The Sun.
London, England, 1832-02-13 00:00:00

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC? JOUtfillik

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-7 • /
It is very odd that the titti batch of Peers
has been so long in the oven., Here is a clear
and overpowering necessity for a certain act of.,
royal power—a full and unambiguous authoriti;•l
vested (Idle Sovereign and his Ministers to 'c'er-
alete that act—a universal declaration from all tliose
people of England, including the
laswholesesofthe
popular interest of the country, from whom
the greatest jealousy of any undue exercise of
the prerogative might be expected, that nothing
would ao much gratify the public feeling as the
creation of just Peers enough to carry the Reform
Bill, and an equal unequivocal manifestation by
the anti-Reformers, that nothing would be so sub-
, versive of their corrupt projects ; yet, somehow or
other, no Peers are yet made. Even a dozen or
two to begin upon, would relieve the public
anxiety. if Lord Grey suffer himself to be
cajoled by the middle—that is to say, the most
dangerous—section of the Tories, who prom:se
that they will support the second reading of the
Bill, into any hope that they will not move
heaven and earth to destroy it in Committee, his
Lordship will show himself, what we trust 11,, is
not, a most egregious simpleton. The enemy
will in that case attack the 10/. clause,—al.3olish
the metropolitan Members,--disqualify town free-
holders from voting for their respective countie.,—
and effectually swamp whatever was valuabe in
the measure. Lord Grey ought to be told that
he is destroying the confidence of his friends,
and encouraging his bitterest enemies, and th,;.:
the sole cure for either evil is to produce an im-
mediate Gazette of Peers.—Times.

A return has been made to Parliament of the
number of persons confined in the different gaols
of England, Scotland, and Wales, for offences
against the game laws, the period to which their
confinement extends, and the tribunal by which
their sentence was pronounced. This return
was ordered in October last, and consequently
includes few commitments under the new Act.
Since that Act came into operation the number
of commitments has greatly increased, and in
some counties, as we are informed, has nearly
doubled. The present official return gives 592
imprisonments for England alone, and, adding
the fruits of magisterial activity since the Ist of
November, probably our gaols contain, at pre-
sent, not fewer than 1,000 persons for trans-
gressions against the game laws. We have not
room for entering at present on the subject; but
a very cursory glance at the return cannot fail
to suggest a few remarks. It is curious, then, that
in the whole of Scotland, there are only six persons
now in prison for transgressing the game laws ofthar
country, though the Scotch proprietors are as te-
nacious of their rights, and as fond of their
amusements, as the landed aristocracy in any
other part of the empire. Of mine, in the
greatest part of the counties, a cStiviction under
the game laws is never heard of. Of the six
persons confined, three are in one county, Ayr ;
one in Lanark, one in Renfrew, and one in Rox-
burgh. The term of imprisonment is short in
all those cases except the last, which is extended
to a year, no doubt from some great aggravation
of the offence of poaching. The chief reasons,
probably, why there are so few prosecutions for
poaching in Scotland are, in the first place, the
small number of expensive preserves in that
country ; ie the second place, the general aver-
sion of the people to appeal to the criminal law
against their neighbours; and in the third place,
the greater impartiality of the tribunal before
whom offenders are tried. In Scotland, it should
be recollected that there is not one clerical Justice.
In the small county of Bucks, which is blessed with
so many Anti-Reformers and clerical Magi-
strates, we find twenty-six persons in prison for
transgressions against the game laws. We
shall quote a few of these cases as given in the
return :—" William Butler, imprisoned thirteeen
weeks for killing a pheasant." " George Thorn,
twelve weeks, for exposing to sale a hen phea-
sant." " William Hart, twelve weeks, for hav-
ing in his possession one hare." " George
Burnall, halt-a-year, for using a dog with in-
tent t o kill hares." Verily the Bucks Magi-
strates have little respect for the liberty of real
or reputed poachers. All these twenty-six
convictions are declared to have been effected in
a summary way by one or two Magistrates ;
and whether the death of a hare or a pheasant
was in question, or an intent only to kill a hare
or a pheasant was imputed, half-a-year is the
usual term of confinement av,'4.irded by these
merciful Judges. In the county of Cornwall, so
fatuous for rotten boroughs, we find only one
conviction under the game laws. Devon
seems nearly as free from the nuisance, having
only two ►prisoners for poaching. In the
county of Nottingham we find thily-two
persons in gaol for offences against the game
laws, more than the half of whom have

been sentenced by a single Magistrate.
Some of these wretched men are immured in a
dungeon for months, not for killing game, bu f
keeping a net or snares with the ;Went to kill
game. In the county of Suffolk, 42 oersous
are now in gaol on convictions, awn bel,ire one
Magistrate, for having snares or game nt their
possession. But the county where poachers
seem most to. abound, or at least where the Ma-
gistrates, are the must vigilant in protectimmg
game, is Hampshire. In the gaol* of ,hat
county are to be found, by this return, 43 poor
creatures, who have been perhaps driven by
want of employment, or insufficient remuneration
for their labour, to attempt to eke out their
scanty earnings by depredations on fields, wood.:,
or preserves. Since this return was made. the
number of prisoners is said to amount to 90.-
1 Neither the Hawes nor the qualities of the coin-
nutting Magistrates are given ; but, whoever
they are, they seem to be resolute game
protectors, who have no misgivings as to
the amount of punishment which they may
award, or the extent of responsibility which they
incur. Would the reader believe the fact, unless
he had it on official author:ty, that 27 out of the
43 commitments above mentioned were made by
one Magistrate, and all the rest by two
Would a single Magistrate presume, unaided
by a code of laws like the game laws. to con-
demn summtvily, at his own house, to terms of
imprisonment of a quarter of a year or six months,
any other class of oUnders for petty thefts ; and
is the possessor of a snare, or the killer of a ph
a-
saut, to be considered, like the animas wh.ch
they pursue,fcrec naturce, to exercise the ma-
gisterial cross-bow of every rural Justice ? The
return for Hatnpshire contains aqutlier striking
peculiarity, which we hope will not escape the
notice of the Home Secretary or of time public.
In twenty-eight of the cases the poor creatures
are said to have been committed to gaol forg
a
wire,"
months, not
oitfur
mightkillinog; but•;,7.,usilenfin
:our cases where the terms of imprisoam,nt are
a charge of
long, the conviction took
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