PREFACE.

FROM the Royal Commissioners, although he attended by their request, Mr. George R. Jesse regrets to state he received little countenance or encouragement (with one solitary exception, Lord Winmarleigh,— who, however, was only present on the first day). The Evidence given on the part of the Society seemed to be distasteful to the Commissioners; some appeared hostile to the admission of facts, or wore an air of being bored; their minds, already made up, and disinclined to receive information.

The Commissioners were, sometimes, excessively unpunctual, and made slight, or no apology for it. Viscount Cardwell, in several instances directed the Shorthand-Writer not to put down observations made by the Witness.

The Report, though applied for, has never yet been granted to the Society for the Abolition of Vivisection, although placed long since in the hands of ultra

Vivisectionist Journals, and Societies which advocate Legalising the Dissection and Torture of Living Animals.

The Friends of Animals never felt confidence in a Commission containing two men, at least, amongst its Members, who are, or were, Vivisectors-men who ought to have appeared before it as Witnesses, not sat upon it as Judges. It is to be hoped, that Her Majesty's Government when it appointed them, was unaware of their opinions, their writings, and their practices.

March, 1876.

SOCIETY

FOR THE

ABOLITION OF VIVISECTION,

OR

PUTTING ANIMALS' TO DEATH BY TORTURE UNDER ANY PRETEXT WHATEVER.

The object of the Society is a Law for the total Suppression of Vivisection. To call on the Legislature for less would be to admit the principle (and thereby perpetuate the enormity) that man is justified in selfishly inflicting agony on the innocent.

Opponents of the Slave Trade agitated not for restriction but abolition. The wrongs perpetrated by man on 'animals' are even more dire than those inflicted by him on his own species.

Persons desirous of joining the Association can communicate with GEORGE R. JESSE, Esq., Henbury, Macclesfield, Cheshire.

This Advertisement appeared in 'The Times' and 'The Morning Post' in February, 1875.

FOR THE

ABOLITION OF VIVISECTION.

This Society numbers amongst its Subscribers the following, and other persons of distinction :

Prince Batthyany.

The Marquis Townshend.

The Marchioness of Westminster.
Lady Theodora Grosvenor.
The Earl of Charlemont.
The Countess of Charlemont.
The Countess of Clare.
The Countess of Albemarle.

The Countess of Dundonald.

Lady Anna Gore Langton.
Lord Calthorpe.

Lady Abinger.

Professor W. B. Hodgson, LL.D.
The Hon. Mrs. Cowper-Temple.
The Hon. Mrs. Annesley Gore.
Sir Alexander Malet, Bart., K.C.B.
Lady Malet.

Sir George Duckett, Bart.
Lady Duckett.

Sir R. Lighton, Bart.

Sir Walter R. Farquhar, Bart.

Sir Arthur Hallam Elton, Bart.
General Jephson, C.B.

General Hutchinson.

Professor Francis W. Newman, &c.

The object of the Society is a Law for the total Suppression of Vivisection, or putting animals to death by torture under any pretext whatever. To call on the Legislature for less would be to admit the principle (and thereby perpetuate the enormity) that man is justified in selfishly inflicting agony on the innocent.

Opponents of the Slave Trade agitated not for restriction but abolition. The wrongs perpetrated by man on animals are even more dire than those inflicted by him on his own species. The Abolition of Slavery was confessedly an act of high Christian philanthropy, and surely it is no less noble or less Christian to stop the sufferings of other helpless creatures of our God.

The hideous cruelty of dissecting living animals, or inflicting on them, though innocent and defenceless, multitudinous deaths of excruciating and protracted agony, has secretly grown up in this Nation -a Nation which for ages past has been nobly distinguished by the courageous and unsanguinary character of its people.

This moral ulcer has spread widely, and (whether it be or not a dreadful form of insanity) become dangerous and demoralising to Society-a blot on Civilisation-a stigma on Christianity. The public has little idea what the horrors of Vivisection are; its crimes in studied, ingenious, refined, and appalling torture-in wantonness, uselessness, and wickedness-cannot be surpassed in the annals of the World. It therefore calls for extirpation by the Legislature; cruelty being not only the worst of vices in itself, but the most retributive to mankind, more especially when perpetrated by the refined and educated. GEORGE R. JESSE, Esq.

Henbury, Macclesfield, Cheshire.