The National Register. — London, England, 1819-03-29 00:00:00

liittihyi • -Japt atonal( No. 11G8.—VoL. XII.] PARLIAMENTfOr the last ten days (with the excep tion of an instance to which we shall advert here. after) has been chiefly engaged in attempting on one side to procure some relief from the heavy burthen of taxation, and to enforce retrenchment ; and on the other, to resist them both. Several petitions have been presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Anson and others, for the repeal of the Tax upon Horses used in Agriculture. The pressure of this burthen is unquestionably severe ; and the more se vere from the partial wei g ht with which it bears upon particular individuals. It is argued by many that corn, as an article of the first necessity, is no proper object even of indirect taxation, and that not only our own produce, but the produce of the whole world, should have a free and unfettered introduc tion into our public markets. This is the universal gnment of the commercial part of the community; and if the principle be sound, they must unite heart and hand with th agricultural part, in endeavour ing to get rid of a load which must ultimately fall upon the consumer ; as the effect of all checks upon agriculture is to lessen, in a rapidly increasing ratio of velocity, the quantity of its produce ; and thus, notwithstanding the resources of foreign supplies, to enhance the price of grain. But independent of this general claim to support on the part of the pe titioners, we cannot forget that, whilst the best and richest soils of England are either devoted to pas turage or cultivated as arable with co:nparatively little labour and few horses, the poorer and lighter soils which compose so large a portion of our country, must either be cultivated upon a system which demands the greatest quantity of both, or be left to weeds, barrenness and rabbits. Again, Nor folk, perhaps more than any other county in En gland, has the happiness to possass a very numerous body of small landed proprietors,—a race of men valuable to society, and which every good govern. ment will make it an object to protect. From a variety of causes too numerous to particularize, it is well known that a very large proportion of their small properties are mortgaged, some for one half, some two-thirds, and many more for very nearly their full value, leaving the nominal owner— for in fact he is no more—in a worse condition, as tr ,is ability to discharge any public burthen, than the mere tenant at will. But how does this tax deal with this description of persons ? It most inequitably passes over all these obligations without any notice, and begins first by taking the value of the rent of their occupation, _then doubles it because held by the proprietor, and thus makes them subject to the very highest scale of duty ; whilst their next neigh bour, upon an equal extent of business, and paying less for rent than the little owner has to pay for in terest, escapes upon the lowest. The one pays his five shillings a horse, the other seventeen shillings and sixpence. We could point out so many cases of real and oppressive hardships ari , ,ing from this defect, that, if they were fairly submitted to the r•otice of the legislature, they must engage its atten tion and procure redress. The Salt duties have also been made the subject of parliamentary discussion. Their present annual produce to the revenue is about one million and a half; and the cause assigned for their admitting of no reduction is, that, excepting the sum above.men tinned, and thus raised, not a single shilling will be Available towards the reduction of our public debt, - in possession of the particulars of this melancholy instance alluded to, yet we have scrupulously for- ' borne to state them, because we thought it a case which could hardly fail to find its way to a British. judge and jury, and were therefore unwilling to • subject ourselves to the imputation of biassing the Public mind upon it. It has now however gone forth, and all further restraint is needless. It is as follows: A poor, woman named \Vorm, whose husband was employed in a nursery-garden occupied• by a man named Martin, and adjoining a corer belonging to Lord Suffield, in the parish of Thorp:: and imme diate neighbourhaod of Gunton, happening to tres pass into the said cover, for the purpose of gather. mg a few sticks, in the latter end of January last, had proceeded but a very few steps withia it, when she unfortunately touched the wire of a spring girl constructed with two barrels, and received, almost Irons the very mouth of the muzzles, the whole con tents of the charge in her legs. We need not add that * • her • situation was for some time exceedingly pre carious, or that hersufferings were extreme. The shot had penetrated so deep as to admit of no extraction; and there, though the poor creature k now recover ing, they still remain. The keeper (who called on her the day after) congratulated her on even such an escape; and told her that a few yards further there WAS a gun planted with three barrels, which must have killed her. Now that the noble lord himself thinks the adoption of such means fOr preserving his game perfectly justifiable, that he shrinks from no consequences which may follow them, however dreadful; nor even contemplates such cases as we have above cited as having any claims even to his charity and compassion,—we can have no doubt; because otherwise they would not be pursued in the first instance, and in the next somAeparation would have been made to the wretched sufferer. On the contrary, his lordship has never once condescended to visit her, or to bestow upon her one single farthing from his own to..ket. Upon a humble and urgent ap peal made to him by her husband, his lordship did indeed, as a magistrate, recommend her case to the eicers *per parish, and directed them to allow her one _chilling a week for owls. They have also since paid two shillings a week for the board •of a nurse eve 9 attend:d her. We must here state that the poor sufferer has three children, the eldest fourteen years old and a cripple; that the earnings of her husband have never exceeded nine shillings a week; and that she was at the time of committing the trespass in a state of the greatest poverty. We mention- these things however, solely to prove what must be the feelings and