DOGS. "The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart." LEAR. YES, dogs are honest creatures and the most delightful of fourfooted beings. The brain and nervous system may be more highly developed in the Anthropoïd apes, and even in some of the monkeys: but for affectionate, though humble companionship, nay friendship; for the amiable spirit that is on the watch to anticipate every wish of his master-for the most devoted attachment to him, in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, an attachment always continued unto death; and, frequently failing not, even when the once warm hand that patted him is clay-cold; what we had almost said who-can equal these charming familiars? Your dog will, to please you, do that which is positively painful to him. Hungry though he be, he will leave his food for you; he will quit the strongest temptation for you; he will lay down his life for you. Truly spake he who said, Man is the God of the dog." Of all the conquests over the brute creation that man has made, the domestication of the dog may be regarded as the most complete, if not the most useful: it is the only animal that has followed him all over the earth. And to see how these noble animals are treated by savages civilized as well as uncivilized; kicked, spurned, harnessed to heavy carriages, half-starved, cudgelled, they still follow the greater brute that lords it over them, and if he condescends to smile upon them how they bound in gladness! if he, by some inexplicable obliquity of good feeling, in a moment of forgetfulness caresses them, they are beside themselves with joy. As a whole their lot seems to be the worst, if it is cast among savage or imperfectly-civilized nations. When Lawson was among the North-American Indians, he was present at a great feast where was "store of loblolly and other medleys, made of Indian grain, stewed peaches, bear-venison, &c.;" when all the viands were ere brought in “the first figure began with kicking out all the dogs. which are seemingly wolves, made tame with starving and beating; they being the worst dog-masters in the world;—so that it is an infallible cure for sore eyes ever to see an Indian's dog fat." The tribe who exercised this summary calcitration on the poor dogs, that had most probably contributed not a little to the venison part of the entertainment, rejoiced in the appropriate name of the Whacksaws or Waxsaws; and yet these same Indians delighted in feeding up their horses till they were comparable to nothing more aptly than an English prize-ox. Though much advanced in the scale of civilization, the Javanese, according to Dr. Horsfield, seem to be little better dog-masters than the Waxsaws; for he remarks that the poor brutes, we mean the dogs, are not cared for, and are ill-treated, so that their famishing condition is disgusting to Europeans. This is the more extraordinary as many of these dogs pursue the Java deer called the Kidang with great ardour and courage. They are led in slips and loosed when they come upon the scent. Away they go, and the hunters, who follow more quietly, generally find the deer at bay and the hounds going gallantly into him. This is no joke, for the male Kidang makes a capital fight with his tusks, wounding his assailants severely, often fatally. "The sportsmen," says the Doctor, whose book is full of interesting passages, "uniformly are provided with remedies and applications, and by a simple suture attempt to unite those wounds which are not immediately fatal. In this operation they frequently succeed and preserve their most valuable dogs." But even this small care appears to be the exception to the rule. "The natives of Java, like other Mahommedans, entertain prejudices unfavourable to dogs; they rarely treat them with kindness, or allow them to approach their persons; and it is only in extraordinary instances, or when they contribute to their amusement, that they feed or care for them." To be sure, as a set off, they rarely show attachment to their masters, and no wonder; even Bill Sykes's dog could not carry his otherwise unqualified obedience to the length of getting over his very particular objection to being drowned. On the other hand, the good dog-master considers his fourfooted follower as his friend, his other self, his duppelganger, so that Love me, love my dog," has passed into a proverb which has sometimes led to deadly results: we need only allude to the fatal duel between Colonel Montgomery and Captain Macnamara. Nor can it be wondered at that a man should feel strongly for the faithful animal that distinguishes him from all others, an animal that may be a burr but is hardly ever a bore. Now and then, indeed, an ill-bred cur will, like Launce's Crab, thrust him self into the company of three or four gentlemanlike dogs; but your Biped Bore constantly and unrelentingly intrudes into a happy knot of mortals, not of his quality, who are shaking off the cares of life with a little joyous converse, till he has succeeded in reducing the