GAME LAWS AND LICENCES 
upon many interesting points, and to abstain from quoting decided cases 
by way of illustration. But if that course were to be adopted the present 
summary would resolve itself into an elaborate treatise, which the reader 
of these pages will not expect. Let us therefore take the Acts as we find 
them, in order of date, with the proper references to enable the reader (if 
need be) to obtain copies of them, and with such details of their contents 
as are important, freed as much as possible from technicalities. Should 
the reader find on occasion that more information is needed he will be 
able without difficulty to provide himself with the full text of the Act 
in question. 
First, then, we have the Act passed in 1828 : — 
THE NIGHT POACHING ACT 
9 Geo. IV, cap. 69 
This Act, as its title implies, was designed to put a stop to the destruc- 
tion of game and rabbits by night ; accordingly the first section indicates 
the penalties to be incurred on conviction by those found trespassing 
for that purpose. The penalties are: for a first offence, three months* hard 
labour, with the onus of finding sureties for good behaviour at the end 
of the term; for a second offence, six months’ hard labour and subsequent 
sureties; in the case of a third offence the offender is deemed guilty of 
a misdemeanour, and, when the Act was passed, was liable to trans- 
portation; but this was subsequently commuted to penal servitude by 
20 & 21 Viet., cap. 3. 
Section 2 empowers an owner or occupier, or lord of the manor, his 
gamekeeper or servant, to seize the offender and take him before two 
justices. The prosecution of such offender must (under Sect. 4) be com- 
menced within twelve months from the date of the offence; and any appeal 
from a conviction must be to the next Court of Quarter Sessions (Sect. 6). 
Section 9 is an important one, for it deals with a “ gang ” of poachers, 
and provides that if three or more persons are armed with guns, nets 
or other engines, and enter upon land by night for the purpose of taking 
game or rabbits, each person is guilty of a misdemeanour, and is liable 
to penal servitude or imprisonment not exceeding two years. 
Then come two definitions which one would have expected to find at 
the commencement of the Act instead of at the end, namely : — Section 12 
defines “night ’’ as commencing at the expiration of one hour after sunset, 
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