credit at the inspections, are truly gratifying. The attention of the Masters, in general, to the import of the sacred word, is pleasingly on the increase: and among such as have had their own understandings enlightened and informed, there exists a spirit of emulation to have their pupils excel in giving suitable answers to questions relating to the meaning of the passages which they repeat.

for the Bible Societies to get the Scriptures into the hands of the Catholics, the great mass of the population of Ireland.

"The formation of Irish classes in the Schools which are appropriate thereto, continues to be sedulously promoted. An additional allowance has been granted to the Masters for their Irish Testament classes; and this has powerfully operated to increase the demand for Irish Testaments, both in the day Schools, and also in those which are held in the evening, for teaching the adults.

"These instances evidently show the immediate and direct influence which the Schools produce on the minds of the parents of the children who are educated therein; and that an emanation of Scripture light, and a portion of religious interest of the most important and useful kind, are introduced into the humble cottages of the poor. These now have some light in their dwelling,' in the midst of surrounding darkness and superstition; which, how-largement on this pleasing and interesting subject. ever, begins to be penetrated with the beams of Divine truth, and to be impressed with that word which is 'quick and powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.' On this interesting subject, a most valuable correspondent of the Committee thus writes :-

"From the many applications I receive from individuals from different parts of the country for Bibles and Testaments, there is strong evidence to the spreading of religious inquiry among the mass of the people. Many of them come from places remote from any of the Schools; but I always find that anxiety for the Scriptures has been excited by converse with some who have been pupils therein, who have lived in the neighbourhood of the Schools, or have been in some other ways immediately or remotely connected with them.

"The Committee could adduce additional instances of approbation and support from some of the Catholic Clergy, both of the Society's Schools, and of its exertions to circulate the Scriptures; but the limits of this Report will not permit an enIf, however, the views and object of this Institution have only commended themselves as yet to a small part of the Catholic body, the Committee are happy to state, that, in the Protestant community, the high importance of the Hibernian Society increasingly arrests public attention; that the demands for Schools in almost every district are more numerous than can be attended to, and that in every place respectable individuals come forward, unsolicited, to carry into execution the benevolent designs of the Society. And here it is very appropriate and grateful to observe, that to the Clergy of the Established Church who have afforded their patronage to the Schools, and have condescended to act as Visitors, the Society are under very great obligations; and particularly to an excellent Dignitary of that Church, who has always entered into the views of the Society with a liberal mind, has furthered them with continued assiduity, and has recently from the pulpit pleaded the cause of the Institution, and thereby added to its celebrity and support. This last service called for the official thanks of the Committee. They were transmitted by the treasurer, and the answer which has been received from this estimable personage is so characteristic of his piety and philanthropy, and so highly honourable to the Hibernian Society, that it would be unsuitable and injurious to withhold the following extract:

"Could the moral and religious improvement of the human mind be as easily discovered as the agricultural improvement of a country, those numerous districts where the Schools have been for any time established, would be found to exhibit a striking contrast to those wherein they have not yet taken place. While these would be seen in all the nakedness of sterility, or fruitful only in the production of noxious weeds; in the other it would appear that in a great degree the fallow ground has been broken up, the good seed sown and in a state of vegetation, waiting for the early and latter rain; in many, the appearance of a healthful crop would "I have received your very kind letter, commugladden the eye, and in some, the fields would ap-nicating the thanks of the Committee of the Hipear already white unto the harvest. bernian Society of London, to me, for the sermon I preached in Sligo Church on their behalf; and for other services which the Committee are pleased kindly to notice, as rendered by me to the Schools under their patronage. Whatever little I have been enabled to do, I have felt that therein I have been doing the best service I could to this quarter of my poor benighted country. And I thank God, that I see the exertions which the Society has made already (and they have been great) so largely owned of him. I am persuaded, that nothing is calculated so much, under the Divine blessing, to dispel the gross darkness that has covered this land, for so many ages, as such a system of general scriptural education, as that adopted by your Society. And I have to acknowledge that the establishment of the Society's Schools in the vicinity of my ministerial duties, has proved the happy instrument of a great enlargement of utterance and usefulness to me; and never more did I experience this enlargement, than on the late occasion of my visiting Sligo, to advocate the cause of the Society. If I have done this with any degree of success, I desire to thank, and give glory to God. Surely you well deserve the cordial co-operation of the Irish pub lic; and you call forth from Irish Christians,

"The great increase in the number of the Schools; the amazing anxiety for the Scriptures which they have been the means of exciting in every district; the increasing demand for Evening Schools for the instruction of the adult population,--all pressingly call for such a supply of Bibles and Testaments as I am unable to meet. Were the wonders doing in this country by the instrumentality of the Hibernian Society fully known in England, and their importance rightly appreciated, no Society would be found deserving of greater support."

