The National Register. — London, England, 1809-06-18 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. ea'e, nor AN hen evistiog matured by violence. ac oblip,atiott ith respect to the morality they imperceptabl s inculcated was no doubt steno,;. The obliga:ion eertaiLlv existed ; but then i: was tnat sort of obligation which, among writers upon that sub feet, %%as thmontioated imperfect obligatioits. They were strung, but their action %vas in themselves, and independent of tsxtetnal application to call it forth. How would they set about enforciog t..fanny ? tht'v pass a law for th:: better enforcing bone vole.oce, meekness, muttni good will, and tenders at-ss ? If a man, f,r io , tance, had thousands mouldering in his coffers, and that he p rtnifted his fellow-creature in the next street to die for is ant whea he might have saved his life by the timely contritor ion of a few shillings, who would not he ready to • not against such iau act of immoral % and crud tv, and w et hoss wo,:ht that :louse provide against it? Or if they would take upon them to legislate upon feeli;;w., where, he would ask, would they find out the test by which the la %%fa! might be dis tinguished from the prohibited ? What he had offered so far inn-t at least go to she w that prima facie the nature of the Bill awns inb;ect to objections. Btu they were told, by way, per haps, of recoociling them to th..se preliminary difficulties, that this oas a N ENV a% in our legislative annals ; but wa3 the no velty of toe inea-u re ;o una!:e loran less citations in adopting. it or might they not take the argu bent in another wav ? The Noble author of that Bill was out destitute of laudable ambi tion, athl how could they say hail/ far that Noble Lord might he tempted to wish to tin do WI) to posterity as the founder of that 1.; 12 A' ./ER ?--( teing:o.—T tisai a consideration %dile!: could not :IA to the authority of that Noble Lord, upon every other case SO deseriedly conclosive. But the objection that could nut be got ovor was, that the object of t h e Bill could not he defhaol, and, if that were so, what mould possibly rendet mien's condition more insecuie than by requiring them to act ne cordin to a rule which could not be explained ?—( Hear ). IV hat is as ham :linty ? Ili is was the standard, and unles3 nega tive enactments were to be made, how were persons to he con victed of inlawnanity and punished for it, unless that they have been proved to have violated humanity ; and what ivas this question of humanity, but a question of degree, and, if a q (ICS [IOU of degree, was Parliameut to be employed in conjecturing its lines of distinction anti shit: es of inherence ? It was diffe rent in different wet); it was more than this—it was different in the same man at ilt.ferent periods, and is hat was still more, a man in genertil sets up a very different standard for hintsel:' and for other person; ; and o.'rt he saw in this one consideration such dreadful soorces of arbitrary exaction-, as %rook( eventually lie productive of consermences infinitively more injurious t han the evil they were intended to correct. It was one grand objection to the Bill, that it would not answer the end pr ,posed ; but he thought toe dreadful inequality o j f its operation a greater ottec tion. They were told that no reward for di: , covery information was admitted. lie thougitt the desire of the tli'.play of huma nity a great reward. :len were nu disinclined apa -ade a vir tue at the expence of toe .r ; but i was nil. only Of' parade of humanity but paride ••f power—to say uothing of that feenug in wiiicb so a n ti w owed th v g 0 ,4.1 na tured propensity of torr.viting O!'' ::outlier. !mke lof tate to such a pi tvh hat it been ;!!.t ; flesh and blo at could scarce- Iv stand it. There was a book said to be toe prodoetkm of the sister of the author of " 'root dont app..arcd under the • nameof " Tiiis work, which evinced grel; of ob.crvation, amid as, iffight into huotan nature, was call ed " The Art of ingenit,•fziv Tornientim.;;" tioil indeed the passion . was now as general as 1: oung's Universal Passion. The ingenious fatly who wrote the Essay upon Tormenting aftcr chewing how the husband might ingeniously torment the is i re, and how (what was not noire difficult) ha is the wiet might itereniously torment the husband, give:. a coo eluding chapter wliiclt bite heads with the title of " General Directions for Teazing all your Areoinintance;" (a laugh) aud extensive a.: the subject artiht. be thought, she contrives to be very stort iu fier directions, fir tkey amount to nothing more than the art of Tot menting. Under the mane of the public gout ' it was scarcely credible how roach men torinenteil their fellows under this one pretence, and this was to be traced not so much to the desire of big pain as to the pleasure of e itertieg power. Another objectiott was, the great generality of the wording. Indeed toe objections were so numerous that he eonq only im pute its not having met more opposition to that fear of typro• lirinal moo I...io.ired under vi hich deterred them from followin[ the dictates of their co mlllOll sense, lest they should be branded as lovers of the cruel persecution of animals. Ile feared he him self mighl ne taumed as a lover of tormenting animals. But notiw it its taudiag that apprehensive be would !peals; his seutimeno. 