be transferred to the successor, free of duty, by indorsement made by the excise officer. It should also be observed here that any person licensed in his own right may kill game anywhere in the United Kingdom, subject to the law of trespass.

For the first time, it is believed, in England the law now requires a government licence to be taken out for the taking or killing of any deer (in the same manner as game) by other persons than the owners or occupiers of inclosed lands, when the deer is in such lands, or is killed by their direction or permission, and also when it is not pursued and killed by hunting with hounds.

The killing and taking of game on improper days, or of birds of game during the breeding seasons, is prohibited by heavy penaltiesviz., no game is to be caught on a Sunday or Christmas Day, under a penalty of £5; nor any partridge between the 1st of February and the 1st of September following; a pheasant between the 1st of February and the 1st of October following; black game between the 10th of December and 20th of August following; or in Somerset, Devon, or New Forest, between the 10th of December and the 1st September following; grouse or red game between the 10th of December and the 12th of August following; bustards between the 1st of March and the 1st of September following, under a penalty of £1 for every head of game taken. Hares, it will be seen, are not included in the enactments as to the times and seasons of taking game, except as to Sunday and Christmas Day. Woodcocks, snipes, quails, landrails, and conies also have no statutory season assigned to them, or within which it is unlawful to kill or take them, as a few winged animals only are specified in the enactment; nor are swans, wild ducks, teal, or widgeons prohibited from being killed at any period of the year.

The unlawful taking of game is punishable in various ways. Those who do so without the excise licence to kill are liable to the excise penalty of £20, and the cumulative penalty of £5 for unlawfully taking game in the daytime. These are in addition to the penalties for taking game on improper days, or out of season; for all the penalties under the acts are cumulative, if the act done embraces more than one offence under different statutes or sections. For example: If an unlicensed person trespass in pursuit of game on a Sunday, and kill any game, he may be convicted in four penalties-the excise penalty, £20; £5 for unlawfully taking game in the daytime; £2 for the trespass; £5 for taking on the Sunday or Christmas Day; total, £32. Should the above take place when game is out of scason, there would be an additional penalty of £1 for every head, so that a day's poaching might become a rather ruinous affair.

It may here not be out of place to warn the reader that there is a penalty for selling game without licence; for we believe that it occasionally happens, when some Londoner receives at the same time a large quantity of game, that he disposes of part of it to his poulterer, thus laying himself open to be informed against; for Sec. 25 of 1 and 2 William IV., cap. 32, enacts: "That if any person, not having obtained a game certificate (except such person be licensed to deal in game according to this act), shall sell or offer for sale any game to any person whatever, every such offender shall on conviction of such offence before two justices of the peace forfeit and pay for every head of game

so sold or offered for sale such sum of money not exceeding £2, as to the said justices shall seem meet, together with the costs of the conviction. The penalty of an unlicensed person buying from an unlicensed person is not to exceed £5 for every head of game."

We now approach the subject of private, local, and salmon fisheries, and the enactments which relate to the criminal proceedings and penalties for injuries done to them. Chitty, in his "Treatise on the Game Laws," gives a most elaborate statement of the law upon the private rights of individuals in fisheries, from which and other authorities we glean the following: "When the lord of a manor hath the soil on both sides of a river, he hath the right of fishing; the owner of the soil of a private or fresh river hath a separate or several fishery; and he that hath a free fishery has a property in the fish. There are three sorts of fisheries and piscaries-1st, frce fishery; 2nd, several or scparate fishery; and, 3rd, common of piscary. A free fishery is an exclusive right of fishing in a public river, and is a royal franchise. A several fishery is an exclusive right of fishing in the soil of another, and it appears to be the better opinion that a person can have this kind of fishery without being also owner of the soil, as by a grant immediately from such owner; and there may be a prescriptive right in a subject to a several fishery in an arm of the sea; and such a fishery enjoyed by a subject under a grant in a navigable river, where the tide flows, is an incorporeal hereditament, and a term for years in it cannot be created except by deed. Common of piscary or fishery is a liberty of fishery, in common with others, in a stream or river, the soil whereof belongs to a third person."