"The Committee continue to give the greatest encouragement to the instruction of adults in the vicinity of the Schools; and they receive the most pleasing accounts of the efficacy of the word of God in the enlightening of the minds of those who probably would never have had an opportunity of reading the Scriptures, or of hearing them read, had it not been for the free Schools which this Society has established, and for the numerous copies of the Divine word which it has industriously circulated. Indeed, the Visitors to the Schools perceive and acknowledge, that, were it not for the Labours of this Institution, it would be impossible

thanksgivings to God for the grace bestowed upon | policy and the power of their superiors forbid the you."

introduction of these blessings; surely it must be It has been noticed that the number of children acknowledged, that the designs and operations of and adults taught in the Society's Schools has in- the Society have been appropriate and efficient, creased, in the course of the last year, from 19,000 for the removal of the greatest of evils, and for the to 27,000, and that requisitions for additional production of the most essential and important Schools are far more numerous than can be com- good. In fact, the gradually increasing operations plied with. It will also be remembered, that at the of the Society have greatly exceeded its progrestime of holding the last Annual Meeting, the ex-sive means of support; its designs have been truly penditure of the Society had exceeded its income laudable and excellent, its means and instruments upwards of 6002. In this conflict of an enlarged well adapted to execute them, and the sphere of establishment and a deficient revenue, of encourag- its labours admirably calculated to gratify British ing prospects and limited means, the Committee benevolence, and to reward Christian zeal. Under have endeavoured to increase the funds of the So- all these circumstances, it is a matter of surprise ciety, and to lessen the expense of its future ope- and regret, that the income of this Institution, rations. To obtain the first-mentioned benefit, arising from annual subscriptions, does not amount they have transmitted a circular letter to Ministers to 5001; whilst its annual expenditure is upwards generally, in town and country, describing the state of 4,000l. The deficiency has, in part, been supof the Institution, as to its importance, its useful-plied by donations and collections, and also by asness, and its necessities; urging them to interest sistance received from Auxiliary Societies; but the themselves in procuring subscriptions and dona- arrears at length amount to a sum (1,6057.) which tions and particularly and earnestly requesting must have become burdensome to the Treasurer, them to incorporate it amongst those other excel- embarrassing to the Committee, and prejudicial to lent Societies, for the assistance of which Auxi- the interest of the Society. liary Institutions have in so many places been established. These dispense their tributary streams with fertilizing and invigorating energies; and if in their course, they were permitted to visit and enrich the Hibernian Society, Ireland would greatly benefit by the diffusion, and would ardently bless her pious and liberal benefactors. With regard to lessening the expense of future operations, the Committee have endeavoured to connect the formation of new Schools, with an Annual Subscription; and, in this way, it is to be hoped, that many of the resident noblemen and gentlemen in Ireland, will assist in carrying into effect the designs, and in relieving the funds, of the Hibernian Society.

To relieve it of this debt, is the anxious wish of its Committee, and must be the earnest desire of its Members. And when it is considered, as having arisen out of the actual prosperity of the cause, which the Society was established to promote, and from the enlarged and successful exertions which it has been enabled to prosecute, the Committee are persuaded that every Member of the Institution will feel it to be his duty and his pleasure, to unite with them, in immediate and earnest efforts, to replenish and increase its funds, in order that the Society may be relieved from the pressure of present obligations, and be capacitated to enter on a course of additional labours, and of extensive and hopeful exertions.

That the operations of this Society should be stationary whilst the most fair and promising prospects open for their exertions; that the bene fits of education which it has conferred, and the blessings of Scriptural instruction, which it has imparted, should be circumscribed comparatively to a few, while hundreds of thousands are perishing for lack of knowledge, is a state of things, which must wound the feelings, and disappoint the hopes, of the supporters of the Institution.

