VERBUM SAP. 247 



has fairly earned and can afford to pay for, and treats 

 the dwellers on the soil with a liberality and cheer- 

 fulness to which they have long been strangers. 



The avaricious parvenu, who at once gets to 

 loggerheads with the farmers, underpays his beaters, 

 takes but an interested view of the well-being of his 

 humble neighbours, and looks to saving two thirds of 

 his rent out of the sale of the game, exists no doubt 

 here and there, but he is rare. 



What is the result ? The game laws, except in the 

 hands of a narrow band of faddists, who may make 

 a little capital by attacking them in low-class urban 

 constituencies only, where the electors are as ignorant 

 as themselves, have ceased to provide a popular 

 banner or a political weapon, and stand on safer 

 ground than they have ever done in the history of 

 England. 



It is now exactly seventy years since Sydney 

 Smith employed his witty pen to expose the abuse, 

 and urge the reform, of the game laws. But all the 

 changes which he proposed have passed into law, 

 and it should be remembered that the same humorous 

 brain which suggested a ' lord of the manor for green- 

 gages,' and a batch of ' goose laws ' carrying the 

 same heavy penalties as the game laws of those days, 

 also advocated making game a property, and the 

 theft of it a felony. 



