such principles as these, many of the against morals or religion, and sup Game Laws have been constructed, ports himself and his family without and are preserved. The interference assistance, the law has nothing to do of a very small property with a very with his amusements. The real barlarge one; the critical position of one riers against increase of sportsmen (if or two fields, is a very serious source the proposed alteration were admitted) of vexation on many other occasions are, as we have before said, the prohibesides those of game. He who pos-bition of the landowner; the tax to the sesses a field in the middle of my State for a certificate; the necessity of premises may build so as to obstruct labouring for support. Whoever viomy view, and may present to me the lates none of these rights, and neglects hinder parts of a barn, instead of one none of these duties in his sporting, of the finest landscapes in nature. sports without crime; and to punish Nay, he may turn his fields into tea-him would be gross and scandalous gardens, and destroy my privacy by tyranny. the introduction of every species of The next alteration which we would vulgar company. The Legislature, in propose is, that game should be made all these instances, has provided no property; that is, that every man remedy for the inconveniences which should have a right to the game found a small property, by such intermixture, upon his land and that the violation may inflict upon a large one, but has of it should be punished as poaching secured the same rights to unequal now is, by pecuniary penalties, and proportions. It is very difficult to con- summary conviction before magistrates. ceive why these equitable principles This change in the Game Laws would are to be violated in the case of game be an additional defence of game; for alone. the landed proprietor has now no other Our securities against that rabble of remedy against the qualified intruder sportsmen which the abolition of quali- upon his game, than an action at law fications might be supposed to produce, for a trespass on the land; and if the are, the consent of the owner of the trespasser have received no notice, this soil, as an indispensable preliminary, can hardly be called any remedy at all. guarded by heavy penalties and the It is now no uncommon practice for price of a certificate, rendered per-persons who have the exterior, and haps greater than it is at present. It perhaps the fortunes of gentlemen, as is impossible to conceive why the owner of the soil, if the right of game be secured to him, has not a right to sell, or grant the right of killing it to whom he pleases-just as much as he has the power of appointing whom he pleases to kill his ducks, pigeons, and chickens. The danger of making the poor idle, is a mere pretence. It is monopoly calling in the aid of hypocrisy, and tyranny veiling itself in the garb of philosophical humanity. A poor man goes to wakes, fairs, and horse-races, without pain and penalty; a little shopkeeper, when his work is over, may go to a bull-bait, or to the cock-pit; but the idea of his pursuing a hare, even with the consent of the landowner, fills the Bucolic Senator with the most lively apprehensions of relaxed industry, and ruinous dissipation. - The truth is, if a poor man does not offend they are travelling from place to place, to shoot over manors where they have no property, and from which, as stran gers, they cannot have been warned. In such case (which, we repeat again, is by no means one of rare occurrence), it would, under the reformed system, be no more difficult for the lord of the soil to protect his game, than it would be to protect his geese and ducks. But though game should be considered as property, it should still be considered as the lowest species of property-because it is in its nature more vague and mutable than any other species of property, and because depredations upon it are carried on at a distance from the dwelling, and without personal alarm to the proprietors. It would be very easy to increase the penalties in proportion to the number of offences committed by the same individual. What The punishments which country | passed to punish poachers with transgentlemen expect by making game portation who were caught poaching property, are the punishments affixed in the night-time with arms. to offences of a much higher order; has the consequence been? - Not a but country gentlemen must not be cessation of poaching, but a succession allowed to legislate exclusively on this, of village guerillas;-an internecive more than on any other subject. The war between the gamekeepers and very mention of hares and partridges marauders of game;-the whole counin the country, too often puts an end try flung into brawls and convulsions, to common humanity and common for the unjust and exorbitant pleasures sense. Game must be protected; but of country gentlemen. The poacher protected without violating those prin- hardly believes he is doing any wrong ciples of justice, and that adaptation of in taking partridges and pheasants. punishment to crime which (incredi- He would admit the justice of being ble as it may appear) are of infinitely transported for stealing sheep; and his greater importance than the amuse- courage in such a transaction would be ments of country gentlemen. impaired by a consciousness he was We come now to the sale of game. doing wrong but he