106 THE HORSE. 



improving the breed, of horses — no effect in testing any thing, 

 nnless it be how far the rapacious cruelty of man will drive him, 

 in tormenting the noblest of animals ; and how far the spirit of 

 the animal can be made to strive toward the performance of 

 what is physically impossible, under obedience to the man's 

 sordid lust of lucre. 



It is never the educated man, the true turfman, the breeder, 

 the lover, the friend of the valuable animal which he owns, and 

 in whose vigor and beauty, no less than in whose triumphs he 

 rejoices, that is concerned in such cruelties as this ; and it is 

 rarely indeed, I am happy to say, on a course of any kind, that 

 they are accomplished. 



Nine times out of ten such matches are made up by the low- 

 est of the low — the hangers-on and outsiders of the lowest sta- 

 bles — thimble-riggers, bonnets, and sporting men of the dog- 

 fighting and bear-baiting order ; and the object of them is, 

 solely, to win money. 



If the money to be won is larger than the value of the 

 animal to be killed, killed it is — with as little remorse as a com- 

 pany of grenadiers is sacrificed by a great general, that he 

 may win a pitched battle, and finish a campaign at a blow. 



It has been now ascertained that horses can do a hundred 

 miles within ten hours ; and if one horse can, then others can ; 

 and we may be sure that the best bred, the fleetest, the gamest 

 of spirit, and the stoutest of muscle and bone, are those which 

 will accomplish it ; if there be need and cause, for life or death, 

 why it must be accomplished. 



Of one thing, at least, one may rest very certain — that a 

 horse which has once done it will rarely if ever do it again ; and 

 that to all serviceable purposes, it is, and ever will be, a dam- 

 aged and inferior creature in all time to come. 



For the benefit of the good souls who stand aghast at the 

 idea of fast horses, who regard speed as immoral, and a fast 

 horse as a delusion and a snare, let it be known, that pace, 

 although it be technically said to hill, never yet was known to 

 kill any thing, at short distances; but must be combined with 

 time and distance,before it can inflict torture and death ! Let 

 it be known, that ninety-nine horses have been driven to death, 

 or decrepitude, at a very slow pace, far below a mile in four 



