BIPEDS AND QUADE.UPEDS. 167 



Thousands consider they would have as much 

 right to cut a dog in two parts, if they could be 

 useful to them, as they would have to sever a deal 

 board ; and thousands would do it : they think the 

 lives of animals are to be sported with at man's plea- 

 sure, and that animation gives no greater claim to 

 be held as an humbler link of beings, than inani- 

 mate things possess. 



I will give an instance of this feeling, by relating a 

 circumstance that took place only a few months since. 

 Walking by a canal, I saw and heard a crowd of 

 persons standing by its side laughing and shouting : 

 on coming up I saw a spaniel in the water, fruitlessly 

 endeavouring from time to time to get up the 

 bricked side of the canal ; not a soul attempted to 

 assist him, but laughed with demoniac glee at the 

 nearly exhausted efforts of the animal to save him- 

 self. It so happened that one of the most promi- 

 nent of those enjoying the sport, as they seemed to 

 consider it, dropped his hat in the water ; to save 

 this, arms were stretched out, sticks used in all 

 directions ; the current produced by the dog's strug- 



