OBJECT OF RACING. 411 



and breeders of race-horses underwent a change ; and what had 

 been the means became more or less the end. Horses, in a 

 high form, of the purest and most favorite strains of blood, were 

 eagerly sought, and commanded large pi'ices, for the purposes 

 of sport and honorable competition, as was the case in ancient 

 Greece, at the period of the Olympic games. 



At a yet later date, a second change of object has taken place ; 

 and, with but few exceptions, the thoroughbred horse is now 

 kept, both in England and this country, for the paramount pur- 

 poses of money-making, either by the actual winning of his 

 j)rizes, or by his services in the stud, after his racing career is 

 finished; for either, or both, of which objects, the highest 

 development of the two qualities of speed and endurance — 

 which can only exist in conjunction with thorough blood — ■ 

 coupled with form and size, are absolutely required. 



Still, in England, especially, the first end of improving the 

 breed of the general horse, has never been lost sight of ; and 

 racing has been always so constantly regarded, as the only me- 

 thod of inducing the maintenance of studs of thoroughbreds, 

 and the continuance of a supply of pure blood, that it has been 

 continually supj)orted by government, as a national institution ; 

 and benefit-prizes, varying in amount from 250 to 500 dollars, 

 liave been given to be run for, annually, or biennially, at many 

 established race-courses, in every county of England, to the 

 aggregate of many thousand pounds sterling. 



Eacing and race-courses, therefore, are still, as they were 

 intended to be from the first, the best and only mode of really 

 improving the general stock of any country ; although the ani- 

 mals employed may be kept, merely, or generally, for the 

 gratification of cupidity and the excitement of the contest — the 

 race-courses patronized only by the seekers of an amusement, 

 in which none but fools and fanatics can find any thing, intrin- 

 sically, blamable or demoralizing. If it be admitted that 

 racing and race-courses are subject to occasional abuses, that is 

 only to admit them not to be exempt from a necessary condi- 

 tion of every thing human, not excluding religion itself. That 

 they are peculiarly, or more than other institutions, involving 

 large congregations of men and women, subject to such abuses, 

 is, in no respect, demonstrable or true ; and I will defy any 



