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geneous handicaps-to the issue. That which operated as a pound ou Tuesday, went up as a stone on Thursday; the amphibious condition of the course acting as heavy premium against the philanthropic conditions of the race, consuming a whole page of the Book Calendar. Their meaning, like the rule-mystery of racing law, is a scaled book to me. The Goodwood Cup allowances award or permit 14lbs. less to "horses, &c., bred in America or on the continent of Europe." What is inferred by "bred on the continent of Europe"? To "breed" lexiconically signifiesto hatch,' "to plot." So that by virtue of a plot, or conspiracy, whereby Crucifix, in foal to The Flying Dutchman, should be shipped at Folkstone, to "hatch" at Boulogne, her " produce" would be entitled to a liberal 7 per cent. discount off her weight for the Cup aforesaid. Breeding, by turf convention, may intend something else; but where is there declaration of such hypothetical contract? and by, or on whose authority does it exist at all, if it does? On Thursday, the 28th of July, 1853, fifteen "horses bred" in this country, or somewhere else, started for the Goodwood Cup, the winner being M. Lupin's b. f. Jouvence, by Sting, bred in France, 3 yrs., 5st. 9lbs., sic in return of the race...by Sting out of Currency, by St. Patrick (bred in France)--sic in Book Racing Calendar. Now does this mean that Jouvence, Sting, Currency, and St. Patrick were " bred in France"? or that one, or two, or three, or four, of the party had so fair fortune? There is a convention of constructive argument whose posy is "vox," Q.E.D. verba-" et præterea nihil;" Jouvence's genealogy seems to belong to the category.

Apropos, there is a popular application of the term "constructive," giving it a privilege effect; as, for instance, "constructive treason"—that is to say, a reluctant compliance with royal whims and caprices, for which it may be personally convenient for the monarch that a man be decapitated. Of course it is unnecessary to account for such concession of carnage, seeing that at this present writing, according to the laws of Great Britain," the Sovereign never dies." It is important to bear in mind this constitutional order, inasmuch as the epoch of miracles is stated to have ceased considerably before the 19th century. Fifteen hundred years hence, historical record of the immortality of crowned heads in 1853 will be adduced to prove that subversion of the law of nature prevailed, as by law established at that time, just as much as it ever did as by conversion established at any other time. The logic whereof is "There is no general rule without an exception; which is a general rule without an exception; consequently there is no general rule without an exception." Perhaps a logical revolution may in the meanwhile take place, so that a practical definition of despotic and domestic understanding, as now in custom, may be an acceptable legacy for posterity. This will be more availably offered in the shape of example than the fashion of precept.... Let every one interpret the allegory for him or herself; I am irresponsible for desultory deductions.

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Once upon a time there was a social communion, whose bond of association was the moral stipulation-" all men are equal.' They were called Christians. The select of that sublime fraternity knew not what to do with their palaces, their jewels, and their gold. The million knew not where to find shelter from the storm, for the days had long passed away when Providence" tempered the wind to the shorn lamb,"

They were compulsion worshippers of "The Golden Calf"-penniless proselytes of most hard necessity. At that period of man's mortal pilgrimage, the political canon of nations covenanted that there should be one law alike for rich and poor; that the privilege of civil institution should infer popular liberty, equality, and brotherly love. Such was the compact principle of Christianity. The Founder of that divine school of philosophy, of that earthly theory of theology, was the God-man of Nazareth-who" had not where to lay his head." What is the present practice of His disciples?......

The mission of the many upon this scene of their probation is stern toil. Born without the pale of social grace, of patient precedent, of reverent teaching, the famishing scion of sin and scorn-the venomous fruit of the ill-omened "tree of knowledge"-appeals to charity for bread. "Give me, for God's sake," he implores, "to eat, that the partner of my labour, the children of omnipotent ordinance, perish not because the hand that feeds them shall become premature clay." His knife was buried in the heart that closed against the petition of his despair. His death-bed was the scaffold!

On the Imperial throne there sits a prince whose alchemy is the people's private wealth and the sweat of their brow-whose word is the rule of their policy and action. All that science won from primæval premises; all the study gathered from Nature's analysis; all that history bequeathed of intelligence and instruction; all that art catered for and contributed to taste and luxury, minister to the embellishment and delight of his youth. Honour, estate, command, wait upon his maturity. He must have more "sic volo-sic jubeo."......Tens of thousands, at his instance, are slaughtered in fields flowing with his fellows' blood; tens of thousands, at his sentence, are plunged fathoms deep beneath the waves of ocean. Their treasure coffers he makes his own; their widowed wives and sireless sons and daughters are "sent empty away." These are the means, whereof the end is his will and pleasure. And well fares it with his adventure. Brother emperors and sister empresses, fraternal kings and queens, do courtesy to his bold emprise. In peerless equipage, in gorgeous array, surrounded by appliances of especial bravery, smug ambassadors proffer pledges of eternal alliance and friendship-of everlasting esteem and confidence on behalf of those potentates, "by the grace of God," whom they represent......" How can they promote a satisfactory settlement of the accounts, which, in connexion with His Imperial glory, have come to their ears?" Anon, things are made pleasant: "The enemy's loss was sixty thousand troops of the first class, and some miscellaneous thousands of raw subsidiaries; the cost to ourselves did not exceed five-and-thirty thousands, some ships and frigates, and a few guns." His faithful country pays the piper of his renown-his adversary the costs of his conquest. He suspends another diamond-dressed decoration from his buttonhole, assists at a State" Te Deum," and sets out to shoot game in his Imperial preserves-and project another good thing......

