The National Register. — London, England, 1819-03-28 00:00:00

4 114 hit? 11 / /r iff 1 / i/A J p_ationat c toitittr+ Our %ling, Confattutionattri wind• No. 1167.—V0t.. XII.] PARLIAMENT for the last ten days (with the excep- , lion of an instance to which we shall advert here after) has been chiefly engaged ir attempting on one s de to procure some relief from the heavy burthen cf 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 weight with which it bears upon particular individuals. It is argued by many fiat 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 argument of the commercial part of the community ; and if the principle be sound, they must unite heart and hind with the 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, o 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 pf,England are either devoted to pas. turage or cultivated as arable with comparatively little labour and few horses, the poorer and lighter soils which compose so large a portion of our own county, 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 possess 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 iis ability to discharge any public burthen, than t'i_t 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 krat, escapes upon the lowest. The one pays his five shillings a horse, the other seventeen shillings end sixpence, We could point out so many cases of teal and oppressive hardships arising from this defect, that, if they were fairly submitted to the notice of the legislature, they must engage its atten tion and procure redress. We would particularly suggest this to our County Members. 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 pu bic debt, SUNDAY, 'MARCH 28, 1819 even supposing the Sinking-Fund to be all taken and apPed to the current service of the year. We may here further notice that the motion of Sir M. M. Ridley for a reduction of the number of the Lords of the Admiralty, (a question upon which Lord Walpole is stated by the Government papers as having been unfortunate& too late to loeV,) was lost by a majority of 81 instead of 91 as given in our last paper. We regret the issue of this question the more, as the expence of such an establishment was openly defended by the ministry, not itn the ground of any public utility derived from to services of these supernumerary gentlemen, but.because they constitute a part of that influence derived from pa tronage which is asserted to be necessary fur con ducting the affairs of state. We come now to the last—but we fear very ten der subject in Norfolk. We mean the Game-Laws. A motion has been submitted to parliament having for its object to make game private property, and to give to whoever is at the expence of rearing and 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 rational objection can be urged against this proposal. The Game-Laws arc the stratest feature of our more barbarous times that now remains amongst us,. 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 just principle upon which fifty times the amount of property is re quired as a qualification to kill a-partridge as to vote for a Knight of the Shire; and why, after maim a qualification, and paying for a licence, and gnaw through every necessary preliminary of enabling him to Ellthese.macred 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 skis sot of gam worthy their at -tention as a subject of legislation.but have contented themselves with sharing the manly exercise, ancLen ioying the amusement it affords in the fields ; whilst its further management and control has been left as a hobby-horse 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 few er than six places of gramma, to say nothing 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 corrupting scenes which abound in London. We are fully sensible of the inestimable advantages which accrue both to their neighbourhoods and themselves from the 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 , meat of uncivilized life; and we never wish to see civilization itself carried so far as to obscure and obliterate the very first propensities of nature. But why may not its abuses be corrected, and its best and proper qualities be preserved? This we think 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 [PRICE 91d• the course of his argument, mentioned in the House of Commons: and though we have very long been 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. his as follows; A poor woman named Worm, whose husband was employed in a nursery-.garden occupied by a man named Martin, and adjoining a cover belonging to Lord Suffield, in the parish of Thorpe and imme diate neighbourhood of Gunton, happening to tres passinto 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 within it, when she unfortunately touched the wire of a spring gun constructed with two barrels, and received, almost from 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 cartous, or that her sufferings were extreme. The shot had penetrated so deep as to admit of no extraction; and there, though the poor creature is now recover ing, they still remain. The keeper (who called on her the day after) congratulated her on even such art escape; and told her chat a few yards further there was a gun planted with thr:e barrels, which must have lulled 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 some reparation would have been made to the wretched sufferer. Oa the contrary, his lordship has never once condescended to visit her, or to bestow upon her one single farthing from his own pocket. 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 officers of . her porish, and directed them to allow her one shilling a week for goals. They have also since paid two shillings a week for the board ea nurse who attended her. We must here state that the poor sufferer has three children, the eldest fouttees 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 open day time: and it is because we presume to differ from - him in tote, both upon the lawfulness, the natural justice, and the humanity of such measures of pre caution being applied,--that we do most earnestly wish that tins case 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 not the proper au thority to which offence; should be referred. And even if the interference of the laws may be 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 ago, in the Midland Circuit, in which a boy 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 should have held him liable to answer for the murder. Now, for the honour of our county, we should be ex ceedingly sorry to see our Lord Lieutenant re duced to such a predicament; and we therefore earnestly implore him, for his own personal security, to satisfy himself more perfectly up on the propriety t of the course he is pursuing.