and Mary, c. 23. are repealed by the 5 Ann. c. 14. with respect to Game, viz. hares, pheasants, partridges, and grouse. That statute provides expressly, though it was unnecessary, that all the laws for the preservation of Game should continue in force, not thereby repealed, or altered. СНАР. CHAP. XII. BUYING AND SELLING GAME, AND THE POSSESSION OF IT BY AN UNQUALIFIED MAN. By the 11 Hen. VII. c. 17. the property in pheasants and partridges is protected to the occupier of the land by a heavy penalty of 10%. for each offence, one half to the prosecutor, and the other half to the occupier of the land. This statute is still in force. See p. 52, ante. It was probably found by experience, that this statute was not sufficient to secure to the occupier of an estate his pheasants and partridges, whilst they could be bought and sold; as the price which could be procured for them induced a temptation to steal, and the theft could not be discovered by the identity of the animals: we therefore find it enacted forty-six years afterwards, that whoever shall sell or buy any pheasant or partridge (saving the officers of the King's, Queen's, or Prince's houses), houses), shall forfeit for every pheasant 6s. 8d., and for every partridge 3s. 6d. to the King.32 Hen. VIII. c. 8. anno 1540. The occupier of the land must, therefore, have consumed them in his own house, or have made presents of them. The 2 Jac. c. 27. s. 4. enacts, that if any person shall sell, or buy to sell again, any deer, hare, partridge, or pheasant (except partridges and pheasants reared in a house, or brought from beyond the seas), shall forfeit for every deer 40s., hare 10s., partridge 10s., and pheasant 20s. This continued to be the law till the 5 Ann. c. 14. which enacts, "That if any higgler, chapman, carrier, inn-keeper, victualler, or alehousekeeper, shall, from and after the first day of May, one thousand seven hundred and seven, have in his or their custody or possession, any hare, pheasant, partridge, moor, heath-game, or grouse, or shall buy, sell, or offer to sell, any hare, pheasant, partridge, moor, heath-game, or grouse, every such higgler, chapman, inn-keeper, victualler, alehousekeeper, or carrier (unless such Game in the hands of such carrier be sent up by a person or persons qualified to kill the Game), shall, upon every such offence, offence, be carried before some justice of the peace for the county, riding, city, or town corporate, or liberties, where the said offence is committed; and upon view, or upon the oath of one or more credible witnesses, shall be convicted of the same, shall forfeit for every hare, pheasant, partridge, moor, heath-game, or grouse, the sum of five pounds, one half to the informer, and the other half to the poor of the parish, where the offence was committed; the same to be levied by distress and sale of the offender's goods, by warrant under the hand and seal of the justice or justices of the peace before whom such offender or offenders shall be convicted, rendering the overplus (if any be), the charge of distraining being first deducted; and for want of distress, the offender or offenders be committed to the house of correction for the first offence, for the space of three months, without bail or mainprize; and for every such other offence, for the space of four months; provided that such conviction be made within three months after such offence committed: and that if any certiorari shall be allowed to remove any conviction made, or other proceedings of or concerning any matter or thing in this Act, into any of the Courts at Westminster, upon any pretence whatsoever, unless the party or parties against whom such conviction shall be made, shall, before the allowance of such certiorari, certiorari, become bound to the person or persons prosecuting the same, in the sum of fifty pounds, with such sufficient securities as the justice or justices of the peace, before whom such offenders shall be convicted, shall think fit, with condition to pay to the prosecutors, within fourteen days after such conviction or procedendo granted, their full costs and charges, to be ascertained upon their oaths; and that in default thereof, it shall be lawful for the said justice or justices of the peace, or others, to proceed for the due execution of such conviction, in such manner as if no such certiorari had been awarded. "III. And for the better discovery of such higgler, chapman, carrier, inn-keeper, alehouse-keeper, and victualler, as shall offer to buy or sell any hare, pheasant, partridge, moor, heath-game, or grouse, be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said first day of May, any person that shall destroy, sell, or buy any hare, pheasant, moor, heath-game, or grouse, and shall within three months make discovery of any higgler, chapman, carrier, inn-keeper, alehouse-keeper, or victualler, that hath bought or sold, or offered to buy or sell, or had in their possession, any hare, pheasant, partridge, moor, heath-game, or grouse, so as any one shall be convicted of such offence, in manner |