234 BAD JUDGMENT. 



very bad taste to offer another gentleman a less price 

 for his horse than that demanded; and, indeed, I don't 

 understand on what grounds this could reasonably be 

 done, for as a general rule one private gentleman is 

 very loth to accept the superior judgment of another, 

 on the matter of the worth of his own horses, and will 

 be sure to refuse to entertain such a proposal. But 

 when a dealer respectfully puts forward that he pur- 

 chases horses merely with a view of selling them at a 

 profit, and therefore that he must clearly purchase at a 

 price considerably below their market value, or become 

 a loser by the transaction, any reasonable gentleman 

 will at once see the justice of the remark, and submit 

 to meeting the dealer's view of the worth of his horses, 

 if he considers the offer sufficiently liberal; and it is for 

 this reason that I assert that the dealer can afford 

 to sell horses at fully as cheap a rate as the private in- 

 dividual. 



A gentleman requiring a hunter frequently visits 

 the large horse fairs in search of one, and chooses from 

 among some hundreds of animals, unless he be a good 

 judge, one which he thinks — and the seller says — is a 

 hunter; but which will frequently prove an animal 

 of no pretensions — either from his action, formation, or 

 blood — to the appellation of a hunter; but either a 

 harness horse, charger, or hack. 



He will be pretty sure to be asked, and to give the 

 price of a hunter for such an animal ; and perhaps he 

 will not find out his mistake until the horse has cost 

 him some twenty pounds in keep and travelling ex- 



