EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
233 
frogs of our horses’ feet receive in action, from which, by their 
thick shoes, French horses are protected. 
Setting national prepossessions on one side, and lending a 
deaf ear to the unscientific nonsense which is continually crossing 
our path from the mouths and pens of unprofessional persons, 
we thoroughly believe, that out of the two plans of shoeing, 
French and English, a better one than either nation can at 
present boast of might be devised. And if our friend, M. 
Gourdon, when again he can spare time to pay a visit to our 
country, will come and spend a few day^with us, we promise 
him we will fairly and honestly enter into a discussion with 
him of the much-debated question in all its bearings and 
ramifications. Meanwhile, seeing that the French nation did 
not contribute to the farriery department of the Great Exhibi¬ 
tion " so much as the head of a horse-nail,” we cannot admit 
that France “ has carried off the prize,” though there was no 
contest (la France Vemporte sans conteste ); but, on the other 
hand, would rather the decision should be deferred until both 
nations shall have another opportunity of exhibiting side by 
side; which, when our neighbours come to have resolved upon 
tranquillity and the establishment of freedom in their state, 
possibly may take place in their own country. 
When the wise member of David’s lineage proclaimed that 
“ there is nothing new under the sun,” he himself, perhaps, 
scarcely indulged in the belief that, after a lapse of many 
centuries, the truth of this sentence would be unassailable, at 
least in generals. To avoid confession of the unpalatable truth, 
that the march of discovery is anything but rapid, we are apt to 
lull the acute susceptibility of vainglory by saying, that the 
present is an age of applications. That this is truth so far as it 
goes, no one, we presume, is disposed to doubt; whether or not 
it be all the truth is a question beside our present purpose; 
our scope now being any thing but that of descanting upon 
the rate and kind of human progress. These reflections have 
been suggested by our having at hand an -interesting example 
of this being an age of applications. 
We are satisfied that we are within the bounds of truth when 
VOL. XXV. I i 
