258 THE ADVENTURES OF A GENTLEMAN 



or memorandum in writing has been signed by the 

 parties or their authorized agents. This question 

 usually arises out of the careless manner in which all 

 occasional transactions of buying and selling are re- 

 corded. It may be laid down as a general rule, that 

 if the substance of the contract, that is, the price 

 given, the article sold, and the names of the buyer 

 and seller, are stated upon paper, this will amount 

 to a memorandum within the statute ; it is not neces- 

 sary that the bargain should be detailed in all its 

 minor and concomitant circumstances, nor that the 

 signature should be formally attached to any parti- 

 cular part of the memorandum ; nor even that it 

 should be written, instead of printed on the bill of 

 parcels, if there is any evidence to show a recogni- 

 tion of the printed form. The leading cases upon 

 which I rely, upon these points, are, Egerton v. Mat- 

 thews, 6 East, 307; Champion v, Plummer, 1 Bosan- 

 quet and Puller, 254 ; Schnieder v. Norris, 2 Maule 

 and Selwyn, 286 ; and Elmore v. Kingscote, 8 D. 

 and R., 343. I do not extract these cases, because, 

 excepting the last, they have no immediate reference 

 to the subject of horse-dealing: the memorandum 

 must be signed, either by the parties, or by their 



