old-and sustained me down the dangerous defile: his instinct of a faithful guide overcoming the rancour he had until now felt towards me, so that I reached the water's edge without accident. I dipped my hand in it and found it icy cold! "Do you really intend to go in there, Maurice ?" said I to him. "Certainly," he replied, taking the lantern from my hand and putting one foot in the torrent. "But the water is freezing!" said I with an effort to detain him. "It comes from the snow half a league up the mountain,” replied he, not understanding the reason of my exclamation. "I don't wish you to go into that water, Maurice!" "Didn't you say that you wanted trout for breakfast to-morrow?" "Yes, I said so. But I did not know that to gratify this whim you must plunge up to your waste in a frozen stream at the risk of dying of a cold in a week after. Come, let us go back.” "And what will the mistress say?" "I'll take care of that. Come." "That can't be;" and he put his other leg in the water. "How? why can't it be?” "There are others beside you, fond of trout. I don't know how it is, but all travellers love trout-a miserable fish full of bones !" "Well-and what does that amount to?" "It amounts to this. If you don't want the trout others do; and since I am here I had better take them at once. There are other tra vellers who like chamois; and they often say, 'to-morrow evening when we return from the salt mines, we should like some chamois.' Chamois! a nasty black meat! they might as well eat a ram! Well! as soon as they say that, the mistress calls Pierre, just as she called Maurice when you wanted trout; for Pierre is the hunter, as I am the fisher. She says to Pierre,' get a chamois.' Pierre says, ' very well;' and he sets off at two o'clock in the morning. He crosses glaciers, in the crevices of which our whole village might be swallowed up; climbs rocks where you would break your neck twenty times, if I may judge by the way you came down this ditch here; and about four o'clock in the afternoon he comes back with a beast on his shoulders, until one day when he does not return." "How do you mean?" "Why, John, who was before Pierre, was killed; and Joseph, who was before me, died of a cold. But that does not hinder me from fishing for trout, nor Pierre from hunting chamois. "But," said I, with astonishment, "I have always thought that these exercises possessed a pleasure for those who followed them-a pleasure that became an irresistible passion; that there are hunters and fishers who will face dangers as they would go to fétes; and who pass whole nights on the mountains to watch for chamois, or sleep on the banks of a river to throw in their lines at break of day." "Yes!" said Maurice, with a tone of feeling of which I did not suppose him capable; " yes, there are some who do as you say." "And who are they?" I inquired. "Those," said he, "who fish and hunt for themselves." I dropped my head upon my breast, but kept my eye fixed on the man who had thus thrown, without being conscious of it, so bitter an argument into the unequal scale of human justice. Even in the midst of these Alps, in this region of eternal snows, of eagles and of freedom, was this great contest waged-and waged hopelessly between those who have not and those who have. Here men are trained, like cormorants and hounds, to bring to their masters fish and game, in exchange for which they obtain a morsel of bread. It is very strange ! for what hinders these men fishing or hunting for themselves? The habit of obeying! In the very men that she would render free, Liberty finds the greatest obstacles to her success! Maurice, who was ignorant of the train of reflections to which his answer had given rise, had by this time walked into the water up to his waist, and commenced fishing. I soon comprehended the use of his implements. With his left hand he thrust the lantern into the water to nearly the full length of the tube. This produced a dim circle of light in the bed of the stream, and the trout, attracted by the light, crowded around the globe in the centre as moths and bats do around a candle. Maurice then gently raised the lamp, which the fish immediately followed, and as they reached the surface of the water he struck them on the head with his knife; the fish sunk at once, and for an instant, to the bottom, and then arose bloody and dead, when they passed incontinently into the green bag suspended around Maurice's neck. I was astounded. That superior intelligence on which, five minutes before, I had plumed myself, was entirely at fault; for it is certain that if I had been left on a desert island, with trout at the bottom of a stream for my sustenance, and nothing to take them with but a lantern and a bill, I should, despite that intelligence, have died of hunger. Maurice was unconscious of the admiration he had excited, and continued to augment my enthusiasm by repeated proofs of dexterity; -choosing, like a proprietor in his own trout pond, the finest fish, and suffering the young fry to swim around the light with impunity. I could now no longer refrain; but divesting myself of pantaloons, boots, and stockings, and without reflecting that the water was only a few degrees above the freezing point, I plunged into the stream, and took the lantern and bill from my companion at the instant when a superb trout came forward to admire himself. I led him with all due precaution to the surface, and when I thought he was within striking distance, dealt him a blow on the back that might have split a log. The poor trout came up in two pieces! Maurice took it up, examined it for an instant, and threw it back into the water, saying disdainfully, "You have butchered the fish instead of killing him!" Butchered or not, it was the fish I intended to have for my breakfast; consequently, I fished up my two fragments, that were floating off in opposite directions, and returned to the shore. It was high time-for I shivered in every limbs, and my teeth chattered horribly. Maurice followed me, for he had taken his complement of fish. Three quarters of an hour had been sufficient time for him to take a dozen fine trout. We then dressed ourselves with speed, and made the best of our way to the inn. "Fore heaven!" said I to myself, as we were returning, "if any of my thirty thousand Parisian acquaintances had been passing (as very possibly it might have happened) along the road in sight of which I had just been exercising my acquatic propensities, and had seen me in the midst of a freezing torrent, in the singular costume I had been forced to adopt, with a lantern in one hand, and a knife in the other. I am