FOR PEACE AND WAR. 71 



through if he could not clear.' Precisely so ; and as the light 

 weight would not accept if there were fences which would knock 

 him backwards, we provide hurdles which will give, and trappy 

 and trim fences over which men are killed, while the giants of 

 old ' lived ' over far bigger countries. These small fences, say 

 the committee, ' are the cause of nearly all the accidents ; and 

 by having good fair upstanding hunting fences the pace would 

 be much reduced, thereby rendering falls far less frequent and 

 severe.' But the committee must do something more than 

 suggest ; and, as they have already enacted that the minimum 

 weight in a steeplechase handicap shall be lOst., they must go 

 on and raise the strength of the line in proportion, so as to 

 bring us back to fair hunting weights over a fair hunting 

 country. Still, on the face of it, there is something absurd in a 

 steeplechase handicap — at least, as at present arrived at by 

 performances. A faint-hearted weed may be got over Liverpool, 

 but be useless over a stronger country ; and we may point this 

 by the Aylesbury National, where, in the open handicap. Day- 

 break received nearly a stone from Judge and nearly two stone 

 from Kyshworth, and he beat them by miles — one being a great 

 favourite for Liverpool at the time. But Daybreak looked more 

 like carrying a man, and was, moreover, a fine fencer ; while 

 the line was a fair hunting country, which he went over without 

 a lead and without a mistake, with the other two floundering at 

 almost every fence they came to." 



Well done, independent Field ! the "Gentleman's" paper. 

 This is " scotching the viper " and no mistake. It has been 

 long apparent to others, as well as to the late Earl of Derb}^ 

 that the speculative order of race and steeplechase meetnigs 

 was the very worst creation, for the sustainment in its 

 integrity of the orthodox mission of the Turf, that ever had 

 existence. The self-evident object of the promoters of such 

 meetings is individual aggrandisement : and although the 

 regime of such men as Mr. Warner, and the Messrs. Verral, 

 leave nothing to be cavilled at so far as their own integrity 



