sake of cruelty. In some points of view, orders to their favourite sports; and had the amusement of horse-racing might also asked, if the fashionable world had their be termed cruel; there was not a year in Billington, why the lower orders should which numbers were not killed in that not have their bull? But the hon. gen. sport; but as horses were a lively tleman contented himself with exhibiting and spirited animal, he was inclined to this short specimen of his eloquence; and think the amusement in no sense a cruel just said enough to convince the House one. So might it be said of stag hunting that he was in the right to leave off. An -the animal in that case, was fed and hon. general near him, too, had talked of pampered previous to the chace, not with the sport of bull-baiting in that part of a reference to its future torture, but that the country where he resided; but in a it might yield the greater sport-the manner not to illustrate the argument of animal often, necessarily, lost his life in the hon. member who spoke last, that it the chace-its heart was what was called was a lesson of morality; for all that he broken: did gentlemen think that such a stated in its favour was, that a baited bull process could take place without pro- made a good recruiting serjeant, but at ducing great agony? The hounds often the same time promoted idleness and fastened on his chest, and tore him to drunkenness among the men, and propieces-and yet such a practice had en- fligacy among the women, to such a detirely escaped the humanity of the legisla- gree as made amends to the population of ture; nay, the practice was even regulated the country for the recruits decoyed away, by legislative provisions. The principle by promoting a certain species of interon which this bill seemed to proceed course which he believed would hardly would go to libel the most exalted cha- recommend the continuance of bull-baiting racters in the country. Recurring to to the House as a moral institution. Anobull-baiting, he stated, that none of the ther hon. gentleman considered the bill cruelties imputed to the practice took place. as one of those light and trivial subjects, The assumption that the practice of bull- which was not worthy to occupy the debaiting had increased, was false. The na- liberations of parliament, and he compared tional character was, he thought, impli- it to certain bills of a local nature, respectcated in the present question. It was the ing inclosures, and other disposal of proencouragement given to such manly sports perty, which merely passed by chance, as and invigorating exercises that made us members could not be got to attend their what we were. He expatiated on the progress. But he would ask, what species virtues of the English bull-dog. The of argument was this, coming from a right people and the animals of this country hon. gentleman who had been always so were of a peculiar cast and character, zealous to impress the country with a due both original and excellent in their kind; respect for the sentiments of that parliaand animals, as we learnt from ancient ment, whom he this night represented to writers, were often the best preceptors of be utterly inattentive to the disposal of men. On the same principle proceeded property in distant counties—or what opithe maxim, that "wise men learned more nion were such arguments likely to impress from fools, than fools from wise men." upon the gentlemen of landed property With respect to the penalties held forth in those counties? From the speech of by the bill, he thought them rigorous. the right hon. gentleman, it did not apThe first time the legislature ever inter-pear that he himself thought the subject of fered with the sports of the country was in the time of Henry 8th, in consequence of which the people addicted themselves to sedentary and unmanly pursuits, which" in after-times the legislature thought it proper to decry. So would it be in the present instance: the liberal and national sports of chuckfarthing and turnpenny would be adopted, and to these the people would be advised to give their days and nights. Mr. Sheridan said, that one hon. colonel had shortly declared his opposition to the bill, by vindicating the rights of the lower [VOL. XXXVI.] this bill one of trivial consideration. His oration smelt of the lamp; it evinced no inconsiderable share of study and research. What," said the right hon. gentleman, "will Europe think of the wisdom of this House, when, at a crisis so awful, it is occupied with deliberations on a subject so insignificant as bull-baiting? What will Europe say of us?" Why, whatever they say of us, they must say, that the right hon. gentleman, who seems to think so lightly of the subject, talks as much about it as any of us. But for the feelings of the right hon. gentleman on the subject [31] Learnt from the little Nautilus to sail, of bull-baiting, he could account from the motives of those who pursued this state of his mind in consequence of the diabolical amusement, as it was called, treaty of peace concluded so much against since the sport arose out of the cruelty; his wishes. Deprived of the pleasure and, notwithstanding the elaborate oraarising from the sanguinary combats be- tions of both gentlemen, he must consider tween mankind, and no longer amused by cruelty to brute animals as a crime, whethe details of battles and of carnage, the ther done for amusement, for sport or for right hon. member turned eagerly to the gluttony; and therefore if there were not contests between brute animals; and en- laws to prevent, if not to punish such joyed the war between bulls and dogs, as cruelties, there certainly ought to be. He if the restoration of a branch of the agreed that many of the most striking Bourbon family was staked on the result. lessons to man were to be learned from The right hon. gentleman, too, found out animals, but it was fron animals in their that bull-baiting was the only remedy for natural state