54 A MERCIFUL MASTER. 



wishes towards its perpetrator. T had mentioned no 

 name, hoping he would take a lesson from its result, 

 and by following his trade would in future gain a 

 livelihood by more respectable means than acts of 

 premeditated inhumanity. But, as if "he meant to 

 show the reed on which I leant" in forming such 

 hopes of him, the Bedford jMatch has not been the 

 only one by many in which this same Biirker of 

 horses has been since engaged, nor is the pony the 

 only one he has killed in his brutal vocation. 



It has been brouglit forward, in extenuation of the 

 cruelty of the late Match, that no whip was allowed 

 to be used during its performance. This only makes 

 the thing worse. So, because (as it turned out) tlic 

 owner knew that such was the game and generous 

 nature of the little animal, that he would go till 

 exhausted nature could do no more rather than feel 

 the whip, his merciless master could sit behind him, 

 witness his sinking efforts, and only stop him .... 

 when ? why, when he found it impossible to win the 

 Match. We are told he had said, "if he found the 

 pony was distressed, he would pull up." He certainly 

 did pull up when he was distressed — distressed 

 enough, for he was virtually dying. But, supposing 

 it could have been thought that, distressed as he was, 

 he could have staggered on so as to have won the 

 Match, will any man believe he would have been 

 pulled up ? No, not even those who own the enviable 

 distinction of being classed among Mr. Burke's friends 

 would believe it. There is truly great humanity in 

 stopping, or rather permitting, a wretched animal to 

 stop, when he can go no longer ! There is a wide 

 difference between pulling up a horse ivhen he is dis- 

 tressed, and doing it so soon as we find he is so. 



