The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-10 00:00:00

be at an end, and the superseded Judges were left
without explanation. That explanation Lord
CHELMSFORD has demanded at the hands of the
Government ; and that explanation, so consonant
with every English sympathy, the Duke of NEW-
CASTLE has very properly, but very ungraciously,
promised to accord.

It is very satisfactory to notice that the "Poisoned
Grain Prohibition Bill" was read a second time on
Wednesday. Mr. PAULL, in moving the second
reading, made a most interesting speech on the sub-
ject. The hon. member said that the mission of
small birds was of great utility, and their
destruction was most injurious to vegeta-
tion and agriculture. He also showed that
the means used by persons to destroy small birds,
by poisoning seed wheat, &c., was dangerous to
society at large. In France and Germany they
now understood the value of birds, although too
long they had carried on a war of extermination
against them. He did not wish to make the Game
Laws more stringent, but in the interest of the
farmers and of agriculture he asked the House to
prevent indiscriminate slaughter. The French
Commission had reported that, in the vine-growing
communes, in ten years the loss from caterpillars
was £852,000. The Royal Agricultural Society's

articlevieee
roenn
rdeed-
structive insects, and h
journal last Sear
immensepublished an
an s
e t•
by small birds. The great destruction caused by
caterpillars was shown by its extracts from a Swiss
appeared " in one year an area of 860
acreswork.
of
firt forest was entirely stripped of its leaves
y
the
I
caterpillars of the Noctum, and the Govern-
ment paid more than 1,000 thalers for the
destruction of 94,000,000 of the above dangerous
insects." Mr. PAULL also said that while English
sportsmen were not addicted to the practice of de-
stroying small birds like the sportsmen of other
countries, yet nevertheless the destruction was
going on at an alarming rate. A curious case in
point was adduced from what took place in Hamp-
shire, when rookeries were abolished. Many hurt-
ful insects, and especially the cockchafer, increased
so greatly that women and children were obliged to
follow the plough to pick up the grubs. Therefore
the farmers resolved to re-establish rookeries.
Among the letters on the subject it appeared that
the members of a single Sparrow Ciub had de-
stroyed 13,000 birds. Of late years agriculturists
had adopted the pernicious system of employing
poisoned wheat. Of course the indiscriminate sale of
this article is most dangerous. A letter was read
by Mr. PAULL from Col. CLIFFORD, who stated that
his keeper complained to him that great mischief
was occasioned by it; and one morning eight or
ten pigeons dropped down dead after picking up

some of this grain on a field a mile off. Also, Mr,

BOWDEN, a magistrate for the ciunty of Derby,
instanced three flagrant cases in his neighbour-

hood that proved the evil of this practice. The
poisons used for dressing the grain were of the
strongest and most deadly kind—strychnine, cocu-
lus indicus, and arsenic.

Mr. PAULL concluded by stating that he had
essayed to make his bill as stringent as possible,
for he considered that no one had a right to pro-
tect himself in a manner that injured his neighbour.
The use of poisoned grain was now become so pre-
valent that all over the country hawkers went
about "with strings of birds round their necks,
and sold for a penny packages of poison enough to
kill a whole village. The bill was read a second
time upon the understanding that great alterations
should be introduced in committee. It is to be
hoped that notwithstanding the lateness of the
eession the bill will pass into law, and not be left
to another year, as some suggested. The practice of

destroying small birds is ono that ought to be

stop Fed at once, and if some few suffer in cnn
sequence of the suppressed sale of these poisons,
they will only have themselves to thank for it. I
is indeed a custom that exemplifies the adage o,

"penny wise and pound foolish," for the smal

tithes that were the portion of the birds have been
greatly increased through the devastating inroads
of insects. The French have had to rue the day
when their legislators sanctioned the wholesale
slaughter of these little warblers. Their harvests

have failed repeatedly, and the wireworm destroyed
in one department during a single year corn to
the value of £160,000. It appears from the evi-
dence on all sides, that it is a crime which brings
its own punishment to the holders of property
who encourage the nefarious practice; but then
there is the loss sustained by those who
have done no injury, and the loss also of
the sweet strains of these feathered songsters.
There is surely nothing but evil wrought by this
custom, and it is hard for the ramblers abroad to
be deprived of their accustomed melody. In France
the traveller hardly ever hears their notes, so cruel
and exterminating has been the warfare waged. It
is, in fact, one of those cases where the law should
interfere at once, for the habit once adopted is sure
to increase. Doubtless the spirit of emulation is
now rife in every sparrow club, to achieve a more
complete slaughter than any rival society has yet
accomplished. As for those whom no sentiments
of admiration for these ornaments of creation can
affect, they had better consider that there is great
danger to human life in these wholesale poisonings
of animals. The poor, the ignorant, and the starv-
ing are sure to fall victims to a cruel death, if this
mode is carried on much further. All sorts of
animals are killed by the poisoned wheat, as was
the. reports and statements made in the
or.i
certain that human life will next
f 4eit of this indiscriminate and inconsi
House, proved
in
and
pay the is
derate f procedure. Through a mistaken
style
notionsome have adopted the practice,
others
for the love of mischief, some
o followf economy,
i t
of all classes make an un-
worthy the sport for the excitement of the thing, and
s
unprincipled vendor!:
deleterious traffic. It is high
worthy gain from this
time that all parties were checked in their unwise
and unmerciful course, and those who best appre-
ciate the harmony of the CREATOR'S works will
readily accord their aid in putting down this work
of destruction.

The second reading of the Fortifications Bill
produced, as might have been anticipated, a
lengthened and animated debate. No sooner bad
the Premier briefly introduced the measure than Sir
F. SMITH rose to move an amendment. The hon.
baronet did not go so far as some subsequent
speakers, for he admitted that it would be unwise
to leave uofiiished those works which were far
advanced, and contented himself by proposing that
no further expense be at present incurred on the
assumptionuth
and
that
p
th earntsemnoenmy might land and besiege
Plymouth , except on such
iymoworks as
are in an advanced state, The hon, member for
Rochdale, on the contrary, with that fervent
opposition which the very name of war excites in
the minds of the Manchester school, denounced the
whole scheme as iniquitous, and suddenly discovered
that it was injurious to the honour of England to
build fortifications at all. Other gentlemen brought
forward their reasons for opposing the measure.—
some objecting to the position of the forts in pea.
tin, some denying the probability, almost the pos-
sibility, of an attempt at invasion, while others
maintained the superiority of an iron-clad fleet as
means of defence. It is by this time tolerably