Of course I agree with Megan that dog-fighting is a bad, even wicked thing. Still, I was struck by her (cutting) question: did Michael Vick and his pals think that by – allegedly! – executing and torturing dogs that had lost fights this would be a case of pour encourager les autres?
Voltaire’s famous quip is one of my favourites. “In this country” he remarked, speaking of Britain, “it is thought good to kill an admiral from time to time, to give courage to the others”. When it’s trotted out these days it’s generally accompanied by an arched eyebrow as though the very idea of this was absurd. But Voltaire was more right than he knew…
It is April 1756 and Vice-Admiral John Byng is charged with sailing to the Mediterranean to defend the island of Minorca which is threatened by the prospect of a French invasion launched from the great naval base at Toulon.
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