Animal Rights History »» Dr. James Macaulay

Plea for Mercy to Animals, "Various Forms of Needless Suffering Inflicted by Man"

II. VARIOUS FORMS OF NEEDLESS SUFFERING
INFLICTED BY MAN.

I must now pass on to a less pleasant part of my subject, in pointing out the chief ways in which cruelty to animals is shown.

To speak of such things in detail would only distress readers with sensitive minds. At the same time, in order to expose and prevent such wrong-doing, people's minds must be distressed. Those who feel the most unselfishly and keenly for suffering are always distressed, and will continue to be, so long as those who do nothing to lessen the suffering have their feelings too much considered. Plain speaking and decisive action are needed in such a matter.

We begin with the various kinds of needless suffering inflicted upon animals used for the food of man ; and we may include clothing and other necessary purposes.

Strange scruples have been raised not merely against the use of animal food, but against taking away the life of animals for any need of man. Not in superstitious India only, but in this country, there are Vegetarians, and other persons, who object to the use of animal food, not on the ground of health only, but as involving a power to which man has no right. To such statements we have only to oppose the clear permission of the Divine Author of life : "into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you : even as the green herb have I given you all things." Subsequent

32

CRUELTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE FOOD OF MAN

prohibitions, and the division into clean and unclean animals, had reference simply to ceremonial or sanitary points, and did not touch the divinely permitted right to take life for man's use. But this unqualified permission can never give sanction to the infliction of unnecessary pain, and far less of any form of lingering or cruel death. The killing of animals, whether for food, or clothing, or any other purpose, should be done as quickly and painlessly as the disagreeable office will permit. But is it so ? Let the reader judge from a few facts. From the field and the farm, until they are killed for the table, and in the act of killing, most of the animals used for our food are subject to much needless and therefore cruel suffering.

In the transit of cattle by trains there has of late years been considerable improvement, the trucks being larger and more convenient than formerly, and on some lines special provision being made for giving them water in a long journey. But still there is too much cruelty, as any one may witness who has happened to be at a station on the arrival or departure of a cattle train.

In the shipment and sea transport of cattle, sheep, and other live animals, there is also much unnecessary cruelty. Even in the shorter passages by the Channel steamers this is true, but in the traffic from the Continent, which is every year assuming greater dimensions, the horrors are like those we used to read of in the holds of the slave-trade ships. A well-known writer, a man as kind as he is brave, John Macgregor ("Rob Roy," in his "Canoe Cruise on the Baltic"), gives a painfully graphic account of "the horrors of the middle passage," in the transport of cattle from Northern Europe across the German Ocean to our ports. "Our captain, and indeed the crew and the drovers," says Mr. Macgregor, "did not appear to be heartless in the matter. It is the whole system and plan of shipping cattle which must be amended." Captain Stanley, R. N., has called public attention to a scene

33

TRANSIT OF CATTLE

of gross, but we should hope exceptional, cruelty, witnessed by him in the landing of a cargo of cattle, from a foreign port, at Deptford. The poor brutes, sick, bruised, and faint, were savagely urged on with goads and sticks, in a way which the writer could only characterize by an allusion to the fiends in Doré's illustrations of "Dante's Inferno."

It ought to be widely known that there are two Acts of Parliament providing against cruelty during transit of animals either by railway or in steamboats : 32 and 33 Vict. c. 70, enforcing supply of food and water ; and 12 and 13 Vict. c. 92, forbidding their improper conveyance. Prosecutions under these statutes are occasionally taken at the instance of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The cattle drovers used to be a very rough and cruel set, as a class, but of late years there has been great improvement, many of them being remarkably kind as well as steady and respectable men. In the metropolitan district they require to have a licence, which is a check upon those who might otherwise show misconduct. The officers of the R.S.P.C.A, also keep a vigilant look-out. The existing law is strictly enforced in cases brought before magistrates. The following clause is in the Act 12 and 13 Vict. cap. 92 : "If any person shall cruelly beat, ill-treat, over-drive, abuse, or torture, or cause or procure to be cruelly beaten, ill-treated, over-driven, abused, or tortured, any animal, every such offender shall for every offence forfeit and pay a penalty not exceeding five pounds." The magistrates have the power of committing to prison for a period of three months, without option of a fine, for the same offences on conviction. It might be well to appeal more to the better feeling of the drovers, as well as to their fear of punishment—by giving good-conduct badges, for instance, in approved cases of habitual humanity.

