44 FACT AGAINST FICTION.' 



bloodthirsty , murderous, and cruel," — in order ^^to 

 keej) up feelings so derived during the prosecution 

 of our sylvan pursuits." This he did in attempting 

 to gain a prize in his essay ^' On the Duties of 

 Man to Animals." My late friend, Judge Talfourd, 

 being one of those appointed to decide on which 

 essay deserved the prize, agreed to give it to this 

 Doctor. Wlien, on meeting Talfourd in the House 

 of Commons one night, I asked him how so sensible 

 a man as he was could assign a reivard to such 

 arrant nonsense, he replied, ^^ My dear friend, you 

 mistake our" (the judges) '^labour. We had not 

 to decide which was the hest essay, but as we had 

 to award tlie victory for the money in hand, all 

 we could do was to make uj) our minds which 

 was the least objectionable of the things put before 

 us, and hence the decision we came to." The 

 despicable Doctor, claiming to l)e a ^^ naturalist " as 

 well as a commentator on the duties of men to 

 animals, spoke not only of the ^' nomenclature of the 

 huntsman to his hounds," but also depicted the 

 hen birds, nightingales, and others, as singing their 

 plaintive melodies on the bereavement, by the 

 hand of a schoolboy, of their little eggs from their 

 nests in tlie depths of Choristral grief, whereas it 



