Jennings had, sometime before his death, given it as his judgment, that he thought Mr. Doddridge the most likely of any of his pupils, to pursue the schemes which he had formed. Accordingly after the death of his tutor, he consulted several of his friends, particularly Drs. Watts and Clarke, who earnestly pressed him to the undertaking. He re-opened the academy at Harborough, at Midsummer, 1729, and towards the latter end of the same year, removed to Northampton. There he resided for near two and twenty years; with what reputation and success, both as a minister and a tutor, the world has long been informed. Dr. Doddridge died at Lisbon, whither he went for the recovery of his health, October 26, 1751, aged fifty. After his death, the academy was removed from Northampton to Daventry, and placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Caleb Ashworth, who died July 18, 1775, aged fifty-three. Dr. Doddridge always continued a great veneration for his Leices tershire friends, amongst whom his ministry was opened, which is fully evinced in the dedication to his Sermons to Young Persons, which were published in December, 1784, when his young friends at Hinckley are particularly mentioned.

Mr. Jennings was succeeded in the ministry by the Rev. Mr. Robert Dawson, who settled amongst them in 1725, and continued there for more than twenty-five years. In his time, about the year 1727, was built by subscription the gallery, and the meeting-house underwent a thorough repair also by subscription in 1740. Mr. Dawson died June 20th, 1751, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, and was buried June the 22d, under the altar-tomb in the meeting yard, at Hinckley. "He was a person of strong and elevated genius, was richly improved with ancient literature: well he loved and knew the sciences, yet better loved and knew the gospel; tempering his zeal for truth with meekness and charity. His private character was unspotted, his social virtues ornamental and attractive, his piety solid and sublime. He, as a friend, was steady, wise, sincere; as a christian, adorned the doctrines of Christ; as a minister, resembled his great Master, whom he served many years with acceptance and success; and was much lamented when suddenly removed from his usefulness on earth to his reward in Heaven."

Mr. Dawson was followed in 1755, by Mr. Nathanael White, who married a

sister of William Hurst, esq. of Hinckley, high-sheriff for Leicestershire in 1778. Mr. White, (who was born in London, and educated first under Dr. Doddridge, at Northampton, and afterwards at Daventry under Caleb Ashworth), continued at Hinckley till the death of King George II. in 1760, on which occasion he preached and published a sermon, and afterwards went to Leeds; whence, on the death of Dr. Chandler, in 1766, he was called to assist as joint pastor to Dr. Amory, in the congregation of protestant dissenters at the Oid Jewry; and on the death of Dr. Amory in 1774, was chosen sole pastor. Mr. White published a serion for the charity-school, Gravellane, Southwark; and a third in 1771, preached at the Old Jewry, October 27, that year, on the affecting deaths of Mrs. Poole, her two sons and daughter, who all died in the space of five days, of an inflammatory sore throat; and in 1774, his address at the grave of Dr. Amory, subjoined to his funeral sermon by Dr. Flexman. He also published a "Charge" at the ordination of his friend Mr. John Prior Estlin, at Bristol, who was born at Hinckley, April 9, 1747. Mr. White died at Islington, March 3, 1783. His widow, Mrs. White, is still living at her native place.

On Mr. White leaving Hinckley, he was succeeded in the ministry in 1765, by Mr. Thomas Porter, who married Jane, daughter of William Boys, esq. lieutenant-governor of the royal hospital, in Greenwich. She died and was buried in the meeting-house, at Hinckley. Porter left the congregation in 1772.

Mr.

