63 'THE DANEBURY CONFEDERACY: 



poor tools, dishonestly instruct them. Men calling 

 themselves gentlemen were found as unscrupulous in 

 days gone by as any that exist to-day ; and probably 

 will be so found until the end of time. I, at all 

 events, see no power that may be counted upon to 

 crush out of life this regrettable feature in racing 

 matters. It is an evil not easily detected, although 

 well known to exist ; and too powerful, I fear, to be 

 grappled with at present. 



As a matter of fact, we may be content to know 

 that Messrs. Gully and Hill did not amass the enormous 

 sums which they at one time put together, by the 

 innocent process of backing their own horses, or even 

 by laying against them in the rare instances in which 

 such a course is justifiable. Yet this always doubtful 

 practice cannot, in any sense, be considered other than 

 dishonest in the case in which laying commissions 

 are accepted. For the agents, who receive them, know 

 that the horses so laid against will not run ; and, 

 indeed, it is their own interest to see that they do not. 

 Thus the backers have no chance of winning, which 

 makes the transaction as dishonest, according to the 

 rules of racing, as it must be odious in the sight of 

 every man of principle. 



As for the practices of Messrs. Gully, Hill and Co., 

 we may learn something from what appeared recently 

 in the columns of the Sporting World. The writer 

 says : ' In fact, it was out of the " dead uns," which 

 used to be the chief source of profit to the operator in 



