THE THIEF AND POACHER. 101 



some of tlie farmers' clul)s, — I think, in the Stour 

 or Avon vales, — wlio in liis wine-ancl-watery wrath 

 clenoimced these creatures to l^c rendered ex- 

 tinct as ^^ useless vermin." I can understand the 

 minds of some tenant-farmers being* ^^ riled," sup- 

 posing them to know the millions of pounds, in 

 the United Kingdom, of rabbits iDought by the 

 poor for their families during the twelve months, 

 in preference to butcher s meat — the poor so ob- 

 taining a hetter dinner for the same amount of 

 money than they could have had if they had 

 gone to lay it out in the butcher's shop. But 

 understanding this, and looking on either side 

 the slice of bread, it does astonish. me to see how 

 completely led astray a vast number of the people 

 are, as well as some of the leading press, by the 

 false abuse lavished on the large estates — lavished, 

 I repeat, for no real object of humanity towards 

 ^'the poor" themselves, but in order to sow dis- 

 affection between landlord and tenant, and to 

 destroy the influence of acres on those wlio in- 

 habit under the lord of a manor. In short, the 

 whole but tried-to-be-disguised object of Codger, 

 Dodger, Snooks, and Noodle, or wlioever the firm 

 consists of, has been, and is, to create disaffection 



