1823.] Inhuman Practice of Shooting Birds, Sc. for Amusement. 
Lothe Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
‘The poor beetle that we tread upon 
In corp’ral saff’rance feels a pang as great 
As when a giant dics. - 
SIR, 
HE very extensive circulation of 
your amusing and instructive 
Miscellany, has induced me to select 
it-as-the best mode of drawing the 
public mind to the consideration of a 
subjeet which seems not to have 
received that aftention which might 
reasonably have been expected from 
a eivilized and refined age: I allude’ 
to the diversion of shooting, as it is 
generally termed ; upon which, though 
the propriety of my sentiments may 
be combated by many, it cannot be 
objected against me, at this pericd of 
the year, that my lucubrations are at 
all hors de saison. 
I am fulty aware, notwithstanding 
the superiority of country. gentlemen 
of the present day over that class of 
which the admirably-drawn character 
of Squire Western is but too faithful 
@ representative, that the great majo- 
rity of them still labour under many 
prejudices ; of which one is, that the 
practice of shooting is no impeach- 
ment of their characters, as men pro- 
fessing to regulate their conduct by 
moral principles. In this respect I con- 
sider their opinions to be quite erro- 
neous; ‘for it must be admitted, by 
every man of reflection and enquiry, 
that, though we are at liberty to take 
Ahe life of a brute for the sustentation 
of man, we are under an imperative 
obligation to take that life with the 
least possible degree of suffering to the 
animal which human ingenuity can 
devise. If this position be not dis- 
« proved,—and I am not aware that it 
can even be controverted,—it seems 
to follow undeniably, that the amuse- 
ment of shooting is wholly unjusti- 
fiable, because it involves a very great 
and unnecessary degree of suffering 
to those animals which are the objects 
of sport. ; 
Now, when I reflect. tliat the chief 
impediments to the gratification of our 
selfish desires are derived from the 
salutary influence of our moral facul-/ 
ties, joined to the foree of public 
opinion, I feel extremely anxious that 
this subject should be discussed with 
that attention and impartiality which 
conduce so materially to the establish- 
ment of truth; for, if once society at 
* large can be clearly convinced that the 
eruelty necessarily attendant upon 
Montuty Mac. No. 387. 
201 
the amusement of the sportsman 
ought to degrade him in the general 
estimation, it may be relied upon that 
‘a great step has been gained in the - 
cause of humanity. 
Prejudices, I am well aware, are 
hard things to encounter; but by dint 
of reason how many have been re- 
moved! Bacon, perceiving that the 
age in which he flourished was unable, 
from its ignorance and prejudice, 
duly to estimate his stupendous intel- 
lectual powers, and the vast services 
he had rendered to society, was in- 
duced to insert that singular clause in 
his will, wherein he bequeaths his 
name to posterity, after some ages 
shall have passed away. Now, com- 
paring great things with small, it is 
upon a similar principle that L indulge 
the hope, that the period may arrive, 
and even be accelerated by the efforts 
of more powerful pens than my own, 
when a positive disgrace will attach 
to any gentleman pursuing amuse- 
ments which necessarily subject the 
brute creation to pain and torture. 
I have often been at a loss to 
account for the conduct of both town 
and country gentlemen, who, merely 
for the pleasure of shooting, inflict 
almost every day throughout the sea- 
son the severest sufferings upon such 
numbers of the winged and four- 
footed animals. What would be the 
feelings of a gentleman, whose life in 
the main is amiable and unblemished, 
upon hearing himself compared to a 
ruffian bullock-driver, a skinner of 
live eels, or a crimper of live cod-fish? 
—wretches who are daily execrated 
by all who have a {guch of compassion 
in their breasts; though for these 
monsters may be pleaded an early 
familiarity with barbarous scenes, 
which tend so much to brutalize the 
‘feelings, and a state of mind deplora- 
bly ignorant of those principles which 
every moderately-informed gentleman 
cannot fail to acquire in the course of 
his education. ‘These comparisons, I 
confess, are extremely degrading ; but 
I know not how they ean be fairly 
rebutted. 
There can be no doubt that many a 
sportsman, who perhaps has left three 
or four brace of partridges in the 
field maimed and torn by his shot, has 
(at his ewn table, before the day had 
passed over his head upon which he 
had committed these disgusting cruel- 
ties,) severely censured, and deseryed- 
2D 
ly 
