[p. 102]
|102| and jurors – has drawn a general attention to itself. The interest of the lovers of the chase is likewise engaged by the great extension of the right of hunting in the open territories; the son of a squire has the right of hunting, and every parson counts as a squire, so that the son can have this privilege, which the father, if he is not himself already the son of a squire, does not possess, etc. For several years a game bill for the improvement of these laws has been introduced in Parliament year after year, but none has yet had the good fortune to be carried through against the privileged interests in the chase; a bill of this kind also lies before the present Parliament. It must still be regarded as problematic to what extent the projected parliamentary reform would have to have a significant influence on this legislation – on the mitigation of the penalties, on the restriction of the personal right of hunting, above all also, in the interest of the class tilling the fields, on the right that the stags, hares, foxes be pursued with the pack of hounds and with 20, 30 and more horses and still more men on foot through the sown fields and all the open cultivated land. In many German countries the damage by game, the devastation of the fields through the chase, the eating away of the sowings and fruits by the game, formerly constituted a standing article in the grievances of the estates of the realm; up to now English freedom has not yet imposed upon itself the restriction of such rights, which the princes of Germany have long since renounced for the best of their subjects.
The sprawling rubbish-heap of English private right, which Englishmen themselves can bring themselves, out of pride in their freedom, to call an Augean stable, would be quite capable of becoming an object of the hope of a cleansing. The little that Robert Peel carried through some years ago
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.