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fathers of families being : hurried to a jail ; the quarrels between country ' squires , occasioned by their watchfulness over the animals fer < B natnrd ; or the propriety of a law , which gives a man , possessed of a hnndreH a-year , a right to kill game , that is denied to a man of ninety pounds a-year ; bat to increase the penalties already too
numerous , occasioned by hares , partridges and pheasants . It was a good action of a sovereign of ibis country , by which he got rid of the wolves in it : yet the injury done hy the waives was not nearly so great as that which is now the result of the laws , made ( u preserve to one class of the community , the exclusive right to certain animals : and the entire destruction-of all
the £ anie in the island would be a cheap purchase for the mischieF which they now occasion . But it is not viewed in this light by those who are so tenacious of this species of property , and it is intended * by way of greater preservation of these animals , that the penalties should be extended , and . that the purchasers of game should be
placed in such a situation , as may render it next to impossible that it should find its t * ay to the tables of * the opulent , as it does at present . But here again the remedy will oe worse th ^ n the disease . The price of game may be indeed increased , but as long as we have . good roads , and the communication between large towns and the country is kept up , so long will the
temptation to break the laws be greater than the penalties attached to the bieach of them . Poachers will be made ; ai d Prom poaching the progress to higher crimes is very natural : and the vevy severity of the game laws Mill probably lead , at last , to the repeal of them , and the sale of game as of every other animal freely in pur markets .
The forgeries of the Bank , and the num . bei of criminal prosecutions , in consequence , gave rise to an interesting debate introduced by a very able and eloquent speech ftom Sir James Mackintosh . The House seemed sensible that something must be done , or the evil would increase to such
a magnitude as would destroy the system of paper money altogether . The increase in the crime and its punishment , may be seen from tl # » account laid before Parliament , in consequence of this inquiry . In the last six years and a quarter , the number of forged notes amounted to one hundred and thirty-one thousand three
hundred and sixty-one , and their value to one hundred and seventy seven thousand two hundred and forty two pounds . The expenses incurred hy the Bank in prosecuting forgeries or uttering- forged notes , from 1 st March , 1797 , to 1 st April , 1818 , amounted to one hundred and forty-eight thousand three hundred and seventy pounds .
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The whole expense of these prosecutions , in the year 1797 , was about fifteen hundred pounds , but in the three first months of "the present year , it amounts to nineteen thousand eight hundred and ninety pounds . These are facts which speak volumes ; for to this account we must add the expenses
incurred by the country in getting rid of the culprits ; by hanging * , transporting , imprisonment , as also the expenses incurred by the culprits themselves and their relations in their defence . It would be w ell for mankind , if they had always placed before them , in the proper colours , the
whole history of a measure . Providecce has granted to man , as we wish frequently to inculcate on our rea < ters , the power of making laws : but the consequences of those laws are not in their power ,. They may , by prudence and wisdom , discover in time the mischief they roav have produced
by bad Jaws , but they ought not to be surprised if a bad measure produces evil consequences r l he history of the Bank restrictions , in all its ramifications , with the bankruptcies of a number of country banks , the expenditure of life and property , occasioned by the fatal measure of Mr . Pitt , will , should ever cash payments be
restored , form a very instructive Lesson to posterity ; but as for the present generation , which saw the evil in its birth , and have cherished the delusion with unfeigned attachment to its author , they must be content to bear the consequences , and to leave to their children a pottion of the bitter draught .
Another subject of deep interest involved the question of the establishment at Windsor . This arose from the precarious state of the Queen ' s health , and the circumstance relative to the guardianship of the person of our unfortunate Monarch . There can be but one opinion in this
kingdom with respect to our Sovereign ; and there is not a subject in it , who does not wish that every thing should be done for him , which is suited ro bis melancholy situation . But it is evident , that what
becomes royalty in the display of grandeur , is in the present case not only superfluous , but very inappropriate . How far an alteration will be made in tins respect , will be seen in the progress of the Bill through the two Houses : but the animadversions
by Earl Grey on the first project , introduced by the Lord Chancellor , occasioned some alterations in the plan , and perhaps the two Houses may , in the present state of the nation , take the advantage of .-the
necessity of the new bill to put every thing on that footing which is honourable to the nation , and at the same time suited to the calamity with which it lias pleased Providence to afflict us . .. . ¦> . The exertions of Mr , Brougham uiu&t
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34 « State of Public Affairs .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/54/
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