impression of his lordship upon the perfect right and justice with which such destructive engines may be used even in the opts day time: and it is because we presume to differ from him in icao, both upon the lawfulness, the natural justice, arid the humanity of such measures of pre caution being applied,—that we do most earnestly wish that this ca-e may yet be tried. ,It is import ant to society that we should know whether we have any right to be our own avengers on such occa sions, or whether the laws be riot the proper au thority to which offences should be referred. And even if the interference of the laws may he thus su perseded, still again it is important that we should know whether we have a right to inflict a much heavier punishment than the law itself awards, and even to take away the life of a fellow creature for an act which our existing statutes would at most punish by a few weeks imprisonment- We remember a case of this sort tried before Baran Richards a few years ea.() in the Midland Circuit, in which a boy b had entered a wood for the purpose of cutting a stick, and was wounded by a spring gun; when the jury not only awarded very heavy damages to the party injured, but the judge also distinctly assured the defendant, that if the boy had died, he would have held him liable to °mewr for the murder. We observe that the Northern Counties have succeeded in their application to have two general Gaol deliveries in the year, and that Mr. 'Woe is appointed to preside as Judge. Not wick will now, therefore, be the only place in the Kingd to which this act of justice is denied ! Mr. Smith has funiArti no answer U. his Coninitnents as to the probable fate At their petition, and we presume, of course that he is trite content things should remain as they ate. ~/ PI -14 rLt itittr+ Our tling, Condtituttonattif U ONDAY, ', M. even supposing the Sim and applied ti) the cr We may here further _ _ _ _ M. M. Ridley fora reds Lords of the Adrniralt: Lord Walpole is stated by as having been unfortunately by a majority of $1 iusteaf paper. We 'egret the more, as the expence of openly defended by the of any public utility LI( . . these supernumerary gentl constitute a part of that inP tronage which is asserted ducting the affairs of ss We — come now to the A motion has been subr for its object to make to give to whoever is at .ex pence feeding it upon his own lands a right to kill and dispose of it as the regular produce of his soil. It is not easy to imagine what r ttional objection can be urged against this proposal. The qame.Lawe are the strongest feature of our more barbarous times that now remains amongst pa. They savour from beginning to end of that feudal vassalage which has, in almost every other point, been swept away by the progress of our social improvement. Moralists are quite puzzled under what class of guilt to rank the crime of a man killing a hare or a pheasant upon his own ground, and when prey ing upon the fruits of his own labour; and politicians are not less so in assigning any jug principle upon which fifty times the amount of..property is re quired as a qUalitication to kill a partridge as to vote for a Knight of the Shire and why, after proving a qualification, and payhag for a licence, and going through every necessary preliminary of enabling him to ill/ these sacred animals, a person is yet forbidden to sell them. The plain history of the fact seems to be this ;—that our great statesmen have never deemed this sot of gam worthy thtir at tention as a subject of legislation,but have contented themselves with sharing the manly exercise, and en joying the amusement it affords in'the fields; whilst its further management and control has been left as a hobbv.ho: se to be rode by rural lords and squires. This may be easily believed when we find in one statute on game, viz. 5 Anne, c. 14, no fewer than six places of false gramma, to sly , flotilla: of bad English. Let us not, however, be supposed' to undervalue the preservation and protection of any thing which can give a tone and relish to society in the country, and innocently supply the place of those polluted indulgencies and corrupring scenes which abound in London. We are fully sensible of the inestimable advantages which-accrue both to their neighbourhoods and themselves from tat resi dence of gentlemen upon their own -estates in the country, and would willingly make every reason able sacrifice to promote these blessings. - Man, moreover, is naturally a hunting 'animal. The chace is the uniform delight as well as employ. ment of uncivilized life; and we never wish to see . civilization itself carried so far as :is obscure and obliterate the very first propensities of nature. Bat why may not its abuses be cerrtcte.d, and its best and proper qualities be preserved? This we third( would in a very great degree be effected by the measure now proposed; and we are The more con firmed in this opinion by seeing the name of Mr.. Coke amongst its supporters; because we believe that no man living either loves the preservation of game, for the amusement of his friends, more, uses it more nobly, or understands the whole subject. and its bearings so well. That many lamentable circumstances do arise out of the present system no man can deny. The very circumstance of the pri vileges of killing game being so limited, augments the propensity to do so, and gives a zest to poach ing; and the total prohibition of selling it, makes it at once an article of higher ambition and relish at our tables, and thus adds a direct incentive to clan. destine sale and purchase. Then come the horrible and cruel expedients often had recourse to as the means of preservation. One of these Mr. Coke, in the course of his argument, mentioned in the House a Commons: and though we have very long been 11ARCH 29, 1819 inking-Fund. to be all taken :urrent service of the year. notice that e motion of Sir 4 liction of t number of the lty, (a question upon which d by the Go4rnmeat papers lately too cite tove . e,.) was lost stead of 91 a* v'en in our last le issue Of ti question the of such an e . lishment waa e ministry, riot on the ground derived trorri the services of gentlemen, be; because they at influence detived from pa- rted to be riersary fur con- !state. the last--tint Game-Lases. ,mitted to parliament having game privas property, and it the expence of rearing and'