The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-14 00:00:00

rum SOT, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 14, 1869.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole T.eFsec and Manageress, Mrs. Swanhorounh.
THIS EVENING. at 7.30, AMONG THE BREAKERS: Mr
Clarke. THE TOODLES. And TIIF PILGRIM OF LOVE
Mesprs. E. Terry, Brae?, &c.; Alesdames Richardson, Newton,
FAshroreke, &e

ROYAL ALUM-113RA PALACE. THREE BALLET i
Promenade Concert. Band of GU. Begin at 8. Is. Box-office
open fromll to 4.

CHRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 andB all the year round.

ZOOLOGICAL G AR DENS, Regent's-pack, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Admission,_ ls.; on Mondays, Gd. Children
under twelve, Gd.

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actively in suchcases, and we can only only wonder that
their supervision should have been sufficiently lax
to permit the cruelties lately described to the public
to be practised with impunity. "T. H.," whose com-
munication to the Times has brought the matter
forward, has supplemented his first letter. The
cruelties practised on the cargo of animals from
Rotterdam were, he says, described with great mode-
ration, under the conviction that it was better to
understate than to exaggerate the facts. He was,
moreover, restrained, by the fear of making his
account too voluminous, from recording other parti-
culars which were painful and revolting, but he has
addressed himself to the chairman of the committee
appointed by the Privy Council to consider the sub-
ject, and has offered to give the whole of his testi-
mony on oath, if necessary.
We may, therefore, hope that some practical mea-
sures may be immediately resorted to for the redress
of what must be admitted to be a very practical
evil. It is not encouraging, however, so far as the
transit of cattle by rail is concerned, to find the
Privy Council proposing to confer with the railway
companies on the subject. The railway companies
are themselves the offenders, and the, public
will not be disposed to allow them to be
judge, jury, and witnesses in their own
cause. Some time since a herd of cattle were
four clays en route from Scotland to one of the
English markets without food or water. Very
recently a similar case of cruelty was investigated in
one of our courts, the victims in this instance not
being beasts, but birds, great numbers of which had
died from too close packing. Such things are a
scandal to our national humanity, and it speaks very
badly for the civilisation of the age that they
should be tolerated amongst us. Thousands of
persons at this season. may, during their
holiday travels, ascertain. for themselves the
truth of "T. ll.'s" story. Let us hope that
some at least among them will have sufficient public
spirit and humanity to come forward and assist in
promoting the necessary reform. It is quite evident
that we cannot trust in this case to a feeling which
is usually very powerful among men. The love of
gain, the desire to avoid injuring property, are not
sufficient to protect these helpless animals against
needless cruelty and useless blows. It requires no
veterinary surgeon to inform us that an
animal which has been goaded and terrified
and beaten, which has been jammed in among scores
of others, with barely standing room, for long days
and nights, without food and drink, finishing its
miserable journey by being hooted through the
streets of a crowded city, is not likely to be in a
healthy state. Common sense will tell us that a
beast so treated must be predisposed to every con-
tagious influence, and likely not only to incur sick-
ness itself, but to propagate it among its kind.
Considering how large a number of our flocks and
herds are, in these days of railway travelling,
removed from one end of the kingdom to
the other every week of the year, the question
assumes an extent and an importance which we may
hope will secure immediate action. It is useless for
the Privy Council to issue rules and regulations, or
to enact prohibitory laws, so long as they permit the
reckless cruelty now tolerated on our railways. The
directors and shareholders are very likely as humane
as other people, but they look on the question
as one of barter. They undertake to provide
cattle trains, and they do it as cheaply as
possible. It would not only entail additional
expense but additional trouble to provide food and
drink for the animals during their journey, and
neither the owner, of the cattle nor the railway com-
pany seem to think it worth while to incur
this. It must, therefore, be made compulsory on the
railway conipanies to provide all animals or birds
which they undertake to convey, withf ood and
water, and they will, of course, be able to charge
an additional sum for the conveyance. As
for the unnecessary cruelty inflicted by
the drovers and other men in charge, we
must look chiefly to the public for the cure. If
all such cases as "T. II." complains of were repre-
seuted to the proper authorities, there would 'be less
cruelty practised. Cowardice usually acCompanies
it, and when the drover, who thought it a,fine thing
to amuse himself or his fellows with torturing a
lamb or a pig, found that he had to suffer himself
for his amusement, his sympathies would become a
little more active. The rigid enforcement of the
laws which provide for the punishment of such
conduct is one of the best services which we can render
to the masses. There is nothing so degrading as
cruelty, and we need not hope to see an end of the
wife-beaters or inhuman parents so long am the
torture of the helpless in any form is allowed to be
extensively practised.
It is one of the most encouraging signs of the
times that the claim of animals upon our sympa-
thies is being generally allowed. Formerly it
was considered a matter of ridicule if any-
one exerted himself to procure kind and
humane treatment for the creatures which
the CREATOR has given to man for his use and com-
fort. The words which told us that no sparrow falls
on the ground unmarked by the Great Father might,
one would think, have taught man differently. But
although the more educated and refined amongst us
are now ready and willing to acknowledge the doc-
trines of humanity, the charge of our herds
and flocks do not fall to their share. It
is therefore necessary that legal provi-
sion should be made to restrain the igno-
rant and reckless from the cruelty which so
often arises from actual lack of thought. Our
agriculturists are just now alarmed by the prevalence
of a contagious and destructive disease among their
animals, and the anxiously-worded bulletins respect-
ing it, read strangely in contrast to the shocking
details furnished by " T.H." and others. The
"intelligent foreigner" might very well ask, after
reading both accounts, "If. the lives and
health of your cattle are matters of such
moment, why are they not better cared for ?"
Many years ago Lord PALMERSTON, when Prime
Minister, told the inhabitants of a dirty and un-
healthy town that they 'had better reform their
sanitary arrangements before they asked for a
national fast-day for the Cholera. In the same way
before we again employ a.general prayer against the
cattle plague, let us take tare thatit is not our own
heedless cruelty which is bringing the visitation
upon us.

