SHOEING SMITH.—The shoeing smith, more frequently known by the denomination of BLACKSMITH or FARRIER, is, unluckily for those who profess it, a business of much greater bodily labour than professional emolument; hence it is, that few, except the very lowest classes of society, can ever be prevailed upon to engage in it. Here then has always been the deficiency so much complained of, and so universally known, with all the practitioners of the old school, acting as SMITHS and FARRIERS, whether in town or country; and it is much to be regretted, that their original want of education, the means of instruction, and their total ignorance of the _properties_ of MEDICINE, should have hitherto secluded them from every chance of mental improvement, and personal emulation. If we advert to their _manners_, we find them in direct uniformity with their intellectual capacity: _rude_ by _nature_, they become _cunning_ by _art_; unfortunately _untaught_, it is their greatest pride to become proportionally _untractable_, and know so little themselves, they confidently affect to believe but _little_ is known by _others_: shielded by which ideal sagacity, they obstinately persist in an opinion of _their own_, in opposition to every other, or individually determine to abide by no rational opinion _at all_. When a candid comparison is made between their dangerous and laborious employment and their disproportioned emoluments, it must be admitted by every mind of liberality, they are the _worst paid_ for their drudgery of any set of men in the universe. Hence arises that _sterile apathy_ in the business, which is so much the subject of general indignation and universal contempt; and is the only well-founded reason, why there are so few men of education, or intellectual ability, to be found amidst the daily increasing number who profess the practice. Custom, too, has excluded them from any respectable weight in the scale of society; thereby rendering the obstacles to worldly elevation too numerous, and too uncertain, for even the most laudable and spirited emulation to encounter, with even a distant probability of success. These considerations readily reconcile it to reason, why (upon the most moderate calculation, taking the kingdom in general from one extremity to another) there are not more than one in every hundred, who exists by the practice of SHOEING and FARRIERY, that can speak with precision upon the _property_ of the MEDICINE he prescribes; or elucidate, with propriety, the probable process, or ultimate effect, of the OPERATION he _recommends_.