BREAKING AND TRAINING. It5 



a loose box and of granting the 'prisoner more than half a year of rest. 

 He never appears to think, nor does his employer seem to think for him, 

 whether such a notion be possible. No one, apparently, questions 

 whether stagnation can be a punishment to the living embodiment of 

 muscular activity ! We see the heads of quadrupeds, wearing the im- 

 press of dejection and looking the images of hopeless misery, hanging 

 over the doors of their cells ; but no one reads the lessons which such 

 melancholy spectacles plainly indicate. The language of truth is not 

 understood, and cruelty is perpetuated by ignorance. 



When such things are general through the land, is it not justice which 

 has stigmatized England as "the hell of horses?" Does not the heart 

 shudder, as it contemplates the sufferings which have for ages been per- 

 petrated upon the most generous and most self-sacrificing of man's 

 many helpmates ? Why doom a quadruped to months of positive stag- 

 nation? What is it that converts the intended generosity, where the 

 horse is concerned, into an excuse for actual torture ? Why is every act 

 and every intent, when directed to this creature, made to augment and 

 to increase its present load of most unmerited suffering ? 



Wherefore should the hunter, when the season is over, be shut up or 

 cast aside, as though its life or its feelings were unworthy of considera- 

 tion ? It would be better for the quadruped's health and its happiness, 

 if the attentions to its personal comfort were continued. It would repay 

 the trouble, were it regularly groomed, and fed upon the stable proven- 

 der. Not turned into a box; its body being, for half a year, uncleansed, 

 and its health being debilitated by a superabundance of green fodder. 

 It would thrive better, were it gently hacked by a considerate proprietor. 

 Taken out occasionally, and quietly ridden down the shady green lanes 

 of the neighborhood. Never bustled, but sometimes breathed over an 

 even piece of turf. Ridden always for pleasure, but never saddled when 

 business is to be transacted. Such a life might not allow the groom so 

 much leisure ; but it would materially lessen his labors when the hunting 

 season approached. The animal would need but little ^^ conditioning.''^ 

 Improper sustenance would not have induced dropsy; nor would the 

 joints have stiffened by a long period of enforced inactivity. 



In conclusion, no horse should be considered fit for general purposes 

 until it has been educated to stand fire, — to hear the rush of sudden 

 noises without alarm, and to remain quiet while a railway whistle is 

 sounded by its rider. Were such things taught, how much misery 

 would be avoided I But the public, as a body, have no faith in good- 

 ness, although they profess to believe that the All-good is the All-wise. 



Does it not sound like a fabrication, to say that in the land where 

 many barbarities are openly practiced by the higher orders of society, 