The most humane—or we should say, rather, the least painful-mode of slaughtering oxen has been much discussed. It

34

SLAUGHTER-HOUSES.

is strange that no general agreement has been arrived at on a matter where such an amount of practical experience is available. The practice of "pithing," either by piercing the brain through a wound in the forehead by a pole-axe, or by piercing the spinal marrow in the neck, has been recommended by many.

No method has superseded the ordinary one of stunning the animal by the blow of a mallet or axe on the forehead, followed immediately by bleeding, either by cutting the large vessels of the throat or piercing the heart with a long sharp knife. The certainty of this mode of slaughtering depends entirely on the strength and the skill of the operator. It is within the province of local magistrates to license and oversee slaughter-houses, and more care should be taken that none exercise this craft without licence, after sufficient proof of competency.

Veal is not wholesome or digestible food. White veal is certainly unwholesome, and few would touch it if they knew how it is prepared for market. In the killing of oxen there may be sometimes needless suffering, but the cruelty to which poor helpless calves are subjected is atrocious. Their torment begins when being taken to market. The too common plan is to tie their legs and lay them in a cart with their heads hanging below the level of their bodies. If the salesmen or butchers were conveyed in a jolting cart for some hours in this way, they would understand the cruelty of it, if they had any reason or feeling left at the end of the journey. A veterinary surgeon, who examined some calves after a journey of only a few miles, found the skin on the head and throat tight, the eyes bloodshot, the mouth frothing, and one of them had blood oozing from the nostrils. In fact, the brain was gorged with blood, and the whole frame fevered. The suffering must have been intense, and the meat could not but be diseased.

The journey completed, a new form of torture is undergone in the slaughter-house. Instead of being quickly put out of pain, the calf is bled at intervals, that the blood may be slowly

35

WHITE VEAL.

drawn from the body. Then, when still alive, the poor creature is slung up by the hind legs, with the nose fixed to a rail, and the blood allowed to trickle out, in the hope that every drop may be extracted, and the flesh left mere fibre. With regard to the conveyance, Mr. Hunt, a large dealer in Sussex, who had dealt in sucking-calves for forty years, and sent about two thousand every year to market, has recorded his experience : "I attend Salisbury market, and buy a great many calves. They are put into a van with their legs untied, at perfect liberty, and in that manner brought home. In my opinion the practice of tying their legs, and packing them closely in a cart, with their heads hanging down, is a most unnecessary and cruel mode of conveyance. I never had a calf injured while conveying them in an upright position, nor would any other dealer who takes proper care of his animals. All the calves brought to Chichester market are brought standing up or slung in nets underneath the vans. My carts are six feet by five, with open rails on each side, affording a thorough ventilation. Each van holds about fifteen calves, and I travel at the rate of five miles an hour." A dealer at Guildford was lately prosecuted and fined for carrying calves in a cart, tied with their heads hanging down, and there are few magistrates at petty sessions or quarter sessions who would not convict on information of such cruelty. As to the cruelty in the slaughter-house, the draining of blood from the dead carcase should be the only whitening allowed. This plan is not only more merciful, but the veal is more nourishing and more wholesome.

What is true of cattle and sheep is too sadly true of almost every creature used for man's food—there is a great amount of thoughtless and heartless cruelty. For instance, poultry are often sent long distances, in crowded coops, without food or water. Cruelty, not only to poultry in transit, but when exposed for sale at market, is everywhere common, both at home and

36

FISHMONGERS' SHOPS.

abroad. Many men and women, otherwise tender-hearted enough, may never have given the matter a moment's thought. A word from those who witness the suffering might set the owners or sellers a-thinking ; and also the wide publication in market towns of reports of convictions would put a perceptible check on these thoughtless cruelties.