And the next in succession, was Mr. John Philipps, who came in the same year, a young man of promising attainments, as a dissenting minister to Hinckley; but possessing a mind too active for such an obscure life, he declined that profession in 1778, for a more lucrative one-the law. In this gentleman, an observation frequently made, is fully exemplified; that abilities and industry, however employed, seldom fail of success. Having entered himself a student of the Middle Temple, and passed the usual routine of education, with more than common attention; he was called to the bar, where he practised with success. The period was not then arrived for the exercise of those talents which afterwards shone so conspicuously; Mr. Fox's memorable scrutiny on the Westminster election called them forth. He was re tained as counsel on the occasion, and

acquitted

acquitted himself with much honour. Possessing a thorough knowledge of the election-laws, every candidate was anxious to have the advantage of his abilities. He afterwards retired to the country for the study of agriculture. To a theoretical knowledge he united a practical, and it was always attended with the most beneficial effects. As a companion, he was courted by all, possessing an uncommon fund of anecdote and the politest manners. His knowledge was as extensive as his mind was enlightened; and nothing was designed by him but his perseverance and resolution carried into effect. Family he had none, but he was the common parent of mankind, and always relieved their wants with chearfulness. John Philipps, esq. barrister at law, died at Carmarthen, July 19, 1803, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. He published an octavo volume of Cases of controverted Elections, 1780.

On Mr. Philipps leaving Hinckley, he was succeeded in the ministry by Mr. Thomas Burkitt, who continued there but a few years, and kept a boarding-school for young ladies, and now resides at Kennelworth, as the pastor of a dissenting congregation there. Afterwards came Mr. William Severn, in 1783, an able and popular preacher, who removed to Norwich, and afterwards went to Kidderminster, but at present lives at Hull. Mr. Severn, is the author of, "A Vindication of the Unitarians." Published in November, 1806. And their teacher since has been the worthy Rev. Mr. John Lane, who came to Hinckley, as minister of the congregation, in 1796, and several years kept a boarding-school for young gentlemen; but preached his last sermon preparative to his removal to Kidderminster, on the 29th. of November, 1807, from Romans, chap. x. ver. 1. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved;" which was a most excellent and interesting discourse, calculated to improve the minds of his hearers, and impress them with, the important duties of religion, and concluded with his carnest prayer for their earthly and eternal welfare.

For the Monthly Magazine. On JUSTICE and HUMANITY to BRUTE

ANIMALS.

(Concluded from p. 542, vol. 24.)

THE
HERE were Bethlem Gabors in all

countries, and they have left a very extensive posterity, but it is not my business to make thein any reproaches, for a

1

reason which I am not quite imprudent enough to assign. Yet it is absolutely necessary to remember and describe them, in order to enter radically and earnestly into a question of this kind. Their numbers may be diminished, but they can never become extinct, and their passiveness and sufferance only can be counted upon. To recur to the first intention of rendering justice, in which compassion is necessarily included, to brutes as well as men, the first and grand step, as has been said, must be taken by the civil government. It is matter of right or it is nothing, and besides the law will hold out a great and venerable example. On this foundation, and on the examples and discriminating precepts of the actively virtuous, must be reared the general and habitual practice of shewing justice and mercy to beasts. Nothing of this desirable kind however can be hoped whilst a bull is chained to the stake and baited by act of parliament!—at Windsor, under the eye of the first magistrate, and for the edification of the youth of the first school in the country.

The Windsor and Eton examples point forcibly to two most material branches of our subject, namely discrimination and the education of youth. As to the first, to witness the voluntary combat of dog and bull, those natural enemies, or were they not natural enemies, would not, that I am apprized, merit the stigma of barbarity, which consists entirely in the force used, the staking down, and the tortures inflicted on the miserable captive, ofttimes to irritate and subdue a naturally meek and mild disposition, and total disinclination to cruelty and combat. We have heard much of the ability and skilful tactics of the game bull, and even his fondness for the enchanting pastime of being bound to the ring and baited! So we have of the happiness, contentment, and mirth of slaves and prisoners for debt. To proceed to the second--the defective education of children far surpasses or rather swallows up all other causes of inhumanity. There are certain principles with which it is held so absolutely necessary to replenish the infant mind and memory, that room can be found in few minds for principles, at least precepts, of a minor consequence indeed, one of which is the moral obligation of justice. And granting that children or adults are taught principles of justice in a general way, whoever dreams of applying them, pointedly, and discriminatively, to brutes; in respect to which, it is held sufficient to repeat, "A just man is merciful to his

beast;"

