DESPICABLE FEROCITY OF FOX-HUNTING. 379 



themselves. In the immunities with which the little great are en- 

 dowed, by the operation of our accursed Game-Laws, may be seen 

 one part of the feudal system in its full force. The honest cultivator 

 of the land is still a serf a villain so far as regards his title in that 

 for which he has to pay. His house is his castle, perhaps ; but his 

 enclosure, manured with the sweat of his brow, containing his embryo 

 crops, is a free common to his duke or earl of a landlord, and every 

 red-coated ruffian who rides in " my gentleman's" train. 



It is absurd for those who at the same time gratify their hereditary 

 proneness to cruelty, and get rid of the effects of an over-night's de- 

 bauch, by riding to hounds, to argue, that, without distinction of 

 soil or situation, fox-hunting is beneficial to wheat crops. It is no 

 such thing. As an agricultural correspondent of the Northampton 

 Mercury has observed, " on a strong soil, and especially on declivities, 

 a vast deal of harm is done : after the first heavy rain or snow, all 

 the holes made by the horses' feet, will stand full of water, and every 

 blade of corn in those holes will die" 



We are by no means inclined to advocate the sports of the detest- 

 able dog-pit ; but a dog-fight is venial, compared with a fox-hunt. 

 It is less cowardly less debasing. Two animals are fairly matched 

 they are not set on with an immediate view to the destruction of 

 either, but to experiment upon the courage of both. If, during the 

 strife, " Poker" flinch from the grab if, to avoid the fell tooth of his 

 antagonist, " Tongs," he turn tail for a moment, Tongs is taken up 

 by his second ; half a minute is suffered to elapse and then, if the 

 recusant Poker do not fairly run across the pit, and re-commence 

 the combat, Tongs is declared the victor. Either of the dogs may 

 relinquish the fight, and be taken home, as soon as he thinks he has 

 had enough of it. 



Now this is all very horrible ; still it is a magnanimous amusement 

 compared with fox-hunting. In the latter, forty men and forty 

 hounds are matched against one fox. It is not a fair fight the pro- 

 posed victim derives no advantage from his superiority in prowess, 

 over any one of his pursuers, human or quadrupedal. He can save 

 his life alone by speed, or cunning. The human portion of his ene- 

 mies incur no risk of being tickled by his glibsome tooth they war 

 on him on horses sixteen hands high. They have " taken the field" 

 to see the fun not to join in the strife. They stand aloof, and yell, 

 while their four-footed ministers, by force of superior numbers, 

 slaughter the enemy. They have not the plea of necessity their 

 dinners are ordered they don't hunt him to eat him their sublime 

 ambition is, to obtain his brush. The savages of America scalp their 

 victims those of this country are content with tails. Imagine for a 

 moment, how pathetically honourable gentlemen would protest 

 against a similar course, were it possible, being taken against them- 

 selves ! What would Captain Berkeley say, if, while prowling 

 peaceably near his noble friend's residence in the sister country, he 

 were to be held hotly in chace by an imported pack of gigantic 

 Pongos, Chimpanses, and Orang-outangs, followed by fifty Giraffes 

 and Emus, as enthusiastic spectators of his agony and bootless speed ? 

 What consolation would it be to him, that, in an account of the recre- 



