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In war, the value of these noble animals to man is well described by Shakspeare's thrilling exclamation of King Richard—

"A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!"

In like manner, in civil life, how often has the schoolboy, who in his infancy had clutched with ecstasy his toy—a little spotted horse on wheels—felt that he would give his birthright for a pony!

On his arriving at Oxford or Cambridge, how often has the undergraduate, for the professed purposes of application and recreation, submitted to his parents or guardians a supplication for those three stereotyped wants of college life, "a little money, a private tutor, and a horse!" Afterwards, in his manhood, and even in his old age, how often has the Prime Minister of England, during a most important debate, risen from his seat in Parliament to propose to the legion of senators around him "that this House shall adjourn from Tuesday to Thursday," for the well known object (acknowledged by "loud and protracted cheering") of enabling himself, those who surround him, and everybody else, "to go to the Derby," to purchase "Dorling's correct card of the names of the HORSES, and the colours of their RIDERS!"