GENERAL HISTORY. 



[135 



there vrere few temptations to in- 

 duce a breach of the laws. How- 

 is the country now situated ? The 

 capital from trade, manufactures, 

 and funded property, is seven 

 times as great as that from the 

 land. If we had the power, would 

 it be wise, or even expedient, to 

 maintain a monopoly M'hich is. 

 invidious ? The thing cannot be 

 permitted : it is out of our power 

 to protect it, and I will add, that 

 it ought not to be attempted. 

 The temptation which will be 

 held out by the wealthy for pro- 

 curing that which is deemed a 

 luxury, will defeat any penalty we 

 can inflict. Believing, as I do, 

 that this bill will be either nuga- 

 tory, or will give greater facilities 

 to the conviction of inferior 

 offenders only, in either view I 

 am hostile to the measure : I 

 would not consent, for one, to 

 any step that would have the 

 least tendency to perpetuate the 

 ^ame laws. 



Mr. Brand opposed the bill, 

 in the hope that the present cruel 

 and mischievous system might 

 meet with reprobation; and he 

 trusted that they would get rid 

 of this absurd remnant of feudal 

 aristocracy, which caused so 

 much discontent, and bribed the 

 poor into vice. The oppressive 

 severity with which the present 

 laws were inforced was attested 

 by the fact of 1,200 persons 

 having been imprisoned for 

 offences relating to the game 

 during the last year. 



Sir C. Burrell defended the 

 bill, which, he said, occasioned 

 no injustice when the landlord 

 retained in his lease the right of 

 sporting. But as he considered 



the bill as salutary, and as the 

 House was so thm, he moved 

 that the debate mightbeadjourned 

 till Monday the 18th. 



This motion accordingly passed. 



Mr. George Bankes, on May 

 18th, moved the second reading 

 of his bill. 



The principal speaker on this 

 occasion was Sir S. Romilly, who 

 thought that the present bill 

 would be a great improvement on 

 the existing system. He could 

 not see how, when the House 

 refused to make it legal to sell 

 game, they should hesitate to 

 punish the buying of game. How 

 could gentlemen reconcile to 

 themselves the allowing the pur- 

 chase of game, by which persons 

 of low rank must be infalhbly 

 allured to become poachers, and 

 then punish those persons with 

 the utmost severity? But this 

 was not the only mischief to the 

 lower orders. By becoming 

 poachers, they brought upon 

 themselves the far greater evil of 

 becoming thieves in consequence 

 of associating with men of the 

 most infamous characters ; for it 

 was established by evidence, that 

 in nearly all the prisons there 

 were no means of preventing the 

 comparatively innocent from as- 

 sociating with the most hardened 

 criminals. Among the higher 

 orders the laws were violated 

 with little compunction to obtain 

 the desired luxury, though the 

 utmost rigour in imposing penal- 

 ties was exercised against the 

 lower. 



The general opinion of the 

 House was in favour of the bill ; 

 and on the question being put. 

 That the bill be now read n 



second 



