"The generous steed in hoary age,
Subdued by labour lies,
And mourns a cruel master's rage,
While nature strength denies.
"The tender lamb, o'er-drove and faint,
Amidst expiring throes,
Bleats forth its innocent complaint,
And dies beneath the blows.
"Inhuman wretch! Say, whence proceeds
This coward cruelty?
What interest springs from barbarous deeds?
What joy from misery?"
If, as the Samian taught, the soul revives,
And shifting seats, in other bodies lives,
Severe shall be the brutal coachman's change,
Doom'd in a hackney horse the town to range;
Carmen, transform'd, the groaning load shall draw,
Whom other tyrants with the lash shall awe!
[Illustration: SECOND STAGE OF CRUELTY.]
Tom Nero is now a hackney coachman, and displaying his disposition
in his conduct to a horse. Worn out by ill-usage, and exhausted by
fatigue, the poor animal has fallen down, overset the carriage, and
broken his leg. The scene is laid at Thavie's Inn gate:[30] four
brethren of the brawling bar, who have joined to pay threepence each
for a ride to Westminster Hall, are in consequence of the accident
overturned, and exhibited at the moment of creeping out of the
carriage. These ludicrous periwig-pated personages were probably
intended as portraits of advocates eminent in their day; their names
I am not able to record.
A man taking the number of the coach is marked with traits of
benevolence, which separate him from the savage ferocity of Nero or
the guilty terror of these affrighted lawyers.
As a further exemplification of extreme barbarity, a drover is
beating an expiring lamb with a large club. The wheels of a dray
pass over an unfortunate boy, while the drayman, regardless of
consequences, sleeps on the shafts.[31]
In the background is a poor overladen ass: the master, presuming on
the strength of this patient and ill-treated animal, has mounted
upon his back, and taken a loaded porter behind him. An over-driven
bull, followed by a crowd of heroic spirits, has tossed a boy.[32]
Two bills pasted on the wall advertise cock-fighting and Broughton's
Amphitheatre[33] for boxing, as further specimens of national
civilisation.
Parts of this print may at first sight appear rather overcharged,
but some recent examples convince us that they are not so. In the
year 1790, a fellow was convicted of lacerating and tearing out the
tongue of a horse; but there being no evidence of his bearing any
malice towards the proprietor, or doing it with a view of injuring
_him_, this diabolical wretch, not having violated any then existing
statute, was discharged without punishment.