and exhibiting their natural disconcerting the revolutionary plots of qualities. Man derived much of his knowJacobinism and Methodism; and he ex-ledge from the animal creation. tolled the joyous, jovial, and elegant delights of this noble sport, as opposed to" And spread the canvas to the swelling gale." the morose and austere spirit of those who It was not by using craft to make an condemned it. But if the right hon. mem- animal the enemy of another (not so by berthought the subject of such light and in- nature), that instruction was to be obsignificant import as he professed, it would tained; nor where one, trained by the have better become him to treat it with artifices of man, attacked another tied to ridicule, than with so much gravity. The a stake, and deprived of the means of deright hon. member complained of the ma- fending himself. What sort of moral lesson gistrates, and their promptitude to put was it to the wife and children of the down the favourite sports of the people, farmer, who sold his bull for the purpose and this among the rest. Now there was of being baited, to see the poor, simple, nothing in which he (Mr. S.) could concur harmless animal, which for years they had with him more cheerfully, than in condemn- cherished as a favourite, and learned to ing the injudicious severity with which the look on with affection, tied to a stake, sports of the common people, in many worried by dogs, and his bleeding tongue counties were attacked indiscriminately by torn out of his mouth by the roots? But the magistrates. In the endeavours to sup- cruelty to the bull was not the only press the sportof bull-baiting, however, he cruelty exercised on these occasions. would give the magistrates every praise for What sort of moral lesson, for instance, their exertion, convinced that it was the was it to the children of the farmer, who most mischievous of all amusements, and brings his aged bull-bitch, many years the most calculated to brutalize their manners. faithful sentinel of his house and farmSome allusion had been made to a project yard, surrounded by her pups, to prove at to revive old English diversions in the coun- the bull-ring the staunchness of her breed? try. He himself had the honour to be one He brings her forward, sets her at the inwho, in conjunction with an hon. general furiated animal; she seizes him by the lip, (Burgoyne), had formed that project; and and pins him to the ground. But what he could assure the House, that not only is the reward from his owner, amid the bull-baiting, but every other species of applauses of the mob, to his favourite cruel diversion, were expressly forbidden animal? He calls for a hedging bill, and, in that project; and the right hon. gen- to prove her breed, hews her to pieces tleman, in his zeal for condemning ancient without her quitting her grip, while he sports, and civilizing the people of Eng- sells her puppies at five guineas a piece! land, concluded his speech by threatening Another enters his dog at the animal ; to bring in a bill to abolish horse-racing, his leg is broken in the attack. His owner shooting, fishing, and all other field sports lays a wager that he shall pin the bull of the higher orders, if this bill should near the lip. He calls the dog, cuts off pass into law. But this menace would not his leg, then sets him at the bull, which he have much effect upon the House. Ano- pins; and having thus won the wager, he ther hon. member had argued, that bull-is whistled back by his grateful master, baiting was not adopted for the sake of who, while he licks his hands, generously cruelty; but he owned he saw no differ-cuts his throat. These were some of the ence that could arise in the fact from the hopeful lessons of morality which were to 853] Bull-baiting Bill. a younger and more vigorous law. He trusted the gentlemen who opposed the bill would find themselves in a small minority; in his opinion, if they were not, it would be a disgrace to the House. Mr. Dent replied. As for the petitions, all those which called for the suppression of this savage amusement, were signed by respectable persons in the neighbourhood of the place from whence the petition came. The solitary counter-petition was obtained by the influence of a young attorney on some of the lowest of the be taught by bull-baiting! It seemed it If the of law upon this subject was worn was a royal sport in the days of good out--if it had not teeth to hold, let the queen Bess; but, though great the cou-legislature set about pinning it down by rage and prowess of those days, the conduct of our soldiers and sailors, in the late war, exhibited no great degeneracy, notwithstanding the melancholy decrease of this admirable school of morals and bravery. Though the sport should be dignified with king's plates, and gold collars for bull-dogs, he never could be taught to believe that courage would be learned from the exercise of cruelty. If he wished, under the mask of friendship for the people, to make them servile, he would teach them to be cruel. If he wished to induce them to submit to a sys-rabble of his neighbourhood. As for the tem of government by barracks and bas- lower class of people, they were sufficiently tiles, he would encourage bull-baiting. If quiet, if let alone; and he never recolhe wished to make them submit to a lected to have heard a speech which was "vigour beyond the law," he would re- of a more Jacobinical tendency than the commend bull-baiting. If he wished them warm appeal to the vulgar prejudices of to see with apathy and unconcern their the rabble, which had been made that friends "killed off," he would teach them night. As to the cruelties which had been to inflict cruelties on animals, to oppress exercised in this horrid sport, he could the weak, and to abuse their power and prove that they infinitely exceeded what superiority; for those who were taught to had yet been described; he could prove abuse their own power, were the first to that persons