To give only one or two further instances of needless suffering connected with food :—

Eels are usually kept alive at the fishmonger's shop, but he ought to be obliged to put them out of pain, by severing the spine close to the head, before selling them, and not leave them to be tortured in preparing for the table. Lobsters and crabs ought to be pierced, to prevent the slow torture of being boiled or steamed to death. There are men who regularly go to the respectable fishmongers in London to do this, and the dexterity with which they use the sharp piercing rod is remarkable. One object may be to prevent the poor creatures from dropping their claws in the torture of scalding, but it is humane to shorten their time of suffering. The claws are usually tied together to prevent them fighting, which is an improvement on the old barbarity of pegging the claws with wooden pins, a practice now by law forbidden. The fishmongers or salesmen might be compelled to kill all fish sold by them, before being sent out, to prevent the greater torment they too often receive in inexperienced hands.

For the clothing as well as the food of man there must be much destruction of animal life. The same principle holds good as to the killing of animals for clothing as for food—that it should be done with as little waste of life and with as little suffering as possible. That this is not always considered it would be easy to show ; but it would take too much space to describe the various ways in which needless waste of life and needless suffering occur in providing for the necessities, and still

37

THE SEAL-FISHERY.

more the luxuries, of dress. One example of the whole must suffice. In an article in the Daily Telegraph on the possible extermination of the seal, from the increased demand for seal-skin jackets, some comments on the circumstances attending the capture and destruction of seals deserve the consideration of those who wear or who covet this luxurious article of dress.

The time chosen for the fishery is unfortunately the very period that of all others ought to be kept close. Except for a very short part of the year the seal lives to all intents and purposes on the open sea. But the female when about to bring forth seeks the shelter of the shore, where she suckles and watches her cubs until they are old enough to shift for themselves. At this time, wherever there are seals along the coast, large herds of them will be found from a quarter to half a mile inland. The proportions are very much those of a drove of deer. The main body will consist of often several hundred females, each with one or two helpless little ones, while the males hang about the outskirts of the flock. . . . As soon as a herd of this kind is spied, the boats are manned, and the whole vessel's crew, armed with bludgeons and axes, starts upon a 'cutting-out expedition,' at the horrors of which humanity may well shudder. The only way to effectually kill a seal with completeness and despatch is by a heavy blow with a bludgeon, or a deep cut with an axe, so as either to crush or sever the nasal bones ; and when the boats' crews have got ashore an indiscriminate slaughter is commenced, the whole herd being often butchered before a single one can reach the water's edge. The tumult and skurry of the attack over, the real work commences. The adult quarry is skinned with all possible haste, and as often as not with the life still in it. The cubs, who lie moaning and whinnying by the side of their dams, are knocked on the head if big enough to give their fur any value, and if too small to be worth the skinning are left without even the mercy of a coup de grâce. Old seal hunters tell us-and we

38

ORNAMENTS FOR FEMALE DRESS.

can well believe it—that it takes a man some time to get used to such cruel butchery, and that the half-human wailing of the little calves, as they flop and roll about the mangled carcase of their mother, is something that, until he is hardened to the work, will make his sleep uneasy at night. . . .

"Apart from considerations of humanity, it is fast becoming a serious question whether the present demand for sealskin jackets is not likely to end in the total extermination of the seal itself. The Norwegian and Swedish Governments have had the matter under their consideration, and have communicated with our own Board of Trade; and there is, it seems, a unanimous consensus of opinion to the effect that, 'unless a close time is adopted, the seal, if not entirely exterminated, will soon become so reduced in numbers as to render the fishing unremunerative.'"