There are a variety of private or local acts in force relative to fisheries in particular rivers and districts, and many have been wholly or partially repealed by the Salmon Fishery Act of 1861. The principal acts are those relating to the rivers Tweed and Thames-viz., as to the Tweed, 20 and 21 Vict., cap. 148, amended by 22 and 23 Vict., cap. 70, some of the offences under which are punishable in England; and as to the Thames, fishing in it is regulated by the 30th George II., cap. 21, and is now under the superintendence of the conservators of the river Thames, by virtue of the Thames Conservancy Act of 1857, which transferred to them the power of the Corporation of London, as conservators of that river. In addition to the bye-laws made by the City Corporation on the 4th of October, 1785, which are still in force, the Thames Conservators in January, 1860, made an amended byelaw in lieu of the sixteenth of those, ordaining that "No person shall use any net for the purpose of catching fish in the river Thames between Richmond Bridge and the City Stone at Staines, except a small net, for the purpose of taking bait only, of the following dimensions-namely, not exceeding thirteen feet in circumference, and an angler's landingnet, under penalty to forfeit and pay £5 for every such offence."

The law as to salmon-fishing, which received the Royal assent on the 6th of August, 1861, gives the definition of terms used in the Act; then proceeds to state clearly the law of fishing, the prohibition of destroying fish, restrictions as to times of fishing, regulations as to fish passes, restrictions as to fishing weirs, general superintendence of fisheries by the Home Office, the penalties that may be imposed for any infringement of the laws, and the repeal of former acts. Among the

prohibitory clauses are the following: "No person shall use a light for the purpose of catching salmon, nor use any spear, gaff, strokehall, snatch, or other like instrument for catching salmon, or have in his possession a light or any of the foregoing instruments, under such circumstances as to satisfy the court before whom he is tried that he intended at the time to catch salmon by means thereof." Any person acting in contravention of this section shall incur a penalty not excecding five pounds, and shall forfeit any instrumen's used by him or found in his possession in contravention of this section; but this section shall not apply to any person using a gaff as auxiliary to angling with a rod and line. No person shall use any fish-roe for a bait, or buy, sell, or expose for sale, or have in his possession any salmon-roe. Any person acting in contravention of this section shall for each offence incur a penalty not exceeding two pounds. A penalty not exceeding five pounds, and the forfeiture of nets and tackle, is attached to any person using a net to take salmon, having a mesh of less dimensions than two inches in extension from knot to knot, or eight inches measured round each mesh when wet. Any artifice used, so as to evade the provisions of this section, such as placing two or more nets behind, or near to each other, in such manner as to practically diminish the mesh of the nets used, shall be deemed to be an act of contravention of this section. There are also penalties for placing or fixing fixed engines, using certain dams, and for not erecting gratings to prevent the descent of salmon into artificial streams. It is also prohibited to wilfully take any unclean or unseasonable salmon; to wilfully take or destroy the young of salmon, injure the young of salmon, or disturb any spawning bel, or any bank or shallow on which the spawn of salmon may be.

No person shall fish for, catch, or attempt to catch or kill, salmon between the 1st day of September and the 1st day of February following, both inclusive, except only that it shall be lawful to fish with a rod and line between the 1st day of September and the 1st day of November following, both inclusive. Any person acting in contravention of this section shall forfeit any salmon caught by him, and shall, in addition thereto, incur a penalty not exceeding five pounds, and a further penalty not exceeding two pounds in respect of each salmon so caught. Power is given to the Home-office to extend or vary the close scason. There are other clauses respecting fish passes, supply of water to them, construction of free gaps, and of boxes and cribs in fishing weirs, and fishing mill-dams.

The general superintendence of the salmon fisheries throughout England is vested in the Home-office; and it is lawful for the Home-office to appoint two inspectors of fisheries for three years, to assign to them their duties, and to pay to them such salaries as may from time to time be determined by the commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury.

As the "New Larceny Consolidation Act," which applies to the stealing or injuring of dogs, is one that affects every class of persons, including the aristocratic duchess with her obese pug, the "fast young lady" with her Skye terrier, the elderly spinster with her pet spaniel, the country squire with his Newfoundland dog, the sporting youth with his black-and-tan terrier, and the Whitechapel costermonger with his thorough-bred bulldog, his head scarred all over, and a noli me tangere look about him, a brief account of the law may not be out of place.