had wounded the animal in submit to it in others. It had been said, the tenderest parts with knives, and then that the laws were already sufficient to poured aqua fortis into the bleeding prevent the abuse of the practice of bull-wounds, in order to provoke the beast to baiting. If that had been the case, there madness. would not have been petitions stating the want of efficacy in the law. There were things which were nuisances, and yet the law was inadequate to the suppression of them. Some things were nuisances, because they were contra bonos mores-others were unlawful, because they were malum in se-others because they were malum in loco. Corydon and Phillis might do that in a shady retreat, which it might not be right to do in the pit of the opera-house. A man might walk about in his own closet without clothes on; but it would not do to lounge in Bond-street in the costume of our primitive parents. You might put birds and animals eyes out in private, no one could prevent you; but it would not do to have an exhibition of such a nature Mr. Canning's Motion respecting the at the top of the Haymarket. The only question was, whether, if bull-baiting were Cultivation of the Island of Trinidad.] abolished, there ought to be an end of May 27. Mr. Canning rose, to bring forall sports? He maintained the contrary: ward his promised motion respecting the he could discover no cruelty in other cultivation of the island of Trinidad, and sports. He knew that sportsmen uniformly said:-Mr. Speaker; circumstances, which wished to avoid wounding birds. If cruelty I do not think it necessary to trouble the followed their sports, it was against their House with explaining, have prevented will; but bull-baiting was the only diver-me from taking any part in the important sion that arose from a desire of cruelty. discussions which have lately occupied The question being put, "that the bill be now read a second time," general Gascoyne moved as an amendment," that it be read a second time this day three months." The question being put," that the said bill be now read a second time," the House divided: YEAS Tellers. Mr. Sheridan ..... NOES General Gascoyne...... ...... } } 51 64 So it passed in the negative. After which it was ordered, that the said bill be read a second time upon this day three months. parliament. But although, by these circumstances, and by the feelings arising out of them, I have found myself precluded from expressing, even by my vote, the opinion which I certainly have formed upon the general subject of the treaty of peace; yet, that treaty being once concluded, and having received the sanction of parliament, whatever may be my private opinion of the peace, there is but one duty, for every member of this House, and for every good subject of this king dom, to endeavour, as far as in him lies, to make the best of the new situation in which the country is placed by it, to turn to the best account the advantages which are left to us; and in that view to push, as far as it is capable of going, the improvement of those valuable acquisitions, which, from among the numerous and brilliant conquests of the war, we have been fortunate enough to be able to retain. I do assure the House, that it is with this view, and in this spirit, that I have presumed to solicit their attention to one of those two important acquisitions, the island of Trinidad. I will not deny or disguise that my attention was first and most forcibly drawn to this island, by the connection which one possible mode of cultivating and improving it necessarily has with a subject upon which I have, in common with a large proportion of the community at large, felt very strongly; I mean the African slave trade; the enormous increase of which, if the whole island of Trinidad should be to be brought into cultivation by imported negroes, must be such as to appal any man who looks at it, and such as must shock this House when it considers its own recorded opinions upon that subject. But though this was the first point of view in which I considered Trinidad, I should do great injustice to the cause which I have undertaken, if I were not to aver, that, in examining into the subject with this view, I have found reason to be convinced full as strongly that the cultivation of Trinidad, in the manner to which I have referred, is not more directly forbidden by the fear of that danger and that shame which would attend the enormous extension of the slave trade, or rather the creation of a new slave trade for this express purpose, than it is by every consideration of the security of the colonies, and of the true policy of this country, under the present circumstances of the world. It will appear from what I have said, that if any gentleman came hither with the expectation of hearing a long discus sion on the subject of the slave trade considered by itself, he will find himself, perhaps not disagreeably, mistaken. İ have no desire, and it is not at all necessary for my object, to go into any such discussion. All that I wish to prove upon that subject I find already established by much more satisfactory authority than any reasoning of mine could afford, the votes of the House of Commons. I shall assume upon this subject nothing but what the House of Commons has affirmed and recorded. If any gentleman supposed that it was my intention to depreciate the value, or obstruct the improvement of Trinidad, he is equally mistaken: I wish to improve it more effectually, and to greater advantage than could be done by the old system; I wish only to prevent your throwing away the opportunity of an improvement essential not only to the immediate value of this one acquisition, but to the safety of all your old possessions in the same part of the world. Lastly, Sir, if any one could imagine that my object was to create embarrassment to the present administration by the proposition which I am about to submit to you, I know not how I can better refute such an imagination