66 Oh Mans influence in effecting 



tries great progress has already been made towards their total 

 abolition. 



The laws bearing upon this subject, which were made un- 

 der the influence of the feudal system, almost invariably bear 

 the stamp of the grossest selfishness and ignorance. They 

 were calculated to preserve the game for the sports of the pri- 

 vileged, with a reckless indifference to the interests of the 

 working classes ; whereby not only the increase and improve- 

 ment of live stock was greatly prevented, but the wild boar, 

 stag, and fallow deer devoured the produce of the farmer, 

 without his receiving any indemnity for the loss : and if he 

 turned poacher from necessity, he forfeited his life. Innume- 

 rable are the evils which the game-laws have produced in 

 many countries, by spoliating the peaceable cultivator, or by 

 irritating his feelings, as well as by turning into derision eve- 

 ry civil or moral obligation. As to enactments made with a 

 view of destroying the enemies of the game, they went not a 

 step farther than the short-sighted law-giver thought it his 

 interest to let them. The wolf was an outlaw, no doubt ; but 

 the inhabitants were not allowed to destroy it indiscriminate- 

 ly, lest the deer might be disturbed ; much less was the ex- 

 tirpation of this obnoxious animal encouraged by rewards. — 

 The gamekeepers, however, were tempted to wage war against 

 every animal reputed to be injurious to the protected wild 

 quadrupeds or birds, by prizes paid on the heads or feet of 

 such species, being delivered up to the officers of the forest 

 department ; and under the common appellation of Ranbzeug, 

 (vermin), the little owl, the kestrel, rook, crow, hedge-hog, 

 and even the wood-pecker, were the objects of the same de- 

 structive and persevering persecution, as the Strix Bubo, the 

 eagle, marten, weasel, &c. 



Science has, however, of late effected a salutary reform in 

 our ideas as to the particular animals to be considered injurious 

 or useful ; and the governments of many states, at the head of 

 which is Prussia, are now tending towards regulating the con- 

 dition of all the animals over which their legislation extends, 

 so that it may be in harmony with the interests of the com- 

 monwealth. I shall return to this subject when treating more 

 particularly of individual species. 



Though the regulations made for whole kingdoms or states, 

 as that law which obliges the proprietor of game to make com- 

 pensation for the damage it effects, or those which regulate the 

 width of the meshes of fishing-nets, or those which protect 

 the singing birds, or encourage the multiplication, improve- 

 ment, or introduction of certain species of domestic animals, 

 operate on a larger scale, we must not entirely overlook the 



