184 



MULES. 



obvious, that their general use in husbandry, at the 

 same time, would follow as a necessary consequence. 

 It cannot be expected therefore, but that the Dutch 

 and Germans who have emigrated to our country, 

 should bring with them such strong predilections for 

 the horse, which have continued with most of their 

 descendants, especially in those sections where com- 

 munities of that respectable and industrious portion of 

 our population have been located. In Great Britain, 

 to the causes which have produced the effects described 

 on the continent, may be added the insular position 

 of the United Kingdoms, vulnerable from numberless 

 and distant points, the horse Has been considered, in 

 connexion with the unconquerable spirit of the nation, 

 as one of the most efficient means of repelling inva- 

 sion: a circumstance that would of itself be sufficient 

 to account for the over-weaning attachment to this 

 animal. But identified as his services have been for a 

 long period, with the convenience, sports, and recrea- 

 tions, of all ranks and classes, and the science of 

 breeding and training, forming a characteristic feature, 

 it could not excite surprise, if the approach of that 

 terrible spectre famine, should produce little or no effect 

 in the reduction of the number. And although some 

 of the most distinguished characters in the nation, 

 eminent for their practical knowledge in rural econ- 

 omy, have been for half a century advocating the 

 substitution of the ox for the purposes of agriculture, 

 and demonstrating the feasibility, economy, and vast 

 saving of food, yet it is said the number of labouring 

 oxen have lately diminished and horses increased. 

 Five millions of the latter are now supposed to subsist 

 in the United Kingdom, and two-thirds employed in 

 husbandry consuming, at a moderate estimate, the 



