THE HORSE. 301 



SECTION XLIII.— The Animal Question. 



My first essay on the duties of man towards those 

 animals committed by nature to his charge, was at 

 the early age of fifteen years; and though in the 

 heat of youth, and during the hurry of the affairs of 

 the world, I regret to have made too many breaches 

 of practice, I have yet cherished the innate principle 

 throughout life, and feel myself urged to pursue my 

 destiny to the end, in however great a degree, ungra- 

 cious and unpopular the theme. From my first con- 

 tributions to the periodical press, I have embraced as 

 many opportunities as were within my power, of 

 introducing the subject, and have never written any 

 book on the care and management of animals, wherein 

 that important branch has been neglected. In my 

 two volumes on the Horse, originally published in 

 1796, together with the additions to the third edition, 

 I have enlarged more than in any other of my pub- 

 lications. Certain critics made themselves merry 

 with the phrase, ' rights of beasts/ the ancient jus 

 animalium ; but it is scarcely possible they could be 

 seriously unaware that, I could intend nothing further 

 than those natural claims which the brute creation 

 has on the justice and compassion of rational man. 



Mr. Erskine, subsequently Lord firskine, some- 

 what upwards of twenty years since, brought a bill 

 into parliament, for the purpose of completing the 

 social and moral system, by giving legislative protec- 

 tion to animals, which, in their unprotected and 

 helpless state, were left exposed to the most wanton 

 and cruel inflictions, even under the idea of sport, 



