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plenty of idle rascals in the world for whom the judicious application of a well-furnished birch is fine physic, and much more likely to lead to their moral reformation than a lifetime of imprisonment. Many of us have a certain sneaking sympathy for the poacher. This fades away into thin air as soon as we recognise that in the majority of cases the professed poacher is an idle and dissolute blackguard, who expects other people to maintain his wife and family, while he drinks the fruits of his illegal practices in company with bad characters. Of course I have known some poachers who were temperate men, and only offended against the laws of their country from a passionate love of sport which they could not indulge in any other way; more's the pity. Such men occasionally make tolerable gamekeepers, though they require much supervision and encouragement. But the majority of poachers are ne'er-do-weels, who prefer the excitement of netting hares to working steadily at a trade. Their nefarious practices lead to sad results, especially in netting hares at night, which was prohibited in Queen Anne's reign. The whipping provided for night poachers by a statute of George III. did not save the hares from the nets of their persecutors. The mêlées which ensued between the keepers who tried to seize the long nets, and the