CH. XXVIII. CRIMINALITY OF POACHERS. 135 



stipulations are made accordingly. In fact, the 

 proprietor of the game is almost invariably the 

 person who, directly or indirectly, pays for its keep : 

 this price it is right that he should pay for his 

 amusement, and the cases I believe are very rare 

 in which any objection is made to doing so. 



In considering this subject, it should also be 

 borne in mind that in these days game is a source 

 of profit and income to so many persons, that it 

 ought to be under legal protection, as much so as 

 any other kind of property. The trespasser in pur- 

 suit of game renders himself liable to certain 

 penalties with as perfect a knowledge of the risk he 

 runs as the man who steals from the hen-roost. It 

 is often argued that poaching is the first step to 

 many worse crimes ; so is picking pockets. Phea- 

 sants are great temptations, and so are pocket- 

 handkerchiefs ; and a man has as much right to 

 breed pheasants in his woods, as to walk down 

 the Strand with a silk pocket-handkerchief in his 

 pocket. It is very true that the pheasant stealer 

 may become a highwayman, and in like manner the 

 picker of pockets may become a burglar ; but in 

 neither case should the minor crime be permitted to 

 go unpunished in a vain hope of decreasing the 

 frequency of the greater. Men are very seldom 

 impelled by actual want to take up poaching as a 



