(The criminal penalty used to be just two years in
prison.)
Trespasses in parks or ponds shall be punished by
imprisonment for three years and a fine as well as paying
damages to the wronged person. After his imprisonment, he
shall find a surety or leave the nation.
"Forasmuch as there have been often times found in the
country devisors of tales, where discord, or occasion of
discord, has many times arisen between the King and his
people, or great men of this realm; For the damage that has
and may thereof ensue, it is commanded, that from henceforth
none be so hardy to tell or publish any false news or tales,
whereby discord or occasion of discord or slander may grow
between the King and his people, or the great men of the
realm." Anyone doing so shall be imprisoned until he brings
into the court the first author of the tale.
A system of registration and enforcement of commercial
agreements was established by statute. Merchants could
obtain a writing of a debt sealed by the debtor and
authenticated by royal seal or a seal of a mayor of certain
towns, and kept by the creditor. Failure to pay a such a
debt was punishable by imprisonment and, after three months,
the selling of borough tenements and chattels and of county
lands. During the three months, the merchant held this
property in a new tenure of "statute merchant". (Prior to
this, it was difficult for a foreign merchant to collect a
debt because he could not appear in court which did not
recognize him as one of its proper "suitors" or
constituents, so he had to trust a local attorney.
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