167 
Reviews. 
Quid sit pulchrura, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.—H or. 
On Seats and Saddles, Bits and Biting, and the Prevention 
and Cure of Restiveness in Horses. By Francis Dwyer, 
Major of Hussars in the Imperial Austrian Service. 
William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. 
Every man, according to Sidney Smith, or some other 
authority, thinks he can drive a gig or edit a newspaper, and 
the experience of ordinary life furnishes numerous illus¬ 
trations of the truth of the assertion; at least, editors of 
newspapers and drivers of gigs are abundant enough to give 
sanction to the idea that the qualifications for either function 
are universally diffused. As with drivers of gigs, so with 
riders of horses, our national pre-eminence self-asserted has 
remained long uncontradicted, if not universally admitted; 
and having been horn under the motto which asserts the 
English to be the first riders and drivers in the world, we 
have calmly accepted the proud distinction, probably without 
a shadow of suspicion as to its absolute and unassailable 
truth. In this happy frame of mind Major Dwyer’s book 
finds us, and with evidently deliberate intention acts the 
part of that insufferable personage, the candid friend who 
always speaks his mind, which means unlimited indulgence 
in unpleasant sayings, all the more galling because you feel 
convinced they are, in substance, true. The author prepares 
his victims for the operation which they are about to undergo 
by a process of soothing, allied to the administration of an 
anesthetic : for example, at page 3 of the introductory chapter, 
after alluding to the failure of those who vainly seek for ease 
on horseback, he writes :— 
It must be confessed, indeed, that it is most usually a 
verv thankless office to ofifer to any man that rides anything 
like advice, however well meant and sound, on anything 
concerning his horse, bridle, saddle, or seat. The great 
majority would much more patiently tolerate very decided 
expressions of doubt as to their mental or moral qualifica¬ 
tions, if only conveyed with a calm amount of tact, than the 
