It seems probable to us, that vast quantities of game would, after a little time, find their way into the hands of licensed poulterers. Great people are very often half eaten up by their establishments. The quantity of game killed in a large shooting party is very great; to eat it is impossible, and to dispose of it in presents very troublesome. The preservation of game is very expensive; and, when it could be bought, it would be no more a compliment to send it as a present than it would be to send geese and fowls. If game were sold, very large shooting estaBlishments might be made to pay their own expenses. The shame is made by the law: there is a disgrace in being detected and fined. If that barrier were removed, superfluous partridges would go to the poulterers as readily as superfluous venison, does to the venison butcher, or as a gentleman sells the corn and mutton off his farm which he cannot consume. For these reasons, we do not doubt that the shops of licensed poulterers would be full of game in the season; and this part of the argument, we think, the arch-enemy, Sir John Shelley, himself would concede to us.

The next question is, From whence they would procure it? A license for selling game, granted by country magistrates, would, from their jealousy upon these subjects, be granted only to persons of some respectability and property. The purchase of game from unqualified persons would of course be guarded against by very heavy penalties, both personal and pecuniary; and these penalties would be inflicted, because opinion would go with them. Here is a respectable tradesman,' it would be said, who might have bought as much game as he pleased in a lawful manner, but who, in order to increase his profits by buying it a little cheaper, has encouraged a poacher to steak it.' Public opinion, therefore, would certainly be in favour of a very strong punishment; and a licensed vender of game, who exposed himself to these risks, would expose himself to the loss of liberty, property, character, and license. The persons interested to put a stop to such a practice, would not be the paid agents of Government, as in cases of smuggling; but all the gentlemen of the country, the customers of the tradesman for fish, poultry, or whatever else he dealt in, would have an interest in putting down the practice. In all probability, the practice would become disreputable, like the purchase of stolen poultry; and this would be a stronger barrier than the strongest laws. There would, of course, be some exceptions to this statement. A few shabby people would, for the chance of gaining sixpence, incur the risk of ruin and disgrace; but it is probable that the general practice would be otherwise.

For the same reasons, the consumers of game would rather give a little more for it to a licensed poulterer, than expose themselves to severe penalties by purchasing from poachers. The great mass of London consumers are supplied now, not from shabby people in whom they can have no confidence,-not from hawkers and porters, but from respectable tradesmen, in whose probity they have the most perfect confidence. Men will brave the law for pheasants, but not for sixpence or a shilling; and the law itself is much more difficult to be braved, when it allows pheasants to be bought at some price, than when it endeavours to render them utterly inaccessible to wealth. All the licensed salesmen too would have a direct interest in stopping the contraband trade of game. They would lose no character in doing so; their informations would be reasonable and respectable.

If all this is true, the poacher would have to compete with a great mass of game fairly and honestly poured into the market. He would be selling with a rope about his neck, to a person who bought with a rope about his neck; his description of customers would be much the same as the customers for stolen poultry, and his profits would be very materially abridged. At present, the poacher is in the same situation as the smuggler would be, if rum and brandy could not be purchased of any fair trader. The great check to the profits of the smuggler are, that, if you want his commodities, and will pay an higher price, you may have them elsewhere without risk or disgrace. But forbid the purchase of these luxuries at any price. Shut up the shop of the brandy-merchant,-and you render the trade of the smuggler of incalculable value. The object of the intended bill is, to raise up precisely the same competition to the trade of the poacher, by giving the public an opportunity of buying lawfully and honestly the tempting articles in which he now deals exclusively. Such an improvement would not, perhaps, altogether annihilate his trade; but it would in all probability act as a very material check upon it.

The predominant argument against all this is, that the existing prohibition against buying game, though partially violated, does deter many persons from coming into the market; that if this prohibition were removed, the demand for game would be increased, the legal supply would be insufficient, and the residue would, and must be, supplied by the poacher, whose trade would, for these reasons, be as lucrative and flourishing as before. But it is only a few years since the purchase of game has been made. illegal and the market does not appear to have been at al narrowed by the prohibition; not one head of game the less has been sold by the poulterers; and scarcely one single conviction

has taken place under that law. How, then, would the removal of the prohibition, and the alteration of the law, extend the market, and increase the demand, when the enactment of the prohibition has had no effect in narrowing it? But, if the demand increases, why not the legal supply also? Game is increas ed upon an estate, by feeding them in winter, by making some abatement to the tenants for guarding against depredations, by a large apparatus of gamekeepers and spies-in short, by expense. But if this pleasure of shooting, so natural to country gentlemen, is made to pay its own expenses, by sending superfluous game to market, more men, it is reasonable to suppose, will thus preserve and augment their game. The love of pleasure and amusement will produce, in the owners of game, that desire to multiply game, which the love of gain does in the farmer to multiply poultry. Many gentlemen of small fortune will remember, that they cannot enjoy to any extent this pleasure without this resource; that the legal sale of poultry will discountenance poaching; and they will open an account with the poulterer, not to get richer, but to enjoy a great pleasure without an expense, in which, upon other terms, they could not honourably and conscientiously indulge. If country gentlemen of moderate fortune will do this (and we think after a little time they will do it), game may be multiplied and legally supplied to any extent. Another keeper, and another bean-stack, will produce their proportional supply of pheasants. The only reason why the great lord has more game per acre than the little squire is, that he spends more money per acre to preserve it.

