The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-01 00:00:00

MAGAZINE DAY.

BLACKWOOD'S.

The present number of Blackwood's is decidedly

the best we have seen for a twelvemonth. Its sub-
jects are interesting—no vel—important—dogmati c,
and so forth—with a plentiful abundance of the
aristocratic leaven, seasoned here and there by a
strong spice of Ultra-Toryism, sufficient to twitch
the appetite of Lord Eldon, and all the quaint
lovers of things as they were in the good
olden times of patronage and power, when
the brim of his Lordship's hat overshadowed
the land teeming with expectants in Church and
State. But a change has come over the Spirit of
the Times, and the look of the " liveried army,"
has become as blank as the old coat of his Lordship,
in pile, colour, and consistency.
The first article is the Game Laws-7-a subject so
replete with the germs of human misery and crime,
that to these laws alone, or rather their pernici-
ous tendency, half the gaols in England are in-
debted for their demoralized inhabitants. But
in these, as in all emanations of Toryism, the
Genius of Evil finds an advocate not more eloquent
than sincere in Christopher North, whose ability in
the cause is only exceeded by his honesty of purpose,
however far removed from the true line of rectitude !
Our northern magician, we hope with good reason,
laments that the Game Laws and the Aristocracy,
that is, Ultra Toryism, are in danger of being im-
proved by the superior influence which en-
lightened Democracy, the Ministry, and the Press, are
exercising for the benefit of the public, and the re-
ciprocity of the country gentlemen ! The Game
Laws are good enough for the landowners, and
therefore the public ought to be contented. That
is the argument of our intelligent friend : but he
leaves out of the question the demoralizing effects
consequent upon the cruel, unjust, though legal
administration of the game laws. Because their ad-
ministration is not illegal, is sufficient for him to
justify all their enormity and degrading influence
upon society, forgetting that these same laws were
formed for the exclusive benefit and pleasure of
those who sit in judgment to administer their re-
voking provisions. If there is one system of legis-
lation more than another which is held odious in the

eyes of the people of England, it is the genie laws,
justly esteemed the curse of moral society. But the
landowners would have all—they would even tax the
winds for their exclusive benefit—they would have "all
things for their use," totally regardless of the ulterior
consequence. Allowing game even to be property,

would it not be more -advisable—more politic in
them—to sacrifice a portion of a source of luxury,
for the benefit of the national morals, than to perse-
vere in arrogating to themselves exclusively, as a
matter of right, what they may one day be compelled
to yield as a matter of necessity to the more enlight-
ened legislation of a liberal Government ? The game
is their property, because they feed it in the same
manner that sheep and oxen are fed, but though this
assumption may hold true so long as they keep the
game in their own power, how does it tell when the
game has eluded their grasp—when obeying the
impulse of nature, the game asserts its dis-
cursive peedeliction ? When the game has fled
the preserves, does it wear the badge of slavery—
the Tory collar round its neck, like my.lady's lap-
dog ? No ; when the game mounts on the winds
it belongs to the wilderness--..the common of the
universe, and he who takes moy keep. True
there may be modifications in certain cases,
but there is a general principle which all men of
common sense recognise as their inherent right; and
ten thousand Game Laws, though they may restrain,
yet they cannot subdue, that universal feeling. It
would be certainly amusing to see the grave honesty
of a band of robbers, who, after appropriating to
themselves the good things oftheir neighbours, should
sit down and make laws for their future peaceable
enjoyment of the privileges of the community. The
miseries of the game laws are only known in Eng-
land, where the crilLes consequent cn their grievous
adn:,inistration are too truly felt. But as our advo-
cate apprehends the possibility, rather• than the pro-
priety, of a change in these evils, we willingly let the
following speak for his'good intentions :
To place the question itt.the clearest light possible, we
will nuw briefly enumerate 'Some of the leading principles
by which changes in the Game Lyre shouldbe strictly
governed.
1. Game is property. That which is bred, fed, and
retained by people on their own land, is as exclusively their
property as any thing they possess. That which cannot
be claimed by individuals on the ground of rearing and
maintenance, is exclusively the property of the landowners
az a body, to be divided individually among them as the
law may think good.
2. As there is no land in the country which is common
property, those who possess no land have ia..) claim to be
entitled to kill game; they contribute nothing towards the
breeding and maintaining of it, therefore they have not the
least property in it.
S. No man has a right to trespass on the land of another.
4. Game should be produced, subject to the laws of
property, for the benefit of the community as a whole.
Therefore the object of legislation should be, to provide, at
the cheapest rate, the greatest quantity of it that can be
reared without producing countervailing evils. Of course
the law should prohibit every thing calculated to destroy
what may Le called stock-game, and every thing calculated
to deter the owners of game from rearing it in sufficient
abundance. From this it irresistibly follows that poach-
ing should be rigorously prevented, and that the producers
of game should enjoy the rights and protection enjoyed by
the producers of sheep, corn, &c.
5. Poaching should be prevented and punished, as other
kinds of robbery are prevented and punished. The great
ob ect should be to prevent poachers from killing game
on the one band, and from finding a market for it on the

