140 ON THE RIGHTS OF BEASTS. 



I fuppofe they could not have been better di£ 

 pofed of. But with refpe£l to the captives 

 deflroyed at Rome, they were Jews ; and 

 thence, by the wife fuggeftions of prejudice, 

 blotted out from the fcheme of companion. 

 It is but too true, that the Emperor had a fair 

 plea of retaliation; fince the Jews, although 

 with the pretence of living conflantly under 

 a theocracy, exercifed againft all foreign na- 

 tions, hojiile odium, a hoftile and revengeful 

 hatred. The humane Titus was not a phi- 

 lofopher. Even Englifhmen, at this day, as 

 Cartwright informs us, moot the poor red 

 Indians of Newfoundland like beafts — I fup- 

 pofe, becaufe they are not Chriftians! How 

 has the abufe of thefe dinin&ions narrowed the 

 human heart, and torn up the very founda- 

 tions of morality. I once attempted to reafon 

 with a fellow (and he was of the rich vulgar) 

 who was cruelly beating an innocent horfe, 

 till the blood fpun from its noftrils; the 

 reply I obtained was, (larded with a huge oath) 

 " you are talking as though the horfe was a 

 Chriflian." 



The general blind and ftupid adherence 

 to cuftom, renders it abfolutely neceffary for 

 a writer on this fubjecl, who defires to ren- 

 der effectual fervice to the caufe of human- 

 ity, to enter into particular and difgufting de- 

 tails, to point out individual and fpecific acls 



of 



