, 1874-07-01
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS A NEW IDEA
IN NAPLES.

such associations are first formed where they are
least wanted and so Italy came to be with the
exception, we believe, of Spain and Greece the
last country in Europe to possess one and
Naples, the Paradise of Man, the Inferno of the
Brutes, has followed at some distance the example
OF Florence and Rome. Curiously enough, as the
L0mPaone showed itself most humane among the
journals OF Florence, so now it is the PUng0L0, the
comic paper of Naples, which announces with
graduation that, At the instigation of Advocate
" olgnor 1EsTA DE NUNZI, a Neapolitan Assocla-
" ton is about to be formed on the same principles
" ana with similar statutes and regulations to those
" OF Florence and Rome Since 1861 efforts
TOR this good purpose have been made by Eng
hsh visitors and residents-Mr. ADAMS, Mr.
WEXFORD, Mrs. SoMERvILLE, and Lady PAGET
out' although the Prince of CARIGNANo, then
Governor OF Naples, consented to become Presl-
ueht' the scheme has practically renamed ever
since IN allegiance. We earnestly hope that now,
started atresh by a native Italian gentleman the
Association may become actively operative.
but the work to be accomplished is OF enormous
magnitude. There needs to be an education Of
the whole people in the very alphabet of humanl-
ty, OF which they are at present in utter igno-
rance nay, more must be done even than to
awaken among them the new idea OF the claims
ct brutes. A new feeling must be inspired as
well as a new notion instilled, for it Is more than
doubtful whether one Neapolitan in a million has
ever felt a pang of relentful pity at beholdlng the
miserable scenes of animal suffering which every
hour take place in his city. That 1t IS PossIole
for an active and influential society, and Tor q
well-worked law to effect much in the course OF q
generation in the way Of such education or the
moral sense Of the masses, is manifest when we
recall the state of things in England thlrty years
ago. We did not, indeed, even then load our
horses with the eighteen or nineteen passengers
who are often to be seen piled IN the carretta
which the wretched half-starved hack drags up
the SfroHo NJOvn or tho E9nO I'll AOnCG, "
Naples. But our hackney coach horses ana the
asses in our costermongors' carts, were such as
are never now visible in our streets, and WoQld
produce An cutlery if they appeared there' we
did not pluck fowl nor skin goats alYe' according
to the hideous customs OF NeapOlltans, OUT emu
less unheeded c~ruelties were perpotrateo every
hour by boys on stray dogs and cats, ana by
droyers and butchers IN markets and shamoleS'
lit is a common but O stupid mistake to suppose
that cruelty TO man or beast is often the outcome
OF Il gloomy and resolute temperament, or thaL
light and genial spirits are at the a%ntipodes OF
mercilessncss. The truth seems to be that, with
certain rare exceptions OF premedltated ana
strictly iendish cruelty, grave and thoughtful
persons and races have much greater horror than
others of i~nHicting needless pain. whether
suffering has in their case ploughed up ana MADE
soft the heart, or whether they are less borne
away by their own passions and Whlms' ana nave
more leisure for sympathy, in either case the reck-
NSD fAAACLA ~ HS
Of cruel deeds is foreign to them. thus 1t nap,
pens that - The dark, true, and tender " North,
with all its inartistic rudeness, may 1earIessly,
challenge comparison as regards its treatment OF
all the weak and helpless-the aged parent the
dying brother, the forsaken child, the harmless
animal with the " sunny South with all Its
claims to supreme aesthetic refinement ana 10
ardour Of passion. Yet, more than IN the differ
once Of races, it must be owned that differences
of relIgion have had their share in making OF the
Southern Italians and Spaniards pitiless pefsecu-
tors of all beings outside the narrow pale ct their
own special form of faith. Non { C~rlStldno, as
every traveller hears again and again, seems to
them the u~nansweyable explanation and justihoa-
ton Or every cruelty. The old PrIhcipie OF
savage life which Mr.. TAILOR and Sir JOHN LUB-
BOOK, and notably Mr.. Cox in his recent Histo-
ny of Greece have shown to have once per-
vaded mankind, the principle of friendly commu-
nifty within the tribe and Of hatred and enmity to
all outside it, that root of bitterness has never
been cut down by the hands of the Church OF
Rome. Now and then q benevolent st. NICHOLAS
or an angelic St. FRANCIS D'AssIsI has displayed
sympathy for the brutes, or has delgnod TO sing
his evening hymn in harmony with the nIghtln-
gales. But the permanent teaching OF the whole
vast hierarchy, the sole instructors OF Catholic
youth for more than a thousand years has been
expressly that of Plus *. IN his ottlclal answer
to the appeal made to him q few years back to
sanction the formation Of a Society for Proven
ton of Cruelty in Rome Man owes no duty to
" the lower animals. It is a theological error to
I" affirm that he does so.' Neither i'll the oral
lessons which he gives to his pupils, nor by any