required to pay a fine of 50l. If he failed to meet this heavy liability, the culprit went to gaol for a course of penitentiary discipline, not exceeding a year. He was a lucky man if he obtained his discharge without the addition of a public whipping outside the gaol. This correction was bestowed on the culprit between the hours of twelve and one in the afternoon, so that all the gossips and lazy apprentices might gaze open-mouthed at the strokes of the scourge in their dinner hour. This primitive discipline was also provided for by an Act of William III., which struck at the use of nets and harepipes, and other unhandsome devices for killing hares. The offender was haled before a justice of the peace, who demanded a good account of how he became possessed of dogs or illegal engines. If he could pay his fine, he went home a free man. Otherwise, the authorities were willing to distrain upon his personal property. But there was a proper proviso for the scamp who possessed no worldly chattels. His rascally inroads upon the hares were rewarded by the chastening influence of the house of correction. To improve the occasion the more effectually, he was to be soundly whipped, and kept to hard labour.
Such remedial methods have become distasteful to our modern refinement. All the same there are
