252 THE SHOOTER'S GUIDE. 



ward being offered) some persons were apprehended ; 

 but from defective evidence, or some other cause, they 

 were never brought to trial. 



The lower classes are well aware that poaching is 

 an offence against the law ; but, at the same time, they 

 regard the legal restraint imposed in respect togarneas 

 a sort of tyrannic barrier which ought to be broken 

 down ; and, consequently, they are far from consider- 

 ing it as morally wrong to infringe, as often as oppor- 

 tunity offers,those laws which make poaching a crime. 

 Although these people would despise a thief, and shun 

 his company, yet they look upon a poacher as a fair, 

 if not an enviable character : a murderer they would 

 abhor, and shudder perhaps at the idea of being in his 

 company ; but a poacher, who had killed a game- 

 keeper in his own defence, would be supposed to have 

 acted, if not strictly right, at least as having com- 

 mitted a crime to which stern necessity had con- 

 strained him, and on that account excusable. Poachers 

 too, amongst themselves, are actuated by principles of 

 honour; they regard it as an offence never to be for- 

 given, for one of their own body to impeach his con- 

 federate ; and it is viewed in this light by the lower 

 orders in general instances of one poacher impeach- 

 ing another rarely occur. 



There is another serious evil attending this mono- 

 poly of game, which is that of rendering gamekeepers 

 dishonest : the high price of pheasants, partridges, &c. 

 and the ready and general sale which is always open 

 foi' them, is too great a temptation to this last class of 



