GAME-LAWS—WHY SHOULD THEY EXIST AT ALL?
WE were only not horrified by the Marquis of CHANDOS'S feudal game bill, of which various particulars had transpired, because we were very sure that it would never pass, with a Liberal Govern- ment at the helm.
It seems, in Lord ALTHORP'S amended form of the game-laws —the great bugbear of the country, that all qualifications are to be done away with, but that the price of a certificate for a licence is to be increased ; the penalties on poaching are considerably mode- rated ; the sale of game is to be permitted, and the dealers are to be licensed.
The evils arising out of these laws are enormous : they are uni- versally allowed to be so—even by the men for whose pleasure so much crime is created.
We would propose as an amendment to Lord ALTHORP's pro- position, to do away with the qualification—to do away with the game-laws altogether. Let the brains of the CHANDOS legislators be no longer puzzled : let the whole body of the game-laws be re- pealed. Let the courts be no longer disturbed by this rant about partridges and pheasants. How absurd would it appear were the dispute to turn upon cocks and hens ! What would be the consequences of the utter repeal of these laws ? Game, like any other property, would be protected by the common law—like cocks and hens—like horses, sheep, and cows— like shrubs, trees, and fruit. If any man were particularly attached to his game, or wished to kill it himself, it would be easy for him to arrange the matter so : let him, as he does now, particularly protect it by means of hired servants. The game-laws absolutely do no good to the lovers of sport, and infinite mischief to the community. Abolish them therefore. If the shooting of game were less surrounded by legislative im- pediments—were it deprived of its feudal privileges, and put on a footing with all other property, as far as its nature will permit-7- there would be an end of much of the ambition-attending the pur- suit. The fashion would fall ; and those who really loved and ex- celled in the art of projecting lead from a three-foot tube at an ob- ject in motion, would have ample, opportunities of gratifying their passion. The igame-la,ws, as long as they exist, will serve to keep up the idea that partridges and pheasants are a species of common property belonging to any man that can kill them. Let them cease to exist, and people will no longer imagine that the partridge that feeds on the farmer's wheat belongs to them, more than his "everlasting layer,' that feeds upon his barley. Why should not any body kill a bird that is found on no man's land ?—and yet the game-laws would send the man to prison and transportation who shot a hare upon a waste territory. It is such inconsistencies as these that throw men's notions into a state of confusion on the subject. If there were no game-laws, what would be the operation of the repeal? There would then be no discussion of question of qualification, certificates of licence, leave, or manorial right ; but if any man were seen on another's property, he would be liable to the laws of trespass. Those laws protect proprietors from all persons coming with other views ; and surely the pursuers of game would not be an ex- ception from a rule which includes all but the stealthy robber at midnight. The existing ideas repecting game are anomalous, and full of confusion : destroy the game-laws by one fell swoop, and all is reduced to order.
The scheme of Lord ALTHORP respecting the game-laws is a temporizing system—a contrivance to reconcile things irrecon- cilable, for the sake of gaining time. All temporizing Ministries, in the history of all Governments, have come to a speedy end. We hoped that the present Ministry would have known how to take their post: then would their name have been immortal, and this would have been the age of British regeneration.
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