THE ETHICS OF HORSE MANAGEMENT. 
355 
gent than those who beat them, and are chastised for doing 
that which they know is right, or refusing to do that which 
is wrong! Only a short time ago I saw a horse drawing a 
waggon, heavily laden with sacks of coal, up a steep street. 
The animal evidently know all the doors at which it should 
stop, or had beforetimes stopped, and consequently halted 
frequently; but it appeared that on this occasion there was 
no coal to deliver at any of these places, and at each check 
made by the mindful beast, it received a beating and savage 
tugging at the mouth, with the usual complement of harsh 
words, which made it look very stupid and sorry. And quite 
recently a light carriage was passing along one of our streets, 
but the horse drawing it appeared unwilling to go on, and 
tried to stop every now and then, which caused the driver to 
apply the whip very severely. “ There goes a jibbing horse !" 
exclaimed a spectator. “Why don't you get out and see 
that the harness is all right!" says another; “don't you 
know that one of your traces is broken ? If you don't your 
horse does, and yet you beat him for trying to tell you so." 
The intelligent but maltreated animal found that its trace 
was not all right, and, therefore, it thought proper to stop 
to have it rectified. This kind of mismanagement and mal- 
appreciation of the horse's intelligence is so common that 
one feels almost reluctant to allude to it, as it must be in the 
knowledge of every one who has paid any attention to the 
subject of rational horse government. We see horses beaten 
and punished because they do not chance to hear their driver’s 
voice calling them to stop, and we note a violent use of the 
whip when they chance to manifest an intention to turn down 
some familiar street without an indication from the ill-tem¬ 
pered slave-driver. Some men—I fear many men—who 
have to do with horses think they were made to be beaten 
and abused, and that nothing can be done with them without 
a full quantum of punishment. I never visit town without 
coming home very much out of humour, and disgusted at 
the savage treatment to which I see horses subjected, espe¬ 
cially in the Hansom cabs. The drivers of these vehicles, 
and particularly those which ply late in the evening, appear 
to take a kind of fiendish delight in scourging continually, 
and with a lash devoid of the slightest particle of tenderness, 
the poor, nigh worn-out animals, who have no redress for 
their terrible wrongs, and who, it may be said, die under the 
scourge. It may be said that these men have to earn a live¬ 
lihood out of their calling, and that their horses must go ; but 
if any one cares to observe he will soon perceive that there is 
no necessity for a thousandth part of the whipping or pulling 
