The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-06 00:00:00

NDAY EVENING„TANTJARY 6, 1862.

the Ship's Surgeon in Mr. DICKENS'S last Christmas
Tale—" judge for yourselves." And they do so.
And they look, And there—sure enough is the
dread brand-03e hole on the top of the ear--in
evidence of identity. If the accused be
not the NANA after all, the coincidences of
the double identification and of the accusing
mark are certainly very extraordinary.
Of course, [nothing can be done to the
prisoner until further evidence shall have been
forthcoming. That additional evidence, however,
one way or the other, there can be no diffi-
culty in procuring. It is not the Poorbeeah
alone in all India who can swear to the identity
of the NANA SAHIB. That arch-miscreant is un-
happily a man but too well known, not only
among his brother Asiatics, but among crowds
of once friendly Englishmen. NANA SAHIB in
truth, up to the time of that hideous Revolt
in Bengal, was known to hundreds of
English officers and gentlemen moved in
the best society was recognized and
welcomed in many a ball room, and at many a
mess table, as an Oriental Patrician, with the
accomplishments of a prince, the abilities of a
scholar, and the manners of a gentleman. Until
—at the outbreak of the Sepoy insurrection—
all the gloss of civilisation dropped from him
as its glittering slough is cast from it
by the Deadly Serpent. Until—in literal
truth—nothing less than a monster in the human
form became suddenly visible. Supposing the
wretched man now in the hands of the authorities
at Kurrachee to be really and truly no other than
the NANA SAHIB, we do not for one instant call
for Vengeance upon his head. We simply ask that
Crimes and Penalties—in his regard—shall be
weighed in the even balance of Justice.

It is but fair to apprise our readers that we are
about to treat them to a little "jargon." Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON denounces as such, by anticipation,
what the press is likely to say in commenting on
the discussion and action of the Worcestershire
Justices of the Peace at the Epiphany Quarter
Sessions. Their subject was the existing state of
the game laws ; they chatted and made speeches
over a memorial they proposed to forward to the
Home Secretary, which our readers will find in
another column ; and the result of their discussions
was, that more stringent laws were needed for the
protection of game, or perhaps they would prefer
to say, to put down proaching.
Let us avoid " jargon" at the commencement, for
a statement of the case, as viewed by the noble,
reverend, and untitled members of the Bench, can-
not be so termed. The chairman—the Earl of
DUDLEY—stated the vast amount of poaching in
the county. Nearly a thousand men were known, by
name, to be engaged in it. The temptation also to
offend against the game laws was, he said, greater
than ever, and it had reached the point that either
the temptation must be diminished, or magistrates
must be armed with greater powers to
-prevent men from yielding to the tempta-
tion. The towns furnished organised gangs who
went forth to violate the rights of property, and
men were so clever now, that they did their work
more effectually than of yore. Many gentlemen
were jealous of employing the police against
poachers, and if " the question was simply as be-
tween the landowner and the poacher, then he
would say either let the landowner employ more
efficient protection for his property or destroy his
game, but when in every town in the kingdom
there was an organised body of men who went out,
as soon as the sun was down, for the sake of plunder
of all kinds, when the system led not only to great
demoralisation but actual crime and the most ter-
rible assaults, often ending in the destruction of life,
then ne thought it was time to call upon the proper
authorities to interfere."

A REVEREND MAGISTRATE, Who followed, men-
tioned the confessed legality of preserving game
and the illegality of poaching. He had heard that
where game was little preserved thieving was most
common. He spoke, however, rather sensibly for
a clergyman on two points included in the memo-
rial. "He thought that a great difficulty, even
perhaps an insuperable obstacle,, might arise in
making game private property. A pheasant whilst
on one side of a hedge might be one man's property,
whilst if it crossed that hedge it might be claimed
as the property of another person. At any rate he
did not see how it could be identified or made
private property. He thought also great difficulty
would arise in complying with the latter part
of the memorial, in which it was suggested that
the police and officers of that description should
have the power of apprehending persons with game
in their possession. That would be a complete alte-
ration of the law regarding property. It was true
that if a policeman met a man going home late at
night with fowls in his possession he not only took
away the fowls but he also apprehended the man,
because probably the fowls would be identified, and
thus a charge of felony established; but there were
so many difficulties connected with the identity of
a pheasant that the same rule would not apply. He
thought, however, that if policemen had power to
take the guns or nets of poachers it might have a
deterring effect."
Another JUSTICE OF THE PEACE was for much
stronger measures. It was all very well to seize
guns and nets ; but as many of these poachers
poached for a livelihood, something stronger was
needed—it must be made of no avail to them to get
the game. They must not be allowed publicly to
sell it, and dealers must be put under a supervision
as rigorous as that of the Excise. All persons also
out between sunset and sunrise with dangerous
weapons ought to be taken by the police wherever
found !

