The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-30 00:00:00

THE GAME-LAWS.

The following petition for the total abolition of the
game-laws is being circulated in the county of Notting-
ham, and has already received many signatures :
The petition of the undersigned inhabitants of the
Town and County of Nottingham, to the Honourable
the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled,
most respectfully showeth—
That we, your petitioners, have long viewed the game-
laws as a source of evils of the greatest magnitude, and
most direful in their operations on society, but particu-
larly so to the rural population of this country, who,
from the smallness of their weekly eamings, as agricul-
tural labourers, have not the means wherewith to pur-
chase the common necessaries of life for the support of
themselves and families, and whose destitute condition
entitles them to the sympathies of the whole country ;
but, more particularly so, to those of your Honourable
House. Driven by distress, privation, hunger, and the
promptings of parental affection, they are too often,
from dire necessity, driven to the act of poaching for a
meal for their families ; for which offence against the
game-laws, if taken and convicted, they are consigned
to the gloom of a dungeon, to be the associates of felons,
for so many months, imbibing the felons' worst principles
and evil advice, se as to become ruined men both in cha-
racter and morals. During their incarceration their
homes are broken up, and they are driven to their dernier
resort, the poor law union, as pauperised families, whose
fathers linger in the prison's gloom for having take❑ a
hare to sustain nature's wants. Released from prison,
what do they become, and what are the conseqwnces?
How are they looked upon, how are they treated by their
employers? Not as they formerly were. A prison or the
union is their inevitable lot. Lowered in their own esti-
mation, for bread, they poach, and in the end become
desperate and determined men, as proved by the bloody
and murderous conflicts with gamekeepers, in every part
of the country, month after month, year after year,
until the whole of society feel disgust that such laws
should be the means of producing so much misery, crime,
and murder, in a civilised country like England, merely
for the protection of game and the pleasure of the land-
owners. We, your petitioners, viewing the awful state
of the agricultural labourers—their degraded, pauperised
condition, and the ravages made by game on the farm
produce of the country, respectfully pray that your
Honourable House will take into its most serious con-
sideration the immediate necessity of abolishing these
obnoxious laws.

And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

THE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON'S NNW NOVEL,
" STRATHERN."—The Morning Chronicle devotes two
columns to a notice of this clever work. The reviewer
observes:"' Strathern' is a brilliant series of sketches
of fashionable life, and biting satirical attacks levelled at
fashionable follies. In this novel Lady Blessington
certainly hits right and left, unmasking all the arts, the
vices, the cold hypocrisy, which pervade the most arti-
ficial and the most elevated portion of the structure of
society. The hero, Strathern, his betrothed, Louisa
Sidney, and her mother, and his friend, Lord Delming-
ton, and his youthful wife, are the principal lights of
the picture. Louisa Sidney is a beautiful sketch of a
perfectly pure and loving heart, and offers a fine con-
trast to the designing cold-bloodedness of Lady Wellerby
and her hopeful daughters. There are some other well-
conceived characters in the work. Nothing, for example,
can be richer than Mrs. M'Laurin, the vulgar parvenue,
with her gross habits, so coarsely imperious. yet so
absolutely ruled by an artful femme de chambre. The
great charm, as well as the chief characteristic of the
work, is the acuteness and cleverness of its sketches of
character and society—the brilliancy of the satire
lavished upon worldly vices—and the tact and discrimi•
nation with which fashionable foibles and follies are dis-
sected and exposed. We can recommend `Strathern'
as a fiction, worthy of the reputation of its author, and
a delineation of society as acute as it is interesting."
COLBURN'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.—The
publisher of the New Monthly Magazine seems to be de-
termined that this popular periodical shall retain its long
established position as first of its Monthly Contempora-
ries. By the announcement of the contents for the first
Number of the new year, we learn the extremely attrac-
tive character of its contributions. Among the hu-
morous articles will be found " A Discourse on Puppies,
particularly those of the present day ;" " Discovery of
the Island of Mesmeria," no doubt a fling at the mar-
' vellous revelations of a celebrated female political econo-
mist ; " Speechmaking," a very seasonable subject ; and
" Asop Illustrated," by the clever author of " Peter
Priggins." In imaginative compositions we find an-
nounced a Tale by Agnes Strickland, called " Launcelot
Corby ;" Mrs. Trollope's " Robertses on their Travels ;"
and Mr. Maxwell's " Lights and Shades in the Life of a
Gentleman on Half-pay." There is no less attraction in
articles of general interest. Of these we notice, " Pas-
sages in the Lives of the Celebrated Statesmen of
Europe," commencing with the Comte de Sainte Anlaire;
an account of " Lurbano and Aviraneta," two of the
most remarkable men in Spain ; " Twelve Days at
Tiflis," by the lion. Stuart Saville, &c. &c. . _