"Imperial fiddlestick!".

"Urge me no more: I shall forget myself.

Have mind upon your health-tempt me no farther:
Shall I be frighted when a madman stares ?"

Thus far hath it gone-"tempt me no farther": or, like the "steam

leg," I never stop. Your grandmother would have fallen into hysterics had her femme-de-chambre demanded-in the phrase of Julia's Lucetta

"What fashion, madam, shall I make your breeches?"

And yet such interrogatory from the lips of her lady's-maid is familiar to your sister as "household words." Now-a-days, ladies of high degree "wear the breeches !"......" A mad world !"......So back from Verona to Goodwood.

The Molecomb winner presented another pretender for Derby patronage in Mr. Gully's Andover, Mr. Howard's Epsom nomination...... Lord Derby's £200 Sweepstakes winner, Sortie, ditto for the Oaks. The lot opposed to her, however, was moderate in the superlative. The latter-day cracks did not earn for themselves much perspective favour. Among these, Boiardo is said not to be the horse of his stable. The Chesterfield Cup pointed out the moral of the Goodwood. 'Tis one thing to carry 5st. 9lbs. for the Cup, two miles and a-half-another to sustain 6st. 11lbs. over the Craven Course. The meeting did not see the debut of a great creature for 1854.

on.

From Chichester, the industrious classes fall back upon Brighton. Its intrinsic is jobbing; so a pull professional may, of course, be counted As already aforesaid, betting has nothing to do with racingbeyond the names of the winners. With improved materiel, amateur management, securing the profits for their legitimate purpose, and no heats, it might be made a tryst sporting worthy its calling. Contemporary with it were many small meetings-strong in heats-upon the provincial economic system. York August-not of that ilk as relates to the small-opened with a languid market, deferred settlement being by no means an exhilarating Ring staple. Foremost among the features was the run upon Sittingbourne; 8 to 1 on him for the Ebor St. Leger set him up in the stirrups for that Stake in esse at Doncaster. Moreover, rumour-jackal of policy-was busy about West Australian-not in his favour. All through, that most characteristic rendezvous of the tyke gave good promise that the good old times were still in a green old age!....The remainder of August was flooded with Olympic revels. Our reference, however, need not embark upon so turbulent a tide. The Stilton robbery was mooted about this time; but the merits of the case are still sub silentio. All may out, peradventure; but, on dit, the "gag" is on, and it wont be very easy to get it off. When Greek meets Greek, under such conditions the usual practice is to shake hands, and "make friends."

Tunbridge, with its episodes of four heats, may pass for a generality of pleasure at the provincials, as Paisley, for instance; also Radcliffe, long drawn out; Egham, classic site of modern chivalry; Derby; Hereford, the quadrupler; Guildford, with a capital attenuated of its Royal Hundred; Lichfield, with a £50 Gold Cup; Eccles, with its stakes fluctuating between £5 and £3, and £2 and £1; Plymouth, Devonport, and Cornwall, all heats, with a solitary exception; Lincoln, with a solitary £100; Marlborough, limited to £25 added, excepting in the £50 Savernake; Bridgenorth, also within the eleemosynary £50; and then for-Warwick September Meeting.

The feature of this racing speculation was the Leamington Stakes of

£25 each, with nothing added. As soon as the system of trading in race-courses becomes a little more ultra extensively established, that will be about the average of "public money." This passage of Blind Hookey on Horseback was done by Little Harry-111 to nothing on the List Houses. Goorkah, carrying 7st., won the Warwick Cup, beating Little Harry, 8st. 71b., third; and Adine, 8st. 3lb., second. It were discourteous to analyze the "glorious uncertainty." The meetings in September out-numbered the days in the month. We will, with your favour, find our way straightway to the great northern centre of turf attraction. That it in no whit surrendered a point of its most prepense interest in '53 is most certain; albeit, the essential instance-" the observed of all observers"-from sunset of the Derby had been dealt with as a foregone conclusion. So far as personal experience might warrant a deduction, my views were certainly in that direction; but when at Doncaster I learnt how the wind lay, I certainly for a season anticipated a conclusion of no pleasant practice. It was, therefore, that, some space before

