Star.
London, England, 1827-05-12 00:00:00

GAME LAWS.

On the Order of the Day for receiving the Report of
the Committee being moved.
The Earl of MA LM ESBURY observed that there was
a strong feeling in their Lordships against the present
system of the Game Laws as tending to increase the
commission of crime. Now he contended that the in-
crease of crime did not arise from that system but from
other circumstance,, and in support of that opinion he
should refer to Returns on their Lordships' table. It
appeareditom those Returns that the convictions under
the Game Laws in 1817 Mete 127, and in 1826, 128,
being an increase of only one in ten years. Of crime
under other heads, on the contrary, there was a much
larger increase. Horse stesiing for instance had become
so prevalent in hill part of the country that there was
scarcely any security for that kind of property. In 1810
the number of convictions for that offence was 58.
In 1826 it rose to 120, or more than double. In 1810
the convictions for simple larceny were 2,2691 in 1826,

they were 8,081, or had quadrupled. He was there
fore surely justified in stating, that some other cause,
beside the present system of Game Laws, must have
operated to increase Mdse. These causes he con.
misted to be -the distressed state a the population,
and the want of employment: In the County of
Wilts, to which he (+he Earl of Malmesbuty) belonged,
there had been more convictions this year than in any
other part of the country, and the nature of the indivi-
duals convicted greatly differed from what it was in
former years. They were young, industrious men, who
had hitherto maintained themselves and their families
by their work, but who, when reduced to a pittance of
half a crown a week, it was not surprising should be
tempted. He was in possession of Returns from the
County of Suffolk, a County in which game abounded,
from which it appeared, that the number of commit-
ments in the year 1817 was twelve, the price of wheat
at the time being 945. per quarter; that in 1818, the
commitments had risen to only eighteen, while the price
of wheat had descended to 835.• It was remarkable that
crime had increased in proportion as the price of wheat
had diminished. This could only be accounted for by
the want of employment occasioned by the fall in
prices and the reduced means of agriculturists. In
1822, the commitments had been seventy-two, and the.
price of wheat had come down from 945. to 435.
Amongst other causes of the increase of crime, the aug-
mented consumption of spirits ought to be ranked, for
it was a fact to be verified in all the papers, that seve-
ral horrible crimes recorded within these last three
months had all been perpetrated in a state of intoaici-
tion. The quantity of British spirits consumed in the
year 1824, was 15,000600 gallons, and in the year
I ' ' ' 1826 20 000 000 gallons, or an increase of one-fourth
in two years. In the consumption of Rum there had
also been an enormous advance at the ratio of from five
gallons to eight. All these things were, what he would
nail, alien causes of the great augmentation of crime,
and proved that under the Game Laws that in-
crease had not kept pace with that of other offences.
Thl Noble Ea I then_lamsottdilie great augmentation
of juvenile offenders, and said it appeared from Mr.
Capper's Report, that out of four thousand offenders
not less than one thousand were under twenty
With respect to the Bill, I.e did not see its necessity.
Had the existing Game Laws been as oppressive and
unjust al they were represented to be, they would.not
have been suffered to continue for one Se.sion, by the
great men who for fifty or sixty years had had the di-
rection of the laws cf the country. They had seen the
imperfections of the system, hut they had also seen the
difficulties of amending it. Ile considered that the pro-
posedßill would establish an entirely new kind of Game
Preserves, where game had never existed before, not for
the advantage of the Gentry, but for that of tenants. It.
would create a new species of property, and make it,a
question of pounds, shillings, and pence. There Was
but one class th it would benefit by the measure, a very
worthy class no doubt, that of Country Attorneys. Tise
Noble Earl then combated the arguments which WA
been advanced by the supporters of the Biil, that it
would riot decrease the attractions of the country. He
chewed the importance of encouraging the Country Gen-
tlemen to reside on their estates, and wuuld prefer
securing that point, to bringing forward the most
liberal measure possible. The young men raised in the
country, and inured in their hunting, &c. to all the
hardships of weather, watchings and fatigue, were also
much more likely to produce a good race of active
officers for the army than those who in town spent all
the time in passing from one club room to another.—
Far from being impolitic or unjust, the present system
of Game Laws was therefore both politic and beneficial.
For two years a dispoltion to libel Country Gentlemen
might be traced from the daily P.ess to works of the
first eminence. In fact it had become a regular system
to run down Country Gentlemen and the Game Laws.
If you went into the City, you would hear the Lord
Mayor, whilst lecturing a young offender, inveigh.
against the Game Laws; or )ou would see him after
committing some poor fisherman who cast a ho iic into
the Thames, go down to Greene ich and dine upon white
bait—(Laughter). He objected to the Bill as far as it
affected the law of trespass, and trusted that on all
those grounds their Lordships would agree with him in
the motion that the Report be brought up that day
three months.

