15 W Bromley Steeple Chases.

r 7 31 10

3 38 9 10 9 50

011

4 42 10 2511 5

r 7

28 12

5 4011 45 No tide

s 5

313 6 28

0 20 0 50

r 7 2414 7 5

1 15 1 35

8 5

715 7 36

1 55 2 15

r 7

21 F

RISES afternoon

235 250

3 10 3 25

16 T Torquay S. C. Darlington C. M. s 5 1419 9 18

17 F Harrow Steeple Chases. 18 S

19 Serigisema Sunday.

20 M Coquet Dale Coursing Meeting. 21 T Nottingham R. Carmarthen S. C. 22 W

23 T Lanark Coursing Meeting. 24 Ft. Matthías.

2223

Morning.

r 7 524 2 42

s 5 2525 4 3 8 35 9 20

r 7 126 5 1010 510 50 411 40 No tide

s 5 2927 6

r 6 5628 6 44

0 20 0 50

28 T Shrove Tuesday. Waterloo Cours-s 5 36 1 7 15 3 0 3 20 ing Meeting.

RACES IN FEBRUARY.

Newton Spring.... 2 Derby Spring...... 8 Lincoln Spring 14 Nottingham Spring.. 21

Olympic ardour has nothing cooled, if the two great Surrey Stakes may be assumed as its thermometer for the coming season. The Derby nominations tell two hundred and seventeen, of which fifty-three raced at two years old-winners of eighty-two events. Run as a match-all charges and "expenses" deducted-it would net a profit of £4,750 for the winner. For the Oaks, one hundred and fifty-six are entered, of which thirty-two ran at two years old, winning fifty-six events. Run as a match, all charges and "expenses" deducted, it would net a profit of £3,745 for the winner. Such is the oblation consecrated to the obsequies of "Sweeps," "Lotteries," and "Lists"-whilom the "dulce decus" of the turf...in tales of interest of the time-" haud meus hic sermo.' Well!" better late than never' '-"when you're down, down with you."...Thus runs the requiem of a career-the "requiescat" of a course whose pomp and circumstance of progress had, like the hare in the fable, many friends.".

66

"That the popularity of the turf, and stability of all that pertains to racing matters, are unimpaired, there cannot, I think, be at present a question; what might, however, have been its condition, had the modern innovation of betting lists been permitted to continue undisturbed, is, I believe, quite another matter. No one can doubt that, while making reservations with reference to many honourable men, the system offered opportunity for many a black sheep to creep into the flock unnoticed, until their doings' gave occasion for obloquy to be cast upon a noble sport, with which these pariahs' of the turf had neither sympathy nor connection beyond that of treating it merely as a means to their vile ends."......Thus comments journalism on a "connexion" that used to patronise its columns by the league.

"The credulity of bettors," say the brother Chambers, of Edinburgh, "is almost inconceivable. Look at the pages of one or two of our London newspapers-there are dozens of advertisements relating to prophecies concerning the winning horse at a future race. It is instruc tive, but mournful, to read the advertisements, and to think that men will give money for such utterly worthless expressions of opinion: indeed, it is a discreditable fact, that some of the Sunday newspapers keep a prophet, whose paid office it is (apparently) to write columns of predictions concerning the results of future races; and the richest

amusement-were it not for the painful circumstances which surround the whole system-may be derived from the logic which these prophets employ after the event, to show that such and such a horse ought to have won, though he did'nt. The prophets and betting-office keepers would die away, if the victims would only exercise a little common sense."...... Apropos of the premier pas in the right direction, on authority, the Book Calendar for '54 announces that "At a meeting of the Jockey Club, held at Newmarket on Wednesday in the Houghton Meeting, 1853, it was-Resolved: That the Committee of the Subscription Betting Room at Newmarket be requested to inform the Keeper of the Match-book, when they exclude any person from their room, with their reasons for so doing, in order that the Stewards may, if they shall think proper, give directions for his being warned off the property belonging to the Jockey Club."......

