HQR 
HORSE. Se Equus. 
Horse dealers. Every person exercising 
the trade or busiuess of an horse-dealer, 
must take out a licence from the Stamp 
Office, for which he shall pay annually, il 
within London, Westminster, the bills of 
mortality, the parish of St. Pancras, or the 
borough of Southwark, twenty pounds ; 
elsewhere, ten pounds. 
Horse-dealers who shall, after January 1 , 
1796, carry on the said business without 
having obtained a licence under the act ot 
36 George III. c. 17, shall be liable to be 
assessed the duties on riding-horses, and 
shall deliver lists thereof as other persons. 
Horses. It shall be lawful for any 
person, native or foreigner, at any time to 
ship, lade, and transport, by way of mer- 
chandize, horses into any parts beyond the 
seas, in amity with his majesty, paying for 
each horse, mare, or gelding, 5s. and no 
more. 
No person convicted for feloniously steal- 
ing a horse, gelding, or mare, shall have the 
privilege of clergy. 1 Ed. VI. c. 12. And 
not only all accessaries before such felony 
done, but also all accessaries after such 
felony, shall be deprived and put from all 
benefit of their clergy, as the principal, by 
statute heretofore made, is or ought to be. 
If an horse be stolen out of the stable, or 
other curtilage of a dwelling-house, in the 
night time, it falls under the denomination 
of burglary ; if in the day-time, it falls un- 
der the denomination of larceny from the 
house : and in either case there is a re- 
ward of 401. for convicting an offender, 
and the prosecutor is entitled to a certifi- 
cate, which will exempt him from all parish 
and ward offices, in the parish and ward 
where the burglary, or larceny, is commit- 
ted, and which may be once assigned over, 
and will give the same exemption to the 
assignee as to the original proprietor. 
Great abuses having arisen, and many 
horses having been stolen, from the facility 
and safety of disposing of them to those 
who kept slaughter-houses for horses, some 
regulations and restrictions seemed abso- 
lutely necessary. It was no uncommon 
thing for horses of great value to be sold for 
the purpose of making food for dogs ; the 
thief rather choosing to receive twenty 
shillings for a stolen horse, without fear or 
danger of detection, than venture to dispose 
of him publicly, though 'he might possibly 
have found a purchaser who would have 
given as many pounds for him. These consi- 
derations induced the legislature to pass the 
HOR 
act of 26 Geo. III. c. 71, for regulating 
these slaughter-houses. 
Killing or maiming horses. Where any 
person shall, in the night-time, maliciously, 
unlawfully, and willingly, kill or destroy 
any horses, sheep, or other cattle, of any 
person, every such offence shall be adjudged 
felony, and the offender shall suffer as in the 
case of felony. 22 and 23 Car. II. c. 7. 
Offenders may be transported for seven 
years, either at the assizes, or at the ses- 
sions, by three justices of the peace ; one 
to be of the quorum. 
By the 9 Geo. I. c. 22. commonly called 
the black act, it is enacted, that if any per- 
son shall unlawfully and maliciously kill, 
maim, or wound, any cattle, every person 
so offending, being thereof lawfully convict- 
ed, in any county of England, shall be ad- 
judged guilty of felony, and shall suffer 
death, as in cases of felony, without benefit 
of clergy. But not to work corruption of 
blood, loss of dower, nor forfeiture of lands 
or goods. 
Prosecution upon this statute shall, or 
may, be commenced within three years 
from the time of the offence committed, but 
not after. 
If a horse, or other goods, be delivered 
to an innkeeper, or his servants, he is bound 
to keep them safely, and restore them when 
his guest leaves the house. 
If a horse be delivered to an agisting far- 
mer, for the purpose of depasturing in his 
meadows, he is answerable for the loss of 
the horse, if it be occasioned by the ordi- 
nary neglect of himself or his servants. If 
a man ride to an inn, where his horse has 
eat, the host may detain the horse till he be 
satisfied for the eating, and without making 
any demand. But a horse committed to an 
inn-keeper, can only be detained for his 
own meat, and not for that of his guest, or 
any other horse ; for the chattels in such 
case, are only in the custody of the law for 
the debt which arises from the thing itself, 
and not for any other debt due from the 
same party. By the custom of London 
and Exeter, if a man commit a horse to an 
inn-keeper, if he eat out his price, the inn- 
keeper may take him as his own, upon the 
reasonable appraisement of four of his neigh- 
bours ; which was it seems a custom, arising 
from the abundance of traffic with strangers, 
that could not be known so as to be charged 
with an action. But it hath been holden, 
though an inn-keeper in London may, after 
long keeping, liaye the horse appraised and 
sell him, yet, when he has in such case had 
