| | | | | The universal emancipation of mankind is the | conception of a petty mind. In the race towards | perfection, we have far outstripped such antiquated and | rudimentary ideas. The time has arrived to cast aside | our old and narrow prejudices in favour of the human | species. The great achievement of our epoch is to be | the emancipation of the brutes. The hour has arrived, | and so has the man. Lord Raynham, fresh from | linendraping reform, is to be the hero of this new | crusade ~~ the Wilberforce of oppressed brutality. He | is a practical man, not much given to talk, and therefore | we have heard little of his speeches in or out of | Parliament. He has gone straight to the point, by | introducing a Bill for securing ~~ in part, at least ~~ | their due privileges to brutes; and as it appears that a | retrograde House of Commons has refused to allow the | measure to go any further this year, we hasten to lay a | description of it before our readers. As its main object | is to secure his dumb but interesting clients against their | natural enemies, the human species, it may interest the | human public to know what their legal position will be | when Lord Raynham shall have attained the success | which prejudice can only delay for a time. | The first feature which we ought to recognise about the | Bill is its catholicity. All animals are included in it, and | are equally sheltered by its provisions. There is no | invidious selection. Aristocracy is the misfortune of the | human species, but it is not to be so among the brutes. | Lord Raynham will not hear of anything but absolute | equality. From the Darwinian monad to the Gorilla, all | are to be alike before the law. It is specially provided | in the Bill that it is not to be confined to quadrupeds, | but is to extend to all animals of all kinds, whatever | number of feet they may possess. . From the | bull to the rat, from the peacock to the flea, he throws | his shield impartially over all. He even goes so far as to | define, with more regard for liberality than etymology, | that the word

"cattle,"

as used in the Bill, | shall be as wide as the word

"animal"

in its | meaning ~~ a provision which, as we shall see, is | fruitful in important consequences. Having thus, in the | most liberal spirit, defined his clients, he proceeds to | lay down, in simple and nervous language, the great | enactments which are to effect the emancipation of the | brutes. The first provision is to give them personal | security: ~~ | | The language is obscure and susceptible of various | interpretations; but we assume that, like all penal laws, | it will be construed strictly. Hitherto, it has been the | practice with persons brought up in obsolete notions | upon the subject, to fight any animal that attacked them, | from a gnat upwards. But such illegal practices will be | no longer tolerated. People must not take the law into | their own hands. Henceforth, in case of any such | attack, they must abstain from violence and send for the | police, who will immediately procure a summons | against the offending gnat. They are bound, however, | not only not to lay violent hands on an animal, but they | must be careful not to hurt its feelings. The fourteenth | clause enacts, among other things ~~ | | It is impossible to imagine provisions conceived in a | broader or more liberal spirit. Henceforth such horrible | instruments of cruelty as flea-powder or insecticide will | be prohibited. To tread on a cur's toes will be highly | penal. To scare birds will no longer be the employment | of heartless boyhood. The

"injury and suffering" |

which every autumn brings back to partridges and | grouse will soon be a matter of history. The fox will | have his rights, like any other brute, and, as soon as he | gets out of breath, may turn round and fine all the | hunting field forty shillings. The worm's consent must | clearly be obtained before he can be made to wriggle | upon the hook. As for such atrocious instruments as | toothcombs, there is no doubt that they cause

| "injury and suffering"

to a vast number of animals, | and we hope that the very name will be forgotten. | Coachmen and costermongers, too, must learn that | flogging is unsuited to this enlightened age. When their | horses or donkeys decline to go, they must not dream of | inflicting

"suffering"

by means of the whip. | They must cultivate the art of reasoning with their | emancipated cattle, and induce them to trot by an | appeal to their moral sense. Our only fear with respect | to this clause is that the respected author does not see | all the consequences to which it may lead. It is quite | conceivable that, if it were to pass, the human species, | which has tyrannized over animals for so long, might | ask to be included under the same law as their former | victims. Many a lover would like to fine his | unreciprocating flame forty shillings for the offence | described in the clause of

