IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 297 



is no objection to a horse for the field ; many a little 

 horse will top a fence that he cannot put his nose 

 over, or go well in harness, that is sulky in the sad- 

 dle." 



Now observations of this kind do not amount to a 

 warranty, but only to an opinion ; still less can they 

 be considered a fraudulent misrepresentation, or be 

 made the ground of an action for deceit. If the 

 dealer said that the horse would take a double fence, 

 or would trot in harness twelve miles within the hour, 

 then an action for deceit would lie, if it could be 

 proved that he could not, and never had done either 

 one or the other ; yet here again, it would be neces- 

 sary to prove that the dealer knew these representa- 

 tions to be false ; for if he was speaking, not from 

 his own knowledge, but on the, authority of a false- 

 hood told to himself by the person from whom he 

 bought the animal, it would not amount to deceit, 

 an action "would not lie : vide Parkinson v. Lee, 

 2 East, 314 ; or if the dealer gave an undertaking 

 for the horse's specific performance of either of these 

 feats, then this would amount to a direct warranty, 

 for the breach of which an action might be sustained, 

 without proof of deceit ; or if the buyer left it to his 

 26 



