BACKERS SHOULD DO THEIR OWN COMMISSIONS. 257 
one, takes less than the fair market odds, or refuses to give 
his employer what he, or others for him, may have taken— 
he should, in Jike manner, be held responsible for such acts. 
Moreover, he should be held accountable for bets, taken of 
those he has had reason to suspect might not meet their en- 
gagements, should they fail to pay up. Again, it should be 
made a szze gud non that all bets be given in daily as they are 
made until the commission is executed. Were betting 
legalised, we should strike a deadly blow at the root of this 
evil. But till this is done, the commission agent, who acts in 
a suspicious way, should be called before the committee at 
Tattersall’s, when the charge preferred should be rigorously 
investigated ; and if substantial proof of dishonesty be ad- 
duced, let restitution be made to the last farthing, or proclaim 
such a one a defaulter, and no longer allow him to associate 
with his honest confreres. 
The fortunes that these men make without a guinea in the 
world, or the zeus to make one except as racing commis- 
sioners, may well make one wonder. But I think an explana- 
tion will be found in what has been said. This gentry, 
. starting with a book and pencil as their whole stock-in-trade, 
suddenly emerge from obscurity as the possessors of thou- 
sands—and how? Simply by betraying the confidence 
reposed in them by their patrons, whom they soon outvie 
in everything, save manners, honesty, and honour. 
There is an easy remedy. Gentlemen should make their 
own bets, or find some one of their own class to do so for 
them. But if they do neither of these, then let them, as a 
saving clause, declare at the outset the price they will take, 
and be satisfied with nothing less. By this simple method, 
the owner of a horse may get what he is entitled to and 
may reasonably expect. It is but the application of 
Ss 
