446 
VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
Mr. Fletcher appeared for tlie prosecution, and Mr. Beard for the 
defence. 
Mr. Holden deposed that on Tuesday, the 27th of last month, he was 
at the Horse Repository in Barbican, when he saw the prisoner and 
heard him tell another man that lie had got two horses that he had 
brought from his father’s farm at Dagenham, in Essex, for sale. They 
were, he said, at the shop of a farrier in the neighbourhood. One, he 
said, was a van and the other a cart horse, and both were sound and 
useful animals. The witness asked him if he could see the horses, and 
the prisoner replied he could, and took him for that purpose to the 
shop of a farrier, in Aldersgate Street. There he found two horses. He 
said that his father had bought both when they were four years old, 
that they were then seven, and perfectly sound, and that his father’s 
only reason for parting with them was that he had no more work on 
the farm for them. The witness examined one of them, a fine-looking 
bay horse, and, the prisoner having warranted it perfectly sound and 
useful, he agreed to give £15 for it, and handed the prisoner a sovereign 
deposit, and told him to come to his house in the course of the after¬ 
noon, when he would pay him the remainder of the money. The 
prisoner did call at his house, and said his man was on the way with 
the horse. He paid the £14, requesting the prisoner at the same time 
to write down his name and address in a book he handed to him for the 
purpose. The prisoner accordingly wrote his name, “Edward Smeed,” 
and his address, 56, Green Street, Stepney. The witness told him that 
this was not the address he gave him before. He admitted that, but 
said 56, Green Street, was the address of his aunt, and, as he was often 
in town, he would be always heard of there. He received his money, 
and soon after the horse was brought to his place, followed by three or 
four men, who kept whipping and knocking it about, saying it was a 
“ rank roarer,” and that he had been grossly taken in by his purchase. 
The horse, owing to the way in which they knocked him about, cer¬ 
tainly bled freely. One of the men offered him different small sums 
for the animal, saying that if he kept it he would be prosecuted by the 
“ Society for Cruelty to Animals.” Jt was with some difficulty he could 
get the horse out of their hands. On the following morning a person 
named Wilson came to his house, and, without requiring to see the 
horse, gave him six sovereigns for it, saying he had frequently bought 
it before. From what he, Mr. Holden, had heard, it was his belief that 
he had been grossly imposed on. He had, therefore, placed the case in 
the hands of Sergeant Hull, a detective officer. 
Sergeant Hull, 32 P, was next examined at considerable length. 
From his statement it appeared that the prisoner was a member of a 
gang of horse copers who had for some time past been making large 
sums by the horse in question. The poor animal, though extremely 
handsome and apparently valuable, was in such a state that if driven 
quickly 300 or 400 yards it would drop down as if shot, and before 
doing so would give such indications of his disease as to leave no doubt 
of his being a “ rank roarer.” When advertised for sale, or when a 
customer was found for him, the sellers were in the habit of giving the 
animal a pint of linseed oil, which had the effect of easing the lungs for 
eight or ten hours, and of making it exhibit all the appearance of 
splendid action. By this means they had been enabled to sell the horse 
as often as forty times, and by the same means as that adopted in Mr. 
Holden’s case they succeeded in getting it back again, sometimes for 
£1 or 30.?., so that it became their stock-in-trade. In conclusion, Hull 
said that after the former examination of the prisoners lie went to the 
