To the Rev. Thomas Kaye Bonney, M.A. Rector of Normanton, in the County of Rutland, and of Coningsby, in the County of Lincoln. MY DEAR FRIEND, The publication of a work has ever this pleasing circumstance attending it to the author, that it affords him an opportunity of paying a tribute of respect and esteem to public or private worth, in his dedication. In sending the following discourses abroad into the world, I feel an anxious wish to attach your name to them, as their Patron, in conjunction with my own. A work intended to promote the cause of Humanity, either towards Man or Brute, is certain to find an interest in your breast. The friendship which subsisted between us, for seve ral years, during the latter part of our residence in College,-when you fulfilled, with so much ability, firmness, and urbanity, the arduous office of a Tutor, and the still more arduous one, (though for a single year,) of Proctor in the University,—and our present separation, by our residence on our respective cures, make such an opportunity peculiarly grateful to me. But I have the further satisfaction of reflecting, that the Discourses themselves met your approbation, on your reading them here, and you expressed your wish to see them in print. I beg you, then, to accept them, with this Dedication, as a mark of the sincere regard and friendship, of Yours, most truly, JAMES PLUMPTRE. PREFACE. THE following Discourses comprehend "The the substance of a Discourse on Duties of Man to the Brute Creation, preached before the University of Cambridge, on Sunday, May 8th, 1796, in the afternoon." It happened to be upon one of the visits of Prince William of Gloucester (our present Chancellor) to the University, after he had ceased to reside. The subject was then considered by many as trifling, and beneath the dignity of the pulpit, and especially that of the University. It was suggested to the preacher by the repeated perusal of Cowper's Task. Much has been done since, however, to interest the minds of the public at large on the subject. The cause of the Brute Creation has been repeatedly before Parliament, and has been a theme for the eloquence of Lord Erskine. An annual sermon has been founded at Bath, in behalf of the Animal Creation, and another at Southampton: a society has been established at Liverpool, for the express purpose of preventing cru, elty to Brute Creatures; and it is, also, one of the objects of the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Several valuable works have been published on the subject: amongst which must be mentioned Mr. Young's Essay on Humanity to Animals, published in 1798; several of the Sermons* preached at the before-mentioned By the Rev. Charles Daubeny, the Rev. Leigh Richmond, and the Rev. Richard Mant. There is, |
