The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-08 00:00:00

THE RIVEK Tll A .11 8%1.4 ND ITS I
NEGLECTED CONSE,:VAN(,Y.

• The following letter has been addressed to a
contemporary :
Sir,—We must now pass on to a'private statute passed
in favour of the abbess and convent of Syon, 2d of Henry
Vi., where the gorge or weare near Kingston-upon-
Thames, known as Ham Weare (or rather, in modein
times, as Teddington Weare) by a Parliamentary char-
ter granted by the king to the abbess and convent of the
nuns'of Syon, with a reservation to the Mayor of Lon-
don_ and his t,uecessors,. and .411 other persons of the
search and survey and correction of the water of Thames.
It is not a little remarkable that this wear was in ex-
istence during the time of the Borman- Conque?t, -and
then held by Waiter de St. Wahine,' as of I,lewortiv, as
eve wear, and the half of another wear, and worth
3,%; after all the petitions to .the Legislature, and
the vesting in the Lord Mayor the othca of cw,lservator
of the watezs of Thames, A e had trusted to find no more-
complaints on the subject of tisis unfortunate river,
.t-)..; we mei: regret to add that if ',uch a hope were
Momentarly indulged in, we sn.-,u!fl meet with di,,,p-
poititreent, for on turning to the p:.!;1;,::.13,426 [lorry VI.
to find the Londoners praying
" The bonoural:ile sages and site; the Commors of
pr: sent Parliament as,,roti"ed, veeu sJ
'hat u . at,d oerret:tion had

1,1 td s,t hticur..t the
~f Cut, itancliise (;;‘)tu..tieF; bi
Sur, y, Kr, t, and E u IN, and that !na-1, atibehif.fs were
co ti 6. (jestruci4on of i_'.•'
:al qwrc.„ :1.1 r; 1 0 the, 11,-,i)
:)) • ...Af k s • , -

-
."
• l'
he prayer ef this petition is, " "Tar. sufficieut cem-
iniseions be oirecte as the jutaic:s of the, p ace of the
ceunties of Surrey,. Kent, and Eack, ceareteg teen. to
make ssiarch and correction of all defaults of weares, Sec.,
in the water of Thareee, within the counties aforesari
The reply to this prayer is as follows :—" There sere
several commissioners as justices of the peace of the
counties specified in the petition to inquire into these
nuisances beyond the franchise of the city of Lon-
don," Sec.
This determination of the King in his Parliamentary
council would seem to indicate that the jurisdiction of
the justice% of the peace under the early statutes of
Edward 111. and Richard 11. had
.not been abrogated
by the statute of the 9th Henry V., and as no mention
is made of the county of Middlesex, it may be fairly
concluded that as the sherifalty of this county had been
acquired by the citizens of London, and their Lord
Mayor appointed to see to the conservancy of the
statutes within the flow and reflux of the Thames as a
tidal river extending from Ham to Twickenham near,
now known as. the Teddington near and lock, to the
open sea, passing down Gauntlett Creek, by way of
the River Medway. The jurisdiction of the Lord
Mayor terminating on the River Thames at this creek,
immediately below which that of the lord admiral
of the north commenced, as of the (ore Tamieasis) or
mouth of the River Thames, although many attempts
were subsequently made at various times by the Admi-
ralty to push its jurisdiction hither up the stream as far
as London-bridge, quite forgetful of this circumstance,
that the guard of the surrounding high seas alone was
their proper vocation.
It may be a matter of surprise, notwithstanding the
tenor of Magna Ceara, how so mane obstructions still
remaaind in the river. The answer is obvious. On the
Domesday survey we find at least ten fisheries between
Kingston-upon Thames and Bermondsey, ail, with three
exceptions, chiefly being the property of the Church,
namely, as being the property of the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, the Bishop of Baieux, the Abbot of Chcrtsca,
the Bishop at id Canons of Londou, and the Abbot of
Westminster, which had been tfie property of these reek-
siastics from a period long anterior to the Notelet. Con-
quest ; and although the Legislature in general terms
ordered the destruction of wears, yet &Ault was the in-
fluence of Holy Mother Church, that the Lora Mayor
and ci izens neuet have been endued with no ordinary
share of determination to have braved the threats of ex-
communication and eternal perdition hereafter, however
detrimental to their personal interests aid the navigation
of the river above London-bridge. These wears must
necessarily have been and were constructed for the
sole purpo'e of enhancing the value of the fisheries
in question ; finding that, although they themselves,
in the . person of th.eit Levi Mayor., bad appoieted
insticee with powers cf removireg warp, gorges,
pales, sakes, trynkes, and all other obstructions to, the
navigation of the river, and also prot.onng the by of
sr:lnner. spa 'n and other fish from destruati::, that they
were aid powerless as ageiase Mothp- Chine r, and_ her
fishing wears and gorges above 'Taonion-bridge,; afar
olitaioieg the certificate last quete4, teat they had Lot
neglected (viVin their fratichio to perform- the untie.,
imposed by the recent statute, they then obtain a general
statute f ;ranexamitiation of the great, riperue or fisheries
on the hanks of tidaSetrearne, not oily iu the "paint,,
hut all other navigable rivers, aid e•opoweting the coM-'.,
missioners to be app,Anted under then ac!., not only to
lower the wears where they had be-'n raised too high,
but a'so to matte a common passage through then fur
ships and boats. This statute of the '2,1 Henry VI., not.
only recites the previous ~ctai of the 25 h Edward 1., the
Ist Henry V., but all other general enactments..
The statute of 25th Edward I. is a general eoablivg
statute for the passage of boats throughriparue ; that of
Henry V. reserves a reasonable etafe of the wean,
pools, pales, And kiddelis as of ancient time.
It is to be remarked that although all kiddels were to
be removed pursuant to Magna Cnarta, and all
riparus destroyed which were of erection during the
reigns of Stephen, Henry 11., and King John; those
which had been in defence a 3 early as the reign of
Henry 1., alone were excepted from this sweeping
.asure ; and the Domesday survey was, and is
to this day, the sole arbitrer of what is and is not
an ancient free fishery, or royal tipars. Apo her
general enactment was at the same time passed for
regulating stationary nets, and engines called trynkes,
and all other manner of nets which were accustomed to
be fixed and fastened day and night in certain times cf
the year (as at the present time at. Bar wick-upon-Tweed)
to other posts, boats, and anchors, actoss the River
Thames and other rivers of the realm, which being sta-
tionary, caused great and wanton destruction of the
brood and fry of fish, and to the hindrance of the
common passage of vessels.
• This statute (Rol. Pad.. vol. iv., p. 259) enacts the
mode and time in which trynkea and other engines may
be fixed.
In the following year is a petition (3d Henry VI.) of
the Commons, that a commission be granted for the
water of the Leye, as one of the great rivers which extends
from the town of Ware into the water of the Thames.

