THE DANGER OF GIVING AN OPINION. 349 



The one is, that you can never get them to tell you 

 what they think your horse is worth or likely to bring : 

 the other, that they will not tell to whom the horses 

 or any particular horse belongs that may be standing 

 with them for sale. This, I grant, looks like a want 

 of candid, fair, and straightforward conduct ; in fact, 

 looks like a little hocus-pocus, that causes suspicion 

 with the inquirer. It is quite true that the observa- 

 tion is a correct one ; and equally so, that, till it is 

 explained, it has a very suspicious look. Doubtless 

 this concealment is frequently made for nefarious pur- 

 poses, but not always : in fact, except in particular 

 cases it is necessary, and that necessity arises more 

 from the fault of the customer than the salesman. 



We will suppose a gentleman takes a horse to show 

 any owner of a Repository, and values him (as a 



middling price) at sixty: he asks Mr. what he 



thinks the horse is worth : we will just see the 



predicament Mr. would put himself in if he gave 



his opinion. If he stated that he considered the 

 horse worth more than the owner did, the latter 

 would be afterwards disappointed, and consider him- 

 self ill-used if on further inspection it was found 

 the horse would not bring that sum ; indeed, he would 

 most probably consider some chicanery had been used 

 towards him : and if, on the contrary, the salesman 

 valued him at less than the owner (and which in most 

 cases he might very fairly do), he would be set down 

 either as a bad judge or a rogue ; and very probably 

 the owner would at once ride away, hoping to find a 

 more promising market. Now, though a good judge 

 will go very near the mark as to the value of a young 

 sound fresh horse in a fair, it is not generally this 

 description of horse that is sent to a Repository : on 



