The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-07 00:00:00

as it was almost, from the Legislature against the
wish of the Home Secretary, and in opposition to
some of the most respected members of both parties,
does really override the most settled principles of
English law. They have so interpreted it that the
onus of proof of innocence is thrown on the accused,
not that of the proof of guilt on the accuser. The
act is one perplexed and difficult enough, as might
be expected from its hurried passage, in the hottest
haste, by the county squires hurrying up as on a
life-or-death question to town, when most other
members felt but too secure that the transaction of
formal and routine business would alone be tole-
rated. Still it does contain the reasonable provi-
sion that " such game is obtained by unlawfully
going on any land in search or pursuit of game."
The country magistrates have maintained that if
the game, nets, are found on any person, it is
for him to show that he got them without "enter-
ing unlawfully" on land. The defendants' legal
advisuerlwsahafllvuecy" contended in vain that the trespass on
the land is a part of the offence under the statute,
and that therefore the mere possession of the game
does not create the crime contemplated by the act.
That unlawful entrance on land must be proved, in
fact, as well as possession of game.
This last view of the case has now been sustained
for the first time, we believe, by an appeal to a le-
gally-qualified judge from a decision of one bench
of the Great Unpaid. It was brought before the

Stamford Quarter Sessions ; the bench of mag

strates had convicted several undoubted poachers,
who were seen leaving the town at night,were waited
for by the police in the morning, and caught re-
turning to the town with game in their possession.
The fact of their poaching no one could doubt.
Their profession was well known. They had no
land of their own to take game from. No one would
authorise them to take even rabbits at night. And
the game, with implements to take it, was in their
bags. Many a man has been hung for murder on
not clearer circumstantial evidence. But in the
case of every murder the corpus delicti must be
shown to exist. It must be proved that there has
been a person killed—that the offence, that is, for
which the accused is tried, has been committed. It
is on this point that the prosecution here fails, It
is a part of the corpus delicti that the possessor of
the game should have been " unlawfully on land"
for it. This might indeed be believed by everyone;
it was believed by magistrates, recorder, and every-
one else in this case, but it was not proved before
the court. A person suddenly missing under very
suspicious circumstances might be presumed to be
murdered, but no trial for murder could take place
till the body or remains of the murdered man were
found. On this sound principle the learned judge
ruled that the conviction must be quashed.
It shows how much the public resent the harsh
administration of the un-English code termed the
Game Laws, that this drily legal decision elicited
the applause of the court. The applauding indivi-
duals had certainly ne sympathy with the poachers
personally. They are a class of men all the com-
munity would be glad to be rid of. But it would
like to be rid also of game preservers, arbitrary
parish squires, and game laws. The prevalent
feeling is that those who will pester the country
with flocks of hares and pheasants, and tempt
men to poach, by packing together wild animals
like flocks of sheep or poultry, do not deserve the
countenance of the public.

It was also apparent, in this case, how the
police of towns and counties will be withdrawn
from their proper duties to perform the office of
gamekeepers. A gentleman meets some men,
whom he takes to be poachers, walking out of
town in the direction of some extensive preserves.
He informs the police. Forthwith the police, in-
stead of being employed in watching the property
of those who pay the police rate, are set to watch
the game for which the preservers pay no rate
whatever, because game cannot be made property at

all. The police are, as it was predicted they would
be, turned, in fact, into gamekeepers, and the game,
which is the training school for crime in the rural

districts, and thus the heaviest indirect charge on
the county rates, now becomes a direct charge on
them. These Norman laws must be revised, and
brought into accordance with our modern sense of

justice. And in some way game preservers must be
induced to exchange their present unmanly system
for one of moderate preservation.

The Earl of CARNARTON has come forward in a
bold spirit to enter his protest against a system
which is fast becoming intolerable in its results,
and bids fair, if not checked, to rank among the
national grievances. His lordship moved for " a
select committee to consider the system of prison
discipline in this country, and the expediency of
any change therein." He denied all idea of con-
veying any censure on the Visiting Justices, whose
duties he affirmed were to maintain the prison dis-
cipline on the system on which it is at present
founded, whereas the task imposed on the committee
ha wished to see appointed would be of a totally
different nature, they would have to consider the
principles rather than the details of the penal
system. He did not intend to enter into
questions which referred to sentences beyond
two years, as they came under the class called
penal servitude, and Parliament would soon
be called upon to consider what course must be
pursued by Government in relation to them. His
lordship then explained in the clearest manner the
reason which induced him to make this statement.
It was 15 years since a committee had laid down
the system upon which prison discipline in this
country should be conducted; he reminded Viscount
EVERBLEY, who presided that day at the Sessions,
that he had been the chairman of that committee.
In these earnest words his lordship proved the
impossibility of considering it unnecessary to make
that a neplus ultra arrangement. " since that time
committees of both Houses of Parliament have sat,
commissionshave been issued, reports published, and
a very abundant and voluminous flood of evidence has
been brought forward upon this particular subject,
and, therefore, it would be preposterous to jump to
the conclusion that, however well the subject was
deliberated by the Committee to which I have
alluded, its conclusions ought to be invested with
any degree of finality, dO as to preclude the idea of
a reinvestigation at the present day. During these
15 years various changeshav
discipline;ebeenmadaenidn, the
mode of administering prison
al-
though it may be true that in themselves none of
those changes have been
ate, they really
changes, yet, taken in the aggreg
great revolutionary
do, in consequence of their uniform tendency and
and
operation being all in one direction, constitute
very considerable change in our prison discipline."
He then proceeded to show how the original orders
had fallen into disuetude, until they were mere
apologies for punishment. The committee had laid
down these rules. The prisoners were divided into
four classes ; those serving their first month were
to be allotted eight hours' hard labour a-day,
the second class six hours, the third four hours, and
the fourth three hours. As the case now stands,
through the mitigations of the system, the work
has degenerated into the following ratio :—The first
class only labour three hours and a half, the second,
third, and fourth receive about two hours' work
a-day. " Well, then, I ask," exclaimed his lord-
ship, "is it not idle to talk of sentencing a pd.