CH. XXVIII. CRIMINALITY OF POACHERS. 135 



and stipulations are made accordingly. In fact, 

 the proprietor of the game is almost invariably the 

 person who, directly or indirectly, pays for its 

 keep : this price it is right that he should pay for 

 his amusement, and the cases, I believe, are very 

 rare in which any objection is made to doing so. 



In considering this subject, it should also be 

 borne in mind that in these days game is a source 

 of profit and income to so many persons that it 

 ought to be under legal protection, as much so as 

 any other kind of property. The trespasser in 

 pursuit of game renders himself liable to certain 

 penalties with as perfect a knowledge of the risk 

 he runs as the man who steals from the hen-roost. 

 It is often argued that poaching is the first step to 

 many worse crimes ; so is picking pockets. Phea- 

 sants are great temptations, and so are pocket- 

 handkerchiefs ; and a man has as much right to 

 breed pheasants in his woods as to walk down 

 the Strand with a silk pocket-handkerchief in his 

 pocket. It is very true that the pheasant-stealer 

 may become a highwayman, and in like manner the 

 picker of pockets may become a burglar ; but in 

 neither case should the minor crime be permitted 

 to go unpunished in a vain hope of decreasing the 

 frequency of the greater. Men are very seldom 

 impelled by actual want to take up poaching as 