"The antique Persians taught three useful things

To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth.
This was the mode of Cyrus-best of kings-
A mode adopted since by modern youth.
Bows have they, generally, with two strings;
Horses they ride, without remorse or ruth;
At speaking truth, perhaps, they are less clever,
But draw the long bow better now than ever."

The philosophy of this stanza is that which influenced the deductions I arrived at-in reference to the effect the new-fangled conceit of the "talents," quoad turf policy, would in process of time have upon the sport-and denounced dealing in the sheer practice of handicapping. It went on, and prospered for the traders in such craft. For instance, the last First Spring Meeting at Epsom-one day's racing-cost the owners of race-horses £81; while the latest First Spring Meeting at Newmarket-with the all-important Two Thousand and One Thousand Guineas Stakes and five days' racing-was furnished them for a tenpound note: being a margin of eight hundred per cent. in favour of "business." The deductions for charges and " expenses" at Epsom Races (proper) were £615......At Ascot, no expenses, the "charge" on a Selling Plate produced £68-a liberal nine hundred per cent. to the credit of Surrey. I say, I "denounced handicapping ;"I showed that I expose huckstery in race meetings......I quote how my views in the former case are now adopted by a clever brother of the craft; I anticipate his speedy conversion to my impressions upon the latter modern instance. Hear him in re The Handicap

I

Among the other attacks which the opponents and enemies of the Turf bring against it, is that which appears to me about the only reasonable one, viz., the deterioration which the modern system of handicapping has introduced into the character and breed of our race-horses. touched upon this point last year" (I have been sticking it into the principle, and principals, ever since the inauguration of the Great Metropolitan Licensed Victuallers of the Metropolis Handicap), "and may go further into the matter on some future occasion. I recently noticed a work, On the Condition of our Saddle Horses, which unreservedly attributes the declension" ("Hic, Hæc, Horum-genitivo”—) " in our modern breed of horses to the system of handicapping. That at the present moment we perpetuate a race of weedy brutes upon the Turf,

by giving them" (that is to say, their representatives, or party)" an opportunity of winning races, not through the racing merits they possess, but simply by imposing heavy weights upon good horses" (apparelling the Lord Chancellor in cap and bells), "and turning loose, as it were, the bad ones " (I don't like the plural of a unit), 66 there can be no question; nor that by this you offer premiums rather for the breeding of bad horses than superior animals."

Thus, past peradventure, there is still "ample space and verge enough" for progress in the principle of horse-racing as a great national sport; and foremost in its requirement is the fashion of its speculative finance. The law which pronounces "Penalty on Persons receiving Money on condition of paying Money on Event of any Bet" makes no provision for the hazard of betting credit, and wholly repudiates legal remedy of any kind for malpractice, however base or premeditated, in connection with its contracts and covenants. The traffic of the Ring involves one of two desperate alternatives: deposit, which in 99 cases out of 100 would be anticipatory payment to parties taking the odds-or a system of unlimited credulity. The march of time has advanced that which a century ago was a rural class pastime, wherein country squires wagered together, and settled their accounts over bumpers of beeswing, has grown into a great popular interest, in which a capital of millions is invested. The point of honour then controlled its commerce; it needed no legislative cognizance of its engagements. Unless on faith of the old saw, that "there is honour among thieves," such Olympic aurelia is long past. I do not urge this "point" exclusively against the professional "prig"-the chevalier d'industrie has also his finger in the pie...... As relates to the order of trading, it is "diamond cut"-dirt, and vice versa "...G. E. Needs the name be written of the noblest patron British racing ever knew, or that his débût-hippodromoiant-being unpropitious—for the better training of his nous and the nerves of his trustees-he went foreign for a space-temporal?...Anon returning, and keeping the promise-of settlement-to the hope, he girded up his circingle, and made strong running for the second heat. One of the field was a Cambridge "Rosinante," renowned for dint of lung that could waft a whisper from the Devil's Ditch to the Warren Hill. Well, the Lord triumphed, and had clemency on the conquered-"That mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me:" that is to say, he gave "skellum" time, but not eternity. So when a twelvemonth had toddled by," as the boys say, he told him he must "tip."

