The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-07 00:00:00

Mr. John Bright on the Game Laws.

The following letter from Mr. John Bright, M.P.,
on the subject of the Game Laws, was read at a
meeting of the Midland Farmers' Club held at Bir-
mingham, on Thursday :

Rochdale, Sept. 30, 1865.

Dear Sir,—l am glad to hear that you are about
to read a paper on the subject of the Game Laws.
I do not think much good would be done by hold-
ing a meeting in Birmingham. The towns are
known to be against the game laws, but so long as
the county constituencies send game preservers to
Parliament, the members for the towns can do
nothing for the farmers. It is about 20 years since
I gave much time and labour with a view to re-
lieve the farmers from the evil of the game laws—
and I spent at least £3OO in bringing before them
and the public some of the facts of this great griev-
ance. Up to this time nothing has been done in
the way of relief, but, on the contrary, the laws
which favour the preservation of game have been
more strict. I fear the evil has become not
less, but greater, and I see only one way in which
any real improvement can be made. It can only
be done by having in parliament a larger number of
representatives of the people, and fewer representa-
tives of a class, and of the prejudices and usurpa-
tions of a class. How can this be brought about
and secured ? By the admission of another million
of the people to the elective franchise, so that the
House of Commons may be truly representative of
the true interests and wishes of the nation. But
there is one thing which the farmers may do for
themselves whenever an election for a county takes
place. At present they are not asked who shall
pretend to represent them, but the lords and squires
of the county name the candidates ; and, as a rule,
the tenant farmers vote for him, and he enters the
house to do the work of the lords and squires who se-
lected
him. A main part of that work is to keep guard
over the laws which favour the preservation of game.
I know how many re: sons there are why a tenant
should be disposed to support the nominee of his
landlord. He feels in how many ways his landlord
or his landlord's agent can annoy and injure him,
and he submits to a power which he has not learned
to resist. But the time is coming when tenants will
dare to believe and act for themselves in the per-
formance of their political duties. They can com-
bine with great ease, and when combined, their
power is irresistible. I hope the day may soon come
when they will take the election of members for the
counties in some degree into their own hands, and
when this is done their rolitical and social deliver-
ance will be secured. You all see at once how easy
it is for you to combine. Every farmer has a horse
and a gig, or dogcart, or conveyance of some kind,
so that he can go to the poll without any cost to
himself. Farmers meet almost every week at their
market town, and they can know the feelings of
their class without diffculty. In every county they
should select a farmers' candidate. If a good tenant
farmer can be selected. bring him forward ; if not,
then some other respectable and intelligent man. If
you can find a landowner who is willing to be just
to the tenant farmers, both in his own private con-
duct and in respect of legislation which affects them,
take him as your candidate, and give him a zealous
support. You can contest a county at almost no
expense. A subscription of £1 from each tenant
will raise a sum large enough to pay for all the
printing you will require, and you can take your-
selves and your neighbours to the poll at a trifling
expense. The farmers' candidate will be the popu-
lar candidate. The Liberals in the towns will give
him their support, and you will carry him into Par-
liament to do the work of the farmers and of the
people, instead of that of the lords and squires.
Some will say I am advising you to work a revolu-
tion, and so I am. It will be a revolution that will
transfer the county representation from a dozen rich
men or families to the real people of the counties.
It will send members to Parliament who will care
more for the rights and interests of the population
than for the semi-barbarous sports of a class.
When the tenant farmers see their power, and
arouse themselves to exert it, the days of the game
laws are ended, and there will not be wanting just
and good men among the landowners themselves,
who will give them a hearty co-:operation in the
good work. As to changes in the game laws, I see
no great good in them. What you want is the re-
peal of all laws which are made with the object of
favouring the preservation of game. The funda-
mental principle of the tenant farmers should be
this : that they shall have absolute and undisputed
ownership of, and control over, all animals which
live upon the produce of their land. They occupy
land, and pay rent for it ; they risk all they have_
their money, their time, their labour, their hopes,
their present, and their future, in the cultivation of
their farms ; the horses, cows, sheep, and swine are
theirs ; the crops are also theirs ; and the hares
and rabbits, and game of every kind, living upon
their farms, should also be theirs. Till this is the
settled law, and also the practice of the country,
the tenant farmers will never hold the position to
which they have a just claim, and the evils of game
law and game preservation will never be wholly re-
moved. At present it is impossible for your friends
in Parliament to do anything for you. You can do
much—l think you can do everything—for your-
selves. Let it be a rule that no tenant farmer will
support a candidate who is not in favour of full
justice to tenant farmers, and the whole character
of county representatives will be charged. I would
advise your committee to correspond with farmers
in every county in the kingdom, and to exhort them
everywhere seriously to consider this great question,
and to prepare to act when another general election
shall take place. Your deliverance from the insult-
ing grievance of which you complain rests mainly
with yourselves.—l am very respectfully yours,

JOHN BRIGHT.
Mr. A. Robotham, The Oak Farm, Drayton
Basset, near Tamworth.