The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
ruom THE EVENING PAPERS OP TEOTERDAY,
GLOBII—It were much to be wished that Sir
James Graham's proposed amelioration of the game-
laws could by some means or other be brought
into operation before the coming Christmas. At the
moment we are writing, when the sessions of the
ootili
tyjustices are taking place throughout the
country, the prisoners indicted for game offences are
but few, or none. It is not until later in the season
that the fertile crop of crime, which these laws un-
illtattatingly produce, begins to be reaped. But it
is painful to reflect, that with an entire change of
the game-law system in actual consideration, some
hundreds of its victims will, in all probability, be suf-
fering a life-long doom of banishment, from which but
a few months would have saved them. That the
game-laws produce much crime is admitted. The
utmost that is contended for is, that their effects are
exaggerated ; and that the remedy is to be looked
for, not in legislation, but in the moderation of the
landed proprietors. This view of the subject we find
ably enforced in a speech by Lord Charles Russell,
at a meeting of the justices of Bedfordshire on Tues-
day, the lath instant. We extract the following
from the report in the Cambridge Independent Press :
" He had said that he had no hope in legislation on
this subject: it seemed to be generally admitted that
some laws respecting game must exist, and none could,
he thought, be more simple and rational in principle
than the present laws. They proceeded on the prin-
ciple that those who occupied land should have the quiet
possession of it. In ordinary cases, there being no
strong inducement to trespass, an action at law was a
sufficient protection; but, as game afforded a stronger
inducement to trespassers, it was necessary that there
should be a readier way of punishing them. With re-
spect to the evils ascribed to the game-laws, the
principal were these :—The demoralisation of the
poor; the great consumption by game of what ought
to be the food of man; and the diminution of the
amount paid for labour, by placing difficulties in the
way of the duo cultivation of the soil, by not growing
green and root crops. The first of these, he believed,
was much exaggerated: with regard to the two latter,
he fully admitted them, but did not think them by any
means necessary consequences of the game-laws, but
proceeding from want of moderation in the landlords
availing themselves of them."
After alluding to the battue system, Lord Charles
continued :
" That was a foreign system of sporting ; but no
law could remedy it : any law upon the subject would
unavoidably be a sumptuary law ; and what would be
too much game for one locality might not be so for
another. . . . lie would say, gentlemen
must look to moderation rather than to legislation."
Now we most readily admit that " those who
occupy land," or any other property, " should have
the quiet possession of it ;" and we have no objection
to the axiom generally, that greater inducement to
trespassers must be met by readier means of punish-
ment. But we doubt whether these principles involve
all that is contained in the present system of
game-laws. Under the present system, the
servants of a game preserver may take up any
man with a gun, and without a license, upon
the Queen's highway—(vide Lord Stradbroke's
Act)—and may bring him before their master,
the owner of the game, who may himself
punish, without appeal, for the offence committed upon
his own property; and all this without a farthing
expense to himself, but falling on the ratepayers gene-
rally, not a tithe of whom probably ever see game out
of the poulterer's. We confess we should not expect to
find all this involved in the expression, " readier means
of punishment." The proposal which gave rise to
the discussion—though withdrawn for another consi-
dered more likely to receive the assent of the j tistices—
was simply, that the expenses incurred in the prosecution
and conviction of poachers should be defrayed by
the parties prosecuting. A measure more simple,
and more calculated to cure any " want of modera-
tion in the landlords availing themselves of the
game-laws," we cannot readily conceive. There
are several assumptions that must be msde before
the present game-law system can be even ex-
cused. That game is property in the same sense
and to the same extent as a horse or a fowl—
that it more concerns the well-being of society
that a hare or partridge should be placed every
day in the season on the table of the Peer,
than that demoralising influences should not break
up the home of the peasant, making of himself an
exile and of his family vagabonds—we know not,
even if more than this must not be granted before we
could be induced to place our reliance upon the mode-
ration only of the game preserves. With no motive
in the world to create moderation, but with every
facility to gratify the most immoderare desires, we do
more than pause. Laws are made, not to rely on what
men will do, but to guard against what they may do.
