able again to rise. The carter then deliberately put straw under his belly, and set fire to it. This also failed. The horse had strained every nerve, and was so much exhausted, that fire produced just as little effect as if it had been put to a log of wood. Mr. Bailey ran and dashed away the blazing straw with his foot. The horse died the same day; and the perpetrator of this barbarity met with no other punishment than a dismissal from service.
On the Practice of mutilating Animals. "What an affecting sight," says the humane author of a "Letter to the Hon. Wm. Windham, on his Opposition to the Kill to prevent Bull-baiting," "is it to go into the stable of some eminent horsedealer, and there behold a long range of fine beautiful steeds, with their tails cut and slashed, tied up by pullies to give them force, some dropping blood, some corruption, and some blood and corrupt matter mixed, suffering such torture, that they frequently never recover the savage gashes they have received; and for what is all this? That they may hold their tails somewhat higher, and be for ever after deprived of the power of moving the joints of them as a defence against flies. It is true," he adds, "I am sometimes obliged to purchase horses that have been thus treated, because there are scarcely any sold which, have not undergone the operation, but in my whole life I never permitted it to be performed. I am both happy and concerned to say, that in no nation but England is this horrid custom of nicking horses tails practised." "I believe the barbarous custom came into use within this century," says Mr. Gilpin, "and has passed through various modifications, like all other customs, which are not founded in nature and truth. A few years ago the short-dock was the only
