THE HARE AAW THE LAWYERS 59 



plenty of idle rascals in the world for whom the 

 judicious application of a well-furnished birch is fine 

 physic, and much more likely to lead to their moral 

 reformation than a lifetime of imprisonment. Many 

 of us have a certain sneaking sympathy for the poacher. 

 This fades away into thin air as soon as we recognise 

 that in the majority of cases the professed poacher is 

 an idle and dissolute blackguard, who expects other 

 people to maintain his wife and family, while he 

 drinks the fruits of his illegal practices in company 

 with bad characters. Of course I have known some 

 poachers who were temperate men, and only offended 

 against the laws of their country from a passionate 

 love of sport which they could not indulge in any 

 other way ; more's the pity. Such men occasionally 

 make tolerable gamekeepers, though they require 

 much supervision and encouragement. But the 

 majority of poachers are ne'er-do-weels, who prefer 

 the excitement of netting hares to working steadily 

 at a trade. Their nefarious practices lead to sad 

 results, especially in netting hares at night, which 

 was prohibited in Queen Anne's reign. The whipping 

 provided for night poachers by a statute of George 

 III. did not save the hares from the nets of their 

 persecutors. The vielees which ensued between the 

 keepers who tried to seize the long nets, and the 



