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of novelty and discovery. He was no doubt au intelligent man, but never shewed intelligence less, than in a pamphlet which he published, to instruct farriers how to prevent horses from knocking or cutting their legs, by a particular form of shoe; a thing which had been attempted both in Italy and France, three centuries before he was born, but never with success, for one pitiful and trifling reason-being in itself impossible. A horse which strikes his legs from their natural faulty position, will continue so to do as soon as weary, and accidentally before that time, whether shod or unshod. I am, Sir, your's, &c. &c.

VETERINARIUS SENEX.

ON THE EXHIBITION OF THE

HIGH-METTLED RACER.

I

the mockery of it, for the wanton' pleasurable, and curious gratification of the mind and the eye. am perfectly aware how pointless all darts must fall, shot against a gratification like the present, and how truly it would be preaching to the winds and waves, to attempt reproof and dissuasion. I have no such view. I have no more desire than Paul, to kick against the pricks, or to waste my time and labour in the fruitless attempt to fill sieves with water. But I may be permitted to state moral facts, leaving them to their spontaneous operation, to whatever extent, or whether to any at all, that may be. The sense of interest and gratification will always precede that of justice and humanity, and men will neither cease to treat their animals with flagrant cruelty, nor to feel an after delight in its representation. Nevertheless, some ground

To the Editor of the Sporting Ma- is ever silently and slowly gained

SIR,

gazine.

THIS favourite exhibition, so well described in your last Number, I have heard spoken of in raptures, by a number of spectators, who, I am sorry to say, in witnessing such a scene, had not the most distant idea of its horrors in actual life, which they can witness and tolerate with the utmost composure, and even feel the most rapturous enjoyment on its mock representation. It is a case widely different from that of the scenic representation of human misfortunes and sufferings, of which the spectators are neither the cause nor have it in their power to prevent. Here they are enjoying for the second time the most excruciating exacerbations of animal misery! first in reality, for their profit and convenience; in the second place,

to the cause of humanity, by the watchful attention, and rational lectures, of the philanthropist, as can be most triumphantly proved. The mind of man in these latter, and comparatively enlightened times, has become more soft and pliable to the sweet impressions of human feeling, and our sports are greatly and nobly divested of the diabolical barbarity of former days, when the most extatic pleasure was imparted to the human heart, male and female, from witnessing the most exquisite animal tortures-even those of a dog drawn up by fire, or a cat inclosed in a bottle!

It must not however be concealed, that representations upon the stage of the above kind, are not at all likely to awaken the feelings of humanity in the breasts of the juvenile spectator; on the contrary, they consolidate and

I 2

confirm

confirm the stupefying effects of custom, which obscure, and in a great measure destroy all sense of right and wrong, just and unjust. Since such things are not only made a custom, but a joke of, and a subject for exultation and clapping of hands, who can think there is any thing materially wrong or unjust, in the tortures inflicted upon the horse, in his lacerated sides, his bruised and wounded shoulders, his fainting under loads he is unable to bear, and his final exit with hollow groans and expiring sobs, from the mingled and horrible effects of famine, and the most cruel inflictions? No doubt there is plenty of gaping and sniggering fools, who will say-oh, this is very barbarous, immediately bursting into a horse laugh; and still more of grave and pious christians, who will shake their heads and look thoughtful, at the sight or relation of these horrors, but who, like the Pharisees in scripture, will not touch the load with one of their fingers, or give themselves the slightest trouble to alleviate the burden. They were born to enjoy, they suppose, whatever others, men or animals, may suffer, and their thoughtful visages discover nothing so much, as a profound and inward consideration towards themselves. Behold the great men of the land, driving on their ordinary journies, at such an excessive rate, that the horses are urged onwards up hill and down, to the risk of breaking their heart strings, by the goading tortures of whip and spur, until they arrive at the end of their stage, faint and trembling, their sides bathed in blood, and their whole bodies bruised and wealed. It is impos. sible that all this cruel severity should be necessary, to derive fair,

