204 THE HOESE AND HIS RIDER, 



one), and to carry a halter of the usual regulation length, 

 but long enough for a single trace, without detailing the 

 various important as well as trifling services which might 

 be performed, is it not evident that the general activity 

 of the army would most materially be increased ? that, 

 in fact, this equipment would form an era in military 

 warfare ? that it would be an enormous, and, in Europe, 

 an unheard-of engine of say twenty or thirty thousand 

 horses' power, which, at a moment's warning, could 

 either be called forward or dismissed, and, after all, main- 

 tained at no expense whatever? for it must ever be kept 

 in mind, THAT WE POSSESS, AND ALWAYS HAVE POS- 

 SESSED, THE POWEK ; all that, for five and thirty years, 

 we have until lately in vain proposed, is to rouse it into 

 action. 



If the propriety and future utility of this project should 

 be admitted, there is one most important observation 

 to be made. The characteristic feature of this simple 

 harness is, that having been invented for unbroken horses, 

 it possesses the singular military advantage of being at 

 once applicable to any sort or description of horse. But 

 it is well known to every reflecting mind, that there is 

 no useful art which does not, somewhere or other, require 

 attention ; and to this general rule the American harness 

 is certainly no exception ; for though any horse will draw 

 in it, yet it does require, on the part of the rider, con- 



