The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-27 00:00:00

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,

BETTING AT MANCHESTER—FRIDAY.
There was a fair attendance at the Sub9criptions Rooms
to-day, but the business done was limited. and confined ex-
clusively to the St. Leger. sto 2 was offered on the field,
and taken to £2OO about Blair Athol. In other respects
betting was unimportant. Closing prices :

ST. LEGER,
sto 2 agst Blair Athol (taken and offered)
5 to 2 agst General Pcel (take 3 to 1 freely)
12 to 1 agat Miner (wanted)
20 to 1 agst Ely (offered) •
100 to 3 Knight of Snowdon (wanted)
100 to 3 agst Breoze (offered)
40 to 1 agst Master Richard (wanted)
50 to 1 agst Vanquisher (taken)
100 to 1 agst Calista colt (taken and wanted)

The Deterioration of Racehorses,

(From the Sporting Gazette.)
Those who mourn over the past glories of British racers,
should at least take care to arm themselves at all points be-
fore they provoke retorts. In another column, we give a
narrative of the life and doings of Hambletonian, a horse
who was never fairly beaten; and as against whom, there-
fore, we may reasonably take the strongest ground as the
undoubted champion of his day. We doubt not that most
of our readers have imagined—first, that he ran over all
sorts of courses during a long and punishing career ; next,
that he carried weights at which these degenerate days
may look with mingled awe and wonder; and thirdly, that
the competitors who strove to wrest from his honoured
brow the laurel of victory were as might reasonably be ex-
pected through such a long career, almost countless.
The stern page of history dispels, we regret to say, nearly
every illusion under these several heads. In five long years,
the season beginning in March and ending in October,
Hambletonian ran but 17 times, and six out of these were
practically matches. He never ran heats, for which, even
at this distant date, we may be permitted to rejoice; and
the distances which he had to cover varied from "Across
the Flat" to four miles ; and with respect to this, it may be
observed that the Leger course, which is now rather longer
than it was then, is stated as being two miles. This may,
perhaps, lead to some wholesome distrust of " times" and
distances in the records of ancient performances.
In the next place, Hambletonian never carried crushing
weights. At three years old, ho carried Set and Bst 21b, in-
stead of the Bat 101 b of the present day ; and this over a mile
and a half, or a so-called two mile course, In the Doncas-
ter Cup be carried sst 10lb ; only 31b more than two year
olds are now set to carry in the Feather Plate; and we
should not like to undergo the torment which the authori-
ties would receive at the hands of all sporting writers, our-
selves included, if they proposed to reduce the weight
which the winner of the Leger should carry in the Doncas-
ter Cup from 7st 71b to Est, which would be a corresponding
reduction. Weil might the lamenters then raise a wail at
the manifest tendency of such a course of legislation to de-
teriorate the British racehorse. The highest weight he ever
carried in his life was Bst 101 b, and this at seven years old.
In the race for the Craven Stakes, at Newmarket, he car-
ried Bst 9lb A. F,
Thirdly, the horses against which Hambletonian ran
were few in number. Several he met twice or three times,
and the account before us makes out that out of the
54 losers, whom it discloses, there are only 38 different horses.
Be this as it may, it is abundantly clear that it is easier, for
instance, to frighten away 7 out of 12, and beat the remain-
ing 4, than it is to perform a corresponding feat with 250
subscribers, and 30 cr 40 starters ; and this remark applies
as well to the Derby, Oaks, and Leger winners, whom he
severally defeated, as to himself. Diamond, indeed, to whom
he gave 31b only, appears to have been a fair average horse ;
his price was only £5OO, bought out of Hambletonian's
stable; in matches, which supply the clue to merit
which handicaps do now, he usually figures but moderately;
and, taking the last match made for him as a specimen,
he receives a year and 71b from another named
Harter, And it may also be not unreasonably in-
ferred—from the fact that, although he had only beaten
some half-dozen animals, they laid 3 to I on him at York,
and 6 to 4 on him for the St, Leger—that his opponents
were not first-rate.

