EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
703 
A communication will be found in our pages, this month, 
entailing a question of great moment to proprietors of forges, 
which, connected as it is in the present instance with the 
decision that has been come to upon it, invites us to pen a 
few remarks on the subject. The narrative is a plain tale. 
A gentleman sends his horse to a forge to be shod. The 
men at the forge receive directions, from his servant bringing 
the horse, to send the animal home when shod. A boy, the 
servant of the proprietor of the forge, is employed to take 
the horse home. He rides the horse, which, on its way, 
shies and bolts, and runs away with the boy, and, in his 
precipitous flight, falls down, injuring one knee and one hind 
fetlock, and thereby becomes (though in no danger of losing 
his life from the fall) damaged, and diminished in value. 
The gentleman calls upon the proprietor of the forge for 
compensation for the damage; the latter demurs at the call. 
Solicitors on both sides are consulted. In the end, the 
matter is agreed to be settled by arbitration. The award is, 
that the master of the forge shall pay the gentleman £30; 
the price of the horse having been stated to be eighty guineas. 
The settlement of an important question like this, must, 
in our opinion, be regulated by some such considerations as 
follow; and upon the facts capable of being adduced for and 
against them, ought, we think, the arbitration to turn. 
1st. It should be inquired, if it be usual or customary for 
proprietors at whose forges horses are shod to send them 
home after being shod ?—or, if it be the practice in this one 
particular forge so to do ? 
2dly. If the boy intrusted to take the horse home was 
capable of riding and managing a horse under ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances ? 
3dly. Did the boy act right in riding instead of leading 
the horse; and would he have incurred less risk of accident 
had he led the horse ? 
4thly. Was the horse known to be unsteady or shy, and 
apt to run away ? and if so, were the men at the shop, or the 
boy, forwarned of it ? 
