VERBUM SAP. 249 



arms, as obsolete for capturing votes as the birdlime 

 and stalking-horse of the ' Gentleman's Recreation ' for 

 making a bag of partridges. 



Lord Coleridge, whose views upon the game laws 

 have proved of immense value to some of the worst 

 criminals in the country, but, so raras one can discover, 

 to nobody else, had a charming experience of the 

 popularity of his political views, as proceeding from 

 the mouth of an English judge, some years ago in 

 Liverpool. Being called upon for a speech after a 

 political dinner, and surrounded as he was by good 

 Liberals it was before the Home Rule split he 

 conceived the ingenious idea, in that commercial 

 city, of adding to his popularity by an unmeasured 

 attack upon the laws relating to the preservation of 

 game. His philippic was received in ominous silence 

 by the twenty or thirty men present, constituting the 

 flower of the Liberal party in Liverpool. Turning to 

 his neighbour, he remarked that he feared his speech 

 had somehow fallen flat. That gentleman observed 

 that no doubt it had, since, with hardly an exception, 

 every man in the room was a keen sportsman, and 

 two-thirds of them preserved game. 



The game laws constitute in a sense a political 

 question from their close connection with the land 

 question ; but, in spite of the cheap and antiquated 



