FRANCE 143 



at the close of :i long day, in which they had not got a single shot, 

 to have thrown their caps in the air and made targets of them. 



Painful as it is to me to say this, there is no doubt that the 

 most convincing proof of the detestable administration of our game 

 laws is found in the spectacle of Alsace, which, almost depleted 

 before our trouble of 1870, is once again full of game now that 

 the province is under the German Government and subjected to a 

 rational legislation. 



The intervention of members of either House in all legal matters 

 submitted to the courts, in favour of the offenders, is one of the chief 

 causes of the mischief. Gendarmes and gamekeepers have orders 

 to wink at offences and not to apprehend the poachers, and there 

 is no denying that the element of landed proprietors is altogether 

 inadequately represented in our legislative assemblies. The majority 

 of both Houses absolutely ignore these general interests, and watch, 

 without any thought of remedying the evil, our millions going out 

 of the country, whereas they might easily be kept in France to 

 produce game and fish. 



They never stop to think that, for all their passionate devotion 

 to the poor, that very class could enjoy, at a low cost, a wholesome 

 article of food if only the legislators would not throw all their in- 

 fluence on the side of the poachers and other destroyers of game 

 and fish so essential to their own re-election. They are less advanced 

 than even the Chinese, for, if they would glance at the far East, 

 they might see the culture of fish in China at the highest level of 

 development, feeding millions of individuals. These vital questions, 

 that should be thought of above all others, are entirely overlooked 



