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purchase-money without scruple, and resumed the Horse. Many very 

 absurd and stupid Htigations on the subject of Horses, and indeed, on 

 all others, mi"ht be avoided, if the opposite parties Avould first resolve to 

 do justice when discovered, and then meet, with their respective friends, 

 in order to the discovery. Ultimately, when they find themselves unable 

 to detect ri'^ht, ifthey would, both here and at Dublin, sky a copper for 

 it, music or skulls, instead of tossing up the more gambling and dan- 

 gerous cross and pile of the law. My legal readers will pardon me, 

 when I declare, that in my opinion, the blame attaches not to them, but 

 to their clients. 



A growing splent, or spavin, may lurk undetected, at the time of 

 sale, more especially if the Horse have been kept at rest. Work may 

 induce lameness, in a few days or weeks; but if the excrescence be very 

 young, its unsound effect is more frequently jirotracted too long, for 

 anv prospect of remedy against a former proprietor. A splent is a 

 bony excrescence on the shank of the Horse's fore leg, and not of any 

 ill consequence, unless by its position it interfere Avith the knee, or 

 pastern joint, or the tendon. The spavin is a similar excrescence upon 

 the hinder leg, beneath the hock, but of far worse consequence than, the 

 splent, the former being never harmless, and generally incurable. A 

 false quarter, which is a loss of substance in the hoof, a vertical 

 line or seam appearing therein, may well belong to the unsound class. 

 A Horse with this defect, may be sold in a very gay, and apparently 

 sound state, yet may turn out far otherwise, when put to labour. 



The practical distinction between blemish and unsoundness is per- 

 fectly just, and according with convenience: a Horse may be ble- 

 mished, yet otherwise perfectly capable of his labour. Blemishes, 

 therefore, do not impede a sound warrant, nor need they be specifically 

 barred or adverted to. Blemishes consist of broken knees, loss of hair 

 in the cutting places, or excrescences of any kind, not occasioning 

 lameness. Neither windgalls nor bog-spavins, puffy swellings within 

 the bending of the hock behind, prevent the warranty of a Horse, 

 provided his action be sound. It is the same with cracks in the legs 

 and heeis. 



The warranty of quiet and free from vice, implies, that the Horse 



is 