than by declaring, which I confidently and conscientiously do, that had the same opportunity, the same necessity I should rather call it, for discussing the modes of cultivation applicable to a new island in the West Indies, arisen under another administration, under the administration of those who possessed all my confidence, and, exclusively, all my attachment; of those who had the glory of acquiring Trinidad, instead of those who have had the prudence to retain it: I should equally have thought it a duty, unless the subject had been previously taken up by the government, or by abler hands than mine, not to let the first session of parliament, after Trinidad had become the property of the British crown, pass away without calling the House to the consideration of some such proposition as I have now the honour to submit to you. I trust this will be deemed a satisfactory answer upon this point. If not, I have no professions to make, I have nothing more to add, but that I do feel myself to be discharging my duty, and that, for the discharge of a duty, I presume, no apology is required. I may perhaps hear it alleged that there is no necessity, or no justification | tertain the proposition which I have to for the interference of the House of Com- submit to its consideration. mons in the present stage of this busi- As to the right of this House to enterness. As to the necessity of some such tain such a proposition, if it shall see it measure as that which I have to propose, good, that surely is not easy to be disthe best way of proving it, perhaps, will puted. Parliament has been called upon be, to state shortly the course of the by the executive government to consider events and observations which have in- the whole of the treaty, by which, in duced me to bring this measure forward. compensation for many valuable restituNot long after the signing of the prelimi- tions, Trinidad is ceded to this country. naries of peace, a paper was circulated, Parliament has been invited to acknownot only in the city of London, but ledge its value, to congratulate upon its throughout the Leeward islands, purport-acquisition. It appears to follow, by a ing to be a copy of the plan in possession consequence scarcely necessary to be of government, for the allotment and sale argued, that parliament has the right to of the unclaimed lands in Trinidad; with ascertain the value which it acknowsuch a description of the fertility and con- ledges, and to deliberate how best to estavenience of the settlement as was calcu- blish and improve the importance of that lated to excite the cupidity of monied acquisition upon which it has offered its men, and to lead to the expenditure of a congratulations to the throne; above all, great sum of British capital on that spe- that it has a right to implore of the throne culation, I do not say that this plan was that this acquisition shall not be employed circulated by government, or with their in a manner directly to contravene and knowledge; but from whatever quarter it render nugatory resolutions which this came, it certainly agreed entirely with House has formerly passed, and wishes the papers which government have since which it has expressed to the throne, and produced to the House of Commons, or which the throne has graciously received. rather these papers are but an imperfect, And if the necessity or the right exist at though, as far as they go, a faithful ab- all, this is the stage of the business in stract of the plan so circulated. About which alone our interference can be effecthe same time a sort of notice was given tual. Wait till the sale and allotment of in this House by the right hon. the chan- lands in Trinidad is actually made, and cellor of the exchequer, of an intention the thing is past your power; the mischief to raise a sum of money (no matter for is done-and you can only regret, fruitwhat purpose-the purpose specified is lessly, that you did not interfere sooner. now otherwise and unobjectionably pro- This brings me to state precisely the vided for), by the sale of uncleared lands, object of my present motion. My object the property of the crown, in the West is delay only: I wish to prevent the imIndies. Putting these two circumstances mediate, and, as I contend, the improvitogether, I could not but be struck with dent disposal of the lands of Trinidad, in their coincidence, and I took the earliest a manner that must completely frustrate opportunity that the meeting of parlia- the views of the House of Commons, until ment after the Christmas recess afforded, parliament shall have had an opportunity to ascertain, whether or no there did exist of examining and discussing the subject. such an intention respecting the island of I wish to keep the subject within the Trinidad, and whether parliament was to power of parliament. I do not propose be apprised of the plan, and to have an to you to decide any thing now, one way opportunity of considering it before it or the other: I only entreat of you not to was carried into execution? I received no suffer it to be made impossible for you to assurance that such an intention did not come to the decision which may be right exist; but I was distinctly told, that if hereafter. I do not touch any thing that such a plan was in agitation, it would not exists: I have nothing to do with the be thought necessary previously to sub-slave trade, as far as it is now carried on for mit it to parliament. It seemed to me the supply of our already subsisting estathat there remained but one course to blishments in the West Indies; I have no pursue to call the attention of this House to the subject; which I have accordingly done; and unless the House of Commons means to abandon its own pledges and duties altogether, it will not refuse to en thought of invading or endangering the vested interests of the West India proprietors: just the contrary; I am persuaded I shalf show that what I have to propose is calculated to strengthen and ။ |