sure, that, after the necessary time had elapsed for his return from Bex to Paris, and the subsequent arrival of the papers from Paris to Bex, I should have had the surprise of reading in the first gazette that came to hand, that the author of Antony had lost his senses in his journey through the Alps; which event (it would of course have been added) is an irreparable loss to dramatic literature !'” And while making these reflections, which did little to check my increasing congelation, I thought of a stool I had observed on the kitchen hearth, and on which, when I left the inn, an enormous cat was basking; and I said to myself, as soon as I reach that inn I will go directly to that hearth, eject that cat, and take possession of that stool. Influenced by this idea, which gave me at once courage and hope, I quickened my pace; and as I had furnished myself with Maurice's lantern in order to warm my fingers by the way, I reached without a second fall, the inn where stood that blessed stool, the object of all my desires. I ran like a man who has no time to lose. The hostess herself opened the door. I passed her like an apparition, crossed the eating-room, and precipitated myself into the kitchen. Reader-the fire was out! At the same moment, I heard the landlady, wo had followed me as fast as she was able, ask of Maurice "What's in the gentleman ?" "Cold, I believe," replied Maurice. Ten minutes afterwards, I was in a warm bed with a bowl of hot wine in my hand; the symptoms appearing to me sufficiently alarming to require tonics. I escaped with an abominable cold.. At the same time, I had the honour first to discover and to proclaim an important scientific fact, for which, I trust, the Institute and Cusinière Bourgeoise will both acknowledge themselves indebted to me : It is that, In the Vallais they fish for trout with a bill and a lantern! THE GAME LAWS, BY A TEMPLAR," OF PROPERTY OF GAME IN FORESTS, CHASES, PARKS, FREE WARRENS, AND MANORS. Continued from page 173. THE second branch of our inquiry respecting property in game involves the consideration of those rights to it which spring from property in the spot upon which it may happen to be found in a state of natural wildness, or from some privilege to be exercised over that spot, conferred by the proprietor upon others, or created originally by the Crown. To the latter (which are also termed Royalties and Franchises) we have before alluded, as consisting of forests, chases, parks, and free warrens*; they were the institutions of a remote age of barbarism and usurpation, formerly most important and extensive, but now reduced within far narrower limits, and sunk into comparative oblivion and desuetude; they will, therefore, require only a cursory notice at our hands. The forests were originally districts set apart by the sovereign for his own pastime and recreation, and for their government he established a system of laws, arbitrary in their nature, and foreign to the common law of the land, dictated from time to time at his sole will and pleasure, and administered in courts held exclusively for the prevention and punishment of offences against them. The principal object they had in view was the preservation of the deer, but their operation extended to the protection of every species of game then pursued by the sportsman, which was included in the general term "venison," any invasion of it was punished by fine and imprisonment, and in some instances, in early times, by mutilation, and even death. The judgments of these courts, with respect to facts, admitted of no These are generally included in a separate category, "as rights propter privilegium," but they are purely local. + A venatione, 4 Inst. 289. appeal, and their jurisdiction still continues for many purposes; the power they possessed of imposing fines and imprisonment for trespasses upon the forests having been recently recognised and confirmed by the legislature. The Game Act + has also expressly provided, that nothing contained in it shall prejudice the right of the owner of any forest, or the powers and privileges of any of its officers, or confer upon any other person, rights within it, which he did not possess before the passing of that statute. Although originally designed and established for the amusement of the sovereign, forestal rights might be conveyed by him to a subject, and hence we find that the Abbot of Whitby became the proprietor of the Forest of Whitby in Yorkshire, and enjoyed the power of holding the necessary courts. This power was essential to the existence of a forest, and, therefore, upon alienation by the Crown of a forest, if the grant did not expressly cede the courts, it became simply a chace. This second class of franchises might, however, have been originally granted by the Crown, and the privileges conferred by them generally extended over large unenclosed tracts of land. A park differed from a chace only in the circumstances of its being enclosed, and, consequently, being more limited in point of space. In both of these liberties deer, as well as other game, were protected, but in the free warrens, the owner of the franchise obtained no privilege to maintain or take deer, his rights being restricted to smaller game, among which grouse, and heath or moor game do not appear to have been included, since they were not then generally pursued by the sportsman. Free warrens were also somewhat less extensive than the chaces, but they generally comprised a considerable tract of land. The powers and privileges with which the persons entitled to these various franchises became invested, were perfectly distinct from and independent of the ownership of the lands, over which they were allowed to be exercised, they formed a separate property and inheritance, and even if the lords became the owners of the lands, the privileges did not merge, but remained entire, and when they parted with, or leased the lands, they did not convey the franchises also, unless particular words¶ were used to comprehend them, in the absence of which, they might still, without any reservation, enter and enjoy those rights to the game which they originally possessed. The privileges of these lords too, were sole and exclusive, and they might maintain actions of trespass of a peculiar nature, even against the proprietors and occupiers of the soil, as well as against any other parties who destroyed the game. All these peculiarities still attach to them, and the late act has expressly 10 Geo. iv. c. 50. + 1 and 2 Wm. iv. c. 32, s. 8 and 9. + 4 Inst. 318 § Duke of Devonshire v. Lodge 7 B and C 36. || 4 Inst. 318 and seq. ¶ Com. Dig. Tit. Chace D. |