The Earl of ABINGDON said he thought the Bill
calculated to demoralize the nation instvad of doing
good, and would be happy to join in throwing it out of
the House, of kicking is out of the
The Earl of ELDON begg-d permission to say a
few words. Having in his early youth criached en the
land of his ancestors more than he ought to have done,
he would seize this moment to make all apology. If
some Bill like this were not passed, he feared it would
be because he had not suggested all the amendments
which it was his duty to do, hut which pressure of busi-
ness prevented him from doing ; for the language of
some of the clauses might lead to much mischief if not
. .

altered. When it WAS—recollectei how little might re-
duce murder into manslaughter, the language ought to
be most carefully attended to. He could not believe
that that Bill was the one tehich ought to be adopted
to prevent increase of crime. As long as their Lord-
ships should support the system of sporting by means
of Battues, it would be all a pretence•to say that this
8,11 was to prevent crime. On that ground alone he
would give his negative to the measure, unless a provi-
sion was introduced into it to prevent Battues. With
respect to himself, he sported in the ancient style. He
went out with a couple of dogs, and as an old lawyer he
was fond of seeing their points. On one of these escur-
sons, not very long since, he had seen some Gentlemen
shooting on his grounds in another field. He crossed
the hedge, and asked them what right they had to shoot
there ? One of them, with a seasoning of oaths which
he should be very sorry to repeat to the House, told
him that they had a tight to shoot there, for they had
leave from the Lord of the Manor, Lord Eldon—
(Laughter.) He then turned lawyer, and told them
that he believed they had no such right; when tley
bade him go to his old master, old Eldon, and that Ire
would settle the matter at once. "I am Lord Eldon
myself," said the Noble Lord, " and as I seem to have

told you a very disagreeable piece of law, I beg you
will take an agreeable day's shooting on my manor."--
But if, according to the Bill before the House, he had
set about apprehending those Gentlemen, where should
II he have been ? But to be serious, there was danger in
endeavouring to arrest men with arms in their hands ;
and when it was recollected how Hale might involve
men in the crime of murder, the greatest care and at-
tentionshonld be paid to the enactments of the Bill.

Lord DACRE not suspecting that it would have
been maintained that the present system of Game Laws
►ed to a great increase of crime, had not armed himself
with Returns like a Noble Earl: He recollected, how.!

I ever, from some which he had formerly seen, that.in
one year not less than 1,300 persons had passed throng
the prisons of the country for infractions oldies, Laws.
Most of them were good and industrious labourers,who
came out of jail complete and hardened thieves. If it
were wished to demoralize the country, nothing more
effectual could be invented than to attach to an act
which displayed no moral turpitude, the complexion of
crime, and to crowd the jails with its most active youths,
who came out of them incorrigible rogues.
The Earl of MALNIESBURY explained.
The Earl of HARROWBY said that he bad looked
over some Returns which were prin ing but not yet
completed, and that a cursory examination of them had
convinced him of the.necessity of the present Bill. He
had compared the commitments in the years 1810,
1811, and 1812, with those of the years 1821, 1825,
and 1826, and found an enormous increase in the latter
period. In the course of the last three years the number
of our fellow subjects sent to gaol for offences agains7
the Game Laws Was 4,500, whilst in the three years
from 1810 to 1812, it did not exceed 460! Hum in
crime and misery had therefore increased tenfold in
fourteen years. He did not see how in justice such a
system could be allowed to prevail, Which for a crime
of no moral' turpitude in itself, but made into a crime
by law for the gratification of one class of the commu-
nity, allowed 1,590 of our fellow-creatures to be thrown
into gaol every year, their morals destroyed, their fa-
milies reduied to beggary, and the whole thrown for
support upon the parish.
The Earl of FALMOUTH contended that instead of
decreasing, the pr..posed Bill would increase the per-
petration and amount of crime.
Lords GROSVENOR and ELDON mutually explained..—
The former thought that the only possible chance of
putting an end to the enormous evil of the present sys-
tem, was to adopt the Bill of his Noble Friend.
Lord WHARNCLIFFE defended the measure on all
the grounds upon which it had been attacked, a-id main-
tained that as long as there would be game, there would
be poaching.. He agreed, however, with the Noble and
Learned Earl (Eldon) that the hest mode of preventing
p iaching, was to prevent the accumulation of Game
Preservers. If that Noble and Learned Earl wished to
introduce a clause to that effect, he (Lord W ) was ready
to go into the Committee again, and to try their hands
afresh. Not only had crime increased, but what was
worse, the feeling in favour of the poacher had also in-
creased in a tenfold degree, so that the Preserver of
Game was almost considered as the real offender. He,
felt the importance of vi hit had fallen from the Noble
and Learned Lord, and as he now could have his as-
sistance, together with that of the Woolsack and the
Lord Chief Justice, he should propose, if the Report
were received, to re-commit the Bill ; and as a check
again.t the very small proprietors, he should also make
it incumbent on every person who chose to sell Game,
to take a certificate, as at present, to kill Game.
. _

The House then divided on the question that the Report be now
received Contents . . . . 29
Not Contents . . . 30
Majority against the Bill —1
Tie House then adjourned at HALF-PAST &MIN O'CLOCK.