PREFACE 



AS the Author of the following Letters has been 

 * charged with inhumanity, and yet conjectured 

 to be a Clergyman, it is now become necessary to 

 publish his name : and, though it may not be usual 

 to answer an anonymous writer, 1 yet, as it is not 

 impossible that some readers may have adopted his 

 sentiments, this consideration, and this alone, induces 

 the Author to answer the objections which the critic 

 hath so wantonly made. Whatever may be the 

 imperfection of these Letters, the Author is desirous 

 that it should fall, as it ought, upon himself only. 

 The objections, which he thinks were unnecessarily 

 made, he has endeavoured to remove. All intentional 

 cruelty he entirely disclaims. His appeal from that 

 accusation lies to those whom he addresses as his 

 judges ; not (as the critic may think) because they are 

 equally barbarous with himself, but because Sportsmen 

 only are competent to decide. 



THE AUTHOR 



1 In the Monthly Review 



