but upon the introduction of the foreſt laws at the Norman conqueſt, as will be ſhewn hereafter, theſe animals being looked upon as royal game and the ſole property of our ſavage monarchs, this franchiſe of free-warren was invented to protect them; by giving the grantee a ſole and excluſive power of killing ſuch game, ſo far as his warren extended, on condition of his preventing other perſons. A man therefore that has the franchiſe of warren, is in reality no more than a royal game-keeper: but no man, not even a lord of a manor, could by common law juſtify ſporting on another's ſoil, or even on his own, unleſs he had the liberty of free-warren[1]. This franchiſe is almoſt fallen into diſregard, ſince the new ſtatutes for preſerving the game; the name being now chiefly preſerved in grounds that are ſet apart for breeding hares and rabbets. There are many inſtances of keen ſportſmen in antient times, who have ſold their eſtates, and reſerved the free-warren, or right of killing game, to themſelves; by which means it comes to paſs that a man and his heirs have ſometimes free-warren over another's ground[2]. A free fiſhery, or excluſive right of fiſhing in a public river, is alſo a royal franchiſe; and is conſidered as ſuch in all countries where the feodal polity has prevailed[3]: though the making ſuch grants, and by that means appropriating what ſeems to be unnatural to reſtrain, the uſe of running water, was prohibited for the future by king John's great charter, and the rivers that were fenced in his time were directed to be laid open, as well as the foreſts to be diſafforeſted[4]. This opening was extended, by the ſecond[5] and third[6] charters of Henry III, to thoſe alſo that were fenced under Richard I; ſo that a franchiſe of free fiſhery ought now to be at leaſt as old as the reign of Henry II. This differs from a ſeveral fiſhery; becauſe he that has a ſeveral fiſhery muſt alſo be the owner of the ſoil, which in a free fiſhery is not requiſite. It differs alſo from a common of piſcary before-mentioned, in that
