PREJUDICE. 37 



tlemen, I beg to be understood as meaning the fine 

 old or young English Gentleman keeping three or four 

 hunters at the most. Such men as I have mentioned 

 crossing Leicestershire are another guess matter : they 

 are in a different condition (in life), and faith, so are 

 their nags. Many of these really fine fellows, I regret 

 to say, I know are not in condition to go the pace they 

 do ; but I must pay them the compliment of saying 

 their horses are. 



Such country gentlemen as I allude to, while (as 

 they call it) " sticking to the port," d all racing and 

 the income tax, both from what they consider a suf- 

 ficient reason ; namely, they don't like either ; in which 

 the correctness of their judgment is shown in about 

 the same light as in regard to their horses. They 

 happen to overlook the fact, that to racing we are 

 indebted for the splendid breed of horses we see at 

 the covert side : to racing we principally owe our pre- 

 sent knowledge of that magical word condition : to 

 racing we owe that consideration of Aveight that induces 

 us to mount ourselves in accordance with it, a kind of 

 handicapping, without which our field of sportsmen 

 would very shortly be like the Irish miles "if they're 

 very long they're very narrow." Our country gen- 

 tleman forgets this ; and now, though no dabbler in 

 politics, it strikes me that in d g the income tax, he 

 forgets that if he has 50/. a-year less income, he has 

 quite an equal pull on the other side in the price of 

 what he wants to buy, from which thousands of our 

 suffering poorer brethren are now reaping the comfort. 

 So, in my conception, he is anathematising a sport that 

 has brought our horse pursuits to the highest state 

 of perfection, and an Act, that, with its accompani- 

 ments, must be considered one of the most just, con- 



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