xxn THE DEER 359 



become a proprietor by purchase. The rights of game are ques- 

 tioned, and condemned, as " wild creatures are God's gifts to man- 

 kind, and are sent for the benefit of all." 



These gentlemen forget that the important element of " water " 

 may be claimed as a gift of nature for mankind, but that private 

 wells cannot be invaded by the public, neither can springs upon 

 private property be interfered with. They also wander from 

 historical fact when advancing the theory of a natural right to 

 land, or a right to game. If these agitators, who know nothing of 

 primeval rights of man, were to examine the actual conditions of 

 primeval society as represented by the vast numbers of tribes in 

 Central Africa, they would discover the utter fallacy of their 

 arguments. I extract, from what I wrote upon this subject when 

 in Africa, a few observations that may be worthy of their attention, 

 showing that the earliest rights (private rights) of man consisted 

 in the possession of land and hunting-grounds : 



" Although the wilderness between Unyoro and Fatiko is un- 

 inhabited (about 80 miles), in like manner with extensive tracts 

 between Fabbo and Fatiko, every portion of that apparently 

 abandoned country is nominally possessed by individual proprietors, 

 who claim a right of game by inheritance. 



" This strictly conservative principle has existed from time 

 immemorial, and may perhaps suggest to those ultra-radicals who 

 would introduce communistic principles into England, that the 

 supposed original equality of human beings is a false datum for 

 their problem. There is no such thing as equality among human 

 beings in their primitive state, any more than there is equality 

 among the waves of the sea, although they may start from the 

 same level of the calm. ... In tribes where government is weak, 

 there may be a difficulty in enforcing laws, as the penalty exacted 

 may be resisted ; but even amidst these wild tribes there is a force 

 that exerts a certain moral influence among the savages, as among 

 the civilised : that force is public opinion. 



"Thus, a breach of the game-laws would be regarded by the 

 public as a disgrace to the guilty individual, precisely as an act of 

 poaching would damage the character of a civilised person. 



" The rights of game are among the first rudiments of property. 

 Man in his primitive state is a hunter, depending for his clothing 

 upon the skins of wild animals, and upon their flesh for his sub- 

 sistence ; therefore the beast that he kills upon the desert must be 

 his property ; and in a public hunt, should he be the first to wound 

 an animal, he will have gained an increased interest or share in the 

 flesh, by having reduced the chance of its escape. Thus public 



