508 HORSE-DEALING. 



of this kind of honesty that it should pass current 

 amongst all persons who sell horses, inasmuch as 

 their faults are often of a nature known only to 

 themselves, in which case the purchaser has no se- 

 curity from imposition but in the ingenuousness and 

 integrity of the seller. 



Then, another argument in favour of the horse- 

 dealer, is, the fact of there being no law or rule to 

 define his profit. No one horse forms a criterion 

 for the value of another, and the circumstances 

 under which horses are sold, are so different, that 

 the better horse is oftentimes purchased for the 

 smaller price. The value of a race-horse, for ex- 

 ample, has never been defined, and hunters vary 

 much in price, depending as much perhaps on the 

 whim of the purchaser, and the independence of 

 the seller, as on the character of the horse itself. 

 But this is not the case with the tradesman who 

 opens a shop, who, although the goods are his own, 

 and it might be imagined he had a right to pre- 

 scribe the terms upon which he would consent to 

 part with them, yet by the very act of exposing 

 them to public sale, he virtually engages to deal 

 with his customers at a market price. This, it is 

 true, is an implied, and not an absolute contract ; 

 nevertheless, the breach of it constitutes fraud. 

 The horse-dealer, however, disclaims any such en- 

 gagement in his traffic with the public, and there- 

 fore sets what value he pleases upon his articles, 

 and obtains the highest price within his reach. 



But a horse-dealer, on his defence, goes into a 

 Court of Justice, like a dog with a bad name, by the 



