492 
only by the laws of the land, but upon 
every principle of reason, morality and 
justice, to encourage and increase an 
acknowledged evil is assuredly a crime 
against God and man. How then, 
upon any ground, whether law or gos- 
pel, is it to be justified that those nox- 
lous animals should be increased by 
artificial means, and turned loose upon 
the country, for the purpose of follow- 
ing a barbarous recreation,* “ the toil 
of a savage Indian and the amusement 
of what is called a highly polished Eng- 
lish country gentleman;” when it is 
known that those animals are so de- 
structive, not only to every kind of 
poultry, but to all sorts of game, and 
even to lambs. Not content with get- 
ting cart-loads of them from the wild 
beast traders, to be scattered over the 
country, which is a fact too notorious 
to require any proof, but I this day saw 
in a provincial newspaper, a paragraph 
in the following words : “ a considerable 
number of foxes have been lately im- 
ported from France”—no one can doubt 
the object—can then any thing be mere 
unwarrantable ? and what makes it 
more outrageous, and against which 
there is one universal outcry of shame 
throughout the country, we sce this 
practice upheld and supported by those 
who ought to set a different example, 
whose time and attention should be 
directed to other objects than that of 
wantonly injuring their neighbours, in 
order to provide what they call sport 
for their own civilized habits. Suppose 
a farmer were to entrap 500 rats, and 
take them from his own farm by night 
to the parson’s or the squire’shouse and 
let them loose, would this be honest ? 
Now tell me the difference in principle 
bétween the farmer’s letting loose 500 
rats on the parson’s glebe, or the squire’s 
manor, and the parson or squire let- 
ting loose an equivalent number of 
foxes on the flocks and hen-roosts of 
the farmer. The fox isathief; and he 
that aids and abets a thief is an acces- 
sary to the crime. “ Thou, then, that 
preachest a man should not steal, does then 
steal” —“ thou that makest thy boast of 
the law, through breaking the law, disho- 
nourest thou God.’ The society of 
roe-deer, otters, foxes, rare horses, 
hunters, dog-kennels, and all their train 
of employments and thoughts, is an un- 
* Whose legal pretence and justification, 
as our correspondent has shewn, is the ex- 
tirpation of these animals. 
Importation of Foxes. 
worthy vocation for a Christian priest, 
whose duty consists of something more 
important than praying or preaching, 
or trying how to preserve and increase 
foxes to eat up and destroy their neigh- 
bours’ property, merely for the gross 
and idle enjoyment of a savage pastime. 
If the animal were hunted to be de- 
stroyed the case would be widely dif- 
ferent; but, as a proof that this ani- 
mal is not hunted to destroy it, they 
call off their dogs as soon as they per- 
ceive the object of their adofation is in 
danger; and they even threaten, as I 
have heard and believe, to let loose ten 
foxes upon any farmer who destroys 
one; so that if this unwarrantable prac- 
tice of increase and importation be not 
by some mean or other put a stop to, 
the country will soon be overrun with 
these vermin, and the public market will 
soon feel the effect of it in a most sensible 
degree. I will only mention one instance 
among one hundred thousand of the ef- 
fect of this happy propensity. A short: 
time since a certain farmer, in three 
nights, lost, by the foxes, ninety-six 
head of poultry, as I have been credibly 
informed. This happened in the month 
of August ; they were carried into the 
standing corn, where no pursuit .could 
be made, and there mutilated and de- 
stroyed. : 
Now, if the reverend Nimrods and 
their irreverend associates should take 
it into their heads, for the glory of the 
chase, to import a few wolves from Li- 
vonia, or other places where they are_ 
plenty, to people again in the moun- 
tain-fastnesses of this country; and 
the destruction, if effected, of one set 
be followed by a fresh importation ;— 
who isto say, in these days, when 
the rage of novelty is so predomi- 
nant, wolves will not, like foxes, 
be imported? Some of our high- 
minded gentry feel it ignoble to hunt 
the timid hare. The chase of the 
the fox may become not high enough 
for their minds; the formidable and in- 
trepid wolf may offer a more glorious 
sport; and why not the bear, and the 
lion, and the tiger? I do not know 
that there is any positive or statute law 
that makes it criminal to import and 
disperse beasts of prey, though I should 
think that, by the common law, under 
general terms, it is an indictable offence: 
and as vice is progressive, what security 
have we that this will not be the case— 
that they too, like foxes, shall not be 
imported for the recreation of our ca 
‘rods, 
