98 England's horses, 



desirable concessions if any trutli resides in the doctrine of 

 Pomponius, or, the tenets of Erasmus ; the former tells ns 

 " The law of nature allows of over-reaching in buying and 

 selling ; " while the latter would appear to give a " general 

 absolution " in the following words : — 



" Scis quanta impostura sit, apud nos, 

 In his qvii vendunt equos." 



The facility that is given by existing usage to any person 

 competent, or not, to offer himself as an agent for the suf- 

 frages of the jiublic in horse buying and selling, has assisted 

 in no immaterial way to cast disrepute upon horse-dealing 

 transactions to a vastly greater extent than is generally 

 understood. This is much to be lamented, as in the present 

 day it is not easy to name a public servant that would be 

 more desirable and useful than a thoroughly practical, 

 energetic, and conscientious man, with sufficient competency 

 for selection of horses, at a time when exceptional scarcity, 

 and consequent dearness, debars the possibility of the 

 amateur purchaser suiting himself independent of the ex- 

 pensive intervention of the horse-dealer. And Avhen we 

 reflect upon the large responsibility, the great opportunity 

 offered for remunerative dishonesty to such a person as a 

 liorse-agent, is it too much to expect that such a calling 

 should be only eligible to individuals whose capacity could 

 he proved, as in other professions, and the exercise of whose 

 offices could only be legitimately rendered under license ; 

 such license to be restricted to men who could furnish the 

 most satisfactory evidence of their eligibility and " straight 

 sailing " in the line they were devoted to. 



In our time any unprincipled person unable to compete 

 with an established agent in a fair way, can covertly set 

 malignity and slander to defame a rival he detests, because 

 of proved superiority. And we all know how such things, 

 like the schoolboys' snowball, gather as they go. 



