"Still that's beside our purpose, which is this-- To scan the statute, microscope in hand, And note if in its sweep humane, we see A roosting place for fighting chanticleer. And there we find, or rather fail to find, The name of "Cock" among the saving list Of nineteen beasts protected by the law, Though thus the list concludes, "_and other kinds Of animals domestic_," or like words. Are we to find Game Cocks, domestic fowls? Are we to hold that birds, are animals? Our view is quite the contrary, or else There's not a beast, bird, fish, or insect but The term "domestic" would to them apply, And make it penal e'en to slay a louse. "And while, in other parts of this same Act, We find "Cock" followed by the general phrase, "_Or other kind of animal_," we hold It bears not on the matter now in hand, But only serves to show that Parliament, When brooding, clucking, hen-like, o'er this Act, Had Cocks well in their eye, and plainly did, Of purpose full, omit them from the list; And while bear-fights, bull-fights, dog-fights, and all Vile sports and brutish cruelty to beasts, The spirit and the letter of the law Do quite forbid, _unanimous we hold Cock-fighting is a lawful use of Cocks, And finding so we liberate these men_. "It will be said, this Statute has been read Reversely in our sister England, where It is the Charter of proud Chanticleer; But what of that? It alters not our mind! But only shews, that they, of feebler clay, Stick not at trifles, so the end be good, And let the heart o'erbeat the legal mind; While we, of sterner stuff, fail not to find Motes in the sunshine of their simple wits, And gnats to strain out of their cups of wine; For in the nice accomplishment and use Of splitting hairs, and weighing feathers small, Of riddling wisdom from a peck of words, We are more skilled, more subtle, more profound Than our legal brethren of the South." Whereat five horse-hair wigs again bowed down In low obeisance to the mighty sage, And straight the Court was cleared of cocks and men. Fatal Links. BY ERNEST H. RANN.