490 
MILITARY VETERINARY POLITICS. 
since been proved by a more recent examination made by the Ve- 
terinary Surgeon of the 13th Light Dragoons. 
To give your honourable House an idea of the manner in which 
public money is wasted in the purchase of unserviceable horses, 
your Petitioner begs to state that he was ordered by Colonel 
Jackson to cast thirty-seven troop horses in the short space of 
seven months; of that number, nearly one-third had scarcely 
averaged one year and eight months’ service. Petitioner cannot 
believe that the Commanding Officer has the discretionary power 
of obliging his private friends with the choice of horses from the 
ranks after they have become Government property. According 
to the 36th Clause of the Regulations for Veterinary Duties, “ no 
horse is to be cast or discharged from the service without being 
immediately accounted for.” In proof of this, when the present 
Adjutant was promoted, and requested permission to take his troop 
horse as a charger, paying the regulated price, the sanction of the 
Commander in Chief was a necessary requirement; and yet an 
instance can be furnished wherein a lady was allowed by Colonel 
Jackson to select and take away a troop horse (upon which con- 
siderable time and expense in breaking and feeding, &c. &c. had 
been incurred) from the regiment, for which a three-year-old horse 
was substituted. 
If proof be required by your honourable House of the inconsist- 
ency of the authorities, in the rigid adherence to one rule and 
departure from another, your Petitioner would most respectfully 
oppose the severe reprimand received by him for doing his duty 
by the mention of a marked censure passed by the Commander in 
Chief on Colonel Jackson, in consequence of his having enlisted 
into the corps two recruits, against whom no allegation could be 
produced, save that each was half an inch over the authorised 
standard of height, wherein Colonel Jackson was required forthwith, 
at his own cost, to purchase the discharge of said recruits, and for- 
ward them to their homes. This being an established fact, Pe- 
titioner would have thought that Colonel Jackson should have 
been called upon to endure the consequence of his own mismanage- 
ment and stubbornness in the purchase of the unsound horses. 
Your Petitioner being dissatisfied with the treatment he had from 
time to time received, and in order that he might proceed from 
Dublin to London, with a view, if possible, to obtain an exchange, 
Petitioner made personal application to Colonel Jackson, requesting 
him to procure a month’s leave of absence, which Colonel Jackson 
distinctly refused, remarking, “Your conduct of late does not 
warrant any indulgence from me; and, let me tell you, I don’t want 
to interfere with your professional character, but the two regiments 
