212 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



no notice of their disappearance, neglecting to sweep the sea, 

 simply covering the tubs, and expecting their reappearance. 

 When the preventive boat reached the rafts, the men had escaped. 

 Hooper was one of the gamekeepers whom I called as a 

 witness to contravene Mr. Bright's attempt to get up a case 

 for the abolition of the game laws, and, as a necessary conse- 

 quence, to substitute in their place a stringent trespass act a 

 thousand times more tyrannical, and possessed of greater power 

 over the liberties of the subject, than the present code. Mr. 

 Bright, as the leader on one side, and myself, as the leader on 

 the other, were obliged each to give three days' notice of the 

 appearance of the respective witnesses, their names and addresses, 

 and, of course, we failed not to be pretty well acquainted w r ith 

 the foregone lives, habits, and characters of every soul that 

 appeared before that committee; at least I know that I so 

 possessed myself of the previous histories of Mr. Bright's friends, 

 and funny ones some of them were ; and, if the reader refers to 

 the voluminous publication of the evidence taken before the 

 committee and printed by the House of Commons, it will be seen 

 that, with few exceptions, an indifferent set came up as called 

 by Mr. Bright. When Hooper was before the committee Mr. 

 Bright, in cross-examination, and with his usual acerbity to those 

 whose views oppose his own, endeavoured to cast an imputation 

 on the value of Hooper's evidence on account of his having been 

 a smuggler. Unfortunately for Mr. Bright, one of his own party 

 on that committee, at least one who supported him in many of 

 his opinions, had known Hooper while he lived with Sir Edward 

 Butler as head gamekeeper, and who, as a justice of peace, had 

 seen the manner in which Hooper dealt with and conducted his 

 game cases. When Mr. Bright thus endeavoured to sneer at 

 Hooper's evidence, Mr. Etwell at once rose and gave Hooper the 

 highest possible character. All the taunts of the unforbearing 

 Quaker were borne by Hooper's indignant countenance and iron 

 frame with the contempt which in that case they deserved ; but 

 when he heard a gentleman he had supposed to be arrayed 

 against him, unexpectedly rise and refute all unworthy insinua- 



