When public opinion began to recoil from such barbarous amusements, Windham, in the House of Commons, made a brilliant speech in defence of the sport of bull-baiting, and the Bill for its abolition was rejected. That was in 1802. Yet, no doubt, a number of our countrymen of that period were accustomed to denounce the atrocious cruelty of the Spanish bull-fighters. Statute 5 and 6, William IV., in 1835, made bull-baiting and cock-fighting illegal. The Act enjoined 'that any person keeping or using any house, pit, or other place, for baiting or fighting any bull, bear, dog, or other animal (whether of a domestic or wild kind), or for cock-fighting, shall be liable to a penalty of £5 for every day he shall so keep and use the same.' In 1837 the provisions of this Act were extended to Ireland. We must remember, therefore, that a high stage of culture and refinement must be attained before nations will consent to abandon cruel and dangerous contests between men and brutes, or between beasts. Even in Spain there is a growing revolt from the exhibitions of combats between bulls and other animals, which are sometimes given in the big towns. In these fights--which take place in a cage in the centre of an arena--a wretched, half-fed lion or elephant is pitted against a bull. Cock-fighting still flourishes in the Peninsula. It is popular in Seville, and like bull-fighting, the sport has its _aficionados_ in every town and hamlet. Sunday, after Mass, is the favourite day for a display of cock-fighting. These _funciones gallisticas_ have been described by one or two writers upon Spain, who agree that the diversion is of a degrading character. Those among my readers who are interested in bull-fighting, its history and its anecdotes, will find a chapter on 'Tauromachia' in that fascinating work _Wild Spain_, by Mr. Abel Chapman and Mr. Walter J. Buck. A full account of the sport, and the most modern of all the numerous contributions to the literature of the bull ring, is that in the three special chapters of Mr. Leonard Williams's _The Land of the Dons_, published in 1902. CHAPTER XV _Information for the Visitor_