150 





at encountering all the trouble and expense of a 

 prosecution ; nor would it perhaps be easy to 

 establish the legal criminality of their conduct ; a 

 timid magistrate, or an indulgent jury, would 

 reduce it to a mere debt of twenty guineas, or call 

 it a "debt of honour !" When you have chosen 

 your horse, before you part with a farthing of the 

 price, learn something of the seller: if this is diffi- 

 cult, remember that it is just as easy to send his 

 horse to your stables, as for you to try it from his. 

 If this is declined, walk away as fast as your legs 

 can carry you. You are in a dangerous position, 

 after once confessing to a chaunter that you like 

 his horse. Canning's eloquence was a hundred 

 degrees less persuasive, than the wily speeches of 

 an ostler under such auspicious circumstances. 



I strongly recommend the horse to be taken 

 away in the seller's saddle and bridle : a demur is 

 often made to the inconvenience, but explain the 

 reason, and no respectable dealer will object to the 

 loan. To buy a new saddle for an untried horse, 

 is throwing away money ; and though saddle-trees 

 are now usually made in a form to suit most horses 

 of the average size, it is not improbable that the 

 back would be galled by a long ride in a saddle 

 out of your own harness-room. Should this hap- 

 pen, any dealer is fairly entitled to refuse the 



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