288 RANDOM THOUGHTS ON HUNTING. 



their nature, by Instilling high and generous feel- 

 ings, but the flattery of their prejudices a flat- 

 tery as obsequious and as abject, I grieve to say, 

 as that which, in monarchical governments, is 

 lavished by courtiers on a monarch, or on his 

 minion! They have but one policy they steer 

 but one course and that is, with the stream. If 

 you catch them departing from this course, it is 

 because their tact has been at fault, and they have 

 unwittingly mistaken an eddy for the main current. 

 The right to hunt uninclosed lands, thus secured by 

 usage, or in other words, by our common law there 

 are some who desire to extend it to inclosed lands, 

 unconditionally or, at least, maintain their right 

 to pursue the game thereon, when started without 

 the inclosure. It is to be apprehended, that this 

 spirit of encroachment is but too much fostered by 

 such of our public men as, setting popularity above 

 everything, fear to hazard it by publishing truths 

 unpleasing to the majority! "We admit, without 

 hesitation, that there are in Congress, patriots who 

 see the right in the expedient and the expedient in 

 the wishes of their constituents. Kor is there any 

 sufficient reason for thinking that Congress enjoys a 

 monopoly of this sort of virtue. Restrictions on 

 this unchecked right of hunting, in communities 

 circumstanced like ours, will, therefore, I presume, 



