188 THEORETIC PHILANTHROPISTS OPPOSITE EXAMPLES. 



and unfair labour, his shoulders galled and torn, his eyes probably whipped out, his 

 joints stiff, and every attempt at motion exquisitely painful, his limbs torn and 

 scarified by the burning- irons -to see this most pitiable object the tears, as we 

 have witnessed, dropping down his aged face ! dragged from his stall with hurry 

 and violence, his mouth galled by rude, and sharp checking with the bit, until he 

 reaches the spot, where he is to be cut and wealed with the whip, on his most 

 tender parts, with the whole force of a brutal villain bribed for that purpose, who 

 has yet left, so much shame of the foul and unnatural act he is perpetrating*, or so 

 much fear, as to affect to be angry with the poor creature and scold him. In the 

 mean time, this abomination is witnessed by a ring of fat-headed, unconcerned, 

 insensate boobies, who appear to see or know nothing of the real nature of it. 

 The horse thinks and perceives what must he think of the justice of man ? 

 What a clamour would any of these wretches set up, for justice in their 

 own cause ! 



Fair and moderate excitement is all that is needed, and the foul treatment above 

 described, more frequently overshoots the mark, and mars the show instead of pro- 

 moting it. But conceding that such treatment were really profitable, it is the profit 

 of injustice and crime, and nearly allied to that of the highwayman and the thief; 

 whom, they, who themselves rob poor beasts of nature's dearest rights, are so 

 ready to consign to the gallows. 



We have given abundant proof in various times and places, that we hold little 

 affinity of sentiment with those theoretic philanthropists, who argue from abuse 

 against use ; who condemn and call for the abolition of Sports which have their 

 foundation in nature, reason, legitimate diversion, and curiosity. We condemn 

 none but illegitimate sports, and the abuse of those which are legitimate. Of the 

 former, we trust, we have given a fair and just definition. We can now refresh 

 the memory of the reader with a few examples. First of theoretic philanthropists 

 we have heard an eminent one say that, a man who obliges his horse to trot six- 

 teen miles in one hour, ought to be hanged. But just reasoning and practice would 

 have taught him, first, that emulation and exertion are indispensable, in order to 

 the perfect enjoyment of all nature's gifts ; and, that a capital horse properly 

 weighted, will perform the above task without unlawful trespass on his powers 

 and without injury. In the course of last year, a Gentleman, we believe of 

 Canterbury, won a considerable sum, by riding a certain distance over the road, 

 upon a number of different horses. This was denounced in one of the public papers, 

 in large characters, as ' an atrocious trespass on the powers of the horse.' But 

 such denunciation, is one of those misrepresentations which injure the cause that 

 they are intended to serve, by exciting alarm and ill-will, as seeming to aim at the 

 abolition of all use, instead of the correction of abuse. According to the account 

 which we examined, of this race against time, the task of no one of the horses, ex- 

 tended to more than seventeen miles in one hour ; a distance which any good hack, 



