IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 335 



exerted to settle the form and construction of a 

 general warranty ? The difficulty appears to be, to 

 make the understanding at once so general as to in- 

 sure due protection to the purchaser, and so specific 

 as not to subject the seller to speculative construc- 

 tion of its meaning : but I think this difficulty is not 

 insurmountable. A warranty, as now understood, 

 protects against all defects known or unknown to the 

 seller, unless such as are specially excepted. This 

 is too comprehensive. If it were conventionally 

 settled, that a general warranty shall extend only to 

 all defects discovered within a given time, as a week 

 for instance, or against all defects incapacitating a 

 horse for that labor for which he is avowedly pur- 

 chased, — a construction which I should prefer, — 

 little difference of opinion could arise as to the horse 

 answering such a warranty. The first form of war- 

 ranty would certainly dispose of nearly all doubtful 

 cases. The second would render the contract be- 

 tween the buyer and seller too clear and precise to 

 leave room for any question that a groom could not 

 easily determine. Such an arrangement would con- 

 siderably abridge the inquiry of a jury on every 

 horse cause, by reducing the issue to the simple 



