15 JUNE 1907, Page 16

THE CELTS AND THEIR ALLEGED INDIFFERENCE TO CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

rTo TUE EDITOR, Or Tint Sp earAros."1 SIR,—Your correspondent Mr. McClintock in last week's Spectator quotes from Tennyson that the Celt's imagination "does not allow of Lis realizing the sufferings of poor dumb beasts." Is it not a fact that the first Act of Parliament for the prevention of cruelty to animals was brought in and carried into law by the exertions of one Richard Martin, a Galway Irishman, "in spite of considerable opposition from such men as Canning and Peel" (see "Dictionary of National Biography," Vol. %XXVI , p 293)P I believe, also, that be was one of the founders of the Royal Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals.—I am, Sir, 8w., F. F. MONTAGUE.

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