THEIR DEFENCE 9 



be poor, but there will always be a 

 certain amount of money circulating, and 

 consequently little real distress when 

 compared with the districts where there 

 are no hounds and consequently no sport, 

 game-preservation being impossible and 

 game naturally almost extinct. What 

 he will notice chiefly then is the absolute 

 stagnation and scarcity of money, trade at 

 a standstill, and universal poverty ; and let 

 us hope that he will profit by this object 

 lesson, and talk less at the next election 

 about popular rights and the game laws. 



Meantime, it is well to ask, though 

 difficult to answer, what security of 

 tenure our game laws have in the near 

 future. They have been openly attacked 

 on hundreds of Radical platforms in 

 the plethora of General Elections from 

 which we have suffered of late, often with 

 the silent consent of the Radical candi- 

 date, himself not uncommonly a game- 

 preserver on a large scale in some other 

 county, an anomaly which we do not 

 seek to explain. 



