under our observation, we found there were no less than seven falls, at fences, in the space of three miles!*"

"We must not conclude this article without a word or two to the Young Gentleman just starting into the world, who may have imbibed the ambition of shining on the English turf. Let every such person remember that he presents a broad mark, - that there are hundreds on the watch for him, and that he stakes what is certain against not only all other chances, but the rife chance of fraud! Let him, before he plunges into the stream, consider a little how it runs, and whither it may lead him! In these days, indeed, gambling is not confined to the turf, the hazard-room, the boxing-ring, or the cock-pit; but is, unfortunately, mixed up with too many of the ordinary occupations of life. 'Commerce itself,' said Mr. Coke of Norfolk in one of his public harangues, is become speculation; the objects of a whole life of industry and integrity among our forefathers, are now attempted to be obtained in as many weeks or months, as it formerly required years to effect.' The fatal passion has, indeed, taken fast hold on a great body of the people, and what is called a levanter is perhaps a less rare occurrence from the corn-market, the hopmarket, or the alley,' than from the betting-ring or Tattersall's. But we are told that betting,

6

"Though no science, fairly worth the seven,'

is the life of racing, and that without it the turf would soon fall into decay. To a certain extent there may be some truth in this doctrine; nevertheless betting is the germ which gives birth to all the roguery that has of late lowered this department of sport in the eyes of all honorable men. The Scripture phrase, in short, is now every day verified, the race not being to the swift, but to the horse on whom the largest sums stand in certain persons' books. Indeed, it was not long since asserted by a well-known rider and owner of race-horses, deep in turf secrets, that if Eclipse were here now, and in his very best form, but heavily backed to lose by certain influential bettors, he would have no more chance to win than if he had but the use of three of his legs! What, may we ask, must be the opinion of foreigners, when they read the uncontradicted statement of the New Sporting Magazine, that in the Derby stakes of 1832, when St. Giles was the winner, every horse in the race, save one (Perion), was supposed to have been made safe, i. e. safe not to win? By whom made safe? Not by their owners, for many of them were the property of

"* We recommend the uninitiated, who wish to have some notion of a steeple-chase, to study an admirable set of prints on that subject lately published, after drawings by the Hogarth of the chase, Mr. Alken."

noblemen and gentlemen of high personal character. The foul deed can only be perpetrated by the influence of vast sums of money employed in various ways upon the event-in short, where the owners stand clear, trainers or jockeys must combine with the parties concerned in the robbery. But what a stain upon the boasted pastime of English gentlemen! And then the result:

'This yellow slave

Will knit and break religions; bless the accursed;
Make the hoar leprosy adored; place thieves,
And give them title, knee, and approbation,
With senators on the bench!'

"But we may be told racing, -or rather betting on racing, supposed to be essential to its existence, cannot go on without what are called the 'Legs,' (described by an old writer on sporting subjects as the most unprincipled and abandoned set of thieves and harpies that ever disgraced civilized society,') and that pecuniary obligations are commonly discharged by them with as much integrity and despatch as by the most respectable persons in the commercial world. Undoubtedly they are; for if they fail to be so, the adventurer is driven from the ground on which he hopes to fatten. I would give 50,000l. for a bit of character' (said the old sinner Charteris,)—' for if I had that, I think I could make a plum of it;' and the rogues of our day, though not so witty, are quite as knowing as the venerable Colonel.

Woe befall the day when Englishmen look lightly on such desperate inroads upon public morals as have lately passed under their eyes on race-courses! Do they lose sight of the fact, that whoever commits a fraud is guilty, not only of the particular injury to him whom he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes the very existence of society? Can this familiarity with robbing and robbers be without its influence on a rising generation? We say, it cannot; and, if suffered to go on for twenty years more, we venture to pronounce the most mischievous effects to all classes of society. Talk of jockey-club regulations! As well might Madame Vestris sit in judgment on short petticoats, or Lord Grey on the sin of nepotism, as a jockeyclub attempt then to pass censure on offences which they must have suffered to grow before their faces, if indeed they should have been so fortunate as all along to steer quite clear of them themselves.

-

"But let us look a little into these practices. In the first place, what is it that guides the leading men in their betting? Is it a knowledge of the horse they back either to win or to lose? and is it his public running that directs their operations? We

