478 HORSE-DEALING. 



legislators ; and the laws relating to selling horses, 

 on warranty, have been, in themselves, rendered 

 as protective to the purchaser as we believe it is 

 possible for words to make them. 



But the difficulty and uncertainty in appealing 

 to these laws, lies in the difficulty and uncertainty 

 of proof, and which may be thus accounted for. 

 In the first place, no evidence is so vague and con- 

 tradictory as that given in horse causes, — and 

 even when given by perfectly disinterested persons, 

 merely such as are called upon professionally. Se- 

 condly, by their almost general ignorance of the 

 economy of the horse, either in theory or practice, 

 both judge and jury often labour under very great 

 disadvantages in their endeavours to get at the 

 truth. Moreover, what says the warranter of a 

 horse — and it is upon warranty alone that an 

 action of trouver can be brought? Why, he first 

 warrants him sound ; perhaps free from vice ; some- 

 times quiet to drive in harness, and now and then 

 a good hunter. Now there is no such equivocal 

 word in the English language as the word " sound r 

 it can be only properly used with reference to an 

 original idea, or object, and is therefore purely an 

 analogical word. As to its significations, they are 

 too numerous to mention here, nor is its derivation 

 perfectly satisfactory. If from the Latin word 

 sanus, it might be properly applied to a healthy 

 horse, but if from so?ius, a sound, or noise, it might 

 better apply to a confirmed roarer than to a horse 

 with good lungs. But what should we say to a 

 horse warranted sound asleep ? However, to be 

 serious, although it may be difficult to sound the 



