98 THE GOOSE. 



The Goose. 



The GOOSE is a considerable object of rural 

 economy, and kept in large flocks in the Eastern 

 and Fen counties of England. In some of those 

 parts, their geese are exposed to the cruel operation 

 of being annually stripped of their feathers, and it 

 has been said that fowls, plucked alive, have been 

 sold in the market at Edinburgh. Indeed, the in- 

 terested feelings of man know no scruple, and the 

 cruelties practised upon the poor sea-fowl, -which 

 have their down and feathers torn from them, and 

 are then cast in the sea to perish, are enormous, 

 and yet, it should seem, irremediable. Not so the 

 disgusting barbarity, under the insane idea of sport, 

 formerly, perhaps even now, practised in Scotland. 

 These harmless fowls are hung up alive, by the legs ; 

 and savages, men and boys, ride at them full speed, 

 catching them, as they can, by the neck ! And 

 there can be no doubt that, the horribly pleasing 

 process of roasting a goose alive, as detailed by Dr. 

 Kitchener, in his Cook's Oracle, a book invaluable, 

 equally to the gourmand and the economist, was ac- 

 tually practised in former days. Indeed, we have 

 proofs innumerable, and utterly disgraceful to this 

 enlightened nation, of the absolute necessity of 

 amending the enthusiastic and indefatigable Martin's 

 Bill, and rendering it completely comprehensive. 

 It would have the effect of teaching men to think 

 and feel, and to be convinced of the horrible and 

 unnatural error of deriving pleasure from the racked 

 and tortured feelings of other animals, endowed with 



