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REVIEW. 
But we are discussing an important subject, not in the spirit of 
Poetry, but of Philosophy — as friends also to humanity ; — and we 
are of opinion that field-sports, when properly conducted, were de- 
signed by the wise Creator to operate as a check to the excessive 
multiplication of various tribes of creatures. Throughout the 
whole of the animal kingdom various causes are in operation to 
prevent the unlimited increase of any one species, and the most 
constant and effectual of them is their destruction by each other. 
Beasts of prey are less prolific than the graminivorous and the rumi- 
nating tribes, for the obvious reason, that they are less easily sub- 
jugated or destroyed, and, by preying on the weaker animals, they 
prevent them from becoming the sole occupants of the soil. Lions 
and tigers in their turn become the prey of a superior foe. They 
are taken in the hunter’s trap, or fall by his missile fires, while man, 
the great destroyer, is frequently the victim of brutal rage ; he is 
gored by a bull, or struck down by a lion : and thus is the balance 
of life in the animal tribes adjusted. 
We have now laid before our readers a fair sample of both 
Essays ; they will clearly perceive the difference in the animus 
which exists in each. The Rev. Dr. Styles’ Essay is replete with 
examples of cruelty against the humble inhabitants of the earth. 
It describes scenes of war and discord, of pain and agony, of racks 
and tortures, and “ weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” 
Mr. Youatt, on the contrary, has calmly stated that which he has 
seen and thought — he has not appealed to the passions — nor made 
pretensions to any extraordinary degree of humanity — nor boasted 
of acuter feelings than his neighbours. From his thorough and 
complete knowledge of his subject, being familiarly acquainted 
with the natural habits and propensities of most of our domesti- 
cated animals, as well as those various states in which they are 
placed by art, he could not give the sanction of his name to any 
statements overcharged, or at variance with the truth ; for, if he had 
been capable of balancing his well-earned reputation for the prize of- 
fered by the Society, he would have forfeited the confidence and good- 
will of his professional brethren, who would not have failed to have 
detected and immediately have exposed the deceit. His graphic 
descriptions of the racer, the hunter, the carriage horse, the hackney 
and the draught horse, are true to the life ; shewing that with, per- 
haps, a few exceptions, their lives are very pleasantly spent ; 
and when we follow him into those diabolical marts or “ reposito- 
ries,” where the omnibus and cab, the barge and rubbish-cart horses, 
are commonly purchased, and afterwards visit them in their miser- 
able abodes, or observe them at their labour, — or finally follow these 
victims of human cruelty to their last home — the knacker’s yard — 
we must confess that Mr. Youatt’s sketch is unrivalled, and requires 
no panegyric from us; — it is an inimitable production, and speaks 
for itself 