has no such feel-The foundation on which the pro-ing in taking game; and the prepos priety of allowing this partly rests, terous punishment of transportation is the impossibility of preventing it. makes him desperate and not timid. There exists, and has sprung up since Single poachers are gathered into large the Game Laws, an enormous mass of companies for their mutual protection; wealth, which has nothing to do with and go out, not only with the intention land. Do the country gentlemen ima- of taking game, but of defending that gine, that it is in the power of human they take with their lives. Such feellaws to deprive the Three-per-cents of ings soon produce a rivalry of personal pheasants?that there is upon earth, courage, and a thirst of revenge beair, or sea, a single flavour (cost what tween the villagers and the agents of crime it may to procure it), that mer-power. We extract the following pascantile opulence will not procure? sages on this subject from the Three Increase the difficulty, and you enlist Letters on the Game Laws:vanity on the side of luxury; and make that be sought for as a display of wealth, which was before valued only for the gratification of appetite. The law may multiply penalties by reams. Squires may fret and justices Commit, and gamekeepers and poachers continue their nocturnal wars. There trust be game on Lord Mayor's day, do what you will. You may multiply the crimes by which it is procured; but nothing can arrest its inevitable progross from the wood of the esquire to the spit of the citizen. The late law for preventing the sale of game produced some little temporary difficulty in London at the beginning of the Beason. The poulterers were alarmed, and came to some resolutions. But the alarm soon began to subside, and the difficulties to vanish. In another sea, the law will be entirely nugatory and forgotten. The experiment was tried of increased severity; and a law "The first and most palpable effect has naturally been, an exaltation of all the savage and desperate features in the poacher's character. The war between him and the gamekeeper has necessarily become a bellum internecivum. A marauder may hesitate perhaps at killing his fellowman, when the alternative is only six months' imprisonment in the county gaol; but when the alternative is to overcome the keeper, or to be torn from his family the Antipodes, we cannot be much surprised and connections, and sent to hard labour at that murders and midnight combats have considerably increased this season; or that information such as the following has fre quently enriched the columns of the country newspapers. "POACHING.-Richard Barnett was on Tuesday convicted before T. Clutterbuck, Esq., of keeping and using engines or wires for the destruction of game in the parish of Dunkerton, and fined 5l. He was taken into custody by C. Coates, keeper to Sir Charles Bamfylde, Bart., who found upon him 17 wire-snares. The new act that has just passed against these illegal practices, | great coats, threw them down with the seems only to have irritated the offenders, game, &c., behind them, and approached and made them more daring and desperate. the keepers in an attitude of attack. A The following is a copy of an anonymous circular letter, which has been received by several magistrates, and other eminent characters in this neighbourhood. "TAKE NOTICE.-We have lately heard and seen that there is an act passed, and whatever poacher is caught destroying the game, is to be transported for seven years. -This is English Liberty! smart contest instantly ensued, both parties using only the sticks or bludgeons they carried; and such was the confusion during the battle, that some of the keepers were occasionally struck by their own comrades in mistake for their opponents. After they had fought in this manner about eight or ten minutes, one of the poachers, named Robert Simmons, received a violent blow "Now, we do swear to each other, that upon his left temple, which felled him to the first of our company that this law is the ground, where he lay, crying out inflicted on, that there shall not one gentle- murder, and asking for mercy. The keepers man's seat in our country escape the rage very humanely desired that all violence of fire. We are nine in number, and we might cease on both sides: upon which three will burn every gentleman's house of note. of the poachers took to flight and escaped, The first that impeaches shall be shot. We and the remaining three, together with have sworn not to impeach. You may think Simmons, were secured by the keepers. it a threat, but they will find it reality. Simmons, by the assistance of the other The Game Laws were too severe before. men, walked to the keeper's house where The Lord of all men sent these animals for he was placed in a chair; but he soon after the peasants as well as for the prince. God died. His death was no doubt caused by will not let his people be oppressed. He the pressure of blood upon the brain, will assist us in our undertaking, and we occasioned by the rupture of a vessel from will execute it with caution.' - (Bath the blow he had received. The three Paper.) poachers who had been taken were com"DEATH OF A POACHER.