FOX-HUNTING 401 



some reference to it, I can hardly, without running" 

 the risk of appearing indifferent, abstain from 

 making some few observations regarding a sport 

 which is of such great value to the country 

 generally. In these advanced days a class of 

 persons has arisen whose object is apparently to 

 decry all those sports in which they themselves 

 are unable to participate, that of fox-hunting 

 in particular. These would-be detractors allege, 

 by way of excuse for the line which they 

 have adopted, that fox-hunting is cruel. Now, 

 without attempting to enter into any argument 

 upon the subject, I may as well at once admit 

 that there is more or less cruelty, as we under- 

 stand it, in all sport. Even fishing may be de- 

 scribed as cruelty ; and without doubt fishing 

 with a worm or any living bait is, when the torture 

 which the living lure is compelled to suffer is 

 considered, most horribly cruel. I am not at 

 all sure that, when one sport is balanced with 

 another, fox-hunting is not perhaps the least 

 cruel of all. But be this as it may, we cannot 

 afford to relinquish our national field-sports, and 

 it would indeed be a sorry day for England if 

 fox-hunting were to be abolished. At the present 

 time such an event appears highly improbable from 

 the action of any adverse party ; the votaries of 

 the sport are more numerous than ever, and if 

 any clanger to its interests exists, it is rather to be 

 apprehended from the fact of this excessive popu- 

 larity than from any other cause. Where one 



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