But

beast; with a little intelligence or mean ing, as the utmost latitude of convenience can require. Children are even invariably bred up to, and encouraged in deeds of flagrant cruelty to animals, from the outraged feelings of which they instinctively, as well as by example, expect to derive sensations of pleasure and delight; and the association of the horse and the whip produces in the minds not in infants only, the simple conviction, that the horse was made to be whipped, and the whip was made for the horse, which species of logic, the natural growth of the minds of coachmen, grooms, of the masters and mistresses, and the young gentlemen and ladies, is seldom or ever burdened with such unnecessary adjuncts, as whether the horse has merited the whip, or whether the inflictor of the punishinent bath any judgement at all in that matter. practical justice and compassion towards beasts, neither have, nor ever had a place over the whole earth, barbaric or civilized: interest is deemed all in all; when that requires they should be flayed or dissected alive, they are so served. Nor can often, even genius, talents, and learning, discern ought of wrong in this, on which perhaps the customary moral had prevented them even from bestowing a thought, until awakened from their mental slumber to irksome and painful light, by the lucubrations of some sentimental rhapsodist, who thence earned their most hearty contempt. When the tuneful ancient taught that a young bullock must be tortured to death, in order to generate bees, his idea extended not be yond the profit and the honey; the principle of justice could scarcely enter into his recollection, for what man in his wits could think of yoking together bulls and justice? Neither the Gauderios of Buenos Ayres, nor the Abyssinians, it is probable, annex the idea of cruelty to cutting the flesh from the living bodies of animals; they act implicitly from custom, between which and reflection there is always a veil fixed. But what are we to think of our countryman Bruce, the polite, the learned, the philosopher, the theologian, who could attempt to entertain his reader facetiously with a relation of that horrible, most horrible fact? Or of a certain lady traveller, who could crack her jokes on slavery, and the whining sentimentalists on that dreadful subject; or of her reviewer, who could with equal humour decide, that she had a clear right to her joke? Why, their hearts were so naturally hard and impenetrable, that even the soundest education could never

have rendered them actively compassionate. I disallow and abhor all punishments which have revenge for their object: their futility is equal to their cruelty; but when I fist read Bruce's book, that malice so natural to the heart of man arose spontaneously in mine, and I could not avoid wishing him under the hands of a cannibal, who would have moderately contented himself with a steak of half a pound only. And at last such a retaliative stroke might have produced smart to the body, without a sense of conviction to the mind of Bruce. Not improbably, so soon as he should have become convalescent, he would have begun to raciocinate straight forward, that he was not an ox.

The above sentiments bring to my recollection, that which I apprehend to be. one of the very few errors, in Mr. Godwin's Enquirer, a work of a superior stamp, and certainly among the best which the modern press has produced. The author seems to me, to give too great a latitude to his arguments, in opposition to innate ideas, and perhaps to follow authority with too little reserve. I conceive that experience has totally swept away all doubt of innate properties, both of body and mind. Precisely the same place, air, education, food and habits, will, and do often produce dispositions in associated individuals, human or brute, totally dissimilar. Two children shall be trained up equally and together, and the maturity of the one shall produce the feelings of an angel, that of the other the obduracy of Belzebub. I speak of what I have seen. I have known two colts bred in the same paddock, and trained in the same stable; the one has proved, through life, full of the milk of animal kindness, the other under the perpetual influence of the demon of viciousness, a sincere proof of which he actually gave, by tearing out the entrails of one of his attendants. Examples of similar tendency are too numerous to be treated as exceptions to general rules, if we may not be allowed to call the contrary the side of exceptions. It is referred to philosophers who have leisure, to decide which is the rule and which the exception. One more of the incurie of Mr. Godwin. In the aforesaid work, making mightily light of the talent of writing, he seems to refer even the highest excellence of the art to study, assiduity, and perseverance. Who would not spend his days chearfully in study, with assiduity and perseverance, in order to be enabled to write like Godwin!

