CHAP. IX.] FARMING FOK LADIES. 219 



our health unpleasantly affected ; nor have 

 we ever yet heard of either man or woman 

 who made the least objection to partaking of 

 them because of their having been crammed ; 

 neither, we believe, do ladies, when they give 

 orders to their poulterer, ever make inquiries 

 regarding the manner in which the birds have 

 been fed. There is, in fact, no cruelty in 

 the operation, for the bird soon loses its 

 desire for liberty, and easily reconciles it- 

 self to the pleasing sense of plenty. We 

 look, therefore, upon such displays of hu- 

 manity as arising, if not from affectation, 

 at least out of maudlin sensibility : much 

 like those exclamations which we constantly 

 hear respecting the "barbarity" of driving 

 stage-coach horses at the rate of ten miles 

 an hour ; though no animals in the kingdom 

 are better fed or taken care of, and many 

 a poor fellow would gladly work harder if 

 equally well supported. 



