48 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



that, too, ill offences directed against the life of 

 tlie liigliest person in tlic realm, so a severe and 

 degrading punishment on a first offence would 

 greatly deter from the commission of a second, 

 when carried out in the rural districts against the 

 thieves of game and offenders of any description. 



I have seen, in the close of the year 18G0, 

 that there have been blatant men at farmers' 

 meetings exclaiming against game and rabbits, 

 the latter as ^^ useless vermin." Game and rabbits 

 are now made to serve as food for the people ; 

 and those dupes of the legislative folly of Mr. Bright, 

 OiTirer, Dodi^'cr, Dilk and Co., would be astonished 

 if they went into statistics, and saw the enormous 

 amount of '^food for the people" sold and given 

 away to them from the warrens and manors, 

 making up an immense weight of food, and 

 obtained at a far lower price than meat sold by 

 the butchers. I never refused rabbits to any 

 honest man who asked for them; and at one of 

 my residences I used to give them frequently 

 to the coast-guard men. I had not done this 

 very long when the men asked me to let tliem 

 buy the rabbits, because, they said, although 

 I was so kind in occasionally giving them 