"negligently treating him | so as to subject him to suffering;"

and the | gentlemen to whom Lord Palmerston will not give | office might, under this Bill, gratify their revenge at | last. | The next thing is to provide the brutes with a Poor-law. | If they are to be raised to a perfect equality with | mankind, they have clearly a right to Poor Relief. But | Lord Raynham, ever erring on the generous side, is | inclined to give them something more. He will not | expose them to the horrors of Boards of Guardians and | the workhouse test. He adopts a totally new principle | in Poor-law legislation, and lays upon every person, | indiscriminately, the duty of providing for every | destitute beast: ~~ | | This wide and generous provision will be remembered | by the brutes of after ages as the Magna Charta of their | race. Not only is every person forbidden to keep any | animal without food, water, or other necessary | provision, whatever that may mean, but | everyone who, by avoidable | negligence, causes suffering to any | animal is heavily punished. It is clearly | avoidable negligence to omit providing a cheese for | your mice, or a cream-jug for your neighbour's cat. If | you willfully or negligently lock up the cream-jug and | the cheese, and either of those interesting quadrupeds | dies in consequence, you will be liable to a fine of | 20 pounds But Lord Raynham has | specially provided that the word

"animal"

is | not to be confined to quadrupeds. Beware, therefore, | hard-hearted gardener, of depriving blackbirds of their | legitimate resource by netting over your fruit. Beware, | selfish landowner, of repelling the owl from his | favourite repast of pheasant's eggs. On the wickedness | and illegality of mosquito-nets it is needless to enlarge. | An interesting question will arise as to the status of | fleas and bugs under this clause. It is clear that any | person who possesses two rooms ~~ one infested by | bugs or fleas, and the other clear of them ~~ and shall | wilfully sleep in the one in which those meritorious | insects are not, will be , and will be, | ~~ offences punishable, as we have seen, by a fine of | twenty pounds. It may occur to a selfish householder, | placed in this dilemma, and compelled to choose | between his purse and his night's rest, to evade the | difficulty by shaking his sheets out of window, or | otherwise expelling from his dwelling his nightly foes. | But Lord Raynham has provided with admirable | foresight against any such act of barbarism by the | fifteenth clause: ~~ | | The fleas, therefore, may congratulate themselves on | being guarded at every point. If their victim should | attempt to crack them, he will be liable under the | fourteenth clause to a fine of forty shillings for | . If he attempt to turn them out of his house, he | must pay the same penalty for ; and if he shall | have the audacity to sleep in another bed, he must pay | no less than twenty pounds, under the twelfth clause, | for . He may think himself lucky if they do | not sue him under the same clause for turning round in | bed, as an act of

"negligence causing suffering to | an animal."

| Our short recapitulation is far from having exhausted | the benefits which our new liberator proposes to confer | upon the beasts. Sir George Lewis has noticed that the | Bill creates a Habeas Corpus | for brutes. There is one clause forcing every surveyor | of roads, or similar authority all over the country, to | provide tanks and troughs on any road by which cattle | pass, and to keep them day and night constantly filled | with water. There is another forbidding | anyone | to drive any cattle ~~ under which | term, as we have seen, every sort of animal is included | ~~ in the metropolis, unless he has taken out a license | and wears a badge. This provision will decorate with | that enviable ornament every gentleman's coachman, | carter, or commercial traveller ~~ | anyone in fact who holds a pair of reins in | his hands. There is another clause providing that no | cab-horse shall be employed until the Commissioners | of Police have themselves inspected him, and certified | that he is a suitable horse for the duty ~~ a function | which will form an agreeable relaxation to the | Commissioners in their leisure hours. And there is a | further provision that every person committing an | offence under this Act shall be fined at least ten | shillings, and for the third offence imprisoned three | months, without any discretion to the sentencing | magistrate. Three fleas cracked, and the offence in | each case duly proved, will suffice, when Lord | Raynham becomes a legislator, irrevocably to consign | an impatient Briton for three months to | | jail. Into these enactments we have not left ourselves | space to enter more at length. Some talk there has been | lately of the valuable exertions of independent members | to improve our law, and of the danger of allowing the | Government to supersede them altogether. We feel | sure that when the public considers those two masterly | achievements ~~ Sir Charles Burrell's Bill for | preserving maid-servants, and Lord Raynham's Bill for | protecting animals ~ there will be but one opinion, that | no sacrifice can be too great for the purpose of | maintaining in all their usefulness these invaluable | Solons.