or even extraordinary exertions, from the English horse: but it seems, dignity requires something beyond what is fair or extraordinary; the great must ride upon the whirlwind, that they may appear as if always directing the storm. Did any such faculty belong to them, they would reflect, that although these horrible and disgusting sights are witnessed with a stupid apathy, or even a senseless applause hy the slavish vulgar, of all ranks, there is a thinking class in this country, by which they are beheld with detestation and contempt, if not loud, yet deep. The whips, spurs, and curbs, made use of by our postillions, are obviously implements of torture, intended to extort and rack out the last throbbing exertions of animal life. In sad truth, we too often see examples of this in the tours of the great; in bringing to the metropolis some glorious news of havoc and destruction; or during contested elections, where the carcases of murdered horses strew the roads!a trifle in the view of humanity, utterly beneath the consideration or notice of the pious and successful candidate, so often busied in the distribution of bibles. The unfeeling and fashionable travellers by post, and the still more unfeeling owners of the horses, scruple not to take the poor animals, wearied with the performance of one stage, and drive them instantly through another, perhaps even without suffering them to wait for refreshment. What numbers are there without the slightest compunction, and without even a sense of the inhumanity or wickedness of the act, who purchase, at a low price, disabled or nearly worn out horses, for road work, or carting in town, with the express and premeditated

first season in which horses appeared on a certain stage, I was informed by three of the performers, eye witnesses, that a poor horse, after the exhibition was over, and his labour finished, was beaten behind the scenes, by the rascally barbarian in whose care he was, until he laid stretched upon the stage, groaning, convulsed, his legs extended, and his eyes turned up, as in the agonies of death. He was stricken upon the head, the legs, kicked in the body, and treat

meditated view of extorting from them to the last gasp, by dint of goading tortures, exertions of which they are no longer capable, and the attempts at which bring woe and misery at every step. Listen to our orators cracking witty jokes upon this lamentable subject, for the amusement of their sapient audience— nay, recommending the tortures of beasts, as the best stimulants, the most appropriate to steel the human heart, and fit it for the trade of blood! And yet these people can be re-ed, in the way of correction, with gular at their church or conventicle, and on the bed of sickness or death pray earnestly and seriously for that mercy, which, through the course of their lives, they have denied to the dumb, but piteous and eloquent prayers of their poor beasts!

There is yet a most powerful objection against the exhibition of animals upon the stage, and more particularly horses-it is, the extreme rigour, severity, and cruelty, which must, from absolute necessity, be used in their training. This is dreadful beyond all expression, as a moment's consideration must convince any one, and could never be endured or practised, but by hearts hardened against every sense of humanity, by the more powerful sense of gain. The discipline of our riding school is too often abominable; but at its worst, is kindness and gentleness to that which is necessary to fit horses for the tricks of the stage. And the usage of the horses even, after they have beeu taught and trained, has been, in many instances, of the most infernal and barbarous description. The following example, among too many others, came under my own immediate cognizance: About four years since, being the

usage the most foul, that a blackguard barbarian could devise; and all this, as I was assured by a young man, accustomed to horses, for some trifling error which the horse had committed more than an hour before he received this dreadful correction, of which error, granting him to have been sensible at the instant, it was utterly improbable he should have any recollection an hour afterwards; and it must amount nearly to a certainty, that the miserable animal must have been utterly ignorant why he was corrected at all. Such was the opinion of the young man. If the horse be endowed with a limited degree of reflection, and that idea appears highly probable, what mast the brute think of the justice of man ? I was not an eye-witness of this infamous and shameful deed, and for sufficient reasons, I could not make use of the evidence above stated; otherwise, had there been justice in England for the punishment of the delinquent, I would have demanded it, in every possible channel, and through every accessible press.

