17 JANUARY 1829, Page 7

RATIONALE OF THE GAME-LAWS.

MORNING CIIRONICLE—It has never been denied as far as we are aware, that the land and all that is fed on it belong to the nation inhabiting it, and that time right of property is a trust, to be held for the benefit of the nation. The landholder is suffered to occupy a part of that which belongs to the whole nation, merely because particular occupancy is supposed to be most advan- tageous to the community, of which the wants are supplied by ptirchase from the cultivator of all that he does not require for his own consumption. The conditions of the implied trust are, that all that the earth or water nourishes must be distributed among the people, in the proportions indicated by their ability to purchase. The attempt to monopolize any one production is anti- social, and justifiable on no other ground than that by which your purse is taken from you on the highway. It is impossible to conceive a grosser tyranny than the assumption of this power by time English Aristocracy, of ex- cluding the majority of inhabitants of the country from all right to obtain., by purchase, a share of the animals raised in the country. If power be a justifi- cation of a Legislature, there is nothing which may not be justified. What- ever body has the power of legislating in a country ought to ask, wheit measure is proposed, is this such a measure as the people, if they knew their interests, would choose for themselves ? If it will not stand this test, it is tyranny, no matter whether the government be monarchy, aristocracy, or

mongrel. 'fried by such a test, a more monstrous tyranny than the game laws .of England has never been forced upon an insulted nation. It is submitted to by the people of England, because it is imperative, as far as regards their exclusion. They know that, to enact that in a country in which money is al/-powerful, and everything is bought and sold, game shall not be marketable, is as absurd as to enact that water shall be deemed equal in value to wine, or a pound of Newcastle coal shall be deemed equal in value to a pound of silver. The law merely remains as a memorial of the impotency and stupidity of the legislature. The' addition to the mass of crime produced by the means neces- sary to ensure the distribution of the game throughout society, the deteriora- firm of the peasantry, the sufferings of the instruments engaged in violating the tyrannical law, are not of the class of grievances which come home to men's bosoms and impel them to action. The sufferings of poachers, the conversion of thousands of labourers first into poachers, and lastly into thieves, is a question of humanity rather than of property. and however admirable a subject humanity may be for a sermon or a speech, property alone brings men into the arena. Who cares for labourers—who cares for the needy victims whom the moneyed inhabitants of towns make use of to violate the legislative monopoly ? A chance enthusiast here and there has perhaps persuaded him- self into a belief that he cares for these poor creatures.

MORNING JOURNAL—The Chronicle is sadly puzzled to account for the prevalence and increase of poaching. pauperism, and crime within the last

few years. Innocent philosopher ! We shall instruct him on this subject in three words. They are caused by poverty and the march of intellect. For the last seven or eight years the agricultural labourer has been driven from his employment by the inability of the farmer to employ him, and by the low price of grain caused by the changes in the currency and the perpetual clatter on the corn laws. In many instances he has, as might be expected, become a poacher, has served his apprenticeship at the tread-mill, studied political economy in prison, and, before be died, has been fortunate enough to obtain a free passage to Botany-bay. Poaching has not only increased in conse-

quence of poverty, but it has increased from example and by the force of pre- cept. The people have been taught, in the pages of the Chronicle' that to i

steal game s no crime. They have, therefore, stolen as directed. The press has thus been made the pander to crime, the incentive to those principles which send men to the gallows. These principles have been widely circu-

lated. The proprietors of the Chronicle have by this means done much and serious injury to public morals ; they have' for the sake of gain, pam-

pered the vitiated taste of the rabble, softened down the natural ugliness of guilt, called burglary by a more fashionable name, and made the passage to the gallows as smooth and accessible as the inviting door of a Cheapsiae haberdasher.