ON SPORTS AND IXERCISE«. 31 3 



Of all the cruel sports, buII-baiting, as generally prac- — ©n account 

 tisedjjs, perhaps, the least defensible. It is not only a of baseness and 

 cruel, but a foolish and detestable diversion. That the 

 spectacle of two animals endowed with courage, strength 

 and activity, exerting their antipathies to each others 

 destruction, upon fair and equal terms, should excite our 

 curiosity and animate our feelings, is reconcileable to the 

 constitution and nature of man ; but that any human 

 being should delight in beholding a noble and useful ani- 

 mal tied to a stake, and deprived in a great measure of 

 the means of offence and defence, and then worried and 

 tormented by dogs and men, is a sport so insipid, so un- 

 sportsman-Hke*, and so cruel, as to excite wonder as 

 well as detestation. But the ad?ocates of these and 

 similar cruel diversions, exclaim in a tone of triumphant 



interrogation ^" Do not these sports inspire manly 



courage and contempt of danger?" — Certainly not. 

 They are only calculated to generate cruelty and a thirst 

 for blood. They may, indeed; inspire ferocity and in- 

 f ensibility to danger, but they are unfit to impart genuine 

 and manly fortitude. 



The Romans indulged, as before remarked, in these The Romans 

 savage diversions to a greater extent than any other nation did not derive 

 ^^ antiquity; yet they did not excel the Greeks, nor jj^^g^^^^^^^^j^"^ 



sports. 



^ Throwing at cocks is another specimen of unmeaning brutality Cock- fighting. 

 conSned solely to our own country. After being familiarized to 

 the barbarous destruction of this courageous bird in the cock-pit, 

 it was oqly advancing one step further in the progress of cruelty, to 

 fasten this most gallant animal to a stake, in order to murder him 

 piece-meal. This detestable barbarity has declined as our manners 

 have become more polished and humane; but the strong hand of 

 the law was obliged to interfere in many places to hasten its aboli- 

 tion. The cruel treatment of the animal race might well lead an 

 ingenious foreigner f to remark, when describing our popular 

 diversion, as follows: '* The women of Rome beheld barbarities, 

 and murders in cold blood; but the boxing-matches — the bull- 

 baitings, cock-fightings, and the numerous attendance oC both sexes 

 at public executions, indicate that there is at least a remnant of 

 Roman manners, and thp taste of those times, left in England " 



f Wcnderborn, oil the character and manners of the people of 

 Great Britain. 



Vol. XV.— Pec. 1806, V u hart 



