SHIPMENT OF HORSES TO THE CRIMEA. 297 
substance upon which they stood. Now, if such a precau- 
tion were necessary in a voyage to Spain, how much more 
must it be required in a voyage to Constantinople, although 
it has been entirely overlooked or disregarded? With the 
sad experience of last year before us — and I am inclined, 
from what I have heard, to believe that the mischief was far 
greater than has come to light — and with all the endeavours 
of disinterested individuals, many of them possessing prac- 
tical experience, the government is about to consign 7j500 
cavalry horses to the same risks and treatment of a system 
which, because it was the one adopted for sending horses to 
Spain more than 40 years ago, must be the one to be em- 
ployed for sending horses to Constantinople now ! At this 
season of the year, when gales of wind are prevalent, these 
poor horses are to be six weeks on their legs, if they are for- 
tunate enough to have even a fair average passage, and, 
about the end of June, the survivors of them may be suffi- 
ciently recovered — if not attacked with some incurable dis- 
order, like fever in the feet — to commence a preparation of 
exercise and drill to fit them to carry a dragoon, who, when 
accoutred, is some 20 stone in the saddle, to the field of 
battle. Let us hope, rather, that the war may long be over 
before our brave soldiers’ lives are endangered by trusting 
them to steeds whose physical powers must be unequal to 
their duties from sheer want of condition. I have no doubt 
that if this subject, so fraught with important results, had 
been fairly considered by practical men, and who would have 
investigated the capabilities of steam -vessels, and the ap- 
pliances that might be brought into requisition — such, for 
instance, as making an arrangement for a portion of the 
horses to lie clown, say every third or fourth night — that 
with very little extra room the horses might have been con- 
veyed to the Crimea, not only in safet} r , but in a condition 
for immediate use. In the year 1836, the late Lord George 
Bentinck taught us the use of vans for carrying race horses 
with facility from place to place, and now it seldom happens 
that a race horse travels in any other way. Necessity in- 
duced his lordship to try the experiment, by taking Elis 
from Goodwood to Doncaster in that year, and by which 
means only he succeeded in carrying off the St. Leger. 
However, if such a .horse had been in the hands of the 
government, reasoning from their modus operandi , he would 
never have reached his destination till after the race. 
Yours, &c. W. J. Goodwin. 
Hampton Court. 
[With these facts before us, we may reasonably ask — of 
what use is Mr. Roebuck’s Committee? — Ed. Bellas 
xxviii. 38 
