The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-12 00:00:00

—we shall take it for granted that the reported
issue of their contest is altogether an exaggera-

Meanwhile, it is profoundly interesting to note
the recent expression of the heartfelt gratitude of the
General towards the most successful among all the
eminent surgeons who have endeavoured to alleviate
the Hero's sufferings. The illustrious French surgeon
Dr.NELATON—the one who first confidently insisted
upon the fact that there was a bullet lying there
deeply imbedded among the torn flesh and shat-
tered bones of the wounded ankle, and, under the
guidance of whose advice, and with the employ-
ment of whose exquisitely constructed instruments,
the rifle ball was at length drawn forth, and a per-
manent cure rendered, for the first time, possible.
Here, however, is the letter itself, precisely as it
was addressed the other day to Professor NELATON
by General GARIBALDI :--

" Pisa, Dec. 5.

"My very dear Friend,—I owo you a word of love and
gratitude. Your appearance at Spezzia brought happiness
to me, and if any doubt of my recovery could ever have
crossed.my mind, in spite of the fraternal and learned care
of the surgeons who attended me, at your interview, so
eminently sympathetic, and at your words, so sublimely
encouraging-, it would have disappeared. lam much better
since the extraction of the ball so ably effected by our com-
patriot, Professor ZANETTI, and with the instrument you
had the kindness to send me. To-morrow a fixed bandage
will be applied, and I hope to be able very soon to move
about upon crutches. GOD bless you, as well as those vir-
tuous men whose humane principles have honoured the
eminent man of science and the benefactor.—Your devoted,
" G. GARIBXIDI.”
Among the numerous letters and documents penned
by the Hero, this is about the most satisfactorily
expressed in every way, of any that has yet come
to our knowledge. For beyond all doubt GARI-
BALDI'S hand has shown itself less skilled in
handling the pen than in wielding the sword on
the battlefield, the spade or the mattock in his
island home, the oar or the helm upon the flashing
waters that in the earlier part of his life might
have been called his element—before the Sailor
gave place to the Soldier, and the daring Adven-
turer rose to the historical dignity of the Hero, the
Patriot, and the Liberator.

An important game case is given in the Bury
and Norwich Post, which was tried before several
of the great unpaid at the Mundford Petty Sessions,
the Honourable FRANCIS BARING being the Chair-
man. It is likely to come, on the point of law, before
the higher courts. The magistrates seemed, indeed,
very shy of the superintendence of her MAJESTY'S
superior courts at Westminster, but Mr. WALPOLE
of Bury, the solicitor who appeared for the defen-
dant, was not to be easily deterred. The magistrates
wanted him to appeal from the great game pre-
serves in Petty Sessions, to the same gentlemen and
their class in Quarter Sessions. But, as Mr. WAL-
POLE well observed, that was like appealing from
C,ESAR to C.ESAR. Mr. WALPOLE wanted "a
case," as the question was purely one of law, to take
to the Queen's Bench. The wary game preservers
refused it. Mr. WALPOLE then demanded a cer-
tificate of refusal, in order to enable him to apply
to the Court of Queen's Bench to compel them to
state a case. This they dared not refuse, and they
had also the prudence to suspend the order for the
payment of fine and costs for a month. We may
expect, therefore, to hear the matter argued soon
at Westminster.

The question to be decided is, whether under
the " Night Poaching Act,"—so infamously forced
through the House by the game preservers at the
end of the session, Lord GREY and some of the best
of the Tories and Liberals fighting desperately to
the last, but Lord PALMERSTON conniving—a man
is to be required to criminate himself. This, at
least, is the substantial question. The magistrates
hold that the possessor of game on the highway
must prove that he came by it lawfully. Mr.
WALPOLE thought it was for the accuser to show
that he came by it unlawfully. The accused in
this case was a carrier, whom two policemen, doing
duty at the county's expense as a landlord's game-
keepers, had stopped, and, finding some rabbits
and other game in his cart, had summoned him
as guilty of taking them off the land of a neigh-
bouring squire. There was not a tittle of evidence
even adduced to prove that PHILIP FULLER had
been on Squire BIRCH'S land. The Chairman, in
summing up for a conviction, did not even pretend
that there was. The ground of the conviction
was that the man had the game in his cart, and
refused to account for some of it, and that he had
been previously convicted of poaching. We
think it highly probable that the rabbits,
&c., may have been procured at first un-
lawfully ; possibly FULLER may have been
quite aware of this, and may even have taken
them unlawfully himself. But really the nroceed-
ings of these Mundford magistrates compel us to
ask whether we also live under ABE LINCOLN;
whether upon simple suspicion—great probability,
if you will—we can be made to pay a fine of £5,
or go to prison for two months. If the Act really
permits this, then the sooner, in 'the good old
fashion, it is burned by the hands of Mr. CALCRAFT
the better. If for the sake of country magistrates'
sports the whole genius of the laws we live under
is to be reversed, then, we say, perish their sports
first ! Let not the distinguishing glory of English
law be sacrificed that country squires may cover
the Norfolk heaths and woods with temptation to
crime, and then send Englishmen to prison on
the suspicion only of yielding to the temptation.
Let us know whether the mad landlords of the
end of the Session did make such a law as this.
If they have, we shall know what to do.
Justly odious, however, as that disgustingly
selfish addition to the selfish and tyrannical game
law code is, we do not believe that it is quite so
bad as Mr. BARING and his colleagues would make it.
Their fear of the superior courts seems to indicate
that game preservers' law will not be held as law
at Westminster. They cited indeed several oases
which had been decided according to their wishes,
but they were all game preservers' decisions, and
the only lawyers concerned were the magistrates'
clerks, who eat the bread of game preservers. No
oppressed poacher has found the means yet to try
a case of law with a bench. To a common reader
the Act would certainly seem, in accordance with
English practice, to require the accuser to prove
the unlawful possession. If it does not, why then wo
have aboi de suspects in England; and, worst of all,
we give the landlords' country police a power on
behalf of game, which our town police dare not
exercise o❑ behalf of saving her MAJESTY'S subjects
from being garotted. We have no doubt, however,
that country magistrates would laugh at the idea
of representing the heads and throats of dwellers
in cities as of equal importance with the heads
11 and throats of hares and partridges.

We trust we may regard the question of the future
site of St. Thomas's Hospital as now settled—and
that no further attempt will be made to remove it
from the vicinity of those who need its services.
To "babble o' green fields" was a plausible device
for a railway and architect's job, but it will not do.
All parties concerned have risen up against the im-
position—the medical men, the parish authorities,
the watchful prers—we might almost say nll, except
the little clique so powerful in the grand commit-