For these reasons, we think the experiment of legalizing the sale of game ought to be tried. The game laws have been carried to a pitch of oppression which is a disgrace to the country. The prisons are half filled with peasants, shut up for the irregu lar slaughter of rabbits and birds,-a sufficient reason for killing a weazle, but not for imprisoning a man. Something should be done; it is disgraceful to a Government to stand by, and see such enormous evils without interference. It is true, they are not connected with the struggles of party; but still, the happiness of the common people, whatever gentlemen may say, ought every now and then to be considered.

ART. III. An Authentic Narrative of the extraordinary Cure performed by Prince Alexander Hohenlohe on Miss Barbara O'Connor, a Nun, in the Convent of New Hall, near Chelmsford; with a full Refutation of the numerous False Reports

and Misrepresentations. By JOHN BADELLY, M. D., Protestant Physician to the Convent. Third Edition. London. Whittaker. 1823.

ORD BACON, in one of his Essays, after showing that superstition is more pernicious than scepticism, or even atheism, in its practical consequences, and more degrading to the Deity in the lessons which it inculcates, proceeds to set forth its causes, among which a prominent place is assigned to the Stratagemata Prælatorum, quibus utuntur ad ambitionem propriam et lucrum.'* Those dignitaries, however, may be more philosophically considered as not unfrequently partaking of the delusion which they would propagate, as the dupes, in some sort, of their own artifices, and uniting to a certain degree enthusiasm with hypocrisy, according to the sagacious observation of Mr Hume respecting the sectarian fanatics of the seventeenth century. To which of the two classes Prince Hohenlohe belongs, or in what proportions the enthusiast and dissembler mix in his deportment,' (as Bishop Burnet says of Cromwell), we shall not here inquire very curiously. Thus much is plain, that, even in the present enlightened age (so inveterate are men's propensities towards the marvellous, and so eager their thirst for an intercourse with a higher world), a considerable class of persons are to be found ready to believe him possessed of supernatural powers: And although we have very little apprehension of this folly making any progress in these kingdoms, it becomes impossible wholly to pass it over, when we see such narratives as the one before us sent forth to the world under the sanction of a respectable name.

The case of Miss O'Connor is as follows. She is a nun in the convent near Chelmsford; and in December 1820, being about thirty years old, was suddenly attacked by a violent pain in the right hand, which extended, with much swelling and inflammation, up the arm. The whole limb became red and swollen, and was extremely painful, and entirely useless. Every remedy, both topical and directed to the system, was tried in vain for a year and a half. There was no suppuration, nor any formation of pus; but the malady continued obdurate, and yielded to no application. The resources of the flesh having

* In the same discourse we find what may have suggested, if it be not the original, of Mr Hume's famous application of the dos Tou s to the machinations of priestcraft. Introducit (superstitio) no⚫ vum primum mobile, quod omnes imperii sphæras rapit.' Serm. xvii.

thus manifestly failed, Mrs Gerard, the superior of the convent, betook herself, as became a discreet lady abbess, to those of the Spirit! She made a request, through a friend, to the Prince Hohenlohe, that he would be pleased to assist the patient in her extremity; and his High Reverence, (or Right Reverend Highness, we know not in which title he may delight), was graciously pleased to return the following answer, which Dr Badelly denominates Instructions, and manifestly regards as in the nature of a recipe or prescription. Far from us be the profane thought of translating so sacred a document; nor will we suffer the Doctor to render it for us; he being so moderately skilled in the French tongue as to fancy, that La religieuse novice, means Religious nun.'

POUR LA RELIGIEUSE NOVICE EN ANGLETERRE.

Le trois du Mois de Mai, à huit heures, je dirai, conformement à votre demande, pour votre guerison mes prières. Joignez-y à la même heure, après avoir confessè et communiè, les votres, avec cette ferveur evangelique, et cette confiance plénière que nous ' devons à notre Redempteur Jesus Christ. Excitez au fond de votre cœur les vertus divines d'un vrai repentir, d'un amour Chretien, 'd'une croyance sans bornes d'être exaucè, et d'une résolution inebranlable de mener une vie exemplaire, a fin de vous maintenir en etat de grace. Agréez l'assurance de ma consideration. Bamberg, Mars 16, 1822.

6

PRINCE ALEXANDER HOHENLOHE."

Dr Badelly saw the patient accidentally on the 2d of May, and found the hand and arm as much swollen, and as bad as he had ever seen them. The fingers, he says, were ready to burst, and the wrist was fifteen inches in circumference. He had not then heard of the appeal that had been made to a higher authority than the Royal College, nor that the following day was the time appointed by the Germanic performer for praying the obstinate limb down to its natural size. On that day,' adds the Doctor, the 3d of May (a day of particular notice by the Catholics), she went through the religious process prescribed by the Prince. Mass being nearly ended, Miss O'Connor, not finding the immediate relief she expected, exclaimed, "Thy will be done, oh Lord! thou hast not thought me worthy of this cure. Almost immediately after, she felt an extraordinary sensation through the whole arm, to the ends of her fingers. The pain instantly left her, and the swelling gradually subsided; but it was some weeks before the hand resumed its natural size and shape. Now, I can perceive no difference from the other. The general reports, that the arm • was paralytic, and that both hand and arm were again as bad as ever, have not the least foundation.' pp. 15, 16.