164 ON PURCHASE AND SALE. 



duty to ftate, that I have heard of treachery and 

 difiionefty in fome of that clafs, by whom the 

 intereftofa mailer has been facrificed to the 

 dealer for a bribe. Inferior horfes have been 

 in that way puflied ofiF, at high prices, and valu- 

 able ones fold for no juft caufe, and very little 

 money. Perhaps it is as fafe a method as anyj 

 for a gentleman firfl of all to make enquiry into 

 the prices current, and to truft the remainder of 

 the bufinefs to a dealer of repute, allowing him 

 fufficient time, and giving a very minute de- 

 fcription of the kind of horfe wanted. Under 

 fuch circumftances, it would be the intereft of a 

 dealer to aft honourably, and I fhould fuppofe 

 the purfuit of that kind of bufmefs would turn 

 to much better account in the end, than the 

 filly praftice of many dealers, who w^arrant all 

 the horfes they fell to be good ones. 



The convenience of repcfitories in town, as a 

 point of meeting between buyers and fellers, is 

 indubitable. The conftant and material quef- 

 tion, with thofe who want a ferviceable horfe, is 

 — how far a repofitory may be depended upon 

 in that refpeft ? That will beft appear from a 

 (Isetch of what is generally to be found there : 

 to wit, fecond-hand horfes, and occafionally a 

 few frefli country horfes, which the neceflities 

 of fome of the dealers, or other accidental cir- 

 cumftances, may have brought thither. Second- 

 hand horfes, or fuch as have already paffed the 



ordeal 



