Fees in England. 
81 
don in the hot summers of 1864 and 1865. 1 At that time Lon¬ 
don was literally overrun with dogs, many of them ownerless, 
running at large in the streets and public parks. People were 
in mortal terror of being bitten, and feared to allow their chil¬ 
dren to go outside of the home inclosure. To give the police 
power to kill these wild dogs and make the owners responsible 
for the rest, a license fee of 5s was required to be paid by the 
owner for each dog. When once introduced it continued in 
force with slight changes down to the present time. 
The game license, in the modern sense of the term, is another 
of Pitt’s regulative measures. Although there had been game 
laws as early as 1389, the object of which was “ to prevent arti¬ 
ficers, laborers, servants, and grooms ” from going hunting 
while “ good Christian people were at church, ” these early acts 
simply required property qualifications for obtaining a game li¬ 
cense; while Pitt’s act of 1784 imposed a fee of £2 2s for each 
annual license issued. This was primarily intended to affect 
only “gentlemen;” 2 but these were able to evade it, making 
good use, however, of the penalties imposed to punish poachers. 
Licenses were also required of bankers, doctors, barristers, con¬ 
veyancers, proctors, auctioneers, pawnbrokers, jewellers, and 
others. These were very largely, although not exclusively, im¬ 
posed for revenue. 3 At present the most important sources of 
fees in England, from a fiscal standpoint, are the following: 
harbors, light-houses, bridges and ferries, turnpikes, trusts, 
markets and fairs, and the Bank of England. 4 
E. ENGLISH COURT, OR ADMINISTRATION, FEES. 
The most significant part of the English fee-system to the 
student of American institutions, whether viewed from the his¬ 
torical, economic, or political point of view, is perhaps the court, 
or more broadly speaking, the administrative fees. The origin 
of these is doubtless identical with the origin of the English ju¬ 
dicial system. In the latter half of the seventeenth century 
1 Buxton, II, 84. 
2 Ibid., I, 284. 
8 Statistical Abstract of United Kingdom, 1893. 
4 Buxton, II, 205. 
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