GAME LAWS AND LICENCES 
NYTHING like a treatise on the Game Laws, a subject on 
which many volumes have been written, could hardly 
/ be expected in the present work. At the same time, in 
r a publication dealing so fully with game and wildfowl 
I and the sport which these birds alford with the gun, it 
seems desirable to devote a few pages to the considera- 
tion of the principal legal enactments of which every good sportsman 
ought to know at least the outlines. An attempt will therefore be made 
to give such a summary of the principal statutes relating to game as 
will enable the reader to see almost at a glance the purport of each, and 
by supplying him with the proper references assist him to find any Act 
which he may think applicable to his case. 
It is surprising how few shooting men seem to have any real know- 
ledge of the game laws ; even those who are game preservers, employing 
perhaps several keepers, and having frequent occasion to consider cases 
of poaching and trespass. This is the more to be wondered at because 
copies of any of the statutes may be procured for a few pence on applica- 
tion to the agents for the sale of Parliamentary papers, Messrs Wyman 
& Sons, of Fetter Lane, London. From the solicitor’s point of view, 
perhaps, private interpretation of the game laws is not to be encouraged, 
seeing the differences of opinion which have arisen on the construction 
of a section both at petty sessions and in the superior courts, necessitating 
in some cases recourse to the Court of Appeal. But, on the other hand, 
many simple questions from time to time arise which may be easily 
resolved on reference to an Act of Parliament if the inquirer knows where 
to look for it. 
To begin with, it may be said that the principal Game Act, which governs 
most of the cases likely to arise, is that passed in 1831 (1 & 2 Will. IV, 
c. 32). But three years earlier an important measure, known as the “ Night 
Poaching Act, 1828,” paved the way for it, and is still in force. 
Altogether there are about a dozen statutes which game preservers 
and shooting men would do well to know something about; and perhaps 
the best way to deal with them here will be to take them in chronological 
order, and explain as briefly as may be the purport and the principal 
provisions of each. This method seems the more desirable because some 
of them are in the nature of amendments and have relation to others 
which precede them. It will be difficult to avoid digression by touching 
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