1891 A BRIEF REVIEW 825 



There is a sort of dog-in-the-manger plea which is 

 sometimes urged in favour of the rule as it stands ; 

 but that deserves little attention. It is, that a de- 

 ceased subscriber would probably have subscribed for 

 a great many horses, of which only one perhaps 

 would be good, and that the purchaser of that ' crack ' 

 would be quit of all the liabilities incurred by the 

 original subscribers for the bad ones, and the various 

 stakes, if the purchaser did not win them, would be 

 so much the less valuable to another, and, if he did, 

 so much the more to himself. But, even if the plea 

 were not too mean to be considered, it should be 

 borne in mind that for the Derby, for the Grand Prix, 

 and for many, if not most, of the great stakes there 

 is now a minor forfeit, which the subscriber would 

 most likely have paid for the bad ones before his decease, 

 so that there would be little of the anticipated loss. 

 Another point which should be looked at, and which 

 tells in favour of the rule as it stands, is this : that 

 those who object to the rule consider the cases only of 

 good horses (in which there is no doubt a depreciation 

 of property sometimes) and of horses with great 

 reputation, or of owners (like the late Mr. White, 

 the Australian representative) possessing such horses 

 to be left to their ' executors, administrators, and 

 assigns,' but the good horses, and even the reputed 

 good horses, are to the bad as one to a hundred (or 

 more), and both the good and the reputed good horses 

 very often belie their promise (as the notorious Lady 