It is to the law, then, in the first instance, and to an improved system of education, in which the principles of justice shall be more specifically and practically applied, and with an especial regard to the care of brute animals; and to the establishment of general and fashionable habitudes of compassion, that we are to look for the completion of that more humanized system of morals, to which we aspire. If the real friends of humanity in this country be sufficiently numerous, and would be sufficiently active, their gradual influence with the great body of the people cannot be doubted, on a question which must surely be held congenial with the general English feeling: and more especially certain would the success be, should their endeavours be grounded on the dicta of rational nature and practical use; neither vitiated by hypocriti cal moderation, nor rendered futile by attempts at a millenarian perfectibility, which involves nothing but absurdity, impossibility, and nonsense.

Your Dover Correspondent, A Constant Reader,' (vol. xxii. p. 344,) proves himself a true friend to practical humanity, by the well-founded complaint he has instituted in your Court of Conscience, against the useless cruelties inflicted upon impounded animals, which, by a stupid and usual mistake, are punished, often with a rigour unto death, for the misdemeanours of their owners. Thus a gentleman being offended by another on horseback, will, by way of revenging himself, inflict a dreadful wound on the of fender's horse-(actual facts)—and a blackguard, having received an injury or afront from the proprietor of a horse, will take his revenge on the proprietor by tearing from the roots the tongue of the horse, or leaving him in the field houghed and hamstrung, according to ancient example! The instances of the sheep and horse, adduced by A Constant Reader,' are too common; and amongst divers similar, I recollect one, many years since, of apoor ass, which would literally have perished by famine, but for the locks of hay carried daily to the pound, for more than a week, by myself and another boy. Were a particular statute necessary in this case, I can only say, that we have many statutes the objects of which are of less worth; but nothing farther is needful than a moderate sense of humanity in the officers of a parish about to erect or repair a pound, which will prompt their reCollection, that in every such receptacle shed to shelter the poor prisoners from MONTHLY MAC., No. 187.

·

the rigours of the weather, is absolutely necessary, together with regular food. The animal to be sold in time, to repay their expence.

If I understand Mr. Goodman aright (vol. xxii. p. 353,) the defect to which he alludes in cows and sheep, of certain fibres growing from the lungs to the sides of those animals,' is the common case of the lungs being found in a state of adhesion to the pleura, or tegument of the chest. It is a symptom of various di eases, generally of the consumptive class; and Mr. G.'s supposition, that it more frequently happens in young animals, is well founded. The animal in which this adhesion may be suspected to have taken place, had better be immediately slaugh tered, since they seldom thrive afterwards; or if they do amend, it is usually in a degree too slow to repay the expence of their maintenance. The Jews, I believe, in ancient times, pronounced every beast unclean in which there appeared any signs of disease:-not so the modern Jew butchers of Whitechapel, who, I have reason to think, never reject an animal which they have purchased, for such a trifle as the adhesion of the lights. I have attended to the opening some scores of carcases in which this defect has been found, but without discovering, from want of sufficient attention, probably, those fibres spoken of by Mr. Goodman. I return him thanks for the information.

On the horse-chesnut tree, the infor mation given by Ellis, of Gaddesden, an original and generally excellent practical writer on husbandry, is totally defective. Many trials were made in consequence of his recommendation, of the horse-chesnut with hogs; but without the smallest success. The nuts seem destitute of nutriment, and, when swelled with water, inflate and disagree with all animals. Were they of any utility as cattle-food, probably the best mode of preparation would be to kiln-dry, or bake them, after being sodden. Horses are said to be fed with them in Turkey; but they are said to gripe and disagree with those few horses which have been brought to taste them in this country. The whole use of this tree is for ornament, and for the beauty of its flowers; but wherever it is grown, this loss ensues, that a sweet-ches nut, one of the most valuable of timbertrees,might have been produced in its room.

