DISGRACEFUL CRUELTIES. 99 



feelings similar to their own. The present writer, 

 upwards of thirty years since, led the way to the 

 late Lord Erskine's and Mr. Martin's Bills ; indeed 

 was then, so far as he is informed, the first practical 

 writer on the subject. 



A writer in the Monthly Magazine, December, 

 1823, remarks humanely on the cruelty of plucking 

 the living goose, proposing a remedy, which I should 

 rejoice exceedingly to find practicable and effective. 

 He remarks on the additional torture experienced 

 by the poor fowl, from the too frequent unskilfulness 

 and want of dexterity of the operator generally a 

 woman. The skin and flesh are sometimes so torn, 

 as to occasion the death of the victim ; and even 

 when the fowls are plucked in the most careful 

 manner, they lose their flesh and appetite ; their 

 eyes become dull, and they languish in a most piti- 

 able state, during a longer or a shorter period. 

 Mortality also has been periodically very extensive 

 in the flocks of geese, from sudden and imprudent 

 exposure of them to cold, after being stripped, and 

 more especially during severe seasons and sudden 

 atmospheric vicissitudes. There are many instances, 

 in bleak and cold situations, of hundreds being lost 

 in a single night, from neglect of the due precaution 

 of comfortable shelter for as long a time as it may 

 appear to be required. The remedy proposed, on 

 the above authority, is as follows : feathers are but 

 of a year's growth, and in the moulting season they 

 spontaneously fall off, and are supplied by a fresh 

 fleece. When, therefore, the geese are in full 

 F 2 



