GAM E. 
ef the feveral fpecies of thefe animals, which would foon- 
in, 3. & For 
andm 
if game wo sealed ca bee gen 
follow of eer that all idlenefs and difiipation ae from 
with the caufe itfelf, and would require 
i nother os affigned in fa- 
e laws is, 4. ** The prevention of 
nee to government by aif- 
> But that the makers of 
nO 
your of the foreft and game 
opular infurrections and refiftan 
ti aks ulk a the people.’ 
ere | 
the hiftory and manners of the times will hardly allow us to 
wks were.at this time chiefly ufed to kill birds ; 
aad. a ea weapons do not feem, to have been much uie 
in the purfuit of game. _Belides, the firft qualifying {tatute, 
12 Ric. II. does not meation any inftrument likely to b 
very ferviceable in the hands of fedition; nor was the go 
vernment in thofe days | fo uae tender of i lee 
direct method of difarm- 
habits,. one they were, a acquired in the 
purfuit of game, cou t much contribute to initiate the 
peafantry. in fie cadets eb as ilitary fcience. Our author 
farther see ee of the principal early ftatutes relating 
d hence i. infers t e right to purfue and 
> onftittitional law of this 
kingdom, held: to be /okly and ee if fvely:in the fovereign. 
It was clearly a .gencral- right, and did fubfift as fuch in fa 
and u/age, until upon principles of public expediency, it was 
judged fit to regulate and limit the enjoyment of it. Pre- 
vioufly to the ena€tment of any desu (aes re{peCting 
it, it-ftood ea the bafis of: a éommon law. Game be- 
ongs*to the clafs of “ fere ure,’ and of ‘thefe’ the 
learned enort a himfelf aff a “that by the 
law of nature, every man,-from the prince:to the peafant, 
has an y Goad righ of purf faing and taking aioe to his own 
fe.’ every natural right -is proteéted and con- 
aire | byt the common law, and forms a part of it, to allow 
that this is a natural and common right, and at the fame time 
to alfirm «6 that no Tel whatever, but he who has a de- 
rivative right, is, by the common law, entitled to tak 
kill aay beait. of chafe or ode: game whatever,’’ is utterly 
S 
and ex- 
clu ¢ preragative O the oie rac. it is 
the gan and ses ive prengatie of the pee a ‘ cannot 
be i ral — common rig cht. 
fays (cI 
Bight, common Bee and common juitice 
and common right are convertible eee : a fir William - 
Blackitone’ 8 pofitions controvert each other. The learned 
inde has alfo been charged. owith advancing. a 8 me 
whol 
2 23 Can I. c. 25) when he afferts, that « the pen ees 
having 100). per annum, and t the reft, are not properly 
quali, ifeation, but exemptions.” If the king has’ 
e kin 
Ha fue prerogative to haw and kill game, this’ prerogative - 
is alike infringed. by perfons rye game, whatever be 
d be alone. mutt be the pérfon 
ftatute we find the ftealing, taking, and killing of game, 
by diforderly .perfons, declared to- be not to the injury: of 
ted by this motive, is an opinion which _ 
the king, as vivading. his-peculiar privilege,-‘but to’ the pre 
judice of na, i ae and lords of manors, and otherss: 
owners at Lar ea could arife to no- 
sae ae gentlemen, if Fach per 
ill cary 
take o 
3 
@ 
rs 
a 
&, 
joy } cel 
exempted. Gan additional penalties inflited on fuch difvederly 
erfons as are the immediate ebjects of the > how, with 
any fort of truth or eee could it be affirm of thems 
that they were the perlons whofe propert ee privi- 
leges: were violeted or infringed? If we are ie confult the 
motives of the legifiature and the policy of the flatute, thofe 
motives. and that policy unqueftionably were, to preferve - 
the game to the perfons defcribed: in. the preamble of the 
farthet alleged, that there is a e of the princi- 
pal arguments bie the aed “commentato a irae dee 
for: pee rine wit. e-laws. 
hat the fole Gent ‘of ta ng ay deftroying game = longs 
exclusively to the kin ng, a are told, from - this ; 
that ¢ rant to ce fubjeGts aa exclulive right of 
taking ou unlefi 
to diftin n t:of an original right,”’ an 
“ fel eaifying by certain pare tae a “right previot only 
fed”? 
a No admirer, it is faid, ee a manly, eee well-regulated 
fyftem, of public (les -will be for oe to aflece, that 
the laws for the prefervation of game a 
very thoroughly reviled. ‘Fhey ena: dep 
rom the line of genuine political les, at €X- 
the community more 
el 
on an att which in itfelf violates no-rule of religio ollie e5 
or morality; i isa ae from which the aa revolts with 
= and sa or, dividuals 
thofe 
cc 
e that fhar correction 
pe the “civil penalties 
which they impofe are inordinately fevéere and oppreffive. 
“That they fhould originally have crept into our code, as 
they did, at a period when the rights of the fubjed, being 
neither: greatly regarded nor well underftood, were without 
much:ceremony fettered with reftrictions, is not nee tes i 
— that they fhould be fuffered to reproach our ftatute- 
in an age when freedom, refined by icience, boatts the 
ae ent o ne empire ; when the 
rights of all o 
and the touc chon of philofophy, anda “ patriot fovereign’’ 
=f i * P oe b 4 
. em* 
ower ; that Se “fuch a perio: nit of hardfhip and 
Jjoltioe fhould difplay itfelf fo confpictouy in this part of 
our penal fyftem,-refledts a di -on eur conflitution; - 
‘from which 1 its s confiderate admirers aL inch ay wilh 
-it relieved,’ ”- 
Ia 
