688 



A HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH TURF. 



Rous in his rejection of the " Totalisator " from Newmarket Heath. But it is 

 certainly time for those who know, and those who have the power, to take final 

 action. The philanthropist who knows little of his subject has done more harm 

 than good by proposing impracticable remedies for a very real ill. His one excuse 

 is that the Jockey Club seems hitherto disinclined to act ; yet they are a picked 

 body of men of influence and wealth, who could initiate any legislation they pleased 

 and carry any motion they supported. At present they do not even insist that 



all bookmakers of whose presence 

 they are cognisant should be pro- 

 perly licensed, a measure which 

 every honest bookmaker in England 

 would welcome. The parrot-cry 

 that a manly recognition of the 

 consequences of evil is in reality an 

 encouragement of that evil, should, 

 it may well be thought, have been 

 silenced by the unutterable harm 

 done to the British army by the 

 repeal of Acts which regulated its 

 health in the most important direc- 

 tions. The Jockey Club can well 

 afford, not only to disregard the cry 

 that they would encourage betting 

 by regulating its processes and pro- 

 tecting the ignorant, but also to 

 neglect their usual caution in the 

 matter of betting which was one 



result of the settling of Crockford's account over the Derby of 1844. Times 

 are very different now, and the Club will do well, for their own sakes, to take up 

 the question in no uncertain spirit, to demonstrate that the English Turf can 

 cleanse itself of stains which it does not monopolise, and which are not inherent 

 in the gallant sport of racing. The Duke of Portland was right, early in 1904, to 

 speak out a plain warning against the perils of the modern system, that miserable 

 system of starting-price betting by which tens of thousands gamble upon horses 

 they have never seen, never will see, and never want to see. The money lost 



Ry permission of 

 " Country Life." 



The Earl of Durham. 



