170 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
must have heen brought about by the conflict of 
foxes and hunting with game and shooting. If 
there were no cause, there would be no conflict. 
It seems to me an injustice that shooting-men 
should be called selfish, even if they absolutely bar 
foxes or hunting on their ground. For every man 
who holds shooting-rights has to pay heavily for 
them, directly or indirectly ; that is to say, either he 
pays rent for the privilege of * sporting’ over every 
yard of his shoot, or if the land is his own, forgoes 
the income he might enjoy by letting it. Therefore, 
whatever avoidable circumstance detracts from his 
returns is equivalent to a direct tax on his pocket. 
It must be admitted that if foxes and hunting were 
of no detriment to shooting-interests, which many 
hunting-men are so foolish as to declare, there 
never would be the least objection to foxes and 
hunting. To the credit of the sporting fellowship 
of shooting-men, it must be said that they show a 
long-suffering spirit of give in contrast to the ever- 
lasting take of hunting-men. The more you give 
the majority of hunting-men, the more they want, 
and the more they will take. 
It has been suggested that hunting makes ample 
return to shooting for all it takes by keeping down 
foxes. Surely this is an admission that foxes are 
exceedingly harmful to shooting-interests. Assuming 
that hunting kept foxes within reasonable limits all 
over the country—which it does not—there are 
