Miss Frances Power Cobbe was the original organiser and founder in
December, 1875, of the National Anti-Vivisection Society which until 1898
bore the Title of the Victoria Street Society for the protection of
animals from vivisection.
Many years before, in 1863, there lived at Florence a man who trafficked
in torture named Schiff; "among the inferior professors of medical
knowledge," says Dr. Johnson, "is a race of wretches, whose lives are
only varied by varieties of cruelty," and such an one was this miscreant.
Miss Cobbe was then resident at Florence and was the correspondent of the
_Daily News_, and in that paper she denounced the tortures inflicted on
animals by this dreadful man, which so affected her generous heart that
for the rest of her life her chief preoccupation became the desire to put
an end to such abominations.
In 1874 Miss Cobbe drew up a memorial to the Council of the Royal Society
for the prevention of cruelty to animals urging upon them "the immediate
adoption of such measures as may approve themselves to their judgment as
most suitable to promote the end in view, namely, the _restriction of
vivisection_." And with indefatigable zeal she collected the signatures
to it of a very large number of the most distinguished men in England;
among them were such names as those of Thomas Carlyle, Alfred Tennyson,
Robert Browning, John Morley, John Bright, Leslie Stephen, W. Lecky, B.
Jowett, John Ruskin, Dean Stanley, and Canon Liddon.
In view of the fierce advocacy of vivisection to which the present Lord
Knutsford has committed himself it is interesting to record that his
father Sir Henry Holland's name appears among the signatories of this
memorial.
The Council of the R.S.P.C.A. in 1875 displayed all the familiar
characteristics of the Council of to-day. On receiving this notable
memorial they adopted the device of promising to appoint a sub-committee
to consider the whole question of vivisection. Unlike the sub-committee
appointed in 1907 "to consider the whole question of sport" which never
sat, it seems that this sub-committee on vivisection really did sit once,
after which no more was heard of it.
Mr. Colam the Secretary was sent to call on the leading vivisectors to
ask them about their own proceedings; and the Council appear to have
imagined that, having asked the persons whose conduct was impugned what
they thought about that conduct, their function as representing the
Society entrusted with the protection of animals from cruelty was
fulfilled.
Miss Cobbe, like many of us to-day, really wanted cruelty to animals
stopped, and she was not likely to be satisfied with such a farcical
evasion, so she set to work and started the Victoria Street Society, and
to her above all others therefore belongs the undying fame and glory of
first raising aloft the standard of the imperishable cause for which that
Society exists and strives.
In that memorable year of 1875 the great Society in Jermyn Street,
misrepresented by a collection of somnolent inefficients, turned their
backs on tortured animals and stopped their ears to their cries of agony;
and all the subsequent years are strewn with opportunities abandoned and
duties neglected which one by one have been undertaken by fresh Societies
of earnest souls who would wait no more while the Council in Jermyn
Street slept; and that the record should be maintained intact we have
seen in the last three years the generous public subscribe an enormous
sum of money for the care and cure of our horses at the war, only to
discover that the Society is ready to acquiesce when those horses, that
are worn out in our service, are sold abroad to the highest bidders!
Miss Cobbe during her long combat against vivisection passed through
different phases of opinion as to the wisest parliamentary policy to
pursue. At one time she advocated restriction, at another total
abolition, and I will not here revive the domestic discussions and
differences that were the consequence of the diverse views entertained by
equally reputable and earnest workers in the cause. It is enough to
recognise and acclaim the fine courage and ability that Miss Cobbe
brought to the service of suffering animals, and the splendid edifice of
the National Anti-Vivisection Society that was built up from the ground
by her capable hands.
She suffered one cruel betrayal when she entrusted to another too ardent
controversialist the translation of some German account of a severe
vivisection, and discovered, after the publication of the description in
English, that her friend had suppressed in the translation the statement
in the original that anaesthetics had been employed.
The ferocious attacks made upon her on that occasion she bore with what
philosophy so exasperating a situation permitted.
Miss Cobbe was a remarkable person both in character and appearance, her
habiliments were quaint and practical, cut altogether shapelessly with
immense buttons symbolising the entire simplicity of her life and habits,
her hair was cut off short, and her whole aspect suggested cheerfulness,
robustness, and magnanimity. She was masterful in temperament, not
always ready to listen with urbanity to opinions she did not share, or to
admit that her conclusions could even conceivably have their foundations
in doubtful premises. But these very human characteristics in no way
diminished the personal affection she inspired in those among whom she
moved. She lived a fine courageous life, and when she died, by an
appropriate and beautiful coincidence, a dog was the only witness of her
last breath.