SMALL FREEHOLDERS 265 



one or two cottager freeholders, so I may 

 fairly consider it a matter of general 

 interest. 



Now, I should like to begin by saying 

 that I am the last man in the world to 

 attack any vested interest, or to make 

 what may be called a class distinction 

 between landowners. Therefore I maintain 

 that unless I can show that the sporting- 

 rights of small freeholders are (i) pre- 

 judicial to the community in which they 

 live, (2) honestly useless and even in- 

 jurious to themselves, and (3) contrary to 

 the wisdom of other countries, gained by 

 experience, I am not justified in raising, as 

 I did in the Field a couple of years ago, and 

 as I do here to-day, an outcry for the legal 

 abolition of those rights. I will now take 

 these heads in order, but before doing so I 



