THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 277 



left in all rural districts with which I am acquainted, to 

 ensure that desirable result of " foxes plenty," for the 

 present ; there is no reason to despair of their conti- 

 nuance for the future. In closing my exhortation in 

 behalf of foxes, I shall not, therefore, make any hack- 

 neyed appeal to the feelings of the community, as sports- 

 men ; but I will entreat all, in any way interested in the 

 concerns of rural life, to remember, that fox-hunting is 

 the very last link of the chain of amusement which has 

 bound country gentlemen to their homes. This has 

 been lately deemed so unimportant a branch of sta- 

 tistics, that the mere mention of anything bearing upon 

 the recreative privileges of the country, in the august 

 assembly of St. Stephen's, would draw down a shower of 

 most unquahfied derision upon their hardy advocate ; 

 but it is for those who live more remote from cities, 

 whose lot it is to pass their hves farther apart from the 

 *' busy hum of men," to consider how, and in what 

 manner, the residence of the owners upon their respec- 

 tive estates affects the interest of the rural population. 

 If ever this was worthy of a thought, it is doubly so in 

 the present generation. I say, far more so now than 

 when land was at its best — when the high war-prices of 

 all agricultural produce maintained the farmer in a 

 state of affluence, which was communicated to the 

 tradesmen, and all the middhng classes of the surround- 

 ing towns and villages. Now, that the power of the 



