CHELTENHAM MEETING, Tuesday, July 2nd. - Smellfungus never searches for causes or effects beyond the length of his own nose-an undeniable snub. Tell him that excess of wine leads to evil, and straightway he would blot out the grape from the catalogue of the fruits of the earth. "Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt," was said some eighteen centuries ago, and the rule has descended without impeachment to our days. Among the host of examples that might be adduced in proof, a more prominent one, as regards present practice, cannot be quoted, than the fashion which obtains so generally of making oblation to Heaven of such faded, tattered remnants of mortality as Satan has previously declined. Now, for reasons sufficiently obvious, these sweet-smelling sacrifices could not be offered upon altars redolent with unholy incense. In plain English, people who desire to play at saints, find it scarcely safe to do so at home. For this cause certain watering-places have been selected as modern Meccas, where may be seen awful troops of old monkeys, who have lost their own tails, eloquently representing, to such young apes as they may come in contact with, the exceeding benefits they will derive from being divested of their caudal appendages. Of these seats of celestial humbug, none has thrust itself more offensively into recent notice than the Hygeia of the Cotteswold. Not content with the natural expurgations effected by its waters, behold, squadrons of spiritual quacksalvers have lately been embodied, who, with tongues like twoedged swords, wage war against all and several the relaxations and pleasures of life, as things which, to borrow an expression of old Mathews the bookseller, when speaking of his son's propensity for the stage, "only tend to add to man's d-nation." To think that Cheltenham should ever come to be an orchestra for nasal psalmody! High-street!-arena of pleasant little sinnings; mall of malefactious couleur de rose; - that thou shouldst be desecrated by the tread of the octogenarian outcast of Paphos: the wrinkled Cyprian Pharisee, seeking the narrow path, when the gate of the broad way hath long been slammed in her face!

We have introduced the racing anniversary, whose details are now to be treated of, in the spirit wherewith we shall ever handle hypo

crisy, wheresoever and whensoever we detect it. We abhor dissimulation in any form, but chiefest of all when assumed as the cloak of the hypocrite; and now to our task. Cheltenham races have ceased their nominal existence; all future meetings on Cleeve Hill taking the appellation of the County of Gloucester Races. From the spirited manner in which these embryo trystings have been taken up by the leading men of the district, their success appears assured. In rendering up the ghost, Cheltenham races exhibited a most comfortable defunction, when contrasted with their struggles at existence. The attendance was good, particularly on the second day; and the sports, as a whole, very satisfactory. The event of the first day was the Gloucestershire Stakes, generally a good handicap for public betting. It was as splendid a sample of the speed and unflinching stoutness of the English thorough-bred horse as ever was exhibited. Lugwardine, the winner, has the old Ruben's blood in his veins, and did credit to his nobility of descent. The form in which Science and Delusion won their races, served to add to the laurels earned by the stock of Defence during the present season.

For the Trades Cup, on Wednesday, three steeds of fame entered the lists, and created a sensation as general as it was intense. The pace from the first was as good as Grey Momus could make it, whilom both fleet and lasting. Caravan, who has been shewing well, and who beat Harkaway for the Marquis of Westminster's Plate at Chester, in May last, was put quite hors de combat by it; while Harkaway, as aforesaid, found it so derogatory to descend to, that his jockey was actually (for the honour of owld Ireland, and the improvement of future handicaps, we suppose,) obliged to win by about half a distance!! Surely "you did sleep at Cheltenham, Mr. Ferguson." Was there no Samaritan to whisper, that the conditions of the race ensured you a hundred for losing, besides contingencies? We wonder will Mr. Isaac Day have to move Westminster Hall for the £100 allowance as second? "Goodwood Cup weights and conditions." "Any decent lawyer would keep a case founded on these last sub judice" for an honest century at the least. Had there been but two subscribers to this Trades Cup instead of eighteen, there would have been just £20 for the winner, and £100 for the loser. Should these conditions be continued for another year, we beg to propose, as rider to them, that, in the event of but two subscriptions occurring to ensure a race, each jockey should ride his adversary's horse. Will any meeting go off during the season without a wrangle?-Time will tell; at all events Cheltenham is not likely to be out of the fashion.

NEWMARKET JULY MEETING. - Of all the schemes in which a gentleman of a speculative turn of mind can embark at the present hour, we know none offering more certain prospects of success than the turf. It is true, that, for years past, we have set our hands against the expedients of the sharp of practice in horse-racing; and that our disgust and abhorrence of your chevalier d'industrie, is still as unmitigated as ever. Still do we proclaim war to the knife against the "knaves of every degree," who leave untried no stratagem to turn to a base and sordid account the national taste for a noble national sport. Why then do we invite the speculative to try their luck upon the turf? - On that principle of military practice that seeks its end by arming one enemy against another. The mere ignition of a chimney now and then is insufficient to rouse the parish to purchase the engine; but let a handsome burning occur, with a proportionate loss of life, and straightway it supplies itself with a fire brigade. Until some flaming manifestation takes place in the business of horseracing, no energetic measures will be adopted to purge it of present impurities. We shall, therefore, from time to time, offer such public hints as will assist the crisis; while, to the really industrious, who desire to make an honest penny, under the sanction of the rules of racing as they now exist, we beg to announce that we have several secure investments to dispose of, for which our charge is only fifty per cent. on the net profits. As a beginning, we would recommend the formation of a joint-stock company for the purchase of the favourites in all the great stakes, upon any terms, provided they are known to have been heavily backed. Let a circular, then, issue, to the effect that the company will not suffer any of their nominations to start, unless double the amount of the price paid for the particular lot be handed over to their secretary. For a beginning this would not be bad, as it would return a hundred per cent. on the capital subscribed, with the contingencies of winning. As soon as the committee is formed (as, of course, it will with all alacrity), we shall look to be appointed to the secretaryship, as no less than our right, for the consideration of the "wrinkle."

