BIPEDS AND QUADKUPEDS. 



47 



or gentleman, with four of the best of Newman's 

 posters, go there at a pace distressing to a certain 

 degree even to them, each driver of a wretched hired 

 gig, or owner of some miserable under-sized, over- 

 worked, half-fed animal, tries to go the same, and 

 this I have heard called the " fun of the road ;" 

 fun, yes I should call it fun too, if I could see such 

 owners harnessed each to his own vehicle. It may 

 be said, if a proprietor does not mind causing his 

 own horses to be improperly used or driven, those 

 using them need not trouble themselves about the 

 matter ; this may at first appear as really sound logic, 

 nay, a truism ; it is no such thing, it is bringing for- 

 ward fallacious excuse for, and in defence of, what 

 is indefensible. If the postmaster orders that his 

 horses shall not be spared, what induces him to do 

 so ? cupidity. He holds the pleasing an influential 

 customer, of far greater importance to him than 

 any distress his horses may undergo ; so, according 

 to the logic alluded to, because a man may direct an 

 act of brutality to be committed, another is to hold 

 himself excused in making himself a brute also, by 



