Epirus and Colwick are out of own sisters (Olympia and Stella by Sir Oliver); in this family there is a deal of running. Kite, half sister to Elis Epirus and Epidaurus, is the dam of Lady Moore Carew, a wonderfully stout mare, and of Vulture,reckoned the fastest of her year. Stella is the dam of that famous old horse Independance (who died last month) and Peter Lely. When so much speed and such a tendency to running well, is combined with two such faultless shapes as Epirus and Colwick possess, the hazard of breeding from untried stallions. is greatly diminished, as the conclusion to be drawn from such premises would be, that as in horses above all other things, defects and excellencies are strictly transmitted to their stock, so in the case of the two above mentioned (though one is no longer untried) the chances are that the stock must prove capable of running well. Mündig is still as great a favourite as ever among the breeders of hunters, and is to beat Clipston this season. His wonderful power and constitution will always make him popular, and his half-bred stock are quite like their sire. Among other stallions Ishmael is advertised in Ireland: and to poor deluded mortals, who appreciate a puff, the Dublin Evening Mail holds forth one concerning him, which beats George Robins into fits. He is a fine stamp of horse, and despite the puff is very likely to benefit the declining state of the once famous Irish hunter. Why or wherefore the Irish hunters have been so celebrated for their leaping and hardy qualities, I never yet heard explained; but such has been the case for a long time, though now most likely from the large demand for them, there is no longer that large supply in the market. At Willesden a change of nags has taken place. Taurus, having returned to this country with honours, fills up the handsome Recovery's place, who is gone to the north. Verulam has also been added, from the success of his son Vulcan in the last Houghton meeting. He is not a particularly clever nag, and with Glaucus in the same establishment is likely to want patrons. At Bretby, Lord Chesterfield has a large and good lot of stallions, consisting of the much sought after Gladiator, that very handsome animal Jereed, Don John, Hornsea, and an Irish horse, The Sluggard by Young Napoleon, a fine slapping horse, and hired for this season by Mr. Mason of Melton Mowbray. Lord Chesterfield's team in Scott's stable consists of a formidable lot of sixteen, and several are daily rising in the Derby odds. That the field for that race will be a large one seems highly probable, and out of so large a number heavily backed he must be a prophet indeed who can decide on the winner. Col. Peel's chance is far from a bad one, and I hope still to see Chatham forward. The Chester Cup too engrosses great attention, and if Cruiskeen's fair weight and John Scott's training do not bring her number one this time, I think it will be no go speculating on bandicaps any further. The Squire and Vulcan cannot give her such weight in spite of their individual excellence, and Satirist is surely not calculated to give away weight to the tough little grey. (To be continued.) TOBACCO. A FRAGMENT OF AN UNFINISHED EPIC. Tobacco, tobacco, tobacco I sing, The life of the peasant, the joy of the King; Whether pig-tail or shag, whether smoked, snuff'd or chew'd, Must I own, though, that prejudice still gives the "pas" To the purest, most fragrant, and tasteful cigar, And wisely prescribes to asthmatical princes. Do thou, my cigar, as thy small end I bite, And protect its accouchement from labour and pain. Thou best of good things, sure the Indian's a brute Catera Desunt. [The Editor of the N. S. M. laments to inform his readers that the author of the foregoing lines, a very talented young poet, whom he had engaged at a liberal figure to do the poetical branch of his concern, expired on the 15th instant of spontaneous combustion, leaving the above fragment, and also a very spirited article on GIN, as well as several empty bottles, in the cupboard of the attic, which the liberality of Mr. Rudolph Ackermann had enabled the deceased gentleman to rent. The article on GIN shall appear as soon as it can be decyphered. Being unfortunately written rather too decidedly "currente calamo," some delay may occur prior to its publication.] THE GAME LAWS. BY "A TEMPLAR." DEFINITION OF THE TERM GAME, AND WHO ARE ENTITLED TO PURSUE IT. THE Word Game in olden time was employed to designate every object of the Chase, but in modern days it has obtained a less extensive though scarcely a more precise meaning, and I very much doubt if we were to require half the sportsmen who utter the word " to define their term," whether we should find any two of them agree. If, therefore, the cognoscenti differ, it is not surprising that the uninitiated of the Temple and Westminster Hall should have entertained doubts+ upon the subject; and up to the present century the Courts of Law had only ventured to "incline to think" that rabbits and woodcocks were not game. What is its true legal import remains yet a mystery, and consequently the legislature, when it came to review the statute upon subject, and pass the recent Game Act, considered it necessary to declare that for all the purposes of that act the word Game should only extend to "hares, pheasants, partridges, grouse, heath or moor game, and bustards." In this strict statutory sense we propose to use it in the following pages, and we will treat of woodcocks, snipes, quails, landrails, and conies or rabbits, which the Game Certificate Act§ also seems to have regarded as distinct from game in a separate chapter. this The ancient Saxon common law of England conferred upon every man indiscriminately an equal right to kill game, with the simple and See 13 Rich. 2, c. 13, 7 Rep. 15 b. 4 and 5 Wm. and Mary, c. 23. + Duke of Devonshire v. Lodge 7 B and