476 
V KT ERIN A R Y JUR ISPRIJ DF.NCE. 
sion which has recently taken place respecting Mr. Gurney’s account, we, 
the undersigned, think ourselves bound, in justice to Mr. Portinan, Mr. 
Beale, and Mr. Clarke, to declare that they have all along acted in concert 
with us ; and we feel ourselves much indebted to them, for the zeal and suc- 
cess with which they have accomplished the settlement of outstanding debts, 
which, if received, are more than sufficient to pay us all in full satisfaction of 
our claims on Mr. Gurney.” It was signed by Messrs. Crockford, Hill, Des- 
brow, Hyde, Penson, Willan, and Potterton. 
Cross-examination resumed. — The paper is in my handwriting. It is not 
dated, because it never occurred to me to date it. I got some of the sig-* 
natures to the paper. I got Mr. Willan’s signature in the Queen’s Bench 
Prison. I am not sure of that. No : I got it in the Craven Hotel, in the 
Strand. I went to him for the purpose of getting his signature. 
Captain Rous, Mr. Greville, Lord Stradbroke, Colonel Peel, and Mr. Irby 
were then examined, but their evidence was all substantially the same, and 
went to prove, that so long as the creditors of a person betting and who could 
not pay his engagements were satisfied, the club had no right to look farther 
into the matter; and that where a debtor had entered into arrangements 
which were satisfactory to a creditor, a person owing him money had no right 
to set that circumstance up as an excuse for non-payment of a bet lost by 
him to the party. Colonel Peel, indeed, expressed himself most strongly on 
such a case ; he said that, in his opinion, a man who had lost money by bet- 
ting on a horse-race cannot be excused the payment of it under any circum- 
stances. The moment he loses, his money is gone from him for ever ; and that 
he was bound to pay a bet which he had lost to another, even though that other 
had not paid his creditors. The moment a man of honour lost his money he 
had no further controul over it, and that therefore, under the circumstances 
which came before the Jockey Club, Mr. Thornton was a defaulter, and the 
club was justified in making the declaration. 
Some further evidence was examined, all of which bore on the same point, 
and on the absolute authority of the Jockey Club in racing matters; and the 
defendant’s case being closed. 
The Solicitor- General, in a most able speech, to which *we are unable 
to do justice to for want of space, replied. 
Lord Abinger then proceeded to sum up. After recapitulating the evi- 
dence given, he proceeded to put it to the jury, whether they considered the 
publication which had been read was one likely to have an injurious effect on 
the plaintiff’s character? Was it a libel on the plaintiff? He would likewise 
call their attention to this point : — Supposing the J ockey Club had acted strictly 
according to their jurisdiction — supposing they had a right to call the plaintiff 
before them, and he had attended and refused to pay his bets, they had a right 
to exclude him from Newmarket or from Tattersall’s ; they might send to 
the Duke of Portland to warn him from coming on the ground of the Jockey 
Club ; but were they justified in publishing him as a defaulter in the news- 
papers ? He thought they were not justified in doing so. The very offence 
of a libel consisted in the publication. That which was not a libel while con- 
tained in a man’s pocket, became so if he published it. There was a part of 
the justification, too, which he did not think proved. The learned judge 
laid it down broadly, that though the decisions of the Jockey Club might be 
considered as binding on their own members, and even on others who had 
agreed to submit themselves to its decision, in which case it became a simple 
matter of arbitration, yet the case was widely different where the parties did 
not agree to be bound by their decision, and where one of them openly dis- 
sented from being bound by their dictum ; in which case he considered that 
the Jockey Club had not a right to publish a man as a defaulter. After com- 