-On the even-mitted to Northleach prison. The inquest ing of Saturday se'ennight, about eight or nine o'clock, a body of poachers, seven in number, assembled by mutual agreement on the estate of the Hon. John Dutton, at Sherborne, Gloucestershire, for the purpose of taking hares and other game. With the assistance of two dogs, and some nets and snares which they brought with them, they had succeeded in catching nine hares, and were carrying them away, when they were discovered by the gamekeeper and seven others who were engaged with him in patroling the different covers, in order to protect the game from nightly depredators. | Immediately on perceiving the poachers, the keeper summoned them in a civil and peaceable manner to give up their names, the dogs, implements, &c., they had with them, and the game they had taken; at the same time assuring them, that his party had fire-arms (which were produced for the purpose of convincing and alarming them), and representing to them the folly of resistance, as, in the event of an affray, they must inevitably be overpowered by superior numbers, even without fire-arms, which they were determined not to resort to unless compelled in self-defence. Notwithstanding this remonstrance of the keeper, the men unanimously refused to give up on any terms, declaring, that if they were followed, they would give them a" brush," and would repel force by force. The poachers then directly took off their upon the body of Simmons was taken on Monday before W. Trigge, gent., Coroner! and the above account is extracted from the evidence given upon that occasion. The poachers were all armed with bludgeons, except the deceased, who had provided himself with the thick part of a flail, made of firm knotted crab-tree, and pointed at the extremity, in order to thrust with, if occasion required. The deceased was an athletic, muscular man, very active, and about twenty-eight years of age. He resided at Bowle, in Oxfordshire, and has left a wife, but no child. The three prisoners were heard in evidence; and all concurred in stating that the keepers were in no way blameable, and attributed their disaster to their own indiscretion and imprudence. Several of the keeper's party were so much beat, as to be now confined to their beds. The two parties are said to be total strangers to each other, consequently no malice prepense could have existed be tween them; and as it appeared to the jury, after a most minute and deliberate investigation, that the confusion during the affray was so great, that the deceased was as likely to be struck by one of his own party as by the keeper's, they returned a verdict of- Manslaughter against some person or persons unknown.' "Wretched as the first of these productions is, I think it can scarcely be denied, that both its spirit and its probable conse quences are wholly to be ascribed to the esperation naturally consequent upon the severe enactment just alluded to. And the last case is at least a strong proof that severity of enactment is quite inadequate to correct the evil.”—(pp. 356—359.) Poaching will exist in some degree, let the laws be what they may; but the most certain method of checking the poacher seems to be by underselling him. If game can be lawfully sold, the quantity sent to market will be increased, the price lowered, and with that, the profits and temptations of the poacher. Not only would the prices of the poacher be lowered, but we much doubt if he would find any sale at all. Licences to sell game might be confined to real poulterers, and real occupiers of a certain portion of land. It might be rendered penal to purchase it from any but licensed persons; and in this way the facility of the lawful, and the danger of the unlawful trade, would either annihilate the poacher's trade, or reduce his prices so much, that it would be hardly worth his while to carry it on What poulterer in London, or in any of the large towns, would deal with poachers, and expose himself to indictment for receiving stolen goods, when he might supply his customers at fair prices by dealing with the lawful proprietor of game? Opinion is of more power than law. Such conduct would soon become infamous; and every respectable tradesman would be shamed out of it. The consumer himself would rather buy his game of a poulterer at an increase of price, than pick it up clandestinely, and at a great risk, though a somewhat smaller price, from porters and booth-keepers. Give them a chance of getting it fairly, and they will not get it unfairly. At present, no one has the slightest shame at violating a law which every body feels to be absurd and unjust. Poultry-houses are sometimes robbed;-but stolen poultry is rarely offered to sale;-at least, nobody preteads that the shops of poulterers, and the tables of moneyed gentlemen, are supplied by these means. Out of one hundred geese that are consumed at Michaelmas, ninety-nine come into the VOL. L jaws of the consumer by honest means; -and yet, if it had pleased the country gentlemen to have Goose Laws as well been appointed, and the sale and puras Game Laws;-if goose-keepers had chase of this savoury bird prohibited, the same enjoyments would have been procured by the crimes and convictions of the poor; and the periodical gluttony of Michaelmas have been rendered as guilty and criminal, as it is indigestible and unwholesome. Upon this subject we shall quote a passage from the very sensible and spirited Letters before us: "In favourable situations, game would be reared and preserved for the express purpose of regularly supplying the market in fair and open competition; which