Mr. J. D. Dougali, the gnnmaker of Bennett Street, gives
the Times some curious information as to the eagerness of the wealthy classes for shooting. Thirty-five years ago, he says, the lease of a grouse moor in the Highlands, long let for £80, fell in, and was instantly let for shooting for £1,400, a rise to seventeen and a half times its agricultural value. This was followed by similar cases, till at present he estimates the total of the Highland shootings at £12,000,000 of capital value. Deer "forests" are equally profitable. A Highland estate was described in the Times the other day in terms of unusual eulogy, and was purchased by a buyer who had never seen it, in less than twenty-four hours. Mr. Dougall advised him to let the shootings, and on his agreeing to do so, let them for him at a figure equal to ninety per cent. of the entire agricultural rental. He further offered to bay the shootings for ever at a price equal to two-thirds of the •entire purchase-money, the offer, it should be added, being in tens of thousands of pounds. Mr. Dougall is a bold man, to stake so much on the aristocratic character of Parliament. It will be observed that in all these transactions, though a few landlords are greatly enriched, and thereby encouraged to de- prive the people of their rights of way over the waste lands, nothing whatever is added to the wealth of the country. The ,money is as unproductive as if it were lost at cards, as the winners, like the landlords, might also use it well.
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