BULL-FIGHTS.
[To THY EDITOR OF THE "SPEOTATORP]
SIR,—In your issue of June 23rd appears a review of the very picturesque "Wedding Number" of the Throne, in which Spanish bull-fights are mentioned with disgust, and the question put as to whether the Catholic Church will ever interfere and obtain their abolition. As a matter of fact, not only have several Popes, beginning with Paul V. (circa 1607), directed Bulls against this "pastime," but most of the modern Spanish prelates have again and again condemned bull-fighting, but hitherto with little or no effect.
This brutal sport, if sport it can be called, deserves condemna- tion, but it strikes me as excessively unjust that the Spanish people should be described as barbarous, and even infamous, for attending and encouraging bull-fighting, whilst the French are allowed to indulge in the same "sport" without receiving a word of rebuke. Spain is not the only country in which bull-fights take place. During the summer months the bull-ring at Bordeaux, which will seat five thousand persons, is packed three times a week to witness the "fight." which is attended by exactly the same cruelty as in Spain. One day early in the present month of June three horses were disembowelled in the Bordeaux circus and three bulls were killed. Sometimes even human life has been sacrificed in the French bull-rings. Yet no protest is raised against the Government of the Republic, which has lately officially authorised bull-fighting as a legitimate pastime. Surely "sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," and if bull-fights are horrible in Spain they are equally so in France. Mgr. de Gabribres, Bishop of Montpellier, published a few years ago so vigorous a pastoral against the bull- fights then taking place in his diocese that he had his way, and was actually complimented on his emphatic action by the Spanish Hierarchy, which wrote collectively expressing its admiration for his zeal and courage. It is also a curious fact that the principal habitués of the Bordeaux bull-ring are Germans and Britons, and that, on the evidence of a well-known English lady, the ring at San Roque, near Gibraltar, is said to be principally patronised by English officers. The better class of French people rarely attend the "fights." There are bull-rings at Aries, Tarascon, Besancon, Marseilles, &c.
[We are glad to publish this vindication of the Roman Hierarchy, but have been obliged from considerations of space to abridge our correspondent's letter.—ED. Spectator.]
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