ON -CRUELTY TO HORSES. 
459 
in the act ; c to which he replied, “ I do not care about other magis¬ 
trates and asked some person whether he could not charge me 
with false imprisonment of the defendant; when on being an¬ 
swered in the negative, he said, “ I will fine you five shillings for the 
defendant’s loss of time.” I expressed myself perfectly agreeable 
to it; and he answered that he did not care whether I was agree¬ 
able or not. I then observed that I would take further proceed¬ 
ings, as I considered the decision unlawful. He replied, “ You 
are an impertinent scoundrel,—I think I will have you taken into 
custody;” and ordered his officers to “ turn the fellow out.” 
Your valuable journal is scarcely the place for me to investi¬ 
gate the strange conduct of Sir Richard Birnie, or I might ask 
whether this was the conduct of a wise, humane, and experienced 
administrator of justice, or rather of one who, under the shield 
of his office, ventured to insult, because he imagined that insult 
might be offered with impunity; and whether such conduct does 
not encourage the very crimes which a magistrate is bound to 
repress. On a former occasion, this very magistrate did punish a 
man for the same offence: another magistrate has done so since, 
and so have almost the whole of the magistrates who occupy 
these seats of justice in the metropolis and its environs. I leave 
this impetuous man to the censure of his superiors, of every good 
man, and of his ow r n heart. 
My business is now with the editor of the Hippiatrist. In¬ 
stead of expressing, in common, I believe, with the public feeling, 
his surprise at the result of the business, this humane man , who 
is “ not an advocate for severity,” steps forward, uncalled and 
unprovoked, as the enemy of mercy, and speaks of humanity be¬ 
ing “carried to a ridiculous extent,” and of the “ officious and 
ignorant meddling of the would-be cruelty reformerand, al¬ 
though the horse w 7 as broken-winded, and whealed, and distressed, 
and covered with sweat, coolly says, that “ all that could be 
made out was, that a few strokes of the whip had been applied.” 
In the following number he copies my remonstrance to the editor 
of the Morning Herald , from whose paper he had taken his 
account of the transaction. But for what purpose does he copy it— 
to apologise for his previous gratuitous abuse ? No such thing: 
but to add insult to insult ; for thus he winds up the affair : — 
“ What has constituted this Mr. L. Gompertz a judge as to a horse 
being broken-winded or as to what is unmerciful whipping does 
not any where appear. We certainly think that, even from his 
own shewing, this meddling man,” (who was fined, blackguarded, 
and ordered to be turned out of the office), “and his cruelty case, 
were leniently disposed of.” 
