368 A MIRROR OF THE TURK 



up as the sporting public do to this body as the 

 chief and sovereign head of their own community 

 for either approbation or condemnation, and with 

 such serious obHgations on their own part, and 

 weighty and grave matters to deal with and 

 adjudicate upon as regards others, it behoves 

 them to be careful in their own actions, and 

 tender in investigating and deciding upon the 

 action of others. To have the moral right of 

 sitting in judgment upon and deciding a question 

 of honour with respect to others, they must 

 themselves be beyond reproach as reflected in 

 their own character and actions ; but their verdict 

 can never be impeached as long as in their own 

 persons they set an example to others of high and 

 honourable conduct." 



III. 



The jurisdiction of the Jockey Club will always, 

 in my opinion, be incomplete till it accepts the 

 responsibility of laying down the law in questions 

 as to disputed bets, and of deciding when horses 

 are in a race or when they are not ; as, for instance, 

 in the case of Maskelyne, about which there was 

 a few years ago much discussion, resulting in the 

 illogical conclusion that, although the entry of 

 that horse was informal, and consequently inept, 

 those who backed it were ordered by the com- 

 mittee of Tattersall's to pay their bets ! Why 

 should it be possible to make an informal entry 

 of any horse for any race ? Hitherto it appears 

 to have been among the unwritten laws of the 

 turf that any person might enter any animal he 



