416 



has been the experience of the world throughout all history, and so it 

 will continue. The middle and lower classes are now, and very 

 properly, as-^endiog the hill of prosperity, but unfortunately they meet 

 the upper classes hurrying down. It is but a very few years since to 

 engage in trade was considered by the aristocracy and higher 

 grades of gentry derogatory ; now we find members of those classes 

 only too glad to join the commercial circles. The daughters of our 

 leading merchants, who but an equally short time ago were considered 

 eligible to associate with the higher classes only at public ball?, are 

 now sought after for wives fnr the sons-in-heir of some of those stand- 

 ing highest in the pages of the Peerage and Baronetage. The estates of 

 some of the oldest families in England are passing into the hands of 

 men who made their positioa alone by trade, while properties which 

 are not sold outright are being brokea up by reason of the tenant 

 farmers having purchased their holdings. 



Thus we have the levelling of classes by the lowering of the one and 

 the raising of the other, and thus is being lost the supremacy which in 

 former days was enjoyed by our territorial magnates. 



What effect these changes in society will have upon the country in 

 general is not here to be discussed, but we have a right to consider 

 what effect they will have upon the Sports of the nation. 



Practicall}'^ speaking, it is since the present century began that the 

 leading branches of our sport have come under proper system, and 

 it is only within the last forty years they have developed into 

 excellence. During that time they have been conducted solely 

 under the guidance of the upper class, who in every way maintained 

 them in prosperity, while their surveillance has kept together the 

 minor branches. 



It is a fact palpable to all endowed with reason that, by nature, we 

 are prone to resp?ct those who by birth and social position are superior 

 to us more than those our own equal, not to speak of those inferior. It 

 is also human nature to look with envy and disrespect up n those of our 

 own class who have, even by their own ability and exertion, risen to 

 opulence and have attained a position higher than ourselves. 



These may be, and in some instances are, unworthy sentiments — 

 natural though they be. Expeiience, however, justifies our holding 

 them, for examples are comparatively few of where a man who has 

 risen to a position he was not born to is able to fill it properly. 

 Examples to the contrary are found plentifully in eve'-y class and 

 calling. Who makes a bad landlord like the tenant ? Who makes the 

 bad master like the man who was a servant ? Who makes the martinet 

 like the soldier who has risen from the ranks ? 



In former days men in high social position were as a rule possessed 

 of good monetary means ; alas, such is not the general rule now. By 

 one reason or another their incomes are all reduced, while many of 

 them have no income at all. In olden times few men hunted or raced 

 except those belonging to the upper classes. Xow we find at the 



