Lord Rosebery on Thursday asked for a Royal Commission to
inquire into the scarcity of horses. He made a very good speech, wanting only in condensation, but his main points were that foreigners were buying our horses, that their price had doubled, and that, when the War Department wanted 2,000 Transport horses for the Autumn Manoeuvres, they had to import 1,250 from France, and lost on an average £20 on each horse. Lord Granville utterly denied, as Admiral Rous also denies, that horses in England had either degenerated or become fewer, though owing to the increase of competition for them, and of wealth generally, they had increased greatly in price. Indeed, he ridiculed the idea of the degeneracy, averring that we were well rid of the lumbering old coach-horse, which did five miles an hour, and had replaced him with a sinewy beast which can do twice the pace, while hunters to carry fifteen stone at a tremendous pace can be obtained anywhere. He refused the Commission, but granted .a Select Committee.
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