its sitting. Three or four other Pits were then, and still are, in full operation at a time when all dogs are ordered to be confined. After two dogs have been worrying, mangling, and tearing each other in one of these Pits, for an hour or two, till one is fairly beaten, and both are nearly dead, how is it possible that these savage dogs can be brought into a fitter state to become the subjects and propagators of this dreadful and incurable disease?, The danger from fighting-dogs, when affected with rabies (which is the proper term for the disease in animals) is tenfold greater than from dogs of a mild species. Mr. Youatt, of Nassau Street, who has been known to the public during an extensive practice of more than twenty years as a Veterinary Surgeon, and as treating the diseases of all domestic animals, expresses himself on Rabies in these words :- * "With the fighting-dog the scene is terrific; he springs to the end of his chain and is eagerly employed in destroying every thing around him. In large towns, within these few years, the dog-pits, those nurseries of crime, have been established. The mechanic, the groom, the coachman, the apprentice, mingle there with the ruffian and the avowed thief. I will not speak of the barbarous deeds which are there perpetrated; but I will refer to the thousand instances, which the peculiarity of my practice has brought under my notice, of the inevitable destruction of humanity, honor, and honesty, in all who are deluded to these sinks of iniquity; and without the slightest hesitation I will affirm that rabies is propagated nineteen times out of twenty, in London, by the fighting-dogs." It may appear necessary to apologize to the readers of this work for saying another word on the obvious necessity of suppressing these Pits by the present bill. But this we affirm, that, if these dog-pits are not suppressed, cases of Hydrophobia and Rabies will never be wanting to justify the opinion we have given. Let the heaviest tax be laid upon all dogs of the fighting-breed. Let an efficient and summary method be instituted for the suppression of the dog-pits, simply by giving information to the Police, and, when the parties are brought before a magistrate, let an adequate penalty or imprisonment be awarded on conviction. It will now be seen whether the new Parliament has refined itself from the dross of the advocates of bear-baiting, badger-baiting, dog-fighting, bullbaiting, &c. Another observation we shall make, is, with regard to a well-directed tax on every kind of dog from a month old, so as effectually to diminish their number. This comprises pages; for, when animals are scarce, they are always taken care of, and well treated. Let there be a heavy penalty on any person not entering a dog, a moiety of which to be placed at the * On Canine Madness, by W. Youatt, V. S., and F. Z. S., Longman, Paternoster Row. disposal of the complainant, and to be recovered by summons. It is due to the feelings of those numerous families which have been subjected to the direst anguish, in consequence of Hydrophobia, that NO DOG BE EXEMPTED FROM A TAX. The butchers and drovers who have been hitherto exempted from a tax on their dogs are the principal frequenters and supporters of the different Pits, together with other persons who claim similar exemptions. The present mode of collecting the dog-tax is as defective as possible, and has been one of the causes of the evil; for not one dog in a hundred is returned to the Collector, not to mention the thousands of vagabonds who are never applied to for the payment of this tax, and therefore keep as many as they please. If this principle be strictly and efficiently acted upon, the painful sight of thousands of dogs, purposely lost by their owners, wandering in a state of extreme exhaustion and starvation, will be spared: and, when orders are issued to confine dogs, those orders will then be efficiently acted upon. The general destruction of them will not be required. We mention the muzzling of dogs to prevent Hydrophobia merely to say that it is the best possible means to promote it. The skin of the dog is not perspirable. The panting with the tongue protruded is a process of nature, by which alone, with drinking water, they cool themselves. If the muzzling should form a component part of this bill, we will expose its fallacy, and the folly of its projectors, more fully in the next number. Water is considered by all persons acquainted with rabies as most essential to dogs, for its prevention. We trust the common-sense idea of a tank of water being opened at the commencement and termination of each street will not be neglected in the present bill. (To be continued.) FACTS AND SCRAPS. THE TRUE CAUSE OF THE CONTINUANCE OF As often as this anniversary comes round, the daily Papers express a degree of astonishment at its being tolerated, involving, as it necessarily must do, such an extent of demoralization. The following extract from the evidence given before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Smithfield Market, &c. (July 18th, 1828), page 19, will either save the necessity of all discussion respecting the cause, or direct the enquirer to the right source. "The year before last, the Common Council had determined to abolish Bartholomew Fair; the Lord Mayor declared he would put in force the orders, if they printed them, to stop plays and interludes. The publicans met together and petitioned them not to do it, as it would be to their injury, almost to their ruin. I attended at the time in the Committee of the Court of Common Council, and the evidence that the publicans brought forward then was, that there was £1,000,000 or £1,500,000 worth of property dependent upon Smithfield Market, and greatly upon Bartholomew Fair, which helped to pay half the amount of the rents of all the publicans: and the Common Council, after having resolved to put it down, afterwards determined to let it stand, in consequence of this evidence.”