ON THE LAW AS IT AFFECTS THE RIGHT OF SPORTING FOR RABBITS AND WOODCOCKS, SNIPES, AND SOME OTHER BIRDS NOT BEING GAME; AND ON THE NECESSITY OF TAKING OUT A CERTIFICATE FOR THAT PURPOSE.

An opinion is, we believe, very generally prevalent that inasmuch as rabbits, woodcocks, and snipes are not game in the strict legal sense of the term (they not being enumerated as such in the Game Act, 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 32), any person is justified in shooting them without taking out a game certificate. This, however, is a popular error, and it is necessary that we should caution our readers by informing them that parties are (except in some cases hereafter noticed) equally bound to provide themselves with a certificate for the purpose of shooting rabbits, woodcocks, snipes, quails, and landrails, as they are for killing hares or pheasants, or any other description of legalised game, and that they are in like manner liable to the same penalties for trespassing on lands whilst in search or pursuit thereof, and for refusing to produce their certificates and tell their names and places of residence when so engaged on being lawfully required, as they would be under similar circumstances if in the pursuit of game.

The Game Act above referred to, which did away with the necessity of a personal qualification to enable parties to kill game, expressly provides (sect. 5) "that nothing therein contained shall in anywise affect or alter the provisions of any act then in force by which persons using any dog gun net or other engine for the purpose of taking or killing any game whatever or any woodcock snipe quail or landrail or any conies are required to obtain and have annual game certificates but that all persons who before the commencement of that act were required to obtain and have such certificates shall after the commencement thereof be required from time to time to obtain and have the like certificates and that all the powers provisions and penalties contained in any such previous act with reference to game certificates shall continue in as full force and effect as if the Act of 1 and 2 Will. IV. had not been made."

The 52 Geo. III. c. 93 was in force at the time of the passing of the 1 and 2 Will. IV. and it is by this former act that the duties now chargeable on game certificates are regulated. By this statute every person (the Royal Family excepted) using any dog, gun, net, or other engine for the purpose of taking or killing any game or any woodcock, snipe, quail, or landrail, or any coney, is bound under a penalty of £20 to take out an annual certificate. The act, however, contains these two exemptions, namely-the taking of woodcocks and snipes

(quails and landrails are not mentioned) with nets or springs, and the taking or destroying of conies by the proprietors of warrens or on any enclosed ground, or by the tenants of their lands either by themselves or by their direction.

This statute also in like manner rendered it incumbent ou every person to take out a certificate who assisted in any manner in taking or killing by any means any game or any woodcock, snipe, quail, landrail, or coney. The hardship, however, of this enactment being severely felt, inasmuch as it compelled gentlemen to take out certificates for their helpers or servants, it was soon afterwards repealed by the 54 Geo. III. c. 141. This statute provided that all the provisions contained in the former act relating to persons aiding or assisting, should thenceforth cease, provided the act of aiding or assisting were done in the company, and for the use of a party duly certificated, and using his own dog, gun, net, or other engine, and who was not acting by virtue of any deputation or appointment. A person therefore who has duly obtained his certificate is justified in taking with him as many of his servants or other uncertificated persons as he may think fit for the purpose of assisting him in finding or raising the game, &c., without subjecting such parties to any penalty for sporting without a certificate. The exemption, however, only extends to parties really engaged in assisting a certificated person and does not authorize an uncertificated person to shoot, although he do so in the com. pany of, or as the servant and by direction of a certificated person.

In order to ascertain whether parties have taken out the required certificate, it is enacted by the 52nd Geo. 3, c. 93. that if any person shall be discovered doing any act whatever, in respect whereof such person is chargeable with duty as before mentioned, and which we have seen includes parties taking or killing woodcocks, snipes, quails, landrails and rabbits, the person so discovering him may require from the person so acting, the prodution of a certificate, which certificate every such person is required to produce, and to permit him to read it, and (if he shall think fit) to take a copy of it, and in case no such certificate shall be produced, that then it is lawful for the person having made such demand to require the person so acting forthwith to declare his christian and surname and place of residence, and the parish or place in which he shall have been assessed to the duty, and if the party after such demand wilfully refuse to produce and show such certificate, or to give his christian and surname and place of residence, or shall produce any false or fictitious certificate, or give any false or fictitious name, place of residence, or place of assessment, shall forfeit the sum of £20.

It has been held under this clause that the demand of the certificate &c. need not be made on the land on which the person was sporting,

but that it must be made so immediately after he has quitted the land, as to form a part of the same transaction, and that the party making the demand, need not if required produce his certificate; but that if the party on whom the demand is made, refuse to comply therewith, he does so at the risk of the other party being authorised to make such demand; so that a person will not subject himself to the penalty, by merely refusing to produce his certificate, unless he also refuses to give his name and place of residence, and the place of assessment. By this statute also, persons doing any act for which a certificate is rendered necessary, without having obtained such certificate, are liable to a penalty of £20, over and above the full duty of £3 13s. 6d.

