at liberty. A fellow-creature is agreeably amused and benefited, and no man robbed, since the bird that flies in the air no more belongs to the tenant of the mansionhouse, than the sunbeam which equally shines on the cottage and the palace. Poor is the opulence, and little the grandeur, which shows a disposition which would undoubtedly engross, if it were possible, the light and the air.

With respect to the matter of a trespass, it is certain, that a Lord of the Manor is no less liable to be prosecuted for it on his own manor than any other person, whether qualified or unqualified. It shows, therefore, the ignorance, as well as arbitrary disposition of these petty princes, when they claim the privilege of prowling for prey, without control, on their neighbour's land, and of excluding all others from their own. In short, it is extremely doubtful what privileges the lord of the manor possesses; and whether he has a better right to hunt and shoot, without a particular grant from the king, than the meanest subject whom he bullies and browbeats. The contemptible laws which have been made on this business certainly want illustration and amendment. Indeed they ought to be torn out of the statute book; and the memory of them, like that of feudal ignorance and slavery, execrated.

There is a practice particularly mean and oppressive, which very much prevails in this selfish age, among the engrossers of that part of the creation which God and nature have constituted free as the seas and the wind. They do not consider the pursuit of Game in the liberal light of a gentlemanlike diversion, but view the hare and the partridge as provender for the table at once genteel and cheap. They therefore seldom give themselves the trouble to join in the chase, or carry the gun over the fur

ing has acquired a skill in the arts of destroying Game; clothe him in green plush, and send him to provide pheasants, and bid defiance to his superiors, whenever the master has company to dine with him, and wishes to save an article in the butcher's account. This green-coated hero, who is usually one of the greatest scoundrels in the parish, sallies forth under the protection of the lord or lady of the manor; and if he meets a curate, or an apothecary, or a reputable tradesman, or even a neighbouring lord of the manor, boldly insults him, threatens to shoot their dogs, or seize their fowlingpieces; and justifies all his insolence by alleging, that what he does or says is all by his master's order. Appeal to that master, and, probably, the insults are aggravated; or, if he pretends to uncommon affability, he will allow that the fellow is apt to be a little foulmouthed; but, upon the whole, is a very faithful servant. The low wretch himself might, indeed, be punished both for his trespass and his ill usage; but though he insulted his prosecutors in the field, he is ready, like all upstart and petty potentates, to bend on his knees for mercy, and usually disarms the generous by pleading a wife and six children. I know not which ought to predominate, compassion for the poor deluded peasant, or contempt for his employer. It is surely enough that the rich man. claims an exclusive right to the commoners of nature himself; and he ought by no means to be suffered to commission the lowest plebeian to do that which he prohibits in gentlemen of the professions; of fortunes as independent, if not so great, as his own, and of minds often much greater.

It is in the power of these hirelings, who seldom possess much principle, to involve all the country in animosity. The landed gentry usually possess a share of pride fully proportionate to their estate and

the dominions of another. Reprisals are made. Each defends his representatives. One thinks himself as good (for that is the phrase) as the other. No concessions can possibly be made. Hatred, of the bitterest and most rancorous kind mutually takes possession of these lords in miniature; and many a hunting would end, if vassals could be procured, like that of Chevy Chace, in a bloody battle.

If compassion did not intervene, one might be much entertained with so ludicrous an object, as that of creatures, who pretend to reason, benevolence, christianity, and education, rendering their existence mutually painful, by fierce quarrels, secret but venomous hatred, expensive and vexatious litigations, occasioned by objects of a nature truly trifling in themselves, and which, allowing them every possible praise, can be called no more than innocent diversions. Are we not still children with all our beard and gravity about us, if we always play till we quarrel? Our conduct, in this respect, is almost too absurd to admit of serious expostulation. It may furnish scenes for mirth at a puppetshow, or a farce at Bartholomew Fair.

However, I think it necessary, before I conclude this subject, to declare, for the sake of avoiding the malignant misinterpretations of gossips and scandaldealers by profession, that there are no allusions in. this paper either personal or local; and that I have not been pleading for a privilege in which I am interested, not being inclined to hunt, nor able to shoot.

I will beg leave to add one passage on the subject from Blackstone, for the information of those among sportsmen, who are too tenacious of their exclusive rights, and who are able to read it.

"Another violent alteration of the English constitution, consisted in the depopulation of whole

version; and subjecting both them, and all the ancient forests of the kingdom to the unreasonable severity of Forest Laws, imported from the continent; whereby the slaughter of a beast was made almost as penal as the death of a man. In the

Saxon times, though no man was allowed to kill or chase the King's deer, yet he might start any game, pursue and kill it, upon his own estate. But the rigour of these new constitutions vested the sole property of all the Game in England in the King alone; and no man was allowed to disturb any fowl of the air, or any beast of the field, of such kinds as were specially reserved for the royal amusement of the Sovereign, without express license from the King, by the grant of a chase or free warren and those franchises were granted as much with a view to preserve the breed of animals, as to indulge the subject. From a similar principle to which, though the Forest Laws are now mitigated, and by degrees grown entirely obsolete; yet from this root has sprung a bastard slip, known by the name of the Game Law, now arrived to, and wantoning in, its highest vigour: both founded upon the same unreasonable notions of permanent property in wild creatures; and both productive of the same tyranny to the commons: but with this difference; that the Forest Laws established only one mighty hunter throughout the land, the Game Laws have raised a little Nimrod in every manor. And in one respect the ancient law was much less unreasonable than the modern; for the King's grantee of a chase or free warren might kill game in every part of his franchise but now, though a freeholder of less than one hundred a year is forbidden to kill a partridge on his own estate, yet nobody else (not even the lord of the manor, unless he hath a grant of free warren) can do it without committing a trespass, and subjecting himself to an action."

No. CXXII.

On the Importance of governing the Temper.

NOTWITHSTANDING the many complaints of the calamities of human life, it is certain, that more constant uneasiness arises from ill temper than from ill fortune. In vain has Providence bestowed every external blessing, if care has not been taken by ourselves to smooth the asperities of the temper. A bad temper imbitters every sweet, and converts a paradise into a place of torment.

The government of the temper then, on which the happiness of the human race so greatly depends, can never be too frequently, or too forcibly recommended. But as it was found by some of the ancients one of the most efficacious methods of deterring young persons from any disagreeable or vicious conduct, to point out a living character in which it appeared in all its deformity, I shall exhibit a picture, in which I hope a bad temper will appear, as it really is, a most unamiable object.

It is by no means uncommon to observe those, who have been flattered for superficial qualities at a very early age, and engaged in so constant a series of dissipating pleasure, as to leave no time for the culture of the mind, becoming, in the middle and advanced periods of life, melancholy instances of the miserable effects resulting from an ungoverned temper. A certain lady, whom I shall distinguish by the name of Hispulla, was celebrated from her infancy for a fine complexion. She had, indeed, no very amiable expression in her eyes, but the vermilion of her cheeks did not fail to attract admira