ON THE

GAME LAWS.

CHAP. I.

WHAT IS GAME?

No question is so frequently asked as this, viz. What is Game? and scarce any question can be proposed which a lawyer, even a learned and an accurate one, would find it more difficult to

answer.

The authorities which will enable us to answer the question, are-what the Legislature, in Acts of Parliament, from time to time, have denominated Game; and what has been so regarded by the Judges in their decisions in the Courts of Law, and what the best legal writers have considered Game. In thus tracing the subject, we shall clearly find that deer and rabbits have formerly

been considered Game; and a gamekeeper would now be authorized to take away a gun from an unqualified person, who used it for killing rabbits. 22 & 23 Car. II. c. 25.

The word Game, according to our present ideas, seems to denote something designed to afford amusement and recreation; but this word, applied to animals, is comparatively modern. I do not find it in Magna Charta, the Charta de Foresta, or in any Act of Parliament before the 22d of Ed. IV. c. 6. anno 1482. where it is applied to swans. It is never used in any records respecting the King's forests.

In Manwood's Treatise on the Forest Laws, a very learned and amusing book, written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the word Game is never once mentioned by the learned author. It is very fully abridged by Chief Baron Comyns, under the title Chace; and in that useful work, under that title, the word Game is not used.

The beasts and birds of forest, chace, park, and warren, are particularly specified; but they are described as the beasts and birds of forest, chace, park, and warren.

When

When all the legal written proceedings were in Latin, till the 4th Geo. I., in declarations and convictions, the general word Game was rendered in Latin by Fera or Feras, according to the case; and it was not even explained by an "anglicè Game."

In the translation to the first Qualification Act, the 13th Rich. II. c. 13. anno 1389, the word Game is used; but in the original French, corresponding to Gentlemen's Game, the words are desduit des gentils.

But I shall give here the statute at length.

"None shall hunt, but they which have a suffi"cient living.

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Forasmuch as divers artificers, labourers, and "servants and grooms, keep greyhounds and other dogs; and on the holydays, when good Christian people be at Church, hearing Divine Service, they

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go hunting in parks, warrens, and connegries of "Lords and others, to the very great destruction of "the same; and sometime under such colour they "make their assemblies, conferences, and conspi"racies for to rise and disobey their allegiance; it is "ordered and asserted, that no manner of artificer, "labourer,

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"labourer, nor any other layman, which hath not "lands or tenements to the value of 40s. by year, ἐσ nor any priest, nor other clerk, if he be not ad"vanced to the value of 107. by year, shall have or σε keep from henceforth any greyhound, hound, nor "other dog to hunt, nor shall they use fyrets, heys,

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nets, harepipes, nor cords, nor other engines to "take or destroy deer, hares, nor conies, nor other "Gentlemen's Game, upon pain of one year's impri66 sonment; and that the Justices of Peace have

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power to enquire, and shall enquire of the offenders on this behalf, and punish them by the 66 pain aforesaid."

The French is, Ne nulles autres engynnes pur prendre ou destruire savagnie, leveres, ne conilles, nautre desduit des gentils sur peine demprisonement dun an.

The animals expressly protected by this Act are only deer, hares, and conies; and we are left to conjecture what is other Gentlemen's Game; and the persons not qualified according to the Act are not to keep nul leverer ne lerce nautre chien pur chacer.

It is worthy of observation, that this is the only Act of Parliament in the whole Statute-book that lays any restraint upon keeping hounds.

It would therefore follow, as it is not anywhere expressly repealed, and no other penalty anywhere substituted, that with respect to hunting with hounds it would still be in force.

This is the first statute respecting Game, and is the foundation of all the Game Laws. It fully refutes two great errors, viz. that all Game belonged to the King, and that the Game Laws sprung from the Feudal System.

In the next statute in which Game is mentioned, it is applied to swans; and it is enacted that no one shall have a mark or game of swans, who has not a freehold estate of the yearly value of five marks, 22 Ed. IV. c. 6. 1482.

This is called in Latin, volatus cignorum ferorum; in English, a game of wild swans, 7 Co. 15. See Lord Coke's case of Swans, post, p. 27.

The next statute which mentions Game, is the 2 Jac. I. c. 27. 1604.

The preamble states, "Forasmuch as there be divers good and becessary laws against those who spoil and destroy the game of pheasants, partridges, hearn, mallard, and such like.”