mitting depredation upon the property | with another man, who has more of another person; they do not con- money than he wants-because magistrates will not (if they can avoid it) inflict such absurd penalties- because even common informers know enough of the honest indignation of mankind, and are too well aware of the coldness of pump and pond, to act under the bill of the Lycurgus of Corfe Castle. The plan now proposed is, to undersell the poacher, which may be successful or unsuccessful; but the threat is, if you attempt this plan there will be no game-and if there is no game there will be no country gentlemen. We deny every part of this enthymeme-the last proposition as well as the first. We really cannot believe that all our rural mansions would be deserted, although no game was to be found in their neighbourhood. Some come into the country for health, some for quiet, for agriculture, for economy, from attachment to family estates, from love of retirement, from the necessity of keeping up pro The inferences from these facts are exactly as we predicted, and as every man of common sense must have pre-vincial interests, and from a vast dicted that to prevent the sale of game is absolutely impossible. If game be plentiful, and cannot be obtained at any lawful market, an illicit trade will be established, which it is utterly impossible to prevent by any increased severity of the laws. There never was a more striking illustration of the necessity of attending to public opinion in all penal enactments. Mr. Bankes (a perfect representative of all the ordinary notions about forcing mankind by pains and penalties) took the floor. To buy a partridge (though still considered as inferior to murder) was visited with the very heaviest infliction of the law; and yet, though game is sold as openly in London as apples and oranges, though three years have elapsed since this legislative mistake, the officers of the police can hardly recollect a single instance where the information has been laid, or the penalty levied; and why? because every man's feelings and every man's understanding tell him, that it is a most absurd and ridiculous tyranny to prevent one man, who has more game than he wants, from exchanging it variety of causes. Partridges and the barrel which contains it. We do stealing; or its destruction when the not deny that the annihilation of the sale is not without risk, and the price game laws would thin the aristocratical extremely low? or the readiness of population of the country; but it grandees to turn the excess of their would not thin that population so much game into fish or poultry? All these as is contended; and the loss of many circumstances appear to us so natural of the persons so banished would be a and so likely, that we should, without good rather than a misfortune. At any evidence, have had little doubt of all events, we cannot at all comprehend their existence. There are a few the policy of alluring the better classes absurdities in the evidence of one of of society into the country, by the the poulterers; but, with this exceptemptation of petty tyranny and in-tion, we see no reason whatever for justice, or of monopoly in sports. How impugning the credibility and exactabsurd it would be to offer to the ness of the mass of testimony prepared higher orders the exclusive use of by the Committee. peaches, nectarines, and apricots, as It is utterly impossible to teach the the premium of rustication-to put common people to respect property in vast quantities of men into prison as animals bred the possessor knows not apricot eaters, apricot buyers, and where-which he cannot recognise by apricot sellers-to appoint a regular any mark, which may leave him the day for beginning to eat, and another next moment, which are kept, not for for leaving off-to have a lord of the his profit, but for his amusement. manor for green gages--and to rage Opinion never will be in favour of such with a penalty of five pounds against property: if the animus furandi exists, the unqualified eater of the gage! And the propensity will be gratified by yet the privilege of shooting a set of poaching. It is in vain to increase the wild poultry is stated to be the bonus severity of the protecting laws. They for the residence of country gentlemen. make the case weaker instead of As far as this immense advantage can stronger; and are more resisted and be obtained without the sacrifice of worse executed, exactly in proportion justice and reason, well and good- as they are contrary to public opinion: but we would not oppress any order-the case of the game laws is a memoof society, or violate right and wrong, to obtain any population of squires, however dense. It is the grossest of all absurdities to say the present state of the law is absurd and unjust, but it must not be altered, because the alteration would drive gentlemen out of the country! If gentlemen cannot breathe fresh air without injustice, let them putrefy in Cranborne Alley. Make just laws, and let squires live and die where they please. The evidence collected in the House of Commons respecting the Game Laws is so striking and so decisive against the gentlemen of the trigger, that their only resource is to represent it as not worthy of belief. But why not worthy of belief? It is not stated what part of it is incredible. Is it the plenty of game in London for sale? the infrequency of convictions? the occasional but frequent excess of supply above demand in an article supplied by rable lesson upon the philosophy of legislation. If a certain degree of punishment does not cure the offence, it is supposed by the Bankes' School, that there is nothing to be done but to multiply this punishment by two, and then again and again, till the object is accomplished. The efficient maximum of punishment, however, is not what the Legislature chooses to enact, but what the great mass of mankind think the maximum ought to be. The moment the punishment passes this Rubicon, it becomes less and less, instead of greater and greater. Juries and Magistrates will not commit informers are afraid of public indig in the new Turnpike Act. The penalty for taking more than the legal number of outside passengers is ten