196 MORAL RESPONSIBILITY. 



dangerous habits, or the non-correction of such habits when 

 developed ; by neglect of proper education or by vicious 

 training ; by the direct encouragement or non-repression of 

 such propensities as biting or worrying the master renders 

 himself and very properly liable by most laws for the 

 damage done by his dog or horse. By modern British as 

 well as by ancient Roman and Greek law man is held 

 responsible for the doings of the domestic or other animals 

 which he possesses (Pierquin). Thus he is answerable for 

 the acts of eccentric, dangerous, vicious, ill-tempered, insane, 

 or rabid animals of which he is the owner ; so that the 

 mere ownership of such animals as the dog, horse, elephant, 

 cat, or monkey is in itself attended by a considerable measure 

 of it may be troublesome and expensive responsibility. 



It may be regarded as some sort of justification for in- 

 cluding or associating the punishment of the animals in or 

 with that of their masters that, had the thievish collies, for 

 instance, been spared, there might have arisen a difficulty 

 or impossibility in eradicating their vicious habits, the pre- 

 sumption being that the unfortunate dogs would never have 

 forsaken their evil courses while health and strength were 

 left. And such a presumption is strengthened by what we 

 know of the force of habit or discipline in the lower animals, 

 as in man, whether for evil or good. An amusing story has 

 been told by William Howitt and other writers of a high- 

 wayman's horse which knew and played its part well while it 

 remained a highwayman's horse, but which, when sold to an 

 honest man, showed the influence of its former bad habits, 

 the result entirely of man's training, by leading him nolens 

 volens into the most awkward predicaments. But, on the 

 other hand, it is impossible to say what might have been 

 achieved by systematic kindly efforts at reformation in the 

 case of dogs and horses trained for their special purposes by 

 sheep-stealers and other classes of thieves, robbers, brigands, 

 or smugglers. The chances of reformation and the advan- 

 tages of reformatories are quite as great or as small in the 

 case of animal as of human criminals. 



We know that in man criminals have certain mental 

 characteristics, certain moral defects (Bruce Thomson). They 



