He had previously attended to the speech of the right hon. gentleman who was so decided an opponent of the measure, and he could not help admiring the ingenuity, talents, and address which he had displayed in a speech which he thought well calculated to produce an effect on the imagination; but, perhaps, of all the speeches he ever heard, it was the least calculated to produce solid conviction. With respect to the support he received from the hon. gentleman who spoke last, he was at first rather dubious of it, and were it not for the animation of his manner, he really should have thought that he intended to follow the ironical line adopted by an hon. friend of his (Mr. S.) under the gallery-a great deal of what had been said, might be reduced to a short question, which, for the sake of illustration, he would put in the metaphorical language of an hon. gentleman under the gallery, who said, "as the higher orders of the people had their Billington, the lower orders should have their bull-baiting." Another member declared, as an argument against the bill, that through the means of bull-baiting, he raised more men for his Majesty in Lancashire, and also more subjects in the way of increasing the population, than by any other means he knew. This might be an admirable argument to influence a recruiting serjeant, but that any one should think, that it could have an effect on a grave and deliberating assembly of legislators, more especially, when it produced effects which involved considerations of vice and profligacy on the part of women, was to him a little extraordinary. In some countries the disgraceful practice in question did not prevail, but that the measure could operate with respect to the country to which that hon. gentleman referred, either in relation to the excellent breed of bulls, or the sources of increased population alluded to, was a little questionable. All of the topics in the right hon. gentleman's (Mr. Wyndham) speech, however, he should have occasion to allude to; and first, with respect to the idea, that such subjects were unworthy the attention of the legislature. After warmly animadverting on what he had said respecting the estimation and progress of private bills in that house, Mr. Sheridan proceeded to express his surprise, that if the right hon. gentleman thought the subject so low, so trifling, as to be utterly unworthy of the interference of the legislature, he should have deemed it necessary to oppose the bill in a very long and elaborate speech, a speech which, in his

mind, had rather been prepared for the occasion; in more points than one of it, the lamp was to be smelt; it possessed a climax of quotation, from modern as well as ancient authors. Xenophon, Virgil, Milton, and other writers, were copiously referred to. All this matter too, was well arranged. If the right hon. gentleman deemed the subject trifling, and unworthy of attention, why take all that trouble about it? Or if the right hon. gentleman had displayed so much ability and address, or made so great a figure in eloquence, while decrying the definitive treaty, he should not, most probably, have been in so small a minority. "What," it was exclaimed, "would Europe say, if, at such a juncture, we occupied ourselves in such discussions ?" With respect to the right hon. gentleman's mode of considering as well as treating this question, he felt for him-he felt for the state of his mind, and for that irritation of which it must be susceptible in contemplating the return of peace, and he must allow for his feelings on the cessation of hostilities in every part of Europe; in which view it would appear, as if he wished to make some compensation to himself, in fomenting a war between the bulls and the dogs. It was rather extraordinary, that though the right hon. gentleman denied the subject to be of importance, yet he considered the measure to proceed from the combined effects of jacobinism and methodism, to overturn the constitution of the country; and another gentleman seemed to be of opinion, that if the lower order of the people were not indulged in the joyous and jovial practice of bull-baiting, the constitution must eventually be overturned. Another point respected the amusements of the lower orders of the people. With respect to these, nothing could give him greater pleasure, than that they could be effectually revised and reduced to a salutary system, founded on just and rational principles. He would bring to the right hon. gentleman's recollection a circumstance relative to this point, namely, a society which was some time ago established, in which an hon. general, since dead (Burgoyne), was a leading member, and in which they both were concerned; the object of which was to revive the practice of the genuine old English sports and amusements; in this plan, however, it was expressly set forth, that the barbarous practice of bull-baiting was not to be included. In regard to the argument held out, that if this custom was suppressed, we should

not know where to stop, and that the amusements of hunting, shooting, and fishing, would become the next objects of suppression; to this idea, he could shortly answer, that these amusements have no more analogy to the barbarous practice in question, than anything the most opposite in their natures could have; and he must observe, with regard to the hon. gentleman who had beheld those scenes over and over again, that no man could advance such arguments or defend the practice, who had not been inured to it. But that gentleman said, "the object was, not to torture the animal-that cruelty was not inflicted for the sake of cruelty;" where was the difference in the effect, or in the tortures of the wretched animal, when the cruelty proceeded only from sport? He could conceive different sources of passion from which cruelty might arise, as wrath, malice, fear, cowardice, and worse than these, was it, when proceeding from beastly appetite, from the effect of gluttony; but certainly worse than any, or than all put together, was the nature of inflicting cruelty merely for sport. If the house suffered the bill to go to a committee, they could produce facts which must excite feelings of horror and indignation. What the hon. gentleman said of our deriving useful instructions from animals, was in a great degree well founded; but then it must be from animals in a free state of nature; in circumstances wherein, as the poet happily expresses it, you may

"Learn from the little Nautilus to sail."

