The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1821-11-08 00:00:00

divdual; and if the sea were open to all, us meat
s approark to it. 716 s
.totathoolttes sight claim.
ed by the defy ndant, must, like all other common
law rilsts, rem istaiiile impost usage. Now could
any swoon walk minim the hem+ on any pelt
of the shore where lauding was practicable. sod
nut yea the boas drawn up, persona tending irons
'`them, cargoes toilowditig, end other cargoes being
taken in, and the versals@ remaining on the shore
k so long as suited their einrvediestee, without asking
limee or nay one ? 11Y the doctrine contended foe by
*se Plaintiff were esti/blithe& stone of these thine
Irostill take 'place without a perasissiou tat ob-
tained from the tord rff the Manor. It was true
Sheri. were perticular illaces where these things
roold not he doer, heft thaw spots were pointed
out sod regulated by ICI of Parliament, and did
not stall touch this question. As to the mails
iststion. OM elf 'within. it hod existed in this
country from the earliest times, sad he hoped it
would still continue to exist, without any iiiterposi.
tuns or improper restraint. When had it ever been
/lewd of before that a Lord of' the Manor had M.
terpneed to prevent the King's subject's from sit.
rtmehtteg the sea for this purpose ? But Ise might
be told that though bathing had evicted from all
time, yet the use of =schisms was • modern in.
rention. He would root that they lyric of modpro
. invention. bat they were law. 1 machines. cud, like
all other lawful machinesyt had a right to ap.
preach the sea for allAwfal purposes. The ma.
chines were moreover necessary, fur the sake of
*lemur,- : were it nit fur such alt accommodation,
marry pergolas, for whom bathing in the sea is erten-.
Oat, would be precluded from it. Modesty, soul
inhemity in the cases of females and sick persons.
would interpose to bar their enjoyment of this
heelthfsil recreation. The right of 6.hisag in the.
Feu, and the tight of currying the 6.h to market
be hind, were acknowledged public rights, and
thus most be cousidered in aid of the right claimed
by the Defendant to have his carrisg.s pass over
: the soil of the Plaintiff. This question was of ism.,
,iortatice in • stational point of view. We are a
maritime people, and it was often of the greatest
importance that boats should be cushier, to laud on
any part of the coast go purchase 'provisions, .or
other articles of the first necessity. Yet if the
Plaintiff's claim were established, persons so landing
would be considered as trespass is. He would not
speak of the case of stormy weather. but had merely
alluded to circum,histres of every-day occurrence.
The Learned Judge next quoted • 'soigne from
'tractor', which went to phew that the right of fish-
ing W.Ol bat a part of the great common law right
of every subject of the realm, and that the batiks
of all perennial rivers were public. This was what
hr (Mr. Justice Best) was contending for. that the
shores of the sea are public, and that all ;warms
had a right to pass them. If this were the law in
the time of Henry 111. it was law now, if the cir-
cumstances were the same. It might tee objected
that the circumstances were not the same, coil iust
deed he believed that in Bractun'a time the Themes
and Severe' were the only navigable rivers in Eng-
land, so that with respect to rivers made tigeigalile
since, the 14w was not applicable ; but the question
the Court haul now to decide war, on en eras of the
sea, which had been an arm of the s-a ever
'since Great Britain had been an island. lie
world 11111111111131 since 131,10011'• time the rights of
the public had been narrowed ; but that was not the
case with this particular right. If it bad beep lane
of the public rights which had been •hridged. it
was upon those who claimed in virtue of that
abridgment to ataew that it lia4l been so narrowed.
The teamed S-horn, who had collected the opiuitns
er ail for writers, built ',soros and philosophers, on
rile sobject of origin, rights, gave the opi ll i tttt of
Ulpian, who spoke with indignation of the usurpa-
tions which had been carried on against them. l lad
it not been fur the cure of the Barons who framed
Meg's,'
.Cluartr, we should lame had equal reason to
complain with the Roman writer,. The Lrarned
Jorge quoted from the writers on civil law, and
said, he thought that lawyers in general were not.
rens.ble of the amount of obligation we owed to it.
In tact, with the exception of that part which was
Ludt upon Mr feudal system, great part of our
common law was derived from it. Ile noticed the
Stostile opinion of the Lord Chief Brun S intim).
• 'toil set against it the favourable opinions of Lord
114Ie and Lord Holt. The building of wharves.
4;nlys, &v. might be said to be au abridgment of
tin: great common law right for which lie was
contending, but it was, in fact, incidental to the
full enjoyment of the right, end was similar to the
mopping of a carriage to miload, which did not at
-&I impugn the right of way. Upon the whole, it
appeared to him that the public rights and the iii-
dividid rights were perfectly consistent, end he
was of epiiiiim that the Defendant was entitled to
jiplgreeut.
Mr. Justice lIOLItOYD said. the question here
wee, whether there was a common law right for all
the*ing's subjects to bathe in the tea, and pass
along the beach with carriages for that purpose;
but though such was the question submitted to the.
Court. it •pproord by the case to be narrowed to a
question where the locos in quo was in a lord of the
manor, who had also the exclusive right of fishing in
the waters. The hotel to which the Deft-whiner mi.
chines were appurtenant was erected only in 1815 ;
the opinion. therefore. which he should bare, would
not affect any right cluimed by prescription or cus-
tom. It hail been contended at the bar that the King
could not prevent the au bjrct from bathing on the sea
shore. The earliest authority for that doctrine is
Bracton, who adopted it float the civil law ; hut
not witted ending that, and the dicta of some Judges,
it stioliearedlo him to he inconsistent with our mita-
4,:pmed law. It was inconsistent with the case of
Paul and Herbert, in 3d Term Reports. page '2 6i .
That was the case of a towing-path, and there•the
Court det • red against the common law right.
Bractou's dictum was supported by Lord Holt, but
Lord fault was expressly overruled in the one which
lie had just eite,l. It appeared to I that the ve-
notice rbetween our law and the civil law was so
grout as to prevent the tatter from Ntlonling the
Court soy lights on a subject like the present. The
right claimed a as, he considered, incomisteut with
the fact of the /ones is gnu being private property,
and if there existed such a eu ttttt ion law right. it
to,ght jet be, by prescription, appropriated. Far •
these rearm's, he thought the Plasma was eutitlad
to judgment.
Mr. Justice BATLEY was of opiliion that there Is
nut a cominou law right fur all the Keig's subjects'