The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-29 00:00:00

TO TSB RIDITOZ OP THI EXPRESS.

am the nos of a gentlemen residing on his
Own estate in this county (Leicestershire), and, as the owner
and occupier of this property, my father gave me a satire::
authority to shoot hare; upon any pottier! of his Loci, pursu-
ing to the intent act of parliament. Such authority wit
duly registered ; and, acting upon it, I, on the
23rd of November last, was in a field of my
father's, where I shot at a hare, which imme-
diately ran taut an adjcioing close, in the occupation of
a farmer in the neighbourhood, and fell into a ditch on the
opposite side of the close. I thereupon fetched the hare which
was quite dead—previously. however, observing the precau-
tion to leave my gun behind me in my father's field for the
express purpose of avoiding any appearance of trespassing in
search of game. On retuning I saw and spoke to a person
who hail formerly occupied ecotone belonging to my father,
who, for sufficient reasons, gave him notice to quit; trig result
of which was that ho frequently afterwards expreswd to my-
self and third parties his determination to he revenged.
In a few days after shooting the hare an information was
laid against me by an attorney of Atherstone, who had the
rig'it of shooting over the close, and I was served with
• summ-ns under the hand of a county magistrate to appear
on the 6:b of December last before the petty sessions at
Market Bosworth. The information was laid under the
30th see. of 1 & 2 Winless IV. o. 32, for trespassing on
tie 23rd of November upon the " Barn Close" before-men-
Ironed in search of game. I appeared to this summons,
whirl was dismissed, each piety paying his own
pests. Immediately on the imeinsion of the heir-
lag, the attorney stated is apes then his determination not
to allow the nutter to rest deem but that he should lay the
facts et the ease Delos the of taxes for the
distries, whist threat I believe he naiad into execution, but
without swam On the 26th of December he applied to
the petty MISMiIaS at Atherstene (to which bench he was
clerk) foe a fresh MNA= against me for precisely the
same offence, and upon pewthely the same information ; but
his application was, ea I have been informed, refused on the
ground that the me had been substantially heard, and die
maimed. Notwithstanding, however, this refusal, he made a
third exactly similar application, on the same information,
to • magistrate at the petty sessions at Nuneaton (to
which bench he was also clerk), but that gentleman
objected to grant the summons on the same ground as it had
been refused at Athentone. Os this, aaother magistrate
who was pretest, but who had been silent during the appli-
cation, obeerved—" Wall, then, I will grant the summons "
(or words to the ease effect), which he did, although he was
one of the magistrates who heard the first summon, at Mar-
ket Bosworth, and was thus, of his own knowledge, fully
aware of what there took place. On the same day the inde-
fatigable attorney applied lee and obtained a third summons
against me, under another section of the act, for "unlaw-
fully using a gun for the purpose of killing pine," and
on the 10th of last January, both these summonses
came on for hearing at Market Bosworth. The
first was again dismissed, and, as to the second,
after a consultation dome length, the bench agreed to con-
vict me in the penalty of Is., thus pretty clearly showing
that in its judgment the ease was one of an extremely trivial
nature. One magistrate refused to concur is the conviction.
Notwithstanding all this, the prosecutor in open court
spiel declared his intention to communicate with the sur-
veyor duxes, with a view to obtaining a surcharge ; and
shortly afterwards I was served with notice of surcharge in
double the amount of the game certificate duty under the
acts of parliament in that behalf ; and I hove since ascer-
tained that the attorney and prosecutor thought proper to
prefer to Sir George Grey certain charges against • magic.
title who had decidedly dimwitted from my being convicted
in the several investigations of the case ; but the right
hon. baronet, after an attentive consideration of that gen-
tleman's answer, has entirely exonerated him.
I should also state that upon a memorial presented by me
to the commissioners of stamps and taxes, praying for a re-
=lesion of the penalty upon the surcharge, they have re-
mitted the game.
The above statement does not need any further comment
on ay part, and I therefore leave you and the public at large
to draw your own inferences.—l am, air,
Your very obedient and obliged servant,
THOS. EDMUND GEARY.
Atherton, near Atherstone, May 16.