pounds per head, if the coachman is in part or wholly the owner. much. A penalty of 1007. would produce This will rarely be levied; because it is too perfect impunity. The maximum of prac There is a remarkable instance of this assiduous loyalty, have been allowed to introduce into the game laws. nation-poachers will not submit to be sent to Botany Bay without a battle blood is shed for pheasants-the public The plan of the new bill (long since attention is called to this preposterous anticipated, in all its provisions, by the state of the law-and even ministers acute author of the pamphlet before (whom nothing pesters so much as the us), is, that the public at large should interests of humanity) are at last com- be supplied by persons licensed by pelled to come forward and do what is magistrates, and that all qualified perright. Apply this to the game laws. sons should be permitted to sell their It was before penal to sell game: game to these licensed distributors; and within these few years it has been there seems a fair chance that such a made penal to buy it. From the plan would succeed. The questions are, scandalous cruelty of the law, night Would sufficient game come into the poachers are transported for seven hands of the licensed salesman ? years. And yet, never was so much Would the licensed salesman confine game sold, or such a spirit of ferocious himself to the purchase of game from resistance excited to the laws. One qualified persons? Would buyers of fourth of all the commitments in Great game purchase elsewhere than from the Britain are for offences against the licensed salesmen? Would the poacher game laws. There is a general feeling be undersold by the honest dealer? that some alteration must take place- Would game remain in the same a feeling not only among Reviewers, plenty as before? It is understood who never see nor eat game, but that the game laws are to remain as among the double-barrelled, shot- they are; with this only difference, belted members of the House of Com-that the qualified man can sell to the mons, who are either alarmed or licensed man, and the licentiate to the disgusted by the vice and misery which public. their cruel laws and childish passion for amusement are spreading among the lower orders of mankind. It is said, "In spite of all the game sold, there is game enough left; let the laws therefore remain as they are;" and so it was said formerly, "There is sugar enough; let the slave trade remain as it is." But at what expense of human happiness is this quantity of game or of sugar, and this state of poacher law and slave law to remain ! The first object of a good government is not that rich men should have their pleasures in perfection, but that all orders of men should be good and happy; and if crowded covies and chuckling cock-pheasants are only to be procured by encouraging the common people in vice, and leading them into cruel and disproportionate punishment, it is the duty of the Government to restrain the cruelties which the country members, in reward for their tical severity would have been about five pounds. Any magistrate would cheerfully levy this sum; while doubling it will produce reluctance in the Judge, resistance in the culprit, and unwillingness in the informer. It seems probable to us, that vast quantities of game would, after a little time, find their way into the hands of licensed poulterers. Great people are very often half eaten up by their establishments. The quantity of game killed in a large shooting party is very great: to eat it is impossible, and to dispose of it in presents very troublesome. The preservation of game is very expensive; and, when it could be bought, it would be no more a compliment to send it as a present than it would be to send geese and fowls. If game were sold, very large shooting establishments might be made to pay their own expenses. The shame is made by the law; there is a disgrace in being detected and fined. If that barrier were removed, superfluous partridges would go to the poulterers as readily as superfluous venison does to the venison butcher-or as a gentleman sells the corn and mutton off his farm which he cannot consume. For these reasons, we do not doubt that the shops of licensed poulterers would be full of game in the season; and this part of the argument, we think, the arch enemy, Sir John Shelley, himself would | for pheasants, but not for sixpence or concede to us. a shilling; and the law itself is much more difficult to be braved, when it allows pheasants to be bought at some price, than when it endeavours to render them utterly inaccessible to wealth. All the licensed salesmen, too, would have a direct interest in stopping the contraband trade of game. They would lose no character in doing so; their informations would be reasonable and respectable. The next question is, From whence would they procure it? A licence for selling game, granted by country magistrates, would, from their jealousy upon these subjects, be granted only to persons of some respectability and property. The purchase of game from unqualified persons would, of course, be guarded against by very heavy penalties, both personal and pecuniary; and these penalties would be inflicted, because opinion would go with them. "Here is a respectable tradesman," it would be said, "who might have bought as much game as he pleased in a lawful manner, but who, in order to increase his profits by buying it a little cheaper, has encouraged a poacher to steal it." Public opinion, therefore, would certainly be in favour of a very strong punishment; and a licensed vendor of game, who exposed himself to these risks. would expose himself to the loss of liberty, property, character, and licence. The persons interested to put a stop to such a practice, would not be the paid agents of Government, as in cases of smuggling; but all the gentlemen of the country, the customers of the tradesmen for fish, poultry, or whatever else he dealt in, would have an interest in putting down the practice. In all probability, the practice would become disreputable, like the purchase of stolen poultry; and this would be a stronger barrier than the strongest laws. There would, of course, be some