560 
grading pastime, I enter this public pro- 
test against it... I never knew a man re- 
markable for heroic bravery, whose very, 
aspect was not lighted up by gentleness 
and humanity ; - nor a. kill him and eat 
hin countenance, that did not cover the, 
heart of a bully, ora poltroon. 
As to other reclaimed animals, which 
are not devoted to our use as food, but 
which are most wonderfully organized to 
assist. man in the cultivation of the 
earth, and by their superior activity and 
strength, to lessen his. labour in the 
whole circle of his concerns, different 
protections become necessary, and. they 
are also provided for by the Bill, .and 
without the loss or abridgment of any one 
right of property in such animals, On 
the contrary, all its provisions protect 
tiene, as property, frem the abuses .of 
those to whose care and government 
their owners are obliged to commit them. 
‘They also reach the owners themselves, 
if, from an inordinate desire of eain, or 
other selfish consideration, they abuse 
the animals, their property in which is 
limited to the use. 
It would be wasting your Lordships’ 
time, 17 L were to enumerate the probable 
eases which this part of the Bill will com- 
prehend. It is well observed by an Ita- 
ian philosopher,’ “ that no man. de- 
sires to» hear hat he has already seen.” - 
Your Lordships cannot have walked the 
streets, or travelled on the roads, without 
being perfectly masters of this part of the 
‘subject. You cannot but have been almost 
daily witnesses to most disgusting cruelties 
practised upon beasts of carriage and bur- 
then, by the violence and brutality of 
their drivers. To distinguish such bruta- 
fity and crimimal.viclence, from severe, 
but sometimes neccssary discipline, may 
at first view appear difficult, and on that 
ccount a serious objection to the Bill; 
bat when I come to that part of the sinb- 
ject, | pledge myself to shew that it in- 
volves no difficulty Ww latsoever 40 But 
there are other abuses far more frequent 
and important, which will require a more 
particular consideration. For one act of 
cruelty 1n servants, there are an hundred 
m. the owners of beasts. of labour 
‘and. burthen, sometimes committed by 
the owners alone, from a scandalous de- 
sire of gain, and sometimes in a most 
unworthy partnership with their superi- 
ers, who are equally guilty, with no gain 
at all, nor for any motive that it ‘would 
not be disgraceful to acknowledge. I al- 
lude, my Lords, to our_unbappy post- 
horses. . It is not my wish, my Lords, to 
_ Lord Erskine’s Speech on Cruelty to Animals. 
[July t, 
be a fanciful reformer of the world, nor 
to exacé that the mannersand customs of 
a highly-civilized nation should be 
brought to the standard of simplicity and. 
virtue, if indeed such a standard ever 
existed upon earth. I do not seek to ap- 
point inspectors to examine the books of 
innkeepers, so as to pumish any excess 
In the numbers of their stages, as you do 
an excess of owtside passengers on the 
roofs of coaches, I know there are very © 
many cases (which could not be brought 
strictly within the scope of necessities) 
where these poor animals must grievously 
suffer, yet where no law can_ properly. 
reach to protect them. The demands, 
though not impxinent, of human health, 
and even of convenience ; the occasional 
exigencies of commerce ; the exercise of 
franehises ; and many. other cases which 
must occur to every hody, would furnish 
obviousexceptions without violation of the 
principle, and, which every court and 
magistrate would know how to distinguish. 
But the Bill, if properly executed, would 
€x pose innkeepe: rs to a reasonable punish- 
ment, who wall palpably devote an inno- 
cent animal to extreme misery, if not to 
death itself, by a manifest and out- 
rageous excess of labour, rather than 
disoblige a mere traveller, engaged in no 
extraordinar y business, lest i in feature he 
should go to the inn opposite—when the. 
law shall give a rule for both sides of 
the way, this most infamous competition, 
will be at ari end. 
For my own part, my Lords, I can 
say with the greatest sincerity to your 
Lordships, that nothing has ever excited 
in my mind greater disgust, than to ob- 
serve what we all of us are obliged to see 
every day in our lives, horses panting—- 
what do I say ! literaily dying under the. 
scourge; when, on looking intothe chaises, 
we see them carrying to and from Lon- 
don men and women, to whom, or to 
others, it can be of no possible significa- 
tion whether they arrive one day sooner 
or later, and sometimes indeed whether 
they ever arrive at all. More than half 
the post-horses that die from abuse in 
harness, are killed by people, who, but- 
for the mischief I. am complaining of, 
would fall into the class described by 
Mr. Sterne, of simple or harmless travel- 
lers, galloping over our roads for neither 
good nor evil, but to fillup the dreary blank 
in unoccupied life. I can see noreason, 
why all such travellers should not endea- 
vour fo overcome the ennuz of their lives, 
without killing poor animals, more inno- 
cent and more useful than themselves. 
Ta 
