24-S SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 



Curiously enough, to find bitter hostility to the 

 game laws, or supreme ignorance of the questions 

 they involve, we have to look in these days to at least 

 one of the highest legal dignitaries in England, or to 

 a Member of Parliament who professes to champion 

 the cause of the classes with whom his habits, 

 education, and ability permit him no genuine sym- 

 pathy, and at whom he laughs in his sleeve when 

 regarding the nakedness of the hook with which he 

 leads them by the nose. 



A judge can rightly order the court to be cleared 

 when ignorant applause is uttered from the gallery, 

 but he should at least be above uttering from the 

 bench the claptrap which provokes it. A Member of 

 Parliament may deliver diatribes against landlords 

 and sport whenever he comes across a genuine 

 grievance, but he should at least know something of 

 the question, and not prostitute his undoubted talents 

 by endeavouring to impose upon the dwellers in 

 towns what are after all but the envious whimperings 

 of a cockney journalist. 



Such treatment of the subject is worse than 

 malicious, it is stupid 'C'est pire qu'une faute, 

 c'est une meprise.' It is, again, worse than stupid 

 from a modern point of view ; it is not up to date. It 

 is as antiquated for attack as a mediaeval man-at- 



