FOR PEACE AND WAR. 49 



correction, shortness of supply in numbers as well as a large 

 and increasing foiling off of those " wear and tear " charac- 

 teristics of a former period in respect of " Our Cavalry Re- 

 mounts and General Horses." 



In Ireland, so prolific a nursery of that half-bred stock 

 from which military horses are derived, the effects from in- 

 discriminate and untutored breeding, continued with certain 

 influences dependent upon political changes within the last 

 quarter century, have made a very serious and sad alteration 

 in the quantity and character of horse supply ; so much so 

 that it is alarming to think existing facts in that kingdom, 

 in connexion with the subject under notice, have onl\' 

 recently led to Government enquiry. For I am grieved to 

 say, though in India the very same question of re-mount 

 horses should be deemed of sufficient importance to have, 

 long ago, a carefully constituted Government Board of 

 Inquiry established to " investigate and report," that at 

 home a perplexing and detestable apathy seems to have too 

 long prevailed on the subject, although existing grievances 

 in this department of national economy shriek for redress. 

 Yearly recurring evils, long admitted as existing, are per- 

 mitted by the apathy or want of sympathy in the matter by 

 successive Governments, to run their poisonous and de- 

 generating course ; sowing a seed of carelessness and 

 ignorance, year after year, that has rendered in due season 

 an inevitable crop of loss, — individual and national — dis- 

 appointment, and disgust. 



The proneness of Englishmen to put great faith in their 

 insular position and hereditary means of defence against 

 invasion, may be one cause for apathy upon a subject that 

 has so largely influenced the operations of two great 

 military continental powers so recently in fearful conflict. 

 While England has been doing nothing to systematize the 

 means for producing her " re-mount " horses, both Ger- 



