gentines raised sumptuous monuments over their favourite horses, and the dogs and birds that had been kept for the amusement of their children. "Simon gave an honourable sepulture to the mares with which he had three times gained the prize of the course at the Olympic games. The ancient Xantippus caused his dog to be interred on an eminence near the sea, which has ever since retained the name and Plutarch says, "That he made conscience of selling to the slaughter an ox that had been long in his service." The most recent fact of a similar nature that has come to the author's knowledge, is contained in the will of the late Lord Eldon, in which he "bequeaths his coach-horses to Lady Frances Jane Bankes, with the direction that they are to have a free run of the grass at Encombe. The earl also bequeaths his favourite dog Pincher to the same lady, with a clear annual allowance of £8 to buy him food." It is most gratifying to have a few such facts as these to record. They vindicate the character of human nature, and show that though there is much cruelty to be deplored, gratitude and humanity are still to be found in the breast of man. CHAPTER IX. CAUSES OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. I dare not maintain that man is by nature cruel. We often charge upon nature those evils which spring from the unnatural indulgence and abuse of propensities originally good. Admitting, according to the phrenologist, that we have the organs of combativeness and destructive'ness given, as all the other gifts of a kind Creator, for wise and beneficent purposes, it will be admitted on the other hand, that we have also the organs of benevolence and conscientiousness; and that it is as natural and as gratifying to obey the impulses of the latter as the former. But in all well constituted and well regulated minds, the latter, as they ought, must have the predominance; and the most violent propensities in such minds are subject to the control of the higher principles of mercy and compassion, aided, as these are, by veneration, or a sense of the reverence and devotion due to the Deity. With respect to the indulgence of any propensity, or the cultivation of any of the moral sentiments, man is very much the creature of circumstances and education. Some nations are cruel and ferocious; others, gentle and humane; though " God made of one blood all the nations of the earth." This diversity originating partly in climate, and partly in food, is increased and perpetuated by manners and customs political and religious. Among the causes of cruelty to animals in civilized nations, the following may be enumerated as the principal : 1. Gambling and the love of gain—whence cock-fighting, horse-racing, or the running and trotting of horses against time. 2. The mere gratification of brutal passions, and the love of sport-whence bull-baiting, bull-running, dogfighting, the tying of kettles to dogs' tails, hunting cats, houghing kine, maiming and slaughtering sheep clandestinely, from hatred or revenge of their owner. 3. Luxury and gluttony-whence the painfully unnatural modes of fattening and preparing animals for the table, and of putting them to death, the bleeding of calves, capon-making, enormous slaughter of birds, beasts, fishes, for some high festival, putting out the eyes of birds that they may the better sing. 4. Ignorance, and false pretences-whence the torturing of hedgehogs, and the destruction of rooks, woodpeckers, and other birds, under the erroneous idea that they are more injurious than useful to the farmer and horticulturist. 5. Antipathies, or unjust and illfounded dislikesof which cats, mice, spiders, beetles, frogs, are the vic tims. 6. Love of science perverted, vivisection, natural history. On each of these causes of cruelty, the following sections will contain some observations. CAUSES OF CRUELTY. SECTION FIRST. GAMBLING AND THE LOVE OF GAIN. "Quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames ?"-VIRG. "Can it be true that an English nobleman, in the eighteenth century, won a bet by procuring a man to eat a cat alive?"-Miss EDGEWORTH. "Can it be true ?" Well might a humane mind like Miss Edgeworth's question the truth of so monstrous an atrocity. It seems incredible; but what is the crime to which a rage for betting will not stimulate? An apostle has said, that "the love of money is the root of all evil.” That it is the root of much evil to the animal tribes, all who have paid the least attention to the subject will admit. The reader of this essay is already aware that the author does not object to fishing and hunting, as pursuits of commercial profit. They are necessary to human subsistance, and may be carried on without meriting the charge of cruelty. But he objects to animals being subjected to any pain which can be avoided, still more to their being made the destroyers of each other, and above all, to their mutual destruction in mercenary games. Gambling in any form, though with the inanimate instruments of cards and dice, is a most pernicious and destructive vice, the cause of frequent suicides, and the