Whatever the scarcity of seals may be, till they are wholly extinct there will be people to pay high prices for sealskin jackets. It is the same with other creatures destroyed for ornamental dress. When we read of a lady appearing at a grand ball, her dress trimmed with the plumage of song birds ; when we see little humming-birds worn as an ornament upon hats, and all manner of feathers and plumes, we then recognize the lamentable and unalterable truth that humanity towards the lower animals is a sentiment which, however commendable in itself, must yet be strictly subordinated to the necessities of a lady's toilette. Here and there a lady may be found unselfish and tender-hearted enough to abstain from such ornaments, and men of sense will think all the more of her for it ; but the efforts of the humane, in the matter of dress, must be limited chiefly to getting legislation as to close seasons, so that the poor animals and birds may be protected while engaged in rearing their tender young.

We now come to the cruelties inflicted on animals that assist

39

CRUELTIES TO HORSES

the labour of man. It seems a base thing to refuse good treatment to creatures habitually engaged in our service, and by whose toils we are directly profited. Yet the want of sympathy and care is here only too common. Very often there is excessive and unremitting labour ; loads disproportioned to the animal's strength ; insufficient food and rest ; and inattention to the many painful diseases and other consequences of ill-treatment. There are many humane servants who take pleasure in treating well the animals under their charge, and such treatment should always be encouraged by the owners, if only for their own interest. But the eye of the master cannot always be upon hirelings, and much cruelty passes unseen and unreproved. No one can pass along our streets and highways without witnessing painful scenes of cruelty to horses ; overtaxed strength, furious pace, savage blows, and jerking of the hard reins. On the towing-paths of canals, in quarries, and many places these scenes occur. Coal carts are often drawn by feeble old horses unfit for the load, and the toil increased by the heads being reined up on the steepest inclines. The owners and salesmen ought to be made responsible for all such cruelties, as well as the hardened reckless drivers.

A large number of horses, ponies, and donkeys are employed underground. The inspectors of mines ought to inquire of overseers and responsible persons if they are properly treated.

With regard to harness, it is a matter of common sense as well as common humanity to have it as light as possible, and as little of it as is consistent with strength and wear. We must not judge of the ill effects merely from sores that are seen, though these are often bad enough. Over-pressure on any part, either from weight or tightness, interferes with the circulation, and causes much pain and discomfort, and if long continued will produce internal diseases.

The use of "blinkers" or "winkers" is also a needless mode of producing discomfort. Most coachmen will tell you

40

BEARING-REINS.

that the horses would get frightened if allowed to see all about them, especially in towns. This is no doubt partly true when they have always been accustomed to being half blindfolded, and led to depend wholly on the reins and the whip. It would hardly be safe to leave off blinkers suddenly when they have always been used ; but if young horses were "broken in for harness" without them, and allowed the free use of their sight, and of their own sagacity, they would be more easily driven, and do their work more comfortably. In many departments of work, such as on railways, blinkers are not used ; nor are they in field artillery, in the Army Transport Corps, and other public services. The intelligent brutes know what they are about, and are less likely to be frightened and unmanageable than if they were half-blinded, with noise and confusion all round.

A still worse point of modern harness is the general use of the bearing-rein. It is absurd to suppose that the bearing-rein is necessary to keep a horse up. With free reins, so as to allow of the play of the head, and of natural change of muscle in going up or going down hill, the sagacity and sureness of foot of the horse would come into play, which are hindered and destroyed by the bearing-rein.

It is used "to give an arched neck and smart appearance," but a good horse will hold its head well without such artificial means, and no art can give to a sorry animal the proud crest and arch neck of a well-bred horse. Ignorant people may think, on seeing carriage horses tossing their heads up and down, and champing their bits, that these are marks of high spirit, whereas the poor animals are really trying to relieve themselves of the discomfort and pain inseparable from having the head pinioned by a tight short rein.

The late Field-Marshal Sir John Burgoyne has thus stated his opinion as to the use of the bearing-rein for horses in draught :—"It is not only inflicting a torment, but is absolutely

41

CAB-HORSES AND KNACKERS' YARDS.

injurious to the working power of the animal, as is clearly perceptible in witnessing the difference in the natural position of the horse, if with or without it, in drawing a load up hill. Though highly objectionable in the case of carriage horses, the cruelty is far greater in the case of the cart horse, where there is less spare power of action, and, what is of far more consequence, the greater number of hours of the day in which the animal is subject to it."

