--- title: "John Frank Newton (1770-?1827) - IVU - International Vegetarian Union" description: "John Frank Newton (1770-?1827): Quote: So long as men are compassionate to such a degree that they cannot hear a fly struggling in a spider's web without emotion it can never be reasonbably maintained that it is their natural impulse to wound and kill the dumb animals, or to butcher one another in" url: "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2445-history-england19a-newton.html" date: "2026-11-06T00:22:01+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # John Frank Newton (1770-?1827) ![John Frank Newton (1770-?1827)](https://ivu.org/images/legacy/history/banners/history-england19a-newton.png)Quote: So long as men are compassionate to such a degree that they cannot hear a fly struggling in a spider's web without emotion it can never be reasonbably maintained that it is their natural impulse to wound and kill the dumb animals, or to butcher one another in what is called the *field of honour.* - *The Return to Nature* (as quoted in *The Extended Circle* by Jon Wynne-Tyson) - **[John Frank NEWTON](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2974-history-williams-newton.html)**[, 1770-1825](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2974-history-williams-newton.html) - from *The Ethics of Diet* by Howard Williams M.A. - [ **The return to nature: or, A defence of the vegetable regimen;** ](http://books.google.com/books?id=8dwhAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+frank+newton&hl=en&ei=NyV2ToaFDYTF0QW3sZm7CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)- link to the original 1811 edition on Google Books. - [**The Return to Nature, or a defence of the vegetable regimen**](http://books.google.com/books?id=AvwaAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Pamphleteer+1822&hl=en&ei=47ixTfTNJ4OZ8QOo7eWVDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false) *(link to google books)* - originally published in 1811. This link is to *The Pamphleteer, Volumes 19-20,* 1821/22 which reprinted the entire text but over several issues - read the one above! A note on this archive. The history section of this website is drawn from a body of legacy content originally compiled by John Davis, former manager of the International Vegetarian Union. It represents his curation of historical material, and in places includes passages written by him directly. Over the years, the IVU website has migrated between several different hosting servers. In the course of these migrations, a number of PDF files were unfortunately lost, and **some links to PDF documents may no longer function**. Where this is the case, we have chosen to leave the original link text in place, as it may itself carry information of historical value. - Hits: 1746 ## Schema ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://ivu.org/hv-societies-ivu-history-societies-united-kingdom.html?view=article&id=2445:history-england19a-newton&catid=58","url":"https://ivu.org/hv-societies-ivu-history-societies-united-kingdom.html?view=article&id=2445:history-england19a-newton&catid=58","name":"John Frank Newton (1770-?1827)","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":[{"@id":"https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html#archive"},{"@id":"https://ivu.org/hv-societies-ivu-history-societies-united-kingdom.html"}],"publisher":{"@id":"https://ivu.org/#organization"},"description":"Quote: So long as men are compassionate to such a degree that they cannot hear a fly struggling in a spider's web without emotion it can never be reasonbably maintained that it is their natural…"}]} ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://ivu.org" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "IVU", "item": "https://ivu.org/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Resources", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Interviews", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "History of the Vegetarian Societies", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "name": "history", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "name": "england19a", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "name": "John Frank Newton (1770-?1827)", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2445-history-england19a-newton.html" } ] } ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2445-history-england19a-newton.html" }, "headline": "John Frank Newton (1770-?1827)", "description": "John Frank Newton (1770-?1827): Quote: So long as men are compassionate to such a degree that they cannot hear a fly struggling in a spider's web without emotion it can never be reasonbably maintained that it is their natural impulse to wound and kill the dumb animals, or to butcher one another in", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "International Vegetarian Union", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://ivu.org/images/logos/logo-ivu-tranparent-background.png" } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex Fernandes", "url": "https://ivu.org/international-council.html" }, "datePublished": "2026-10-16T00:00:16+00:00", "dateCreated": "2026-05-29T01:52:02+00:00", "dateModified": "2026-10-08T00:53:15+00:00" } ```