OUR MAGISTRACY
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] Sra,—That there is no defence against ignorance is shown by the appended extract from Cuthbert W. Johnson's pamph- let, Observations on the Employment of Salt (London : Simpkin and Marshall, and others. 1838) (page 13) : "Although the use of salt for live stock is now becoming quite general . . . the very magistrates are opposed to its use—for, only a few years since, some honest farmer's servants were brought before a Justice of the Peace at Winchester, charged, by their ignorant master, with the dreadful crime of giving his horses salt in their corn. ' 1 should not have suspected it, said the farmer, had not my horses' coats become eo fme lately.' Salt for horses ' exclaimed the indignant magistrate, ' can anything be more poisonous ? Let . the rascals be committed to the Bridoweff for a month.' "
The italics are in the original.—I am, Sir, .ke.,
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