Note 26 — CHAP. IV.

The frauds and felonies committed in the course of a year with respect to horses exceed all credibility. Above thirty thousand of these useful animals are said to be flayed and boiled in the Metropolis, at the Seventeen Licensed Houses, annually, of which about one-fourth are brought there alive, supposed chiefly to be stolen horses. These Establishments require many additional regulations to enforce and insure that purity of conduct, which the Legislature had in view when the Act of the 26 Geo. 3, cap. 71, was passed for licensing persons to slaughter horses. In the operation of this Act is strongly evinced the inefficacy of the best laws, when measures are not pursued to insure an accurate and chaste execution. Wherever the vigilance of a General Police does not extend its influence in carrying into effect all regulations of a preventive nature, it is in vain to hope that the evil in the view of the Legislature will be diminished.