CHAPTER XIV. 



NAMING HORSES. 



It is curious at the present day liorses should be 

 running in races, competing for stakes, made up of 

 what is called "public money," without a name or 

 anytliing to distinguish them one from another be- 

 yond a simple notification of their pedigi'ees. Why 

 horses should thus be permitted to run in races 

 under the rules of racing, and allowed to compete 

 for public stakes, I could never make out, certainly 

 on any grounds that were intelligible. The only 

 justification of it put forward with any show of 

 reason I have ever heard was that "persons were 

 entitled to do as they liked with their own." 



To this view of the rights of individuals I should 

 not be disposed to offer the least objection. Still, in 

 the case of races in which public money is given or 

 subscribed, either by way of plate, or in specie, or of 

 both, and in which there is by common consent 



