The Express.
London, England, 1846-09-22 00:00:00

gite eppresig.

MAILS.

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON-BR/DOR
Tete DAY.—X 45 men. pea 2; Afternoon, 0 min. pest 3.
To.asoneow.— 14 nun. pest 3; Afternoon, 30 loin. past 3.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 22.

WE reported yesterday, from the Plymouth journal.
the committal of W. HArrEe, gamekeeper to the
Rev. W. RADCLIFFE, of Warleigh, Devon, for firing
at and wounding a girl of 16 years old, named
MARIA MICRR, who was plucking blackberries. The
plantation in which the offence was committed, ad-
joined • garden occupied by the girl's father; there
was no fence or other partition ; and no design of
meddling with game seems to have been imputed to
the sufferer, who retired on the first notice, and was
twice fired at while retracing her steps, two shots
taking effect on the second discharge. We make no
comment on this particular case, as the gamekeeper
awaits his trial at the next Exeter Assizes. But we
cannot refrain from an expression of regret and
censure at finding the name of a clergyman mixed up
with such a transaction. It is one of the last places
in the world, especially in the present state of public
opinion on the Game-laws, where a clergyman's name
should make its appearance.
We are for no unreasonable requirements of the
profession. They need not be anchorites. We ex-
cuse them the teetotal pledge, long or short. If they
live in the country, let them by all means enjoy their
share of rural amusements, healthful and harmless.
If it be their taste, let them "go a-angling." Con-
fessing to little sympathy with any sport which
inflicts suffering, yet, while:public morality deems the
objection fastidious, we enter no protest against
their following the hounds occasionally. Let a
clergyman "do all that may become a man."
But no more. We would have one moral-
ity for him and his parishioners. And when
a particular amusement comes into public question ;
when it is assailed, not on any narrow grounds of
sectarian theology, but on those of moral principle
and social utility; when the objection grows into a
discontent, which enforces legislative investigation ;
when it is under serious inquiry, whether such
amusement be not • public nuisance, an injury to
property amounting to robbery, a source of demo-
ralisation, oppression, crime, and outrage ;—then we
think the clergy would do well to abstain, and sub-
mit to the privation until the case is decided, and
their sport is either superseded or ceases to be a
scandal. Till that time it behoves them, and all who
must ensure respect for the fulfilment of their pecu-
liar functions, to let the birds alone, and make their
gamekeepers let the girls alone, when they are doing
nothing more culpable than picking blackberries.
A clerical game-preserver is at beat in an anoma-
lous position. Ile and his birds are reckoned thieves
by the tenant-farmers to whom he preaches. In
their estimation, his hares and partridges break the
eighth commandment. The wife of the poacher whom
the gaol matures into a felon, accuses him of oppres-
sion, aid his gamekeeper of perjury. In the convict's
retrospect of a life of guilt, his amusements may
stand forth as the first occasion of criminality. His
exhortations to heed the consciences and claims of

others, are often neutralised, however scripturally
enforced. The shot that wings a bird wounds a text.
Ills coursing mars his discoursing. His grace before
game makes game of his grace. His fervent Hann-
lujah reminds of his load Tally-ho. If a tithe be
true that is told of the common character of game-
keepers, his establishment is more " godless " than the
Irish colleges. They must cut a comical figure at family
prayers, before they start for the night to pummel
the poachers. Does he crave a blessing on their
bludgeons and blunderbumes ? Was the double-
barrel consecrated, before its charge rattled about
the limbs of the blackberry-loving girl ? We know
of no form of prayer for fowling-pieces. There is no
ritual for rifles. Unblessed is the work they often do.
What makes the matter worse is, that your
sporting clergyman is often a magistrate ; nor are
clerical magistrates famous for lenient sentences in
game cases. They judge the poachers in the squire's
preserves, quite as hardly as the squire judges the
Poachers on their preserves. Opinion may do them
wrong in the ascription of greater severity ; but
they should not, in their peculiar relation to the
people, stimulate erroneous opinion. It is certain they
do not remonstrate against the Game Laws, even
when the minds of others have become deeply im-
pressed with the iniquity and mischievousness of
those laws. The Duke of GaArroN, in his admirable
evidence before the committee, expresses his convic-
tion that in times of distress or excitement, the Game
Laws embitter the feelings of the peasantry, have a
tendency to increase incendiarism, and should be
revised by the legislature without loss of time.
(15034-8,) Bat he adds that he never heard any of
the magistrates, the oldest of whom is a clergyman,
agree with him in condemning the severity of those
laws. It is to be wished that he bad. A clerical
protest would have been graceful and christian. It
would have tended to peace and good-will. It might
have encouraged the philanthropic, conciliated the
ignorant, and perhaps have touched the hardened.
Nobody could have been offended but the squire.
But all is dead silence. This is not well. The
Church has to learn the moral power it might acquire,
by effective interposition between the wealthier and
the poorer classes of society. We recommend no
patronage of poachers. Let the profession, if it will,
avoid all semblance of sympathy with publicans and
sinners. But it might stay the heavy hand that falls
crushingly on the poor offender. It might show a
becoming sense of the enormities that have been laid
bare in this noxious remnant of feudalism. It might
make itself heard, from the bench and in the pulpit,
against a system that crowds gaols and hulks, and
destroys more souls than are saved by many sermons.
Such conduct would attract respect, confidence,
and reverence. Nor do we doubt that, were the
ice once broken, many would speak. The