32 WARRANTY. 



the insular position of the word * warranted' in 

 the following notice: ' To be sold, a black geld- 

 ing, five years old ; has been constantly driven 

 in the plough — warranted,' the warranty was 

 held to apply to soundness alone. 



" Unsoundness is a term the exact limits of 

 which are not very clearly defined. According 

 to Lord Ellenborough, any infirmity which 

 renders a horse less fit for present use or con- 

 venience, is an unsoundness. This doctrine was 

 laid down by his lordship in a case which turned 

 upon an alleged lameness, and wherein it was 

 admitted by a witness for the defendant, that one 

 of the fore legs had been bandaged, because it 

 was weaker than the other : upon this admission, 

 the verdict in favour of the plaintiff seems to 

 have been founded : and it was then observed by 

 the court to constitute unsoundness, it is not 

 essential that the infirmity should be of a per» 

 manent nature ; it is sufl&cient if it render the 

 animal for the time unfit for service; as for instance, 

 a cough, which renders it for the time less use- 

 ful, and may ultimately prove fatal. Now this 

 decision appears to contradict a prior one, in 

 which Eyre, C. J., held, that a slight lameness 

 occasioned by the horse having taken up a nail 



