"It is clear," he said, "that the words 'kill and eat,' and the dominion which the beneficent Maker of all things has given to man over the lower creatures, does not justify the infliction of exquisite torment in the name of Science." At that time Lord Shaftesbury was the greatest representative of the Church of England and the Cardinal the acknowledged head of the Church of Rome in this country and as they earnestly agreed in condemning the practice of vivisection as wicked and abominable, it becomes impossible for those who support it to bring to its defence any authorities on conduct at all comparable with that of these two great and good men. The Cardinal gave the impression of a consciously eminent ecclesiastic, who was determined to lift his Church into greatness in England by all lawful means in his power; his appearance was ascetic, distinguished, and memorable; he was manifestly a man of direct nobility of life, and most lofty purpose--a great statesman for his Church, leading an austere and detached life as an example in every detail for the faithful in his community--a prince of the Roman Church fulfilling his august function conspicuously and faultlessly in full view of a critical public. {16} His care for the poor and the noble simplicity of his life found its most eloquent evidence at his death in the discovery that his entire worldly possessions amounted to sixty-eight pounds. He had laid up his treasure where no rust and moth doth corrupt. CHAPTER IV: ROBERT BROWNING VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ANTI-VIVISECTION SOCIETY DIED THE 12TH OF DECEMBER, 1889 [Picture: Robert Browning. From a painting by Samuel Laurence in the collection of John Lane] Towards the end of 1874, as I have already remarked, Miss Cobbe prepared a petition to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of which the chief paragraph ran as follows:-- It is earnestly urged by your memorialists that the great and influential Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals may see fit to undertake the task (which appears strictly to fall within its province) of placing suitable restrictions on this rapidly increasing evil. The vast benefit to the cause of humanity which the Society has in the past half century effected, would, in our humble estimation, remain altogether one-sided and incomplete, if, while brutal carters and ignorant costermongers are brought to punishment for maltreating the animals under their charge, learned and refined gentlemen should be left unquestioned to inflict far more exquisite pain upon still more sensitive creatures; as if the mere allegation of a scientific purpose removed them above all legal or moral responsibility. Miss Cobbe, confident of what Browning's reply would be, sent him this petition and asked him to return it with his signature if he approved of it.