78 ENGLAND'S HORSES, 



the Eeport, in which the Committee trust that by " the collec- 

 tion of evidence and by the attention they have called to the 

 subject, they have contributed somewhat to the objects for 

 which they were appointed." 



It was hardly, indeed, from the first supposed that any actual 

 or immediate good would result from this inquiry. " In this 

 country," says the Eeport, ".Government interference in such 

 matters is justly unpopular even when practicable." The 

 formation of Government military studs has been tried and 

 abandoned in France. The system for some time past em- 

 ployed in India has been subject to many and grave objections, 

 and we cannot certainly refrain at least from doubts as to a 

 management which could reject as unsound, worthless, or worn- 

 out, horses approved by General Peel, and passed by the 

 Veterinary College.* The remedies which, in the opinion of the 

 Committee, are most practicable for this alleged scarcity of 

 horses — a scarcity which, though undoubtedly somewhat exag- 

 gerated,t does as undoubtedly exist among certain classes, 

 especially among draught J horses and roadsters — are " that the 

 Government should give or add to prizes at Agricultural Shows 

 for Stallions passed sound, which have covered a number of 

 mares at a certain low price in particular districts ;" that "any 

 tax operating as a discouragement on a farmer's keeping horses, 

 whether broken or not, should be either at once abolished or 

 considerably modified, while the dealer's license, which, not 

 existing in Ireland, only produces £19,175 here, should be al- 

 together repealed ; " and lastly, that the system of warranty 

 should be done away with." 



Though they have declined to enter into the vexed question 

 of Army remounts, which they considered, and wisely, as one 

 solely for the military authorities, it must be confessed that 

 some of the evidence given on this important point was startling. 



From Mr. Phillips, of Willesden, the Army contractor, we 

 learn that since the Crimean war only one of our Cavalry 



* Quite possible for horses to be sound and good performers, and worse than 

 worthless as sires for remounts. 



I It is not ! ! ! J Harness, not " draught " horses. 



