22 GAME PRESEEYERS AND BIRD PRESERVERS. 



We read somewhere that a member of one 

 of the French Assembhes once made a very 

 long speech in favour of the abohtion of capital 

 punishment, dwelling long on its being the 

 sacred duty of all men to respect human life. 

 He was answered in a few words by another 

 member, who agreed with all he had said about 

 its being all men's duty to respect human life, 

 but he suggested, ' Que messieurs les assassins 

 commencent' Man must lay down the law and 

 enforce it, that the bird or beast which sheds 

 birds' blood, in the pleasant spring and summer 

 months, by man must his blood be shed ; or the 

 beautiful and useful birds which all these gen- 

 tlemen, whose evidence we have been reading, 

 appear so anxious to protect cannot possibly 

 enjoy the close time they would give them by 

 law from March 15 to August 1. 



Many country gentlemen have for a long 

 time been in the habit of employing men to pro- 

 tect useful birds in their breeding seasons ; but 

 so httle is what these men do, understood, that 



