CONCLUSION 359 



mission, on pain of losing his membership by so 

 doing ; and then it will be time enough to expect 

 that Parliament will give to the Jockey Club the 

 plenary sanction it desires. 



Of course the Jockey Club will not do anything of 

 the kind, any more than the Government will give 

 the public prosecutor orders to proceed against * Tat- 

 tersall's,' or the newspapers, the very best of them, 

 will drop their * quotations ' and their ' gambling 

 articles,' and cease to spread the 'Ringworm.' Yet 

 the small bettor of the public-house, or the shop, or 

 the lodging, or the pavement, is daily brought before 

 the magistrate, and not unnaturally asks, ' Why don't 

 you try it on with the big men ? ' Possibly the small 

 men cause the most actual crime, but it looks mean 

 to tackle them only, and, moreover, it is of little use, 

 as they are the most numerous, and the conviction of 

 them produces little effect and attracts little notice. 

 Kill a bishop if you wish to prevent avoidable railway 

 accidents ; make an example of a ' Leviathan ' if you 

 mean to stop the plague of public betting. 



Meanwhile, there are a few more points to be con- 

 sidered as regards the Jockey Club. We have seen 

 that the members of that Club, and of the class in 

 society to which they belong, either bred or owned in 

 olden time all the horses and mares (with few ex- 

 ceptions in each case) from which the present splendid 

 and unequalled English thoroughbred is descended, sup- 

 plied nearly all the horse-racing that was of any account, 



