The Humanitarian League was a British radical advocacy group formed by Henry S. Salt and others to promote the principle that it is wrong to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being. It was based in London and operated between 1891 and 1919.[1]
Howard Williams, the author of The Ethics of Diet (1883), a history of vegetarianism, proposed in the book the concept of a "humane society with a wider scope than any previously existing body".[1] William's idea was developed by fellow writer and advocate, Henry S. Salt, in an 1889 article on humanitarianism.[2]
The Humanitarian League was formed by Henry S. Salt, who was also the General Secretary and Editor. Other founding members included Edward Maitland, Ernest Bell (Chairman),[3] Howard Williams, Kenneth Romanes and Alice Lewis (Treasurer).[4] The League's inaugural meeting, in 1891, was held at the house of Alice Lewis, 14 Park Square, London,[4] who remained Treasurer for the League's existence.[1] Many of its founders were also members of the Shelley Society.[5]
Its aim was to enforce the principle that it is iniquitous to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being; their manifesto stated:[6]
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 was a pioneering advocate for both animal and human rights, opposing corporal and capital punishment. Its goals included banning hunting as a sport and opposing vivisection, aligning it with the modern animal rights movement.[1] Many members were vegetarians.[5] The League also advanced human rights, playing a key role in the 1906 ban on flogging in the Royal Navy and campaigning to amend laws on imprisonment for debt and non-criminal offenses.[7] It also opposed compulsory vaccination.[8]
In 1895, the League opened an office in Great Queen Street, London, and launched its journal, Humanity (later The Humanitarian). That year saw the first National Humanitarian Conference with lectures on various perspectives. From 1897, the League's headquarters on Chancery Lane actively engaged with the press and organised public debates. They established departments focused on criminal law and prison reform, sports, humane diet and dress, and education reform. The League, committed to action, championed causes such as abolishing corporal punishment, blood sports, punishments for vagrancy, imprisonment for debt, "crimes of conscience", and other "barbarisms of the age".[9]
The League spread its ideas through two journals, Humanity (1895–1902), which was later renamed The Humanitarian (1902–1919) and a quarterly The Humane Review (1900–1910).[10]
During the First World War, the League's membership and output of publications were reduced in number.[1]
The League closed down in 1919,[11] following the death of Salt's wife.[12]
In 2013, The Humanitarian League was registered as an organisation in Hong Kong.[13] It operates alongside the Ernest Bell Library, republishing historical humanitarian pamphlets and books.[14]
^ abcUnti, Bernard (2014). "'Peace on earth among the orders of creation': Vegetarian Ethics in the United States Before World War I". In Helstosky, Carol (ed.). The Routledge History of Food. Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 186–188. doi:10.4324/9781315753454. ISBN9781315753454.
^Preece, Rod. (2011). Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw. UBC Press. p. 153
^Gold, Mark. (1998). Animal Century: A Celebration of Changing Attitudes to Animals. J. Carpenter. p. 11
^Freud, Sigmund (2010). The Interpretation of Dreams. Translated by Strachey, James (New York Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group ed.). p. 189. ISBN978-0-465-01977-9.
