a state of war; for how are tygers to subsist but by making war upon other beasts? If there were to be a peace, what must tygers do? Of the arts of peace they know nothing; they can make no bread, they can drink no milk; their bread is flesh, and their drink is blood. The teeth of a tyger and his claws are offensive weapons; they were made to be used, and their use is in tearing and destroying other creatures; and nature being the sovereign law by which we are directed, there can be no harm in acting up to it. I therefore kill and slay without remorse, and I think myself placed in a very honourable station. Let the ass carry burdens, let the ox draw the plough, let the horse be whipped and driven; I live like a beast of arms, upon plunder: and if tygers were to go in droves,. they would drive the world before them; and all inferior creatures would soon be put into a state of requisition, to be devoured at our pleasure." Here some of the tame beasts that were present looked very uneasy, and the lion in consequence desired he would carry the subject no farther; so the wolf was ordered to speak next.

"Sir," said he, addressing himself to the Lion, my honourable friend the Tyger delivered some very noble sentiments, in which I perfectly agree with him. He observed, that if tygers were to associate together they would drive the world. That is the case with us wolves; we go in gangs, and when we are in great want we can attack a whole village: and we hold, that whatever we can catch and overpower we have a right to seize and feed upon. We find the night more convenient for our purposes than the day, and think it was made chiefly for our use. The sun may be admired for his brightness, but he is of much less value to us than the moon. We argue that power and right D d

VOL. VI.

are the same thing; and that nature intended we should exercise what power we have. Why else was it given? Exclusive property we utterly declare against : every beast ought to have as much as he can get, and to make his appetites the measure of his conduct. The law of terror is the only law that cannot be contradicted and if every wolf in the world were to be consulted, your Majesty would find them invariably of my opinion. I am no orator, my temper is rough, and my reasons are short; and having great expectation from the shining abilities of the fox, I beg to be excused from proceeding any farther."

The Fox was then desired to speak, who began as follows:-" I am not a beast of such power as the wolf or the tyger. In the use of power I am exactly of their mind; but it is my way to effect my purposes by policy and cunning; and I can prove the world to be my own, by a set of principles which I have long studied. I allow your Majesty," addressing himself to the lion, "to be a king in fact; but I hold, that all beasts are members of one great and indivisible republic; and that there is by right of nature as much majesty in a fox as in a lion. My father was brought up under a fox who was a profound politician, and began to teach me while I was a cub, that power is inherent in beasts of every kind; and that there was a time, when they all met together and made a lion amongst them by contribution. One gave him his shaggy mane, another gave him a tooth, and another a claw, while others gave him his nerves and his sinews. What they thus gave they have a right to resume, should the lion be found to exercise his authority improperly: and they themselves are judges of the occasion when this happens." He added, "that his theory was greatly to the honour of the lion, because

it was better that he should reign by the kindness of his subjects than by conquest, or by any right and title of his own: and that the idea of the latter was so hateful to every beast of sense and spirit, that if there should be found an individual in the brute creation who should be of a different opinion, the foxes had agreed together to chase him out of society, or accuse him to the lion as a traitor against the natural rights of the brute creation. As the Lion had proclaimed liberty of speech (the birth-right of foxes,) he would proceed so far as to say that there was a scheme in agitation among the wolves, to extinguish the regal character in the lion, and revive it in jack-asses and all other beasts of the lower order; that he had a favourable opinion of the scheme, though it was not yet quite ripe; and he hoped to see the time when foxes should send and receive ambassadors instead of the lion; in which case, he would graciously condescend to give them his tail to kiss."-Here a dog, who was in the assembly, and had been brought up under a good master, began to growl, and could hardly keep himself from falling upon Mr. Reynard; but knowing it was not permitted, he remained quiet till his own turn should come. "I deny," continued the fox, "that there is any such thing as property. He that breeds poultry has no more right to the profit of them on that consideration than I have: and he that plants a vine has no right to the grapes, if I can get at them before they are gathered. The lord of the manor may think to preserve his game; but I take rabbits, hares and pheasants, without asking his leave, and carry them to my cubs, who are brought up to the same way of getting their livelihood. I tell them, as soon as they can understand, that there is but one great blessing in life, which is liberty, and I mean a fox's liberty;

that they had better not exist than be deprived of it; that it is inherent in foxes and inalienable; that it is absolute slavery to be deprived of it; and accordingly, that the alternative to all foxes is, either to be free, or bound with a chain: there is no medium. Foxes therefore maintain, that all creatures are born free and equal; and I make it out thus: they are either born free and equal, or they are born slaves; but they are not born slaves (for what fox was ever born with a chain on?) therefore they are born free and equal. There is indeed no such thing as slavery in the world; the very sound of it makes my blood run cold. I never made a slave, not even of a goose; I love to see them free upon a common, or cackling upon the sea-shore, better than in a farmer's yard; where the barking of a great dog, in the night when I go my rounds, is a detestable noise; and the keeping of dogs is a wicked invention, a base encroachment upon common rights. The dog is a sycophant, who neither eats geese himself, nor will permit me to do it. I love a wild dog, and I am a sort of dog myself; but your mean-spirited rascals, that confine themselves to a yard, are my aversion."-Here the lion observed, that the fox was ingenious and entertaining; but, as rights were common, other beasts would expect their turn, so he ordered the jackall to speak.

"As for me," says the jackall," I am ready to obey your Majesty's command; but I have no opinion of my own; I recommend myself at court, by falling into the opinions of the time, and of those persons who may be supposed to know more than I do. I have but little force, and not so much policy as my brother, the fox. I believe that the lion has royalty by birth and inheritance, if it is the fashion to believe it; or, that there is no true scheme of government but that

of the fox, founded on liberty and equality; and that the lion has no real and sensible friends but those that derive his power from rats and other beasts, even the lowest of vermin. To be plain, I believe nothing at all; but I say something, because other beasts do. My object is to live in ease and plenty; and if I have the picking of such bones as your Majesty is pleased to leave half eaten, it is all I desire; and you will find me on all occasions obsequious to your will."-“ We shall not learn much from you," said the lion; "bid the ox come forward."

"Your Majesty," said the Ox, "has heard many sentiments, subtle and ingenious, on power, liberty, and right; things about which I never gave myself any trouble. Of power I have none; of liberty I desire none; and as to right, I hold that there is no right but from justice, labour, and honesty. I am content to work; my neck was made for the yoke; I am well defended from the weather; and I fare better at the rack and in the pasture, than if I were to provide for myself by any wits of my own. My life would be insupportable to a tyger; but it is nothing to me, because I have an easy, patient temper, which finds no faults, and is not galled and fretted, as the spirit of a wild beast would be with my work. Happiness and misery are chiefly in the mind: it is no mortification to me that I do not eat blood; it is no confinement to me that I cannot prowl about like the wolf, nor spend my nights abroad in doing mischief to other creatures, like the fox. When the labour of the day is over, I return to my stall, with more pleasure than the tyger to his den with his paunch full of blood; I like hay and straw better; and I think I have a happier life on the whole in servitude than I should lead if I were wild on the plains, under continual dread from wolves and