224 THE HUNTING FIELD 



to get a frank, candid answer as the man whose whole 

 manner and appearance disarms both fear and sus- 

 picion, nay, inspires confidence, and procures a ready 

 answer to every question he may ask? To get at 

 the real truth with some people, the only plan is to 

 make them believe that you are after something else, 

 and if Her Majesty's Government would take a few 

 sharp, enterprising foxhunters into her public offices, 

 keeping them a competent stud of respectable-looking 

 horses, we will be bound to say they would get them 

 far more sound, reliable, accurate information upon 

 any subject of country interest, such as stock of 

 wheat, sickly potatoes, poor-law workings, than lord- 

 lieutenants, or the solemn pompous-looking gentlemen, 

 who sit in inn parlours, driving away truth, just as 

 a fox or a shepherd's dog drives away a flock of sheep. 

 Country people don't like strangers — they don't 

 understand examination, cross-examination, re -ex- 

 amination, and blue -booking. They are afraid of 

 pen, ink, and paper. But put them alongside a red 

 coat, in a stable, under a shed, or behind a hedge, 

 and they will tell you anything you like to ask them, 

 simply because they think you don't care to know it. 

 This hint is worth the consideration of the Home 

 Secretary, especially after the expense the late Govern- 

 ment was put to in getting up the potato panic, and 

 if he thinks well of it, but fears the cost, or doubts 

 what Joe Hume may say, we should be glad to see 

 if we could not make some arrangement so as to 

 carry it out between us. If the Government, for 

 instance, would find horses, we would pay expenses, 

 or we might join, and job a few horses of Tilbury, 

 for the first season, to see how the thing worked ; all 

 that we should stipulate for would be, that the parties 

 should be sent into civilized countries where there 

 is decent hunting, so that their reports of the chase, 

 for publication, might indemnify us for our share of 

 the expense. 



