to his delight. He was also "a member of the Society for the amelioration and gradual abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions which had been formed in 1823." Anti-animal cruelty and RSPCA Martin is now best known for his work against animal cruelty, especially against bear baiting and dog fighting. Martin's attempt to have an anti-cruelty to animals Bill passed stands in a chronological line with some previous failed efforts in England's Parliament. A sympathetic groundswell of public opinion emerged in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century in opposition to cultural amusements such as bull-baiting and cock-fighting and in the visible maltreatment of animals that were herded in for slaughter at London's Smithfield Market. The first unsuccessful legislative attempt was led by William Johnstone Pulteney on 18 April 1800 to ban bull-baiting but it was lost to the opposition vote in the House of Commons. A renewed effort was undertaken in 1809 with an anti-cruelty Bill introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Erskine (1750-1823) which passed in that House but was defeated by a vote in the House of Commons. Martin voted in favour of both Pulteney's and Erskine's bills. Martin drafted a new Bill in consultation with the then retired Lord Erskine as well as with the agricultural writer and animal rights advocate John Lawrence (1753-1839). His actions resulted eventually in Martin's Act of 1822, entitled "Ill Treatment of Cattle Bill". The Bill passed in the House of Commons by twenty-nine to eighteen votes, then through the House of Lords and was signed by the King on 21 June 1822. He also tried to spread his ideas in the streets of London, becoming the target of jokes and political cartoons that depicted him with the ears of a donkey. He also sometimes paid fines of minor offenders. In May 1824 he attempted to widen the scope of anti-cruelty legislation by introducing the Slaughtering of Horses Bill which would have obliged licensed slaughterhouses to keep proper records of food allocated to each horse and with penalties applied to those using a horse that had a disabled limb to haul carts. This Bill was defeated on 15 June 1824. In 1821 letters were exchanged by various correspondents in periodicals raising concerns about the maltreatment of animals, which included one written by Rev. Arthur Broome that was published in The Kaleidoscope on 6 March 1821. Broome attempted to