The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-09 00:00:00

sz-z;litit,

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 0, 1847.

Being the recognised leader of the Young Eng-
enders, Lord Joan MANNERS is rather naturally re-
garded as a day-dreamer. Every proceeding of his,
whether it be the promise of a statement respecting
the present condition of Greece, or the insertion of a
lyric in the Oxford and Cambridge Review, is re-
garded by the Dogberries of political life with a
sort of supercilious suspicion. Can there be any as•
tonishment at the ridicule thus cast upon the intended
revivers of " the golden prime" of middle-aged Al-
bion ? There is ample opportunity, no doubt, for
parodying the principles of the gentlemen in white
waistcoats. But it would be indicative of a
total lack of generosity, and of a singular ob-
tuseness of perception, to deny that there is
an earnest philanthropy at the bottom of their
fine-spun theory, a yearning for what Mr.
DISRAELI calls a " theocratic equality." Among the
most brilliant evidences of this sub-current of bene-
volence must be considered the Birmingham Athenic
Institute. Although we have already occasionally
referred to this establishment in terms of high
eulogium, we consider it incumbent upon us to corn
ment upon the fifth anniversary of its foundation,
which was celebrated on Wednesday evening, with be-
coming, ardour and cordiality. Much as we may other-
wise differ in opinion from the Noble President and
his coadjutors, it would be an erroneous expression of
cur sentiments to speak otherwise than in language of
profound respect of their practical exertions to in-
spire a feeling of brotherly affection among al!
classes of the community. The Birmingham Athenic
Institute is, to our thinking, the model of
a system of social federation which it were ad-
visable to carry into operation throughout the various
municipalities of the United Kingdom. Under the
auspices of such an institution the intellects of the
neglected artizans are cultivated and developed during
their salutary leisure, their hearts are opened to a
consciousness of their own innate capacities for good,
their limbs are recreated by agreeable and bracing
pastimes, their very blood is purified by the inhala-
tion of purer air than is generally respirable in the
workshop, and they become impressed at once with
the majestic power of knowledge, and the lovely
influences of morality. From being merely the
" vile mechanicals" of the state they are elevated to a
position commensurate in some measure with their
divine origin. From an existence which appears to
be comprised in the refrain of the popular poet—
" Ever to toil,
Ever to moil,
That is your social charter 1"
from this barren and stunting drudgery the artizan
becomes promoted under the shelter of these Athenic
Institutes to a higher grade in society, to a grade COM-
patable with his unnourished aspirations, to a grade on a
par with his natural and tardily-recognised rights. The
encouragement afforded to honest industry by suck
associations is astonishing in its immediate results,
and the effects of that encouragement are of an irre-
fragable permanence. It imparts vigour to theframe,
serenity to the disposition, inquisitiveness to the mind,
and universal good- will, in terra pax hominibus. We are
not delineating the hypothetical fancies of a one-eyed
philosopher of the flying-islands. 'Pe are enume-
rating the advantages which have actually accrued to
the working men of Birmingham from the aid of the
Athenic Institute. Supposing, however, the picture
were flatteringly over-coloured, supposing the bene-
fits derivable from associations of this nature were
scarcely so remarkable as those we have mentioned,
we should still feel ourselves necessitated to com-
mend them as the offspring of a gentle generosity,
and as establishments calculated to enhance the
moral, intellectual, and corporeal strength of the em-
pire. It is not, moreover, in its direct operation upon
individual localities that this system of combining
study with amusement is alone admirable ; it it
more especially so in its ulterior results
upon various legislative efforts for the improvement
of the multitude. Besides the nutritious banquets
prepared for the surrounding denizens of Birming-
ham, or wherever else they may be situated, these
Athenic Institutes afford food for the nourishment of
the collective million. As the Welsh parson smith in
SHAESPERE

men

" There be pippins and cheese to come yet !"
Upon the construction of public baths and wash-
houses, upon the railing in of parks and pleasure-
grounds, upon the advancement of street architecture,
upon the progress of the educational question, and
upon the application of a well-digested sanatory
system, establishments of this character directly and
materially act. In this respect we regard them as at
once preservative and progressive: preservative of
whatever might have formerly rendered this "merrie

old England," and progressive towards whatever can

effect the spiritual and bodily exaltation of the people.
Besides, it is undeniable that harm can by no means
arise from associations so peculiarly innocent; it is
scarcely probable that the harmony •of races should
be destroyed by the c ontentions of cricket, that the
liberties of the subject should be injuriously affected
by the rod of the scientific lecturer, or that civilisa-
tion should in any particular be retarded by the
gyrations of the polka.

