52 CREDAT JUD^US. 



lated upon ; and here it becomes absolute and unqua- 

 lified brutality — for brutality I always maintain it to 

 be, where, for the sake of winning money, we subject 

 any animal to such treatment. We are frequently 

 told " the mare was pulled up showing very little 

 s^nnptom of distress :" or " the horse came in quite 

 fresh." Yes, T know what is meant by not " showing 

 symptoms of distress:" it means only that no symp- 

 toms were shown which indicated that death would 

 ensue; and "quite fresh" means that the horse 

 walked to his stable without support, which in such 

 exhibitions is not always the case. To propose or 

 undertake any match against time that it could be 

 supposed any horse, or at all events, a particular 

 horse, could perform with common exertion would in 

 no way answer the purpose of those who make a busi- 

 ness of such things : money could not be got on suffi- 

 cient to make it worth their while : but propose some 

 feat that appears almost impossible, and then the pot 

 can be made to boil. It is true it sometimes boils 

 over : may it ever do so, and may its owners be put 

 in it with a stout lid hermetically sealed ! However, 

 succeed or not, in performing such Matches it rarely 

 occurs that these unnatural exertions are made, and 

 the animal does come in, showing (or at all events 

 feelino') no symptoms of distress. The perpetrators 

 of them justly fear the execration of the public, con- 

 sequently always maintain they were done with ease. 

 I saw the conclusion of a Match about three years 

 ao-o. A horse known to be in no condition, a cripple, 

 but thorough-bred, was backed to do a gallop-match 

 of seventeen miles within the hour over one of the 

 most hilly and distressing roads (for a turnpike road) 

 England could produce, two miles of which were at 



