SPORTSMEN, FARMERS, &C. 377 



Now, allowing the great difference iu 

 value, between the life of a human being 

 and the life of a dog, I will draw a parallel : 

 A man lives near to a country school ; he 

 has his garden robbed of fruit : boys, not re- 

 flecting thatthereis a very severe punishment 

 for such an offence, will take fruit. Should 

 the owner of a garden, when the fruit is 

 ripe, gather the greatest part of his fruit, 

 and leave only a kw on the walls, inserting 

 into every peach or nectarine, poison ; the 

 boys come and take this fruit, and are poi- 

 soned ; would he not be deemed, by all 

 the civilized part of mankind, a monster of 

 inhumanity; and would he not be hanged? 

 The school-boys have done him an injury, 

 and have occasioned him a loss ; but the in- 

 offensive dog has not. By my God, I am 

 of opinion, that the man who would do the 

 one act, would commit the other crime to 

 any one, to whom he bore a dislike and 

 hatred ; did he not know, that for such a 

 deed he would be hanged. In both the 

 above cases, baseness, criminality, and in- 

 humanity, are evident. It is true that, in 

 one case, the law takes greater cognizance 



