Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

is

particular instance the agent erred on the side of leniency. A less courteous but perhaps wiser man would have laid down for himself a hard-andfast rule of prosecuting with the utmost rigour of the law every single instance of conscious or unconscious poaching. For the sooner that a shooting-hotel run under these conditions brought into thoroughly bad odour with the general public, the better for all parties except the hotel proprietor. Rough shooting in a wild district is an intelligible and attractive form of sport; yet the destruction of a neighbour's hand-reared birds. in the course of their passage from one covert to another may be legal, but most certainly is neither equitable nor sportsmanlike. Wholesale prosecution, though now and again liable to bear hardly upon individuals, seems to me, as the law stands now, to be the only method of preventing an irremediable form of iniquity.

I regret to record that our air-and-exercise member, in the brief interval between the service of the summons and the interview with the agent, did not adopt an entirely sympathetic attitude towards the two companions in adversity. Not being himself exactly particeps criminis, and having therefore a conscience void of offence, he met all attempts to discuss future plans-for we had promptly determined to save our reputation by changing quarters with sinister suggestions of the uncertainties

[ocr errors]

of English law as administered by local magistrates.

"We can't quite depend, George, on having our whist if these other fellows get, as they seem to have a very good chance of getting, a fortnight with 'hard.' What rot these game laws are, and what a blethering idiot is William,if it was William's fault, I mean."

And then he would amuse himself by speculating on the probable appearance of Tertius, who was bearded like a pard, when he "came out "closecropped and clean-shaven.

"Anyway, if they don't shave you, old chap, they'll crop it a bit, for fear that the ends might get hitched up in the 'mill.' Merciful men are merciful to their beasts, and draw the line at either muzzling the ox that treadeth out the corn or pulling off the beard of a fellow who is doing time on the mill."

He affected to be rather scandalised than otherwise when, thanks to the agent's courtesy, the plea of ignorance secured the withdrawal of the summonses, and he talked a lot about William's injured innocence, the agent's willingness to compound a felony, and the undeserved good - luck of the poachers. "But, after all," as Tertius sagely remarked, "what could be expected of a man who was caught napping without any cartridges in his gun at the moment when a large flock of golden plover flew whistling over his head!"

(To be continued.)

TO A FAT PIG.

WHEN I peruse that tranquil countenance,
When I behold you lying in the deep,
Calm torpor of your customary trance,
And smiling in your sleep;

When I compare the lives that men endure,
The hard hours treading on each others' heels,
With yours, an easy, drowsy sinecure,

Unbroken, save for meals;

Stirred to the limits of mine injured pride
By your outrageous otium cum dig.,
O Hog, if I could only reach you, "I'd
Larn ye to be a" pig!

O Hog, O fat, insufferable Hog,

The very barn-door hen must ply a leg Or go unvictualled; even the household dog Has to sit up and beg.

Judged by your smug complacency, you seem
To think yourself a strangely favoured beast,
But is there not a shadow on the dream,
A spectre at the feast?

You never move. For your voracious need Mysterious broths are brought you from afar; Strange messes coax you if you're off your feed (Not that you ever are!);

The great trough yawns beneath your very snout; You eat, you sleep, upon the selfsame spot; People object to see you move about,

They'd rather you did not.

O Hog, so unsuspecting and so fat,

Do you suppose that these attentions spring From Man's great kindness? If you swallow that, You'd swallow anything.

Oft have I noticed, hovering round the sty
Where you, unknowing, snore in Morpheus' arms,
A gross, red man, who, with an owner's eye,
Approves your bulging charms.

Darkly he prods you with his oaken staff
Like this-I'm sorry-and remains awhile
Gloating; and laughs a grim, carnivorous laugh,
While you sleep on, and smile.

O Hog, so fat, so green, did you awake
To the ferocious menace of those eyes,

You would sleep less, methinks, but you would take

A deal more exercise.

J. K.

THE SITUATION IN MACEDONIA.

BY ONE LONG RESIDENT IN THE NEAR EAST.

