THE SPORTSMAN IN FRANCE. 227 



as when killed by the gun ; so that this 

 far-famed act, instead of counteracting 

 the system of poaching, affords it every 

 facility, and, in point of fact, encourages 

 it ; and it is an undeniable and indispu- 

 table fact, that poaching has increased 

 in a frightful degree since the act has 

 passed. 



The most barbarous and cruel murders 

 are of daily and nightly occurrence, and 

 our jails are crowded with the heartless 

 miscreants who stop not at the shedding 

 of human blood in pursuing their unlaw- 

 ful depredations. 



Those overwhelming pests, the rail- 

 roads, furnish their quota of reckless 

 vagabonds ; for the navigators employed 

 in these devastating works, sally forth by 

 night, in gangs, and destroy the game 

 by wholesale. Resistance is useless, as 

 the farmers and smaller landed pro- 

 prietors can tell, and their preserves are 



