5 Conn. 391 | Conn. | 1824
Towns having clams and oysters within their respective limits, or in the waters and flats to them adjoining and belonging, have power to make by-laws to regulate the fisheries of such clams and oysters, and to preserve the same. Stat. p. 227.
That the place where the clams and oysters were taken by Hayden, was within the political jurisdiction of the town of Lyme, if not within the limits of its charter, is indisputable. Every part of Connecticut river, so far as relates to jurisdiction, is within some town in the state ; or these waters would be a sanctuary for debtors and criminals. Such has been the invariable usage, from a period probably coeval with the first settlement of the towns on the river ; certainly, beyond the memory of man. As the place where the oysters were taken, is not within the chartered limits of Saybrook, but on the East side of the centre of the river, it is within the jurisdiction of the town of Lyme.
The question, then, arises with respect to the legal validity of the by-law. By the act concerning towns, (Stat. p. 457.) the mode of warning town meetings, is specially prescribed. There is to be a notification in writing, “ specifying the objects for
Judgment to be reversed.