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Animal Rights History Timeline » [1785-1837] Romantic Age » Richard Watson

Rev. Richard Watson

A Sermon on the Death of Joseph Butterworth

[1826] Richard Watson, "A Sermon on the Death of Joseph Butterworth, Esq., late M.P. for Dover: Preached at Great Queen-Street Chapel, on Sunday, July 9th, 1826," extracted in The Life and Writings of Rich. Watson, by Thomas Jackson (London, 1834; Google Books: Online Library of Free eBooks).

Who shall rise up in his place there, for instance, to propose to strengthen the laws against those fashionable murders called duels, without hearing them defended on principles which scarcely an enlightened Heathen would tolerate? or to propose a stricter enforcement of the Sabbath of the Lord, without being branded as a Puritan or to suppress our barbarous and brutalizing gladiatorial spectacles, without hearing them advocated as necessary to promote the courage and the character of a Christian populace? or to plead the rights of animals to protection, without being met by indifference or contempt? And, to go to a higher and graver subjects, can we forget the long and difficult struggle, even in a British Legislature, which it cost to abolish the traffic in slaves; and the insult heaped upon the honoured man who at last achieved that victory of humanity and principle; With what lingering and obstructed steps does the case of the colonial slave still drag itself onward into notice and advocacy! Grant that this great cause makes progress: yet is it not humbling, deeply humbling, to us, that we, whose feet have been so 'swift to shed blood,' should be so slow to show mercy? We might enlarge these instances, but it is unnecessary . I have adverted to these topics, not to feed faction,—for under any form which politicians may give to the Legislature of a county, it must always be the epitome and the reflecting mirror of the country's own moral state,—but to remind you, that he who applies the himself most diligently to infuse moral health into society is the highest patriot; and that, even in this age and country, the man who engages in public affairs avowedly on Christian principles must stand prepared to endure reproach for their sake.