124 On Maris influence in effecting 



and extensive measures be not resorted to, for the purpose of 

 keeping him down. 



To crown the list of the wolf's crimes, it is, like the other 

 canine species, subject to the primary developement of that 

 dreadful disease, hydrophobia ; which it has, in too many in- 

 stances, communicated to man. 



In return for all the evils which this animal inflicts upon 

 man, it has only its fur to offer ; for obtaining which alone, 

 no hunter, in civilized countries, will incur the necessary ex- 

 pense, loss of time, and trouble. No wonder, therefore, that 

 the same game-codes, which were, to such an unjust degree, 

 conservative as to the wild boar, stag, &c. should have out- 

 lawed the wolf from time immemorial, as being very injurious 

 to the herbivorous game. But the narrow-minded selfishness 

 by which, until lately, almost all the game-laws have been 

 dictated, did not admit of going a step farther, by encourag- 

 ing the extirpation of the wolf, by premiums sufficiently high, 

 or in proportion to the interest which the commonwealth had 

 in getting rid of the nuisance. On the contrary, the undue 

 protection bestowed on the herbivorous game, presented great 

 obstacles to the natural right of man to exterminate the wolf; 

 whereas, in every country that is fairly brought under man's 

 control, no wolf ought to exist : a result which, in England, 

 has been effected long ago. 



With respect to Europe, it may not, at present, be found 

 practicable to exterminate the wolf in the Pyrenean or Car- 

 pathian mountains ; the adjacent countries must, therefore, 

 remain more or less subject to the occasional inroads of this 

 animal : but it is probable the Jura, as well as the rest of 

 France, Lower Austria, Upper Silesia, and Poland, might be 

 thoroughly cleared of their resident wolves ; and it is impor- 

 tant, in this respect, that the animal appears to lose the cou- 

 rage necessary to assail man, where it is but a straggler, and 

 that it becomes the more shy, the farther it recedes from the 

 place where it was born ; so that within a certain range, it is 

 still very dangerous to the live stock, whereas, if it stray be- 

 yond this range, it loses all confidence, and makes every shift 

 to escape detection. 



Considering all this, we cannot sufficiently applaud the 

 decision which the ' tribunal correctionel ' of La Rochelle, 

 has just given against the Countess du Cayla. The mayors 

 of the villages of Bouhet and Benon, in the arrondissement 

 of that town, had summoned a number of gentlemen, to su- 

 perintend a general * battue,' which the inhabitants of those 

 villages intended to make against the wolves, which did great 

 damage to their cattle and flocks. The battue took place on 



