464 
Quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.—H or. 
“ The Voice of Humanity f for the Association for promoting 
rational Humanity toivards the Animal Greation, vol. ii. 
It is well known that a very praiseworthy society has existed 
for some years, denominated “ The Society for the Prevention 
of Cruelty to Animals.” It owes its origin to an eccentric but 
benevolent individual, Mr. Richard Martin, who seemed to de¬ 
vote every energy that he possessed to rescue those from needless 
suffering to whom man was more indebted than he cared to 
acknowledge, but whom, in thoughtlessness or recklessness, he 
cruelly and disgracefully treated. He brought into the House 
of Commons, and (although defeated again and again, not only 
by the supineness, but the actual opposition of those who 
thought that they had a right to do as they would with a brute) 
he at length carried through the House an excellent bill for the 
repression of much evident and unnecessary cruelty to some of 
the larger domesticated animals. 
But as a law is of little use unless it is acted upon, and as he 
feared that, even in so good a cause, few might be induced to 
incur the trouble and loss of time, and somewhat too of the 
popular disgrace of informing against the perpetrators of appa¬ 
rent cruelty, he used the influence which his situation in life 
gave him among various benevolent individuals, and he formed 
a society, the principal object of which was to appoint and to 
remunerate certain persons, whose business it should be to look 
out for and to prosecute offenders. 
To a very considerable extent this society worked well. Nu¬ 
merous miscreants were exposed and punished. Several barba¬ 
rous sports, if not entirely repressed, assumed a milder character : 
fear first, and then habit, repressed many of the ebullitions of 
wanton barbarity which used to be displayed everywhere, and 
almost every day ; and, in fact, the condition of our domesticated 
slaves, still in many respects bad enough, was evidently 
ameliorated. 
But it at length occurred to some who wished well to such a 
cause, that a better mode could possibly be adopted of effecting 
its excellent purpose. Its avowed object was the prosecuting 
and punishment of offenders. A set of paid informers was at¬ 
tached to the society, who were diligently seeking out, and 
sometimes getting up, cases of cruelty. Now and then the 
informations were dismissed, and with a pretty strong hint that 
