260 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



very large sum that is thus yearly required for each 

 establishment for this purpose be better employed ? 

 Would not the horses be more usefully engaged in 

 ploughing the land for some small farmers, rather 

 than in. injuring the crops, as they now so often 

 do ? Could not the rugs that cover them be put to 

 a better use on some poor persons' beds ? Could 

 or could not the number of men whose sole occupa- 

 tion is to tend on them be better at work in some 

 one or other of a thousand useful ways ? Could or 

 could not the food that the animals are so highly fed 

 up with be more creditably used to feed the poor ? 

 . . . The whole thing is nothing but selfishness 

 from beginning to end, and cruelty from first to 

 last. For, whatever pleasure these wasters of time 

 may take in the chase itself, the height of it is allowed 

 on all hands to be in being ' in at the death.' Then 

 the poor little hunted animal which has run for its 

 life in terror of a whole pack of its enemies, hounded 

 on after it, till its breath can hold out no longer, 

 must at last come to a standstill, to be torn in pieces 

 by the dogs. I only ask others to give, themselves, 

 the answer to the question, Is this a sight for gmtle- 

 men and gentlewomen to take pleasure in ? " 



