214 



EVILS OF MODERN STABLES. 



moved and, as they part, the corn falls over them upon the ground. 

 This may not be a very exciting recreation; but the prisoner is restless 

 with rtpletion. It cannot sleep ; and the grain passing over the lips, 

 in which equine feeling concentrates, produces a slight and a novel sen- 

 sation. 



■WASTING CORN. 



Can any man seriously pronounce that an animal, standing in enforced 

 solitude and compulsory idleness, is to blame for such conduct ? Boys, 

 during their school days, when wanting appetite, or having unnecessary 

 food before them, will not they, in satiety, play with needless abundance ? 

 Are men to demand that prudence from an animal which we should cer- 

 tainly not anticipate in the young of our own species ? Yet the child 

 enjoys a certain amount of confidence; and its misdoing is, therefore, 

 aggravated by a certain abuse of trust. The horse is confined between 

 boards, and enjoys not the smallest personal liberty. The severity of 

 captivity argues that no reliance reposes upon the captive's discretion. 

 All responsibility is lost, when all freedom of action is denied. Yet the 

 poor prisoner is cruelly beaten for playing with food, although the true 

 fault rested upon him who was too idle to give the exercise which would 

 have generated appetite ; and was too lazy to proportion the animal's 

 sustenance to the requirements of its situation. 



Moreover, if we had listened to the man's speech, as he entered the 

 servants' hall, we should have heard a boast, that the horse had been 

 given a good supper. Now, when a thing is given, all right of owner- 

 ship passes away with the transfer. The groom, obviously, lost every 

 remnant of title to its possession when he presented the corn to the 

 animal as a free gift; and the beating which he administered to the 

 quadruped was, therefore, an act of wanton severity. The horse had as 



