Tue character of Shanghai for benevolence receives constant illustration in one practical form or another. 'The Ladies' Benevolent Society, the annual report of which has just been issued, is only one among many organisations for the relief of suffering in our midst. It is seldom, if ever, that, an appeal is made on behalf of the wretched or the poor which is not responded to with promptness and munificence. There is however one form of misery, quite as deserving of compassion as any other, whioh has hitherto not been formally recognised, and therefore not formally combatted. Wo mean the suffering of the dumb brutes around us—sufforing whioh is almost exclusively due to the callousness and cruelty of the Chines and we should like to wine: establishment in Shanghai of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. There is, we fear, a varied and extensive field for the operations of such a body. It is difficult for a foreigner to decide to what the inherent cruelty of the Chinese is to be attributed. Some would have us believe that the-stolid yellow races are Joss susceptible to pain than the more delicately organised Europeans. It is a foot that a Chinaman will bear torture with comparative apathy that would wring shrieks of anguish from a white mau, The comparative indifference of the Chinese to death, too, forms a striking contrast to the fear and shrink. ing which characterise the feelings of Westerns. It is not necessary, thore-fore, that we should apply the same "standard of mercy to Chinese proceedings that we justly and properly apply to on own. But it is nevertheless equally just and right that we should take whatever steps we can to protect those who cannot protect themselves from wantonly inflicted pain. There is no doubt that the Chinese are abominably cruel to their animals, and we believe it to be our duty, not only to interfere on behalf of the animals themselves, but, if possible, to let the Chinese see and feel the horror with which Huropeaus regard their cruelty. At the same time it must in fairness be confessed that the Chinese are not always cruel from a fiendish love of inflicting pain. Woe believe their cruelty springs, in nine cases out of ton, from sheer indifference and carelessness. They seem utterly lacking in that nataral faculty which enables a man to realise and take upon himself the anguish he sees in another. Bat none the less should they be taught the exceeding sinfalness of this particular sit—a sin which, as we often think, is one of the worst and most unpardonable sins of which human nature is capable—the tyranny of the strong over the he weak, the cruel over the helpless.
~y be roughly said that the Chinese ill-use all their domestic animals.
They carry pigs through the streets in way that cannot but give them severe and "quite unnecessary pain. They lash unmercifully some wretched, underfed, bony little horse, bravely straggling with load of five or six bolking Chinamen, each of whom is better able to drag, the pony than the pony is to ding him. They neglect their dogs until the poor brates become a mass of disease, and their lives are a sheer misery to them; they starve their fowls with equal callousness, and kill them io a clumsy and-cruel manner. Then we have seen " Chinaman going along the road carrying with him a sack fall of screaming cats. What was the fate in store for those luckless animals? No pleasant one, we may be Indeed when we consider the pain inflicted by the Chinese on one another it is needless to enumerate or even wonder at the various forms of brutality with which they treat damp creatures, A Pounl Code which provides for the slicing to death of a live man is not likely to take muchoognisanceof cruelty Ithoughin theory we bell cruelty is a government monopoly, and if itis practised by unauthorised individuals theencroachment on Imperialand official prerogatives resented. In the meantime we urge the establishment of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which should take upon itself to prosecute all persons, foreigners and Chinamen alike, who may be guilty of the crime in question, The object of such an association should be not only the cure of the evil as it exists to-day but the prevention of farther able Few panishmeuts can be too severe for the man who wantonly gratifies his lust for cruelty in inflating torture on helpless, speechless creatures. Some persons, we believe, are depraved enough to torture children; and a ense oocurred not so very long ago in India in which a woman the position of a lady actually killed little girl, scarcely more than a baby, and her own niece, by her barbarous ill-treatment. It la satisfactory to know that when th child was dead the public rose in arms the wretch was sentenced to a term of imprisonment, and will no doubt re. ceive her deserts hereafter. Whether it would be possible to protect Chinese children in Shanghai from the cruelty of their mothers—we refer now principally to the disreputable class of women—is perhaps not very easy to decide. But as regards the case of animals we think there should be no difficulty in taking steps at once. We believe, even,—suoh ie the inconsistency of the Chinese character—that such an enterprise would be supported by the Chinese themselves. In theory, at any rate, they admire and applaud mercy towards animals. The gentle teachings of Budabiem forbid them to take life.
Those of Taoism, no less, inculcate the practice of universal merey. Avoid killing animals, and liberate them to live," saya the Ohioh Shih Cheng Ching. "Save the life even of worms and ante," eave the Chuan Ohia Pao, "Do not ascend hills to onto birds," says the Yin Chih Wen, "or descend to the waters to kill fish and arabs, Neither may you kill the ploughing buffalo." "Bither buy animals that you may save them from death, or abstain from meat in order to prevent thei slaughter, of the ants and ingots in your path: The direst retribution is threatened by the Kan Ying Pien, the most popular and influential religious work in China, on those who "tease and worry dumb oreatares," as well as on all who "shoot birds and hunt beasts," "des. troy birde'nests," and "rout out hibernating reptile the same work, insects, or grass, or trees There is mach in these humane precepts which reminds one of the ordinances of the Mosaic code, wherein it is forbidden to muzzle the labouring ox or to seethe a kid in ite mother's milk. Bad a real practice is, no respectable would venture to deny the authority of the works that we have quoted, and we are cure that any step that might be taken by foreigners for the protection of animals in Shanghai would receive their approval and sup. port.
'TRE ENGLISH-MAIL PAPERS, Our the weeklies before us, with the exception of the Athenaewm, offer a fitting tribute to the memory of Archbisho; Tait; and all agree peaking of the Public Worsh Act as the one mistake of that The Spectator man, though nor a great statesman, nor @ great bishop. He was "a man of calm and just mind, mous in victory and man defei of hi tions was obviously liabi Spectator Th at the time it wrote this advocated the elevation of Dean Church to the vacant Primacy,—a step which would have a pre= ut in the case of Archbishop Tillotson. We can scarcely agree with the Pall. Malt that ti ite will hi Louis Blanc, to literature, ut, perhaps, the most vivid and ie pictures of actual life of any that the present century can boast. His portrait tures are superficial—they have not the depth of George Eliot's or perhaps even of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.