LAW FOR THE FARMER. 327 



terday, I have given up trying to be popular. The first few j'-ears 

 of my life, I undertook to be a popular man, and I found it the 

 hardest road I ever undertook to travel in all my life. 



I feel very much obliged to you for the kind manner in which 

 you have listened to me. I have attempted to state the proposi- 

 tions clearly, but the law is not an exact science, like mathematics'. 

 I have said enough, outside of the law, to identify myself ; to show 

 you, if not that I am like the Pharisee, "thanking God that I 

 am not like other men," at least that I have opinions of my own, 

 and I intend to entertain them until I am properly convinced of 

 their fallacy by sound argument. As to this matter of humanity, 

 it is one on which I feel deeply. I have lost a good many warm 

 friends by checking them .in their cruelty to their animals. I have 

 been thought by my neighbors to be almost fanatical in my 

 attempts to prevent what I thought was cruelty to animals. But 

 I was so made up ; I do not claim any merit for it ; but I say that 

 with all the true religion and all the true piety in the land, we 

 need a humanity that shall take in not only the unfortunate of the 

 human race, but even the brute creation, committed by the Divine 

 Author to our care, and which should be protected by a kinder and 

 more gentle hand. 



Ladies and gentlemen, again I will say I am very much obliged 

 to you for the kind attention you have given me in this discourse 

 which I have delivered without previous preparation. 



Hon. A. M. Robinson of Dover. It strikes me, Mr. President 

 and gentlemen, that the whole subject matter embraced in the lec- 

 ture has been pretty thoroughly exhausted by the eloquent gentle- 

 man who has addressed us. I can add nothing to the leading prin- 

 ciples laid down, or the leading instructions given. All I can do 

 is merely to epitomize, or to make a little summary of some of the 

 generalities, and that I will endeavor to do very briefly. 



Let me state a little fact which occurred to me while the gentle- 

 man was speaking of the cost of road-fences. I suppose a fair 

 average for the expense of building and maintaining a highway 

 fence would be a dollar a rod, and that, I think is a low figure. 

 Upon that basis it has cost this town of Dover $48,000 for their 

 road fences ; and so other towns in proportion to the length of 

 their roads. I know the length of the highways in the town of 

 Dover, and I base the estimate upon a dollar a rod. 



With regard to trespasses of cattle — the most practical thing 



