THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



247 



pitfalls for the workpeople of the place;" and he more 

 often than not, destroys sport rather than conduces to it. 

 For the sake of showing a good head of game, and with 

 an eye to his own rabbits, how many a gallant fox has 

 fallen before him, and how many a blank day has " the 

 country " had in consequence ! The man, in a word, is 

 in a false position. He is invested with a power and im- 

 portance far above his proper station in life, and he can 

 scarcely fail to go wrong. Like Phaeton, with the 

 horses of Apollo, he holds the reins that never should 

 have been entrusted to him. As a man of capital, in- 

 telligence, and si)irit told his late landlord, when he 

 met him recently in town, "We should never have 

 parted, as you know, sir, if it had not been for the 

 keeper; but I could not stand him." And the other's 

 only answer was the echo — '' I know it." 



We trust never to see the English gentleman denied 

 those sports and pastimes that endear him so much to 

 his own home. Wo repeat, there is good policy in en- 

 couraging them. But we deny that battue shooting is 

 sport; and we hold that the rearing of hai'es and phea- 

 sants wholesale — too often at another's cost — and then 

 slaughtering and selling them wliolesale, is incompa- 

 tible with the character and fine feeling of a gentleman. 

 Thei-e are hundreds of tenants, whose farms swarm with 

 game, that do not get a brace in the year; they 

 are bespoke by the dealer. Others are certainly 

 more liberal, and it was only within this 

 week or so we came across a flaming paragraph de- 

 tailing how many hundred hares and pheasants Lord 

 Smashford and two or three friends had killed in two 

 or three days ; and how, with his lordship's customary 

 liberality, these had been " distributed amongst the 

 poor and the tenantry" ! A fine compliment this, cer- 

 tainly. What John Ploughman does not want, you 

 can let the farmers have. 



Mark the greeting between the squire and his tenant 

 at the cover side. Visit the latter at his homestead, 

 and note the brush twined over the mantel-piece, the 

 portrait of the favourite horse, or the well-cherished 

 print of my Lord and his Hounds. There are no truer 

 friends to field sport as it should be, than the farmers; 

 and for this reason let them not fear to speak out. We 

 would not have them follow the mere lead of any other 

 class. But in the.-e times they must not shirk an 

 abuse that is a manifest injustice to themselves, and a 

 wrong to all. The produce of the country is wasted, 

 the lower classes continually tempted and trapped, and 

 a spirit of inquisition exercised wholly un-English in its 

 character, and unwholesome in its influence. Our 

 lands can be turned to a far better use than feeding a 

 plague of hares and rabbits; and there is fortunately 

 employment enough for our labouring population to 

 keep them above the degrading duties of spies and 

 watchers. As a simple question of economy the point 

 is all one way ; and prosecution expenses and keeping 

 poachersin prison are items in a county's expenditure 

 that might be put to a fav higher purpose. No " estab- 

 lishment" of keepers and their subordinates can ever 

 set off such an unprofitable outlay. 



Some have already begun to speak out. Mr. Jackson, 



by his address at the Winfrith Club, has commanded 

 an attention that clearly shows how much may be done. 

 Wo publish with this a resolution from the farmers in tlie 

 neighbourhood of Blandford, in hearty support of wliat 

 he has advanced, as well as in sympathy for the 

 manner in which he has been attacked. But Mr. 

 Jackson needs no such commiseration. The highest 

 compliments paid to his address have been the impotent 

 answers attempted to it, and the petty indignities 

 levelled at himself. You may often test the strength 

 of an argument by the ojjposition it encounters. 



Sir, — Having hououred the Winfrith Chib by giving tlieir 

 discussion on Uanie, &c., the benefit of your extensive circu- 

 lation, I take the liberty to aik that the enclosed may also 

 find a place in your columns, to show that other Dorset farm- 

 era are ready to support free speech in the right direction, 

 although coming from one so insignificant as myself. 

 I am, Sir, yours truly, 



T. S. Jackson. 



Blandford, Jan. 29, 1859. 

 Sir, — I am directed by the committee of the Blandford 

 Farmers' Club to send you the copy of the resolutions come 

 to by them this evening, and to state that you are perfectly at 

 hberty to make what use you like of it. 



I am, Sir, faithfully yours, 

 Mr. T. S. Jackson, W. H. Atkinson. 



Bempstone. 



Copy. 

 " That the Blandford farmers beg to express to Mr. T. S. 

 Jackson their entire concurrence in and approval of the sen- 

 timents uttered by him in his lecture delivered to the Win- 

 frith Farmers' Club, on the 17th November last, and also 

 their sympathy with him under the unpleasant consequences 

 entailed upon him by the free expression of his ideas on that 

 occasion, and they regret that any person should have thought 

 fit to cavil at the remarks there made, or the mode iu which 

 he, expressed them." 



To THE Members op the Blandford Farmers' 

 Club. 



Gentlemen, — It affords me very great pleasure to thank 

 you most sincerely for the expression of your approval of my 

 sentiments on Game, &c. 



So unexpected a proof of kind feeling coming from such a 

 respectable body of agriculturists more than repays for the 

 attack made upon me by those who must have known they 

 were misrepresenting the tone of my address; for it is evident, 

 on reading the discussion, that it is anything but " a wholesale 

 attack upon the aristocracy." 



The only cause for regret I see in the matter is, that any 

 English paper should be so unfair as to allow certain charges 

 to be inserted against an individual, inviting an answer, and 

 then to refuse the reply ; however, I rejoice to believe that 

 this httle opposition has only strengthened our cause, and 

 given it greater publicity. Trusting it will result in much 

 good, I am, Gentlemen, youra sincerely, 



RempeHon, Jan. 31, 1859. T. S. JacksoR. 



