500 HORSE-DEALING. 



" Broken wind"' is easily discoverable ; and it is 

 only amongst the most disreputable of the frater- 

 nity that it is ever attempted to be concealed, 

 which can be done for a few hours, by adminis- 

 tering a certain quantity of lead, which, by its 

 pressure, checks the violent action of the abdomi- 

 nal muscles, or what is called heaving of the flanks. 

 But " roaring," " wheezing," and " thick wind," 

 are by no means always discoverable in a common 

 trial of a horse, such as a dealer is disposed to 

 give, on a good sound road. Nothing but a gallop 

 over soft ground, or against a hill, can be depended 

 upon in certain stages and degrees of either of these 

 complaints. 



Dealing on a Sunday. — "All dealings and con- 

 tracts which are made on a Sunday by persons in 

 their ordinary calling are declared void by the 

 Stat. 29, Charles IL, c. 7, § 2 ; and, independent 

 of the illegality of the act, dealing on that day 

 is not a very respectable occupation. However, if 

 the person who buys or sells on a Sunday is not 

 thereby following his ordinary calling, the law will 

 not set aside the contract. 



Lord Mansfield said, in the case of Drury ^. 

 Defontaine, where an objection was made that the 

 contract for sale took place on a Sunday — " The 

 bargaining and selling horses on a Sunday is cer- 

 tainly a very indecent thing, and what no religious 

 person would do ; but we cannot discover that the 

 law has gone so far as to say, that every contract 

 made on a Sunday shall be void, although, under 

 these penal statutes, if any man, in the exercise 



