218 THE SPORTING WORLD. 



might in some cases be too lenient, in others 

 too severe, but such sentence as the united 

 opinion of twelve unprejudiced men might hold 

 as a fitting one, would mostly be a just one, 

 and that award should not be limited. A man 

 should not be able as it were to compound 

 with his destiny by knowing that any period 

 was the fixed term of his punishment. 



I have been led into this digression from 

 having seen, in various instances, the ineflficiency 

 of the laws in suppressing cruelty to animals. 

 A man has only to calculate the highest penalty 

 the law allows in such cases, and he may com- 

 mit any atrocity his interests or brutal disposition 

 suggests, throw the fine, which may not be a 

 matter of moment to him, on the table, and 

 laugh at laws that cannot harm him ; for, be it 

 recollected, the fine is made nearly the same on 

 the man who could pay hundreds as on him who 

 goes to goal because he cannot pay five pounds. 

 This is in itself gross injustice. It is true 



