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OAME-LAWS. 



GAMING. 



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By the act 7 ft 8 Oo. IV. c, 29, it if felony to course, hunt, snare, 

 carry away, kill or wound, or attempt to kill or wound, any doer kept 

 in say inclosed laud, whether fort>t, chace, or purlieu, or other place 

 , .!.<T i- iiMially kept. The punishment in now penal servitude 

 for wvrn yean, or imprisonment for two yean. If the o&enoe be com- 

 mitted in the uuincloaed part of a forest, chace, &c., the penalty for 

 tli. liret ofleuce u a Bum not exceeding 501. ; and for a second offence, 

 penal servitude or imprisonment. 



Such arc the principal legal provisions respecting game which exist 



at the present day. The right of appointing persons called game- 



-. who are, properly speaking, a game police, does not belong to 



all owners of lands. Gamekeepers were first allowed to be appointed 



>t 23 Car. II. c. 25. Before the act 1 t 2 Wm. IV. c. 

 passed, a pennon could only appoint one gamekeeper. By this act lords 

 of manors may appoint one or more gamekeepers to preserve or kill 

 game within the manor for their own use. Lords of manors may 

 denote any person to be a gamekeeper to a manor, with authority to 

 kill game for his own use or that of any other person named in the 

 .inn. The gamekeepers are authorised to seize all dogs, nets, 

 and other engines used for killing game by uncertificated persons. 



Until the passing of the act 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 32, no person was 

 allowed to sell game ; but it was made saleable by this act, as the law 

 was systematically evaded. A dealer in game must obtain an annual 

 licence from the justices, who hold a .special session in July for the 

 purpose of granting such licences. Innkeepers, victuallers, retail beer- 

 sellers, guards, coachmen, carriers or higglers, or persons in the employ 

 of any of these classes of persons, are prohibited from dealing in game. 

 Licensed dealers who buy game of any person not authorised to sell 

 it are liable to a penalty of 101. with costs. A person not being 

 licensed, who buys game of an unlicensed person, subjects himself to a 

 penalty not exceeding 51. for each head of game, with coats. 



The preservation of game is an object of constant solicitude to nearly 

 all those who belong to the landed gentry in this country. The pur- 

 suit of game is not only followed for the sport which it affords, but 

 because ideas derived from the feudal times still attach a social dis- 

 tinction to the right of killing birds and beasta of game. Although a 

 property qualification has been abolished, the privilege is still suffi- 

 ciently restricted to confer upon those who enjoy it a petty importance. 

 Within the last century game has been preserved to an excess which 

 was previously unknown. Most of the laws relating to game which 

 have been passed within this period have been made to enable game- 

 preservers to indulge in this taste, and to visit with greater severity 

 those who are tempted by the abundance of game to become poachers. 

 The accumulation of game in preserves, watched and guarded by 

 numerous keepers, has led to changes in the modes of sporting. The 

 sportsman of the old school was contented with a little spoil, but found 

 enjoyment in healthful recreation and exercise, and was aided by the 

 sagacity of his dogs. In the modern system of battue-shooting, the 

 woods and plantations are beaten by men and boys ; attendants load 

 the sportsman's guns, and the game is driven within reach of gun-shot, 

 and many hundred heads of game are slaughtered in a few hours. The 

 true sportsman would as soon think of spoiling a poultry-yard. Battue- 

 shooting is the end of excessive game-preserving ; and in this so-called 

 sport, members of the royal family, ministers of state, and many of the 

 aristocracy, eagerly participate. In an ordinary day's sport of this 

 description, seven or eight hundred head of game may be killed by 

 three or four sportsmen in about four hours, and perhaps fifty or sixty 

 wounded may be picked up on the following day. A couple of 

 gentlemen may kill nine hundred hares in one day. On a great field- 

 day, when the sportsmen are more numerous, the slaughter is immense. 

 Whole waggon-loads of hares are sent off to the London and other 

 great markets for sale, as the result of one day's sport. 



The effect of protecting game by oppressive laws is, perhaps, more 

 injurious to the morals of the rural population than any other single 

 cause. With a densely crowded jiopulntion, thousands of whom are 

 often pressed by hunger, and frequently in a state of the most lament- 

 able poverty, the temptation to kill game is irresistible. It swarms 

 before the labourer as he returns home in the evening from his long 

 day of hard toil. He does not recognise property in game. No man 

 can claim an imliviilu.il hare or partridge like an ox or a sheep. The 

 latter must be fed at the expense of their owners ; but game is fed by 

 no one hi particular. This man, then, who probably would not, for au 

 his poverty, violate the laws of property in the case of poultry, and 

 who recognises no greater right of property in a partridge than in a 

 sparrow, sets a snare in the haunts frequented by game near his 

 cottage, and is pounced upon by the keeper. When he comes out 

 of the iail, the fanners perhaps dare not employ him, lest they should 

 offend the game-preRervern their landlords. The justice and the rural 

 police luok upon the jail-bird with suspicion ; and only at the beer- 

 shop, with men of his own stamp and character, does he feel at home. 

 It w hardly nccenary to sketch his further progress. In nine cases 

 ont of ten, it is from bad to worse; and this because for objects of 

 n men have given to a bird or beast of little worth 

 arbitrary valm-, ami protected it by statutory regulation.! 

 tricter than arvappliifl to many oiluT things which arc recognised as 

 . by all mankind. 



