CO VERT-SHOO TING. 147 



On this occasion the host is pleased, for the totals 

 are even more than he expected, and if these amounted 

 to even four figures, what harm? who is injured by it ? 

 Not the tenant-farmers, many of whom are out beat- 

 ing or looking on with smiling faces, and taking as 

 much pride and interest as the host himself in the 

 successful proceedings, and who, with half the neigh- 

 bourhood round, receive handsome presents of game, 

 and what else can it hurt but the proprietor's own 

 pocket ? for these battues are costly. Still, if he 

 likes to spend his money thus, employing as he does 

 a great number of persons, what harm ? 



Why, 1 repeat, should the Camberwell Daily 

 Calumniator wax so wroth as it records these totals ? 

 And if, after a wide distribution of gifts, the surplus 

 be sold, what harm again ? There is a large demand 

 for game. The rich merchants and manufacturers, 

 whose smart villas fringe the adjacent town, im- 

 peratively require it for their dinner parties. They 

 have no manors of their own to supply it ; they must 

 buy it, and if landed proprietors won't sell it, so 



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