558 
PARLIAMENTARY INTELLIGENCE. 
rioration of our horses. How were they to account for that deterioration ? 
He thought Mr. Dickenson hit only a part of the reason for it. The real 
reason, he believed, lay in the undoubted fact that the object of those 
who had the command of the turf always had been, and always must be, 
to entice as many persons as possible to come upon the turf—an object 
inconsistent with such a system as would maintain for us the breed of 
stout horses. He was aware there were many who utterly denied this 
deterioration; but there was evidence enough left us to show that in 
former times horses ran six-mile distances and four-mile heats, carrying 
even 12 st., and sometimes 13 st., and remained five and six years on the 
turf, performing tasks which, if they were to try to impose on a race¬ 
horse of the present day, would kill the animal. It was the fashion with 
some to say that our horses were never finer than they were at present, 
and that the accounts of the racing in olden times were not to be relied 
on. But he found it easier to believe that, there had been a deteriora¬ 
tion in the stoutness, soundness, and structural power of our horses than 
to believe that all the feats recorded as done by horses in the last century 
were a sham, and that, pretending to run four-mile heats, the jockeys had 
cantered the greater part of the way. The stamp of our horses had un¬ 
dergone a change. The modern racer stood over more ground than his 
predecessors, and had a longer stride; but he was weaker in the loins, 
and had less capacity of chest. What was the remark that would at once 
be made by any one who looked at the pictures of our race-horses by a 
great artist fifty years ago ? Why, they looked more like hunters than 
racers, combining higher structural power, soundness, and stoutness, with 
the same amount of breeding. In a very interesting correspondence 
between the Chief Secretary for Ireland and Admiral Rous, the gallant 
admiral said— 
“ A race-horse which can run three miles is worth £3000—a half-mile 
horse’s value is £100, which is a sufficient bribe to exercise our ingenuity 
to produce stout runners.” 
And he also observes that— 
‘‘It is not to be supposed that a sane person will risk a horse worth 
£3000 to run four miles under heavy weight for a miserable prize of 
£ 100 .” 
He was aware that Admiral Rous said he did not object to the modern 
system of handicap. He thought, however, that that system was regretted 
by almost all who were connected with the turf; and he had reason to 
believe that the opinion of Admiral Rous had undergone a change, for he 
had once said that “ no man was a greater enemy to handicaps than 
himself,” and that “the system encouraged trickery of every description.” 
(Hear, hear.) In the same letter the gallant admiral used one of his very 
terse and expressive phrases, namely, that racing was “ a game of weights.” 
One thing to be deprecated was the running of horses at a too early age. 
Lord Derby, speaking in the House of Lords against the Bill of Lord 
Redesdale, said that, in 1829, the proportion of two-year olds to three-year 
olds on the turf was as two to eight, and that in 1859 it had increased to 
eight to seven. The proportion was still increasing, and this spring it 
had reached rather more than eight and a half to seven. It was begin¬ 
ning to be discovered that they could not with impunity play such tricks 
with nature as they had been doing for the last half century. The 
system of Queen’s Plates was most unsatisfactory. The weights were 
not heavy enough or the distances long enough to please those whose 
eyes were fixed on having good horses for practical purposes, and not for 
mere racing. One of the most recent alterations introduced was the 
allowing three-year-olds to run for Queen’s Plates, and he regretted to 
