Defence of Criminals 



tion in which Society is moving at the time. It 

 does not reach its ideal, but it goes in that direc- 

 tion — then, after a time, the direction of its move- 

 ment changes, and it has a new ideal. 



When the ideal of Society is material gain or 

 possession, as it is largely to-day, the object of its 

 special condemnation is the thief — not the rich 

 thief, for he is already in possession and therefore 

 respectable, but the poor thief. There is nothing 

 to show that the poor thief is really more immoral 

 or unsocial than the respectable money-grubber ; 

 but it is very clear that the money-grubber has 

 been floating with the great current of Society, 

 while the poor man has been swimming against 

 it, and so has been worsted. Or when, as to-day. 

 Society rests on private property in land, its counter- 

 ideal is the poacher. If you go in the company of 

 the county squire-archy and listen to the after- 

 dinner talk you will soon think the poacher a 

 combination of all human and diabolic vices ; 

 yet I have known a good many poachers, and 

 either have been very lucky in my specimens or 

 singularly prejudiced in their favour, for I have 

 generally found them very good fellows — but 

 with just this one blemish that they invariably 

 regard a landlord as an emissary of the evil one ! 

 The poacher is as much in the right, probably, 

 as the landlord, but he is not right for the time. 

 He is asserting a right (and an instinct) belonging 

 to a past time — when for hunting purposes all 

 land was held in common — or to aUime in the 

 future when such or similar rights shall be restored. 



145 K 



