BIPEDS AND QUADKUPEDS. 53 



powers are prostrated, it is as useless as it is absurd, 

 unsportsmanlike, ungentlemanly, and brutal. As I 

 shall have again to mention gentlemen riders, under 

 another head of cruelty, I drop the subject as regards 

 them for the present. 



It would not be to the purpose of the present essay, 

 to mention the thousand and one nefarious acts that 

 are practised in racing matters : ordinary dishonesty 

 is a virtue in comparison with them; my object here 

 is only such as cause suffering to a noble animal. 

 Persons unacquainted with such matters might very 

 naturally suppose that the principal cause of suffering 

 to the race horse, steeple-chaser, or any horse running 

 for money, would be his being unmercifully punished 

 to make, or to endeavour to make him win ; but the 

 direct reverse is often the fact, the most shamefully 

 and brutally punished animal I ever had the un- 

 pleasantry of seeing, was one that it was quite in- 

 tended and indeed decided on should lose. Many 

 might suppose that to lose a race, nothing more 

 would be wanting than to abstain from calling the 

 best powers of the horse into action ; and the in- 