THE troubles in Macedonia have dragged on so long that the general public in England has almost lost sight of the main issues which gave rise to them, and only vaguely appreciates the internal causes which have rendered a solution so difficult and so slow. The agitation was first planned in Bulgaria. Its avowed object was to force the European Powers to intervene in favour of the Christians in Macedonia, in the hope that such an intervention would lead to the annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria, just as Eastern Roumelia had already been annexed in 1886. To this end, armed bands were formed in Bulgaria, who crossed the frontier to induce the peasants in Macedonia to rise in revolt. Arms and ammunition had been ingeniously procured by the capture of an American lady - missionary and the encashment of a ransom of £12,000 for her release. The Christian peasants who sympathised with Bulgaria welcomed the insurgent bands, but took little part in the fighting which the invasion provoked. They were, however, sufficiently terrorised to be led, in some cases willingly, in others forcibly, to contribute to the treasury of the Bulgarian insurgents. Bravely the Bulgarian bands, in scattered groups of a few hundreds each, fought the Turkish soldiers,

VOL. CLXXVIII. —NO. MLXXIX.

but their courageous efforts were in vain against the, far more numerous and better appointed Turkish battalions. There was about equal slaughter on both sides, but while the loss of a few hundreds scarcely affected the strength of the Turks, it seriously crippled the small bands of the insurgents. The struggle was hopelessly unequal. The peasants, although they took small part in the fighting, found their position seriously compromised with their rulers, and fled in crowds from their homes, crossing the frontier into Bulgaria for safety. Their lot was a hard one. The excitement caused in Bulgaria by the influx of these homeless and helpless refugees was great, and for a time there was a danger that the little Principality would have forced upon it a war with Turkey, which might have imperilled its own existence. Wiser counsels, however, prevailed, and when the European Powers decided to intervene diplomatically to improve the lot of the Macedonian Christians, the Bulgarian Government judiciously left the complicated situation in the hands of the Powers. Such is the position to-day. A few bands of Bulgarian insurgents still exist, and from time to time continue to make raids into Macedonia, but the Government of the Principality, as a

2 B

Government, does not encourage them, and there is no longer any danger of an armed conflict between Bulgaria and Turkey. Meantime, it has gradually become evident that the an- shall endeavour to cull, from nexation of Macedonia to the most important amongst Bulgaria is at present un- them, the points of interest attainable, for the simple which are brought out. reason that the Christian population of Macedonia is divided in its sympathies, and that an influential portion is as fiercely inimical to the Bulgarians as either party is to the Turks. Hence we find Greek insurgent bands fighting on Macedonian soil, and even Macedonian villagers with Greek sympathies attacking those with Bulgarian sympathies, and vice versa. The conviction is thus brought inlet thus brought home to even the most ardent supporters of the Bulgarian cause that, at present, all that can be done is to improve the lot of the Macedonian Christians as subjects of Turkey. That is the task which confronts, and is being attempted by, the six European Powers who signed the Treaty of Berlin in 1878.

The space at our disposal does not permit of referring to all the ten chapters, each by a separate writer, which form the volume referred to, but we

The

The

The first and introductory chapter is by Mr James Bryce, M.P. He treats chiefly of the decay of the Turkish Empire, and describes the extinction of Ottoman rule as "plainly inevitable, but, he adds, "it may be delayed for some decades, conceivably even till near the end of the present century." attacking century." In this the majority of Englishmen will say, il prêche aux convertis. inlet of light must necessarily dispel darkness. schoolmaster is the vanquisher of autocracies. What will not mend must end. In answering the postulate which Mr Bryce puts, "What ought the solution to be?" he indicates two possible solutions of the Eastern problems. One is the absorption of the existing nationalities into the great dominions and great nations which border upon Turkey. The other is the growth of these nationalities, or some of them, into nations and states. The first seems to Mr Bryce the easiest, but of the second he remarks—

The publication of a volume entitled 'The Balkan Question,' edited by Luigi Villari (Murray), comes very apropos at the present time. It forms a useful compendium, by various competent writers-first, of all that concerns the emancipation of the Christian races which had the misfortune to fall a prey to the retrograde Mohammedan autocracy, and, second, of the actual position of what has got to be called the Macedonian question.

"One may venture to say that humanity has more to expect from the development of new civilised nations out of ancient yet still vigorous races than from the submersion of these races under a flood of Russianising or Germanising influences, emanating from any one of the three great empires."

« ForrigeFortsæt »