28 DISTRESS. 



this lady to leave her carriage and stand by and see 

 these poor victims unharnessed : let her see their 

 raw and bleeding shoulders, their panting sides 

 and distended nostrils, their blood-shot and glassy 

 eyes, their limbs trembling with pain from the extra 

 exertion she has thus wantonly occasioned them : let 

 her see them two hours afterwards, when they have 

 got cool, standing with their heads resting on the 

 manger, too sick at heart and stomach to touch the 

 food their exhausted frames so much need to render 

 them capable of a repetition of the same suffering ; 

 this, nature is too far exhausted to allow them to 

 take : let her see them stand motionless, unless when 

 they endeavour to procure some ease to their stiffened 

 and aching limbs by changing their position : let her 

 see this, of which she has no conception, and, if I 

 know the mind or heart of woman, she would repro- 

 bate instead of encourage a repetition of the cause of 

 such a scene. Nor let it be supposed that this scene 

 is exaggerated : it is a state to which post-horses are 

 always reduced when urged beyond their strength. 

 Fortunately this is not a case of every-day occurrence, 

 and only takes place when the cupidity of post-boys 

 and post-masters induces them to comply with the 

 unreasonable requests of particular persons ; and these 

 particular persons, we will hope for humanity's sake, 

 are but few : in the above case there cannot be two 

 opinions as to its cruelty. 



Nor is the lady alluded to as travelling by the 

 fast-coach exempt altogether from a share of that 

 censure that becomes the due of every one, who, to 

 gratify whim or caprice, occasions unnecessary pain to 

 other objects, whether of the human or brute species ; 

 still she is not, like the former more favoured votary 



