136 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



economy of Nature ; that if they are unduly de- 

 stroyed insects increase in similar proportion, and 

 do vast damage to the produce of both farms and 

 gardens ; that birds are ornamental as well as useful, 

 and give great pleasure and instruction to naturalists 

 and others that observe their habits ; that, owing to 

 the indiscriminate and untaxed use of guns, they are 

 recklessly destroyed in great numbers every year ; 

 that many important and useful species have in this 

 way already become extinct in Great Britain, and that 

 others have become more or less rare, and will in like 

 manner be exterminated if some means for their 

 protection and preservation be not adopted. . . . 

 That such a tax [on guns] would bring in a very 

 large revenue to the exchequer ; that its enactment 

 would at the same time do away with a vast amount 

 of poaching ; that it would be the means of saving 

 many lives which at present are sacrificed every year 

 by the incautious use of firearms in every one's hands 

 ad libitum , as well as otherwise." 



Letters innumerable to the public journals he 

 wrote upon this subject through a long course of 

 years. It may be said, indeed, that his mind was in 

 a state of perpetual motion with regard to the pre- 

 servation of birds ; for no sooner was an Act of 

 Parliament passed with the object of fixing a close 

 time for them than he quickly saw in it something 

 that needed amendment ; and to carry his views, if 

 possible, into effect, he would vigorously and at 

 once apply himself. 



It was in October 1869 that the monthly paper 



