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SCOTCH SERVANTS.

when they become liable to the hypothec of the new landlord. The right extends over the property of subtenants for the rent of their immediate superior; and thus the moveables of a lodger are liable for the arrears of a householder. Tenants on farms are removable when refractory, by a warrant of ejectment from the Court of Session, issued forty days prior to the termination of the lease. House tenants are warned to remove in a more simple and primitive manner. A town or sheriff's officer is employed to chalk the door forty days before the legal, or other, term of the removal. A decree of the magistrate founded on this transaction can eject the tenant at the end of six days. No force can be employed to resist the mandates of the law. Should either of these warnings be neglected, the tenant may resist removal by a legal action. In practice, door-chalking is almost abandoned; as there are few who would pretend to remain on premises on the frivolous excuse that such was not done.*

Servants are hired in Scotland by half years, and their terms are the same as those used in house-taking and entering. They are contracted with, by means of erels or earnest money. The Scotch law is exceedingly defective in the want of distinct information on the duties and rights of masters and servants; unless the inapplicable regulations of the feudal ages be considered of import. The justice of peace courts, which settle disputes arising perpetually out of these relationships, have each their own law on the subject. Scotch servants are draughted out of the working classes, and, having received no idea of domestic cleanliness or housewifery, they are, in general, an endless source of private jarring. English families wishing to settle in Scotland, should, if possible, import servants from England.

• We have heard that in England landlords often find a difficulty in dispossessing tenants when they choose to insist on remaining in the premises. Whether such be the case or no, nothing of the kind can take place in Scotland.

PROMINENT AND PECULIAR LAWS AND USAGES

CONTINUED.

INFORMATION TO STRANGERS REGARDING THE GAME LAWS OF SCOTLAND.

We have had pastimes here, and pleasing game.

SHAKESPEARE.

THE law in force in Scotland, regulating the killing and sale of game, differ so materially from those of England, that strangers may be desirous of possessing some information on the subject. First, as regards the qualifications of a sportsman. It is ordained that no person shall hunt or hawk, which signifies the shooting or killing of game (foxes included), in all possible ways, unless he possess a plongh-gate of land in heritage, under a penalty of L. 8:6:8. It is not easy to understand the exact extent of a plough-gate of land; but it may be assumed as being a very small piece of ground. However, this is of no moment, for practically-and this is all that troubles a man fond of field sports-no such qualification is required. Any person having the appearance of a gentleman will be endowed with a licence to shoot game for a year, on paying the sum of L. 3: 13:6 to the comptroller of taxes for Scotland. His office is in Edinburgh, and may be easily found out. A game-keeper pays only a guinea for a similar privilege, provided he also pays the tax as an assessed servant ;-if he be not an assessed servant, he pays the full duty of L. 3: 13:6. The licence gives no liberty to trespass on the grounds of any

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land proprietor. A freedom to shoot must collaterally be procured, otherwise the immunity is of no avail; for, although it would be very possible for sportsmen to find fields and hill sides on which to commence operations with their dog and gun without the ceremony of asking permission, they would be frequently liable to surprisals, and might ultimately have to pay dear for their intrusion. When permission is received, intruders are nevertheless liable in damages to farmers, should injury be sustained by crops. Landlords, except it be otherwise arranged, are subject to the same penalties to their own farmers. Tenants cannot shoot or kill game on their farms, even though licensed, except they procure the permission of their landlord.All permissions should be in writing.

The law prescribes that unlicensed persons are disallowed from having game in their possession, or from conveying it from place to place, unless by the consent of a qualified person. This is under a penalty of 20s. for the first, and 40s. for every other offence; failing payment of which within ten days, imprisonment for six weeks for the first, and three months for

every other offence. Hares, partridges, pheasants, muir-fowl, ptarmagans, heathfowl, snipes or quails, are here comprehended; yet so loose, so undefined, or so senseless are the statutes regulating the possession of game, that, in practice, few or no fines or committals are imposed or made on such frivolous grounds. All kinds of dead game in Scotland pass from the country to the town, and from place to place, without exciting any comment. It can be presented by friends to each other, whether the receiver be qualified or not. It may be seen in the house of the commonest person, and no inquiry is instituted, unless it be very obvious that the family lives by poaching. It may be transmitted to dealers in town, who expose it for sale in the open market; and its price is quoted in the public prints like that of mutton or beef. A free contraband expor tation of game may also take place. If packed in deal boxes, it is never overhauled either by skippers, or coach proprietors; but when it crosses the border,

THE GAME LAWS.

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or lands in England, its carriers are of course liable to the English game laws, and it may be seized by an officer of justice, and carried as a treat to the inhabitants of the work-house.

The proper seasons for killing or having game in possession are rigorously observed in Scotland; as also the periods for salmon fishing. These seasons are so often varied, that we prefer referring the stranger to the calendar in the Almanack for the running year, for the freshest information on this subject.

When poachers or persons, though licensed, but not having permission to shoot, are challenged while engaged in fowling or shooting, they have a right to preserve their dogs and gun inviolable; but they must not do so to the extent of shooting the challenger on the plea of self-defence. A person who shot the Earl of Eglinton many years since, on this principle, was adjudged to death for the crime, and only escaped the ignominy of the scaffold by suicide. The person

challenged may be secured till he give his name and address; and he can only be punished and mulcted of his accoutrements by a common action at law. He has also a right to retain the game he may have killed. Poachers found in inclosures with intent to kill game or rabbits during the night-the intention being presumed by the possession of firearms, or other offensive weapons, nets, &c. may be taken and prosecuted criminally. The law of Scotland here coincides with that of England, in making transportation for seven years the penalty of such conduct; but if we reduce the procedure in this country to practice, it will be discovered that transportation, or any punishment beyond three months' imprisonment, is altogether unknown. The absence of poor rates to the extent of those in England, whereby the families of poor men convicted of poaching would be left in a state of destitution, were transportation to be inflicted, is the most probable cause of this leniency. The odium which would follow the justice of peace who attempted to draw the statute to its utmost limits, also tends

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to the same end. The great proportion of uninclosed hills and dales in Scotland, which differ so much in character from the preserves and intersected inclosures in most of the English counties, is moreover a chief cause of so few prosecutions for poaching. No existing law applicable to Scotland prohibits persons of any degree from having fire arms in their house, or from freely shooting wild animals not reckoned as game. The act against the use of spring guns extends to Scotland.

It is now becoming very customary for land proprietors in Scotland, especially those having heathy estates, to let their lands or a right of shooting over them during the appropriate seasons. And to further this excellent mode of making unproductive wastes a source of profit, they generally provide a furnished residence for their temporary tenants. Most of the estates thus farmed, lie in the shires of Inverness, Ross, Caithness, Perth, Forfar, and Stirling; and the best method of procuring intelligence on this point is to consult the pages of the Edinburgh Courant, or the North British Advertiser. Files of those papers may be seen in London, or at the offices in Edinburgh. It is very necessary that sportsmen apply for information in this manner, whether they have or have not permission to shoot over certain grounds; for advertisements of prohibition are very numerous, and it is often the case that proprietors recal their permissions in this public manner.

The game laws of Scotland, it will be remarked, are established on very liberal principles in comparison with those in England, where the killing, the selling, or the actual using of game, are considered crimes of a very heinous nature, and where every species of real crime arises out of the commitments and prosecutions under the statutes. As the Scotch law operates, it is only liable to censure on the broad principle, that every land owner and farmer should exercise his natural right to make free with what he finds on his own property, without the intervention of a license or permission asked: Thus re

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