104- ENGLAND'S HORSES, 



sympathy for anything, or persons, not according to straight- 

 forward principles is incompatible with that position, and 

 therefore beyond the pale of solicitude. 



Upon the face of the habitable globe there cannot be 

 found to exist among any class of men greater infamy, 

 lower villany, deeper cunning, more skilful hypocrisy, and 

 more daring dishonesty than amongst a large majority of 

 those who get their livelihood in connection with horses. 

 It is supererogatory to remark that in the horse trade are 

 to be found many, the propriety and respectability of whose 

 transactions will bear comparison Avith any trade or profes- 

 sion in existence ; par exemple, such men as George Rice, 

 Ned Fowler, John Renison, and Little Sheward, &c., &c. 



From out the phalanx of unscrupulous talent, however, 

 are drawn habitues of the Livery and Commission Yards ; 

 and, notwithstanding that many proprietors of such places 

 do all that a strong desire to act fairly by their constituents 

 can prompt, to exclude objectionable characters from their 

 premises, their utmost efforts are abortive of their object, 

 as it is a delicate as well as a dangerous course of operation 

 to attempt to fix a stigma upon any individual, except 

 direct proof of culpability is at the disposal of the accuser. 

 And, for very obvious reasons in such cases it cannot be 

 relied upon, no matter how strong individual opinion and 

 individual evidence may be. 



The owners of such establishments may be unimpeach- 

 able ; they may strive with might and main and purest 

 purpose to purge their public yards of the moral rottenness 

 and practical villany that pervade them. But " right is not 

 might." The accumulations of stable abominations in 

 ancient times required the fobled aid of a mythical deity 

 to cleanse, and as in our day moral strength and power 

 rather than physical force must be applied to effectuate a 

 parallel though dissimilar purification, it is by the force 



