1 82?.] Letter on Affafrs in genera/. 5 1 9 



ever he assembles his friends about him. And what is the consequence of 

 such an abundant supply being brought into the illegal game market ? A 

 palpable diminution in the quantity of game ? By no means. Even Mr. 

 Bankes himself admits that there has been a prodigious increase of it 

 throughout the kingdom during the last twenty years, and attributes that 

 increase to a very singular cause, of which he almost seems to regret the ter- 

 mination namely, to the power* which the magistrate had during the 

 war of sending a convicted poacher on board a ship. Such being the 

 case, I will now proceed; without entering further into the impolicy of con- 

 fining the trade in game to the dishonest dealer, to examine the conditions 

 under which Lord Wharncliffe proposes to authorise a partial opening of it 

 to the community. The majority of justices assembled at a special ses- 

 sions in the month of July are to be authorized to grant licenses to any 

 housekeeper whom they may approve, and who may be able to obtain two 

 sureties to enter into recognizances for his good behaviour. The selling 

 game to, or buying game from, any other but a licensed person, is to be 

 made an offence punishable with a heavy penalty. Every person who re- 

 ceives such license is to deliver, with every parcel of game which he sells, 

 a ticket, containing his own name and place of abode, the name and place 

 of abode of the party from whom he bought it, and to whom he sells it, 

 together with the date of such sale and such delivery ; and individuals buy- 

 ing or selling game without such ticket affixed to it, are to be liable to a 

 penalty for every parcel of game so bought and so delivered. Now, my 

 first objection to this system is the increased influence which it throws into 

 the hands of the local magistracy, who, as far as my experience goes, are 

 not very unlikely to abuse it : and my next is, the monopoly which it gives 

 to a favoured few. and the invidious exclusion to which it consigns everv 

 body else who wishes to deal in the game trade. A monopoly so guarded by- 

 penalty, is inconsistent with the leading principle of the bill that game is 

 property for that can hardly be called property which you cannot dispose 

 of, either when you please, as you please, or to whom you please. It 

 tends also to make the licensed dealers in game the arbiters of its price; 

 and, as they are to be selected by the justices, who would soon become 

 game-sellers, would enable them to enhance the price of the article as they 

 thought proper. An assize of game would be, therefore, fixed at every July 

 sessions as regularly as an assize of bread was fixed in former times, and any- 

 dealer who refused to sell according to the terms then agreed upon, would 

 run the risk of having his license stopped at his next application for it. 

 Besides, the power given to the magistrate to compel any purchaser as well 

 as any seller of game to produce his tickets and vouchers at any subse- 

 quent distance of time, in order to show how he became the possessor of 

 game, is a power of the most inquisitorial description, and militates against 

 one of the oldest principles of our law, that no man shall be called upon 

 to criminate himself. For my own part, I see no reason why any license 

 should be required at all. The dealers in game, if the sale were legalized, 

 would not, as now, conceal from the public that they were so ; and those 

 who got their game dishonestly would be no more supported in their traffic 

 by their customers than the dealer in poultry, who derived his stock from 

 the pillage of the hen-roost and the robbery of the farm-yard. Moreover, 

 poaching would become more difficult from the number of small proprie- 



* Vide " Re-cousiclyr.itions on certain proposed alterations in the Game Laws,'* by 

 G.Bunkes, Esq. p. 33-34. 