gaiety that was flashing so brilliantly to a heap of ashes, and the merry tongues to a dead silence. Or he finds out when you are sick, and by an incomprehensible power possessed only by the typical Bore or Augur-not soothsayer-drills himself through all the doors barricaded against him, and having perforated to your sanctum preys upon you in your own arm-chair, giving you all the while, under colour of much pity, broad hints that you are "booked," and wimbling deeper and deeper still, till he has shattered the remains of your nerves to atoms; when, having absolutely devoured you in your shell, he leaves you a complete caput mortuum to go and finish with some other victim -the cannibal! Why, why, is there not in our great clubs a power of reprobation as well as of election? Surely it would not be too much for twelve hundred men to have the power of excluding eight annually;-a power, by the way, which would be seldom exerted, for the very knowledge of its existence would have its effect, though it might be necessary now and then to eject some incorrigible pachydermatous bore pour encourager les autres. There is already a law prohibiting the entrance of our friends the dogs into those masculine establishments, a law which one is, at first, disposed to regard as harsh; but the reflection that most of the members of a club show no backwardness in availing themselves of its privileges, reconciles the mind to the inhospitable practice of making the worthy beasts sit in the porch, anxiously watching for the egress of their masters. Think of the assemblage of the doggies belonging to a thousand or twelve hundred masters, and the duels-the principals, to be sure, nowadays, never hit each other-which would spring out of the collision. Besides, they are not admitted at court, according to the old French quatrain— for which of their qualities we may not guess : "A la court les gros courtisans Les petits qui sont moins puissants But if they are not allowed to grace our assemblies within doors, there is no lack of them when men are gathered together under the canopy of heaven. At a fair, at a fight, at the most solemn spectacles; wherever, in short, there is a crowd, there are dogs to be seen, as a matter of course, apparently discussing the mat ter in hand, or inquiring of each new comer whether he had any thing to do with the embassy, and getting into little coteries and fights of their own; for, on these occasions, especially if there be a lady in the case, jealousies and suspicions do abound. When the citizens feasted the allied sovereigns, we were snugly placed, at an early hour, at the window of a most worthy trader in the precious metals, upon Ludgate-hill; one who had been prime warden of the worshipful company, and had two gowns, and every thing handsome about him. His hospitable house was well filled with honest men and bonnie lasses, but we who had not been long in the small village, were constantly drawn from the well-spread table, and the bright eyes that surrounded it, to the window aforesaid, by the note of preparation. In the street were the heaps of gravel intended for smoothing the path of the Regent and the crowned heads. Workmen were employed in levelling these heaps which the dogs, already collected in considerable numbers, evidently considered as pitched exclusively for their accommodation. The thickening crowd were in their holyday suits, every thing was bright and gay, the dogs were frisky beyond expression, and the gravel heaps produced the most social feelings among the assembled quadrupeds. By and by the gravel was spread-the dogs, that had been chasing each other's tails from an early hour, began to be a little tired, but were still in good spirits. The troops now lined the streets, and at length there seemed to be a disposition on the part of the dogs to consider that they had had enough of the fête. Every now and then, a canine sceptic, who began to think that matters were taking an unpleasant turn, would go to the sides of the street and try to make his way through the living wall that bounded the carriage-way. In nine cases out of ten he was kicked back by the soldiers, and if some particularly enterprising individual succeeded in passing them, a greater obstacle remained behind; for there was no possibility of getting through the conglomeration on the foot pavements: trampled upon by the crowd, and butt-ended by the soldiers, he was kicked back with curses into the arena, erst the scene of his gaiety, yelping and howling, and then and there immediately pitched into by his now hungry, peevish companions. Well, the day wore on, the dogs lay down ;-the usual cries, "They are coming!" brought every body from the creaturecomforts to the windows, and the usual disappointments sent them back to their more substantial enjoyments. At last, the pealing and firing of bells announced the advent of the kings of the earth. Shouts were heard booming from the distance -the heads in the crammed windows were all craning westward, -the procession |