CHAPTERS FROM TURF HISTORY 



reproached him for his haughtiness. As a man of 

 rank and fashion he moved in a world unknown to 

 the new men of the middle class, who were shocked 

 at language which was current at White's and 

 at metaphors which recalled Newmarket Heath. 

 In the House of Commons, one day,^ he alluded 

 in a formal Motion to the Clerk of the Course, 

 instead of the Clerk of the House, In a debate 

 on a Tithe Bill, he put his legs on the table and 

 then rose to scandalize the respectable mediocrities 

 by comparing the conduct of the Government to 

 the thimble-rigging tricks of the juggler on the race- 

 course. Again, after Stanley had joined Sir Robert 

 Peel, he thought that his leader had unduly delayed 

 his resignation when defeated in the House of 

 Commons. He described the situation by saying 

 that his colleague should have died in the open like 

 a gallant fox, instead of turning up his toes in a 

 ditch. Peel, the leader of the Conservative Party 

 of 1841 — the hero of so many hopes and prayers — 

 ruined his followers. The broken remnant turned 

 to Stanley, and from 1846 until his resignation in 

 1868 they served under his banner. The direction 

 of the party in the Commons devolved upon Lord 

 George Bentinck, and so it was that the political 

 fortunes of Conservative gentlemen were entrusted 

 to the two most prominent members of the Jockey 

 Club. In the midst of the crisis of 1846, when the 

 chief office of the State was vacant, Stanley and 

 Bentinck were to be seen at Newmarket laughing 

 together as if the issue of the hour counted less 



' When Lord Stanley he sat for the racing borough of Stock- 

 bridge, where, according to Gay, " cobblers used to feast three 

 years upon one vote ! " 



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