120 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



inent to rel)el against the law. If by tlie words 

 '^over-preservation of game" is meant an enor- 

 mous amomit of birds and beasts to eat up all the 

 crops, and to do harm in the woods and fields, 

 to arrive at that immense amount of hares, phea- 

 sants, and partridges — rabbits are not game — is, on 

 some manors, totally impossible. On some extra- 

 ordinary land that suits game, it might be done, 

 if the game was not usefully shot for one season ; 

 but when game is so foolishly kept, beyond Avhat 

 the woods and lands will fairly carry, the fault 

 brings its own remedy, for the ground will get 

 what we call '' stained," all sorts of diseases will 

 break out in feather and in fur, and in succeeding 

 seasons there will be very little game of any kind, 

 attempt to preserve it, or what is called '^ over- 

 preserve it," to the fullest extent, as you may. 

 Because things may he done injudiciously, and, in 

 very harsh and mistaken ways, by wrong-headed 

 owners of manors, wdio by injustice and morose- 

 ness make enemies where none need exist, that 

 is no sort of reason why a man with his senses 

 about him, and a wide knowledge of human nature, 

 should not com])letely support his own interests, 

 enjoy them to the full, }'et by tact, resolution to 



