80 
first and second qualifications will not avail 
in very fast work for any length of time. 
The hunter and racer are good or bad, 
chiefly in proportion to their powers of 
respiration; and such is the case with the 
road-coach horse.” 
The practical disappearance from our 
country of such horses as those used in 
the mail and ordinary coaches and in post 
carriages was nothing short of a national 
calamity. They were horses of the essen- 
tially useful stamp, sound, hardy and endur- 
ing, just such animals as are indispensable 
for cavalry, artillery, and transport work on 
a campaign. And though the full import- 
ance of the loss which had befallen us was 
evident, the difficulties in the way of retriev- 
ing our position as breeders was not less 
evident. The breeding of horses had ceased 
to be remunerative, and as a natural conse- 
quence men had ceased to breed them, 
preferring to devote their energies and 
capital to stock of a stamp for which they 
could depend upon finding a market. Any 
horses of the useful class that were produced 
found their way, if worth having, into the 
hands of foreigners, as we have seen. 
In March, 1887, Lord Ribblesdale took 
the matter up and in a very able speech 
