Page:Prerogatives of the Crown.djvu/154

1 34 . King^s Proper tif in Game. [Cb. VIIL exclusive "property in wild animals, or game, is vested in the Crown, is entitled to investigation. By the law of nature and reason, wild beasts and undomesti- cated birds, are a species of usufructuary property, as freely the property of the first occupant as the air on which they fly. They form a part, and were formerly a most material part, of those resources which Providence has provided for the suste- nance of man. Till an actual seizure of animal s,y^r^ naturcUy be made, the property in them remains, by the law of nature, iji a species of abeyance (a). Game is an object of pursuit ; it can only be acquired by exertion, and he who occupies his time, or exercises his ingenuity, in obtaining these animals, ought to possess them. And so it was held by the imperial law, even so late as Justinian's time : " Ferco igitur hesticE^ ct vo- Iticres, et omnia animalia qtice inari, ccelo, et terra ?iasc2mtury simiil atque ah aliquo captajuerint, jure gentium statim illiiis esse incipiunt. Quod enim nullius est, id naturali ratione occupanti conceditur {h)" Before the Norman Conquest, a similar doc- trine existed in this country. As observed by Sir William Blackstone (c), " every Freeholder had the full liberty of sporting upon his own territories, provided he abstained from the King's forests, as is fully expressed in the laws of Canute, and of Edward the Confessor: " Sit quilihet homo digitus venatione S7ia, in sj/lva, et in agris^ sibi propriisy ct in dominio suo ; et abstineat omnis hovio a venariis regiis, uhicumque pacem eis habere voluerit ;" which, indeed, was the antient law of the Scandinavian Continent, from whence Canute probably derived it. " Cuique enim in proprio fundo quamlibet feram quoquo mode venari permissum" The introduction of the feudal system into England at the time of the Conquest, vested in the Crown all the privileges and rights respecting game, which the principles of that system authorized. And it cannot be doubted, that the right of the Sovereign to reserve to him- self, and confer pn his subjects, certain peculiar and exclusive privileges respecting game, was part of the policy of the feudal constitution, for the purpose of keeping the people in a state of subordination, and preserving, for the exclusive enjoyment of the higher classes, a sport suited to the martial genius of the (a) See 2 Rla. Com. 14 and 411. (c) 2 Bla. Com. 415. (i) Inst. 2. 1, 12. age.