2 ENGLAND S HORSES, 



The Royal Commission granted upon Lord Rosebery's 

 motion in the House of Lords, have discovered, with 

 mathematical accuracy, the inadequacy of supply to our 

 demand; but, unfortunately, nothing has been yet done, 

 or suggested, to rectify so alarming and inconvenient a 

 state of things. 



Observations at such a juncture, submitted for public 

 consideration and appreciation, will be rigorously expected 

 to have their base, at any rate, in sound and rational 

 premises. For this is a subject of importance so over- 

 whelming as to embrace considerations of the maintenance 

 of our national supremacy in the future ; and that is 

 sufficiently absorbing "to all patriotic Britons to sharpen 

 their interest and curtail their patience. Something 

 capable of being shaped into practically successful re- 

 sults is what the public now seeks, and anything short of 

 this would be regarded with disfavour. Nor is this state 

 of feeling to be wondered at in the days we have fallen 

 upon, when the most strenuous eflbrts of the constituted 

 officers fail to keep our cavalry and artillery strength in 

 horses up to a 'peace footing ! At the time, too, when a 

 recent enquiry, with all the aegis of Royal Warrant, failed to 

 do more than substantiate the truth of previous assertions 

 as to an alarming want of supply in our military and 

 general horse stock ; being admittedly unable to offer any 

 suggestion calculated to prove practicable and popular for 

 bringing about a cure. A Titanic and very recent war, at our 

 doors, has given to the present and future, in the pages of 

 history, powerful illustration of the value of cavalry opera- 

 tions in modern warfare. A recent French writer, too, calls 

 attention to the same consideration in a pamphlet addressed 

 to his Government, urging the necessity for increasing the 

 means for propagation of horses suited to military purposes, 

 and to the unquestionable superiority of the German 



