The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-26 00:00:00

PEASANTS AND PHEASANTS.

(From the WeetfytAronn is.)
We have before um a return moved for by Mr.
Bright, and ordered by the Rouse of Ccmmons to be printed
on the ..9th of 3 uile last. It extends over 118 pages, printed
with small type in close columns, and gives the details of
165 convictions at the assists, 10.613 at quarter and petty
sessions, and of 50 coroners' inquests, returning 37 verdicts
of wilful murder, 2 of manslaughter, 3 of justifiable homi-
cide, and Bof accidental death. The return is for England
and Wales, anti it extends from tke 6th of May, 1846, to the
let of August, 1849, and so embraces a period of scarcely 27
months. It gives an account of pains and penalties, varying
tram fiats to 16 years' transportation ietheted upon 10,779
persons, and of the violent deaths of 50; ani every county
of England and Wales has contributed its quota to the
columns of this return.
It may well be asked in what way these 60 persons met
their deaths ? Were they beset by housebreakers, er defend-
ing life, liberty, or property ? Nothing of the sort. They
did in battle for pheasants, hares, and partridges, and. the
10,778 persona variously punished by fi as, imprisonment,
and transportation, were simply bird catchers.
This return deserves a close perusal. It might fairly
enough be designated the report of our normal schools of
dime. It is a document the possibility of the existence of
which is a national infamy. These tine 3, imprisoned, and
tramp raid people, were not criminals—they wire off. riders
atta not the gamelaws ; laws set everywhere throughout the
country like traps l'aited:with pheasants, hares, and part-
ridges, enticing the people to a course leading to persecution,
fines, imprisonment, association with criminals, degradation,
and so on by such aids finally to crime.
It won't to de assert that these wild birds and heave are
private property, and that this return of pains and penalties
is an account of punishments for theft. Things by nature
wild, filing, raagirtg, and feeding where they please, and
that must be searched out and hunted to be caught, are,
on the face of it, the property of no other man than who-
ever can catch them.
I Tamed birds and beasts are distinguishable from each
other. A man can tell his own—the very variety of form
and colour is an evidence of domesticiti in and prupriet.ry.
The owner is at the cost of their keep himself. If they stray
into any one else's grounds he must pay for the damage they
do there. But no man can safely swear to every parl.cular
hare, phruant, or partridge having been bred and led upon
his ground only. They are all alike. It is not alone the
corn of the owner of the preserve upon which they fatten :
they feed where they please. Laws may declare them pro-
perty, may enact it theft in any but the duly licented law-
made owners to kill them; but still they are tot property,
arid to take them is riot theft. The exacters of such laws
are makers of crimes. No man's conscience+ will condemn
him for making a snug meal of pheasant, hare, or partridge,
r.otwithatanding all the game laws ; nor will a poacher, in
common consideration, be held a thief, nor in any way •
wrongttoer, even though the gamekeepers be after him, or
he be lacked up in jail.
But the mischief of such laws is that they lead t t crime.
To smoke a pheasant, or sn ere a hare, or take a lel shot at
a partridge, is no wrong. The young peasant has as good a
right to them as his landlord. But there is need fur c tution,
for concealment, for being out prying about all night ; there
I are gamek epees on the watch, and there's the jail in pres-
peet, and the ill will of the parsons and the squires, snd the
certain persecution of the whole family if the posching be
found out, for the landlords care more fir their pheasants
than their peasants; and in the jail there are real criminal",
men ready to tempt others on to crime, and for whom Some
present indignation sue despair often provides ready pupils.
This return of eame-law offences has more in it than
meets the eye. We cannot trace down step after step, to
de+truction, its long list of beginners in crime.
We have the battles with gamekeeper", the murders and
i manslaughters, as a direct result upon the spot; but we
have nut the history of the thousands ruined by tines, tarred
lout of work, refused relief, driven into the towns—unfit for
labour there, meeting again those they had stood beside is
jail, and so being worried, tempted,—starved into lives of
trims.
We find in the lit of convictors under these game laws
more than one rev. gentleman, but not one have we ever
heard of denouncing these laws fr;,ui the pulpit. The pea-
sant may be lectured upon the crime et poaching, but the
landlord re ewes no rebuke for the maintenance of laws con-
trary to real right, and which, for sake of his sport, create
crimes,
" The bold peasantry, the country's pride," is the tout
and talk i.t agricultural dinners, and in parliament, and at
protectionist meetings, and in this game law return we have
the practical working of this deep-seated love for the pea-
santry. They ere toasted and talked of, whilst they toil and
half starve, and ask no relief; but let them dare touch a
pheasant—dare even be sten with a wire in their heeds, or
in a field where a wire has been hound set—the mere pre-
sumptive suspicion is enough, your game preservers want no
1001 proof", they do not let themselves down to the level of
such common justice. The boasted peasant is fined, impri-
soned, his character destroyed, his family starved, for the
lore the landlord tears the pleasant.

