1808.] 
the most transcendent excellence to be 
perceived in the universe ; using that pre- 
cigus faculty to distinguish, to restrain, 
to moderate the cruelties of nature her- 
self, the most cruel of the cruel! Who 
are ‘the declaimers against nice distinc- 
tions? They who will not be at the 
pains to reflect, and are too indolent to 
act. But does not all justice, all mora- 
lity, all genuine feeling, depend on dis- 
tinction, To bind a nage to the stake, 
and throw cudygels at him, ! keeping him in 
constant agony, both of reality and ap- 
prehension, break: ing his bones, and gra- 
dually torturing out his life, is an act of 
ageressive cruelty, of spurious and ille- 
gitimate gratification, ne an infringe- 
ment of that justice due to brutes, which 
ought to be enforced by the civil govern- 
ment—in fine, a man who can commit 
any such act, although a prince, deserves 
the epithet of an unreflecting fool, or a 
cowardly miscreant. Far aoa 7n 
Soro. juslitie & humaniiatis,isthe common 
practice of the cockpit—to be regretted, 
however. Thecock acts voluntarily, and 
from a natural, and even the proud and 
pleasurable impulse of courage, or he 
acts not at all, and his neck is wrung. 
The weapons with which he is eirded di- 
minish the quanturn of his sufferings, by 
accelerating his end. Yet we find this 
practice classed and compared with the 
atrocity of staking down animals to 
the torture! Such “thoughtless compatri- 
sons injure infinitely the cause of huma- 
nity. 
Another attempt at discrimination. 
Tn the sport of shooting, we commit a 
thousand cruelties. We disturb and har- 
rass innocent animals in their labour for 
subsistence, and that in their pinching 
time of distress and poverty; we deprive 
them of their nearest and dearest connec- 
tions, we maim and wound them, leaving 
them to perish in misery! But this is 
plainly one of the errors of nature, which 
she has not enabled us to amend; she 
has pointed: out to us for eur food, the 
beasts of the field, and the fowls oF the 
air, and our duty in this case appears to 
be, the taking them with the least possi- 
ble aggression upon their feelings, and 
for that end, the sunseems to be the best- 
adapted mean. We must not, then, 
proscribe shooting, and I fear not hunt- 
ing ; only our endeavours should be used 
to abate the many gross barbarities con- 
comitant with the latter. Cock-fighting, 
I apprehend also, we must let alone, even 
on the universal suffrage of the cocks 
On Humamty to Animals. 541 
themselves. As to boxing, he must be 
blind, indeed, and totally unconscious of 
the exalted superiority of the Hnglish- 
character, who cannot see the glorious 
tendency of that practice. I hope the 
sples and marechaussée of the Vice So- 
ciety were not so totally engaged in pry- 
ing into the facts 
Of who do play at games unlawful, 
And who fill pots of ale but half-full, 
but thet they had leisure to witness a 
late election” afiray, where the Italian 
drew his knife, and stabbed the English- 
nail. 
Whoever heard afenbecis Englishman 
gratifying his revenge in this way? Let 
this example, far beyond whole bibles 
of arguments, be presented to the society; 
and let it be demanded of them, which 
will stand first in their election, a nation 
of assassins, or a nation of boxers. 
Many other questions might, with the ut- 
most propriety, be demanded of that so- 
ciety. I shall presume to make one. 
Would it not be more rational and con- 
tributory to unsophisticated morality, to 
exchange certain of those duties which 
they have imposed upon themselves, for 
that of endeavouring to impress the minds 
of the people with feeling towards heasts? 
aud I commend to their humanity the de- 
plorable case of the carmai’s horse—and 
the most piteous of all cases of animal 
misery, that of the worn-out post-horse 
in the hands of those monsters in human 
shape, the slaughterers of horses! Werel 
to attempt a relation of the horrid facts 
I have heard and witnessed, my pen 
would rave like that of a frantic bedlam- 
ite! Letme endeavour to hold my peace 
like a philosopher. 
However, the practice of concealing 
and keeping out of sight, even disgusting 
deeds of cruelty is generally inimical to 
the promotion of justice, and the disse- 
mination of humane principles; and it was 
reprobated by the late Mr. Fox in the 
case of the slave-trade. We have many 
people who pretend to an excess of feel- 
ing, and indeed themselves would not 
commit an act of cruelty, but who, from 
extreme delicacy, are unable to bear even 
the relation or meption of such,in course 
they can take no part in reform, orin the 
relief of victims. Rather than their deli- 
cate frames should be shocked at the idea, 
any or all other animal frames may be 
agonized with the reality. These will 
yet talk of fellow-feeling and humanity, 
as some others do of human liberty, and 
v| both 
