The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-17 00:00:00

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naught the sacred institution of the Sabbath, but
are guilty, also, of a decided " nuisance," to
which it is the bounden duty of *all the
respectable gentry of Battersea to put an end.

There is nothing annoying—nothing indecorous—say
these exclusive and would-be genteel folks—in riding
out on Sundays on horseback or in a carriage ; the
annoyance and the indecorum consist in galloping
about on a donkey, or ascending a swing—heinous
vulgarities, which cannot but be exceedingly offen-

sive to the refined notions of all the "respectable "
individuals who may chance to reside in the imme-
diate vicinity of the profaned fields where they are
perpetrated ! There is an infinite deal of cant and
narrow-mindedness in this assumption. If the
gentleman has his horse, or his carriage, or
his pleasure-boat ; why should not the mechanic

have his donkey and his swing ? If the former may

enjoy himself, as best suits his fancy, on the Sab-
bath, why should not the latter be allowed the same

privilege ? GOD knows, wealth and gentility have
already quite power enough in this Marnmon-wor-
shipping, respectability-ridden country, without arro-
gating to themselves the additional right to deprive
the poorer classes of the community of the few enjoy-
ments which inexorable circumstances have left them.

The judicious and tolerant decision of Mr. PAYNTFE

will, we trust, not be without its effects in lowering
the pretensions of the respectable and would-be ex-

elusive members of society, who can see not the

slightest harm in any Sunday amusements which
they themselves may choose to indulge in, but de-

nounce every species of recreation as a " nuisance'

that is pursued by the poorer classes, who have bu

one day in the week on which to enjoy themselves.
This upstart pharisaical assumption, on the part of
those who should know better, cannot too promptly
or too decidedly be put down by the force of public
opinion.

We cannot allow the Report of the Select Com-
mittee on Gaming to subside into the " limbo" which
is the early, and certain, destination of all Parliamen
tary papers, without offering a word or two upon its
contents and its pretensions. It is entitled to this
notice. Had it, indeed, no other claim on our atten-
tion, it is so eminently characteristic of the House of.
Commons, and of the spirit of the age, that, upon that
account alone, it would be our duty to receive it with
a special greeting. All the tendencies of the House
of Commons are to class legislation. This report is
directed against a class—not the general community
—of gamblers. The tendency of the age is cant; and
every line of this document is responsive to it. Thus
the report, as we have intimated above, is identified
with our times and with our Legislature.
The Select Committee, it seems, was " appointed
to inquire into the existing statutes against gaming of
every kind ; to ascertain to what extent these statutes
are evaded ; and to consider whether any and what
amendment should be made in such statutes." if it
have satisfied the first branch of this triple charge,
(which we are not disposed absolutely to allow,) it
has strangely slighted the other tWo. Like the chur-

lish Jupiter of the poet for his supplicant, the Select
Committee has doled out but scant measure to the
expectant House of Commons, which invoiced its as-
sistance; for the " Select" have

granted but half its prayer ;
The rest the winds dispers'd in empty air."

There are but three statutes mentioned by name or
designation throughout the report; the "extent to
which they are evaded," is a matter disposed of in a
single paragraph ; namely, " with regard to the extent
to which these laws have been evaded, your Committee
might be justified in saying that, with the exception
of the enactments for the suppression of common
gaming-houses, these laws have, generally speaking,
and with some particular and occasional exceptions,
seldom been called into action." The "amendments"
which are recommended as proper to be made in the
existing laws for the repression of gaming, we shall
notice presently.

On the first branch of their inquiry, the Committee
obtained the assistance of Mr. Justice PATTESON, and
Of Mr. STARRIE and Mr. BELLENDEN KER, "the two
Commissioners for making a digest of the criminal
law, and they beg to refer to the evidence of those
three persons, and to the papers furnished by the two
latter, (and inserted in the appendix to this report,)
for a full and accurate detail of the enactments now
in force which bear upon gaming of all kinds." But
the appendix has not yet been delivered out from the
Vote-office ; and we are treated at present to the
somewhat vague or trite information, " that upon some
branches of the subject much uncertainty exists, as to
what the law, as bearing upon any given case, really
is"—an interesting, and, withal, a notorious uncer-
tainty, which it did not need the sagacity of two
Commissioners to discover, being a fact within the
certain knowledge of ninety and nine out of every one
hundred .of her MAJESTY'S subjects.
Now as to "gaming of all kinds," it would indeed
have been desirable to receive from the House of
Commons a report, indicating, expounding, and re-

by stealth, to carry out the principles of his pre-
decessors, but possibly he could not act otherwise.
Fools must be treated according to their folly. We
cordially hope that he will set them at defiance, and
resign rather than submit to the shackles which the
monopolists in corn and sugar, and almost every
necessary of life, would impose upon him. His
resignation would seal the fate of the Tory dynasty—.
a result which would be hailed by acclamation by
almost every honest man in the country.

It is not often that we have occasion to praise the
sagacity and liberality that characterise the deci-
sions of our police magistrates, who, in far too many
cases, exhibit a spirit of forbearance towards the rich
and the respectable, which they cannot find it in
their nature to exhibit towards the poorer classes of
the community; but the judgment of Mr. PAYNTER,
in a case which came before him on Saturday last, at
the Wandsworth police-office, is an exception to the
rule usually observed by his brother magistrates, and
we feel, therefore, sincere satisfaction in bearing our
humble testimony to his rare forbearance, good
sense, and appropriate kindliness of feeling. The
case which called for this gentleman's decision is
as follows :—Some time last summer a pier was
erected near the Red House at the instance of the
the Westminster Steam-boat Company, to enable
their vessels to land and embark passengers. In con-
sequencn of this accommodation Battersea-fields have
become a favourite resort on the Sunday for some
thousands of mechanics, their wives and children,
where they may obtain a mouthful of fresh air, and
get a glimpse of something that may remind
them of the country. To increase the amusement
of these toil-worn artisans, several persons have
speculated on the letting out of horses and
donkeys for penny rides ; and one individual, in par-
ticular, has laid out a considerable sum of money in
the erection of a gigantic swing. It was to devise
some means of putting a stop to these " nuisances"
—as they were termed—that a police Inspector
waited upon the magistrate. Mr. PAYNTER having
heard the particulars of the case, inquired whether
the spot on which these amusements were indulged
in, was common-land or private property, and being
told that it was private, observed, that in that case
he had no power to interfere, adding—we quote his
own words—" and I do not see why I should inter-
fere. In no other country are the working-classes
restricted in their Sunday amusements, and I
do not see, so long as these amusements
are harmless in their character, that they
should be restricted in this country. The gentry
throng Rotten-row on the Sabbath in carriages
and on horseback ; then why is the same privilege to
be denied to the humble mechanic ?" To these judi-
cious and liberal observations the Inspector made an-
swer, that he should not have dreamed of interfering,
but that some of the resident gentry made complaints,
on which Mr. PAYNTER very properly rejoined—
" Let the gentry, before they make these complaints,
set an example of abstinence in their own persons."
No doubt the " respectable" people who reside in the
immediate neighbourhood of Battersea-fields amuse
themselves on the Sabbath in their own peculiar fashion
—no doubt they take special care to indulge in
the luxury of a ride or a drive into the
parks or the country, or take the air on the river
in their own wherries or sailing-boats—no doubt, too,
they pursue these sabbatical amusements without
entertaining the slightest notion that they are guilty
of a "nuisance" in doing so; and yet, when the
humbler classes of their fellow-countrymen presume
to claim the same privilege, substituting merely the
swing for the carriage, and the donkey for the
horse, then, forsooth, they are not only setting a