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and man and Nature. But the great object of this Society was to 
prevent the world from being impoverished, and part of its beauty 
from being lost, by the destruction of wild birds generally. The 
methods by which that might be done were, first of all, legislation. 
A great deal had been done by legislation already, and much of 
that had been due to the instigation of the Society. All would be 
glad to see in that morning’s paper that his friend, Mr. Sydney 
Buxton, had passed a Bill through the House of Commons 
which was still further to prevent cruelty and destruction 
of birds, and though the House of Lords did not always agree 
with the House of Commons, there was every hope that on 
this occasion they would be found in entire agreement. The 
Society also desired that the excellent laws now in existence 
should be enforced. In his opinion it was not new legislation that 
was wanted so much as the thorough enforcement of existing laws, 
and, what was still more necessary, the education of public opinion, 
so that the public would feel it to be to its own interest that the 
law should be observed. A great compliment was paid to London 
every year by the visit of large numbers of gulls to St. James’ 
Park and other parts. Supposing anyone were to make a raid upon 
those gulls and shoot them, and sell them to millinery shops to be 
bought and worn in hats, the people who shot those gulls, the 
people who made them up into hats, and the people who bought 
the hats and wore them, would be all objects of execration. It 
would rightly be regarded as an offence against London, because 
the whole of the people had a common property in the enjoyment 
of watching and observing those birds, and desired to see them 
protected. That kind of feeling ought to extend to the whole of 
the country. People ought to feel that whoever wantonly destroyed 
harmless birds natural to the country committed an offence against 
public happiness, by depriving the people of that common property 
which they had in enjoying the sight of birds. There had lately 
been a correspondence in the Times about the destruction of wax- 
wings, birds which only visited this country in the winter. 
If that morning he (the Chairman) had received a letter 
telling him that, within reach of London, there was a place where 
waxwings could be seen, very probably a letter would have been 
read that afternoon to say that he had been called away from 
London on urgent business, and was unable to attend the meeting. 
He would have gone not to shoot the wax-wings, but to see them, 
and it would have been open to anybody else who was interested 
in birds to have the same pleasure. But what was the case now ? 
Now, if the papers stated that waxwings had appeared in this 
country, giving the place where they were to be seen, someone 
would go and shoot them at once, and by his thoughtless folly 
would deprive not only himself, but everybody else of the pleasure 
they might have had in seeing the birds in life. He hoped the time 
would come when the appearance of a rare bird would cause many 
