THE CLERGY AND VIVISECTION.
[TO THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—In your leading article in yesterday's Spectator on "The Oxford Vivisection Vote," you notice, apparently with surprise,
the absence of the rural clergy on the occasion of that vote. I, on the contrary, from my own experience, should have been sur- prised if the clergy had interested themselves in the matter. I have for many years taken part in the proceedings of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and, though we have one Presbyterian clergyman on our Committee, I can assert, speaking broadly, that that Society receives no sup- port whatever from the ecclesiastics of any religion, Raman. Catholic or Protestant.
The apparent indifference of the whole body of Christian Clergy in this country to the miseries of animals is remarkable. It is not only that none, or hardly any of them, contributes to the funds of the Society I have named, but I have never heard, and I have never met any one who has ever heard, a single sentence, in a single sermon., by either Roman Catholic or Protestant, inculcating mercy to animals, or pointing out the duty of endeavouring to mitigate their sufferings. On the other hand, the leading newspapers in Dublin are always ready to help us.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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