290 



upon the contrariety of opinions upon unsoundness 

 as they may happen to be expressed by dealers, 

 farriers, or purchasers: all these parties are too 

 much interested in the question for their opinions 

 to deserve implicit confidence ; but it certainly is 

 much to be lamented that our courts of law have 

 not laid dovv^n some uniform decision upon the sub- 

 ject which might guide all parties to a sound dis- 

 cretion in considering the policy of an appeal to a 

 jury : it not only would save jurymen the trouble 

 of long and painful consideration upon the value 

 of evidence, but would prevent a multiplicity of 

 perjury in horse causes, that are now unfortunately 

 proverbial for it. 



What then is the meaning of soundness ? When 

 the word is applied to a horse, we have seen that 

 in the case of Coltherd v. Puncheon, " good," 

 means '^good in all particulars." 



In quoting 1 Rolls Abridg. p. 90, Mr. Justice 

 Lawrence appears, we have seen, to consider 

 *' secret maladies" as the essential ingredient in 

 unsoundness. 



In two cases already quoted, Elton v. Brogden 

 and Shillito v. Claridge, Lord Ellenborough gives 

 his opinion that, ^' if a horse is affected by any 

 malady which renders him less serviceable for a 

 permanency, it is unsoundness ;" and again, that 



