14 HIPPOPHAGY. 



against the consumers of superior butcher-meat such 

 as beef, veal, and mutton' he says : " Why not on this 

 principle renounce also butcher-meat ? Those who only 

 eat beef might be jealous of those who eat poultry and 

 game." As to the rise in the price of horse-flesh, and 

 the consequent limitation in the use of it when its 

 consumption shall become general, it is argued that it 

 will be long before this happens ; and that, when it 

 does happen, it will be a public benefit, by reducing 

 the price of butcher-meat. One fourteenth of an addi- 

 tion to the meat consumed at present will infallibly 

 arrest that rise in the price of meat, of which in France 

 there are such complaints. As to the jokes of a portion 

 of the press, our philosopher laughs when they are 

 witty ; when heavy he heeds them not. Telum imbelle 

 sine ictu. A certain religious journal is afraid that eat- 

 ing of horses must end in eating of men ! " When all 

 the horses are slaughtered, men must eat one another." 

 Our Professor looks very grave on being thus accused 

 of preaching Anthropophagy I As to the sentimentalists 

 who declaim against slaying and devouring an animal 

 which is our friend, companion, and servant in our 

 labours, pastimes, and wars, their whining is disposed 

 of by the fact that the horse-eating movement is mainly 

 supported by the societies instituted for the prevention 

 of cruelty to animals. It is undoubtedly more merciful 

 to fatten an old horse, and then eat him, than to work 

 him till he is a moving skeleton, a mass of sores, a sight 

 so piteous as to call forth the indignation of every 

 rightly-constituted mind. Those savage abusers of a 

 noble animal, who torture and starve the horse, may 

 not listen to your humane interpositions in its behalf ; 

 but they will hear you when demonstrating that it is 

 their interest to send their horses to the knackers in 

 tolerable condition ; because as they (i. e., the horses) are 

 to be eaten, it is manifest that while a skin full of bones 

 may be worth five shillings only, a much higher price 

 will be given for a horse tolerably plump. 



