404 A HARE CHANCE FOR THE CORNER. 



happen to such men !) that Lords Wilton, Waterford, 

 Maidstone, and many others, were induced to give up 

 hunting, let their horses be sent to Tattersall's, they 

 would bring all they were worth (perhaps more) : 

 they would bring their value, because their relative 

 merits as hunters are as well known as those of Dickey 

 Misfortune as a pedestrian, or Euclid as a race-horse. 

 They often bring more, because men who buy such 

 horses do not merely consider what the horse is worth, 

 but what they choose to give to get him ; and when 

 such men thus compete with each other, the price is 

 sometimes astounding ; and if such horsemen and 

 such riders as I have mentioned and alluded to could 

 be brought to the hammer, the prices they ivould bring 

 would be a little more astounding still. 



Unquestionably a fair auction is where things are 

 to be sold, and positively sold, to the highest bidder ; 

 and if dealers in the property on sale could be ex- 

 cluded, this might be done : but while they form a 

 part of those who attend auctions, it cannot, at least 

 not in a general way. If dealers would fairly bid like 

 other persons, their money is as good as that of those 

 other persons ; but this they will rarely do : they are 

 a clique, a community, that hang together, know each 

 other's object, and combine to bring it about: so, if 

 property was always put up for unreserved sale, what 

 between their hints, their advice, their ridicule, and 

 their bullying, half the company would be deterred 

 from bidding at all; arid as dealers would not bid 

 against each other, property would be all but left to 

 their tender mercy. Dealers will often say they give 

 more for horses at an auction than anyone else there: 

 I know they do, no thanks to them : they do this when 

 they arc commissioned to buy for any gentleman: 