I fear Mr. Loft's two method's of killing eels will fail in utility, the one being attended with too much trouble, the other scarcely effectual. The certain way to

E

deprive

deprive them instantly of life and feeling, is that which will have a similar effect upon the whole animal creation, namely, to divide the spinal marrow. This may be effected in the eel by a deep wound made just behind the head, or, as we should say, in the nape of the neck. Doubtless the eel may move after this, as a convulsive motion of the muscles will remain in a decapitated body; but a separation of the marrow from the brain is supposed to destroy all sense of pain, and is the most deadly wound which can be inflicted; and, as an Irish fishman lately said in my hearing, if an eel chuses to live after such a body-blow as that, he may e'en take his own choice, and by Jasus, nobody can help it! Other fish may be put to rest in a similar way, or by thrusting an awl, or any pointed instrument, through the brain.

This topic naturally extends to other animals. Great pains have been taken to introduce the Continental mode of killing oxen, by dividing the spinal marrow, and it is most easy and effectual; but the obstinate attachment of butchers to knock-down arguments seems unconquerable. These fellows plead that they can fell an ox at a blow: but the writer of this has been the reluctant and miserable witness of a wretched animal, the tamest possible, receiving a score blows, and yet bursting his bonds, and escaping his savage executioners. It afterwards took several blows to bring this tortured victim to the ground. It was dreadful to observe the terrified feelings of the poor beast in his apprehensive eyes! yet the whole scene afforded high pleasurable gratification to the beasts in human shape which surrounded him. As butchers will not relinquish this cruel practice, they ought to be provided with leathern winkers, or blinds, to hang over the eyes of the beast, by which he would be prevented from seeing and expecting the fatal stroke, and a penalty ought to be imposed on a neglect of their use. The beadle of the market might regulate the killing of eels.

To extend this to two other objects cats and dogs generally suffer unnecessary outrages on their feelings, in the necessary, often merciful step, of depriving them of life. From their activity and their claws, it is, indeed, no easy thing to kill a cat, from which cause we may date great part of their sufferings. I remember a lady at Brentford, who was weary of her cat for some trifling reason, and desired John to get rid of it. The

unfeeling rascal was seen holding the forsaken animal up by the tail, to drop into the jaws of four or five hunting-dogs, by which, after a conflict of considerable length, to use the expression of my informant, its quivering heart and bowels were torn out? A late author has, indeed ignorantly, repeated the nonsense of Buffon, about the selfish and bad qualities of the cat; and such groundless notions have ever exposed those useful domestics to the most barbarous usage and neglect. The easiest way to send an unfortunate and useless cat to its place of rest, is to tie it up in a bag, stun it with an effectual blow upon the head, and then commit the bag to a pail of water, holding the bag pressed down with a mop or broom. Few struggles will ensue. In hanging a dog, most painful and disgusting as usually practised, a handkerchief or bandage should be made fast upon his eyes, and a decisive blow laid upon his head, previously to his being drawn up. Let none think slightly of reducing the mass of suffering, whether of men or beasts; but whoever is so disposed, is welcome to find a parody for Swift's wellknown rule, that " a clean man is a man of nasty ideas."

In the important affair of fleas, I can promise W. J. J. redress with the utmost confidence. If he will take the pains to turn over the noble historian, Lord Clarendon, he will find, in a certain page, but I cannot say which, that in a certain conversation held between that noble lord and the Earl of Essex, the earl remarked on a somewhat different occasion, that "stone-dead hath no fellow.” Sut verbum. And I assure W. J. J., on I know not how many years' experience, that there is no remedy for the plague of fleas, but in totally destroying them, a thing to be accomplished by attention and perseverance. Nothing can withstand the possibility and practice of eradication. The marks of fleas upon the necks of the children of property, too often visible, are most scandalous tokens of a defect of cleanliness and economy in the nursery. Ablutions and cleanliness are the first steps, the next diurnal measures of extermination, whilst a single flea is left, supposing even the hunt to continue ten years. In March and September this species of game, to destroy which requires no licence, is said to be most plentiful. The hunters should well beat those convenient coverts, the blankets. Washing the floors and walls of the rooms with lime-water, is said to be a good