FOR PEACE AND WAR. 105 



alone of reason, enlightenment, and public opinion such a 

 desirable object as the abolition of present irregularities (a 

 mild phrase for the sleepless scheming that pervades and 

 surcharges livery, commission, and auction marts where 

 such characters as I hint at " most do congregate ") can be 

 attained. 



Private sellers and buyers suffer a common grievance 

 from the reason of wrong to both. A majority of vendors 

 acd purchasers of horses have heretofore felt their inferio- 

 rity of judgment in such dealings, while only the common 

 means of redress (if redress it can be called) was at their 

 option. How were they guarded ? What resources had 

 they ? The buyer was all right so long as he could afford 

 to pay the prices which a hrst-class dealer's enormous 

 expenses necessarily demands. Truly, the expensive but 

 respectable horse-dealer is a boon to the wealthy, and 

 but for the many extraneous circumstances that compel 

 him to charge " two prices," might also be useful to less 

 favoured sons of fortune. But he must charge extrava- 

 gantly, or submit to be ruined. His legitimate expenses 

 are something colossal, his risks appalling ; and, let us 

 add, his outgoings for "Tip" beyond computation. To 

 secure custom and sales he has not only to please his in- 

 tending purchaser, but the friends (?) who are often seen 

 at the elbows of the great : the groom, the coachman, 

 and the helpers too, are hypophagists. To meet the 

 rapacity of "hangers-on," retainers, &c., the dealer is in 

 self-defence compelled to " put it on," by asking and getting 

 more than his horse is worth intrinsically, else he should 

 have to pay the indispensable " tip " from legitimate profits, 

 which would be simply ruinous ! Who suffers by all this ? 

 Why, the buyer, Avho, either begrudging the moderate 

 legitimate fee of a clever " commissioner," whose practical 

 experience renders his valuation accurate, or dreading that 



