286 WE ARE ALL THE SLAVES OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 



is more careful in buying ; first, because he cannot 

 afford to speculate so largely on looks as the other, 

 knowing his customers will not : so he gives no more 

 than he knows his horse is worth, and therefore can 

 afford to sell to you at something like his value : the 

 other charges you twice what he is worth even if he 

 turns out well. Thus, though, as I have said, the 

 inferior horse may disappoint you the most as to 

 looks on a second inspection, and you see you have 

 paid somewhat too much, the other will disappoint 

 you three times as much in point of his price. Good 

 or bad, in either case you will most probably lose ; 

 but your risk in buying an untried horse of the first 

 class of a fashionable dealer is truly awful, even if he 

 does not deceive you so far as the horse goes. These 

 ridiculous prices have been chiefly brought on by 

 dealers (who have capital) supplying horses on credit : 

 their customers don't care what they give, and, com- 

 paratively speaking, the dealer therefore don't care 

 what he gives to supply them. Go into one of their 

 stables, they will not open their mouths under 150/. 

 Men willing to pay, and not judges, so constantly 

 hear of these prices, that they really fancy nothing is 

 to be got under ; so they give it also : if they will, 

 the dealer is a fool if he does not make them do so. 



Let me tell gentlemen also, that in the stables of 

 second-rate respectable dealers they will very fre- 

 quently find the identical horse they had been asked 

 150/. for, standing for sale at 70., about as much as 

 ever should have been asked for him : not that he is 

 a shilling worse than he was three months since ; but 

 he has got into a stable where every customer is not 

 an 150-pounder ; nor does its master give quite such 

 unlimited credit : neither docs he (like the first-rate 



