The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-02 00:00:00

tion to it where opinions differ from its own. -1 he
vulgar, are not necessarily wrong, any more than
the respectable. Their passions arc a part of their
nature, and arc no more low or despicable than the
passions of the rich. • Their passions are not, it is
true, the passions of the respectable. They do not
always fawn on the rich. They do not ape the paltry
splendour of the spendthtift landlords. They have
probably little respect for a Lord of Sc,sion, and still
less for a Lord of Parliament, for they have never
known anything of either, but that the one en-
forces, and the other makes laws which in-
jure them. It may not be pleasing to
the other classes that the passions of the vul-
gar should find an organ ; but there is no more
vice in appealing to their passions than in appeal-
ing to the passions of the respectable or the rich.
We, of course, imply that the Editor of the Dis-
patch has as firm a conviction of the truth of the
opinions he supports as the Editor of the Scotsman.
The latter thinks that "it manifests a wholesotne
tendency c 9 the part of the public to stamp with
disapprobation" the opinions of the Dispatch ; and
the Edinburgh Advertiser, with all the Tories and
High Churchmen of that city, in like manner
regard it as a wholesome tendency on the part of the
Edinburgh public to stamp with disapprobation the
opinions entertained by Mr. lILAcK and the
Scotsman.

The fact appears to be, and we see it with
much regret, that the Dissenters who demand—
and whom we cordially support—perfect free-
dom of opinion for themselves, are not disposed
to allow the same freedom to others. They seem
to us to say, " Mr. HARMER is altogether a diffe-
rent sort of man from us. We honour the Scrip-
tures ; his Editor does not. We are staunch ad-
mirers of the monarchy ; the Editor of the Dispatch
scolds at its enormities, or mocks at its eccentri-
cities. We honour the priesthood (Mr. BLACK
toasted the whole trod), their craft and all) ; the
Editor of the Dispatch turns their claims to sanc-
tity, while they grasp at the world's gear, into ridi-
cule. We worship the LORD in the conventicle ;
the Editor of the Dispatch observes the Sabbath
after another fashion. He is in all things different
from us. We are believers, he is an infidel, and we
have no charity nor tolcration for his opinions.
NN'e may conscientiously differ from the State
sect, we are bound to express that difference,
and the State has no right to exclude us from
any social advantages or honours on that ac-
count ; but he must not consientiously differ
from us, he must believe in the Bible, the whole
Bible, and nothing but the Bible, and if he does
not lie is a disturber of social order, an impugner of
our faith, and a Test Act must be enacted by our
manners, if not by our laws, to exclude him from
every office." If such language, or any correspond-
ing language expresses the thoughts of the Dissen-
ters towards Mr. HA RM ER, or towards those who
write in the Dispatch, because its opinions do not
meet their approbation, what better are they than
the members of the State sect whom they so severely
condemn ? We make such remarks with no other
feelings than those of deep regret, for where can
we look for the defence of freedom, when those who
complain of persecution are themselves ready to
persecute? The Scotsman—we honour it for the
part it has taken—has been a zealous defender of
Mr. BLACK, but it is evident from the passage
we have quoted, that it is ready to punish the opi-
nions entertained by the writers in the Dispatch,
in the same way as the Church party in Edinburgh
have been willing to punish the opinions entertained
by Mr. BLACK.

The outrages arising from the preservation of
game are becoming serious, and are attracting public
attention. What is the value of a head of game,

that men risk their lives to obtain it ? If the
poachers receive 2s. a head, that is the outside.
By successful labour, night after night, they may
probably gain 30.., or at most 40s. a week. For
that wretched paltry reward they stay out night
after night, expose themselves to the penalties of
the law, and are ready, according to the reports, at
any time to embrue their hands in the blood of
their fellow-creatures. Before they could take up
such a trade, they must be in a state of deep dis-
tress ; they must have witnessed the patient toil of
the industrious go unrewarded, or rewarded so
scantily as to make toil a mark of slavery, which
has made them prefer the risk of the poacher's life
to that of the half-starved oppressed labourer. The
existence of numerous bodies of resolute poachers
implies that the condition of the working classes is
desperate, and the diseases of society of no com-
mon character.

Here and there a poacher may be bred up in a
manufacturing town, but we apprehend very few
spinners and weavers take to the occupation. A
successful poacher must have local knowledge—he
must be familiar with woods and paths, with fields
and streams, and, in the majority of cases, the
poachers are necessarily members of the rural popu-
lation. They are the squire's own dependents.
Extensive poaching, then, is a proof of the distress
of the rural rather than the town population.
At present, too, the poachers run greater risks

than formerly. A rural police is organised in many
places. The gentry have a strong pecuniary in-
terest in their game—formerly they had only a
sporting interest—and they watch it with more care

than ever. All these circumstances make us infer
that in those districts where poaching is common,
the condition of the rural labourers, however much
the squires may be delighted by the hat being
touched as they pass along, and may flatter them-
selves that all is well because they are rich, is ex-
tremely bad, and is not to be remedied by stronger
game laws, or giving a more bloody execution to
those which already exist.

We have no objection to gentlemen preserving
game, but they will find it to be a most difficult
task in the midst of a starving population. When
people are half-fed and half-clothed it is to he ex-
pected that they will not respect such a doubtful
right of property as that claimed in wild animals.
The gentry cannot have Corn-laws and Game-laws
too. At least they cannot be enforced without run-
ning the risk of getting up a little civil war in every
cover and coppice, and nothing would be more dan-
gerous for them than to train the rural population
to this kind of ambuscade warfare. What is to
prevent starving men who shoot keepers from
shooting the keepers' masters ? We are not aware
of any particular charm which protects their lives,
and if the gentry will persist i❑ keeping down the
numbers of the people by a starvation law, and so
make themselves the oppressors and the enemies of
the labourers, they must take the consequences. '
At any rate we do not see why the rest of the
community, driven to poverty and desperation by
'heir extortionate legislation, should be required to
preserve their game, if it must submit to their
Corn laws. An Evening Contemporary proposes
that the Excisemen, whom it represents as grow-
ing fat for want of employment, should be set to
watch game salesmen, and trace every hare, or a
pheasant, to the hand legally entitled to
kill it, as they trace a gallon of spirits to
the stock of the licensed salesman. The
manufacturers, according to this scheme, must
pay public officers to protect the preserves of
the gentry from the depredations of the people,
whom their own exactions have reduced to despe-
ration. It would be better to dismiss the unem-
ployed excisemen, and allow the taxation, which
pays their salaries, to be remitted to the people.