i8o THE RABBIT 



Which being interpreted means, that a good 

 honest labourer with a wife and family to support, 

 and with perhaps only eighteen shillings a week to 

 do it with, out of which four or five shillings a week 

 has to go for cottage rent, turns poacher, and sooner 

 or later is discovered by the keeper taking a rabbit 

 out of a wire, with the usual result. And so it is 

 that owners, occupiers, shooting tenants and agri- 

 cultural labourers, all have something to say against 

 the Act.i 



It would not be possible within the limits of a 

 single chapter to examine critically all the points 

 which are suggested by a careful perusal of the Act, 

 nor is it to be expected that we should take cogni- 

 sance of the many legal technicalities which have 

 been argued in the numerous actions at law to which 

 this particular statute has given rise. All that we 

 can attempt to do here is to take a general view of 

 the object and provisions of the Ground Game Act, 

 and point out, as briefly as possible, some of the 

 more important legal decisions which now materially 

 affect its bearing. The importance of this at the 

 present time will be apparent to those who already 

 know how the construction of particular sections by 



' See the numerous letters expressive of dissatisfaction for 

 reasons stated which appeared in The Field during the months 

 of November and December 1 889. 



