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

$§1t11;

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 1847.

Being the recognised leader of the Young Eng-
landers, Lord JOHN 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 hare already occasionally
referred to this establishment in terms of high
eulogium, we consider it incumbent upon us to com
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
our sentiments to speak otherwise than in language of
profound respect of their practical exertions to in-
spire a feeling of brotherly affection among all
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 tlu
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
parwith his natural and tardily-recognised rights. The
encouragement afforded to honest industry by such
associations is astonishing in its immediate results,
and the effects of that encouragement are of an irre-
fragable permanence. It imparts vigour to the:frame,
serenity to the disposition, inquisitiveness to the mind,
and universal good- will, in terra par hominibus. We are
not delineating the hypothetical fancies of a one-eyed
philosopher of the flying-islands. We 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 ollspring of a gentle generosity,
and as establishments calculated to enhance the
moral, intellectual, and corporeal strength of the
pire. It is not, moreover, in its direct operation upon
individual localities that this system of combining
study with amusement is alone admirable ; it is
more especi.:lly so in its ulterior results
upon various legislative efforts for the improvement
of the multitude. Besides the nutritious banquet
prepared fur 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 saith in
SIIAKSPERE—

" 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 contentions 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 EXETER 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 contortions; and
frequently, at the very moment when everybody con-
siders he has made his last effort, he will be observed
effleetuhal tslihrautstteraetd
tsoe.rzaels7.himself on the elbow, give an awful grin,
player generally fold'sish'
manner for scenic cif,
tails of the histrionic his victim. This finished,
another
tihne-
is level in the most approved
In all these minute de-
' is thoroughly versed, art the Bishop of
of EXETER
the public with ample proof:bill n
o he furnished
Ilia which he recently provkthe sharp con-
Mayor of Exeter. After the first ::.los iwith the
prevailing impression was that the wrangling ght, the
Prelate
bad got his quietus; but all were mistaken
Panting
with enveno:ned feelings, HARRY PuiLLeorrasnoti e
ng
more aimed his luckless goose-quill at his cool and
intrepid antagonist. The Mayor parried the im-
potent thrust, when, as a matter of course, the
Bishop immediately rolled over utterly exhausted.
1 A glance at the continuation of the correspondence

between the Mayor and the Bishop confirms what
everybody thought before,—that the latter is n
match for the former. In his Lordship's letter
of the 3d inst. he struggles to explain away the awk-
ward fact of his having patronised a charity ball
1841. He affects to have been ignorant at the time
that a ball was intended to wind up the festivities
which took place in that year in support of the Devor,
Hospital. The Bishop, however, Jets out that he
sanctioned a dinner on that occasion. Bishops, by
the way, are notorious for their love of dinners, at
which we presume they suppose—(at any rate HARRY
of EXETER does so)—it is quite impossible that any
thing in the shape of "revelry" should occur. But the
diocesan of pamphleteering celebrity seems positively
to wince under the intimation that he eve]
suffered his name to figure among the steward,
of a ball. 'We do not ourselves appreciate the
niceties of distinction to be inferred from Pull..LrozTs'
writings between dinners and balls. We admit, how-
ever, that he would not look well at the latter
Nature never cut out the Bishop for a ball, whirl,
should be an enlivening scene, and attended only b)
persons of a lively and agreeable cast of countenance,
of the truth of all which we have no doubt the Bishop
must be painfully sensible. There can be no ques-
tion, we should think, that, whether he knew of the
ball in 1841, beforehand or not, the Bishop became
shortly after acquainted with the fact of one having
taken place. Did he then mount the pulpit and ful
minate against the " miserable frivolity" which con-
cluded that festival ? We take it the Bishop did
nothingof the sort; because be now observes with com-
placent arrogance, " I consider that ball to Lave been
of a very different character from the one which is
about to take place." The Mayor of Exeter was not
the man to let the Bishop fly off at a tangent. The
following extract from the answer of the former,
dated the sth instant, will best enable the public to
judge how the Bishop, throughout this controversy,
only went farther and fared worse :-
6- I am unable to understand the difference in the
distinction which your Lordship draws between the
proceedings of 1841 and those now in contemplation.
I cannot connect the ball of the 6th of April with the
day of the fast and humiliation of the 24th of March.
Doubtless all visitations great and solemn lessons
—should have their future and continuous effect
upon the thoughts and conduct of men ; but it is
not, it cannot be said that all amusements are to cease,
and if not, and if the amusement of the hour may be legi-
timately coupled with a more abiding purpose of charity,
then the ball of 1847 is as blameless as the festivities of
1841, and is equally entitled to your Lordship's ir dul-
gence. The one raised funds for the relief of sickness and
distress in our immediate neighbourhood, the other is de-
signed to obviate the miseries of famine at a distance. Gall
either of them what you will, they are identical inform and
purpose."
Those who run may read. The mace has shivered
the crosier.

The common law wisely made a distinction be-
tween animals that were ferce nature and unre-
claimed, and those which were reclaimed and con-
fined, and might serve for food : in the former cam 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-
ing day visit those of another, as to justify a convic-
tion for larceny. Indeed, if such animals could fairly
be termed the property of an individual or body of
individuals, it would be of the farmers, whose crops
are eaten down, and too often almost wholly de-
stroyed; so that frequently, 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
their natural 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-
rure them, who can take them either dead or alive,
and bring them into a state of subjection, and by the
same kw every person would 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 hare
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-
ment. The game-preserving landlord denounces
him, 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 outclist ; and in
turn his hand 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-
nately, 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, hovi inde-
pendent his circumstances, the possession of real
estate to the amount of 6001. per annum for a
knight of the shire, and of 3001. 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
office) 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 had
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 as 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.

The Madrid Gacqa ot—the 2d instant, the only
journal published in Madrid on Good Friday, has
been received. It contains decre€s accepting the re-
signation of General MANso as Captain- General of
New Castile, and of General SALCEDO, as Captain-
General of the Canaries, and appointing Senor Esco•
sung, Political Chief of Madrid.
General REQUENA, fiscal in the case of General
SERRANO, has declared that the tribunal was incom-
petent, and that the whole case should be submitted
credentials
nti Daluske to
to the deliberation and sentence of the Supreme Tri-
bunal of War and Marine.
T
ofQUEEN,
hG"jcKsßu as
sGII Ambassadorhas
for
theh s
KING Of the FILENCII.
Intelligence has been received from Portugal that
an attempt laad been made to induce the inhabitants
of Yelvas to pronounce in favour of the Junta. The