158 TORTURES OF HIGH CONSIDERATION, AND BY AUTHORITY ! 



barbarous and beastly sophism, that cruelties inflicted on the bodies of beasts bound 

 to the stake, can possibly contribute to elevate the human courage, and fit men for 

 gallant soldiers and defenders of their Country ? This granted for argument sake, 

 the greatest cruelties and wickedness for such purposes, are legitimate. The reli- 

 gion of these pious sophisters is then most convenient, and allows of the commission of 

 evil for the attainment of good, on which principle, perjury, murder, or any other 

 convenient and productive crime, may be defended. We formerly entertained 

 ourselves with the arguments, such as they were, of that redoubtable Orator, who 

 defended alike, Bull-baiting, and human slavery. That man had, in an eminent 

 degree, the gift of the gab ; and at the same time, the pre-eminent art of confound- 

 ing every subject, beyond all possibility of its being developed and comprehended, 

 either by himself or others. He was the very Hierophant of confusion, and his 

 mind the chosen tabernacle of that goddess ; he had, in truth, been so much in the 

 habit of shaking up right and wrong, in his bag, together, that he had long lost 

 the faculty of distinguishing the one from the other. We have moreover read 

 somewhere, that many of our modern Saints, distinguished themselves in opposing 

 any public measure for the protection of brute animals, and securing to them a 

 due and needful share of justice : those very Saints, it is averred, who if their 

 Mouchards were sufficiently staunch and vigilant to bring proof of the facts, would 

 indict and punish our Cats for catching mice, or committing fornication on the 

 Sunday. Behold, a Holy Alliance, entered into, between Fanaticism and Bull- 

 baiting ! 



