MEN KECLAIMED BY PUNISHMENT. 261 



the man burst into tears ! I never saw greater effect 

 made on a court of inquiry, and Hooper's cross-ex- 

 amination ceased. 



There is a man living near my house now, whom, as 

 a convicted and reclaimed poacher, I called before 

 that committee, named Read. He had been a con- 

 firmed poacher or game-stealer for forty years, but 

 had never been caught and convicted ; always going 

 by the name of " Ragged Jack," and, as poachers in- 

 variably do, spending the money he got in public 

 houses. It was not long before my keepers caught 

 him, and he Avas sent to gaol. In reply to questions 

 from Mr. Bright, this man told the committee, that so 

 far from thinking that the game laws were harsh and 

 useless, he only wished I had come into Hampshire 

 and caught him forty years before, when, if I had, he 

 might have been by this time, comparatively speak- 

 ing, a gentleman instead of a mole-catcher, so much 

 would it have reformed him and made him respect- 

 able. He added that the punishment he had received 

 made him leave off poaching and the public-house, 

 and that now every gentleman was content to see 

 him over park and manors, unwatched by the keepers 

 and free from a suspicion of evil designs. That was, 

 perhaps, one of the longest committees that ever 

 sat, and a keenish encounter of wits was kept up 

 during the time it lasted, Mr. Bright making a 

 sweeping charge against every game preserver in 

 the land, and endeavouring to set landlord and 

 tenant by the ears, with a view to split or weaken 

 the agricultural interest at elections to come ; many 

 a tenant farmer donnino; the character ffiven of 

 the whole class by Mr. Cobden, that of being " as 

 stupid as their own oxen," by not seeing through their 



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