Mr. Lawrence on Cfuelty to Animals. 



1 824.] 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



WITH respect to the purest inten- 

 tions, a warmth of heart and a 

 sense of justice, that would do honour 

 to any man, I am disposed to make the 

 fullest concession to jourcorrespondent 

 Humanitas (Oct. 1 823.) But Ipresume, 

 that long and practical exertions on 

 the animal subject, longer and more 

 persevering than perliaps any other 

 man has hitherto encountered, au- 

 thorize me to say, that, however pure 

 and humane his motives, he has placed 

 himself on unsubstantial and delusive 

 grounds, and adopted a theory to 

 which nature herself will be an ever- 

 lasting opponent, and the only success 

 of which will be an increase of that 

 misery he desires to prevent. 



To brave the danger and ridicule of 

 egotism, and I am not mucii afraid, — 

 I was, from my cradle, filled with a 

 passionate affection for our domestic 

 animals, my chief favourites being the 

 horse and the cat. I have been, 

 throughout life, in the most familiar 

 habits with the greater part or all 

 those animals, thence acquiring an 

 insight into their nature, uses, and 

 management. I have ever compas- 

 sionated them, as beings endowed with 

 a fellow feeling, produced in a similar 

 order of generation, composed of the 

 same corporeal materials with our- 

 selves, and reasoning in a limited 

 degree; their chief defect, in that view, 

 being a want of the gift of speed). In 

 my estimation, they hold the rank of 

 inferior members of the social union; 

 and are, in an especial manner, inti- 

 tuled to our justice, compassion, and 

 protection, both on account of their 

 inestimable use and indispensable 

 .services, and as l)ing under the natu- 

 ral predicament of inability to defend 

 themselves, or revenge their injuries. 

 Nature lias been partial to our more 

 favoured race, for slave and poltroon 

 are generally convertible terms. Since 

 I have possessed the power of reflec- 

 lion, I have never been able to restrict 

 the |>ure and indivisible essences of 

 justice and compassion, or induce my- 

 seilto believe that we bipeds had been 

 originally endowed with a monopoly 

 of those necessarily uiiivi-rsal ])rinei- 

 jdes, and that (jundrupeds were inti- 

 tuled to no share or birthright in 

 Israel. Wild animals, also, every 

 thing which liatli life and feeling, draw 

 their rights to compassion from the 

 great charter of humanity. I liuve 



107 



long forgotten on what hypothesis 

 Hume asserted, that 'brutes could not 

 claim justice at our hands.' The 

 foundation of that claim lies in the 

 right reason of man. 



It is nevertheless too true, that from 

 the universally defective state of edu- 

 cation in this branch of ethics, and the 

 stupifying influence of custom, it was 

 impossible, notwithstanding my natu- 

 ral tendency, to avoid, during the hot 

 pursuit of pleasure or business in my 

 youthful days, numberless occasional 

 deviations from the right line of reason 

 and fairness, in the treatment of ani- 

 mals. Such have ever since been the 

 subjects of my bitter regret: and forty- 

 four years ago, in an astounding 

 unimpassioned absence of all feeling, 

 indeed a real aberration of common 

 sense, I committed such a flagrant and 

 abominable act of cruelty on a poor, 

 harmless, kind, and useful horse, as no 

 length of time can erase from my me- 

 mory. The horrible and disgusting 

 deed, living with my life, fails not to 

 intrude itself upon my memory, and to 

 fill my imagination with the ai)palling 

 whole length of the picture ; and will, 

 beyond all doubt, distress my last 

 moments. The reader, however, will 

 err greatly, should he suppose this con- 

 fession to bear any relation to a princi- 

 ple of religious fanaticism. My life, 

 indeed, is a scene of misery, at per- 

 petually recurring intervals, from wit- 

 nessing the universal wanton, needless, 

 and interested, cruelties inflicted on 

 beasts. 



To return to the position of Humani- 

 tas, he appears to me involved in an 

 error notably congenial with that of 

 his opponents. Neither he nor they 

 will submit to the guidance of a just 

 and suflicicnt discrimination. He is 

 not satisfied %vit!iout attempting to 

 im[)ose impracticable limits on the 

 use, and they will admit no restraints 

 on the abuse. Uoth parties seem tem- 

 porarily to have overlooked those 

 compromises and limitations, which 

 nature herself has imposed upon our 

 principles and our actions ; and one 

 parly, at least, to have forgotten tho 

 slight boundaries which subsist be- 

 tween our virtues and our vices ; and 

 tiiat, in real truth, we can have nothing 

 unalloyed and perfect here. The cru- 

 elty of shooting and abandoning 

 maimed and wcmnded birds, and wihl 

 animals, I can readily admit; nnd it has 

 l(jng been the subject tif iny useless 

 and unavailing regret ; but are wc 

 tlicucc 



