HORSE WARRANTY. 35 



lawyers) hardly considor tins ; they quote all tho 

 seller or dealer says as ho buttons up tho cheque 

 in his pocket, as if that coidd in any. way be a 

 warranty. Some dealers and horse-sellers say all 

 sorts of things when copeing or selling a horse, 

 but they confine themselves to pulf, and never 

 commit themselves to any statement of a fact as 

 to the subject of the deal. It is not untQ the 

 bargain is entu-ely over that they comfort the 

 buyer by statements which he fondly looks upon as 

 warranties, but wliich cannot be so considered (f). 

 Care then should be taken by tho buyer to have 

 every statement he proposes to rely on made dis- 

 tinctly before the bargain is closed. It is some- 

 times difficult to say when this happens. Paying 

 the money is not always the completion of tho 

 contract in a legal sense. There are many ways by 

 which the final settlement is arrived at. In Wales 

 and in many Western fairs, no bargain is considered 

 final until both parties strike or clasp one another's 

 hands firmly over thcii' chaffer, and to a jury in 

 those parts evidence of such a hand-shake would 

 be conclusive that that was the moment the trans- 

 action became ratified : even supposing the money 

 not to pass for a month, everything said respecting 

 the horse that was bought and sold up to that 

 moment would be evidence for a court of law, 

 whereas any statements, subsequent to such hand- 



(e) Boscorla v. Thomas, 3 Q. B. 234. 



d2 



