Star.
London, England, 1827-09-07 00:00:00

THE GAME LAWS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
Another Session of Parliament has closed, and the
jurt expectations of the people and of humanity have
been disappointed, by no effectual steps having been
taken t amend or alter the Game Laws. While Europe,
and England in particular, have made such gigantic
strides in intellectual refinement, philosophy, and even
for the amelioration of suffering and of crime, the Game
Laws still stand in all their feudal, odious, and cruel
magnyude in the path of human right and justice.—
Complaints are continually being made against the un-
due power of the " unpaid' Magistracy ; hut what is it
that giv-s this unconstitutional preponderance—this',
more than judicial influence—an influence which de-
feats the wisdom of our ancestors, violates our charters,
and makes the boasted trial by Jury a mockery and a
bye-word? The Game Laws! Their operation is a
libel upon humanity, and a disgrace to a free and be-',
nevolent country. It is a notorious fact, that a man has
more chances of escape when he slays his fellow-man,
than if he incautiously destroys a hare or a pheasant!
The Game Laws stand upon a principle of feudal se-
patation—a combination of the powerful and rich
against the helpless and poor. The laws which are in
force for the preservation of Game, admit of no excuse
they are justly charged as the cause by which the taste
and morals of the people are corrupted, their lives sa-
crificed, their persons imprisoned ; and, by the operation
of these (Wiens laws, the property of the inhaHtants of
this free country is trampled on by the insolence of
barefaced power, without a single pretext for the ge-
neral good, and for no other purpose than this most
laudable one, that certain individuals may indulge
themselves in a barbarous and bloody sport, from which
every enlightened and amiable mind shrinks in abhor-
rence
and disgust. It has been adopted as part of a
considerate and humane system that some certain men
shall not sit in judgment upon the lives of their fellow-
men—butchers for instance ; and these men, who kill
an ox or a sheep, from necessity, are considered " too
familiar with blood" to sit on a Jury; whilst others,
who go forth in wanton sport, and not from necessity
to mangle living be'ngs and outrage the rights of their
fellow-men, are deemed more eligible, and act as Ma-
gistrates and Jurors! That the Game Laws cannot be
too much reprobated or tio seriously investigated, will
be acknowledged by every considerate and humane
mind, and we are gratified to see the subject so ably
handled in a pamphlet written by Philanthropirs, who
has likewise written a most excellent aid popular pam-
phlet on the public right of fishing by angle or nets;
and it is on the principles laid down in this work, that
Colonel Maceroiri intends trying the right of the public
to fish in navigable rivers. The work on the Game
Laws is divided into twelve chapters, In the first chap-
ter the principles of the Game Laws are considered, and
their impolicy and injustice pointed out, by reference to
facts and to history. The author observes that these
" esclesive rights sapped the foundations of the throne
in France, annihilated the aristocracy, and gave the de-
mocracy an ascendancy at once bloody and fatal." The
second and third chapters are on the origin and policy
of the Game Laws. Here it is admirably defined by
the clearest deductions of reason and common sense,
that the Game Laws are a violation of natural, political;
and civil liberty—that they are "unnecessary and inex-
pediesit, and instead of operating for the general advan-
tage, they are a nursery for crime—that every year they
reduce three or four thousand persons to beggary, by
filling our prisons and burthening our parishes. In the
fourth chapter the Statutes are considered.. By the
Saxon law it appears " every man had a right to take
to his own use the Game found on his own land." Then
came the Conqueror and the feudal system, and de-
prived the people of their tights and dearest privileges.
The Game Laws at the present time retain the princi-
ples and practices of that period of feudal vassalage. In
this and in some of the succeeding chapters, the author
most forcibly marks the encroachments of power, and
observes that in statutes so extremely penal the language
is scarcely intelligible; and yet by the operation of such
loose, vague, and indefinite expressioras as " the game,"
and " any other game," the privation of the liberty of
the people of England is enforced. Blackstone is quoted
in proof of the charge of intricacy and obscurity in the
statutes on the Game Laws. Philanthropus observes in
chapter 7, that property cannot exist in wild aniniale.—
In case of sealing them in their wild state, whose pro-
perty would they be laid in the indictment to be? Such
an indictment could not be supported. The remaining
chapters contain much acute observation, excellent rea-
soning, and judicious reference; and the author con-
cludes in the hope that his discussion will procure a
result favourable to the general principles efcanstitutional
freedom, and to the increasing the happiness of his fellow-
creatures and brother Englishmen.

Sir THOMAre LETHBRIDGE and his Lady have arrived
at their house in Whitehall-place, from Switzerland.
Ilr. GRADY, who was severely wounded by an Irish
clergyman in a duel at Boulogne•our-naer, about a month ago, la
Di we are happy to learn, recovering. This Is the second duel
occurring at Boulogne in the course of a fortnight, on both of which
occasions a Clergyman of the Established Church severally appeared
as a combatant; and in the latter rencounter, as we have seen, a
Reverend Divine had the best of the battle.—So much for the
church militant

In the extensive pheasantries of his Grace the Duke
of Waimea:ow, at Stratileidaaye; at It. Borrow Dc Beauvais,
RAi• at Englefield and Mortimer; and at W. Constitute's, Req.
Aldermaston Park, an epidemic rages among the pheasants; from
fifteen to twenty of these valuable birds have been picked up dead
every morning fur ozone time past. The same disorder is reported
to be equally destructive in the great preserves throughout the
country. The supply of pheasants will in consequence be shorter
this season than ever was known. The keepers attribute the
disease to the dry season. Hares are also a short breed; but par-
tridges generally were never mote plentiful
In the Museum at Abbotsford, there is a small Roman
paters, or goblet, in sheering which Sir WALTZ% Soo:: tells the fol-
lowing story :—" I purchased this (says he) at a Nobleman's soup
near by, at the enormous sum of twenty-five guineas. I would
bare got it for twenty pence, if an Antiquary, who knew its
value, bad hot been there and opposed me. However, I was al-
most consoled fur the bitter price it cost, by the amusement I de-
rived from an old woman, whb had evidently come from a dis.
tore to purchase some trifling culinary articles, and who had
nu taste for the antique. At every successive guinea which we bade
In, the posers, this good old lady's mouth grew wider and wider
with unsophisticated astonishment, until at last I heard her mutter
to herself, in a tone which I shall never forget —' Five-an'-twenty
guineas! if the perritch wan votssot Mat, what soil Me kcal pat gang
fir r"—Glasjow Free Press.
The E iglish Theatre was to have been opened on
the 3d ul September; but, by a new arrangement, the
gets ierlormance will not take place till tuwards the
end of the present week. It will then open with SHE
EWAN'S Cou,edy of the Rivals, and the Farce of For
4114 Frolic. The principal characters will be sustainer"
by Merv's. LIB7ON, AlwT5 EGitaTON, POWEIt, and
LExtrat ; Miss SSIITHOON, Mrs. Russet., and Miss
• ItT111: a Ir.—a/Nets Payer of Tuesday' '