would so reduce its price, that I see no reason why a partridge should be dearer than a rabbit, or a hare and pheasant than a duck or goose. the animals bear to each other in France, This is about the proportion of price which where game can be legally sold, and is regularly brought to market; and where, by the way, game is as plentiful as in any cultivated country in Europe. The price so reduced would never be enough to compensate the risk and penalties of the unlawful poacher, who must therefore be driven out of the market. Doubtless the great poulterers of London and the commercial towns, who are the principal instigators of poaching, would cease to have any temptation to continue so, as they could fairly and lawfully procure game for their customers, at a cheaper rate from the regular breeders. They would, as they now do for rabbits and wild fowl, contract with persons to rear and preserve them for the regular supply of their shops, which would be a much more commodious and satisfactory, and less hazardous way for them, than the irregular and dishonest and corrupting methods now pursued. It is not saying very much in favour of hunan nature to society had rather procure the same ends assert, that men in respectable stations of by honest than dishonest means. would all the temptations to offend against the Game Laws, arising from the change of society, together with the long chain of moral and political mischiefs, at once dis appear. Thus breed of game for the supply of the market, "But then, in order to secure a sufficient in fair and open competition, it will be necessary to authorise a certain number of persons, likely to breed game for sale, to take and dispose of it when reared at their S expense. For this purpose, I would suggest the propriety of permitting by law, occupiers of land to take and kill game, for sale or otherwise, on their own occupations only, unless (if tenants) they are specifically prohibited by agreement with their landlord; reserving the game and the power of taking it to himself (as is now frequently done in leases). This permission, should not, of course, operate during the current leases, unless by agreement. With this precaution, nothing could be fairer than such an enact ment; for it is certainly at the expense of the occupier that the game is raised and maintained: and unless he receive an equivalent for it, either by abatement of rent upon agreement, or by permission to take and dispose of it, he is certainly an injured man; whereas it is perfectly just that the owner of the land should have the option either to increase his rent by leaving the disposal of his game to his tenant, or vice versa. Game would be held to be (as in fact it is) an outgoing from the land, like tithe and other burdens, and therefore to be considered in a bargain; and land would either be let game-free, or a special reservation of it made by agreement. "Moreover, since the breed of game must always depend upon the occupier of the land, who may, and frequently does, destroy every head of it, or prevent its coming to maturity, unless it is considered in his rent; the licence for which I am now contending, by affording an inducement to preserve the breed in particular spots, would evidently have a considerable effect in increasing the stock of game in other parts, and in the country at large. There would be introduced a general system of protection, depending upon individual interest, instead of a general system of destruction. I have, therefore, very little doubt that the provision here recommended would, upon the whole, add facilities to the amusements of the sportsman, rather than subtract from A sportsman without land might also hire from the occupier of a large tract of land the privilege of shooting over it, which would answer to the latter as well as sending his game to the market. In short, he might in various ways get a fair return, to which he is well entitled for the expense and trouble incurred in rearing and preserving that particular species of stock upon his land."-(pp. 337-339.) them. There are sometimes 400 or 500 head of game killed in great manors on a single day. We think it highly probable the greater part of this harvest (if the Game Laws were altered) would go to the poulterer, to purchase poultry or fish for the ensuing London season. It is not the custom at present for gentlemen to sell their game; but the custom would soon begin, and public opinion soon change. It is not unusual for men of fortune to contract with their gardeners to supply their own table, and to send the residue to market, or to sell their venison; and the same thing might be done with the manor. If game could be bought, it would not be sent in presents :-barndoor fowls are never so sent, precisely for this reason. The price of game would, under the system of laws of which we are speaking, be further lowered by the introduction of foreign game, the sale of which, at present prohibited, would tend very much to the preservation of English game by underselling the poacher. It would not be just, if it were possible, to confine any of the valuable productions of nature to the use of one class of men, and to prevent them from becoming the subject of barter, when the proprietor wished so to exchange them. It would be just as reasonable that the consumption of salmon should be confined to the proprietors of that sort of fishery - that |