120 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



laboring class were generally wanting in either the means or the 

 pluck to attempt it 



Evidently a man has a right to foster and increase the natural 

 stock of wild game upon his own land, that is, in a degree to do- 

 mesticate it ; and the law should protect him in the enjoyment of 

 the results of the labor and pains he has taken for this purpose. 

 The undefinable character of such property, however, makes the 

 attempt to preserve it inexpedient, and often leads to injustice ; 

 and when the preserve is sustained at the expense of very great 

 injury to more important means of sustaining human life in a 

 half-starved community, the poacher is more excusable than the 

 proprietor. 



That this is often the case in England, I more than once saw 

 evidence. A picture, drawn by the agricultural correspondent 

 of the London Times of Nov. 11, 1851, represents a scene of this 

 kind, more remarkable however than any that came under my 

 notice : 



" At Stamford we passed into Northamptonshire, obtaining a 

 glimpse of the Marquis of Exeter's finely wooded park and man- 

 sion of Burleigh. This magnificent place, founded by Queen 

 Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer Cecil, with its grand old trees and 

 noble park, is just the place to which a foreigner should be taken 

 to give him an idea of the wealth of our English nobility. 



" The tenants on this estate are represented as being in the 

 most hopeless state of despondency on account of the present low 

 prices of agricultural produce, and as they were complaining ve- 

 hemently, the Marquis offered to have the farms of any tenants 

 who desired it, revalued. Only one on this great estate accepted 

 the offer. There have been no farms of any consequence yet 

 given up, and for those which do come into the market there are 

 plenty of offerers, though men of capital are becoming chary, and 

 will only look at very desirable farms. The estate is said to be 



