A MAINE LAW AGAINST EVERYTHING.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 521, 31 October 1857, Page 3

A MAINE LAW AGAINST EVERYTHING.

(Prom the Weekly Despatch, May 31.)

Dreadful accidents, many of them fatal, are continually occurring from carelessness in the use of fire-arms and of gunpowder. It is obvious that very few of these accidents could occur if the sale of gunpowder and fire-arms were prohibited. Why should it not be-pro-hibited ? Except in the military and naval services, nobody has any necessary occasion either for gunpowder or gun?. Revolvers are not^or ought not to be, required for the,protection of life and property, the police being, or being capable of being made to be, quite sufficient for that purpose. There is no real need of fowling pieces to kill game, all the various kinds .of which might just as well, and easily, be ensnared and trapped as shot; and the catching of them would give honest employment to numbers of men now earning a dishonest living as poachers. Shakespeare talks of " springes to catch woodcocks," and the springes that can catch woodcocks might': doubtless, be used to catch snipes. The only reason why the traffic in guns and gunpowdeV should not be abolished is, that the material and instruments in question afford some amuse* ments to some boys and to some men. The boys make " devils," and let off crackers and toy-cannon; the men shoot partridges, pheasants, hares, rabbits, woodcocks, snipes, red J deer and other beasts of the field and fowls of the air, to which last the sparrows, shot by some of the bigger boys, may be added. Is all the puerile and manly amusement derived in. the United Kingdom from the use of gunpowder and fire-arms, to be weighed for an instant against the casualties which occur because those weapons and that substance are vendible? No enlightened member of Parliament, surely, can consider grouse-shooting a necessary recreation after^'the labours of the session. The Wittenagemote did not separate to shoot grouse, and the practice is altogether of modern origin. The Legislature, therefore, might with great reason and consistency, and but little selfdenial, prohibit the trade in ■'" vile guns" and in "villainous saltpetre;" that is to say, in saltpetre confederate with brimstone and charcoal—• in brief, gunpowder. Accidents occur in hunting as well as in shooting. Men in. leaping fences now and then break their necks; they meet£occasionally with the same misfortune by riding over the brows of chalk-pits and other precipices. The British public has just been celebrating its Isthmian games, as Lord Palmerston calls the Derby horse-race. : The principal performers in such like games, the jockeys, not very uncommonly get thrown, and break their uecks too. If studs, racing, and hunting, were suppressed—if hunt-races and steeple-chases were altogether prevented—if TattersalFs were put an end to—if no horsedealers or horse-breeding were allowed, save only for agricultural, military, and simply locomotive purposes, a considerable diminution would be effected in the breakage of necks and limbs. _ Let us now consider razors and penknives in connexion with murders and suicides. If no penknives and razors were to be had, how much fewer suicides there would be I Both razors and penknives might easily be dispensed with. Penknives are not absolutely wanted by" anybody. Steel pens require no ■ mending, anil any one can use a steel pen, notwithstandingthat he hates that sort of pen, if he will only make an effort and conquer his dislike to. it. As to razors, one half of our race, the female, has no use for them at all; and thcs?"men whn> have_ any might get completely over "it by not . shaving, and by wearing their beards and moustaches according to the institution of nature. Ought not the Legislature, then, to restrain the sale of razors and penknives ? , Lucifer matches are very dangerous tilings, particularly considered in relation to long dresses, which, when accidentally trodden on, they frequently set on fire. What inconvenience beyond that of the loss of a little thne and ' patience would attend a return to the old tinder Box, rendered necessary by the prohibition of lucifer matches? Long dresses might at the same time be prohibited by a crinoline law. There are a great many other dangerous un- ') wholesome and unhealthy things—dangerous, and unwholesome, and unhealthy, that is to say, when abused—which might likewise be- | prohibited by some analogous law. Lollipops, ' toffee, hard-bake, raspberry jam and other jam

other complaints when devoured in excess, though they appear to be harmless or wholesome, when eaten with moderation. The Hon. Neal Dow, therefore, author of the Maine liiquor Law, who wants to republish that Law, which has failed in Maine, here, had better agitate against the sale of sweet-stuff and fruit, the fashion of long dresses and the unrestricted trade in sporting horses, edged tools, fire-arms and ammunition, and a great many other things besides, if he means consistently "to advocate the suppression of the wine, beer, and spirit trade.