OF F.4.RRIERY. 



391 



A chubby lad, that in fulness of time would 

 have ripened into a sixteen stone ploughman, 

 by some accident finds his way into a train- 

 ing stable. There perhaps it is discovered, 

 that his head was intended for a better pur- 

 pose than as a mere capital for his shoulders. 

 He is put up for trials, exhibits a firm seat 

 and good hands, and commences his career as 

 a jockey. Forthwith he is obliged to undergo 

 a continual process of violent exertion and un- 

 natural regimen. He must not eat when 

 appetite prompts, but as his engagements 

 allow. His pores are not suffered to dis- 

 charge their functions by gentle and insensible 

 perspiration, but swathed in flannels, and 

 stimulated by unseasonable efforts, the sweat 

 is made to pour from him like a running 

 stream. Then comes pharmacy, with bolus 

 and drench, to finish what toil and sweat had 

 so well begun, and the veteran of threescore 

 is screwed into a coffin of similar dimensions 

 with the cradle in which he was rocked as a 

 baby ! 



" Thus is the race of pigmies manufactured 

 to ride ; and how does the treatment differ 

 towards that which is to be ridden? In all, 

 save probably a more generous allowance of 

 food, from the hour a race-horse first goes into 

 training he is submitted to precisely the same 

 course of usage as that which transformed his 

 jockey into a shadowy unsubstantial dwarf. 

 And wherefore not ? the object is the same for 

 both. Horse and rider are sacrificed, if you 

 will, to speed ; but speed is the aim of the 

 one, and the destined purpose of the other : 

 if that be obtained, the effect required is pro- 

 duced, and naturally after a like process of 

 treatment." 



The above quotation shews the degraded 

 situation in which man will appear for the 



sake of money! He consents to be deprived 

 of" Nature's fair proportion," to become pos- 

 sessed of a few sovereigns more in a year, 

 even at the sacrifice of his general health and 

 happiness, than his comrade, the plough-boy. 

 Can there be happiness without health, and 

 can there be health under such a system of 

 sacrifices, that stints the growth of manhood 

 to a size, whose body may be " screwed into 

 a coffin of similar dimensions with the cradle 

 in which he was rocked as a baby?" 



We have, with wonder and astonishment, 

 often witnessed the training of jockeys for a 

 reduction of weight. We have seen them in 

 a burning sun, clothed in great coats, and 

 walking at a rate, till they were actually in a 

 fainting state from their great exhaustion. 

 We have heard them express a great desire 

 for refreshment, and have seen them refuse it 

 with the spirit of martyrs. We have felt pity 

 and sorrow that their duty should exact sucti 

 devotion from them, and admiration at tiieir 

 exercising it. Still it was melancholy to re- 

 flect that all this devotion to their profession, 

 calling upon all their corporeal energies, did 

 not finish with their present engagement ; but 

 that repeated exertions of the same nature 

 might still be demanded on other occasions. 

 To undergo such punishment once in a man's 

 life, might be supportable, and would servt 

 him to talk about as a soldier would after a 

 hard campaign ; but to make a trade of it, 

 seems to us a more trying occupation to the 

 human constitution, than cultivating the sugar- 

 cane in a torrid clime. 



That the early training of the English race- 

 horse must be highly injurious to his natural 

 physical powers, we think, cannot admit of a 

 dispute. Another popular wnYer, under the 

 signature of liingtvood, says : 



