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produce of their land? That the land- ¡ qualification for any amusement is lord, who can let to farm the fertility wealth, let it be any proveable wealthof the land for growing wheat cannot let to farm its power of growing parDives agris, dives positis in fœnore nummis. tridges? That he may reap by deputy, It will be very easy for any country bat cannot on that manor shoot by gentleman who wishes to monopolise deputy? Is it possible that any re-to himself the pleasure of shooting, to spectable magistrate could fine a farmer for killing a hare upon his own grounds with his landlord's consent, without feeling that he was violating every feeling of common sense and justice?

Since the enactment of the Game Laws, there has sprung up an entirely new species of property, which of course is completely overlooked by their provisions. An Englishman may possess a million of money in funds, or merchandise may be the Baring or the Hope of Europe-provide to Government the sudden means of equipping fleets and armies, and yet be without the power of smiting a single partridge, though invited by the owner of the game to participate in his amusement. It is idle to say that the difficulty may be got over, by purchasing land: the question is, upon what principle of justice can the existence of the difficulty be defended? If the right of keeping men-servants were confined to persons who had more than 100l. a year in the funds, the difficulty might be got over by every man who could change his landed property to that extent. But what could justify so capricious a partiality to one species of property? There might be some apology for such laws at the time they were made but there can be none for their not being now accommodated to the changes which time has introduced. If you choose to exclude poverty from this species of amusement, and to open it to wealth, why is it not open to every species of wealth? What amusement can there be morally lawful to a holder of turnip land, and criminal in a possessor of Exchequer bills? What delights ought to be tolerated to Long Annuities, from which wheat and beans should be excluded? What matters it whether it is scrip or short-horned cattle? If the locus quo is conceded -if the trespass is waived-and if the

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let to his tenant every other right attached to the land, except the right of killing game; and it will be equally easy, in the formation of a new Game Act, to give to the landlord a summary process against his tenant, if such tenant fraudulently exercise the privileges he has agreed to surrender.

The case which seems most to alarm country gentlemen, is that of a person possessing a few acres in the heart of a manor, who might, by planting food of which they are fond, allure the game into his own little domain, and thus reap a harvest prepared at the expense of the neighbour who surrounded him. But, under the present Game Laws, if the smaller possession belong to a qualified person, the danger of intrusion is equally great as it would be under the proposed alteration; and the danger from the poacher would be the same in both cases. But if it be of such great consequence to keep clear from all interference, may not such a piece of land be rented or bought? Or, may not the food which tempts game be sown in the same abundance in the surrounding as in the enclosed land? After all, it is only common justice, that he whose property is surrounded on every side by a preserver of game, whose corn and turnips are demolished by animals preserved for the amusement of his neighbour, should himself be entitled to that share of game which plunders upon his land. The complaint which the landed grandee makes is this. "Here is a man who has only a twenty-fourth part of the land, and he expects a twentyfourth part of the game. He is so captious and litigious, that he will not be contented to supply his share of the food, without requiring his share of what the food produces. I want a neighbour who has talents only for suffering, not one who evinces such a fatal disposition for enjoying." Upon

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 strangers, 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.

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. What to offences of a much higher order; has the consequence been? - Not a bat 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 comnion 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. panishment 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 prepospriety 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 must be game on Lord Mayor's day, do what you will. You may multiply the crimes by which it is procured; but Bothing can arrest its inevitable pro- the Antipodes, we cannot be much surprised and connections, and sent to hard labour at gress from the wood of the esquire to that murders and midnight combats have the spit of the citizen. The late law considerably increased this season; or that for preventing the sale of game pro-information such as the following has fredaced some little temporary difficulty quently enriched the columns of the country in London at the beginning of the newspapers. season. The poulterers were alarmed, and came to some resolutions. But the alarm soon began to subside, and the for the destruction of game in the parish difficulties to vanish. In another sea-of Dunkerton, and fined 57. He was taken son, the law will be entirely nugatory into custody by C. Coates, keeper to Sir and forgotten. The experiment was Charles Bamfylde, Bart., who found upon tried of increased severity; and a law him 17 wire-snares. The new act that has

"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

"POACHING.-Richard Barnett was on

Tuesday convicted before T. Clutterbuck,
Esq., of keeping and using engines or wires

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!