The attendance at this summer meeting was quite equal to its general average; but the sport was infinitely below it. The July and Chesterfield Stakes, in which the whole interest of the three days is centred, were won by Lord George Bentinck's Crucifix, as fine a two-year-old filly, probably, as ever shewed on Newmarket Heath, purchased with her dam, as draughts from Lord Chesterfield's stud, for fifty-five guineas! There was nothing in the running for these stakes, or any of the other engagements, to demand more than the ordinary details given in the Turf Register. We cannot, however, close this notice, without allusion to a paragraph which appeared in the account of the racing for the July Stakes, in a sporting paper of the 14th ultimo: "We cannot insert Alpha's letter respecting the offer not to run Crucifix, if her owner received half the stake. It is a matter with which the public can have nothing to do." "Per Herc'le!" that editor is a wicked wag, and means libraries more than meets the eye. Our public has been backing Crucifix for the July Stakes at some 9 to 4, the preceding week, at Tattersall's, and can have nothing to do whether she start or not for a play or pay race. That we call taking it coolly, considering the season.

LIVERPOOL JULY MEETING. ---All who have watched the progress of racing at Liverpool for the last ten or twelve years, must have foreseen the position to which it would ultimately attain, from the excellent management to which it was subjected. The result is now before us, and what that is need no reply, beyond a reference to the old summer races at Maghul, and that which has so lately been enacted at Aintree. As in commerce she is inferior only to the metropolis, so, in the business of the turf, Liverpool has but one spot in England that takes a higher rank: she is second to none save Newmarket. The secret of this success may serve as a most useful precedent, not only in the conduct of race meetings already in existence, but where it is contemplated to establish one. The ordinary plan of operation is to form a committee, with which rests the collection of subscriptions, and the general agency of finance, both in providing funds and regulating their disbursement. A body of men, none personally interested in the amount obtained, nor in the consequences of its management, is little qualified for a cautious or profitable treatment of an exchequer. Such was not the system that induced the prosperity of Aintree. Individual concern urged the unabating perseverance with which the minutest points were watched and turned to account. To one man Liverpool is indebted for the present flourishing condition of her turf; while the industrious agent has little cause to regret the time and trouble bestowed by him in bringing it about. There can be no doubt that a similar course, in other places, would be followed by equally desirable results. Let the offices, now generally filled by a lukewarm indifferent committee, be concentered in one active, persevering member, whose interest shall advance in proportion as his labours are successful, and then will a fair chance of well-doing be afforded. We do not attempt to shew how this may be accomplished; indeed it must be wholly governed by extrinsic circumstances. Where, however, such opportunity offers, let the trial be made, and we have little doubt of the result.

As at almost every meeting during the season, so at this Liverpool July, the necessity for a revision of the articles of racing was proved. According to a common practice, intended to secure a race for any particular stake, it was a condition of the Hooton Sweepstakes, that, in the event of a walk over, the £100 added would not be given. Now, there apparently was to be this walk over, nobody deeming it worth paying a whole stake for the chance of a contest with Mr. Ramsay. But Mr. R. was either a canny chiel' himsel', or had 'cute counsel, for he started his own brace, and, consequently, claimed the addition. People said it was to all intents, " in spirit," the forfeiture contemplated by the articles; but they have no right to interpret after Puff's fashion, in the case of my Lord Burleigh's head. Had the conditions run thus: "three reputed race-horses to start, or the £100 will not be given," then there could have been "no mistake:" -as it was, let them pay for their experience.

To come, at length, to the sport-the running was good on the average; very superior in some instances. For the opening event, the Croxteth Stakes, the winner of the Oaks came out in a rare form, in one sense of the word, at all events, having arrived by rail the same morning, after a journey of some couple of hundred miles! She was beaten, and in a particularly flattering weight for age race, it was generally felt, from bad riding. Now, this calls for observation; for the vice of putting up inexperienced boys is a fast growing evil. It is, no doubt, difficult to account for tastes; and, in many cases, the attempt would be an impertinence. But where people back horses heavily, with a knowledge of their capabilities, they naturally look for that course being pursued which shall give no chance away. Now, this has been neglected during the present season, both in the case of Bloomsbury and Deception. With respect to the latter there certainly was an excuse, because there are so few jocks of experience to be had who can ride under 7st.; but for Bloomsbury there was none, his