The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-08-03 00:00:00

. -
THE Clnelettixtl4.lt-.

. Viso the Yew lifeathOp Megusiesej
•
,
a Asil yea, ye pow, trio 50111E11mi you, fate,
letnear to envy those yois reckon great,
And know, amul those blessings they possess,
They are, like you, the victims of distress,
While sloth with many a pang torments her slave.,
lam waits on guilt, and danger shakes the brave."
CRA3II.
WWII I retired from the turmoil and anxiety of busi-
ng', std Bisbopsgate-street, to an estate which I purchased
is Bedfordshire, I bolted forward with not less pleasure
this confidence to the enjoyment of rural tranquillity. An
messier manor and well-stocked preserves unfortunately
famed a portion of my. property, which speedily unde-
ceived me se to the serenity I had. anticipated. Although
I was is sportsman myself, nor ever meant to be, I be-
ease 'tweedy embroiled in that civil war which is peeps.
way wateragon between the figirearchy and the poachers,
std ins aormented by the bitternese, wrangling, litigation,
stufiling, maiming, and murdering, eternally
up keno that rural Pandora's box, at the bottom
an the W m Weedy volume of the Gagne Laws supplies
5111.
elle of Hone. It was expected that I should dime's,
Whiz
by preineuting every offence against enactments
:la J tto as sanguinary as they were iuefecacions.
him thee& that I should be inhuman enough to let
apt sejenstiweefor the chance trapping of-my own legs,
or tae sirloin destruction of may fellow-creatures ; but as
I was olaphoonoWgb to think the lives Of intelligent beings
wee We e& than those of partridges Ind pheasants, I
volved Mike in veelf from the terror and misery of game,
by extiensting it from my manor as rapidly as I could. I
found that proprietors of preserves might as well be living
la a hornet's neat or a hyenas den, a sort of lodging for
which I felt no penchant, even could 1 sit in it and be
ohootlng partridges all day long. My remedial measures
were prow and vigorous.. Wherever my predecessor had
murk up a notice of spring guns and steel traps, I substi-
sated the following uneuetomarry announcement—" Any
body may shoot over this ewer. ' • 1 gate public notice
that I should use no precaution against poachers, nor pro-
=lichens if they were apprehended by others upon my
; I converted my gams-keepers into game de-
estrogen, and sent all my other servants into the preserves
with orders to kill what they liked, and permission to give
away or sell what they killed. As much of the game as
was not destroyed by tins hostile coalition, was scared away
-so the neighbouring estates ; in a few weeks I was enabled
to thank heaven that there wee not a hare or a pheasant
upon my grounds ; I repaired the fences broken down by
the poachers and others, who quickly abandoned the terri-
tory where there was nothing further to be got ; and at
length sate down in peace without having before illy eyes
the fear of midnight gunpowder, morning prosecution, and
papaya! hostility.
- All this, however, was deemed flagrant and outrageous,
high treason against the royalty of the ramrod, by the
neighbouring tyrant of the trigger, who after many loud
and indignant confabulations among themselves, and one
or two individual remonstrances with the offender, ap-
pointed a deputation to wait upon me, and expose me to
all the horrors which, like a second Cataline, I. was about
• so bring down upon my unhappy country. Taking there-
. Mite an affectionate leave of their pointers, whose cause
they felt themselves about to advocate as well as their own,
. some four or five ante shots presented themselves to me one
Morning, and very pathetically set forth the necessity of
encouraging country gentlemen to reside upon their estates,
the danger! of innovation in these radical times, and the
enormity of departing from the wise practices of our ve-
nerable ancestors, &c. Re. Re., according to the established
formula in all such cases made and provided.
" I alikik gry poor speechifler, gentlemen," said I, "hut
I have bthillildting a little into this matter lately, and I'll
t-fl you in as few words as possible what I think about it.
it appears to me that by the law of nature all men are
equally entitled to pursue and seize such wild animals of
the earth, or birds of the air, as cannot be proved to be
particular property, with no other restriction than that of
not trespassing on private grounds without the owner's
leave. And so it was once held ; but when the Normans
came in, they discovered, by a monstrous fiction, that
the right and property in all game vested exclusively