are

fear not; three parts of them know no more of a horse than a horse knows of them, but it is from private information, purchased at a high price, at a price which ordinary virtue cannot withstand,that their books are made up. Again; how do the second class of bettors act? We reply, they bet. upon men and not upon horses; for so soon as they can positively ascertain that certain persons stand heavy against any one horse, that horse has no chance to win, unless, as it sometimes happens, he is too strong for his jockey, or the nauseating ball has not had the desired effect. One of the heaviest bettors of the present day, who had backed Mameluke to a large amount, observed, that he should not have lamented his loss, had it not been clear that Mumeluke could have won. A similar occurrence took place last year for the same great race. Messrs. Gulley and Ridsdale (confederates, and as such, we believe, allowed to do so) compromised to give the race to St. Giles, although doubtless Margrave could have won it. All outside bettors, as they are called, those not in the secret, as well as those not in the ring, of course put hors du combat by such proceedings; their opinion of horses, formed from their public running, the only honorable criterion, — being sacrificed by this compromise. But we will go one point further. It is proceedings such as these that are too often the cause of gentlemen on the turf swerving from the straight-forward course: men, true as the sun in all private transactions, allow themselves to deviate from the right path on a race-course, in revenge for what they deem to have been injustice. We could name several honorable and highly-minded gentlemen, who have openly avowed this. Our money has been taken from us,' they have declared, 'without our having a chance to keep it, and we will recover it in any way we can.' In truth, we are too much inclined to believe, that a modern Aristides has fearful odds against him on the English turf at the present time. Look, for example, at the sums paid for race-horses, which we think must open our eyes to the fact. Three thousand guineas are now given for a promising colt for the Derby stakes!! But how stands this favorite? There are upwards of a hundred horses besides himself named for the stake; more than twenty will start for it; and if he wins it, it does not amount to much above his cost price. But the purchaser will back him to win it. Indeed! back him against such a field, several of which he knows have been running forward, and others of which have not appeared at all, and may be better than his own! No; these threethousand-guinea horses are not bought to win the Derby; —but the price makes them favorites, and then thousands are won by their losing it.

6

"Then there is another system which cannot be too severely reprobated, namely, making a horse a favorite in the betting, and then selling him on the eve of a great play or pay race. We confess we could by no means understand the white-washing,' as it was termed by Lord Uxbridge, that a certain person obtained by his explanation of an affair last year at Doncaster. The act of selling a horse under such circumstances to a duke would have been a culpable one; but what must be thought of the merry sport' of placing him in the hands of a hell-keeper?"

6

"We have alluded to one system of turf plunder, that of getting up favorites, as the term is, by false trials, and lies, for the sake of having them backed to win the market, well knowing that all the money betted upon them must be lost. This is villanous; but what can be said to the poisonous system, the nauseating ball, we have reason to fear an every-day occurrence, when a horse is placed under the master-key? This is a practice of some standing on the turf, (see Chifney's account of Creeper and Walnut, 1791,) and was successfully carried on in the stables of the late Lord Foley, very early in the present century, when one of the party was hanged for the offence. But people know better now, and the disgrace of the halter is avoided; no post mortem examination, no solution of arsenic. A little opiate ball given over-night, is all that is necessary, to retard a horse in his race, but not prevent his starting. Winners of races are now not in request. A good favorite is the horse wanting, and there are many ways to prevent his winning, this among the rest.

"There is one point more that we must touch on:

'Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem,
Fortunam ex aliis,'

says Æneas to his son, when he advises him not to trust to her wanton smiles for achievement and success. It is quite certain that luck has very little to do with racing, and the man who trusts to it will find he is leaning on a broken staff. To the owner of a racing-stud, who means to act uprightly, nothing but good management can ensure success, and even with this he has fearful odds against him, so many striving for the same prize. His horses must be well-bred, well-reared, well-engaged, welltrained, well-weighted, and well-ridden, nothing else will succeed in the long run. Still less has luck to do with betting. The speculator on other people's horses can only succeed by the help of one or the other of these expedients, namely, great knowledge of horseflesh and astute observation of public running, deep calculation, -or secret fraud: and that the last-mentioned resource is the base upon which many large fortunes have in our

day been built, no man will be bold enough to deny. How many fine domains have been shared amongst those hosts of rapacious sharks, during the last two hundred years! and, unless the system be altered, how many more are doomed to fall into the same gulph! For, we lament to say, the evil increases; all heretofore, indeed, has been 'tarts and cheese-cakes,' to the villanous proceedings of the last twenty years, on the English turf. 'Strange! But how is it that exposures are not oftener made? This question is very easily answered. It is the value of the prize that tempts the pirate; and the extent of the plunder is now so great, that secrecy is purchased at any price."

[Original.]

ART. V.-Men and Manners in America. By the AUTHOR OF "CYRIL THORNTON."*

In reading this new account of our country, we were reminded of an anecdote related by Sir John Malcolm in his very amusing "Sketches of Persia." After giving a rather favorable description of the condition of society at Muscat, he informs us that the state of things made a different impression upon a sailing-master in the English navy. There is, it seems, an order of the English Admiralty, that the officers of a man-of-war, when they visit a port little known, should describe the manners and customs of the inhabitants. The sailing-master, who was not such an adept in writing as the author of the book before us, long endeavoured to evade this duty, till, being strongly urged by his captain, he at last produced his journal with the following entry.

"Inhabitants of Muscat.

"As to manners they have none, and their customs are very beastly."

The purpose of these volumes is to convey in a more diffuse style the same information concerning the United States, which, as regards Muscat, the honest sailing-master condensed into a single line.'

Before the publication of this work, Mr. Hamilton's reputation rested upon the authorship of a novel, in which, though its morality is spurious, there is some good description, some interesting

*We have seen no foreign review of this work of any value, and hence have been led to give an original article. The edition to which we refer in quoting is that in two volumes, 12mo; Philadelphia; Carey, Lea, & Blanchard.