QUALIFICATION
—is both a sporting and parliamentary term for the privilege of killing game, in HUNTING, COURSING, SHOOTING, or by any mode which the qualified party may chuse to adopt; provided it is not repugnant to such other Acts as are still in force for the prevention of POACHING, and those nocturnal depredations by which the game is annually so daringly reduced. This qualification (or exemption from the penalties of former Acts during different reigns) till of very late years, consisted in the full and unrestrained possession of one hundred pounds per annum, issuing from FREEHOLD LAND, or estate, and producing that clear annual sum when every other expence was paid: or, the possession of a LEASEHOLD estate of one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, in right of self or wife, for the term of ninety-nine years, or any term beyond that period. In addition to which, it is enacted by an Act of the Legislature during the present reign of George the Third, That every person in Great Britain who shall use any dog, gun, net, or other engine, for the taking or destruction of GAME, shall take out an annual certificate, from the Clerk of the Peace for the county in which he resides, and shall pay for such certificate the sum of THREE POUNDS THREE SHILLINGS, with one shilling to the clerk for his trouble in making it out. See Game, and Game Laws.