132 THE HORSE. • 



to discover and declare, that if trials of speed be prohibited to 

 trotters in the next quarter of a century, the trotter will be as 

 nearly extinguished in the North and the West, as the thorough- 

 bred now is ; and that, as the men of 1856 have seen trotting half- 

 breds take the place, on Long Island and in New Jersey, of the 

 noble thoroughbred stallions of 1826, so will the men of 1886 

 see cart and Conestoga stallions, in the place of the Morgans 

 and the Black Hawks of to-day. 



Whether the Agricultural Societies who esteem speed as a 

 crime in a horse, just as their Puritan ancestors held beauty in 

 a woman a delusion and a snare, accept the consequence of their 

 action, as a desirable conclusion, and " a consummation devoutly 

 to be wished," or no — it is the certain and legitimate conclusion 

 thereof. 



Kit bo persisted in, the same Thebans, who rejoice and con- 

 sider it " a Providence " that there is not a " four-mile-heater," 

 north of the Potomac, will have equal cause to rejoice, within 

 another quarter of a century, that there is not a horse that can 

 trot his mile within four minutes, or do his eight miles, instead 

 of his twenty, within the hour. 



This will be their deed ; but they must not expect to be able 

 to shelter themselves from the just reproach of the country, or 

 from the silent scorn of time, by any plea, such as Macbeth's to 

 bleeding Banquo's shadow — 



" Thou canst not say I did it ; " 



for it is already found as a true bill of indictment against them, 

 and there are those awake to the subject, who will suffer no 

 nolle prosequi to be entered up for their protection, from the 

 consequences of their more than moon-struck madness. 



Persons who only see the trotting-horse as he now exists, an 

 established institution of the country, and perhaps remember 

 that within their own memory, time has been brought down 

 from 2m. 4:0s. to the as yet unequalled, though we may not 

 doubt to be surpassed hereafter, 2m. 24^s. of Flora Temple, will 

 doubtless be astonished to learn how modern is the date of this 

 celebrated creation, and how recent the establishment of trotting 

 courses, and the proclamation of purses for trotters. 