That system is essentially faulty which confides the
party
proportioninterest betweened, relying
upop%Non'erhoisf mpuodneisrhamtioennttoto the
ep
some
the punishment and the offence. It would be equally
reasonable to grant the poacher the liberty of trespass
at will, confiding in his moderation to leave a sufficient
stock of game upon the estate. There is, no doubt,
a power of revision—which it is understood has of
late been exercised—in the Secretary of the Home
Department. But if the present system is to be
maintained, and the power of revision to be relied
on, it will be necessary to create a new officer,
to be known as the Chief General Justiciary
of all the Shires of the Realm. Legislation
may, at least, do this—it may supply motives to
moderation. The landlords must not be the only
parties interested, with the sole power of punish-
ment and the sole avoidance of expense. The
rights are too much for the duties. If need be, let
the right remain ; but let the expense of defending it
fall upon the parties interested--for this, least of all
kinds of property, it concerns the State to protect—
let all violations of it be judged of it by a jury not
composed of the landlord's tenants-at- will, and let
some more fit judge be chosen to award the punish-
ment than, in any possible case, the owner of the game.
Much has been said respecting the administration of
justice by the county magistracy ; and we may freely
state—without at present discussing the general ar-
gument—that we believe, so far as thatfunction goes,
professional substitutes, or assessors, would be more
competent, more attentive, and more impartial. But
the question we are now discussing may be decided
apart from the more general question. We can for-
give incompetence; we can put up with neglect of
duty, within reasonable limits ; but a system which
reverses the leading principle of English judicature,
and transforms the judge from a counsel for the
prisoner into the party principally interested in his
condemnation and rigorous punishment, is too shock
ing in the bare idea.

THE IRON HOOP AND OTHER STREET NUISANCES.
—The following clause of the New Metropolitan Police
Act, passed under the auspices of the Melbourne
Ministry in the summer of the year 1839, has been re-
ferred to lately by several of our correspondent 3 ; so
that wo are induced to give it at length, for the informa-
tion of those who may be disposed to seek a legal remedy
for the dangerous nuisance of iron hoops in the roads
and on the foot-pavements of the metropolis. By the
54th section, " every person who shall roll or carry any
cask, tub, hoop, or wheel, or any plank, ladder, pole,
show-board, or placard, upon any footway, except for
the purpose of loading or unloading any cart or carriage,
or of crossing the footway," is liable to a penalty of 405.,
and any police-constable is empowered and authorised to
take into custody, without warrant, any person who shall
commit the above offences within view of any such con-
stable. And now, by the way, that winter is drawing
near, and pedestrians are likely to be constantly
annoyed by having to wade through filth and slush,
which ought to be cleared away, it may be well to re-
mind householders, shopkeepers, and others, that by the
60th section of the same Act (2d and 3d Victoria, cap.
47) " every occupier of a house or other tenement in any
town within the limits of the metropolitan police dis-
trict, who shall not keep sufficiontly swept and cleansed
all footways and watercourses adjoining to the premises
occupied by him," is liable to the same penalty of 40s.
for every such offence. The present worthy Chief
Magistrate, on entering upon his mayoralty a year ago,
expressed his determination to see the above provision
carried into effect, as well as several others enacted by
the Police Act for the prevention of public nuisances
generally. It is naturally impossible to conjecture what
course may be adopted by his successor at the Mansion-
house, but nobody, whose business or avocations daily
and hourly compel him to tramp the streets of our
crowded city, can be unaware of the abominable neglect
of householders and shopkeepers to comply with the
terms of the Act, by keeping the pavement fronting
their premises in a tolerably clean and decent condition.
EFFECTS or GAMBLING.—A gentleman's servant,
out of a situation, who had been out on Monday evening
with some friends, and having entered into play at cards,
had lost between 4/. and 51., returned to his lodgings be-
tween 1 and 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning much intoxi-
cated, and cut his throat. He was removed to the hos-
pital without hope of recovery.
TUE WHEAT SOWING.—During the last week the
weather has been tolerably dry, and very gne for the
season of the year, so that the preparing of the land for
wheat sowing and the sowing itself have proceeded pros-
perous, 1 The land turns up in excellent condition, and
insures a dry bed and a safe germination fur the seed.
This is of the utmost consequence, as it secures the plant
from injury during the most critical period of its growth.
—.Liverpool.Tinecs.

CHINESE TREATY.
(From the Journal des Debate.)
The dispatches from China, brought by last mail, con-
tain intelligence which is important to all nations whose
commerce is preparing to avail itself of the establishment
of the English at Hong-Kong, and of the opening of the
fire ports on the Chinese coast. Interesting in a com-
mercial respect, these accounts are equally so in an his-
torieal point of view.
The statesmen of the Celestial Empire, although the
last initiated in the difficult science of diplomacy, are
likely to distinguish themselves in it, judging by their
debut. Their coup d'essai is a coup de maitre; for it will
be presently seen that, by a treaty, regularly negotiated,
accepted, and ratified, they have just reconquered for
their country—at least very nearly—the position, ex-
clusive and haughty enough, that an unfortunate war had
made them lose.
