Norwich bulletin., 1917-02-03

(Written Specially for The Bulletin9
 l notice the deer ques ton is likely
 to be brouShts up in the legislature
 again. If SO, We shall, doubtless, have
 the usual old debate between senti-
 ment and sense: between those who represent the actual needs of the coTu-
 munitx and those who don't care a
 own amusement.
 What do you, fellow farmer, think
 of these game laws" as a whole, any way?
 For one am frank Co eorfess that regard the most of them as simply
 another peculiarly rank evidence of
 the little wisdom with which the In it's essence. the game law" is relic and survival of the ancient. bar
 barrie, times when few rich and pow
 erful and utterly unscrupulous peers and barons lorded it unrestrainedE over vast demeSnes. These huge eS-
 tates, usually given them by some king in return for the aid they and their vaSsals had given him at need, had the castle" on some dominating point, in which the lords and lord lings revelled in such carousals and debaucheries as fitted their rather savage tastes. Around the castle spread the woods and fields. All be- longed to the lord of the manor. He could clear them or forest them: could use them or neglect them. and there was no one to say him nay. The cowed and defenseless vassals who. dwelt in novels here and there over his lands were just TasSals and noth-i ing more. They had no rights either of property or person which the lord of the manor was bound to respect He gave them certain privleges-rot rights-which they might shelter un- der until he changed his mind, and guaranteed them a sort of snpercilfous t6Ct1nTT siderS. In return for this, they lived as his slaves and helots in time of peace, and were compelled to serve under his banner in time of war.
 But they owned nothing at any time nor in any place. The novels. they built to shelter in their baronial mas ter might destroy at his pleasures the bits of land they cleared and tried to crop he might take from them with out a minutes warning; they were nothing more than tenants at wilf' at the will of an ialoof and wholly selfish oyer-lord, without appeal from his acts or rederss from his abuse.
 This over-Icrd, who had been brought up to regard war as the only worthy occupation, and hunting as the only worthy amusement of the high born. naturally cared a good deal less about the protection and the welfare of his twao-legged vassals than abolt the protection of the four-footed game
 
 woods They were his woods, bear in mind; and the game in them was his game; both intended and maintained solely for his pleasure. Therefore, if human vassal, creeping forth from his repulsive burrow in the dark. killed , a deer or took a trotft to satisfy his hunger and that of his squalling brood he, was promptly hung as soon as caught.
 Oh, they used to protect the gSmer in those daysi There were peasants enough to do their lords bidding, and plenty of brats growing up to take their places. Besides. they couldn't be hunted; i. e. were net worth hunt ing either for food or belts, while thu game was needed for feastS at the cas- tie. Therefore it was made death at short shrift for any man, without per mission. to kill any of the over-lord's game. How many men were hung to forest trees or burned alive in their own fired huts for hunting the kings or the baron's deer fin those good old days, only the good God knows. No records were ever kept nor any re- ports ever made: any more than of | the deer and trout that king or baron on their. own hunting ex-
 There was no such thing as asrieui- l lure or manufacture in those days. as | we now understand the terms Only | slaves or peasants or other unregarded | low-born creatures engaged or sought | to engage in either If any one under | took either, he ,did so at his own risk | and with no guarantee of protection | or assistance or reward:-n even of | toleration beyond the Irresponsible | pleasure of his local over-Iord His | meRial labors might be permitted, so | long as they didn't interfere with the | run of salmon and trout or the hunt | ing of the fallow deer. But that was | all. The game was the chief thing. and such matters as the raising of | wheat or barley or cabbages or apples were of secondary importance.
 Those were the days of real game | laws I can imagine that a few men In this country, today, look back at them with real envy,. and wish some | thing of the same sort might be en- acted over again.
 The most of us, though, are able to | see marked difference between the of -mediaeval Europe and F those of modern industrial America. Those who really think that the diff | right to that opinion. They have however, small right to deny the exis- | tence of the difference.
 Admitting and assuming that diff | ference, the continuation of game ! avs, solely for the protection of game | IS game, seems to me as infensible an | in these days as would | he establishment of "vilIeinage'' or he re-enaetn1ent 2of primogeniture | avs or the. creation of -BaroHs of
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