The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-09 00:00:00

o produce. It also testifies to the conviction of

the Russians that they had gone too far, and must
temporise with their outraged assailants. They are
not able to build a golden bridge for their retreat-
ing foes, but they wish, at all events, to smooth the
road to future mediation and compromise. Had
these concessions been made some time back they
would have been of great use ; but now they are
powerless, and totally insufficient to check the
progress of the rebe lion, or to still the rage of the in-
surgents. It is one thing to make terms with men who
contemplate an insurrection, and another to stop
them when it has begun. By the time they are in
arms the primary motive which impelled them is
almost lost sight of in the hosts of accumulating
thoughts when once the field is taken and the cry
of war is sounded. BYRON, in his matchless de-
scription of the field of Waterloo, has celebrated
the onset of the Highlanders to battle,
and among the inducements that urged
on the warriors he brings forward " the
stirring memories of a thousand years." If this
incites men onwards, what memories must urge on
the Poles when once they have taken up the sword,
and met in open day the tyrants who have erased
their country from the map of the world, as far as
its existence as a State is concerned, and seem deter-
mined now to stultify the inhabitants of the out-
lawed nation. Whether or not, the insurgents are
put down without any important results being
obtained by their energy and devotion, at least
they have again appeared against their oppressors,
in the sight of GOD and man ; they have shown the
civilised world their wrongs, and if no notice is
taken of them outwardly, at least it must produce
some effect on the minds of their cruel
enemies at home. Even the haughty CZAR, the
Emperor of all the RusslAs, cannot afford to
lose more of the world's good opinion than he at
present possesses. What may accrue it is impos-
sible to conjecture, but it ie to be trusted that some-
thing of good may be in store for this outraged
people. It is satisfactory to notice that this out-
break seems to have reached to the stronghold of
autocratic absolutism, and been regarded as of
momentous importance by the proud conquerors
who have lorded it for so long a period in that
afflicted land. We shall look eagerly for the next
telegrams from Poland, but whether or not they
announce success to the insurgents, it is not yet
decided whether some good may not come out of
evil, and let us hope that this bitter struggle may
be the dark hour that precedes the dawn, which,
under the blessing of Providence, may hereafter
turn to the morning of joy that succeeds to the
heaviness of the night of mourning and despair.

At a time when it is of great importance that
the police, whether in the metropolis or in the
provinces, should receive every assistance from
the public generally, and from the working
classes particularly, to the end that the wide-
sptead crime of robbery with violence so preva-
lent of late throughout the length and
breadth of the land, to the great scandal of
our penal laws, should be put a stop to;
it is a great pity that the revival of an old
feudal law last session should be the cause of
gradually but surely wideniug the gulf which
must to some extent always exist between the ser-
vants of the law and those who, if not dishonest
themselves, look with not unfriendly eyes upon
thode who transgress statutes which none
but county magistrates and game-preservers
consider to be criminal. Poaching has
ever been considered by those who are not
personally interested in the preservation of game,
as a trial of skill between gamekeepers and unli-
censed sportsmen, and except where wanton in-
jury is done, the feeling of the public is in favour
of the poacher. No unprejudiced individual will
for a moment maintain that any comparison can
be made between the man who enters an open 'wood
and shoots or snares wild animals which own no
master, however much Lord License or Squire
Turnip-top may call them his property, and the
thief who breaks open a fowl house and steals its
contents. Yet, whatever may be the opinion formed
by the public at large, the sages who ere supposed
to legislate for the good of the community in the
Palace of Westminster, last session passed a bill
which not only included under the head of
birds and beasts sacred to the shrine of
wealth and title, animals never before considered
game, but gave power to the police to stop and
search any person suspected of poaching, in fact
treat him as he would a footpad or a burglar.
The following is the wording of the act : '
"It shall be lawful for every constable or peace
officer, in any highway, street, or public place, to
search any person whom he may have good cause to
suspect of coming from any land where he shall
have been unlawfully in search or pursuit of game,
or any person aiding or abetting such person, and
having in his possession any game unlawfully ob-
tained, or any gun, part of gun, or nets, or
engines used for the killing or taking game;
and also to stop and search any cart or other
conveyance in or upon which such constable
or peace officer shall hae good cause to suspect
that any such game or any such article or thing
is being carried by any such person ; and should
there be found any game or any such article
or thing as aforesaid upon such person, cart, or
other conveyance, to seize and detain such game,
article, or thing, and such constable or peace officer
shall, in such case, apply to some justice of the
peace for a summons citing such person to appear
before two justices of the peace," &c. The question
may justly be asked how can this be in a country
like England, which boasts of its advancement in
civilisation and the extension of the liberty of the
subject. We do not maintain that there should be
game ; the necessary restrictions
I no protection for
imposed on all classes alike to secure the birds from
destruction during the breeding season is a matter
of course; but why, because a country police
constable, either from his own Taney, or
from malicious information given him by
some interested party, chooses to consider any
wayfarer a suspicious person, should the law
empower him to stop and search such party, And
by an ingenious perversion of English law shift the
onus probandi from the executive to the accused,
and make him prove how he became possessed of
any contraband of war, such as gun, net, &c., or
any kind of game. Really our contemporary
Punch, who always takes up populsr controversies,
did not exceed tho limits of possibility when he
depicted a picnic party surprised while preparing
to commence a pheasant pie by a rural policeman,
who indignantly exclaims, " Hallo ! what have you
got there ? " Let us hope that this obnoxious bill
be reversed. Mr. PAULL has given
notice that on an early day he will
introduce a bill
that it willon this subject. We trust
have the effect of rectifying an error
of last session, which does little credit to the
good sense or toleration of our legislative assembly.
If there be one argument in favour of the payment
of members less unreasonable than another, it would
be that it would introduce an element into the
House which, however objectionable in other re-
spects, would at least keep in check the selfish pro-
pensities of those who, however straightforward and
liberal general affairs, forg .;t- it all, so soon as