It will be remembered that Sir Henry Pottinger hail
been commissioned to negotiate with the Chinese com-
missioners a treaty supplementary to that of Nanking, in
order to define and limit the commercial relations that
were to be opened with all nations, and especially between
England and China, We published that document some
months ago, such as it had been translated in the Official
Gazette of Hong-Kong ; but we had then no data to
appreciate its terms or real scope. It now appears that
that translation was not a correct one, and that Sir Henry
Pottinger had been the victim of a shameful fraud. The
principal interpreter of the British Legation, Mr. J. R.
Morrison, died whilst the articles were being drawn up.
His death, as Sir Henry Pottinger said at the time, was
a national calamity to England, but its consequences
have been still more disastrous than he anticipated, for,
availing themselves of the ignorance of the English pleni-
potentiary both in commercial matters and in the Chinese
language, and of the acrimony that prevailed between him
and the English merchants, who might have given him
advice, the Chinese diplomatists who were opposed to him,
bribed with money the new interpreter, employed from
necessity as a substitute for Mr. Morrison, and Sir
Henry Pottinger happens to have accepted and ratified
in the name of his Giovernment terms that annul, very
nearly, all the advantages obtained by the English at
the cost of so much blood and money, and which will
probably check for a long time to come the rise of the
newly created colony of Hong-Kong.
The fact is, that on comparing the supplementary
treaty, such as it had been submitted to Sir Henry Pot-
tinges by the interpreter whom he had trusted in, with a
second translation made in England by the most learned
professors of the Chinese language, it has just been dis-
covered that the most serious and most deplorable dif-
ferences exist between the two translations. In the ver-
sion submitted to Sir Henry Pottinger, not only has the
meaning of several articles been designedly altered, but
important clauses, and whole paragraphs have been left
out, whilst they remain irrevocably recorded, and have
force of law in the original treaty he signed as pleni-
potentiary.
These alterations and suppressions bear upon the
whole document, but principally upon the 13th and the
17th articles, the immediate effect of which is to annul
the establishment of Hong-Kong; to exclude it from all
participation, by transit or coasting trade, in the trade
of the several nations with the five ports; and lastly, to
restrict, nearly as it was before the war, the commerce
of all nations to the sole port of Canton.
The following are the articles, according to the cor-
rect translation; the italics denote the passages altered
or suppressed in the version submitted to Sir Henry
Pottinger:—
Art. 1. Henceforward when the Chinese merchants
shall wish to export goods in order to sell them at Hong-
Kong, they shall begin by paying the duties according
to the new tariff in one or other of the five ports of
Canton, Fouchoo, Amoy, Ningpo, or Shanghae, and by
receiving in exchange passes from one of those localities.
2. When the Chinese merchants shall wish to repair to
Hong-Kong, in order to take in cargoes of European
goods, they shall in the same way present themselves
before the Chinese authorities of the ports of Canton,
Fouchoo, Amoy, Ningpo, or Shanghae, and demand a
permit for the introduction of such goods paying the
required duties. But every Chinese merchant who shall
buy goods at Hong-Kong shall not ship them in any
but Chinese vessels provided with passes delivered
at Hong-Kong. These passes and permits shall be every
time and at every voyage subscribed (vised) by the officers
of the Chinese Custom-house, in order to avoid all contra-
vention.* As for the other ports of the Kwang-Tong,
Fakien, Chekiang, and Kiangsoo, such as Chapoo, &c.,
as they are not authorised factories (conzptoirs), the mer-
chants are not permitted to solicitpasses there for Hong-
Kong ; and if from those parts they repair without
permission to Hong-Kong, the English and Chinese
Custom-houses shall make combined efforts to discover
and denounce them.
