265 



A purchaser has no remedy in a case like this, 

 unless he can clearly prove on the part of the 

 seller, misrepresentation in the nature of deceit, 

 after an unequivocal explanation of the object for 

 which the horse is wanted. There are yet other 

 and familiar instances, in which the rule of caveat 

 emptor applies ; a purchaser may honestly avow to 

 the dealer that he wants a hunter, or a gig-horse ; 

 according to my doctrine, the dealer is bound to 

 sell him a horse that has been accustomed to 

 huntings or to draught, at the peril of an action for 

 deceit ; but this obligation is easily satisfied. The 

 purchaser may probably suspect, from the size of 

 the horse, or from his sluggishness, or other circum- 

 stances, that he is not qualified for the intended 

 work; the dealer replies, speaking of course ex 

 cathedra, "Oh, sir, that is no objection to a horse 

 for the field ; many a little horse will top a fence 

 that he cannot put his nose over, or go well in 

 harness, that is sulky in the saddle." 



Now observations of this kind amount to nothing 

 more than opinion; and are therefore, however 

 unfounded, no fraudulent misrepresentation, and 

 cannot be made the ground of an action for deceit. 

 If the dealer said that the horse would take a 

 double fence, or would trot in harness twelve miles 

 within the hour, then an action for deceit would 



