and to the four specified sorts are added, any other Game; but in statutes so extremely penal, the Judges would think themselves bound to confine themselves to what is clearly expressed, and would not think themselves justified in subjecting the people of England to severe penalties, and to the privation of liberty, by such loose, vague, indefinite, and unintelligible expressions as the Game, and any other Game; concerning which, no legislator, judge, lawyer, nor antiquarian, can assign a rational meaning, nor even suggest a probable conjecture. This is now the statute upon which all convictions before magistrates, and all actions in Courts of Law, are founded to recover penalties; we may therefore conclude, that no animal now comes under the appellation of Game, with a reference to these penalties, besides hares, pheasants, partridges, and moor-game. Conformably to this construction, the statute 9 Ann. c. 25. in the year 1710, specifically mentions, in three distinct clauses, hares, pheasants, partridges, and moor-game, without any foolish reference to any other animals. The 3d Geo. I. c. 11. makes some alteration in the the qualification of game-keepers; and it enacts, "that no lord or lady of the manor shall appoint any gamekeeper, with power to kill hare, pheasant, partridge, or any other Game; unless he comes within the description there specified." This statute has a reference to the 22d and 23d Car. II.; and any other Game here will comprise what was Game under that statute. By the 8th Geo. I. c. 19. in 1721; it is enacted, "that where any person, for any offence committed against any law for the better preservation of the Game, shall be subject to any pecuniary penalty, upon conviction before any justice of the peace, any other person may either proceed for the penalty by a prosecution before a justice, or sue for the same in any court of record; and if he recovers, he shall have double costs. But no offender is to be prosecuted by both modes." This refers to the two former statutes, 5th Ann. and the 9th Ann.; so the Game here meant are hares, pheasants, partridges, and grouse.* The * By the 24th Geo. II. c. 34. in 1751, it appears that snipes and quails are considered Game in Scotland. The 26th Geo. II. c. 2. 1753, enlarges the time for bringing actions. The 28th Geo. II. c. 12. enacts, "that if any person, whether qualified or not, shall sell, or expose or offer to sale, any hare, pheasant, partridge, moor, heath-game, or grouse, he shall be subject to the penalty of five pounds for every hare, &c. so sold or exposed to sale." The 2d Geo. III. c. 19, 1761, which limits the times of killing Game, is confined to pheasants, partridges, and moor-game; and it gives the whole of the penalty to the plaintiff who brings an action for it. The 13th Geo. III. c. 80. to prevent killing Game in the night-time, or on a Sunday, or Christmasday, is confined to hares, pheasants, partridges, and moor-game. The 39th and 40th Geo. III. c. 50. in the year 1800, enacts, "that if two or more persons enter any grounds in the night-time, with any gun, net, engine, or other instrument, with intent to destroy any hare, pheasant, partridge, black-game, or grouse, or any other Game, they shall be punished as rogues and vagabonds." Here Here the Legislature has used the general words, Any other game. This statute is now repealed by the 46th Geo. II. c. 130; which enacts, "that if any person shall go, within certain hours of the night, into any ground, open or enclosed, with any gun or engine, with intent to take or kill any hare, rabbit, pheasant, partridge, heath fowl, commonly called Black Game, or grouse, commonly called Red Game, or any other Game, or if any person with a gun or offensive weapon shall protect or assist such person, such offender shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; the Court may punish as for a misdemeanor, or may transport for seven years." Here we have still the unmeaning words Any other Game, continued by the Legislature to the present day, though a rabbit is expressly included. The punishment for the misdemeanor, the Common Law punishment, may be fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the Court. In lieu of these, the statute gives the Court a power to transport; the defendant may traverse, and have counsel to plead for him; and the prosecution must have all the the properties as a prosecution for a misdemeanor by the Common Law.* The Mutiny Act, which is passed every year, contains a clause to the following effect: "And for the better preservation of Game in or near the place where any officers or soldiers are quartered; if any officer or soldier shall, without leave of the lord of the manor under his hand and seal, take, kill, or destroy any hare, coney, pheasant, partridge, pigeon, or any other sort of fowls, poultry, or fish, or his Majesty's Game within Great Britain and Ireland, *"An Act to repeal an Act, made in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth years of his present Majesty's reign, intituled, An Act to extend the Provisions of an Act, made in the Seventeenth Year of the Reign of King George the Second, intituled An Act to amend and make more effectual the Laws relating to Rogues, Vagabonds, and other idle and disorderly Persons; and to Houses of Correction;' and to make other Provisions in lieu thereof.-1st July 1816. "Whereas the Laws now in force have been found insufficient to prevent idle and disorderly persons from going out armed in the night-time for the destruction of Game: and whereas such practices are found by experience to lead to the commission of felonies and murders: for the more effectual suppression thereof, may it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most excellent |