138 



violators of the law would be fewer in number. To 

 offset this there arises a cry that wardens are unmer- 

 ciful and frequently enforce the laws to the letter, 

 where common sense w^ould dictate the exercise of 

 clemency. 



Now, I have no doubt whatever that if we could 

 do away with all these objectionable features there 

 would be more fish and game, and more happiness 

 generally ; but in my opinion we must look further for 

 the causes which tend at the present day towards the 

 decrease of fish and game, and among the first and 

 greatest of these causes I should class injudicious leg- 

 islation. In the halls of our Legislatures protection to 

 fish and game is not always the impulse which actuates 

 the law-makers in passing laws pertaining to the pro- 

 tection of fish and game. Too frequently laws are 

 introduced and passed for the purpose of attaining 

 some private end, or for the purpose of gratifying some 

 particular friend of one of the legislators, and although 

 these laws as applied in the particular cases which 

 gave rise to their enactment may be harmless, they 

 too frequently do mischief in localities for which they 

 were not intended. Then again, there is at times a 

 disposition on the part of the law-makers to go too far, 

 to provide penalties out of all proportion to the char- 

 acter of the offense sought to be punished. What is to 

 be thought of a law, for instance, which provides that 

 corporations which disturb the habits of fish shall be 

 imprisoned for two years, and which gives every Jus- 

 tice of the Peace in the state the right to impose this 

 penalt}^? Under this law a Justice of the Peace in 

 Squedunkville was empowered to send to state prison 

 the Erie Railroad Compau}^, the Standard Oil Com- 

 pany, or any other corporation, ofi&cers, directors, 

 stockholders, agents, and all for having interfered with 

 the spawning of a sucker. Still this law existed on 

 the statute books of New Jersey during the present 



