CAUSE OF DETERIORATION 71 



to which he did allude was not more effectual. No 

 influence could be more mischievous than that 

 which sent the ' big hungry chargers ' mentioned 

 by Mr. Steevens to be laid up useless in Cairo, and 

 sent similar sort of cattle to be ' expended ' by the 

 ten thousand in the Transvaal. 



Since Sir Michael's mysterious utterance, the 

 Secretary of State for War has felt it necessary 

 to give warning that the army does not exist for 

 the purpose of providing the men who enter it 

 with facilities for sport. If he possess 30 per cent, 

 of the patriotism of the Japanese, he will see that 

 his precept is carried into practice. 



The Rev. Mr. Howard not only, properly enough, 

 denounced the outrageousness of the present racing 

 gambling, but scoffed at the pretence that it im- 

 proves the breed of horses, a pretence which he 

 stated that the Earl of Derby said was ' a delusion 

 too stale even for jesting.' I say nothing whatever 

 about the ecclesiastical or religious view of the 

 question, but as an Englishman I feel indignant 

 and appalled to know that the nation was all but 

 reduced to a Power of the second class, at a terrible 

 loss of blood, money, and prestige, owing largely 

 to the ruin of the breed of horses by the teachings 

 and influence of the gambling spirit, and, if you are 

 to believe the Earl of Derby, ' to the advent of 

 men who had neither character nor station.' But 

 Prov. xxvi. 1 1 leads us to doubt whether the 

 advice of the Earl of Derby, Mr. Curr, and scores 