STRANGE CASE OP CHILD STEALING.— A Teel
strange ease of this nature was detailed by Mr. Ileswick,
chief superintendent of police, to the magistrates at the Man-
chester Borough Court, on Wednesday morning last. Mr.
Keswick stated that about a fortnight since a woman named
Ellen Shiel, residing at 12, Back Style-street, was delivered
of a female child. She was attended by a midwife named
Thomas, residing in St. George's.road, who, a few days be-
fore the birth, stated to Dirs. Shiel that an application had
been made to her on behalf of the wife of Mr. Belli, of
Wt-
thington, by a woman who stated that Mrs. Rini wished to
adopt a child, in consequence of being without child' en of
bar own, and that it would be taken very great care of, and
treated as one of the family. Mrs. Shiel did not feel dis-
posed to promise to part with her child, and said she must
consult with her husband. The woman again call, d upon
Mn. Thomas, and the result was that an interview took
place between her 'Atha pretended servant) and Mrs. Shildhiel,
bat' the latter still would not agree to part with her c.
On. Monday week the woman again called upon Mn.
Male', and after urging her to give up the child, pro-
duced 41. 61., which she said Mrs. Belli hwl sent in order
that she (Mrs. Shiel) might get something nourishing. She
also urged that, if the mother wished to see her child occa-
sionally, she would be allowed to do so; and ultimately the
mother yielded, and the woman departed with th child. A
week or ten days having el..peed without Mrs. he
hearing
anything further, she applied to him (Mr. Keswick), at the
detective office. After hearing her statement he sent officers
to make some inquiries, but no person named Rath could be
found in Withington or its neighbourhood. When Mrs.
Thomas was called upon to give an explanation as to who
the woman was who called upon her on the subject, she re-
plied that she knew nothing of her except that she repro-
, anted herself to be a servant in Mrs. Ralli's employ. He
I (Mr. Beewick) believed that the child was seen on the after-
noon of the day on which it was removed, in an omnibus in
Chorlton-road, Rulme. The mother was greatly dietremed
about the loss ot the child ; and he (Mr. Beswick) hoped
that the noticing of the affair in the papers might assist in
the recovery of the child. The police are still engaged in
endeavouring to trace the child, or the woman to whom it
was given up.-3lanchester Guardian.
THE NIAGARA.—Thie flue vessel, upon which Mr.
Napier's men have been employed for the last few weeks,
both day and night, in executing the necessary repairs, was
towed down the river yesterday under the direction of Cap-
tain Mein, by two of the Castle Steam Company's tugs.
The departure was witnessed by a large number
of individuals who had assembled to tike a final
look at this magnificent specimen et marine architecture.
During her temporary stay at Laneefield quay, Ole was
ble citizens.
visited by a number of our moot respecta
who were all highly gratified with the beauty and com-
pleteness of her interior urangements, and the ample
provision for the comfort of passengers. As we fermerly
mentioned, the Eimer', during the short time she has
been here, has undergoes a thorough repair; and we may
confidently venture the opinion that her machinery is now
in a state of meter efficiency than ever. We observe that
she resumes her place in the line of packets on the 29th
inst., when she will sail from Liverpool with the mails,—
.North British Mail.