LASSITUDE,—horses are frequently subject to, which does not amount to palpable pain, or evident indisposition. If a horse, who is usually in high spirits in the stable, as well as out, becomes depressed, dull, heavy, inattentive, and indifferent to food, it may be presumed something is going on in the system not directly consonant to the indications of health. In such cases, the necessary examination should be made without delay, and proper modes of counteraction adopted, to prevent the severity and danger of disease, which sometimes advances with great rapidity, to such a state as would never have happened, if proper attention had been paid to the _cause_ of LASSITUDE upon its earliest appearance.
LAW-SUITS,—in respect to horses, are become so common, from the frequent deceptions in BUYING and SELLING, (as well without _others_ as with DEALERS,) that not a term passes without various litigations of this description. When the expence and anxiety attendant upon both PLAINTIFF and DEFENDANT, during the time a suit is pending; the uncertainty of its termination, which ultimately depends so much upon the effect of _chance_ in EVIDENCE; the misrepresentation, or misconstruction, of FACTS, are all taken into consideration, it is much to be regretted, that such circumstances cannot be brought to a more friendly and less expensive conclusion. As, however, such propensity to mutual accommodation is not likely to abound amidst the complicated tempers, caprices, and versatilities, of society at large; it becomes the more necessary to avoid, as much as possible, whatever may be eventually productive of so unpleasant and unprofitable an embarkation; particularly when it is constantly seen in COURTS of LAW, to what a wonderful degree of villainy human depravity is extended, for the completion of points in which the parties are individually or collaterally interested; and perhaps in no causes whatever, so much as in those where the soundness or unsoundness of a horse is concerned.
Those who have had occasion most to frequent the Courts, best know (in fact, there are cases on record to justify and corroborate the assertion) that suits have occurred, where _six_ witnesses swore "they saw the horse almost daily for some weeks previous to his death, and that he had the GREASE so bad he died with it;" when, to the astonishment of a crouded court, (before MR. JUSTICE BULLER, who tried the cause,) the DEFENDANT produced an _equal_ number of witnesses who _swore_, "they likewise saw the horse almost daily to the last hour of his life, and that he never had the least mark, trait, or sign of grease about him;" to corroborate which, a HUNTSMAN (making the _seventh_ witness on that side) was produced, who swore "he stripped the horse for his hounds, and he had no mark of grease about him." The Judge remarked, "that the mass of perjury was absolutely beyond human conception on _one_ side or the _other_; and so far exceeded the power of his discrimination, that he submitted it entirely to the province of the Jury," who immediately returned a verdict for the defendant.