128 The Game Laws. [FEE- 



right which the landowner possesses ; ancT because the property, once 

 fixed, may be as easily regulated, as to lease or disposal, as the already 

 disposable property of the land out of which it arises.* That which we 

 are anxious to see, is a law, capable of being plainly understood, and 

 readily applied; and which shall put the competencies of individuals 

 (their properties it is not desired to deal with) upon an equal footing. 

 The same short process, before a magistrate, for killing game upon any 

 man's land without his permission, as now applies to the doing the same 

 act, without an unintelligible (and frequently unascertainable) qualifi- 

 cation, would be sufficient for all purposes of maintaining the rights of 

 individuals; while the demand of a certificate might still continue to 

 afford a sufficiently unobjectionable duty to the state. 



The convenience of a law like this would be, that property only 

 would give any man a title ; but that, having such property, he would 

 dispose of it as he thought fit. Our object is, simply, to enable every 

 man to do that which to himself seems good provided that in doing so 

 he injures no party with that which is his own : a right so obvious, 

 that how men ever consented to renounce it among themselves, seems 

 almost a matter of mystery. We repeat our confidence that ministers 

 will we might almost say that they must do something in this matter 

 early in the present session. No cause exists here for delay : the ques- 

 tion is one in which all but an interested few are " hearted." The 

 country has been content to pay the penalty of a liberal policy abroad : 

 we trust that the benefit of the same principles is not to be denied to her 

 at home. Some changes, it will be recollected, have taken place even 

 in the House of Lords, since the subject was last discussed ; and it is 

 said that more are contemplated. There can be no doubt that the dis- 

 pensation of titles of honour should be guarded, or those titles lose 

 their value ; but almost any (constitutional) course is preferable to 

 allowing a particular body to sit like an incubus upon the country, 

 cramping and paralysing the general rights and energies, for the sake 

 of its own peculiar pride, or personal advantage. 



* Of course, in this event, existing leases would be held to leave the right to the game 

 in the landlord ; in new contracts, that right might be granted to the tenant, or reserved 

 as might seem most consonant to the interests of the parties. 