C 36. See Rex v. Yates, 1 Ld Ray, 151 Rex v. Thompson, 2 T. R. 18. $48 Geo 3, c. 55, 52 Geo. 3, c 96 schedule. just restriction that he must not commit a trespass upon his neighbour's land in its pursuit, and this right is thus expressed in the Laws of Canute and Edward the Confessor,+"Sit quilibet homo dignus venatione suâ in sylvâ et in agris sibi propriis, et in domino suo." Whatever may be the donbts which we entertain respecting the authenticity of these laws, yet we cannot withhold from them the credit which is due to ancient records as evidences of what had at no very remote period from their compilation, been the law, and as their report is strongly corroborated by probability, as well as by other testimony, we may conclude that the Saxon laws upon this subject accorded with their report. Immediately after the Norman conquests, William, who, as the Saxon chronicle § informs us, " loved the great game as if he had been their father," inculcated a doctrine in conformity with the laws of his own country, that the right to all game was a flower of the prerogative, and that it was competent for the sovereign to restrain the pursuit of it within any limits which he might prescribe for his own pleasure, and to subject the districts thus selected to the intolerable burthens of the Forest law. The devastation of the New Forest affords a familiar and melancholy instance of the unsparing rigour with which this usurped power was exercised. Both he and his immediate successors, however, were not content to confine this privilege to their own personal gratification, but they proceeded, under the titles of chaces, parks, and warrens, many of which subsist at the present day, to grant to their followers the exclusive right of sporting even over the lands of others. These usurpations, and a principle even at the present day recognized by our Law, that all bona vacantia are the property of the crown, appear to have induced Sir W. Blackstone, in his Commentaries,|| to declare in effect, "that the property of all the game in England is vested in the king alone, and that the right of taking and destroying it belongs exclusively to him, and, consequently, no person, of whatever estate or degree, has at common law a right to kill game, even upon his own land, unless by licence or grant from the king." There is, however, no evidence, with the exception of a proclamation during the reign of John, by which he is stated, in the exercise of this assumed prerogative, to have prohibited "Capturam avium per totum Angliæ,"¶ to show that any person was prevented from killing game on his own land beyond the limits of the king's forests, or the franchises before alluded to. The enormous extent** indeed, of the afforestations effected by the early Norman kings, which rendered the acquisition of the Charta de Forestâ only second in im * c. 77. t c. 36. § Chron. Saxon, p. 191. ¶ Matth. Paris, 303. c. 3, Inst. 320, Hume 1 vol, 278 note. || 2 Black.c. 411, 415, to 419, 4 vol. 415. ** Wm. Malmsbury, p. 179. portance to that of Magna Charta itself, combined with numerous grants of franchises, most probably left little open space, and even where these excepted districts did exist, since almost the whole of the lower classes during the period immediately succeeding the conquest were in a state of serfdom, or villeinage, and could easily be restrained by their lords, and as there would naturally be little disposition on the part of the barons, to prevent their military retainers from the pursuits of the chase, we may not unreasonably conclude that no inconvenience arose, and consequently, that more general provisions were neither made nor required. The disafforestation, although the Charta de Forestâ had been originally conceded by John, was not carried thoroughly into execution until the reign of Edward the First,+ and during the interval between his accession and the reign of Richard II. the power of the barons, in consequence of their contributions to the Crusades, and the taste for luxuries thus introduced, had become materially impaired. Numerous families too of serfs and villeins had obtained emancipation, and thus the former checks upon the destruction of the game by the lower orders, had become inadequate. Idle and lawless habits were soon found to have resulted from the general licence of sporting thus acquired, and by a statutet wherein the evils which had been experienced are recited, the legislature interfered in the thirteenth year of Richard the Second, and laid the foundation of that series of acts which imposed the necessity of certain qualifications in point of property, with some few exceptions, on all persons sporting, or keeping dogs or instruments for the purpose of taking game, or even having it in their possession. The qualification thus originally exacted was forty shillings per annum, arising from real property on the part of a layman, and ten pounds per annum arising from a benifice, on the part of a clergyman, which subsequent statutes ultimately, with some few exceptions, increased to £100 per annum, but it is unnecessary to detail their provisions, as they are all repealed by the recent game acts.|| * Mauwood, 244, and seq. + Nothing can show more strongly the importance which the people attached to both these charters, than their conduct when the confirmation of them by this sovereign was publicly read by the sheriffs of London, in St. Paul's Churchyard. The king had insisted upon the insertion of the words "salvo jure coronæ nostræ," and refused, according to his promise, an absolute confirmation. The people, says Hemingford, blessed the king, on seeing the charters with the great seal affixed, but when they heard the conclusion they cursed him instead. + c. 13. § 25th Hen. 8, c. 11; 33 Hen. 8, c. 6; 1 Jas. 1, c. 27; 3 Jas. 1, c. 13; 7 Jas. 1, c. 11; 22 and 23 Chas. 2, c. 25. || 1 and 2 Wm. 4, c. 32, 51. |