It has been truly gratifying to the Committee, to state the considerable increase of the Society's Schools, and the evident utility and success of its operations; but it is with regret that they view the inadequacy of the funds to defray the necessary expenses of the Institution; and with anxiety that they contrast the openings of Providence which present themselves, for exertions of a very extensive nature-in the highest degree important, and promising the most happy results,-with the alarming deficiency of pecuniary means for following those That a work so truly important, that objects so providential leadings, with the energies and the highly benevolent, and that efforts so eminently hopes which they are so well calculated to inspire. successful, will be impeded or paralyzed for want With respect to the progress which has already of pecuniary support, the Committee cannot bebeen made in fulfilling the purposes for which the lieve. For the appeal to Christian principles, feelSociety was formed, it may be observed, that its ings, and generosity, is made, in the present inadvances in extension of operations, and its suc- stance, to the religious public in Great Britain; cess by its means and instruments, have proved in whose noble liberality supports efforts of compasthe highest degree pleasing and satisfactory. It sion and mercy, amongst the ignorant and the was not till about the year 1809, that Schools were miserable, in the most distant parts of the world. established in Ireland, under the patronage of the And this liberality will surely not be withheld Hibernian Society; from which period to the pre- from the Hibernian Society, whose labours are disent time, these establishments have so increased rected to remove the afflicting spectacle of ignoas to include upwards of 27,000 pupils. And when rance, superstition, immorality, and mental degrait is considered that the Schools have been formed, dation, which the lower classes of the community and the children collected therein, for the purpose in Ireland exhibit; to place our "brethren accordof imparting the benefits of education to the lowering to the flesh," our fellow subjects, on the same classes of the people, who had neither the means nor the hopes of these benefits from any other quarter; and also of diffusing the blessings of pure Scriptural instruction among those to whom the

high ground of moral and national advantage on which we stand, and thus to promote their best interest, their highest happiness, and their eternal salvation.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS:

A SERMON

PREACHED IN EDINBURGH, ON THE 5TH OF MARCH, 1826.

"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast."Prov. xii. 10.

THE word regard is of two-fold signifi- of the exquisite adaptations in the mechancation, and may either apply to the moralism of the human frame may be observed or to the intellectual part of our nature. in the very imperfection of the human faIn the one application, the intellectual, it is culties. The most frequently adduced exthe regard of attention. In the other, the ample of this is, the limited power of that moral, it is the regard of sympathy, or organ which is the instrument of vision. kindness. We do not marvel at this com- The imagination is, that, did man look out mon term having been applied to two dif- upon Nature with microscopic eye, so that ferent things'; for, in truth, they are most many of those wonders which now lie hid intimately associated; and the faculty by in deep obscurity should henceforth start which a transition is accomplished from into open revelation, and be hourly and the one to the other, may be considered as habitually obtruded upon his gaze, then, the intermediate link between the mind with his present sensibilities exposed to the and the heart. It is the faculty by which torture and the disturbance of a perpetual certain objects become present to the mind; and most agonizing offence from all possiand then the emotions are awakened in ble quarters of contemplation, he would be the heart, which correspond to these ob- utterly incapacitated for the movements of jects. The two act and re-act upon each familiar and ordinary life. Did he actually other. But as we must not dwell too long see, for example, in the beverage which he on generalities, we shall satisfy ourselves carried to his lips, that teeming multitude with stating, that as, on the one hand, if of sentient and susceptible creatures wherethe heart be very alive to any peculiar set with it is pervaded, or if it were alike palof emotions, this of itself is a predisposing pable to his senses, that, by the crush of cause why the mind should be very alert every footstep, he inflicted upon thousands in singling out the peculiar objects which the pangs of dissolution, then it is appreexcite them; so, on the other hand, that hended that, to man as he is, the world the emotions be specifically felt, the objects would be insupportable. For, beside the must be specifically noticed: and thus it is, irritation of that sore and incessant disgust, that the faculty of attention-a faculty at from which the power of escaping was dethe bidding of the will, and for the exer- nied to him, there would be another, and a cise of which, therefore, man is responsible most intense suffering, in the constantly -is of such mighty and commanding in-aggrieved tenderness of his nature. Or if fluence upon the sensibilities of our nature; by the operation of habit, all these sensiinsomuch that, if the regard of attention could be fastened strongly and singly on the pain of a suffering creature as its object, we believe that no other emotion than the regard of sympathy or compassion would in any instance be awakened by it.

bilities were blunted, and he could behold unmoved the ruin and the wretchedness that he strewed along his path, then he might attain to comfort in the midst of this surrounding annoyance; but what would become of character in the utter exSo much is this indeed the case-so sure tinction of all the delicacies and the feelis this alliance between the mind simply ings which wont to adorn it? Such a noticing the distress of a sentient creature, change in his physical, could only be adand the heart being sympathetically affect-justed to his happiness, by a reverse and ed by it, that Nature seems to have limited most melancholy change in the moral and circumscribed our power of noticing, constitution of his nature. The fineness of and just for the purpose of shielding us his bodily perceptions would need to be from the pain of too pungent, or too inces- compensated by a proportional hardness sant a sympathy. And, accordingly, one in the temperament of his soul. With his 361