Sir JOHN PAKINGTON followed; he "declared his
conviction that one very necessary change of the
law would be to enact that game found upon the
land of a landowner shoald be the property of that
landowner, as much as anything else he found upon
it. He always had entertained that opinion, and
he had never heard any objection to it consistent
with common sense. The argument had indeed
often been used, and Mr. PEARSON had reverted to
it, that there would be great difficulty in identify-
ing game. But he did not hold that objection to be
an answer to his opinion, for the same argument
might be extended to various breeds of poultry, to
hay, and many other things, where the same
difficulty of identity existed, and where, to establish
a conviction, it wax necessary to bring home evi-
dence of other points against a prisoner. As might
be expected, however, from such an Educationist as
Sir JOHN, he took much ground. He hoped that
he (Sir JOHN) and other members of the court
would look upon the subject not as landowners or
preservers of game, but as it affected the public
morality and order, and would form their opinion
according as they believed it was the duty of the
legislature to interfere. Sir JOHN feels warmly on
the subject, for he could tell a tale from his own
preserves, and of last winter. " One of a gang of
men with nets to take rabbits and hares during the
night was arrested; and taken into custody. Those
men came from Kielderminster, and his (Sir JOHN'S)
keeper therefore 'next day went over to Kidder-
minster to make in quiries. He saw the police, who
told him that if Viey knew the man's name who

was in custody, they could give him the names a
all his companions. The police added, that there
were in Kidderminster at that time four or five
gangs of men, wi.o went out at night marauding
and taking possession of game, whosesoever pro-
perty it might be ; that they were known to the
police, who also knew their rendezvous, and saw
them nightly returning with the booty into Kidder-
minster, but that such was the state of the law they
(the police) could not interfere, the law was
powerless, and the men could not be taken." Upon
this naturally followed his appeal of honest indig-
nation against some of the press. "He appealed
to anybody of sense whether the jargon that they
saw in many of the newspapers of the present day,
and some of it would probably follow in conse-
quence of that discussion, whether the jargon as to
aristocratic game preservers' and the accidental
killing of a hare by an innocent peasant' was to be
an answer to such facts as he had mentioned, whe-
ther it was possible for the evil to exist without
producing demoralisation and serious effects on the
people of the country."
It is, of course, with diffidence that we venture
a remark or two, on the speeches and memorials of
nobility, clergy, gentry, and ex-ministers. We
must, however, observe that we doubt whether the
country will deduce the same inferences from the
facts of the memorial and the speeches as did the
JUSTICES OF THE PEACE for Worcestershire. These
gentlemen saw nothing in them but further protec-
tion for game ; their Chairman gave a hint of some-
thing better, but even he introduced the memorial
which points only to " arming the police with such
additional powers as the case demands." We ap-
prehend it will be found that even the House of
Commons dare not do anything worse than is now
done for the protection of game. The " aristocratic
game preservers," doubtless, would like to do it ; but
there is a public and an unpurchaseable press,
and its " jargon" intimidates even those who
abuse it. The press is but too well aware,
in the fulfilment of its duties, that it has to record
what proves that poaching must be a trade exten-
sively carried on, and that it is a training school
to vice and even violence, hardly inft rior to smug-
gling.

The Press and the country, however, see no pos-
sible remedy but that just mentioned in a passing
way by the:Chairman--the diminution of the tempta-
tion. It is in that way that smuggling is prevented.
The best preventive service in the world, as Sir
JOHN well knows, can never put down smuggling
when the profit is fifty per cent. Tobacco is the
article most frequently smuggled now. And while
preserves make game catching so easy, and the pro-
fit on the outlay, as well as the pleasurable excite-
ment of the chase is so great, no laws which the
country will tolerate can put down poaching.
Stricter laws might make men more cunning and
more desperate—but given the preserve, and a
demand at a high price for its produce on the
tables of the country—and poachers there will be,
and in abundance too.

We must confess we regret to hear Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON taking a course unworthy, we think,
of his standing as a student of " Social Science,"
and a legislator generally leaning to the side of the
amelioration of our penal code. We ought to have
found him beginning at the other end. He ought
to have lectured the game preservers rather than
have encouraged them to hope for more stringent
laws in defence of their effeminate sport. A. suffi-
cient amount of game for manly sport, watched by
a well-treated tenantry and peasantry, would be
little temptation to the poacher. It is the system
which makes a plantation a kind of poultry-yard,
and reduces shooting to. little better than firing at
a target, or at pigeons from a trap, which creates
the poacher. The thousand poachers of Worces-
tershire are far more of a disgrace to the magis-
trate class than to the working class. The gen-
tlemen who create criminals by the thousand—
not to satisfy the necessities of trade or
agriculture, but rather to the ruin of the latter,
and solely to gratify a depraved form of a
noble pleasure—these are the persons who
must bear the infamy of a thousand poachers
in one not very large county. Instead of coming
whining for more protection to the Legislature, we
must bid them look around themselves, and act like
men. To talk of coming for " morality and order,"
while for a merely degrading form of sport they
nurture immorality and disorder, is, we are reluc-
tant to say it, no better than cant.

As to Sir JOHN PAKINGTON'S notion of making
game property, we wish him joy of it. It was not
endorsed at the meeting; it will only be laughed at
by lawyers and the public. It would not alter the
state of the case, since no law could create the con-
viction in the public mind, that a pheasant and a
partridge had the same relation to an owner as a
turkey and a hen.

