APPENDIX.] THE MAROONS. 383 







construction or wilful misrepresentation in the mo- 

 ther country. It was maintained that the grounds of 

 the measure needed only to be fully examined into, 

 and fairly stated, to induce all reasonable men to ad- 

 mit its propriety and necessity. To hold it as a prin- 

 ciple, that it is an act of cruelty or cowardice in man 

 to employ other animals as instruments of war, is a 

 position contradicted by the practice cf all nations. 

 The Asiatics have ever used elephants in their battles ; 

 and if lions and tygers possessed the docility of the 

 elephant, no one can doubt that these also would be 

 made to assist the military operations of man, in those 

 regions of which they are inhabitants. Even the use 

 of cavalry, as established among the most civilized 

 and polished nations of Europe, must be rejected, if 

 this principle be admitted ; for wherein, it was asked, 

 does the humanity of that doctrine consist, which 

 allows the employment of troops of horse in the pur- 

 suit of discomfited and flying infantry ; yet shrinks at 

 the preventive measure of sparing the effusion of 

 human blood, by tracing with hounds the haunts of 

 murderers, and rousing from ambush savages more 

 ferocious and blood-thirsty than the animals which 

 track them ? 



The merits of the question, it was said, depended 

 altogether on the origin and cause of the war; and 

 the objects sought to be obtained by its continuance ; 



and the authority of the first writers on nublic law, 



j i 



v,*as adduced in support of this construction. " If the 

 cause and end of war (says Paley*) be justifiable, all 



* Moral Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 41-7. 



