Egerton Smith

Egerton Smith (19 June 1774 – 18 November 1841)^[1] was a Liverpool publisher, founder of the Liverpool Mercury.

Biography

Egerton Smith was the son of Egerton Smith the elder (died 1788) and Ann Prescott. He joined his mother and then his brother in the family firm, making

He was one of the founders of the Strangers' Friend Society, a local charity which helped the poor at their homes.[1]

Animal welfare

Smith authored an early book supportive of

That the author has succeeded in his endeavour to exhibit to the reader the odious character of wanton severity towards the lower animals, in a more forcible light than the common observer would discover for himself we admit. He has also put the subject upon such a ground, and treated it in such a shape as will naturally arouse the attention of the young, and the unreflecting. At the same time, we feel that he sometimes pitches his appeals too high, and that thereby he has run the risk of defeating the very object he had in view. For instance - and we care not by what human authority he backs his conjecture - it seems to us quite unnecessary, in pleading in behalf of the inferior animals, to suppose that they may enjoy a future state of existence.^[5]

Selected publications

• The Melange (1834)
• The Elysium of Animals: A Dream (1836)

References