It first enacts, "Whosoever shall steal any dog shall, on conviction thereof before two justices of the peace, either be committed to the common gaol or house of correction, there to be imprisoned, or to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for any term not exceeding six months; or shall forfeit and pay, over and above the value of the said dog, such sum of money, not exceeding twenty pounds, as to the said justices shall seem meet; and whosovever, having been convicted of any such offence, either against this or any former Act of Parliament, shall afterwards steal any dog, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and, being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be imprisoned for auy term not exceeding eighteen months, with or without hard labour." The next clause applies to the possession of stolen dogs, and runs as follows: "Whosoever shall unlawfully have in his possession, or on his premises, any stolen dog, or the skin of any stolen dog, knowing such dog to have been stolen, or such skin to be the skin of a stolen dog, shall, on conviction thereof before two justices of the peace, be liable to pay such sum of money, not exceeding twenty pounds, as to such justices shall seem meet.' Any person convicted of a like second offence" shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding eighteen months, with or without hard labour." The 20th section enacts, "Whosoever shall corruptly take any money or reward, directly or indirectly, under pretence or upon account of aiding any person to recover any dog which shall have been stolen, or which shall be in the possession of any person not being the owner thereof, shall, on conviction, be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding eighteen months, with or without hard labour." "The new Malicious Injuries Consolidation Act" applies to killing or maiming animals, and cruelty to a dog; and although the penalties are great, we fear many a human brute escapes the punishment he so richly merits for torturing man's faithful friend.

EVELYN, CRAWFORD, AND LAVALETTE, DETAINED STILL AT THE INN.

During one of those black, dismal days that we were snowed up on the borders of the forest of Marly, Crawford, who delighted in old books, brought forth an old work on "Falconrie," which he chanced to have with him, and read out for our entertainment some quaint verses in favour of hawking or falconry, which it contained, and in which the writer, after declaring that games

"Were first devised to daunt the dtimps of pensive, pained sprites:" places falconry at the head of them, declaring that there was

"No game so gladsome to the limmes."

"Falconry was much delighted in once," said Crawford, as he closed

the book; "but has been rarely practised since the seventeenth century."

"We scarcely hear it named now," I (Evelyn) replied, "yet I dare say this prince of story-tellers," turning to Lavalette, "could draw from his inexhaustible memory some narrative relating to it. What do you say, Lavalette?"

"I cannot give you anything I have seen, as I have not lived in the days you speak of," replied Lavalette, laughing; "but I can relate what I read in an unpublished memoir of a hawking party in the Forest of Compiègne."

"Be it so, we said, and drawing closer to the fire gave him our undivided attention.

"No court in Europe was so austere, chilling, and unattractive as was the court of France at the period when the Duke of Buckingham arrived there, sent by Charles the First of England, as his proxy, to wed and bring home Henrietta, sister to the French King.

"Remembrances of the massacre of St. Bartholomew, and of the League, still lingered in the country. Time had not yet dimmed the vivid memories of those who had suffered, and, in the midst of broken fortunes and uncertain social positions, few or none among the richest of the nobility cared to display the state suitable to their rank; indeed, Cardinal Richelieu, who carried everything with a high hand, wished that there should be no display, and, sombre in his views, crushed all attempts to revive the ancient splendour and gaiety of the court. This gave great dissatisfaction to the younger courtiers, who wished for less restraint on their pleasures and independence, and the appearance of the Duke of Buckingham in Paris was rapturously hailed by them; a joy in which all ranks seemed in a degree to participate.

"Louis XIII. himself even looked on it with pleasure. He liked any event that could assist him to wrestle with the inherent melancholy of his temperament, and oblige him as it were to promote gaiety. It was necessary to entertain these noble visitors-the English Ambassador and his train-in a manner suitable to their rank; and to do this he must endeavour to dissipate the settled gloom that hung over his

court.

"The eyes of the French court were turned with eager curiosity upon the Duke of Buckingham, sent as he was to grace the nuptials and conduct the new Queen to England. The fame of Buckingham had preceded him. All the world knew that he had enjoyed the unlimited favour of two successive monarchs; and that he was as gallant and accomplished as he was extravagant and thoughtless.

"Neither was this marriage which was about to take place without its touch of romance. Henrietta of France and Charles of England. were not entirely unknown to each other. When Charles (then Prince of Wales) and Buckingham had passed, disguised and undiscovered, through France on their chivalrous journey into Spain, they had ventured into a court ball at Paris, and there Charles had beheld the beautiful Princess Henrietta, then in the first bloom of youth. His visit to Spain had proved unsuccessful-the treaty of marriage with the Infanta was broken off-but the remembrance of the beautiful Henrietta soon put all thoughts of regret to flight, and his marriage with her was eventually arranged.