Humanitarian League

The League campaigned against capital and corporal punishment, hunting for sport, vivisection and compulsory vaccination, and supported changes to criminal law and prison practices. It published the journals Humanity (1895–1902), The Humanitarian (1902–1919) and The Humane Review (1900–1910), as well as books and pamphlets. Its membership and activity declined during the First World War, and the organisation dissolved in 1919. Former members later helped to found the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports, now the League Against Cruel Sports.

History

Background

In The Ethics of Diet (1883), a history of vegetarianism, Howard Williams proposed the creation of a humane society with a broader scope than any that existed at the time. Henry S. Salt developed a similar idea in an 1889 article on humanitarianism in The Westminster Review, where he argued for a consistent principle of humaneness applied to all sentient beings.

Formation

Salt founded the Humanitarian League in 1891 and served as its general secretary and editor of its publications. Other founding members included Edward Maitland, Ernest Bell (chairman of committee and treasurer), Howard Williams, Kenneth Romanes and Alice Lewis (treasurer). Its inaugural meeting was held at Lewis's house, 14 Park Square, London, and she remained treasurer throughout the League's existence. Many of the founders were also members of the Shelley Society.

The provisional committee in April 1891 consisted of William E. A. Axon, R. H. Jude, Alice Lewis, Edward Maitland, R. E. O'Callaghan, Rev. G. J. Ouseley, Kenneth Romanes, Howard Williams and Salt.

Aims and principles

The League's guiding principle was that it was iniquitous to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being. Its manifesto declared:

The Humanitarian League has been established on the basis of an intelligible and consistent principle of humaneness – that it is iniquitous to inflict suffering, directly or indirectly, on any sentient being, except when self-defence or absolute necessity can justly be pleaded.

The League opposed corporal and capital punishment, hunting for sport, vivisection and compulsory vaccination. Many members were vegetarians, and the League aimed to reduce animal suffering.

Organisation and activities

Headquarters

The League originally operated out of Salt's rooms in Gloucester Road, London. In 1895 the League opened an office at 79 Great Queen Street. From 1897, it was headquartered at Chancery Lane.

Executive committee

The League's executive committee consisted of Ernest Bell, Alfred Binns, Hypatia Bradlaugh Bonner, Herbert Burrows, Joseph Collinson, Helen Densmore, Edmund Harvey, Mrs. C. Mallet, W. Douglas Morrison, Henry S. Salt, Howard Williams and Llewellyn W. Williams.

Campaigns and departments

The League organised campaigns against blood sports, punishments for vagrancy, imprisonment for debt, "crimes of conscience", and what it called other "barbarisms of the age". It also campaigned for human rights, contributed to the 1906 ban on flogging in the Royal Navy, and sought reform of laws on imprisonment for debt and non-criminal offences.

In 1894 the League drafted the Sport Regulation Bill, which was introduced in Parliament by Alpheus Morton. The bill would have prohibited the hunting, coursing and shooting of animals kept in confinement.

In 1895 the League was divided into four departments: the Criminal Law and Prison Reform Department, the Sports Department, the Humane Diet Department and the Lectures for Children. Each department had a separate committee. In the same year, it held the first National Humanitarian Conference.

Joseph Stratton was honorary secretary of the Sports Department. The department condemned blood sports and any sport that caused suffering to animals. In 1897 the Humane Diet Department was renamed the Humane Diet and Dress Department, and in 1898 an Indian Humanitarian Committee was established.

The Animals Defence Committee replaced the Humane Diet and Dress Department and the Sports Department. In 1909 the committee campaigned against cruelty in slaughterhouses, stag hunting, school-beagling, the use of plumes and seal-skin, and snake-feeding at zoological gardens. Members included R. Stephen Ayling, Ernest Bell, Joseph Collinson, Charles W. Forward and George Penn-Gaskell.

In 1908 the Criminal Law and Prison Reform Department merged into the Criminal Law and Prison Reform Committee, which covered British and Indian affairs. Joseph Collinson served as honorary secretary of the committee for thirteen years.

Branches

Local branches of the League were established at Croydon and Letchworth after a meeting in 1909. A Manchester branch was formed with support from William E. A. Axon, William Byles and Rev. A. O. Broadley in 1912. By 1914 the Croydon branch had 56 members.

Decline and closure

During the First World War, the League's membership and publication output declined. The organisation closed in December 1919, shortly after the death of Salt's wife.