Papers on the Destruction of Native Bitds. 1 6"] 



vagabond, and I have given thanks ever since, as the clod which 

 I hurled back at him hit him square in the ribs and nearly knocked 

 the breath out of him. As he made off, he looked around, wonder- 

 ing where the clod could have come from. In Mr. Allen's article 

 above mentioned he quotes a recent writer in saying, " A garden 

 without flowers, childhood without laughter, an orchard without 

 blossoms, a sky without color, roses without perfume are the 

 analogues of a country without song-birds. And the United States 

 are going straight and swift into that desert condition." It is use- 

 less to talk about laws for the protection of our song-birds : we 

 have had for years good laws on the subject, but it is impossible to 

 enforce laws where it is so difficult to catch and convict the 

 offenders. So long as there is a demand for these birds just so 

 long will the market be supplied, law or no law. It all depends 

 on the ladies who wear birds for decoration whether our beautiful 

 songsters shall be exterminated or^not. 



■ ^ — 



SECOND PAPER. 



By Wm. Hui!P,ell Fisher, Esq. 



(Read May 25, 1886.) 



Life is a wonderful and mysterious thing. Man may take life, 

 he may blot it out, but he can not give it back to the lifeless clay. 

 Has he a right to take life? That he has the right to take the life 

 of his fellow-being for any reason whatsoever is denied by some. 

 The majority of the people of civilized communities have held that 

 capital punishment — the taking of the life of the one who commits 

 the capital crimes of murder or treason — is not only justifiable but 

 necessary for the prevention of like crimes by others; that any 

 others among the remainder of the people having a wish to commit 

 these crimes, seeing justice thus swiftly and thoroughly adminis- 

 tered, will take warning and desist from their committal. 



In some countries arson is punished by death, while, on the 

 vast plains of the great West, horse-stealing is punished by death by 

 the unanimous verdict of the people, for the reason that detection 

 is difficult, catching the prisoner alive is difficult, and more partic- 

 ularly that capital punishment there appears to be the surest and 

 most effective means of extirpating a system of robbery which 



