186 CRUELTIES OF HORSE DEALERS. 



the assertion, that on our experience, we believe, no body of men in this Country, 

 are in the habit of exercising so great cruelties upon the animals in their possession, 

 as the Horse-Dealers and their dependants. We do not pretend to assert that there 

 are not naturally just and humane men in that class, as in all others, but their oc- 

 cupation as it ever has been managed, tends to depress all conscience, and eradicate 

 all sensibility. 



" At the Police Office, Bow Street, on Monday, February 21, Mr. M. a 

 respectable Solicitor residing in the Adelphi, applied to the sitting Magistrate, 

 under the following circumstances- 



" A few days before, he went to Tattersall's, with the intention of buying a 

 Horse, and he soon found one whose paces and appearance pleased him much, but 

 he was determined to have nothing to do with it, if it was in the hands of a Dealer, 

 which he told the man who had the care of it. The man assured him it was the 

 property of a retired Merchant, Mr. Hazeltine, who had considerable estates in 

 Hertfordshire, and a Town -house in Jewiii Street, where he was occasionally to be 

 seen, and that he himself was Mr. H's. Groom. Mr. M. was satisfied with this 

 assurance, paid forty guineas for the horse, and sent his servant home with it to 

 the Adelphi. On riding the horse however, the next day, he found the poor animal 

 was greatly distressed with the slightest exertion, notwithstanding it appeared to 

 go freely, and to be in good bodily health. He was at a loss to account for this, 

 till at length, some friend suggested that, it had probably been plugged, and re- 

 commended that the shoes should be taken off, in order to ascertain the fact. Its 

 shoes were taken off accordingly, and it was found that under one of the shoes on 

 the fore feet, a hole had been made through the horny substance of the hoof, to the 

 quick, in which hole a small plug of iron had been placed, and the whole covered 

 the shoe, so that when the foot was put to the ground, the poor animal was in great 

 pain. The horse, it appeared, had been previously lame in the other foot, and 

 this inhuman practice had been resorted to, to prevent him shewing his lame- 

 ness, by making him use both legs alike. Mr. M. added that it was a new invention 

 among fraudulent horse-dealers, and he feared it was too generally practised. He 

 also discovered that the fellow of whom he bought the horse, had falsely represented 

 himself as a Gentleman's servant." 



Alas ! this is no new practice, but it is one of those infernal tricks which has 

 helped to bring torture and misery upon this victim-race, during many centuries 

 past. It may be found in that abominable code of torture and trickery published 

 in the days of Elizabeth and James, by Gervaise Markliam, which every proprietor 

 of Horses should, if possible, keep out of the way of his grooms and blacksmith. 

 What a consideration ! that numberless such cruelties were in full operation and 

 usage, in times when religious observances were at the height, and claimed 



