LETTER FROM AN AMERICAN 

 GENTLEMAN. 



(Published by permission^) 



SIR, As an American of much experience on this 

 side of the Atlantic, and one who, through the cour- 

 tesy and kindness of your countrymen, has had many 

 opportunities of enjoying the various field sports of 

 Great Britain, I would beg to say a few words 

 relevant to the future of field sports on both sides 

 of the Atlantic. 



I see the Hares Bill will soon be again before Par- 

 liament, and that Sir William Harcourt is again 

 resolved to oppose these poor persecuted animals 

 being granted a close time. It is a great pity that 

 you cannot transplant that ponderous and burgo- 

 master type of statesman to the other side of the 

 herring-pond, and that when there he could be in- 

 duced to express his views antagonistic to game pro- 

 tection, for his phlegmatic frame and understanding 

 would be so shocked, horrified, and possibly scared by 

 the hostile attitude of the various sportsmen's clubs, 

 and conscientious methods they have of expressing 

 their disapproval of his views, that the words game 

 laws would never afterwards issue from his far from 

 eloquent mouth. Such politicians as the gentleman 

 above alluded to were very common among us before 

 and during " the war," and did a great deal to stir up 

 the much-to-be-lamented strife between the North and 

 South, but our people see through them now, and any 



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