Several worn-out horses belonging to members of the Whig
administration then endeavoured to address the meeting, with an
evident intention of converting the proceedings into a party question;
but they were informed by the president, in the midst of loud snorting
and neighing, that they had not the slightest right to be present, as
they were all undoubtedly turned out for life. This decision appeared
to give universal satisfaction.
AN IRISH HORSE was of opinion that the great cause of the present
difficulties arose from deficiency in the quality and not the quantity
of the article, and strongly recommended the growth of Irish oats in
England. To the surprise of the English delegates, he warmly eulogized
the superiority of the Irish oat; but it afterwards appeared, upon the
production of a sample, that he had mistaken the potatoe oat for the
Irish oat.
AN OLD ENGLISH HUNTER next addressed the meeting, and was listened to
with deep attention. He impressed upon the young delegates the good
old adage of "Look before you leap," and cautioned them against the
delusive hope that their condition would be improved by change of
measures. In the course of his long life he had experienced measures
of every description, and had invariably found that his supplies
depended, not on the measure itself; but on the hand that filled it.
He had ever given his willing support to his employers, and served
them faithfully; and if they were as well acquainted as quadrupeds
with the secrets of the stable, they would learn the fallacy of their
favourite maxim of "Measures, not men," and trust the administration
of their affairs to upright and steady grooms, rather than those
fanciful half-educated gentlemen who were perpetually changing the
rules of the stables, and altering the form of the measures, whereby
they embarrassed the regular feeding and training of the inmates,
without producing any practical good.
A STAGE-COACH HORSE imputed their want of condition to the misconduct
of their leaders, who, he said, could never be kept in the right path,
or made to do one-half of the work which properly belonged to them. By
a strange fatality, they were generally purblind, and always shyed
most fearfully when an Opposition coach approached them. Indeed, it
was well known that the horses selected for these duties were,
generally speaking, vicious and unsound, and not taken from the most
able and powerful, but from the most showy classes. He then proceeded
to descant upon the general wrongs of horses. He congratulated the
community upon the abolition of bearing reins, those grievous burdens
upon the necks of all free-going horses; and he trusted the time would
soon arrive when the blinkers would also be taken off, every corn-binn
thrown open, and every horse his own leader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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