fees, according to the recognized scale. Apothecaries have only a right of action in case they have received an official license. In the interest of public safety, knackers' yards, gunpowder factories, and tobacco manufactories, must obtain licenses. Common lodging-houses, boarding-houses, and furnished hotels, since the 16 and 17 Vic., c. 41, have to obtain a license, such license to be withheld whenever a satisfactory certificate of character is not produced. Keepers of beer-houses and hotels were exempt from all restrictions in the middle ages. The 6 Edward VI., c. 25, introduced the licensing of ale-houses by two justices of the peace at quarter sessions. The landlords must bind themselves also not to permit any forbidden games. Whosoever sells beer without a license is subject to a penalty.* All licenses for the keeping of a bar, and of a hotel in which spirituous liquors are sold retail, must be renewed yearly at the general annual licensing meeting. Such license is not granted to persons who are not of good character. If withheld, appeal lies to the quarter sessions, in which justices of the peace other than those in the first case have to determine. No further appeal is permissible. In the event, however, of partial motives being feared, the matter may, by certiorari, be brought for decision to the Queen's Bench. No competitor of the person applying for the license is allowed to act in such case as justice of the peace. The license is transferable. To facilitate such transfer, from four to eight licensing meetings are held annually. Besides this license, every hotel keeper and publican requires also an excise license. The landlord, by his license, is only empowered to sell beer and cyder out of the house. In country districts and towns not represented in parliament, a landlord, to obtain such license, further requires yearly a certificate of character from six residents in the district, undersigned by a poorlaw overseer. In London and the parliamentary boroughs, no such certificate is required, but both beer-shops and public-houses are there subject to strict police supervision. The question of granting licenses has not always been withdrawn from the sphere of party politics. In 1682 the justices of the peace in London declared the frequenters of " Conventicles" inadmissible as publicans. The practice of the courts of law has since then kept in check such magisterial display of authority. The judges have determined

* Crabb, 477.

that no mere vague imputation, but only the want of legal qualifications, can justify the refusal of a license. Lord Mansfield allowed proceedings to be taken against two justices of the peace for having refused a license to a publican, on the ground of his having given an adverse vote at the parliamentary election. Com. plaints are made, even at the present day, that on grounds purely political the granting of licenses is frequently arbitrarily determined. In this particular, the reform of the town corporations has introduced many improvements.*

The license may, according to 9 Geo. IV., c. 61, and 39 Geo. III., c. 79, be withdrawn at once, by two justices of peace, in case any riotous or immoral publication be met with in any ale-shop or public-house, or any riotous unlawful assemblage has been held with concurrence of the landlord. On account of any other offence, a license can only be withdrawn at the quarter sessions and on a verdict given by the jury; the withdrawal of the license renders the person thereby affected incapable of keeping either a bar or hotel for three years.

Monopolies are unknown to the law of England. All the railways and docks, many of the harbours, and all the canals are the property of private individuals, who are mostly associated with a view to common profit. All such companies are corporations, and must acquire, by an act of parliament, the rights of ("moral") persons. The government has a supervision over railways, the direction of canals, etc., may establish scales of charges and regulations; and, within the scope of such regulations, the ministry is ordinarily invested with full power. A truly ccntinental mode of issuing governmental regulations has already been inaugurated.

The system of assurance has always been unfettered,

Miss Martineau, Hist of Eng.

CHAPTER VI.

INVIOLABILITY OF PROPERTY.

Confiscation. Action of Law on Local Taxation.-Expropriation.--Royal Game.Later Game Laws.-Consequences thereof.-New Game Law.-Relief.

THE forfeiture of both real and personal property still attends a conviction for felony or high treason.* In case of conviction for high treason the lands of the traitor escheat to the crown; in case of felony, where the specific offence is murder, the lands go to the crown for a year, day, and waste." Since the statute 54 Geo. III., c. 145, he who is attainted of any other felony than high treason and murder forfeits the profits of all his estates of freehold during his life only; with regard to lands of inheritance, the general opinion is that, as the attainder has relation to the time of the offence committed, any intermediate conveyance or incumbrance will be void. Forfeiture of chattels has no relation backward, so that all alienations made bona fide and for value after committal of the offence, and before conviction, are good.

Against the impositions of local taxes, recourse to the law is admissible, and the ground of such imposition may be contested before a court of law. In the case of local taxes in arrear, and which have not been questioned, distraint is carried out in a very summary and expeditious manner.

