THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 131 



The practice grew, and the justices' time was constantly 

 occupied with these cases. In the year iSoo 1 Parlia- 

 ment increased the penalties, and the justices were 

 authorized to send all poachers over twelve years of 

 age into the army or navy. 



Bread was at that time dearer, and the custom of 

 game-preserving had greatly increased the number 

 of pheasants. Thus the temptation to poach was 

 greater than ever : this temptation the half-starved 

 labourers were unable to resist, and poaching continued 

 on a large scale, the birds being collected by the stage 

 coaches and carriers' carts for the markets of London 

 and other great towns. A large and well recognized 

 trade in poached game sprang up. Indeed, in the early 

 days of the XlXth century, it could have been no easy 

 thing to find an able-bodied labourer who was not a 

 poacher. 



There was, at that time, no body of police able to 

 deal with these infringements of the game laws, and 

 their enforcement was left to the squires and their 

 keepers. As a result, there was in many districts open 

 war between the poachers and the keepers. The 

 poachers formed gangs, and when these gangs came 

 into contact with the keepers there would be a scuffle, 

 and it was not rare for men on either side to be killed. 

 Legislation was especially directed against these gangs, 1 

 and any poachers who showed fight against keepers 

 were liable to be hanged. 2 Nevertheless, the spur 

 of hunger was strong. Poaching continued, and for 

 the first thirty years of the XlXth century the 

 game laws were the cause, in a large part of England, 

 of a most bitter feeling between the squire and the 

 village. 



1 See Appendix, p. 171. a Ibid. p. 172. 



