The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-06-18 00:00:00

Sporting.

Bittinit —The MVO of "Savage a Madder," decided
on Monday in the Coort of &chequer, will be a cause
telebee in the legal chronicle' of sporting men. The
plaintiff in the cam had backed Lord Lyons for het
year's Derby, and the defendant, were the steltio
hoMers, with whom the mosey of the wagerers for and
against the winner of the bins ribbon of the turf in
1866 had been deposited. The ram was run, and, asi
everybody inter stssi in turf topics know., the ',Wolff'
amildence wasjustilled by the favourite's performance. •
Thereupon, he applied to the defendants to bead erer
his own and his oi portent's stakes, never doubting khat
his request would at ones be complied with. It. (mend,
h that be had racketed without hie host, and
that if he wanted to get the money at all be tenet get it
by going to law. The writ was served, the declaration
filed, and the sum in dispute demanded as money bad
and reoeive4 by the defendants to the plaintiff's see,
when the defendants in substance pkadrid that whether
they had had the mosey or not the plaintiff could hot
mover it from them. By an Ant mated about 20 yearn
ago the Legislature had thought dt to provide that no
bet or warr should be reeoverable br proems of law,
and that no stakeholder should be compelled to pay owe
each money en placed in his bandit,, abide the emint at
any illegal game —a descriptioe within %Mob bete ,on
horse or other races full The sot did not coin fee am
to provide that gaming of all kinds should he so utterly
illegal that bete OJOS paid might be recovered baa.
but it simply said that Wrgaias of Inch kinds were mere
nollitim, of which the law could take no notice, and in
enforcement of which its promos meld not be employed
ehethm as between the makers nub, bet or the holders
of the stakes. The defendants, therefore, being for
MAIN reason unwilling or unable to pay to Mr. &yap
the money be had won, set up this defeats, averring
the nullity of the matrael, with all the prolixity in
which special pleeders so greatly delight, awl setting
forth enbstentiallr the mine defence in three or four
different ways, the distiostions between which it, !
only appreciable by those w'om perceptions have been !
altsetied by a long mune of technical trainiag, In
brief, bowery, the defendant's plea was that the entire
traneactiou was null and void, and meld not be legally
enfore-d. To this the Waintiff demurred, or, in other
a eledertoolt ko tontine- the Curt that the statute
did not Wee biomes, and that, es he had actually mid
the on ev. be wan entitled to get it heck again. Ris
attempt, however, was unsemessfoL The Coact wore
of °peke that tho imas we. one for which the staters
• was intended to provide, asd that, therefore the
jadgment must be for the defendant. It is no pin of
oar purpose to deal with the ethics of thie queetio,., or
ta pronointes an opinion upon the policy of an Act
which, in appearance at leapt, is onfavoursble to
morality, as tending to eneourege men to repudiate
their oneserments. The Lamer to any °Napoleon of Ain
kind is, that Parliament mug to taken to ham
balanced this Moldontal eel "Oast the fflgbV.J pea:
ammo* that might osier boa a legislative—

tioc 0e ..yeum 01 Irwin& yid& bee already made
more then m 11116608 prelims. arnollgat us. Rat we may
not unseasonably remind thee* who axe wont to depoidt
awn. relatively or aheolutely large in the hand, of
sporting commission agents, and similar intermediaries,
of the position in which they atand. To judge front
the crowds that throne Flvst-etvwei +henry. r a event
raim is to he ruii, and peitively bleak up tit* thorough-
fare at tha mouteur when the telegrams
results ere po•ted at the officio, of out sporting eon-
temporaries, this numbers of thou, who thus stake
their money must be very large. We may add that,
kriging from their appearance. they belong to claims
which can ill .ft .rd to lama their money, and who
would probably be wise if they abatained altogether
from the feveriah excitement inseparable from betting
trauma:Moog. They ougl.t, therefo-e, to recognise the
feet, that when they put money in an Agent's hand., in
blind relianes no the tips f mne infallible racing
pr whet, they have a' whitely no gracility that, even if
they win, them wiil ever axain handle their miin. The
whole matter becomes • debt of honour, pure and simple;
nor does the law offer any mean, of help to those
who have thus treated not wisely but well. if, knoarinc
this, they like to caution, • gams of hazard, whim
sounds very much like "heads I win, tails you lose"
they are, of course, at perfect liberty tt dose ; hut if,
ls not unlikely, they end the oonaseineneas unpleasant.
they will only lt,ve themselves to blame for an•
inconveniences which ill-fortune or bad faith may entail
upon them. —.lforialeip Heen/el.