The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT-OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The fate of dr... Game Bill is rather curious. The
wea..ure originated in the Lords: being from thence
tent domi to the Commons, it was there rejected on
-.v.:count of a money clause. A 13i11 exactly similar
was then prepared, and posed in the Commons, but
on its second reading last night in the Lords it was
rejected. Au unusualtuustcr at this late season seems
to have taken place for the purpose of defeating the
Bill, there being 73 Peers present. Of these there
was a majority of ONE in favour of the Pill, but
a great excess of proxies on the other side occa-
,ioned its rejection. It is. useless to discuss an
abortive measure—a nonentity ; but we cannot help
observing, that there is more zeal shown in the
preservation of the rural ty►anny conceded by
the old game laws, than for preserving the
balance of power in Europe, or for hus-
banding the national powers for a future con-
test in defence of our national rights.--
However, something, we suppose, must be. again
attempted in respect to the game laws; but there are
so many petty interests to serve, and there is such a
lamentable want of publk! principle in a certain class of
the state, that it will be very difficult for our magnani •
1110U3 legislators to come to any rational or consistent
conclusion. They have mainly asserted, that it was
advantageous to the people to have bread at so high
a price that the manufacturing artisan could only
afford to buy half enough for his wife and children;
can they not now prove to- us that it is useful to
keep up midnight fights and bloodshed about hares
and pheasants, and to have our prison 3 filled with
poachers.—Times.

It is an extraordinary thing that the Finance Com-
mittee should hit upon, as one of its first expedients
for limiting the public expenditure, a scheme which
was tried, and almost unanimously exploded, only a
few years since; we mean the scheme for compell-
ing clerks in public offices to contribute from their
incomes towards a Superannuation Fund. We
doubt exceedingly whether any of the actual work-
ing servants of the public are much, if at all, over-
paid. If they are, and it can be fairly shown that
they are, let the salaries and emoluments of such
be reduced ; but to tax them all indiscriminately
fur the double purpose of bringing about that re-
duction, and forming a fund for the superannuation
of persons, many of whom cannot, in the nature
of things, ever partake of it, seems a degree of
injustice and of squeamish pretended economy un-
worthy of the nation. If such a plan be wise, or
practicable at all, it ought to be made to apply to
those, and to those only, who may enter the public
service after its adoption. To turn round upon
persons \vim took their offices upon no such under-
standing is something very much like a breach of
faith, which the public, still more even than indi-
viduals, should be slow indeed to adopt. If the
principle be a wise and just one (and its wisdom, we
conceive, cannot be disputed), that men should be
induced from their present earnings to provide for
the support of their old age, we think that a
plan might be hit upon, as concerns clerks and
others holding offices under Government, which
might. render it at once a prudent and a vo-
luntary act—we mean by such a system of
deferred annuity and life-insurance as would
snake it every one's interest to fall into. Every
one who has at all attended to the subject
knows that, up to this time, every scheme of life-
insurance which has been hitherto adopted has been
so decidedly in favour of the insurers, that the in-
sured have hitherto, in almost every case, been pay;
ing upon calculations erroneous, and, to them, in-
jurious in the extreme. Now, if Government, in-
stead of the present system of superannuation, were
to hold out and guarantee to clerks and others .in
its employ such an improved system of self-in-
surance as would give them greater • advantages
than any mere proprietary office can present,
we should probably see not only many of the present
race of clerks adopting it, in lieu of any claim to
superannuation; but, at any rate, all future public
servants provided with a resource which must shut
their mouths against any just subject of complaint.
We merely throw out the hint, as one not unworthy
of consideration. At any rate, we cannot believe
that the state of the Finances or of public feeling is
such as to sanction the measure which has given
rise to these remarks.—Morning Herald.