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

THE 4UN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING, DECE-M-13-Eit 30, 1844.

THE GAME-LAWS.

The following petition fur 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,
front the smallness of their weekly earnings, 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,
Prom dire nivessity, 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, so 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 taken a
hare to sustain nature's wants. Released from prison,
what do they become, and what are the consequences?
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,
" STRA.THERN."—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-
riei. 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
" /Esop 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 OR 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 Aulaire;
an account of " Lurbano and Aviraneta," two of the

most remarkable men in Spain ; " Twelve Days at
Tiflis," by the Hon. Stuart Saville, &c. &c.

EXPLOSION AT BLACK-BOY COLLIERY, NEAR
BISHOP AUCKLAND.—An explosion of fire-damp occurred
in the Anne Pit, Black-boy colliery, 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 for 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-3o
much so, that, even in the broken and at the goafa,
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 ; so
that the small loss of life may he considered providen-
tial.—Durham Chronicle.
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE AND STRANGE CONDUCT OF

A PARENT.—Many of our readers may probably reco
lect that some twelve months since an incendiary fire
took place amongst farm buildings in the vicinity of
Droitwich, belonging to J. Robeson, Esq., solicitor, and
that a young man, named Henry Bennett, wrongfully
accused a person named Drinkwater of the heinous
offence, in order to obtain the reward offered for the
discovery of the incendiary. Drinkwater, his innocence
being clearly established, was discharged by the Magis-
trates before whom he had been thus unjustly accused ;
and since that time the accuser, Bennett, upon whom
the guilt of perjury seems to have hung like a dead-
weight, has wandered about the country a destitute, de-
praved, and utterly reckless being. Starvation, or a
troubled conscience, or the two conjoined, drove him
from bad to worse, till, on Saturday last, he made an
attempt at self-destruction, by taking a quantity of
" crow-fig." lie was discovered early in the morning
lying in the road leading from newton]. to Claines nearly
dead, from the combined effects of the poison and ex-
posure to the inclemency of the night. Upon him,
when searched by Sergeant Radford, was found a letter,
directed to his father, Samuel Bennett, living at Fearnall
Heath, and intimating that the writer would require
very shortly his kind offices in " fatching him to his
parach, to berry him." Under the care of Radford,
the unhappy man was taken to a public-house, and Mr.
Shelton, surgeon, of this city, was promptly upon the
spot ; and, in a short time, the noxious drug was re-
moved, and his recovery is confidently anticipated. In-
stantly upon discovering who the would-be suicide was,
Sergeant Radford dispatched a messenger to his father,
requesting his attendance. He did come, but evidently
disinclined to stir hand or foot to save the life of his
offspring ; and despite the remonstrances of all present,
positively refused him an asylum in his own house, re-
marking, " They ought to take him to the workhouse,
or where they liked ; but he shouldna come home, if he
knowed it." T. G. Curtler and J. M. Gutch, Esqs.,
who had gone to the spot for the purpose of ascertain-
ing what could be done for the miserable creature, read
the old man and unnatural father a severe and de-
served lecture upon his conduct ; and eventually suc-
ceeded in procuring from him a promise that Ina son
should have an asylum in his house---at least till he
had recovered—and there he was accordingly removed.
Worcester Herald.
The memorials in favour of Mary Gallop, con-
demned to death at the late assizes at Chester, for the
deliberate murder of her father, have wholly failed in
moving the Home Secretary to recommend a commuta•
tion in her case. The execution of this -unnatural crimi-
nal took place on Saturday.
The following extract, apparently from some
Kentish paper, has been sent to Us. its " moral" is
good :—" A wight, rejoicing in the name of Parkhurst,
has scratched his name on the windows of several of the
first-class carriages of the Greenwich Railway, and
some wag has made the very mortifying addition—
' Since hung at Maidstone.' Both mune and history
have, on some of the carriages, since been carefully
obliterated, evidently by the hand of the original offen-
der ; for it is not likely that any friend, however well-
disposed. would volunteer such a service, and thereby
run the risk of being detected by the Company's ser-
vants."—Railway Record.
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 lie died, and never till lately allowed any one
to go into it. lie was a herbal doctor, and as such tra-
velled through Devon, working marvellous cures. He
followed his 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.