THE JOCKEY CLUB IN THE DAYS OF CHARLES JAMES FOX 



251 



enactments are obviously made to be eluded. In 1699 William III. took somewhat 

 similar precautions by imposing a fine of / 5 oo on anyone who kept a lottery, and 

 apparently with very similar results, for the preamble of the Act against gambling 

 passed by Queen Anne shows that previous legislation had been found to be utterly 

 inadequate, and declares that all mortgages and securities connected with gaming or 

 betting were if so facto void. A further edict endeavoured to limit betting to/io, as 

 we saw when discussing the effects of Mr. Frampton's famous match with Sir 

 William Strickland, though Her Majesty's Palaces were thoughtfully and specifi- 

 cally excepted from the operation of this law during her residence. George I. 

 does not seem to have visited Newmarket much more than the one time 

 recorded in October, 1717 ; 

 and the only Act in his reign 

 that relates to horses forbids 

 waggoners and carriers and 

 others from drawing any 

 vehicle " with more than four 

 horses in length." The Postal 

 service he left in the same 

 bad state in which he found 

 it ; indeed it was not till 1784 

 that the old untrustworthy 

 system of boys on horseback 

 was abolished. If such a 

 simple reform in these direc- 

 tions did not occur to 



George I., it was not likely that he would trouble about the mistakes in Racing 

 Legislation made by his predecessors; but soon after George II.'s accession the evil 

 effect of IQ Plates had begun to be seriously felt, and in the thirteenth year of his 

 reign was passed the Act of 1740, which provided that all horses were to be entered 

 for races by their real owners, and nobody was to start more than one horse for the 

 same Plate under pain of forfeiting the horse. It was declared illegal to run for a 

 Plate of less value than ^50, under a penalty of ^"200 to the owner and ^100 to the 

 advertiser. Every race must begin and end on the same day, the second horse should 

 recover his stake, and gifts left for annual races were not to be altered. Five-year- 

 olds must carry 10 stone, a six-year-old 11 stone, a seven-year-old 12 stone, each 



Mr. J. Marshal's " Little Driver." 1 