But not from animals in a state of coercion or torture. He expatiated with great feeling, animation, and effect, on the barbarous custom of bull-baiting, as not only producing the most inconceivable tortures to the wretched animal, and often to the instruments of his torment, but tending to deaden the feelings of humanity in, and to brutalize the minds of the beholder, and at such sights women and children were often present; of this he stated some facts in illustration; among these, that of a brutal bull-baiter, who, possessing an old bitch that lately had a large litter of puppies, was willing to show the stanchness of her blood, and the extent of her prowess; he set the bitch at the bull, she pinned, and fastened on him, and in that situation he literally cut her to pieces, the animal still keeping her hold. He then sold the puppies for five guineas a-piece; after this he took out his knife, and in a climax of

brutality, cut the bitch's throat. These facts showed the diabolical and malignant spirit with which such sports were conducted, and encouraging those, instead of making a people manly and generous, would, by inuring them to acts of cruelty, render them base, and fit to submit to the yoke of tyranny, and to bow to a rigour beyond the law; and to encourage them in such acts of barbarism would also render the people barbarous and tyrannical in their turn, teach them to oppress the weak, by rioting in the blood and tortures of dumb and unoffending animals, and on all occasions, as a sure result, to bow the neck to the yoke of power. Such practices surely called for the interference of the legislature; they degraded the national character, as well as brutalized the people, and had incontrovertibly extended to the length of contra bonus mores. Undoubtedly, as has been said, cruelties may be practised upon animals, and of the most shocking kinds, in circumstances which it was beyond the power of law to remedy. True, but if these practices were exhibited openly, they would become nuisances, and call for the interference of the legislature. Those bold and bare-faced practices, which exhibit their sanguinary details to the eye of day, should certainly be put down; it was a question, whether the existing laws may not be sufficient to remedy the evil, by the interference of the magistrates. However that might be, the old law seemed to be worn out; its teeth could not be fixed upon the evil; it was the object of the present bill to remedy this defect, and to render the law efficacious.

General Gascoyne moved that the bill be read this day three months. The house divided. For the amendment 64; against it 5.

DECEMBER 8.

ARMY ESTIMATES-WAR WITH FRANCE.

MR. SHERIDAN said, sir, being in the situation alluded to by the right hon. gentleman who has just sat down, of not being able to agree precisely with any of those who have preceded me, yet of being, at the same time, unwilling to give a silent vote on the present occasion, I rise with some sentiments of reluctance. There is one thing, however, in which we all coincide; it is, that the crisis in which we are placed is so big with tremendous importance, so pregnant with mighty difficulties, so full of appre

hensions and dangers, that the house and the country have a right to know what are the intentions and views of those by whose exertions we may expect to be extricated from the complication of embarrassments, and snatched from the very brink of destruction. Sir, one of the circumstances I most regret in this debate is, the references that have been made to the characters and abilities of persons supposed to be fit to fill particular offices. I feel this as a subject of regret, and, feeling so, am sorry that my hon. friend near me made any allusion even to one man, whom of all men upon earth I most love and respect, because I do view the crisis to be one of such moment and peril; and because, if ever there was a time in which we should prove to the people of England that we are above all party feelings, that we are above all party distinctions, that we are superior to any petty scramble for places and power, that time is the present.— Sir, in speaking upon these topics, I do find a disposition in some gentlemen to rebuke any man who shall deliver an opinion with respect to the First Consul of France. One hon. gentleman, who rebuked an hon. general that spoke before him, declared that he would not give his opinion with respect to the conduct of France to Switzerland; and what does his rebuke amount to? He confesses that, upon that subject, there can be but one opinion. Why then, sir, he either adopts the opinion of the hon. general or not. If he does adopt it, he gives us as strong an opinion against the conduct of France as can possibly be given. If he does not adopt it, why then all we can say is, that there are two opinions. "But what," he asks, "has Switzerland to do with the question?" It has this to do with it: the hon. general introduced the subject in this way; he contends that a power which is capable of such unprovoked aggression, and such perfidy, is the power that ought to be watched. But the hon. gentleman goes on to assert, that we have nothing to do with the case of Switzerland, nothing to do with France, nothing but with her power. Nothing but her power! as if that were little. He asks too," where is the great difference between France under the Bourbons and under her present ruler?" Why, sir, the hon. general inferred, from the conduct of France, that, with her growing power, she had a growing disposition to mischief. "But is that power," demands the hon. gentleman, "greater now than it was last June ?" Perhaps it is not, sir; but her