i86 DEER-STALKING 



taken by the Select Committee and the Royal Com- 

 mission into the subject under consideration. No 

 class of the community who had any grievance, real 

 or sentimental, against deer forests was denied a 

 hearing, and in the case of the Napier Commission, 

 it may be added, a sympathetic hearing ; yet, after 

 all was said and done, no member of either body 

 could be found bold enough to say that the com- 

 plaints made, whether on public or private grounds, 

 were of a nature to justify interference on the part 

 of the Legislature with the purpose for which owners 

 of land in the Highlands deemed it best, under 

 the economical conditions now prevailing, to appro- 

 priate the hill grazing on their estates. 



A third Commission was appointed in 1892, but 

 it arrived practically at the same result as the 

 previous ones. In all three cases there has been 

 no dissentient voice, no minority report. Surely 

 the question as to the propriety of interfering with 

 deer forests by legislative action may be now allowed 

 to rest. 



I have abstained in this chapter, for obvious reasons, 

 from dealing closely with the various arguments for 

 or against deer forests which have at different times 

 been put forward. Those who wish to pursue the 

 subject will find plenty of matter in the shape of 



