A POSSIBLE MOTIVE. 



99 



this was not the result with the prime mover in this 

 matter. The namer of Deception gave notice to the 

 stake -holder not to pay over the stakes, and they 

 were withheld ; and the question w T as brought into 

 a court of law and tried at the Liverpool Assizes in 

 August, wiien a verdict was found for Mr. Ridsdale, 

 the stakes meantime having been paid into the Court 

 of Exchequer. The actual question in dispute, 

 I should perhaps add, was whether Bloomsburij 

 should not have been described as ■ by Tramp or 

 Mulatto.'' 



As affectino; Lord George himself, the matter was 

 one of motive. What, I may ask, induced him to 

 hurl defiance at the stewards, and by impugning their 

 decision and trying to set it aside in a court of law, 

 bring contempt upon the whole body of the Jockey 

 Club ? Like another amiable character, Lord George, 

 I am afraid, ' was nothing if not critical,' and like him 

 also ofttimes ' his jealousies found faults that were 

 not.' In this case no roguery was complained of, nor 

 sinister motive imputed to anyone. What then, it 

 may be inquired, was the aim of the objection ? 

 Surely we shall not presume to think, as some un- 

 charitable persons have suggested, that Lord George 

 was a heavy loser on the horse that won, and would 

 have gained a large sum if only he could have, rightly 

 or wrongly, got the race given to his friend's mare. 

 In this view of it, the stake was a good one, and 

 worth playing for, though he missed it. Rather is it 



7—2 