THE wreck return of the Board of Trade, con-
taining as it does the record of a twelvemonth's
casualties at sea on the coasts of the United King-
dom, is a contribution to our periodical literature
especially appropriate to the stormy days through
which we are passing. The perusal of its contents
will have two tendencies—the one to sadden,
and the other to surprise us. We must
be sad to think how many of those who have gone
down to the sea in ships will never come back to us
again, and that the business which they began is for
ever ended in the midst of the great waters. We must
be surprised—the feeling of surprise touching the
verge of indignation—when we see how many of the
calamities which have occurred were due to utter
neglect of the most obvious rules of caution, for try to
conceal it as we may, the fact remains the same, that
if there be no class more daring, there is also none
more reckless, than that which has given Eng-
land her proud pre-eminence upon the sea.
Tal,.en altogether, the last-issued return—
which, it must be remembered, deals with the
w ole of the year 1868—is of a kind less
encouraging than those of some preceding
years. While in 1867 there were two thousand
and ninety wrecks, casualities, and collisions from
all causes on our coasts and in the surrounding seas,
and in 1866 one thousand eight hundred and sixty,
last year the number reported was only one thou-
sand sevenhundred and forty-seven. But then it must
not be forgotten that the two former years were
years of long continuing and violent storms, while
no foul weather of a very exceptional character was
experienced in 1868. Examining the annual average
of wrecks reported since 1850, it is found that the

' number reported during 1868 is slightly, but only
slightly, below the average for the last five years,
that it is in excess of the average of
all the years prior to that period, and
that it is, with the exception 813 an d
1867, the largest ever reported in one year. As
some sort of balance to this statement, none the
more agreeable because it cannot be gainsaid, it
should be pointed out that there will, pro-
bably, be observed an increase year by year
in the average number of wrecks, owing
to the increase of ships frequenting our
coasts and narrow adjoining seas. The particular
number, too, for any one year will, it is obvious, be
increased or diminished as there are, or are not,
gales prevailing of a severe and dangerous character.
An analysis of the disasters of last year seems to
shew that of the total number of wrecks three hun-
dred and seventy-nine were collisions. Of the one
thousand three hundred and sixty-eight wrecks
other than collisions five hundred and twenty-seven
resulted in total loss, and eight hundred and
forty one were casualties resulting in partial
damage more or less serious. Glancing from pro-
perty destroyed to lives sacrificed, we find that eight
hundred and twenty-four lives were lost last year
from wrecks on or near our coasts, being five hundred
and nine less than the previous year, but in
excess of nearly all other years. Two hundred
and sixty-two of the lives lost were in vessels that
foundered ; eighty-six in vessels in collision ;
and 409 in vessels stranded or cast ashore. Nearly
ninety lives were lost in small vessels engaged in
the fishing trade. To landsmen, though pro-
bably not to sailors, it seems strange that so
large a proportion as six hundred and sixty-
one of the wrecks of last year should have hap-
pened when the force of the wind did not exceed a
strong breeze, in which the ship could carry single
reef and topgallant sailsovhile only eight hundred
and thirty-five happened during the prevalence of a
strong gale or hurricane. But what is even yet
more striking is the exceedingly high proportion,
which, for ten years up to the end of 1868 disasters
to comparatively new ships have borne to the whole
number of the losses and accidents at sea. Not less
than one hundred and seventy-six wrecks and casual-
ties happened to nearly new ships, and two
hundred and ninety-seven to vessels from three to
seven years old. Contemplating the perils which
a perusal of the Wreck Return points out
as encompassing those who approach or
leave our shores, it is wondrously pleasant to know
that each year finds the dangerous portions of the
coast better provided with the means of succouring
them in the time of their sore distress.

LORD AND LADY BYRON.