The Rejoqrt of the Royal Commission on Horse-Breeding. 293 
tageous in other districts under different conditions : — " It is 
advantageous in our own district : there is an advantage in it ; 
I admit that. I do not say that it does not do good to a certain 
extent." Lord Portsmouth thinks that lower premiums will 
bring out a larger number of " useful " horses, that high pre- 
miums are won too much by good looks, and that good-looking 
horses often get very bad stock. In view, however, of the fact 
that, even with our high premiums, a large, though a diminishing 
proportion of the stallions exhibited annually have to be re- 
jected for unsoundness, it may be doubted whether the animals 
which the lower premiums would bring forward would stand 
the test any better, or so well ; whilst the higher-class animals 
would not be tempted to compete, and would probably be sold to 
go abroad or to the Colonies. Lord Combermere advocates lower 
premiums, under a scheme of county distribution, subject, how- 
ever, to rules and regulations to be kept in the hands of the Com- 
mission. 13 A scheme of the kind, he explains, is answering well 
at Tarporley. But it is to be feared that every county or local 
association has not the special instinct nor the machinery for 
its successful working. It must be borne in mind that Cheshire 
and North Wales have understood horse-breeding for years past. 
To sum up. My own view, founded upon the evidence, is that 
the premium must be sufficiently high to be worth a man's com- 
mercial while to win, quite independently of his inclination as a 
breeder, his occupation as a farmer, or even his public spirit as a 
patriot. " What you make it men's interests to do, that they will 
do." Certainly Mr. Burke was right as regards £s. d.; but when 
you drift away from that formula, you cannot be certain what 
men will do. Moreover, lowering the premiums raises another 
difficulty. If you limit the number of mares (which might be 
done on the present scale of premium, and which many witnesses 
suggested should be done), you must (on a lower premium) 
either raise the fees — and this will be defeating the principle 
of the premium system — or you must lower the fees, and let the 
stallion make it up in an increased and unlimited number of 
mares. To my mind, the Commission have wisely decided to 
maintain the value of the premiums. 
I shall now glance at the evidence upon restricting the 
21. 2s. GcZ. service of the Queen's premium stallions to tenant- 
farmers, which seems to me conveniently to belong to the first 
heading. Upon the whole, I think the general opinion is in 
favour of all faring alike. Lords Combermere and Harrington, 
Mr. Knight, and Captain Fife, would like to see the first fifty 
13 3358, 3359, 3360. 
