770 VETERINARY JURISPRUDENCE. 
my friend wanted to try the case on its merits, and now he is trying to 
burk it (laughter). 
Mr. Rowland said he was not going to burk the case, as his friend would 
see presently ; but he was not going to allow his friend to recall the 
plaintiff without taking the strongest objection to it. 
This was the case for the plaintiff, and in addres.sing the jury for the 
defendant, Mr. Rowland explained how it was that a lady was in the 
position of a horse-dealer at this fiiir, a circumstance most unusual. Mr. 
Holmes, of Wootton Rivers, was a man known by reputation not only to 
him (Mr. Rowland), but to the greater portion of the county of Wilts, 
and a more respectable man as an agriculturist he (Mr. Rowland) ven¬ 
tured to assert did not exist. 
His Honour interfered, by observing that they were not trying a question 
of character. The question before the jury was simply that of soundness 
or unsoundness. 
Mr. Rowland apprehended that there was a question of character, 
because if he charged the defendant with giving a false certificate- 
His Honour. —Pardon me. The giving of a warranty, and the horse 
afterwards going lame, may be consistent with the most complete honesty 
on the part of the woman. Nothing, I understand, is alleged against the 
character of the defendant. 
Mr. Rowland said the witnesses had to some extent coloured their case, 
and he thought he had a right to comment on it. 
His Honour. —If we get into the question of character, we lose sight of 
the real question at issue. 
Mr. Rowland. —Very well, your Honour. If it is to turn on a question 
of soundness or unsoundness, I am content to let it stay there. If I am 
stopped- 
His Honour. —I don’t stop you in anything, unless it appears to me 
irrelevant. No imputation has been cast on the character of the de¬ 
fendant, and therefore any remarks that you may make have no connec¬ 
tion with the question at issue. 
Mr. Rowland said he must bow to the decision of the Court, and he then 
continued his address to the jury by observing that in the business of 
Mr. Holmes the horse was worked from the day he was bought to the 
time he was sold. He had not been p\it into a stall to be made to look 
well; but he was taken out of the stable on the morning of the fair, and 
taken to Tan-hill. He had been worked in all manner of ways, and at 
anything at which he was wanted to be worked. Mrs. Holmes sold the 
horse to the plaintiff, giving him a written warranty, the piece of paper 
containing a receipt as well as a warranty. He did not wish to make 
any objection to that, although it was open to this remark, that it was not 
in the handwriting of Mrs. Holmes, but was brought by Mr. Benjamin to 
the fair, Mrs. Holmes simply signing her name to it; but as the signature 
had been given, of course his client was responsible for it, and he was 
content that it should be so. A general and broad warranty had been 
given that the horse was a good worker; but if they put him to any 
work to which he was not accustomed, it was at the plaintiff’s own risk. 
But was it the working on the Bath stones that ruined this horse ? No¬ 
thing of the sort, for he never went on the Bath stones. The jury had 
seen where the shoe pinched a little, and they had also seen where Mr. 
Bartrum tried to mend it. AVas twenty-five miles in three hours a pace 
for a cart-horse to go ? It was a downright insult to common sense to 
ask them to believe it; and Mr. Benjamin saw that he had a little bit 
over-worked the horse—he saw that the animal broke down between 
Tan-hill and Bath. It was in that journey the horse was lamed, and 