Art. 17. Tho small English coasting vessels of every
description, such as schooners, cutters, yawls, &c., have
hitherto paid no duty. It is now agreed that all those
vessels, whether coming from Hong-Kong to Canton,
whether they return from Canton to Macao (excepting
those exclusively used for correspondence or passengers),
the moment they shall carry the smallest bale of goods,
even only weighing 100Ibs., shall thenceforward pay duty
in proportion to their tonnage. Nevertheless, as it would
not be fair to apply to them the same scale as to large
foreign ships, and seeing that they may go to and fro
several times during the month, they shall be thus classi-
fied—the smallest shall be considered of 75 tons (whether
they have or not that tonnage), and the largest shall be
of 150. Both shall pay a " mace" per ton every time they
shall enter the port. All that shall exceed 150 tons shall
be considered as large ships coming from foreign parts, and
according to the new tariff; shall pay five race per ton.t
As for Fouchoo, Amoy, IV ingpo, and Shanghae, as none
of those coasting vessels enter it, it is useless to make any
regulations on the subject.t
These two articles, adds the Debats, coincide, and
are linked together with an art that oould not be too
much admired, if their consequences were not equally
detrimental to all flags, by excluding them, or nearly so,
from the four ports so recently opened. In fact, accord-
ing to the wording of these articles, it becomes quite
ruinous to land at Hong-Kong the goods destined for
the Chinese continent, since,in compliance with the 13th
article, their re-exportation can take place but in Chinese
vessels, that is to say in junks, which can sail but with
the monsoon, at tide intervals, always with a good
wind, by quietly keeping close to the coast, and which
thus effect in six months a voyage which an European
coasting vessel would accomplish in a few weeks.
There remains, indeed, the alternative of using English
vessels of above one hundred and fifty tons ; but,
ia such case, with the enormous duty of five "mace"
per ton, tho cost of freight from Hong-Kong to Amoy (a
distance of some hundreds of miles) is nearly the same
as from Liverpool to Canton (a distance of seven thou-
sand leagues.) Lastly, supposing that a ship directly
goes to the five ports without touching at Hong-Kong,
the owners will have to pay five, six, or even seven
times (if they wish to report a return cargo), that exor-
bitant duty of five " mace " at each port, that is to say,
twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five ' mace " per ton for
the whole voyage, or " much more " (as the Friend of
China, of the 17th of April says) than it would cost to
dispatch, without any other trouble, the goods from Can-
ton, by the canals of the interior. This last method
will, therefore, be reverted to, for it avoids immense
fatigue, and all the dangers of navigation; or, in other
words, we shall revert to the old system of commerce
exclusively with Canton, whore it is always certain to
find return cargoes. Thanks to the wording of the sup-
plementary treaty, the freedom of commerce with the
northern ports is, therefore, perfectly illusory; it is a
mere nominal privilege. It also follows that Hong-
Kong will henceforth be but accidentally visited by such
ships as may require a refuge in bad weather.

• This whole passage had been suppressed.
The meaning of this had been given in a very confused
manner.
$ This passage had been completely suppressed.

[The French papers in general show the most deplor-
able ignorance of the state of affairs in China and India,
and wo have published the preceding article, not that we
attach any importance to it, but solely from the respect-
ability of the journal in which it appears. But that
journal, as on a former occasion, had trusted to its cor-
respondent in the East, who has one great merit—that
of invention.—En. Sun.]

AN ASSEMBLY or GREEDY GLUTTONS.—An Ostend
newspaper, which yesterday reached our office, relates
the following anecdote of an Englishman, who appears
to entertain but little respect for temperance and " total
abstinence" pledges:—" A few days ago (says our infor-
mant) this person, who has been long resident at Ostend,
being desirous of giving a feast to sundry masons and
carpenters, amounting in number to 45, employed in al-
tering his house, ordered a supper to be prepared, con-
sisting, besides several entremets. of ten large pieces of
roast beef, weighing altogether about 108 kilogrammes
(2391 b.), and ten puddings, in which, besides 30 bottles
of rum, were distributed an enormous quantity of Corin-
thian raisins, sugar, spices, and &c. These pud-
dings weighed al together about 112 Inlogrammes (248 ilb.)
The beverage provided to wash down this Brobdigna-
gian meal was exclusively confined to rum punch. There
not being any plates at hand sufficiently large, our Eng-
lishmanutu)srde.redTitieo
fbeeasbt rwo.uagslistoraysedmuapnybypllastesseser.
there were had
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whichu the 4.5
easily
ched
om o,
after.vazitheirts T hlibationsin
of punch, may be conceived.
There was, it is said, an immense demand the following
day for iced soda-water and other refrigerating drinks !'
STATE OF TRADE AT MANCHESTER.—The con-
tinued uncertainty with respect to the factory hands,
keeps the market here in a very buoyant state.
Yarn, being exceedingly scarce, and most of the
spinners under engagement for some weeks, whilst
the demand is considerable, the prices continueghto itmhe-
prove. Goods are also firm in price, a
market is scarcely so active as it was last
week.—
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, OCT. 2l.—There is not
the least improvement in the flannel market, which has
been extremely dull and inactive. The wool market
the
has been equally flat,an dsales extremely limited,—
Manchester
Guardian.