Page:Colymbia (1873).djvu/229

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WOMAN'S RIGHTS AND WRONGS.
223

"The beautiful and costly testimonial you have just presented to me assures me, if that assurance were needed, that my humble efforts on behalf of the poor chained seals have met with the approbation of a large and influential portion of my fellow-countrymen. It is refreshing to me to find that there are so many good and true men in Colymbia, and that the relentless and wicked conduct of those who keep these poor animals in bondage meets with the disapprobation of so many wise and upright men, who will not quietly submit to see such hideous injustice inflicted on the meanest of animals. If I have been at all instrumental in checking the further extension of the practice of enslaving those intelligent and inoffensive creatures, and in preparing the way for the emancipation of all, it will be the proudest reflection and the greatest solace of my declining years. I have laboured with all my might, actuated by the purest motives, and your approbation is more cheering to my heart than any other event of my active and, I hope, not useless career. I cannot imagine what will be the feelings of our opponents when they learn that you have thus crowned my labours in this great and glorious cause with such a magnificent and appropriate token of your esteem. I envy not the sensations of those who are so lost to all feelings of humanity that they can take delight in the enslaving of their humble fellow-creatures. The cruelty of the deed is not justified by its utility, for though it is conceded that the poor animals perform the task imposed on them with admirable skill and patience, it would be better, a thousand times over, that we should leave our frontiers unwatched, than have them guarded at the expense of the sufferings of intelligent and un-