PRESIDENT-THE EARL OF CLARENDON". 
7 
Sceptics may argue that if so much interest attaches to the little 
brown bird, and there is so much to be learnt from its life and 
habits, why all this time, trouble, and expense in its destruction ? 
Suffice it here to say that if a pursuit of this nature died out of 
the land, the sportsman would lose a health-giving pastime, the 
naturalist a means of close and minute observation of an interesting 
animal, and the gourmand a succulent dainty ; while as to the plea 
of cruelty, we are a carnivorous nation, and a daily slaughter of 
thousands of animals for our use takes place, which must of necessity 
be accompanied by a certain amount of cruelty, but comparison 
may very fairly be made between the breechloader and the pole-axe, 
and is decidedly in favour of the former if deftly handled. 
The field sports of England are a pastime and not a profession, 
and the people would “imagine a vain thing” did they regard 
them in any other light than that of a recreation and a relaxation 
from the more serious and important duties of life, hut it is that 
very relaxation which freshens the mind while it invigorates the 
body. Mankind is apt to go to extremes, and, were it not for these 
healthful recreations, it is possible, at all events as regards those who 
have leisure, that an unbridled indulgence in enervating debauches 
might supervene, which ere now has led to the decline and fall of 
empires. There is such a thing as the “business of pleasure,” but 
it is one in the conduct of which a large number of the wage¬ 
earning classes is employed, and to which both capital and industry 
is applied. Every one in this world has a path of duty mapped out 
either by himself or others, and, in this “business of pleasure,” 
duty may he performed or neglected as the case may be equally 
with the other callings and avocations of life. In view of the fact 
that there are thousands of our fellow creatures employed as game- 
keepers, watchers, huntsmen, and grooms, whose qualifications for 
other than sporting employments are nil, if they were thrown upon 
their own resources by the cessation of sport, there would be a 
material addition to the annals of crime and drunkenness, of which 
the want of employment is often the cause. In connection with 
this business of pleasure there are thousands upon thousands of 
acres in parts of the British Isles which are devoted to sporting 
purposes only, and could be utilized in no other manner, and who 
that has penetrated the lonely fastnesses, the glens and corries of 
bonnie Scotland, the home of the red deer, the blackcock, and 
grouse, shall say that those who are employed in their preservation 
and protection are not benefited by sport and by those to whom 