ruin of whole families. But it is attended with still greater criminality, it is adding iniquity to iniquity, to make a gambling sport of the battles and carnage of animalsanimals which a bounteous Providence bestows for man's comfort, and which he is expected to treat with humanity. To cause them to turn against one another, and to their own destruction, the very arms which God gave them for their defence and protection, is a crying sin, compared with which the seething of a kid in the milk of its dam would, even in the belief of a disciple of Moses, be as innocence itself. Such a sin is the practice of cock-fighting, of all low and vulgar sports, the most cruel and demoralizing. No scene can be more shocking to a mind of any feeling and refinement than a cock-pit, around which one may think he sees, without any great effort of imagination, every evil passion of the human heart personified; such aspects of cut-throat villains as cause an involuntary shudder. Then to see those noble birds so shorn of their beautiful plumage, so deformed, so armed with spurs of steel, brought into the bloody arena, and slaughtered by mutual wounds, amidst the curses and blasphemies of the ruthless dastardly ruffians, who seem to want the power more than the inclination, to have men and beasts instead of birds to revive the infamous gladiatorial games! Of all species of gambling, this is the most detestable; it calls loudly for the strong arm of the law to put it down summarily and effectually. That it should receive any countenance from men pretending to the name of gentleinen, not to say Christians, may seem incredible. Christians! no; Christianity loathes and denounces such practices as sinful abominations, meriting the severity of divine chastisement. 66 The author of the article "Cock," in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Dub. ed. 1791, after an able description of this noble animal, justly animadverts on the barbarity of cockfighting, on the noise and nonsense, the profane cursing and swearing of those who have the effrontery to call themselves, with all these bloody doings about them, Christians, nay, what with many is a superior and distinct character, men of benevolence and morality. But let the benevolence and morality of such be appreciated from the following instance, recorded as authentic in the obituary of the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1789. Died, April 4, at Tottenham, John Ardesoif, Esq. a young man of large fortune, and in the splendour of his carriages and horses rivalled by few gentlemen. His table was that of hospitality, where it may be said he sacrificed too much to conviviality; but if he had his foibles, he had his merits also that far outweighed them. Mr. Ardesoif was very fond of cock-fighting, and had a favourite cock upon which he had won many matches. The last bet he laid upon this cock, he lost; which so enraged K him, that he had the bird tied to a spit and roasted alive before a large fire. The screams of the miserable animal were so affecting, that some gentlemen who were present attempted to interfere, which so enraged Mr. Ardesoif, that he seized a poker, and with the most furious vehemence, declared that he would kill the first man who interposed; but in the midst of his passionate asseverations he fell down dead upon the spot. Such, we are assured, were the circumstances which attended the death of this great pillar of humanity.'" As to matches against space and time for the sake of lucre, in which horses are lashed and spurred till their strength is exhausted, and they fall the victims of their exertion, they deserve the stigma of every friend of humanity. What were the strokes given by Balaam to his ass, in comparison of the tortures inflicted on these noble animals ? Let their gory sides, their excoriated flanks, their broken hoofs, and disjointed fetlocks declare. Sometimes they fall down, and, happily for themselves, expire in the violence of their exertions; for if they survive, it is only to experience a more miserable fate in the end. The well known song of the high-mettled racer, is a picture taken from the life, a too real representation of facts frequently repeated :— "With neck like a rainbow, erecting his crest, Pampered, prancing, and pleased, his head touching his breast, The high-mettled racer first starts for the plate." After being the favorite of the race-course, the most extolled of hunters, whose value was not to be estimated, "By the mass, my Lord, it is not all Bedford level would purchase him;" as he advances in age, and declines in strength and fleetness, he gradually descends from his elevation; and instead of being rewarded for his past services, with a free pasture and exemption from farther labour, for the plates he has won and the honours he has brought his ungrateful master, he is sold for whatever he may bring, and becomes a " hack upon the road." Whence descending to a still lower grade, he is harnessed to a dung-cart, or sent to trace his weary round in a mill. Behold him at last worn to a mere skeleton, tottering, and |
