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sport is dear, and would find it impossible to maintain life under 
any other condition ? It is not long since a Bill bearing the title of 
“ Access to Mountains ” was introduced in the House of Commons, 
purely on philanthropic grounds, and with a view of ameliorating 
the condition of the Highlanders, and some idea was entertained of 
the possibility of reclaiming the heather-clad hills of Scotland and 
of bringing the plough to bear upon her uncultivated wilds. Ho 
doubt there arose in the mind’s eye of the philanthropist visions 
of peace and plenty, prosperous homesteads, and smiling fields of 
waving corn, but these are the dreams of a disordered brain, for 
reclamation in many of these parts is absolutely impracticable, and 
even where possible would occupy too lengthy a period of time and 
absorb too large an amount of capital. Supposing, too, that the 
transformation-scene took place, and trade and agriculture were 
introduced where heretofore sport only had flourished, would it be 
possible to transform the Highlander into a husbandman, or the 
gillie into a grocer? It is hard to believe that legislation of this 
nature would in any way benefit those classes for which it was 
intended, or that they could be successful in any other metier than 
that to which their lives, their characters, and their associations 
have accustomed them. In plain and broad English, it would be 
impossible for them to get their living in any other way; like 
Othello, their “ occupation would be gone,” and even if they did 
not live in idleness they would be drawn to the great cities, already 
over-teeming with population, and thus accentuate the very evil we 
desire to avoid, and complicate the very question which is exercising 
the minds of our statesmen. All legislation is intended for the 
greatest good of the greatest number, for the benefit of the poor and 
of those who are unable to assist themselves, for the repression and 
extinction of crime in its varied forms; but an enactment of this 
kind is theoretical and visionary, and as such should not commend 
itself to those who are at the helm of the ship of state and who 
guide the destinies of the nation. Nothing can be intrinsically 
sounder than that those of our fellow-countrymen who have the 
leisure, the inclination, and the funds at their disposal should have 
every possible opportunity offered them of improving their minds 
and preserving their health, but by a parity of reasoning nothing 
can be more unsound than that they should do so at the expense 
and to the detriment of vast numbers of their fellow creatures. 
I have now to deal with the fox, the other animal which I have 
chosen for discussion. Nobody knows better than myself the 
