The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-02 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 2, 1846.

as soon es it is legal to shoot pheasants. Legal, we
presume, to buy them ready-cooked, the moment
the clock has struck the hour, and ushered in the day.
Perhaps they flew about in that state, and were shot
after being roasted. The late hot weather may
account for the phenomenon. However it happens,
the fact is certain, of a supply of game to the London
market "in no time." Steam is beaten by the birds
when dead. They must come from the country by
WISEATSTONE'S telegraph. The alacrity of game is
most remarkable. On the let of October, pheasants
have a right to show themselves ; and, to a minute,
they do show themselves. They are as eager for the
instant of exhibition as were the West India negroes
for that of emancipation. And the accommodating
creatures adapt themselves to the preference of some
aldermen, who like them best without lead. This is
convenient also for other parties. It saves the c.re-
mony of peppering the corpse with a pistol. One
point discussed in the Game-law commission, was that
of postponing the legal period of sale to a
day after the legal period for killing. This would
secure one day's exclusive enjoyment of pheasant and
partridge for the privileged. It would afford a decent
interval between the right of shooting and the rites of
gastronomic sepulture. But we question whether the
corporation of London will ever allow such an inva-
sion of its prerogatives. It would be as bad as the
change in the Calendar. It would revive the war of
New Style and Old Style. As the commonalty then
cried " Give as back our eleven days," the corporation
would now cry, " Give us back our game day."
One day of game is worth at least eleven ordinary
days.
The motion will probably be postponed till a
ministry is formed by Lord G. BENTINCK, when it
will certainly be made by Mr. GRANTLEY BERKELEY.
If carried, it will be unavailing, like most game-
laws. Cockneyism will exclaim, "Ve von%
vait." The pheasants will still be forthcoming.
They will be eaten, though the whole country party
should protest that they are not legally dead. As if
they could not die without being fired at, audibly,
visibly, and by license! Perhaps they died for fear of
being shot; or expired in pure patriotism ; or are
slain by the act of parliament. Anyhow, their feathers
may " point a moral and adorn a tale ;" the oft-told
tale of the feebleness of law against even the luxuries
of wealthy appetite; and the moral of its being time
to amend a system of silly restrictions, which is
trampled on by poachers and poulterers, and which
taints even the fidelity of gamekeepers and the honour'
of gentlemen.
We write in no spirit of hostility to regular sports-
men.
We only want to make them understand their
position. If they do not supply game, other folks
will. A plump pheasant is a great fact; and they
cannot prevent its civic existence. There is a demand,
and there must be a supply ; and we cheerfully
and gratefully acknowledge the extent to which they
contribute towards that supply. They keep down
the market admirably. A battuc in Buckinghamsh'
is felt in Leadenhall-street. Prince ALBERT is amaz-
ingly popular in those parts. They give his health
with the glee, " What shall he have that killed the 1
Deer ? " And every nobleman and gentleman that
assists at these feathery massacres, is a benefactor in
proportion to his bagging. They all help to make
pheasants cheaper than chickens. They supersede
the occasion for slaughter-houses. They minister to
the table of the tradesman. If their ministering be
not done gently, the butchering is done gratuitously.
They find their own tools, and charge nothing for
time or trouble. For the lead of a lord, we pay no
more than for that of a poacher. A great
public service is performed. The agents are
only amateurs, but they serve as well as
professionals. They cater, they slaughter, they supply
the shops; and what would the city do without them?
It could as soon dispense with cabs and omnibuses.
The gentlemen of the game are as necessary as oyster
dredgers. They are entitled to rank also amongst the
useful classes. It is a humble function, but they dis-
charge it welL We have sometimes felt compelled to
expose the viciousness of their system, but we are not
insensible to their merits. It is owing to their personal
exertions, and also to their business bargains, that,
although every peasant in the country cannot have a
loaf in his cupboard, yet every linendraper in London
can have a partridge on his plate.
An excellent plea for battues was urged by Lord
FITZHARDINGE in his examination before the Game
Committee. It was, in substance, that when
a country gentleman grows old and gouty, ho yet
does not outgrow his sportsmanship. With the true
bred squire it " travels thro', nor quits us till we die."
Now the gouty gentleman cannot run after the game;
therefore the game must be made to run towards the
gouty gentleman. He has the advantage of the
bed-ridden angler, with his teach in a tub. Wheel
him out on the lawn in his chair, and beat the pre-
serves. The pheasants fly from the sticks of the
peasants, all but into the muzzle of the gun of the
gouty old gentleman. There is splendid sport for his
decrepitude. The creatures flock, as they did round
ADAM to be named ; and he christens them with the
baptism of fire. There is life enough in him to deal
death by wholesale. His time is flying, bat the birds
shall fly no more. His feet are fettered, but his finger
is fatal. There he sits, amid limping hares and bleed-
ing birds, shouting clowns, obsequious menials, sympa-
thising sportsmen, and admiring gamekeepers, the
very picture of a " fine old English gentleman, all of
the olden time." Pity but he should die so. " Even
in our ashes live their wonted fires." The spirit of
the Dutch Governor evaporated in a puff of to-
bacco smoke; and he would make " a good ending"
to pop off with his last pop, hit and be hit at once,
become game for Death while making death a game,
and leave his double-barrel with a peer at one end and
a brace of partridges at the other.
The Game-laws greatly promote religion, as Mr.
GRANTLEY BERKELEY has shown in his philoso-
phical evidence. So, as pheasant shooting has began,
there will doubtless be large and devout congrega-
tions next Sunday at all country churches in sporting
districts. This is fortunate. There will then be an extra
prayer fer relief from natural scarcity, which should
excite some reflection in the minds of any sporting
attendants who have advocated artificial scarcity.

For thirty years their corn-laws have checked the
supply of food. They abused people for petitioning
for relief. Now Heaven checks the supply, and the
Church petitions Heaven for relief. Is scarcity made
by law, more sacred than scarcity made by Provi-
dence? Their restrictive law yet lingers ; it has a
sting in dying ; at this moment, imported corn is
taxed 103. per quarter ; and they cling to thatlax as
" the last plank of Protection." Let them remember
this, while the prayer is reading.

THE appointment of Mr. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS to
the vacant judgeship of the Court of Queen's Bench
is most honourable to the Government. No man in
Westminster-hall had stronger claims, personal or
hereditary. The claims of party, in matters of this
kind, are best left out of the question. Sir ROBERT
PEEL offered an example, in the case of Mr. Justice
ERLE, which, in the present instance, Lord JOHN
RUSSELL has wisely confirmed and followed.
Mr. WILLIAMS was called to the bar twenty-three
years ago, and in the year succeeding his call had
proved himself, by his joint editorship with Mr.
Justice PArrEsorg of his father's celebrated edition of
Saunders' Reports, an able and accompli shed lawyer.
Other works, more especially a treatise on the Law of
Executors, which enjoys a singular reputation for
excellence, afterwards strengthened and established
his repute. And the edition of Williams' Saunders,
which appeared last year under his sole editorship;
and which is hourly in every pleader's hand, will re-
main a monument of legal learning, exquisite arrange-
ment, and logical facility and clearness, when even
its practical utility shall have vanished before the in-
evitable advance of new " rules" and reforms.

We have spoken of Mr. WILT wa's hereditary