According to modern statutes, expropriation, for the construction of railways and for the carrying out of public works, may take place under the Land Clauses Consolidation Act (8 Vict., c. 18, for England and Ireland; and 8 Vict., c. 19, for Scotland). In cases of minor import an arbitrator declares his award; in cases of higher moment a jury determines the amount of indemnity. The free enjoyment of property has been for a long time limited in England by reason of the mediæval game laws. After the conquest, hunting was made a "royal" privilege; the severe forest laws of William I., were however by the " Charta + Bowyer, 428.

Bl. iv., 94-95; Coke, Inst. iii., 15; Shakespeare's Henry VIII., act iii. s. 2 (Suffolk to Wolsey).

de Foresta," of 1217 toned down; a later charter of Henry III., withdrew from many forests the royal privilege of hunting, substituting a fine and imprisonment for killing the king's deer, in lieu of capital punishment.

Even at the present day, in view of law the sovereign is the only person in England who has a right to pursue game; whoever wishes to acquire such right must obtain a license from the crown.

Sovereigns have, however, since the conquest, frequently granted the right of hunting to the gentry, who might exercise it in parks or "chases," in certain cases also, but not indiscriminately, on land belonging to other persons.* Thus gradually did the right come into the hands of the landed gentry; the laws affecting such right have remained in all their mediæval harshness for the advantage of the ruling class. Blackstonet breaks a lance against the game laws as the product of tyranny, contending, "that the only difference between the old Norman forest laws and the new game laws is, that formerly there was only one great hunter throughout the land, whereas at present a petty Nimrod reigns in every manor-house."+

No one not possessing a freehold producing £100 a-year durst hunt game upon his own land. Whoever held such right was bound to have a license.‡ Characteristically enough, a forty shilling freeholder might elect to parliament, and anyone with £20 yearly income might be a juror, but, to be able to shoot a partridge, a man must have fifty times as much income as a parliamentary elector, and five times as much as a juror.

As a consequence of such laws, in 1830, the prisons were halffilled with offenders.§ In 1829, a bill tending to render the sale of game free was defeated in the Upper House: Lord Westmoreland was of opinion that by such a law the country would be depopulated of its gentry!! And Lord Eldon exclaimed, "The friends of liberty in the other House must have slept when they allowed such a bill to pass!!"

Finally, modern legislation has approximated to the good old Saxon law; the statute 1 and 2 Will. IV., c. 32, maintains the right of pursuing game on the land of another, so far as it may have been granted, and the right pertains to the crown in its

forests. On the other hand, everyone may freely follow game on his own land on obtaining a license. Whoever follows game without such license incurs a penalty of £5. The preserving season is strictly upheld by severe police regulations. Infractions of the game laws are punishable by two justices of the peace. Poaching practised at night, and in armed bands is subject, to severe punishment. The greater land-owners may appoint gamekeepers, and may authorize them to seize and take away all dogs, nets, and other engines and instruments for the killing and taking of game, used by any person not authorised to kill game for want of a game-certificate. Dealing in game is allowed by license and trade-certificate. Any person in actual occupation of any enclosed lands, or any owner thereof who has the right of killing game thereon, since 11 and 12 Vict., c. 29, may, by himself, or by any one person authorised by him, in writing, in such form as by the act provided, take, kill, or destroy any hare on such land, without paying duties or obtaining an annual game-certificate.

By the 25 and 26 Vic., c. 114, any constable or peace-officer is authorized to search any person whom he may have good cause to suspect of coming from any land where he shall have been unlawfully in search or pursuit of game, and having in his possession any game unlawfully obtained, or any gun or engine used for the killing and taking of game. Should the officer find any game, or any such article or thing as aforesaid upon any such person, he is empowered to seize such game, article, or thing; the officer, however, in such case, must apply to a justice of the peace for a summons, citing such person to appear before two justices of the peace; and if such person shall have obtained such game by unlawfully going on any land, or shall have used any such article or thing for unlawfully killing or taking game, such person shall, on conviction, pay a sum not exceeding £5, and forfeit such game, gun, etc. If no conviction take place, the game or any such article as aforesaid, or the value thereof, shall be restored to the person from whom it has been taken. No conviction or order, under this Act, is to be quashed for want of form, or removed by certiorari. An appeal lies from the decision of the magistrate in petty sessions to the next court of general or quarter sessions, which shall be holden not less than twelve days after conviction. The appellant must give to the complainant notice in writing within three days after the conviction and seven clear days before such sessions.