CRUELTY OF HUNTING CONSIDERED. 161 



the operation, whenever and wherever it is performed, 

 is, to a certain degree, an act of cruelty ; which it is only 

 hypocritical to vindicate by pretending to argue that 

 Puggy has been sentenced to death to expiate his sins ; 

 for if, instead of robbing a hen roost, it had been his 

 habit to come in all weathers secretly to sit on its nests 

 to help and hatch the chickens, " The Times " news- 

 paper would have advertised "hunting appointments-" 

 which would have been as numerously attended, the 

 hounds would have thrown off with the same punctuality, 

 and men and horses would have ridden just as eagerly 

 and as gallantly to be in at the death of the saint as of a 

 sinner, whose destruction all barn-door fowls, geese, tur- 

 keys, pheasants, and rabbits in his neighbourhood would 

 certainly not be disposed to regret. 



As regards, however, the hunted animal, as well as 

 the creatures that hunt him, we will observe that the 

 sufferings of a fox that is eaten up by hounds are pro- 

 bably not much greater and possibly a little less than 

 those of the poor worm that on our hook catches the fish, 

 of the fish that catches the worm, of the live eels 

 that we skin, or of the sheep and bullocks that^are every 

 day in thousands driven footsore to our slaughter-houses. 



If our Arthingworth fox had taken in " The Times" 

 the Waterloo covert, after all the preparations we have 

 described, would most certainly have been drawn " blank." 



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