250 THE SHOOTER'S GUIDE. 



which, by 4 and 5 of Will, and Mary, may be done 

 to a ruinous extent. 



By the same act also, dissolute persons may be sued 

 in the same manner for trespass in hunting, &c. Now 

 there will be found many of our nobility and gentry 

 very dissolute indeed, if every species of moral turpi- 

 tude can constitute such a character; and why not 

 sue in this case ? But here I suppose the Game Laws 

 would draw a line of distinction, and screen the of- 

 fender under the shade of a splendid coronet, or the 

 length of a purse. Allowing, however, that the in- 

 tention of the Game Laws is good, and not merely to 

 force the " poor to abstain from that which the rich 

 have taken a fancy to keep for themselves," almost 

 daily experience proves that their operation counter- 

 acts the very effects they were meant to produce ; and 

 the rigid observance of these laws not only gave birth, 

 but continues to encourage, those swarms of poachers 

 which are to be met with in every part of the king- 

 dom. The fact is, that the men of great landed pro- 

 perty are in general so exceedingly tenacious of their 

 game, that the monied interest and the middling 

 classes of life are debarred from honourable sporting, 

 in a great measure ; and thus, as every exertion is 

 made to keep the game in the hands of a few, the 

 price rises accordingly ; and great temptation and en- 

 couragement are consequently held out to those noc- 

 turnal depredators, whose existence is much to be 

 deplored, inasmuch as many lives have been lost in 