With a view to the detection and punishment of trespassers, it is provided by the 30th section of the Game Act, that if any person shall commit any trespass by entering or being in the day time upon any land in search or pursuit of game or woodcocks, snipes, quails, landrails or conies, such person shall on conviction thereof, before a Justice of the Peace, forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding £2, together with the costs of the conviction, and if there be five or more persons found so engaged in company, each shall in like manner forfeit a sum not exceeding £5. And by s. 31, where any person shall be found so engaged on any land, or upon any of His Majesty's forests, parks, chases, or warrens in the day time, it shall be lawful for any person having the right of killing the game upon such land, or for the occupier of the land, or for their servants, to require the person so found forthwith to quit the land, and also to demand his christian and surname, and place of abode, and in case such person shall refuse to tell his real name or place of abode, it is lawful for the party so requiring them, to apprehend the offender, and to convey him before a Justice, and such offender upon being convicted of any such offence, shall forfeit a sum of money not exceeding £5, together with the costs of the conviction. Parties apprehended under this enactment must be carried before the Magistrate within 12 hours from the time of their apprehension, and if that cannot be done, either in consequence of the absence of the Magistrate, or of the distance from his residence, they must be discharged from custody, but may be proceeded against for the offence, by summons or warrant, as if no such apprehension had taken place. To justify the apprehension of such a person, he must have been required to quit the land, and to tell his name, and "his continuing or returning on the land" must be upon the same land, and for the purpose of pursuing game &c. there.

The foregoing provisions it will be seen only apply to offences committed in the day time, which for the purposes of this act is to be deemed to commence at the beginning of the last hour before sunrise,

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and to conclude at the expiration of the first hour after sunset, the statute however of the 9th Geo. 4, c. 69, which was passed for the prevention and punishment of night-poaching, (and which is still in force) applies equally to offences committed by parties when in search or pursuit of rabbits, as of any species of game. And lastly, by the 7 and 8 Geo. 4, c. 29, any person unlawfully or wilfully in the night time taking or killing any hare or coney in any warren or ground, lawfully used for the breeding or keeping of hares or conies, whether the same be enclosed or not, is declared guilty of a misdemeanour, and if any person shall unlawfully or wilfully in the day time, take or kill any hare or coney in any such warrens or ground, or shall at any time set or use therein any snare or engine for that purpose, he shall on conviction before a Justice, forfeit and pay a sum of money not exceeding £5. This act however does not affect persons taking or killing in the day time, any rabbits on any sea bank or river bank in the county of Lincoln, so far as the tide extends, or within one furlong of such bank, nor does it apply to any other places than those commonly called rabbit warrens, or used as such, therefore where a party kept rabbits which were accustomed to run about loose in his rickyard, and some one destroyed them by poison in the night time, it was held that the party guilty of the offence was not punishable under this

statute.

SCENES IN THE SPORTING WORLD.

PICTORIAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

BY WILDRAKE.

No. IX.

"THE OLD DERBY ARMS."

"On the days when we were young!" Thus do we sing, louder, and louder, and more loudly yet, as we advance into the vale of years.

Yes! the days when we were young! Before those most convenient nuisances to all, but curses to the hunter, railroads, had cut old England up. The days when you could go the pace in a fast half-hour's burst across the country without a fear of being smashed "to smitherins" by a runaway tea-kettle, or "pulled up" by a Parliamentary police! The days, when hills rose and fell in a natural way, instead of running in a dull straight line on a dead level, and when vallies were neither pit-falls nor squire-traps. I am not old-Time has not

clawed my cheek, nor bared my poll, yet am I fain to sigh again, for the days when we were young! Before things were as they are; and ere yet the double quick march of improvement (?) had put to the rout that pleasant community of good men and true, who were wont to rally around old Charley Morton, and the Derby Arms.

Alas! Poor Surrey! Croydon has become a Railroad Station ; the Croydon Road is studded with "snug boxes," and "genteel villa residences;" (George Robins! I never quote without acknowledgment) and all "the old familiar spots" are bedivelled into modern abominations.

Hey! then, for the watchword of the olden time-all that is left us now-Go IT, FOR SURREY! that much abused, and sneered at country; I know of none I love so well. Take me your crack Leicestershire flyer, put him to Surrey riding in the strong lands, with a hard day's work before him, such as we once were wont to see, and where is he? His anxious mother would not know him, for his face and garments all beplastered o'er with mud, make it a hopeless task to try to recognise the man, whilst they bespeak but little credit for the rider. How often have I seen a set of "foreigners" from Berkshire, Wiltshire, Bucks, Hertfordshire, and other outlands," come to the meet of the Derby Staggers with the declared intention of bespeaking glory for themselves, and showing wonders to the Surrey men. And then, how did they do it? A gallop through the deep from Ditton Marsh (a favourite meet on such occasions), soon took the shine out of them; what had become of them, no one-at least, no Surrey man, could tell, and some steep fallow, or perchance "the Mole," alone could give a good account of them.

Above all other kith and kin of the chase, Surrey men had a "spirit of the soil," which made them quite unconquerable on their own ground. The hills, the flints, the fallow, and the down-they had a fond affection for them all, besides a clannish pride, which drew them more together, at the advent of a "foreigner," and rendered them as jealous of a stranger, as if he had been suspected of setting steel-traps and spring-guns under every fence. They had an honest pride too, in their own professed superiority, which helped them on amazingly, and on this point a legend used to be current, how, on a certain occasion, Prince Leopold (the present King of Belgium) being displeased at the inroads of Lord Derby's hounds upon the park at Claremont, put up a fence, such as he thought no mortal man could top. Soon afterwards, the hounds again trespassed on Claremont, and old J

--, and Jonathan, the huntsman, came together to the new "stopper." "Can you do it, Jonathan?" "No-I think notbut I can try"-was all that passed. At it they went, and with a fall, got over. The hounds came to a check in the park, in