Tail* require to be enlarged ; and an ixwohlng leads to other crimes, 

 a more extensive police is required for the protection of property. 



The game laws are in thu way a heavy burden on the oc. 



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Oarne, and the game-laws, are among the greatest hindrances to the 

 improvement of agriculture. They not only prevent a gain, In. 

 occasion a loss to the actual aggregate of agricultural products. 



Many landowners in their enthusiasm respecting game take means to 

 ensure its preservation which none but tenants in a wretched state of 

 dependence would submit to. The tenant is not allowed to use his 

 beet skill in the application of his own capital to the land, but is 

 interfered with on account of the game. This game devours the pro- 

 duce of the land, is fattened at the tenant's expense (compensat: 

 the destructiveness of game being generally futile and de. 

 the landlord pockets the money which the game thus fed produces in 

 the market. The effect would be far leas injurious if the lan.ll >r.l 

 turned a certain proportion of his oxen and sheep to feed with those 

 which belong to hia tenants. There are instances where the landlord 

 lets the game on the tenant's land to a third person, and thus gets two 

 rents, one for the land, and another rent for the game after it has been 

 fed by the farmer. 



It has often been stated, that from three to five hares eat and destroy 

 as much as would keep one sheep. On many farms the mm 

 hares averages at least two per acre ; and the destruction by hares 

 alone is often eqoal to an additional rental of 10*. per acre on the whole 

 of the farm : there is, besides, the waste and destruction caused by 

 rabbits, pheasants, and partridges. On some farms of 500 acres where 

 the game is strictly preserved, but not excessively, the loss caused by 

 hares will often amount to above 2002. The landlord sells the hares at 

 perhaps 1. 6d. each, and pockets 757. This is shortsighted enough, 

 setting aside the bad moral effect of the practice. The operations of 

 the poacher, if he escape detection, are in one sense beneficial to the 

 tenant-farmer, for the destruction of the game adds to the farmer's 

 profit; but if the poacher be convicted and sent to jail, then tin- 

 support of the man and his family adds to the loss which the game 

 occasions. 



Many of the reservations and covenants in leases in relation to game 

 are fit only for the copyholders of a manor four or five centuries ago. 

 There are many farms on which the tenants are forbidden either to 

 mow wheat or drill turnips. Mowing costs less than reaping, and tin- 

 tenant has besides the advantage of an extra quantity of straw for the 

 stock and for manure ; but then the ground is left too bare to shelter 

 the partridges, and therefore the scythe must not be used, nor any 

 other instrument which cuts lower than twelve inches. Drilling 

 turnips is now an essential operation in all good systems of fanning; 

 Imt though it gives a much greater weight of roots per acre, it 

 encourages the birds to run, and spoils sport. In some districts, where 

 gome is preserved with great strictness, a farmer is not allowed to sow 

 winter tares. To drain land where rabbits are kept would be a waste 

 of property. Legislation cannot produce any improvement in this 

 state of things. It arises from the dependent condition of the great 

 majority of the tenant-farmers ; and if a law were passed which gave 

 them the right to kill the game on their lands, it would be of no 

 advantage to them. The gamekeepers and other retainers of the great 

 and small game-preservers are spies on the tenant, and in the intense 

 competition for farms he dare not contravene the wishes of his 

 landlord. Public opinion may and does produce some effect on 

 the landlord's exercise of his power, but this is confined to isolated 

 , USB. 



The administration of the game-laws in England is in the hands of 

 persons who are either game-preservers themselves, or who, generally 

 ejieaking, are not unfavourable to the system, and hence the rigour 

 with which offences against the law are visited. Before the net 1 & 2 

 Wm. IV. c. 82 was passed, penalties for infractions of the game-laws 

 could be recovered before one justice; but now conviction can only 

 take place before two justices, and an appeal lies to the quarter- 

 sessions, but a certiorari is not allowed. 



The number of certificates taken out annually to kill game is about 

 30,000 in Great Britain, and the number of licences to sell game 

 about 800. 



In other countries, as well as in England, game-laws have been an 

 instrument of oppression. In Franco before the first Revolution there 

 were edicts for preserving game which "prohibited weeding and 

 hoeing, lest the young partridges should be disturbed ; steeping seed, 

 lest it should injure the game; manuring with night-noil, lent the 

 flavour of the partridges should be injured by fee-ding on the corn so 

 produced ; mowing hay, Ac. before a certain time, so late as to spoil 

 many crops, and taking away the stubble which would deprive the 

 birds of shelter." (' Arthur Young's Travels in France in 1787-88-89.') 

 The tyranny of the manorial courts rendered it hopeless to escape 

 from this oppressive system. The Constituent Assembly abolished 

 this exclusive " droit de la chamc " which the seigneurs arrogated to 

 themselves. A stringent game-law has nevertheless been since enacted 

 in France. 



GAMING, or GAMBLING, is u nt, or we might pro- 



perly call it a vice, which lias alu <"i in all civilised 



countries and among all classes, l>" >ly the rich ami 



those who li-v.r no regular on "Ht a passion for gaming is 



not confined < much 



leisure time and no pursuit which will occupy the mind and stimulate 



