188 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



then summoned him for the trespass, for which he 

 "was convicted, the magistrate directing that his gun 

 shouki be restored, and telling me that, though I 

 had a right, if he refused to desist, to apprehend 

 him and convey him before the nearest justice of 

 peace, I had no right to seize his gun. Now, if the 

 mao;istrate is correct in his definition of the law, 

 what a ridiculous law it is ! A man has a right to 

 protect his rabbits, and is told he is to take an 

 offender, twenty-six years of age, thirteen stone, and 

 six feet high, and bring him instantly before a 

 magistrate whose residence is three or four miles 

 off. Suppose the owner of the rabbits is able per- 

 sonally to encounter and capture the offender. He 

 may sit on his prostrated body, and, as my friend 

 Lord Arundell suggested, he might pull from his 

 pocket the " jMorning Herald " or the " Times," and 

 peruse the paper till the fallen combatant was 

 tired of being sat on, but, if the worsted hero has no 

 intention to walk, and, moreover, if pulled along by 

 the heels, has an inconvenient way of clutching at the 

 legs of his conveyor, or on to the stiles and gate- 

 posts which occur on the road, I will defy any man 

 in the course of four-and- twenty hours to produce 

 such a load of sinew and objection at the place of 

 justice intended by the law. By taking the gun I 

 protected my property, and I maintain I was fully 

 justified in doing so at the time, whatever I might 

 have been in regard to the future. In fixct, I could 

 not take the man without first mastering his weapon. 

 I restored the gun, and, shortly after, I met the other 

 young fiirmer on his father's farm with a couple of 

 rabbits in his man's hand. I met them just in time, 

 or they would liave been out into a green lane ; they 