391 Pe must here recur to th:- sympathy, if it was to be urged as the uie that was to ,nit's them in e:n% ecing the provisions Of the Bill ; Doctur.Sw ft who was a stir- wd man in his time, said, that lee never koew a mu w Ito entice not bear the misfile tunes of another like a Chrrstean (a /aeqh ). Suppose a poor labouring arin, who working w jib his horse Kar eight or ten hours in toe day, is detected by ,iving way tosome women. tary feeling of peevish asperity', which he vents upon hia horse for want of a better subject ; well ! this poor man becomes • subject to the penalties of tois Bill, mid may be sew to the house of correction or elsewhere, but all the time that the vir. tuow, indignation of the other is breaking forth, lie may have. forgotten that the day before when he wa- eaktog a ride to get an appetite for dinner, a tredden start of he, horse proyohDd him to an infliction of the w hip and spur, w hich wa as wanton, because as excessive as the abuse of which the poor man had. been guilty. People were seldom so liberal of ail hoe c hristian virtues. as when, they dealt them out at the expooce of others. He had heard Ladies, with that frelies; that so much became their sex, descant upon the baroa: its of the sort of Waist: of animals ; but if, in tae mielst of theii iirtignation„hey were reminded of softie excesses of their own coachmen to their horses, they were getwrallv ready wit a some reply of----" Yes! but then John is se (lever in a crowd ( Laughter)—ir w.:s but the other night, in comiog front my Lady such a one's. he mauu,.4%-d die horses so well, and drove so sk hat he left all behind him." (a laugh). But post boys, it seemed, were very cruel. There were three parties in that ; the Post Boy ; the Innkeeper; and (though last not lea,t) the Traveller. Suppose th,• c.ear of a "traveller on a Journey (oft.oi causeless and usele-s). lie drives up to the door of an inn ;old requii es horses to continue hint On his journey —Well ! what diAlogue ma v he supposed to tike place between them ? The horses brouOit foe to, the traveller complains of them--saps they w ill not be able to for ward him on his journey. The innkeeper replies by bilking of same neighbourinz races, or the great inns upou the road, or any other cause, why he has not horses able to carry hem, and cen eludes with assuming that those are aide. Is the inn-keeper not to say this? Is he to turn away his trade—lli; costom? Ile is not to blame, still less is the pm.t.bsv ; and, indeed, many a sagacir us oliserv:•r has been heard ve n ting curses against a post-boy while he way ply lug his woip for a shilling extra, to tally overlooking the briber to his cruelty, while he lay stair, at his ease within the coach. Of those who were tile loudest upon this subject, he %%mild be glad to hear how many had stopped at any ion on their jouraey, rattier than force a set of lame, worn-:,ut, spavined horses to ender, vour, at the instiga tion of the whip, to draw the n. lie then adverted to the ;fame Laws, and ar;;tio:l a, ; ainst the I)irtiality as to the penal intlaence amd operation of a Bill of that sort compared wait the:;attic Laws—to call upon that House, as a hour of hunters and shooters, who had enacted a la.W' t h..tltailli; the privilege of killing animals for their own amusement !! ! But taase were " feral na turas," and ought to be destroyed, that they might out n' Vrrilii the earth. Well, but there were other animals who ,alel not well nyerrila the earth. Ile meant the fishes. (taughler) Vi by should cruelty he extended to them I—or was it pretended that luxury was a sudivient justification. An.. oteer reason was that the rear naturm were liable to die--this Argument would go a good way ; fee at we were all liable to die, sve might, em that rea-aki, set about killing one another. (a laugh) A more whim-cical re::-,o still was urged, that Gentlemen kill their game through clemency, in the same way as a lover of :Loin:ids might tell his butcher—Sir, spare my feelings, I beg of you, and let the kill my own mutton. (4 laugh.) Tae It7ght lion. Gentleman concluded with adverting to the 20th number )1' the I:dinburgh Review, which he recoinmeded to the perusal. (ieetlemen on this subject. 'What he had said was all au arg,..sinentum huniinetn. The Bitt would be partial, mute ce,sary, and lay grounds for imputing to them a sanctinionious ii- - pocrisy that was odious; there wasn't standard guide to conviction 01 pequitial, and upon such a law and such a subject how %wnd t set of young lawyers speak, and What ithirtal w iiuld soy what effect that w ould have upon a Jury• lie might lay ac:.l sty move its committal for that day three months. tic now stoppesl, not because the subject stop Ced but Fecause he had more than sufficiently occupied the time of the Home. . Mr. WI LIiERVORCE stated, that nothing gave him greater pain titan to see el , !vatett ran:. an extensive talents empioed---, not iiitlitit•ing happiness, but in borharising the feelmo.sof tha lower orders 4)1 society: Woat innovation did tile pr. sem hill propose, other titan to prevent malicious' and %%Anton cruelty, and to give a lee:slativearanctiau• to tau declaration, that the aid f JUNE 18. = li f • f ..,