332 GENERAL TREATMENT. 



practice of these German academies should not be extended 

 to other animals, or why seminaries for the regular and sys- 

 tematic training moral, mental, and physical of animals 

 which are intended in any way to be serviceable to man, 

 should not exist in or near all our large towns. 



6. Protective legislation. Much has been done in the 

 form of government enactments or statutes for the public 

 protection of certain classes of animals. But much more 

 remains to be done, and we Britons have a great deal to learn 

 from other nations, both ancient and modern. The earliest 

 human laws recognised kindness to and protection of de- 

 fenceless animals as man's duty ; and these early laws were 

 much more liberal, in their spirit at least, than those of 

 modern times. The laws of Moses expressly inculcate 

 humanity to animals. We read of an Athenian being pun- 

 ished for the non-exhibition of mercy to a sparrow ; and of 

 the Areopagus punishing the wanton cruelty of children. 



7. The public honours that have been conferred on what 

 may be called 'celebrated' animals have been of a very 

 varied kind; including for instance 



a. Civic honours, such as the presentation of the 



freedom of the city ; the bestowal of denizen- 

 ship or citizenship upon a couple of dog-com- 

 panions in San Francisco, an honour that has 

 its parallel among the lower animals them- 

 selves ; for instance, in the case of the street 

 dogs of Constantinople conferring the freedom 

 of their quarter or district for some act of 

 signal bravery on an enemy. (Watson.) 



b. Public funerals or burials. 



c. Monuments in squares, streets, or cemeteries ; of 



which one of the best known is that erected 

 by the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, in Edinburgh, 

 to the memory of ' Greyfriars Bobby.' 



d. The presentation of collars, or other badges, with 



suitable inscriptions one of the ante-mortem 

 honours of the same well-known and much- 

 praised animal, 'Greyfriars Bobby.' This 

 fortunate animal indeed, or its memory, its 