exceptions to this statement. A few shabby people would, for the chance of gaining sixpence, incur the risk of ruin and disgrace; but it is probable that the general practice would be otherwise. For the same reasons, the consumers of game would rather give a little more for it to a licensed poulterer, than expose themselves to severe penalties by purchasing from poachers. The great mass of London consumers are supplied now, not from shabby people, in whom they can have no confidence not from hawkers and porters, but from respectable tradesmen, in whose probity they have the most perfect confidence Men will brave the law If all this be true, the poacher would have to compete with a great mass of game fairly and honestly poured into the market. He would be selling with a rope about his neck, to a person who bought with a rope about his neck; his description of customers would be much the same as the customers for stolen poultry, and his profits would be very materially abridged. At present, the poacher is in the same situation as the smuggler would be, if rum and brandy could not be purchased of any fair trader. The great check to the profits of the smuggler are, that, if you want his commodities, and will pay a higher price, you may have them elsewhere without the risk of disgrace. But forbid the purchase of these luxuries at any price. Shut up the shop of the brandy merchant, and you render the trade of the smuggler of incalculable value. The object of the intended bill is, to raise up precisely the same competition to the trade of the poacher, by giving the public an opportunity of buying lawfully and honestly the tempting articles in which he now deals exclusively. Such an improvement would not, perhaps, altogether annihilate his trade; but it would, in all probability, act as a very material check upon it. The predominant argument against all this is, that the existing prohibition against buying game, though partially violated, does deter many persons from coming into the market; that if this prohibition were removed, the demand for game would be increased, the legal supply would be insufficient, and the residue would, and must be, supplied by the poacher, whose trade would, for these reasons, be as lucrative and flourishing as before. But it is only a few years since the purchase of oppression which is a disgrace to the country. The prisons are half filled with peasants shut up for the irregular slaughter of rabbits and birds-a sufficient reason for killing a weasel, but not for imprisoning a man. Something should be done; it is disgraceful to a Government to stand by, and see such enormous evils without interference. It is true, they are not connected with the struggles of party : but still, the happiness of the common people, whatever gentlemen may say, ought every now and then to be considered. game has been made illegal; and the market does not appear to have been at all narrowed by the prohibition; not one head of game the less has been sold by the poulterers; and scarcely one single conviction has taken place under that law. How, then, would the removal of the prohibition, and the alteration of the law, extend the market, and increase the demand, when the enactment of the prohibition has had no effect in narrowing it? But if the demand increases, why not the legal supply also? Game is increased upon an estate by feeding them in winter, by making some abatement to the tenants TRIED PRISONERS. (E. REVIEW, 1824.) 1. A Letter to the Right Honourable Robert Peel, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, &c. &c. &c. on Prison Labour. By John Headlam, M.A., Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the North Riding of the County of York. London, Hatchard and Son. 1823. 2. Information and Observations, respecting the proposed Improvements at York Castle. Printed by Order of the Committee of Magistrates, September, 1823. for guarding against depredations, by CRUEL TREATMENT [OF UNa large apparatus of game-keepers and spies in short by expense. But if this pleasure of shooting, so natural to country gentlemen, be made to pay its own expenses, by sending superfluous game to market, more men, it is reasonable to suppose, will thus preserve and augment their game. The love of pleasure and amusement will produce in the owners of game that desire to multiply game, which the love of gain does in the farmer to multiply poultry. Many gentlemen of small fortune will remember, that they can-Ir has been the practice all over Engnot enjoy to any extent this pleasure land, for these last fifty years*, not to without this resource; that the legal sale of game will discountenance poaching; and they will open an account with the poulterer, not to get richer, but to enjoy a great pleasure without an expense, in which, upon other terms, they could not honourably and conscientiously indulge. If country gentlemen of moderate fortune will do this (and we think after a little time they will do it), game may be multiplied and legally supplied to any extent. Another keeper, and another bean-stack, will produce their proportional supply of pheasants. The only reason why the great lord has more game per acre than the little squire, is, that he spends more money per acre to preserve it. For these reasons, we think the experiment of legalising the sale of game ought to be tried. The game laws have been carried to a pitch of compel prisoners to work before guilt was proved. Within these last three or four years, however, the magistrates of the North Riding of Yorkshire, considering it improper to support any idle person at the county expense, have resolved, that prisoners committed to the House of Correction for trial, and refor their livelihood; and no sooner was quiring county support, should work the tread-mill brought into fashion, than that machine was adopted in the North Riding as the species of labour by which such prisoners were to earn their maintenance. If these magistrates did not consider themselves empowered to burden the county rates for the support of prisoners before trial, who would not contribute to support themselves, it does not appear, from the publication of the Reverend Chairman of the Sessions, Headlam, p. 6. |