BARBAROUS USE OF DISCIPLINE 185 



It is seldom necessary to flog hounds to make them 

 obedient, since obedience is the first lesson that they 

 are taught ; yet, if any should be more riotous than 

 the rest, they may receive a few cuts in the morning, 

 before they leave the kennel. 



When hounds prove unsteady, every possible 

 means should be taken to make them otherwise : a 

 hare, or a deer, put into the kennel amongst them, may 

 then be necessary. Huntsmen are too fond of kennel- 

 discipline : you already know my opinion of it : I 

 never allow it but in cases of great necessity : I then 

 am always present myself, to prevent excess. To 

 prevent an improper and barbarous use of such 

 discipline, I have already told you, is one of the chief 

 objects of these Letters. If what Montaigne says be 

 true, " that there is a certain general claim of kindness 

 and benevolence which every creature has a right to 

 from us," surely we ought not to suffer unnecessary 

 severity towards an animal to whom we are obliged 

 for so much diversion : and what opinion must we 

 have of the huntsman who inflicts it on one to whom 

 he owes his daily bread P 1 



1 " Perhaps it is not the least extraordinary circumstance in these 

 flogging lectures, that they should be given, with Montaigne, or any 

 other moral author whatever, in recollection at the same instant ! " (vide 

 Monthly Review.) Perhaps it is not the least extraordinary circum- 

 stance in these criticisms, that this passage should have been quoted as a 

 proof of the author's inhumanity. The critic ends his strictures with the 

 following exclamation : — " Of a truth, a sportsman is the most uniform 

 consistent character, from his own representation, that we ever con- 

 templated!" and yet, perhaps, there are sportsmen to be found, pos- 

 sessed of as tender feelings of humanity as any critic whatsoever. The 

 motto prefixed to these Letters, if it had been attended to, might have 

 entitled the author to more candour than the critic has thought fit to 

 bestow upon him. 