For so small a man the Bishop of Mx.sralt is un-
doubtedly a great actor. All his public performances
savour of the dramatic art. The turn of his mind is
strikingly theatrical. Once before the footlights, the
energy of his acting speedily renders the spectator
oblivious of the diminutiveness of his figure and his
general deficiency in respect of other personal advan-
tages If a principal actor on the stage receives a
mortal thrust from an adversary, he never
thinks of appearing to resign life without
a violent struggle. He knows very well
that simply to fall on his back and stretch
out his legs would be considered by the audience as
a vulgar and insipid feat. Accordingly, he puts his
body through a variety of powerful creatortions; and
frequently, at the very moment when e verybody con-
siders he has mzde his last effort, he ui ill be observed '
to raise himself on the elbow, give :is 1 awful
_ .aladrid Gaceta of the 2d instant, the only
effectual thrust at his victim. This finished, the word , and make another in- journal published in Madrid on Good Friday, has
grin,
seize his shattered s
been received. It contains decrees accepting the re-
player generally finds his level in the most approved • t•of General AI
manner for scenic effect. In all thus' I minute signa ion ANSO as Captain- General of
tails of the histrionic de-
artofthewbßielhsh,spleof New Castile, and of General SAiCEDO, as Captain-
General of the Canaries, and appointing Senor Esco•
is thoroughly versed,
raEzz.vhas
the public with ample proofs in t
tile
sharp rni ed
suss, Political Mel of Madrid.
flict which he recently provok• id wit cottill: General REQURNA, fiscal in the case of General
Mayor of Exeter. After the first onaitvght, the SERRANO, has declared that the tribunal was incom-
prevailing impression was that the wi*angling Yrelate Patent, and that the whole case should be submitted
to the deliberation and sentence of the Supreme Tri-
Tichee
of
had got his quietus; but all were mistaken. Pau ling
t credentials to the guitars,
with envenomed feelings, HARRY PH u.z.rorra once bunal of War and Marine.
FIGcsrLII.CXBISUIRGIt has presented his
more aimed his luckless goose-quill i.t his cool arni
intrepid antagonist. The Mayor p trried the ins. potent thrust, when, as a matter of course, the
Bishop immediately rolled over utterly exhausted.
A glance at the continuation of the correspondence ‘itbicee
intelligence has been
as Ambassador for the
n received from Portugal that
an At.tompt had been made to induce the inhabitants
of 1 ellYks to prououuce in favour of the Just~.1 a
The

The common law wisely made a distinction be-
ween animals that were ferce nature and unre-
claimed, and those which were reclaimed and con-
fined, and might serve for food : in the former case no
larceny could be committed. It was justly felt that
there could be no such property in animals suffered
to remain in a state of nature, who might one day
rest on the lands of one proprietor, and on the follow-
ng day visit those of another, as to justify a convic-
:ion for larceny. Indeed, if such animals could fairly
be termed the property of an individual or body of
individuals, it would he of the farmers, whose crops
tre eaten down, and too often almost wholly de-
,troyed ; so that frequeutly, in place of a fair return
for their labour and capital laid out in the cultivation
of the land—in place of an abundant harvest—no-
thing is to be seen but fields laid bare by the devas-
tating influences of game and vermin ; but even this is
not the case, the animals are still in the enjoyment of
theirnatural liberty, they are free to go where they think
proper, and according to the principles of natural law,
become the property of the first person who can cap-
ure them, who can take them either dead or alive,
and bring them into a state of subjection, and by the
same law every person vi ould have a just
,right to
exercise the dominion originally accorded to man
over all other animals. In the earlier stages of so-
ciety hunting was almost the only means by which a
livelihood could be obtained ; and to this day many
tribes of Indians and others look to it as their only
support. A passion for the chase appears to be an
instinctive feeling in the human mind, and no argu-
ments can convince a poor man that in killing a bare
on his own land, which he sees eating the food that
should belong to his hungry children, he is
guilty of any moral crime. A great tempta-
tion is held out to him, and should he yield
in a moment of weakness, his future doom is
sealed; he is sent to a prison and becomes a marked
man. The very name of poacher is sufficient to
ensure his destruction. He can obtain no employ-
The game-preserving landlord denounces
ins, and woe to any tenant that shall afterwards give
him work, or suffer him to gain his living by his own
honest industry. He becomes an outcast; and in
turn his band is against every man, until he finishes
his career by some act of violence or bloodshed
that consigns him to the hulks or the gallows.
It is manifest that the taking of game is not con-
trary to natural law, and that the only punishment
that could fairly be imposed would be for the trespass
on the property of others in the pursuit; but, unfortu-
r.ately, our legislators are directly interested in the
question. No person can sit in Parliament unless
he is actually a landed proprietor. No matter how
highly qualified he may be in other respects, how
great his natural or acquired endowments, how inde-
pendent his circumstances, the possession of real
estate to the amount of 6001. per annum for a
knight of the shire, and of 300/. for a citizen or
burgess, is an essential requisite. The game-laws
are consequently a landlords' code, framed by
landlords themselves. The only object appears
to be to enact the most stringent provisions for
the punishment of those who interfere: with them.
Magistrates (who are also compelled to possess real
estate to a certain amount as a qualification for their
.&fice) are entitled to convict parties in a summary
manner, and to inflict imprisonment, with hard
labour, without the intervention of a jury. Such a
person may actually be himself the complaining
party and the person to adjudicate on the complaint
Any owner or occupier of land, or any person having
a right, or reputed right, of free warren or free chase
thereon, or the lord of the manor, or reputed manor,
or any gamekeeper or servant of such persons, or
any person assisting such gamekeeper or servant, are
authorised to seize and apprehend any person entering
at night on any land, whether open or enclosed, for
the purpose of taking or destroying game; and
if such person should resist his capture
he is subjected to transportation therefore, as he will be
in like manner for his third offence even without any
violence, and if he should have two or more associates
armed with any gun or offensive weapon, he may,
even for his first offence, be transported for 14 years.
Surely such iniquitous and unjust laws should not be
permitted to encumber our statute-book; they have
been already condemned. Of late years we have bad
less of class legislation, and there is a disposition to
do justice to all. Inquiries have taken place before
Committees in btoh Houses of Parliament u to the
effects of these laws, and there are ample materials
on which to ground a comprehensive reform. Let
us hope that it will not long be postponed. Mean-
time the public should not be idle ; petitions should
be sent forward. A general election must speedily
take place, and if the desired ameliorations should not
be obtained during the present session, there can be
no time more favourable for directing the attention of
aspirants to senatorial honours to the question than
when they are seeking the suffrages of the several
constituencies.