FOXES AND FOX-HUNTING. The law with reference to fox-hunting, which is a matter of a good deal of importance in many parts of the country, seems to stand thus in England: "Though in general all persons who go upon another's lands without per mission are trespasserS in the eye of the law, yet there are some cases where the trespass is said to be justifiable," says Mr. Paterson, the most recent writer on the subject, and he quotes Blackstone's dictum to the effect that " the common law warrants the hunting of ravenous beasts of prey, as badgers and foxes, in another man's land, because the .
destroying such creatures said to be profitable to the public" (3 Black. Com. 212).
Care must be taken, however, that no damage be done beyond what is necessary for the public good, for that is the ground on which alone the legal character of fox-hunting can be maintained. It was found, moreover, in the earl of Essex v. Capel (1 Chili. Game
L. 114), that though pursuing a fox, on another's land be justifiable, yet, if it take to earth, or to a house there, it is not justifiable to dig or break doors for it. In Scotland, where, from the character of the country, fox-hunting is often impossible, it never has become a national the same extent as in England; and consequently, the rule that one is entitled to enter on the lands of another for the purpose of killing a fox, has been confined to those cases in which he is pursued simply as a noxious beast, and fox hunting for sport without leave has been held to be punishable as a trespass, and the trespasser held liable for whatever surface-damage he may 'Occasion. In Ireland (by 1 and 2 Will. IV. c. 32, s. 35), persons pursuing with hounds any fox, hare, or deer which has been started elsewhere on another's land, are exempted from summary proceedings for trespass.