Mr. Fleming, one of the highest authorities in veterinary surgery, and indeed in all matters pertaining to horses, says that it wearies the head and neck of the horse by the unnatural position which it causes ; it gives the animal a hard mouth, and predisposes it to stumble ; it tends to produce giddiness or even apoplexy and other serious complaints. The only wonder is why it has been tolerated so long. The exertions of Mr. Flower, formerly Mayor of Stratford-on-Avon, have done much to diminish the use of bearing-reins.

On the subject of horse-shoeing, in connection with which there is much cruelty, I recommend to the owners of horses the practical treatise, by Mr. Fleming, published by Chapman and Hall. A little treatise, entitled "The Horse Book," published by the R.S.P.C.A., contains numerous useful directions and sensible hints for the right treatment in many points of this valuable helper of man's labours.

The most deliberate cruelty to which horses are subject is the practice of buying up old roadsters, hunters, carriage horses, and even racers, when past service for the rich, from old age or disease, and turning them to cabs or other oppressive work, upon the calculation of how many months they may be driven so as to return a profit, with the addition of the sale of the carcase at the knacker's yard. That poor men should buy such horses is not to be wondered at, but it is a mean and cruel thing in the rich to sell them, for the sake of the small sum they can fetch, for such purposes. Before a

42

SABBATH REST FOR ALL CREATURES.

Parliamentary Committee many almost incredible facts were brought out in evidence as to the sale of old horses, and the proceedings at the knackers' yards. Much cruelty in this direction is unavoidable, yet appeal may surely be made to the rich not to let their horses that have served them well be doomed to end their days in painful misery.

In places of holiday resort, where ponies, donkeys, and other animals are made to minister to amusement, it is useful to have a warning notice conspicuously posted. This has been done with good result in various places. For ill-treating, over-driving, or cruelly beating, an offender is liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds ; or, instead of a fine, the magistrates may commit the offender to prison with hard labour for three months.

Through the watchfulness and kindly appeals of benevolent persons there has been a marked improvement of late years in the conduct of boys in charge of animals kept for the amusement of holiday people, an improvement which residents in the neighbourhood can, both by offering rewards and in threatening the hardened, sustain and increase.

One special claim all animals employed in labour have—the rest of the seventh day. It is a notable fact, and in keeping with all the precepts of divine mercy, that the Sabbath was appointed as a day of rest for beast, as well as of rest and holiness for man. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. "six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest : that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed" (Exod. xx. 8—10; Exod. xxiii. 12 ; Deut. V. 12—14). In London there were six-day cabs, the owners taking licence for six days a week, and giving their men and horses rest on the seventh. The plate and number of these cabs were of a

43

CRUELTIES FOR MAN'S AMUSEMENTS.

different colour from the seven-day cabs. It is to be regretted, both for the sake of the men and their horses, that the privilege has been for the present abolished.

At one of the meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Cork, in 1843, Mr. Bianconi, the late well-known car proprietor in Ireland, read a paper giving his experience in regard to public conveyances. One of his statements is worthy of being noted. Mr. Bianconi said he had found by long experience that he could better work a horse eight hours a day for six days in the week, than six hours a day for seven days in the week. By not working on Sunday he effected a saving of 12 per cent.

We have next to consider the sufferings of animals in connection with the amusements of man. When suffering is caused in field sports, or in other so-called amusements, various motives and feelings are in play, and the pain inflicted is overlooked or forgotten. This can hardly, however, be said of such brutal amusements as bull-baiting, dog-fighting, cock-fighting, and other sports which are in this country now under the ban of the law. It is only in secret that such deeds of darkness can now be practised, as they still sometimes are. Cock-fighting matches, for instance, are not yet things of the past. If the Jermyn street Society make inquiry, at Newmarket and elsewhere, they will find work for them still to do in this direction. It used often to be said that by the abolition of these sports the manly spirit of the English people would be weakened ; an argument which was much used in Parliament in opposing legislation on the subject. The reply was, that brutal feeling was no part of real courage ; and experience has proved that the gradual decline of cruel sports has not weakened the manlier virtues, but has removed hindrances to improvement in the moral character of the working-classes. We have no doubt that other cruel amusements, which are still openly

