blv been less felt than in any country on the 

 globe*. 



It may be said, indeed, that the food wasted 

 in luxurious preparation, or consumed by the 

 lower Animals, i i common years, is a resource 

 in time of scarcity, only on the supposition that 

 the waste is then retrenched, and the consump- 

 tion of the .lower animals diminished or sus- 

 pended at such a season ; whereas, the rich, it 

 may be said, will continue to pamper them- 

 selves and their useless horses, though the peo- 

 ple should starve. But to this it may be re- 

 plied, that the interests s of the public are for- 

 tunately not left to depend on the feelings of 

 moral duty on such occasions, but are enforced 



* The consumption of the aggregate number of horses kept in 

 Great Britain, has been calculated by a very competent judge, 

 Dr Coventry, Professor of Agriculture in the University of Edin- 

 burgh, in an estimate which he has favoured me with, at the pro. 

 duce of sixteen millions of acres, which, at the rate of four quar- 

 ters per acre, might yield sixty-four millions of quarters of grain. 

 In thus explaining, however, the useof a number of horses, or other 

 inferior animals, I would not be understood to approve of that 

 waste of labour which we often see, especially in England, in the 

 employment of unnecessary horses for carriage or agriculture. 

 These, in regard to labour, are absolutely useless, yielding neither 

 profit nor pleasure ; and though the keeping of them we see has 

 some advantage, it is paying too dear for it. We might as well 

 throw the grain they consume into the sea. Besides, if dismissed, 

 they would probably not altogether disappear^ but be turned to 

 more useful purposes. 