However curious it may be, to witness such instances of docility and discipline in animals, upon the stage, it is still a cruel, mean, and

childish

childish gratification, and more especially with respect to the horse, whose talents ought to be confined to a more useful direction, and whose labours surely need no addition. And generally, on the subject of treatment of the horse, do we determine, as a national principle, that there is no such thing as justice due to that animal? Is there not fair treatment and foul treatment, and do not those terms include the ideas of just and unjust? I say national principle, because we, who pretend to a purity of character beyond all nations, have ever been stigmatised by foreigners for our unprincipled cruelty to brutes. England is proverbially, among foreigners, the hell of horses! In other countries, in France particularly, where we profess to find nothing but immorality, horses are treated universally with kindness and consideration, and pass their laborious lives with a degree of comfort, unknown to their fellows in this country. And in conclusion, if any reader should suspect my melancholy picture of exaggeration, let him try to relieve his feelings, by repairing to Thamesstreet, in London, to Smithfield on the market-day, to the yards of horse-butchers, and to the reposi tories for the sale of horses.

VOX HUMANITATIS.

ON COURSING.

amusement, fully proves that in point of variety, it is superior to most English pastimes: The bunter may relate the hazardous leaps he had undertaken, and with what ardour he pursued the fox-the gunner may recount the feats he performed with the murderous tube, and the quantity of game he hagged within a certain time and space; and lastly, the gentle angler, after the toils of the day, may discourse of the various stratagems to ensnare the voracious pike, or the skill in throwing the well-dissembled fly to take the wary trout; but what are these, and many more, when put in competition with the temperate delights of coursing? View the courser, with rosy health depicted in his countenance, hastening to beat the appointed covers, and, till the bare is found, all is mute and pleasing expectation; but when the exhilirating Soho' is given, the greybounds well laid in, then the courser's joy commences-first, Skip giving the turn-then Springnow both exerting their utmost powers to catch the affrighted animal, till Skip, with one desperate effort, making one throw serve for all, seizes the "helpless, worried wretch," before she could make for home through her favourite protecting meuse. Cavillers affirmy the courser's pleasures are short; but to counterbalance this apparent rapid joy, I can aver, it is neither so wearisome nor so replete with

6

To the Editor of the Sporting Ma- danger as hunting, and, on account

SIR,

gazine.

THE exercise of coursing, at the present day, is paramount to every other diversion, and the avidity with which all ranks of people press forward to partake of this

of the violent exertion necessary to sustain a desperate chase, many are compelled to abandon this healthful sport for the more sober joys of coursing; but he who despises danger, whose whole endeavour is to steel his nerves against the ra

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The thorny turning hedge.

This sport, undoubtedly, is excellent for the purposes assigned, and peculiarly adapted to infuse health and vigour into the innumerable springs of life; but give me the well-breath'd greyhounds, swift as Camilla, to catch the nimblefooted hare: Besides, this breeds no complaint of trampled wheat, no bitter exclamations of hedges. wantonly destroyed; whereas hunting sets the whole community of farmers against you, incessantly involving the keen pursuer in trouble and disaster. On this broad basis, hunting, I am convinced, will never regain that splendour it attained in former years; and particularly as every farmer, in a great measure, has become a proprietor, they are jealous, to the extreme, of every infringement on their privileges; and indeed be must be more than man who can contain his just resentment at seeing a company of hunters riding over and destroying the produce of the land, and doing almost incalculable damages to his various fields and hedges; in reality, every age as they become more enlightened, will use their utmost efforts to contract the hunter's pleasures, unless we relapse for a second time into the feudal barbarism of William.

Till we again sink into this worse than second barbarism, I can boldly affirm, without fear of confutation, that this hauteur de chasse is gone by, probably to renovate only with the shadow of that greatness, so characteristic of those tyrannical ages.

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The plot, which comprises a far greater number of ludicrous incidents, and whimsical situations, than we have recently seen in any effort of the same description, is remarkable for its complexity. This does not appear on the stage -the situations, however laugha ble, are produced with much ingenuity, and succeed each other in a regular series; but, when the mind attempts to retrace the variety it has witnessed, the difficulty of dove-tailing the component parts of the farce into each other, so as to form a perfect whole, resemb

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