18 HINTS ON ANGLING. 



skinned before life is extinct when they discard the 

 delicate shrimp from their breakfast tables, previous to a 

 philanthropic visit to some public meeting, because they 

 must of necessity be boiled alive, in order to obtain their 

 brilliant colour and delicious crispness when they 

 cashier capons, on account of the odious process by which 

 they are fattened when they turn with loathing from 

 tender turkeys, and choice chickens, and darling ducks, 

 because rusty penknives are thrust down their throats, 

 and their gullets gashed about, and they are in this state, 

 of torment and agony, hung up by their heels till the 

 wretched life distils from them drop by drop, that their 

 flesh may be sufficiently white for the fastidious eye of the 

 sleek man of meretricious mercies when, we repeat, 

 the daily delicacies obtained by such practices are re- 

 nounced with becoming horror, and the practices them- 

 selves denounced with all the frothy energy of an Exeter 

 Hall orator when this is done, but not till then, there 

 will be time enough to discuss the question of cruelty 

 then, perhaps, it may be necessary to advance a serious 

 argument in defence of the angler's calumniated recreation, 

 against the hypocrisies of the passing hour. 



The angler has been often ridiculed as a fanciful man, 

 and the amusement itself condemned, as calculated to ex- 

 tend the power of the imagination beyond its wholesome 

 and legitimate boundaries. His " vagaries," as they have 

 been termed, have often been the theme of heavy jokes 

 and leaden sarcasm, by the grave, slow-blooded, cal- 

 culating, sober, jog-trot plodders of this world the 

 totters-up, the patient seekers of pelf, the dot-and-go-one 

 men, who universally indulge in this species of merriment. 

 But we must stand up for our craft ; and, therefore, we 

 may plainly retort upon our opponents, that " vagaries" 