in the King, who might, however, authorise others
by license to pursue and destroy it ; and this is the
precious origin of our present moat sapient law. The
privilege can of course be only purchased by the
rich, and thus, by a pefttersion of all equity, the food
which nature must have meant in preference fur the poor
and hungry, is monopolised by those who are already
satiated with the fat of the earth. If there be any common
stow or natural right in the law, why is it limited to par-
tite* birds and beasts? why not extended to rats and
entiok. and sparrows and tomtits? or why, indeed, not
Plied out to sea, and rigorously exercised upon sprats
SI mackerel, oysters and herrings ? Quite ridiculous !
'llin exclaim. Not at all. King John did in face lay a
total interdict upon all the winged, as well as the four-
footed creatures, to which we may perhaps owe Magna
Charts, quite as much as to the patriotism of the barons;
ar.d had the monarch been as fond of fishing as of hunting,
he would probably have included the tenants of the deep
in his claim. His arbitrary enactment has been modified ;
but, if unjust in part, surely it is unjust in the whole, for
bow can you decide which of the wild birds and beasts
were made by God Almighty for the gentlemen, and which
for the rabble ? •
" Really, my worthy neighbours, it does not seem very
creditable to your resources that you cannot kill time in
the country, unless you have some innocent fowl or animal
to kill with it, an excuse much more natural in the mouth
of an ignorant savage, who has, moreover, the plea of
lc:rally shooting for his dinner, than front the lips of well-
fed and well-educated men in civilized life, many of whom
are magistrates and legislators. It may he true, that by
your residence upon your estates, you enable a few trades-
profit to live; but it is equally true that by your traps
ard spring-guns, as well as by your enforcement of these
sanguinary laws, you occasion a good many fellow-creatures
to t.ie, so that upon the whole, humanity may be no great
gainer by your presence. For my part, I consider these
statutes to be not less inefficacious than inhuman, for
heavy penalties only raise the value of the commodity, and
h:gli prices will beget poachers, just as high duties beget
stnugg!ers. I cannot alter them, but I can evade their
mischief and annoyance by having nothing subject to their
extrcise ; and thus, gentlemen, you have my reasons for
wetting out all the game upon my estate. I was read
fo:lier day of some beast (wasn't it the Musk animal?
ti it bites off the hag in which its perfume is contai
when hard pressed by the hunters, amid is thus suffered 11l
etope. I have made a somewhat similar compromise with
the poachers, and am happy to inform you that 1 am MD
loneer worried and terniented. You continue to enfant
et, est stal useless laws, and must not wonder if you NM
pretty often called upon to exchange your peace of mI
tor a partridge."
rhea I concluded my speech, the longest I hail ems
made, except when I was once Chairman of the Fish.
tr.imgers' Company, and I ant happy to lee that it had the
effect of freeing me from the Intrusions of the game.
pren:vers, as effectually as my previous measures had
enabled me to get rid of the game, so that, by the blessing
of Heaven, I now poplins my house and grounds in peace
unvisited by either squires or poachers.

...

The sporting season, or, in ether words, the period of
the rural civil war, is sow approaching; and as it is not 1
IPos4ible that other civic squires may hare made the same
eon of country investment as myself, and be equally ex-
rl:4to the strife torment, and bloodshed of the Game
5. I have theuglit it right to s,:ntl a statement of my
ease to the New Month ht Afog,mine , that they may
know law to c.it:ape from their miseries, and, by imitating
toy cx3n:ple, be made partakers of my piesent enviable
tranquility.

The Abbe& St. Fare.* natural son of the too-celebrated
Philip Egalite, ,!tad on Sunday se'nnight. lie was one of
th- innumerable examples among the French of the incon-
rer:ences to which they will submit, under the most pain-
ful circumstances of infirmity or old age, rather than not
eater into society. Totally deprived of the use of his
limbs, and with all the distressing appearance of bulk of a
wan in the dropsy, he was to be seen, until within a few
:trills, wheeling himself about in i Merlin's chair, in the
!, of the fashionable eompary of Pieria, apparently en-
Pying bintbeil in el-mem:atm+, or his rubber of whist, as if
were in perfect healtt•. Ir no other rev-el was he at 3'l