A MATCH AGAINST TIME. 
117 
The defendant, who treated the matter with the greatest un- 
concern, did not deny that he had driven the horse the distance 
in the period of time stated, but said that the death of the horse 
was not attributable to over-exertion, but because it had been fed 
shortly before starting, and had been allowed to take some cold 
water at Marlborough. 
The magistrates having consulted together, acquainted the 
defendant that they were unanimous in convicting him of the 
offence charged, and that he must pay a penalty of £5..6s..(k/., 
costs included, or, in default of payment, be imprisoned for two 
months, with hard labour. 
The penalty was immediately paid. 
[It is much to be regretted that the magistrates have not the 
power to commit to prison, instead of inflicting a fine ; for in such 
a case as the present the pecuniary penalty is utterly inadequate 
to the offence : the perpetration, indeed, of such an outrage richly 
merited imprisonment, with hard labour. The name, however, 
of the defendant is known ; and his own reflections, and the 
detestation of the community, will be some, although not a 
sufficient, punishment.] 
The next is a shameful account, but the occurrence took 
place under somewhat different circumstances. 
A Horse ridden to Death. 
Carmarthen . — On Wednesday last, William Burnhall, a son of 
the governor of the county gaol of Carmarthen, appeared before 
Mr. E. H. Stacy, mayor, and Captain Davies, to answer the 
complaint of Mr. H. Thomas, the secretary of the Society for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who charged him with 
having, on the 4th of the present month, at Abergwilly, within 
the county and borough of Carmarthen, wantonly and cruelly 
ill-treated and improperly ridden a certain mare, the property of 
one Margaret Lewis, in consequence of which the said mare died, 
and whereby the said Margaret Lewis sustained damage to the 
extent of eight pounds, or thereabout. 
Mr. Thomas stated that the charge arose out of the following 
circumstances : — On the 4th current, a young nobleman was a 
prisoner at Carmarthen, and, anxious to obtain his discharge on 
that day, before the arrival of the London mail, the defendant 
was employed to go to Llandillo, to obtain a certain document 
that was required. It was necessary that this should be done 
before the arrival of the London mail, as it was feared that, if 
vol. XVI. Q 