EXPLOSION AT BLACK-BOY COLLIERY, NEAR
Bistro". AUCKLAND —An explosion of tire da-up,,ceurred
in the Anne Pit, Black boy coll'ier,y, on Monday last,
by which one individual, named Thomas James, was
unfortunately so severely scorched, and otherwise
injured, as to occasion his death on the following
morning, from compression of the brain. Ten other
men and boys were also severely burnt. One boy
is yet considered in serious danger ; but all the
others are improving, and unless some unexpected
change for the worse takes place, are likely to re-
cover. An inquest was held. yesterday, at Coundon,
before William Trotter, Esq., coroner (or Darlington
Ward. and a respectable jury, and after hearing the
evidence of five witnesses, including the surgeon of
the colliery, two viewers, and a man who was at work
within three or four yards of the place where the explo-
sion arose, and was burnt by it, the inquiry was ad-
journed until Friday, January 4th. We abstain from
publishing the evidence until the inquiry is brought
to a conclusion ; but we may state, that the evidence
yet heard tends to show that the pits in the Auck-
land district are very little troubled with gas—so
much so, that, even in the broken and at the goafs,
the general practice is to work with naked candles—
that the ventilation of the Black-boy pit was in a
good and healthy state, and had been examined by the
under-viewer, overmen and deputies, at different times
during the day in question, and no apprehensions were
entertained of danger in any part of•the workings—
that the explosion had arisen from the sudden evolu-
tion of gas on the candle of a boy working in the
extreme south east district of the mine, caused by
a fall of the roof in the pillar workings—that
so slight had been the force and extent of the
explosion, that it was confined to extremely narrow
limits ; and that the after-damp was so minute, that the
unfortunate deceased was taken out alive, though insen-
sible, after remaining for two hours exposed to the
noxious vapour. Upwards of 100 individuals were at
work down the pit at the time the accident occurred ; sa
that the small I,,ss of life may he considered providen-
tial.—Durham Chronicle.
DEATH AT 108 YEARS OF AGE.—Died on Mon-
day last, at the patriarchal age of 108, Mr. Morris
Thurston, of Guinea-street, Exeter. The deceased, up
to the last seven weeks, enjoyed excellent health and
spirits. He lived for upwards of sixty years in the house
in which he died, and never till lately allowed any one
to go into it. He was a herbal doctor, and as such tra-
velled through Devon, working marvellous cures. He
followed bis vocation till within the last two months,
and such was his repute, that people applied to him for
advice, and received his nostrums, whilst on his death-
bed. He was an alchymist, and an adept in astrology ;
and it seemed as if these ancient delusions lingered with
him alone.—Exeter Times.

CONFESSION OF WM. KENDREW, TRB MURDERER.
—"Wm. Kendrew, the murderer of Mr. Wm. Inchbald, of
Low Dunsforth, near Boroughbridge, on Thursday last
made a verbal confession to Mr. Sutton, of which the
following is the purport :—IIe stated that a fortnight
before the murder Mr. Inchbald had threatened to have
him transported for poaching before the expiration of
three months, in consequence of which he (Kendrew),
on the 28th of September, laid in wait for Mr. Inchbald,
and having arrived at the place described at the trial, he
fired and hit him in the back. Mr. Inchbald then tur:.ed
round, when Kett.drew discharged the second barrel, and '
wounded him in the lest arm. Not being satisfied with
this, he went up to the unfortunate man whilst he was
lying on the ground, and struck him on the head with
the butt end of the gun. Mr. Inchbald then, although
so seriously wounded, got up and followed Kendrew,
who immediately went into the fields and saw no more
of the deceased. The culprit asserted that he bad no
intention of robbing Mr. Inchbald, but that he had c.Ntr,
witted the deed entirely out of revenge for the threa:
which had been used towArds him. At the time Ken- '
drew made this confession, be acknowledged the just-
ness
of his sentence, and appeared very penitent. Be
was executed on Saturday.