44

PIGEON-SHOOTING.

defended and encouraged, will be abandoned under the influence of public opinion, improved and enlightened by Christian principle. The Queen of England does not now, as in the days of Queen Elizabeth, patronize by her presence the dog-pit or the bear-garden. It is satisfactory to observe how the line of demarcation between honourable or decorous sports, and low or cruel amusements, is gradually shifting, and how one by one those practices which formed the recreation of refined society in former times are left to the dregs of the populace. We have no doubt that some cruel and demoralizing amusements which are still prevalent will be disowned as barbarous, and their co-existence with the advanced state of society in other respects will excite the surprise of a future generation.

Of this kind is the sport of pigeon-shooting, as practised at Hurlingham and other lower places of resort. Of these matches the Times has thus spoken in terms of manly protest. The only wonder is that the Times and other respectable journals continue to report proceedings which are so strongly condemned as brutal and demoralizing :—

Pigeon-shooting, always irrational and brutalizing in itself, has begot a species of gambling of its own, and the matches at Hurlingham have grown to be a mere vehicle for betting. . . . We can only say that we think it high time such senseless, such cruel, and such costly amusements should be put down, not indeed by law, but by what is above all law—the instinctive feeling which all true Englishmen and all lovers of legitimate sport have against practices which are alike brutalizing, ruinous, and debasing, and which are revolting at once to the humanity and the common sense of the community.

We get upon more difficult and debateable ground when we speak of field sports, as these are commonly understood. Even in the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty the

45

MORALITY OF FIELD SPORTS.

subject is for the present tabooed, some of the keenest sportsmen being warm friends and liberal supporters of the Society. In these pursuits, more than in any other department of animal suffering, there is no desire to inflict cruelty. The sportsman is intent on amusement merely, or it may be health, or is actuated by motives which do not take into account the sufferings caused to animals. These are either never considered, or overborne by the excitement of the sport, or regarded as of little account compared with the advantages and pleasure of the pursuit. Many a sportsman has never once had a thought of cruelty in connection with his sport. Public opinion, in fact, is not strong enough to pass condemnation on field sports, as it does on other forms of cruelty. There is the more reason for those who think such amusements cruel to ventilate the subject, and give clear utterance to their opinions. On this matter no one has written with more force than Mr. E. A. Freeman, in an essay published some years ago in the "Fortnightly Review," and reprinted as a pamphlet by the Tunbridge Wells Local Society for Preventing Cruelty, one of the zealous and useful branches of the parent institution. A few extracts from Mr. Freeman's essay, entitled "The Morality of Field Sports," will bring the question clearly before our readers.

"Not very long ago a street boy in a country town was charged before the local magistrates with cruelty to animals in setting two dogs to worry a cat. The offence was proved ; a fine was inflicted and paid; but the boy's father added the comment that he thought it hard that his son should be fined for setting dogs on a cat, while gentlemen set dogs on hares and were not fined. The bench, on such an occasion, has the great advantage of being able to keep silence itself and, if need be, to command silence in others ; and, as I heard the story, it did not appear that any attempt was made to answer the question.

46

BRUTAL SPORTS.

"To chase a calf or a donkey either till it is torn in pieces or till it sinks from weariness, would be scouted as a cruel act. Do the same to a deer and it is a noble and royal sport. It is, as we have seen, a legal crime to worry a cat. To worry a hare is a gallant diversion. And men who would lift up their hands in horror at the wanton torture of a bull or bear, deem no praises too high for the heroic sport which consists in the wanton torture of a fox.

