AB UNO DISCE OMNES. 193 



other transaction. The moment a man can bring 

 himself to think there is, he would pick a pocket. 



We will now look a little into the character and 

 conduct of the regular horse-dealer. I know of no 

 class of men on whom so great and (what is much 

 more unfair) so indiscriminate a share of odium is 

 thrown as on the horse-dealer. I am free to allow 

 that if we could collect together every person em- 

 ployed, directly and indirectly, openly and covertly, 

 in the sale of horses, we should be able to exhibit to 

 the world a very tolerable (or it may perhaps be said 

 intolerable) mass of iniquity. We must not, how- 

 ever, from this draw the inference that it necessarily 

 follows all horse-dealers are dishonest. Take them 

 from the highest to the lowest, that perhaps nine out 

 of ten are more or less so, I think, is very probably 

 the case. But my humble opinion, that tradesmen 

 in any other line are pretty much the same, and 

 in about the same proportion, is not perhaps abso- 

 lutely erroneous. The only difference is this: the 

 horse-dealer cheats one man in the day to the tune 

 twenty -five pounds ; the other cheats in smaller 

 sums, a hundred in the same time and to the same 

 amount; always especially keeping the fact in our 

 minds, that in addition to his hundred customers, 

 he would be as ready as the dealer to cheat any one 

 man to the amount of the twenty-five pounds if the 

 opportunity offered. There is one circumstance that 

 ought to be taken into consideration, and pleads very 

 much in favour of the fair horse-dealer (supposing 

 our purchase from him does not answer our expect- 

 ation, or perhaps his representation), that is the 

 nature of the article in which he trades. I know 

 of no one article of trade in which a man is so often 



VOL. i. o 



