176 
THE RAT. 
barley, and oats at 50s. per quarter, it would cost 
£10,392,918 105. to feed these rats for six months, with a 
wine-glass of corn each per day ; and all this is without 
making any calculation for the young they would have 
during the same period. 
I now propose laying down a few abstract questions for 
the due consideration of our worthy magistracy, as to the 
propriety of their interference in rat-matching, &c. The 
first point I would wish to draw their attention to, is the 
case of the rat-catcher of Witnesham, in Suffolk, who 
brought, in twenty-one weeks, to one public-house in 
Ipswich, no less a number than 11,465 rats, which he sold 
at two shillings and sixpence per dozen. This man, in this 
short space of time, took from this public-house the sum of 
£254 ; and all these were genuine barn-rats, which were 
brought for the purpose of training dogs, matches, &c. 
The first matter for consideration is simply this, — would 
this man have taken the trouble to have either caught 
or killed that number of rats in the same time, but for the 
consideration of the money he could make by them 1 Then 
he declares, that another year of the same sort of work 
would have made his fortune, and expresses his full convic- 
tion, that when the authorities stopped rat-pitting, they 
struck a severe blow at the prosperity of Ipswich and the 
surrounding district. But the matter for consideration is 
the amount of human sustenance these animals were daily 
destroying. If we allow that ten rats can eat as much as a 
man, why then they consumed more food than would sup- 
port, day by day, 1,140 individuals. This rat-catcher laments 
the interference of the authorities, because they laid the axe 
to the root of his prosperity : " for," says he, " another 
year of the same work would have made my fortune 
thereby implying that there were still myriads of rats re- 
maining at his command in the district. 
Let us now suppose that our friend had been left alone for 
a year. What then would have been the result, if we judge 
from those he had already caught, which, with the exception 
of one rat in twenty-one weeks, was at the rate of 546 
weekly, or 28,392 in twelve months ; and which would 
consume daily more food than 2,839 human beings. 
I shall now lay before you the complaint of a landlord of ' 