other.
We advise those who take the lead in attempts to amend
the Game Laws, to avoid in future that system of whole-
sale neck-or-nothing legislation, from which the country
has reaped so much ruin and misery. In these days men
cannot be content to follow the good old English fashion
of proceeding step by step, and making changes separately
and cautiously. They cannot stoop to the humble task of
reforming and repairing. They must destroy, that they
may create anew ; they must sweep away at a single stroke
whole systems and sets of laws,, in order to make room for
some gigantic, magnificent whole, of their own inventing,
and to astonish the world by the vastness of their architec-
tural capacity. Fatal to our poor country have been the
consequences. Let those to whom we speak gather wis-
dom from the past, and change their conduct before th-y
make another effort to change the Game Laws. Let them
legislate on the different parts of the question separately.
Let them prepare a Bill to legalize the sale of game, to
cause the preserves to be better watched, to make the
punishment of poaching more effective, and to destroy the
poacher's market; but to do no more. If this Bill pass,
let fully tried before they attempt any thing further.
They- may then, if they think good, prepare another Bill
alteriii.g the form and distribution, of the qualification.
The Backelor's Beat is not more interesting than
moral ; we willingly extract the following as strongly
and truly descriptive of a gambler's fate and we lettv%
the counterpart of the article which is still more
attractive, for the unalloyed enjoyment of the reader
of Maga.
Had it been the dusk of evening, instead of a bright May
morning, I should certainly have thought (as I passed with
quickened step the threshold of a well-known gaming-
h,nise) that I beheld, issuing from its earthly hell, the
spectre of Jack Cavendish. Never was Milton's descrip.
tiou of an " archangel ruined," more fully realized here
below than in the creature now before me. The hand-
somest " mortal mixture of earth's mould," that ever bore
the Creator's sacred image, was now a gaunt and emaciated
shadow. It was as if the majestic body had shrunk to the
dimensions of the debased and humiliated soul. The once
open forehead was contracted with wrinkles, the once com-
manding- eye had learned to seek the ground—and all not
of ...rth that animated the rained fabric, seemed, alas ! by
the horrible expression it had assumed, to partake more of
the fiend than the demigod.
When I left London and the world, Jack Cavendish was
on the high road to wealth and honours. He had quitted
the drudgery of the law for the shining path of office ; he
was the wit and the genius of a triumphant party; the fa-
vourite nephew of a powerful minister, and the destined
husband of his lovely' and accomplished daughter. The
r,,pid and slippery 4eatent from all these honours and all
these expectations,
easily comprised in one ominous,
pestilential word—Play
a
word surely devised by the
fiends whose sport is human
;remediable form. Ohlthat
misery in its most abject ..and
t the young earjust yielding