INTERESTING PROCERDINGS AT THE

OXFORD 11CTSIC HALL,

A Testimonial—the spontaneous expression of
the good will of the professional ladies and gentle-
men engaged at the Oxford and Canterbury Music
Halls—was presented, on Saturday afternoon, at the
Oxford, to Mr. Ferdinand Jonghmans, the Musical
Director, in the presence of every member of the
company. The offering, consisting of an elegant
silver salver, bore the following inscription :
" Presented to Ferdinand Jonghmans, Esq., by the
artists of the Oxford and Canterbury Music Halls,
as a sincere mark of their respect and esteem, and
in appreciation of his conduct and talent as Musi-
cal Director, January 4th, 1862." Mr. C. Morton,
of the Oxford, assented to become the medium of
presentation, and paid a glowing tribute to the
untiring energy and skill of Mr. Jonghmans, which
had contributed largely towards bringing, first the
Canterbury, and subsequently the Oxford Music
Halls, to their present state of musical excellence.
Mr. Morton was followed by Mr. Caulfield, who, in
a few manly and unaffected sentences, pointed out
Mr. Jonghmans' services to the profession and to
the public. Mr. Jonghmans replied to these praises
in modest and suitable terms, reflecting the credit
back again upon the company under his baton, and
eulogising them for their professional zr.al. Mr.
Russell, the father of the prima donna, followed
and, in the course of this very agreeable reunion of
the artists, a toast to the health of Mrs. Charles
Morton—whose birthday it happened to be—was
greeted with much enthusiasm.

The MINISTRY.—Lord Palmerston has been
gradually recovering during the week from his attack of
gout, but is still weak in his feet. The noble viscount has,
however, daily taken a carriage drive, and throughout his
illness, now extending to several weeks, has never been
prevented from transacting official business. Sir G. C.
Lewis, the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Somerset, Sir
G. Grey, Mr. Milner Gibson, the Duke of Argyll, and 2,1 r.
Villiers are staying in London. Mr. Gladstone is expected
to arrive in town this day (Monday.) Lord Granville is
also in London, and as Lord President of the Council, will
proceed to-morrow with other members of the Cabinet, to
attend the Privy Council appointed to be held by her Ma-
jesty at Osborne.—Observer. _

TIIE MEETING OF PA RLIAM EN T.—A Privy
Council will be held this day at her Majesty's marine re-
sidence, Osborne, Isle of Wight, for the further proroga-
tion of Parliament. On the 4th December last Parliament
was further prorogued to the 7th January. It is expected
that upon the present occasion the day for the meeting of
Parliament will be determined on, and that a proclamation
will be issued, summoning the Lords and Commons to
meet for the despatch of public business.—Observer,

SACRED HARMONIC SOCIETY, EXETER-lIALL.
Haydn's Creation will be performed on Friday next, Jan.
10, when Mr. Sims Reeves will appear for the first time
since his tour with Madame Lind, Miss Parepa and Signor
Belletti sustaining the soprano and bass solos.

LATEST NEWS.

ARRIVAL OF THE SUMTER

AT CADIZ.

CAPTURE OF THREE MERCHANT VESSELS
BY THE PRIVATEER SUMTER.

CADIZ, JAN. 5.

The privateer Sumter, with the officers and crew
(42 persons in all) of three Federal merchant vessels
which she had destroyed at sea, arrived off Cadiz,
and solicited permission to enter the port.
The American Consul demanded that this request
should refused; but, the Government having been
consulted, the Sumter was admitted into the port
without being saluted.

THE STEAMER EUROPA.
QUEENSTOWN, MONDAY, 10.25 A.M.
Up to the present moment there is no sign of the
Europa.

CHINA.
PEKIN, Nov. 13 ( via ST. PETERSBURG).
The Emperor has arrived here. .
Prince Kung has been appointed Regent of the

Empire.
The Supreme Council, the members of which
were hostile to Europeans, has been dissolved.
Suh-Shun, President of the Finance Department,
has been publicly executed.
Two other influential personages have strangled
themselves by order of the Emperor.

TURKEY AND MONTENEGRO.
SCUTARI, JAN. 4.
The Montenegrins have violated the territory of

Sosisna.
1,500 Bashi-Bazouks have been despatched from
Antivaria to drive them back.
Silza and Karnitza have been re-occupied by the
Montenegrins.

THE OUTWARD AMERICAN MAIL.
QUEENSTOWN, JAN. 5.

The Royal Mail steamship Arabia arrived here
at noon to-day, embarked mails, passengers, and
latest telegrams, and proceeded to Halifax at 4
p.m. ; all well.

ST. PETERSBURG, JAN. 5.

It is reported that at the commencement of the
difficulty between England and America Russia
employed all her influence in favour of peace, and
has recently taken fresh steps to the same end.
The Russian Government has communicated to the
Great Powers all the reports which it has received
from its Minister at Washington.

TURIN, lAN. 5.

Garibaldi has accepted the Presidency of the
Rifle Association of Genoa, and has addressed a
letter to the members of that body, in which he
says, " Hasten to prepare yourselves to take up
arms, for the moment approaches when you will
have to give fresh proofs of your valour."