404 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



foundation of a breed had been lost by non-use and why England 

 had produced no trotters in the past fifty or eighty years. 



While our English cousins know they have no trotting horses 

 of their own they seem to be exceedingly anxious, possibly for 

 commercial reasons, to make it appear that the American trot- 

 ting horse is the lineal descendant of the Norfolk Trotter. This 

 effort is not restricted to the idle twaddle about Bell ounder, 

 which everybody on this side of the Atlantic estimates at its true 

 value, but it has taken an official and wider range, which, trifling 

 though it be, my duty as a historian impels me to expose. Mr. 

 Henry F. Euren, the compiler of the Hackney Stud Book, wrote 

 to the Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washington, D. 0., in 

 1888, taking exceptions to some conclusions reached in an article 

 written by Mr. Leslie E. Macleod, in my office, on "The National 

 Horse of America," and published in the report of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1887; Mr. Euren claiming that the Amer- 

 ican trotting horse came originally from Norfolk, in England. 

 In proof of this he says: "I beg to inclose you a cutting which 

 confirms my idea." And now for the "cutting" which he offers 

 as proof: 



"It appears from an Act of Parliament, passed December 6, 1748, in the 

 Legislature of the State of New Jersey, America, that on and after the publi- 

 cation of this Act, all Norfolk pacing or trotting of horses for lucre or gain, 

 or for any sum or sums of money at any time (excepting such times as are 

 hereafter expressly provided for by this Act), shall be and are hereby declared 

 public nuisances, provided always that at all fairs that are or may be held with- 

 in this province, and that on the first working day after the three great festivals 

 of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, etc., etc." 



The act passed by the provincial legislature of the colony of 

 New Jersey in 1748 embraced very stringent regulations against 

 dice, lotteries, etc., as well as horse racing. It is divided into 

 several sections, and at Section 4 we reach the provision against 

 racing as follows: 



"And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that after ihe 

 publication of this Act, all horse racing, pacing or trotting of horses for lucre 

 or gain, or for any sum or sums of money at any time (excepting such times 

 as are hereafter expressly provided for and allowed by this Act), shall be and 

 are hereby declared public nuisances, and shall be prosecuted as public 

 nuisances, in manner hereinbefore directed. Provided always, and it is the 

 true intent and meaning of this Act, that at all fairs that are or may be held 

 within this province, and that on the first working day after the three grand 

 festivals of Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, etc., etc." 



