ON SPORTS AND JEXERCISES. 315 



with scenes of unnecessary and wanton barbarity ? These Arguments 



are almost self-evident suppositions; at least they are gJjJ^J^Sard to 



such inductions from daily and repeated expericncCj as the influence 



to pass current for intuitive truths. But if we admit that ^^ »^5 •ports, 



the English are more addicted to cruel sports, and yet 



hold human life more sacred than the people of other 



countries, it by no means follows, that such sports have 



not a tendency to create a disposition to cruelty. How 



then are we to reconcile this apparent contradiction? 



The paradoit, if there really be any, is not difficult of 



solution. 



The life of man is always most respected, where it is 

 of most consequence. For, in a country like Britain, 

 where the whole body of the people enjoy political and 

 civil rights, their own importance, and that of their fel- 

 low-citizens will be felt and esteemed ; and where just 

 and equal laws protect the life and property of the 

 meanest of the people, and consequently private injuries 

 can be redressed by an appeal to the tribunals of justice, 

 man will be less disposed to be the avenger of his own 

 wrongs. Besides, ignorance is commonly the parent of 

 cruelty. Now it may be safely asserted, that the know- 

 ledge of man's duties both towards his neighbour and his 

 Creator, are better understood and more widely diffused 

 amongst the mass of the people in this kingdom, than in 

 tliose otherwise civilized countries, where a thirst for the 

 bloQd of their fellow-creatures seems chiefly to prevail. 

 These eminent moral and political advantages are the 

 powerful counteracting causes of that spirit of barbarism 

 which cruel diversions are calculated to excite. If it be 

 desirable then to efiace the harsh lineaments of rudeness, 

 and a want of feeling nearly allied to brutality, which 

 still mar the otherwise fair visage of the national charac 

 ter, let all barbarous diversions be entirely abolished ; 

 but especially let the sport of bull-baiting be the fi.rst 

 offering to be sacrificed at the shrines of humanity and 

 justice! *' A diversion," to speak of it in the language 

 of a justly celebrated orator*, " which may be chafac- 



* Sheridan. Parliamentary Debate* on the abolition of Bull- 

 \iaiting, &c. 



Uu a terised 