2 Ꮓ

now finer sensations, there behooved to be thoughts of the spirit should be kept, duller and coarser sensibilities; and to as- though even by the weight of its own sort that eye, whose retina had become lethargy, from too busy a converse with tenfold more soft and susceptible than be- objects which are alike offensive or alike fore, its owner must be furnished with a hazardous to both. heart of tenfold rigidity, and a nervous It is more properly with the second of system as impregnable as iron,-that he these adaptations than the first, that our might walk forth in ease and in compla- argument has to do with the inertness of cency, while the conscious destroyer of our reflective faculties, rather than with millions by his tread, or the conscious de- the incapacity of our senses. It is in bevourer of a whole living and suffering he-half of animals, and not of animalculæ, catomb with every morsel of the sustenance which upheld him.

that we are called upon to address younot of that countless swarm, the agonies of But, for the purpose of a nice and deli- whose destruction are shrouded from obcate balance between the actual feelings servation by the vail upon the sight; but and faculties of our nature, something more of those creatures who move on the face is necessary than the imperfection of our of the open perspective before us, and not outward senses. The bluntness of man's as the others in a region of invisibles, and visual organs serves, no doubt, as a screen yet whose dying agonies are shrouded alof protection against both the nausea and most as darkly and as densely from general -the horror of those many spectacles, which observation, by the vail upon the mind. would else have either distressed or dete- For you will perceive, that in reference to riorated the sensibilities that belong to him. the latter vail, and by which it is that But then, by help of the microscope, this what is out of sight is also out of mind, its screen can be occasionally lifted up; and purpose is accomplished, whether the obwhat the eye then saw, the memory might jects which are disguised by it be without retain, and the imagination might dwell the sphere of actual vision, or beneath the upon, and the associating faculty might surface of possible vision. Now it is withboth constantly and vividly suggest; and out the sphere of your actual, although not thus, even in the absence of every provoca- beneath the surface of your possible vision, tive from without, the heart might be sub- where are transacted the dreadful mysteries jected either to a perpetual agitation, or a of a slaughter-house, and more especially perpetual annoyance, by the meddling im- those lingering deaths which an animal portunity of certain powers and activities has to undergo for the gratifications of a rewhich are within. It is not, therefore, an fined epicurism. It were surely most de adequate defence of our species, against a sirable that the duties, if they may be so very sore and hurtful molestation, that called, of a most revolting trade, were all there should be a certain physical incapa- of them got over with the least possible excity in our senses. There must, further-pense of suffering; nor do we ever feel so more, be a certain physical inertness in painfully the impression of a lurking canour reflective faculties. In virtue of the nibalism in our nature, as when we think former it is, that so many painful or disgusting objects are kept out of sight. But it seems indispensable to our happy or even tolerable existence, that, in virtue of the latter, these objects, when out of sight, should be also out of mind. In the one way, they lose their power to offend as objects of outward observation. In the other way, their power to haunt and to harass, by means of inward reflection, is also taken away. For the first purpose, Nature has struck with a certain impotency the organs of our material framework. For the second, she has infused, as it were, an opiate into the recesses of our mental economy, and made it of sufficient strength and sedative virtue for the needful tranquillity of man, and for upholding that average enjoyment in the midst both of agony and of loathsomeness, which either senses more acute, or a spirit more wakeful, must have effectually dissipated. It is to some such provision too, we think, that much of the heart's purity, as well as much of its tenderness is owing; and it is well that the

of the intense study which has been given to the connexion between modes of killing, and the flavour or delicacy of those viands which are served up to mild, and pacific, and gentle-looking creatures, who form the grace and the ornament of our polished society. One is almost tempted, after all, to look upon them as so many savages in disguise; and so, in truth, we should, but for the strength of that opiate whose power and whose property we have just endesvoured to explain; and in virtue of which, the guests.of an entertainment are all the while most profoundly unconscious of the horrors of that preparatory scene which went before it. It is not, therefore, that there is hypocrisy in these smiles where with they look so benignly to each other. It is not that there is deceit in their words or their accents of tenderness. The truth is, that one shriek of agony, if heard from without, would cast most impressive gloom over this scene of conviviality; and the sight, but for a moment, of one wretched creature quivering towards death, would.