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'Now, we do swear to each other, that the first of our company that this law is inflicted on, that there shall not one gentleman's seat in our country escape the rage of fire. We are nine in number, and we will burn every gentleman's house of note. The first that impeaches shall be shot. We have sworn not to impeach. You may think it a threat, but they will find it reality. The Game Laws were too severe before. The Lord of all men sent these animals for the peasants as well as for the prince. God will not let his people be oppressed. He will assist us in our undertaking, and we will execute it with caution.'-(Bath Paper.)

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 upon his left temple, which felled him to the ground, where he lay, crying out murder, and asking for mercy. The keepers very humanely desired that all violence might cease on both sides: upon which three of the poachers took to flight and escaped, and the remaining three, together with Simmons, were secured by the keepers. Simmons, by the assistance of the other men, walked to the keeper's house where he was placed in a chair; but he soon after died. His death was no doubt caused by the pressure of blood upon the brain, occasioned by the rupture of a vessel from the blow he had received. The three 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 upon the body of Simmons was taken on nine o'clock, a body of poachers, seven in Monday before W. Trigge, gent., Coroner! number, assembled by mutual agreement and the above account is extracted from on the estate of the Hon. John Dutton, at the evidence given upon that occasion. Sherborne, Gloucestershire, for the purpose The poachers were all armed with bludgeons, of taking hares and other game. With the except the deceased, who had provided assistance of two dogs, and some nets and himself with the thick part of a flail, made snares which they brought with them, they of firm knotted crab-tree, and pointed at had succeeded in catching nine hares, and the extremity, in order to thrust with, if were carrying them away, when they were occasion required. The deceased was an discovered by the gamekeeper and seven athletic, muscular man, very active, and others who were engaged with him in about twenty-eight years of age. He re patroling the different covers, in order to sided at Bowle, in Oxfordshire, and has protect the game from nightly depredators. left a wife, but no child. The three prisoners Immediately on perceiving the poachers, were heard in evidence; and all concurred the keeper summoned them in a civil and in stating that the keepers were in no way peaceable manner to give up their names, blameable, and attributed their disaster to the dogs, implements, &c., they had with their own indiscretion and imprudence. them, and the game they had taken; at Several of the keeper's party were so much the same time assuring them, that his party beat, as to be now confined to their beds. had fire-arms (which were produced for The two parties are said to be total the purpose of convincing and alarming strangers to each other, consequently no them), and representing to them the folly malice prepense could have existed be of resistance, as, in the event of an affray, tween them; and as it appeared to the they must inevitably be overpowered by jury, after a most minute and deliberate superior numbers, even without fire-arms, investigation, that the confusion during 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 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 produc

The poachers then directly took off their that both its spirit and its probable conse

quences are wholly to be ascribed to the exasperation naturally consequent upon the severe enactment just alluded to. And the last case is at least a strong proof that

from

jaws of the consumer by honest means; -and yet, if it had pleased the country gentlemen to have Goose Laws as well as Game Laws;-if goose-keepers had been appointed, and the sale and purchase 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 :

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 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 law which every body feels to be absurd

and unjust.

a

"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 human nature to

assert, that men in respectable stations of society had rather procure the same ends Thus

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

"But then, in order to secure a sufficient

Poultry-houses are sometimes robbed;-but stolen poultry is rarely of fered to sale;—at least, nobody pre- appear. tends that the shops of poulterers, and breed of game for the supply of the market, the tables of moneyed gentlemen, are in fair and open competition, it will be supplied by these means. hundred geese that are consumed at of persons, likely to breed game for sale, to Out of one necessary to authorise a certain number

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