142 ON THE RIGHTS OF BEASTS. 



turned adrift, with a label affixed to his neck, 

 containing thefe quaint and inhuman lines : 



The Parfon of Pentlow, he did this, 

 For killing of one poor chicken of his ; 

 He put out his eyes, and few'd up his bum, 

 And fo let him fly — till the day of his doom. 



One would fuppofe, that wretches, like thefe, 

 fought to level their impotent revenge againit 

 the God of nature. 



We are happily become too enlightened to 

 perpetrate fuch wholefale acts of barbarity, as 

 that recorded of the infamous Lord Raymond 

 Venous, who burned alive thirty of his fineft 

 Horfes by way of a frolic ; but there have been 

 too many fimilar inftances among us, upon a 

 fmaller fcale, from motives of religious fuperfti- 

 tions. It is well known, that the brutifh idea of 

 the poffibility of witchcraft, flill exifts amongft 

 thoufands in this country ; with the deteftable 

 concomitant, that burnin a- the animal alive, which 

 is the fuppofed fubject. of it, is the only mode 

 of detecting the witch. Numerous inftances 

 of this cruel and miraculous folly are upon 

 record, many are within my own knowledge ; 

 but the moft remarkable, and indeed aftonim- 

 ing, is that related by Dr. Prieftley, becaufe 

 the man who perpetrated the horrid deed, was 

 it feems fomewhat above the common level, 

 and a man, in other refpects, of humane charac- 

 ter. 