We should have supposed that the Lord Mayor, hav-
ing at length been appointed a conservator, iu common
with the other justices of the peace in the adjacent cone-
tier, over this river, the citizens of London would have
been contented ; but not so, three years later additional
claims are put forth, and a petition, fith of Henry V.,
from the mayor and commonalty of the city of London,
shows " that the good statutes of the 25th and 45th of
Edward 111., of the 21st of Richard 11., aid 4th of
Henry IV., made for the removal and correction of
wearer, gorges, mills, mill-dame, stakes, and other de-
faults and nuisances disturbing the common passage of
vessels end destruction of the young brood and fry of
fish were not• regarded, not put into execution of the
waters of Mauna and Medway, nor pt the punish-
meet •in those statutes levied since the cocnnei:i-
sionere assigned within the said waters were jus
tices of the peace within the said c6unties alleging also
that such conservancy belonged to the mayor or gear-
dkn of the said city for the time being."
The wise er of the King is, " Let the mayor arid com-
monalty of Loudon shoes their evithlices to the Ktng,
what are the bounds of their liberties, ev.entiing within
the aforesaid waters, and then shall be provided a remedy
such as may be reasonably &whetted."
Tee citizens of Landon very oru-b-ntiy deelined pro-
' &icing tfieir evidences, for the same rea they did on
ii.r.cent occasion, when they boldly laid c,aiia to the
bed and sod Of the River Thames—name!y, al;h to is
ordered by the House of Lards to proAufe their char-
ters, they bad none to disclose. Fieding themselves
thus foiled in their attempt to oust the c:•juri,,dieJon
the justices of the peace, by petition to the King in Par-
liament, as of the House of Peers—they twelve pars
alter Nerds addressed themselves to the credulii.y of the
ILower House, flittering them by the folio w ing ad-

dre'o' :
"To the wise Commons of this present Parliament,
pray the mayor and citizens of the city of London, whO
shew"
That by a statute made in Westnainetar, 17th of
Richard 11., setting forth this statute (which had been
subsequently repealed by the 4th of Henry 0. end
not noticing any of the sub.equent statutes which are
set forth in their petition to the King last alluded to,
but proceeding with the following gross misstate-
ment :—" And for that the waters of Thames and
Medwaye by certain metes and bounds apper-
tain to the citizens of London "—thus making
an assertion of the most unmistakeable character—" it
was ordeigned by the same statute that the mayor or
guardian of the same city for the time being has tho euu-
servaney of the said statuLto al the said waters of Thames
and Medwaye : so far as the liberties of the same city ex-
tend in the same waters." This gross misquotation, in
which the statute of 17th of Richard 11. is male to ad-
mit that the mayor or warden of the city of London f,,r
the time being, then bad at the time of the passing of
such statute jurisdiction, turns nut, on reference to the
statute in question, to be a statement of a most erro-
neous character.
The language of the statute is not in
•
the past, nor a recognition of any existing t ight enjoyed
by the mayor, bat a statute enabling that functionary to
become one of the conservators, amongst others who had
been appointed by the then existing acts of Parliament.
We must refer again to the words of the statute of
17th Richard 11. :—" Our said lord the King in this pre-
sent Parliament, by the assent aforesaid (of the lords
spiritual and temporal) bath granted that the mayor or
warden of London for the time being shall have the con-
servation of the statutes aforesaid, and shall make thereof
"due execution and like punishment as afore, is ordained
of the justices of theduoaee in the said waters of Thames,
from the bridge of Staines to London, and from thence