DONKEYS IN IRELAND AND IN ENGLAND. 81 



actually made to the writer by an Irish clergyman. 

 Such an argument can only be fished up from the 

 depths of bigotry. Those who urge it would also 

 deny that donkeys could go unshod, but for the fact 

 that they see them doing so, and successfully. Now, 

 in England, donkeys are shod ; and why ? Only as 

 an affair of routine. One of the chief arguments 

 in fact, the sheet-anchor of those who will not allow 

 the equine species to go barefooted is * our moist 

 climate and hard roads.' Ireland is rather ahead of 

 us in having a moister climate, and the roads, as 

 described, are in no way better than ours ; so the 

 point of departure of nearly all sticklers for the 

 necessity of shoes will bear no more investigation 

 than the puerile and futile chain of reasoning with 

 which they follow it up. 



To such as are open to conviction, it will be 

 evident, therefore, that our donkeys in England 

 would gain by leaving off shoes, and that their 

 owners would at the same time be richer. Why 

 should this not hold good also in regard to the 

 horse ? The statement that he is less fitted for it 

 by nature will stand neither argument nor practical 

 experiment, should the latter be made with intelli- 

 gence and a desire to succeed. 



Can any one really believe that the animal which 

 is endowed with the greater speed and power should 

 have worse feet than his inferior in both respects ? 

 Nonsense is no name for such a creed ; it is some- 

 thing far worse. Mayhew says: 'Nature has in 

 vain laboured to instruct the waywardness of conceit; 



G 