—We shall allude to some of the exhibitions there of "learned animals," in our next number, though, it appears from the above statement, with but little chance of obtaining an abolition of them with the co-operation of the civic authorities. Such exhibitions of cruelty at this Fair, it should be remembered, are by the especial permission of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of the metropolis of England. THE HACKNEY COACH OFFICE. The only place, of which we know, where cheap and substantial justice is administered, is at the Hackney Coach Office, Essex Street, Strand. It is not within the objects of this work to refer to other cases at this Office than those of cruelty to the Hackney coach or cabriolet horses. We have simply taken the number, have sent a written complaint by a messenger to the office, when we could not go, and, being informed of the day appointed, we have attended, when we have been shown at once into a comfortable waiting-room, whence every one, in turn, is called into the room where the Commissioners are sitting. If the case is proved, either that the driver has used a horse insufficient for work, or has whipped or treated it in a cruel manner, a penalty is instantly inflicted, one-half of which is very justly placed at the disposal of the complainant, to defray incidental expenses. If the horse is insufficient, an order may also be issued that he shall not work again. We wish that the act to prevent the cruel treatment of cattle were entitled to any comparison. Every one is struck with astonishment at no money being demanded, as at police offices, for a summons-at the good accommodation to the public as contrasted with the crowded state and noisome atmosphere of police offices-and at the gentlemanly conduct of the commissioners as contrasted with the usual demeanor of police magistrates. If the projected change in this establishment take place, we trust that these advantages will not be lost sight of. FURIOUS DRIVING. A fellow was driving a pair of horses in a hackney-coach at a furious rate, along the Westminster-road, and, when arrived exactly opposite F Oakley-street, one of the horses fell, and in a few moments expired. It was ascertained that the bit had broken in the animal's mouth, and a part of it had gone down his throat, and in all probability choked him. The driver stated himself to be the owner of the coach and horses, so that he paid dearly for his indiscretion by the death of his horse. BARBAROUS AND INHUMAN CRUELTIES. COLLEGE-STREET.-Some fellows, on Thursday last, brought out a cat with them to Stephen's Green, to indulge themselves in the savage, wanton, and brutal cruelty of worrying it to death. They first tied the unfortunate animal to one of the chains which surround the foot-path, and one of the party had a large bull dog, which he held by a strap around its neck, and occasionally let it go, hallooing it on their victim. Mr. O'Maley, of York street, most humanely interfered, and with the assistance of peace officer Singleton took the leader of the party (who calls himself William Snell, and stated he was a shoemaker from Fadestreet) into custody, and lodged him in Fleet-street watch house. When brought before the Magistrates, Mr. Gabbett reprimanded him most severely for his brutal conduct, and took the informations of Mr. O'Maley and the peace officer against him. The case was sent for trial at the Sessions, at Common Law. The unfortunate cat was literally torn to pieces before they were stopped in their cruel career.-Sanders's News Letter. HAMPSTEAD HEATH.-A most wretched horse was lately turned out on Hampstead Heath, worn down to the last dregs of existence and suffering from an incurable fistulous sore on the withers;-yet made to perform its daily labour, when its next journey might have been expected to be to the knacker's yard. We are most happy to state that the Countess of Shaftsbury, and Mrs. F. M. Thompson, on being informed of the pitiable state of the poor animal, immediately resolved to procure a termination of its misery; and they despatched a person to purchase it of the owner, and then to see it killed on the spot, in the easiest possible manner. SMITHFIELD MARKET.-"Much of the disgraceful and heart-rending infliction of cruelty committed in this market is attributable to the inconvenient site and scanty accommodations of the market itself. And for what reason is this nuisance suffered to continue, in defiance of public decency? For no sufficient one certainly-for no plausible one that I can imagine. While it serves to gratify the cupidity of a set of men least deserving of indulgence, it is calculated to corrupt the morals by hardening the hearts of the youths educated at two of our most important public schools, which are situated in the immediate neighbourhood, and to which Smithfield is almost a necessary thoroughfare; not to mention the endangering of their lives or limbs by contact with infuriated animals -to provide patients for the adjacent hospital, and hinder the approach of the sick and wounded who are conveyed thither-and to commemorate the triumphs of Anti-Christ over a long list of martyrs, by the consecration of so memorable a spot to the demon of cruelty for ever."-Greenwood. "It lies with you to confer a ten-fold greater boon on the inferior creation than if all barbarous sports, and all bloody experiments, were forthwith put an end to. It is at the bidding of your collective will to save those countless myriads who are brought to the regular and the daily slaughter all the difference between a protracted and an instant death." Chalmers. Sir, LETTERS FROM CORRESPONDENTS. To the Editor of The Voice of Humanity. After mentioning that the treatment of cattle in the slaughter-house, as well as the slaughtering and preparing of the flesh for our food, is committed solely to such low characters as slaughtermen, the scum of the population, as brutal as the cattle, that this business is performed by them in places purposely obscured from public notice, where cruelties however aggravated may be practised with impunity, no individual being empowered by any law to enter those places in order to prevent them,surely it is unnecessary to say more to prove the necessity of legislative interference on this subject, or to show that it requires instant reformation. Many persons have felt such disgust at these cruelties, which it is out of their power to prevent, as to induce a partial abstinence from animal food. The cruelties practised on calves, together with the cruel death of the animal, to give the flesh the appearance of delicate, but more properly sickly, whiteness, are the reasons with many for rejecting veal from their tables. Wishing to ascertain the effect of killing a calf without any preparatory process of bleeding and starvatiom, I readily procured enough friends to take the whole carcase. All the blood-vessels of the throat were instantaneously divided by one incision, by which means the blood was effectually drained off. The flesh was of a healthy pink tinge, but dressed as white as a chicken; its richness and flavour were in striking contrast with the usual dryness and insipidity; and its superior digestibility was proved by no indigestion being produced by this meat, in persons with whom veal had previously disagreed at all times. With regard to the "delicate whiteness," it is a state of actual disease, from the blood being robbed of its red particles (its vitality) by frequent bleedings, rendering the flesh exceedingly indigestible. One of the most revolting of the cruelties is, the general practice of tying up the mouths of the calves tightly with cord, or by a buckle-strap to go round the mouth, and an apparatus to fasten round the head, to prevent their making any noise during the days they are going through the process in the slaughter-house; which cruelty is so peculiar that the torture can hardly be imagined except by seeing an animal in this state. This |