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Lord Erskine

1750-1823

The Speech of Lord Erskine, in the House of Peers, on 15th of May, 1809, on the Second Reading of the Bill, "attracted much attention, and it was afterwards published in pamphlet form". The Lords passed the bill, but it was lost in the commons. The Times concludes the Bill "lay[s] the foundation for and establish a system of rights and privileges even for the mute and unconscious part of creation." The Edinburgh Review came out against the bill. (Edward Fairholme and Wellesly Pain, A Century of Work for the Animals: The History of the R.S.P.C.A., 1824-1924 [New York: E. P. Dutton, 1924])

[1809-May-15] Lord Erskine, The Speech of Lord Erskine…on the Bill for Preventing Malicious and Wanton Cruelty to Animals on the Second Reading of the Bill for Preventing Malicious and Wanton Cruelty to Animals, Reprinted in the appendix of The Wrongs of the Animal World, by David Mushet (London, 1839; Online Edition: Animal Rights History, 2003).

The next generation will feel, in the first dawn of their ideas, the august relation they stand in to the lower world, and the trust which their station in the universe imposes on them; and it will not be left to a future Sterne to remind us, when we put aside even a harmless insect, that the world is large enough for both. This extension of benevolence to objects beneath us, become habitual by a sense of duty inculcated by law, will reflect back upon our sympathies for one another ; so that I may venture to say firmly to your Lordships, that the Bill I propose to you, if it shall receive the sanction of Parliament, will not only be an honour to the country, but an era in the history of the world. (298-299)

A Bill was brought into the House of Commons, whilst I had the honour of a seat there, to repress this practice [of bull-baiting], but not upon the true principle. The framers of it were, I am persuaded, actuated by motives of humanity, but they mixed with it very laudable objects of human policy, which rather obscured the principle of protection to the animals. (280-281)

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