BIPEDS AND QUADRUPEDS. 173 



only arouse the indignation of better men, but will 

 call forth that which it is still harder to live under, 

 namely, utter and unmitigated contempt. 



Those whose brutal disposition is shewn by the 

 way in which they treat the unfortunate and wretched 

 animals who get into their hands, are only tolerated 

 by those in the same state of brutality and degra- 

 dation. Let us hope a less limited scale of punish- 

 ment will be granted to those whose man-like and 

 Christian-like feelings and attention are called to 

 the prevention of cruelty to animals : if such should 

 be the case, aided by the watchful eye of that most 

 useful and efficient body of men, the police, who 

 have already done so much in this humane cause, 

 we may indulge in the hope of a radical cure of evils 

 that have long been a disgrace to men. 



The perpetrators of such evils are accessible only 

 to force and law : they are too ignorant, brutish, and 

 contemptible to be addressed, or reasoned with, as 

 men ; but ferocious as they seem, and are, against 

 the weak, the unarmed, or the timid, it will be found 

 that, in nine cases in ten, if the man who brutally 



