200 On the Use a?id Abuse of 



fond of these diversions, are, ^t the same tim<?, 

 Jess ferocious,! and indeed hold the shedding of 

 hunoan blood more in abhorrence than any 

 othernation on the face of the globe.'* Granted 

 that we really deserve this honourable distinc- 

 tion — ^Does it follow that human nature is dif- 

 ferently constituted in England to what it is in 

 Other parts of the world ? Can it be necessary 

 to prove, that habits of indifference to human 

 suffering are acquired by repeated acts of cru- 

 elty to brutes ; and that the sympathy of our 

 natures must be blunted in proportion to our 

 familiarity with scenes of unnecessary and 

 wanton barbarity ? These are almost self- 

 evident suppositions ; at least they are such in- 

 ductions from daily and repeated experience, 

 as to pass current for intuitive truths.— But if 

 w€ admit that 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 paradox, if there really 

 be any, is not difficult of solution, 



The life of man is always most respected, 

 where it is of mOvSt consequence. For, in .a 

 country like Britain, where the whole body of 

 the people enjoy political and civil rights, their 