"It is quite true that many high-minded and cultivated, and in other respects even humane, men indulge now in hunting and shooting. They call hunting and shooting noble and manly sports. But Windham was also a high-minded and cultivated man, and Windham rejoiced in sports which he deemed noble and manly, but from which the modern fox-hunter now turns away in disgust. A gentleman of our own day who frequents cock-fights and badger-baits is undoubtedly a brute. So would a prince of Elizabeth's day have been, if he had, like Constantine, thrown his prisoners to the lions. And I believe that a day will come when fox-hunting will be looked on as no less unworthy of a man of sense and refinement than badger-baiting is now. But though conventionality may do a great deal, it cannot do everything. It cannot change wrong into right. I cannot but think that the indulgence in cruelty in any form and in any degree must more or less harden the heart. I am far from saying that every fox-hunter is a bad man, but I certainly think that, cæterls paribus, the fox-hunter would be a better man if he were not a fox-hunter. And few would approve of devotion to pursuits of this kind when it becomes the distinguishing feature in the character. A mere fox-hunter, a mere bull-baiter, a mere amateur of gladiators can never have been an estimable character in any age.

"It does seem to me that the effects of these pursuits on the general character of their votaries is not a good one. The difference of degrees of course is infinite many men hunt who

47

SIR CHARLES NAIPIER' S IDEA OF SPORT.

can hardly be called "hunting men ;" but when the pursuit is followed to such a degree as to be a marked feature in a man's character, the effect is not good.

"Who does not remember in his childhood the young hero, in the tale of Sandford and Merton, who, in the spirit of the old saints, withstands the torturers of the hunted hare, and refuses, even under the blows of the savage hunter, to betray the unfortunate ? I find in the life of the great and good Dr. Petrie that through his whole life he raised his protest against sports of this kind, and warned many a sportsman that his pursuits were those of the savage. The writings of Sir Francis Palgrave are full of passages of exquisite beauty and tenderness, wrung from him by the events of a history which set before him the pursuits of the hunter in their naked ugliness. I do not envy the feelings of the sportsman who can read what Sir Francis says as to the desolation of Hampshire, and the fate of William Rufus, without a qualm as to the lawfulness of his sport. But perhaps these witnesses may be despised, as the testimony of recluse students, incapable of entering into a noble and manly sport. But I believe that it would be possible to name more than one gallant soldier who could both take and jeopard life when his duty bade him, but who deemed it no sign of courage to rejoice in the needless anguish of man or beast."

Sir Charles Napier said of himself and his noble brothers, "We are all fond of hunting, fishing, and shooting, yet we all gave them up when young, because we had no pleasure in killing little animals." But appeals like this are lost upon mere "sporting men :"

"The reeking, roaring hero of the chase,
I give him over as a desperate case.
And though the fox he follows may be tamed,
A mere fox-follower never is reclaimed."

We can only hope that the number may increase of country

48

IMPROVEMENT UPON FORMER TIMES.

gentlemen with hearts susceptible of pity, and with minds cultured and capable of higher pursuits than sport :

"Detested sport,
That owes its pleasures to another's pain,
That feeds upon the sobs and dying shrieks
Of harmless nature, dumb, but yet endued
With eloquence, that agonies inspire
Of silent tears and heart-distending sighs ;
Vain tears, alas ! and sighs that never find
A corresponding tone in jovial souls."

I must not enlarge further on the various forms of needless suffering, many of which will occur to different readers. Why should dogs, which perspire through their mouths, be tortured with close muzzles, enough to drive them to madness ? Why should traps, even for vermin, be constructed so as to cause the most crushing and prolonged agony ? Why should Boards and contractors be allowed to repair our roads with metal that seems ingeniously suited to distress and injure our horses ? The pages of "The Animal World" are constantly bringing to notice many such kinds of heedless and needless cruelty.

But, after all, the sum of suffering is less than it was, and moral and social improvement is increasing in relation to this question. Fifty years ago, bull-baiting, with all its fiendish accompaniments, was still common, and the feasts and fairs of "merrie England" were scenes of cruelty and crime as revolting as in any heathen land. These brutal sports had still defenders in Parliament "in the days when George the Fourth was king," and few protests were heard from the pulpit or the press. What has been done during the past half century, and especially under the beneficent reign of Queen Victoria, our next chapter will narrate.