"The starter's bell

Call'd back reality, and broke the spell,"

with unalloyed reference and more confident anticipation, I stood in presence of the starting" West Australian.” Mounted for the outrance, there was the beau ideal of a British racer. Campared by principle, he was to Sittingbourne what the Arab of first caste is to a Barclay and Perkins's dray-shafter. That he won in a canter needs no telling to the student of these theses. A well and legitimately esteemed racing authority, dealing with the event at issue, thus commented :--

"As to the result of the St. Leger, it was, in the ordinary course of things, only natural for every unprejudiced looker-on to believe that a horse like West Australian, which had twice defeated nine-tenths of his opponents, should again repeat his previous performances; but, with the exception of the immediate adherents and followers of the horse's stable, I fancy there were few of those who watch the index of movements in the betting circles who had, on the day of the race, the slightest expectation of witnessing the great Doncaster engagement carried off by the winner of the Derby. There was, however, as it proved, no doubt in the matter, for never had horse an easier victory; and the why and the wherefore for the opposition will probably remain unaccounted for to the end of the chapter.

"On the other hand, I presume the foundation of the opposition to the pretensions of West Australian excited as much surprise on the other side; for that the stable had confidence in their champion no doubt can exist, though it would seem, from the compromises effected in all of the horse's subsequent engagements, that the St. Leger victory was only achieved just in time."

As to the opposition alluded to-that is to say, the grounds of such opposition-in the first of these paragraphs, I by no means believe "the end of the chapter" had not been reached long before the dénouement of the essay which it involved...... The second paragraph recites"On the other hand, I presume the foundation of the opposition to the pretensions of West Australian excited as much surprise on the other side," I never was aware that the cause on which such antagonism

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was founded-"the foundation of the opposition," as aforesaid-had transpired to the "surprise" of " the immediate adherents and followers of the horse's stable. "The compromises effected in all the horse's subsequent engagements" do not seem to me sound premises for the inference suggested. After a rigorous and hard course of preparation, West Australian won the three greatest races in the world for a colt of his age-on the afternoon of Wednesday the 14th: on Friday the 16th, his trainer knew it was the right prospective policy-to pocket £800, clear of all charge; thus resuming the preparatory routine, and making absolute provision against the possibility of public jeopardy, The "walk over" for the Grand Duke Michael is "another pair of shoes. "The Stilton affair" establishes the claim of "honour among thieves;" so that, as a privilege particeps of the circle, the journalist mustn't " split." But he may be permitted to observe that such a "walk over" at Newmarket, or anywhere else, he never "assisted at;" on the contrary, that he has seen many a first flight finish that "couldn't hold a candle to it ;" that, as he wrote on the spur of the moment, "it was a sight-a subject of grace almost ethereal-that words cannot depict......poetry had never suggested, painting had never put on canvas -such an ideal of peerless perfection. And this was the anticipatory cripple the gouty victim that preserved his feet in clay-the blown bellows-to-mender that kept house when his companions went forth to inhale the fresh air."... "Sweets to the sweet." The sporting Squire won the Champagne-he's about the last of the Romans-Olympian. In the market" quite athwart" beat all calculation. The New Stand, far from exciting my sympathies, seeing that it stood free service for all scapegraces so disposed, and freedom of speech for

......

"Swearing,

And nauseous words past mentioning or bearing,"

still remains unsung; and farewell to Doncaster, with this "shove for heavy"-stern'd directors—if the Great Northern don't look out for squalls next St. Leger anniversary, woe to the dividends! Contemporary was Folkestone, Dover, Pontefract, succeeded by Bedford-four heats for a £5 Stakes!-Breconshire, Leicester, Lanark, Manchester Autumn, Canterbury, Abingdon, Pain's Lane-Phew! thanks for

Newmarket First October Meeting. It looks odd to be set down to breakfast by a couple of fires en route to the racecourse, but such was the case with those gentlemen of spirit and enterprize who, on the forenoon of September 27th, 1853, prepared their inner selves for the occasion on the carpet-in the pleasant salon-à-manger of the Rutland Arms. Bitter cold was the proverb-wind inimical both to man and beast an exceedingly nice distinction under existing social conditions. Had tidings reached me of the "compounding" on the Grand Duke Michael, postponed till the champions "peeled" for the fray, I should have grinned and borne it-à la distance. As premised, West Australian walked off with the honour and glory, together with the lion's share of the plunder; while Cobnut, by favour of judicious negociation, sacked a comfortable hay and straw slice. The performance was "short and sweet, like a donkey's gallop." Is there Is there any Act Olympic whereby Neddy is disqualified for the Cambridgeshire, Chester Cup, Licensed Victuallers' Metropolitan, or any other dainty device of the

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