VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
87 
Mr. Williams then addressed the bench for the defendant. 
He contended that the evidence had failed to bring the case 
within the terms of the statute so as to support a charge of 
cruelty, and that the defendant had done no more than was 
done every day upon a race-course or in hunting. He sub- 
mitted that the fact of the task being undertaken in pur- 
suance of a wager did not at all alter the complexion of the 
case, and he said that although it was very possible that the 
animal was distressed considerably during the undertaking, 
yet that the evidence upon that point had been very much 
exaggerated. It was true that the defendant had undertaken 
for a wager that the pony should be driven from Oxford to 
London and back ; but it was, at the same time, perfectly 
evident that he had taken all the precautions in his power, 
by preparing baiting places during the night, and otherwise, 
to refresh the animal, and enable it to perform its task with 
as little distress as possible. In conclusion, he said he 
trusted that if the magistrates should feel themselves com- 
pelled to come to the conclusion that the defendant had 
brought himself within the scope of the statute, that they 
would inflict a pecuniary fine, and not pass a sentence of 
imprisonment, which to a person in the position of the de- 
fendant would occasion total and inevitable ruin. 
The following witnesses were then examined for the defence. 
Ephraim Ashby, the person referred to by the former 
witness, Blackwell, deposed that he was the keeper of a toll- 
gate near Oxford, and knew the defendant. He happened 
to be at Beaconsfield by accident, w 7 hen he drove by on his 
return from London, and he said that the pony was trotting 
cheerfully along at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour. 
Being anxious to get home, he asked the defendant to give 
him a lift, but he told him he could not, as he wished to be 
in Oxford by nine o’clock. He was quite sure that the pony 
did not stagger along the road, and that the defendant did 
not whip him. 
In answer to a question put by Mr. Thomas, the w itness said 
that the defendant told him he was driving the pony for a 
match, and that he had to be in Oxford by nine o’clock. 
George Symonds, a livery-stable keeper, at Oxford, said 
that he was walking along the street when the pony came in, 
and he declared that it looked so fresh, that he should not have 
thought that it had gone thirty miles, if he had not been 
aw r are it had gone such a long distance. He saw the pony 
unharnessed and rubbed dowrn, and he observed no wheals 
on the sides, and there did not appear to be anything the 
matter with it, and he believed the pony could have gone 
