, to save the trou- 

 ble and formal process of an action by the person in- 

 jured, who perhaps too might remit the offence, these 

 statutes inflict additional penalties, to be recovered 

 either in a regular or summary way, by any of the 

 king's subjects, from certain persons of inferior rank 

 who may be found offending in this particular. But 

 it does not follow that persons, excused from these 

 additional penalties, are therefore authorised to kill 

 game. The circumstances of having 100^. per an- 

 num, and the rest, are not properly qualifications but 

 exemptions. And these persons, so exempted from 

 the penalties of the game statutes, are not only liable 

 to actions of trespass by the owners of the land, but 