with Gorgon spell, dissipate all the gaieties | mit, is not once sympathized with; but it is which enlivened it. But Nature, as it were, just because the suffering itself is not once hath practised most subtle reticence, both on the senses and the spirit of her children; or rather, the Author of Nature hath, by the skill of his master hand, instituted the harmony of a most exquisite balance between the tenderness of the human feel-reckless of pain; but this is not rejoicing in ings and the listlessness of the human faculties, so as that, in the mysterious economy under which we live, he may at once provide for the sustenance, and leave entire the moral sensibilities of our species.

thought of. It touches not the sensibilities of the heart; but just because it is never present to the notice of the mind. We allow that the hardy followers in the wild romance of this occupation, we allow them to be pain. Theirs is not the delight of savage, but the apathy of unreflecting creatures. They are wholly occupied with the chase itself, and its spirit-stirring accompaniments, nor bestow one moment's thought on the dread violence of that infliction upon sentient nature which marks its termination. It is the spirit of the competition, and it alone, which goads onward this hurrying career; and even he, who in at the death, is foremost in the triumph, although to him the death itself is in sight, the agony of its wretched sufferer is wholly out of mind.

But there is a still more wondrous limitation than this, wherewith he hath bounded and beset the faculties of the human spirit. You already understand how it is, that the sufferings of the lower animals may, when out of sight, be out of mind. But more than this, these sufferings may be in sight, and yet out of mind. This is strikingly exemplified in the sports of the field, in the midst We are inclined to carry this principle of whose varied and animating bustle, that much farther. We are not even sure if, cruelty which all along is present to the within the whole compass of humanity, senses, may not, for one moment, have been fallen as it is, there be such a thing as depresent to the thoughts. There sits a some- light in suffering, for its own sake. But, what ancestral dignity and glory on this without hazarding a controversy on this, favourite pastime of joyous old England; we hold it enough for every practical obwhen the gallant knighthood, and the hearty ject, that much, and perhaps the whole of yeomen, and the amateurs or virtuosos of this world's cruelty, arises not from the enthe chase, and the full assembled jockeyship joyment that is felt in consequence of others' of half a province, muster together in all pain, but from the enjoyment that is felt in the pride and pageantry of their great em- spite of it. It is something else in the specprize-and the panorama of some noble tacle of agony which ministers pleasure landscape, lighted up with autumnal clear- than the agony itself; and many is the eye ness from an unclouded heaven, pours fresh which glistens with transport at the fray of exhilaration into every blithe and choice animals met together for their mutual despirit of the scene-and every adventurous struction, and which might be brought to heart is braced, and impatient for the hazards weep, if, apart from all the excitements of of the coming enterprise-and even the such a scene, the anguish of wounded or high-breathed coursers catch the general dying creatures were placed nakedly before sympathy, and seem to fret in all the res-it. Were it strictly analyzed, it would be tiveness of their yet checked and irritated found that the charm, neither of the ancient fire, till the echoing horn shall set them at gladiatorships, nor of our modern prizeliberty-even that horn which is the knell fights, lies in the torture which is thereby of death to some trembling victim, now inflicted; for we should feel the very same brought forth of its lurking place to the charm, and look with the very same intentdelighted gaze, and borne down upon withness, on some doubtful, yet strenuous collithe full and open cry of its ruthless pursuers. Be assured that, amid the whole glee and fervency of this tumultuous enjoyment, there might not, in one single bosom, be aught so fiendish as a principle of naked and abstract cruelty. The fear which gives its lightning speed to the unhappy animal; the thickening horrors which, in the progress of exhaustion, must gather upon its flight; its gradually sinking energies, and, at length, the terrible certainty of that destruction which is awaiting it; that piteous cry, which the ear can sometimes distinguish amid the deafening clamour of the blood-hounds, as they spring exultingly upon their prey; the dread massacre and dying agonies of a creature so miserably torn;-all this weight of suffering, we ad

sion, even among the inanimate elements of nature-as, when the water and the fire contended for mastery, and the inherent force of the one was met by a plying and a powerful enginery that gave impulse and direction to the other. It is even so, when the enginery of bones and of muscles comes into rivalship; and every spectator of the ring fastens on the spectacle with that identical engrossment which he feels in the hazards of some doubtful game, or in the desperate conflict and effervescence even of the altogether mute unconscious elements. To him it is little else than a problem in dynamics. There is a science connected with the fight, which has displaced the sen sibilities that are connected with its expiring moans, its piteous and piercing outcries, its