"Aint got no ready money, your Lordship," was the rejoinder; "but I've a nice little farm in a ring fence, and I'll see about it. Land aint worth nothing penny rolls be cheaper than MacAdam stones - they be."

Years wore on, and the peer and the paver once more foregathered; it was in front of the Newmarket Rooms...

NOBILITY (loquitur). "Now, Mr., have you sold your nice little farm in a ring fence? and are you going to settle, eh?"

PLEBEIAN (respondit). "Yes, my Lord, I be. Been in trouble yourself, and consequently ready to make allowance for others as is down on their luck. Going to settle-at that 'ere nice little farm in a ring fence. Couldn't think of selling, not so d-n easy to get."...

Two years after Birmingham won the St. Leger, I was sauntering,

with the late most kind, most eccentric heir of Halston, on the Roodee, the second day of Chester Races.

"Occurrit quidam notus mihi nomine tantum."

It must suffice to reveal that then he was liege of a leviathan stud, albeit a born postboy.

"Sir," said he, quite degagé-" Sir, you must back my horse" (was it Birmingham?) "for the Guineas: win 'em in a walk-finding money -they take 2 to 1 on-shall I lay it?"

Yes, yes; I understand.”

And as, soon after, I passed under the Stand, he shouted from the balcon

"Done it!" "Laid it!" "2 to 1 in hundreds !" you had it in your note-case."

"Good as if As refers to the issue, so it was- 66 my horse" winning in a canter... But the stump," as Crutch Robinson commented, later in the incident, was another pair of shoes." I waited over day the third. Morning the fourth, meeting my commissioner under the Royal Hotel Colonnade, I prayed payment...

"Sir," said he, "so soon as I get it you shall have it. Laid it with a gentleman of the Ring, called-let-me-see-ay, called - Smith: soon as I see him I'll

"Be d-ned!" cried Crutch, poised like a pendulum between his staffs. "Smith's himself, hedged against chances and changes. Lose, he draws you of a couple of hundred; win, he stands the Smith swindle, and it's "all right."

"Example is far beyond precept." The Cambridgeshire "leg levanted with a comfortable competence, married "a well-to-do" widow, and became a very snug small squire upon his Turf-invested annuity. The cavalier of Chester Races made himself the cynosure of provincial meetings, worked his son into a bold dragoon, and retired from sporting life upon thirty or forty thousand pounds sterling-Government Fundsreceived by him as a public officer, which it had quite escaped his memory to pay in to the credit of the Chancellor of the Exchequer..." So much for" Birmingham."

The force of fancy is not an auxiliary to be invoked for pointing the moral of the policy under analysis. Fact has its eyes on rufflers,' shoe-blacks,duffers," "peep-o-day boys," "et hoc genus omne,' hail fellow, well met--with aristocracy, millionaires, and lords of the soil; while memory has its memoranda of good men and true, who died by their own hands rather than risk the cold courtesy that accords time to the victims of hard fortune. How is it that the cause which ministers to so cruel consequence has been so long without its Howard? Breathes there a man so divest of bowels as your leg, or one with face like his of triple brass? And yet racing commerce is a currency of speculative "tick"-merely :-"vox et præterea nihil." Fast fellows, who spend their thousands a-year, and never pay, are free of all rings, to get on and round," for any figure fain to their caprice. So long as they "tip" for privilege of entrée-the world is all before them-whom to chooseflats and no questions asked. If they win, they wear their hats with a starboard lurch of forty-five degrees-and smoke Havannahs: if they lose, they smoke still more emphatically—and interrogate the creditor