The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-03 00:00:00

the main of baseless statements and ill names."
After this introduction, followed by abundance
of declamation in the same style, we were pre-
pared for, a thick and thin vindication of the Game
Laws. Notwithstanding the disposition to hoax,
which is generally characteristic of this Maga-
zine, we own we were not prepared for the im-
pudence with which, after a sham argument with
the poachers, who, he says, alleges, "that game
is provided by nature, and that, unlike sheep,
horses, &c. it is as much the property of one man
as another" (as if any body cared for, what
poachers say when argiiing a question of this na-
ture), the writer proceeds to recommend the very
measure which the opponents of the Game Laws
have advocated, the legalising the sale of game.
" Shall the general sale of game be legalised ?
Our opinion, notwithstanding the manifold diffi-
culties which beset the question, is in favour of
the sale. We have advocated the breeding and
protecting of game as a matter of enjoyment and
benefit to the community at large; and while
we insist that the great portion of the commu-
nity which possesses no land, ought to be pro-
hibited from trespassing on the land of others
for the purpose of killing game, we must
maintain that it ought to have a right in law
to buy game, 'if this could be granted without
trenching on the rights of the other portion.
Game ought -to be produced like corn, cattle,
and the general produce of land, for the benefit
of the whole population ; it ought to be pro-
perty, and it ought to be protected by the laws
of property ; but like other property, it should
be matter of sale and purchase. Most special
and cogent reasons might make it an exception,
but none such exist. The plea that to legalize
the sale would be to increase poaching, would
have great weight, if supported by actual demon-
stration ; but still it would be insufficient. The
laws ought to aid to the utmost the possessors
of game, as well as the possessors of other kinds
of property, in protecting their property from
theft ; but it ought to make no distinction in
their favour. To protect their game, by prohi-
biting those from buying game who have no
other means of procuring it, is an invasion of
the fair rights of the latter, which cannot be
defended. We speak thus on abstract equi-
table right ; but our belief is, that the lega-
lization would tend materially. to, diminish
poaching. At present game is sold in most
large places, and partly through the instru-
mentality of the landowner. The man practically
sells his game who exchanges it with his fish-
monger for fish. The population, on the whole,
is plentifully supplied with game. The poachers
can now sell at a good price—at a higher price
than they would be likely to obtain if the sale
-were legal—all the game they can procure."
We know of no wi her or speaker who has ever
contended for more than this. No opponent of the
Game Laws will refuse to subscribe to the writer's
proposition, that " Game is
,property. That'
sehich is bred, fed, and retained by people on
their own land is as exclusively their property as
any thing they possess." The opposition to the
Game Laws has always been grounded on the
Tery principle the writer lays down, namely, that
the game of the nation, like the corn and cattle
of the nation, belongs to the nation ; that it
-" should be produced, subject to the laws of pro-
perty, for the benefit of the community as a
whole." That the principle of the Game Laws
is detestable, in so far as it goes to exclude the
public from a right to obtain game ; that every
law which is notoriously at variance with the end
proposed by the social union, is unjust and ty-
rannical ; that the upholders of a law which jus-
tifies the rest of the community in violating it by,
means which crowd the prison with wretches,
who, in process of time, generally become
hardened criminals, and are sacrificed to
offended justice. We have no hesitation in
saying, that an account of the souls -of the men
who have been sacrificed to a wicked mainte-
nance of this accursed principle, will one day be
demanded of those who have voted for the Game
Laws,if there be such a thing as Divine justine ;
that the murderer is innocent in comparison of
them ; and that no man can possibly be a Chris-
tian who abuses the power -in his hands to pro-
cure such a wanton destruction of his fellow-
creatures, and that what the Catholics call " in-
vincible ignorance"—a degree of stupidity ap-
proaching to idiotcy—can form the only justifi-
cation of the Legislators who support the Game
Laws. It is probable that poaching would be
greatly diminished by the Bale of game, because
the law must throw some difficulties, in the way
of the disposal, and every obstacle must enhance the
price, and thereby form an encouragement to
the poacher. But be that as it -may, so long as
the principle which monopolizes guile, and
makes the sale penal---an antisocial 'and tyranni-
cal principle—is persisted in ; a principle which
justifies, ex necessitate, the violation of the law—
we are entitled to hold up those who sanction it
as guilty of intending the destruction of multi-
tudes of their fellow-creatures. It would seem
as if the writer in Blackwood thought the plea
of 4' invincible ignorance" applicable to the
class in question ; for the manner of treating the
question would be an insult to any one possessed
of the smallest degree of understanding. A
more barefaced attempt at holding up to de-
rision, by assuming the imbecility of the party
addressed, we never witnessed.--Morning
Chronicle.

,It seems that we were under the mark in
stating that the lost notes had been restored for
2,000/., and that, in fact, one bag had been ex-'
changed for the other. It is now openly as-
serted that 2,8001. was the sum actually paid ;
and, what is more extraordinary, that the nego-
tiation was carried cm and completed by a police-
officer ! If this be true, and such things can be
done with impunity,
what a precious system of
police must we be living
under ! We hear con-
tinually of some person who, having lost a tea-
kettle, 'a flat-iron, or pillow-case, on recovering
it, wishing to forego the toil and the, expense of
prosecuting •the offender, whom they are likewise,
from the most praiseworthy motives, anxious to
save from the contagion . of a prison ; when the
Magistrate, with uplifted hands and eyes, declares
the thing impossible, wondering at the audacity of
people, who can so much as dream of compouia-
tng a felony ! But that which is a sin, when
applied to a shilling, is none, it. would seem,
when applied to thousands ; and that which hor-
lifies the Sages of the Police, from Whitechapel
to Mary-le-bone, if whispered in the shape of a
small and venial offence, is openly connived at and
saneticinetV, and the very myrmidons of the police
permitted• to employ themselves in perfecting,
when the, lob becomes worthy of being ac• il
complisheu. dthis ' And is the protection for-
sooth,
which the publiceoi are to look for from our
admirable police,
those lovers of conducted
ed, as it now is, under
pure justice a Whig Ministry!
eye do not say that, '
vf._re we the bankers in,this
case, we should not have been
bak our notes at almost any haypy to have got
price. What we
complain of is, not su much the thing having