KILLING GAME
.—The privilege of KILLING GAME (in any way whatever) is now dependent upon a two-fold qualification; in want of BOTH which, the transgressor renders himself liable to a DOUBLE, and in want of either, to a single penalty; which, divested of technical ambiguity, and the complicated abstrusity of the GAME LAWS in their present extended state, is reduced to the following state of simplification, adapted to every comprehension.
In different Acts of Parliament during the reigns of James the First, Charles the Second, and Queen Anne, the landed possessions necessary to constitute a qualification to kill game, (exempt from pains and penalties,) have varied materially, in proportion to the gradual alteration in the value of money, which has continued to diminish in a corresponding degree. The landed qualification established by the 23d Charles the Second, c. xxv. and still adhered to, is the possession of LANDS, TENEMENTS, or other estates of inheritance, of the CLEAR yearly value of ONE HUNDRED POUNDS. Or, for term of life, A LEASE or LEASES for ninety-nine years, or any longer term, of the CLEAR yearly value of ONE HUNDRED and FIFTY POUNDS. Persons not so qualified, either killing, or going in pursuit of game with an intent to kill, and being convicted upon the OATH of one witness, before a Justice of the Peace, forfeits FIVE POUNDS for each offence; half to the informer, and half to the poor of the parish where the offence is committed.
Thus far a line is drawn between the QUALIFIED and the unqualified, in respect to LANDED privilege, upon former Acts of Parliament; clearly defining who possessed a LEGAL RIGHT to pursue and KILL GAME under such sanction, and who were the persons prohibited from so doing, and liable to the penalty before described. In addition to which distinction, it has been enacted by successive Acts in the present reign of George the Third, That every person who shall use any DOG, GUN, NET, or other engine, for the taking or killing of game, (except a game-keeper acting under a deputation duly registered,) shall every year, previous to his using the same, deliver his name and place of abode to the Clerk of the Peace of the county where he shall reside, and take out an annual CERTIFICATE, or licence, bearing a stamp, for which three guineas are to be paid. This licence, when obtained, does not authorize unqualified persons to kill game, but leaves them still liable to the PENALTY of FIVE POUNDS for each offence, as already described. The penalty for killing game without having procured the ANNUAL CERTIFICATE, is TWENTY POUNDS to either the qualified or unqualified; so that the unqualified, prosecuted to conviction, is in a predicament of only five pounds worse than the QUALIFIED, the penalty being twenty pounds with one, and five-and-twenty with the other. Any person in pursuit of game, having his name and place of abode demanded by another, who is possessed of a certificate, and refusing to tell the same, is liable to a penalty of FIFTY POUNDS. See Game-keepers, and Game Laws.