THE RACE-HORSE. 581 



owner of the best stud in England, one who gives 3000 gui- 

 neas for a horse, in the comely form of a Yorkshire footman ! 

 We have a quondam livery-stable keeper, with a dozen or 

 more race-horses in his stalls, and those of the very best 

 stamp, and such as few country gentlemen, or indeed any 

 others, have a chance to contend with. By their father's 

 account of them, the two Messrs Chifney were stable-boys 

 to Earl Grosvenor at eight guineas a-year and a stable suit. 

 They are now owners of nearly the best horses, and, save Mr 

 Croekford's, quite the best houses in their native town. 

 There is the son of the hostler of the Black Swan at York, 

 betting his thousands on the heath, his neckerchief secured 

 by a diamond pin. Then, to crown all, there is Squire 

 Beardsworth of Birmingham, with his seventeen race-horses, 

 and his crimson liveries, in the same loyal but dirty town in 

 which he once drove a hackney coach." 



If the institution of the turf is to be preserved to the people 

 of England, it is manifest that means must be used to free 

 it from the taint and scandal which are now attached to it. 

 In a country where the civil and moral relations of men in 

 society are deemed worthy of regard, it is impossible that a 

 system, based on deception, founded on the corruption of the 

 humbler instruments employed, and methodized into a course 

 of public plunder, can be suffered to remain grafted on the 

 pastimes of the people. Here is no question of a wretched 

 gambling-house to be put down, of a petty culprit for some 

 miserable game of chances to be rendered amenable to penal 

 statutes, but of a system of wholesale fraud, carried on by 

 troops of plunderers in the face of day, supported by funds 

 of incredible amount, and spreading the poison of a danger- 

 ous example through the medium of public sports. Is this a 

 matter to be left to the conventional regulations of clubs, and 

 to the inconsiderable powers of stewards of race-courses 1 

 The matter, we say. is one of public concern, involving re- 

 sults affecting national character, and public decency and 