Now, the nineteenth century man may fairly ask whether
such overwhelming superiority has been proved. Thor-
manby ran, if we remember right, thirteen times as a two
year old against all sorts of horses, and won ths, Derby also,
almost before the age at which Hambletonian had appeared
in public—at any rate, before he did anything great; and
if it be remarked, " so much the worse for our present
system," it may be replied, " Yes, that may be so, but
the point now at issue is, whether the animal him•

self is diminished in size and power, not whether all is got
out of him by us which might be." It is what logicians
gall ignoratio dolga which would thus shift the true

issue. Thormanby, again, carried in the AEcot Cup 211 b.
more than he would have had in 1776, according to the
then scale of weights. Even in matches, the winner of the
past year's Leger carried 7st 71b as a four year old in the
September following;—while this very day Blair Athol is
made to carry a weight which Ifambletonian never carried
in his life, and at an age when the latter laboured under
171 b less. We think, therefore, except upon the point of
time, that the allegations of the calumniators of our pre •
sent race of horses are sufficiently made out to lack suffi•
cient reliable grounds for their assertions.
Bat is the time snore trustworthy? No watches, no
starters' flags, courses almost invariably incorrectly mea-
sured, and exaggerated in distance, like that at Doncaster.
These are the materials out of which reports of wonderful
feats, contradictory and inconsistent. are to be manufac-
tured, to be handed down, not in :he pages of the Calendar,
or by official records, but by the uncertain tradition of
father to son. The performance of Firetail is now pro-

perly given us as fabulous, but it rests upon
equally sure testimony with those of Childers and
Company. May not they, alio, be fallible witnesses ?
In justice to Flying Childers, however, we ought to correct
an error in the article which appeared in the last Quarterly
Review. The " Round Course" was then 3 miles 6 fur.
93 yards. In 1806 it was " destrcyed, and the new one not
finished," which entry appears for several succeeding
Calendars. All mention of it then disappears until 1818,
when it reappears, figuriog, as now, at 3 miles 4 fur. 187
yards. Even this, however, does not prove that the time
taken is correctly represented.
_ _

We shall turn to th; topic again, and shall hope to prove
to demonstration that the old time is no better than the new;
and the last brick of the edifice being then removed, breeders
may take comfort in thinking that it is not true that they
alone have stood still, that While every other domestic
animal has done credit to attempt at improvement, every
art and every science have advance 6, they alone have con-
trived to spoil the treasure which nature has given us, and
ruin the noblest legacy which our forefathers' industry has
handed down to the present day.

The Destruction of 311'. Coxwell's Balloon
at Leicester

A meeting convened by the Mayor, Mr G. Baines, was
held in the Town-hall, Leicester, on Wednesday evening,
for the purpose of considering the propriety of entering into
a subscription to mitigate the loss which Mr Coxwell had
suffered in the destruction of his balloon at the late Fores-
ters' demonstration on the Leicester race course. The Mayor
presided. In opening the proceedings his worship said he
felt desirous of giving the inhabitants of Leicester an oppor-
determining what should be done to remove the stigma
upon the matter, and
wt uhniicthy
he
ef f
ee
axrperde sits: np
rge te he
lie itrr e opinionse
te d
sossswwasithtoouseteentering minutely into the
the town. He thought
how far they could assist
Mr
reir
Coxwellpresen thibuhsitnsel
causes of the disturbance, or endeavouring to ascertain who
was most to blame. But while from his position he felt
anxious that some restitution should be made, he knew that
Leicester had been subjected to most gross misrepresenta-
tion upon the matter, and most foul and dastardly attacks
had been made upon the inhabitants through certain reports
or articles in the Londen papers. Mr Councillor Crossley
moved a resolution to the effect that the meeting regretted
the outrage which had been perpetrated upon Mr Coxwell,
and without offering any opinion as to where the blame
ought to rest, it proposed to enter into a subscription towards
making up the loss. Mr Alderman E. S. Ellis seconded the
motion. Mr T. Emery said he sympathised with the object
of the meeting, but thought they should be careful how the
town under the presidency of: the Mayor might happen to
endorse by any act the vile representations which had gone
forth to the country. He thought the resolution should
be more distinctly worded, so as to repudiate any necessary
committal of the town to the act of demolition through the
fact of its subscribing towards the loss. They need not
then recount all the circumstances which had brought aboat
the disgraceful act, but it was known that Mr Coxwell
had attempted to ascend out of a crowd of thousands of
persons, and that the bad blood which had been manifested
towards him had been imported into the town. But
he (Kr Emery) protested against the assumption of the
London press, that it was the working classes who were alone
chargeable with this violence, and that as a consequence
published For
they must be kept from the exercise of political
power.
distinctlylAeltrteCrsoxthwaetilthheaodrimgionsattoroffale
s stated in his
reports
on the ground
was a "professional gentleman," and that another of the
peopleg could
principal disturbers was one who paid his three,: gieutien, in
for a seat in the car, and consequently belonged to the
privileged orders, And yet the working. classes were to be
deniedwhioh all theire classes
a rights t
were
becauseere to
blame. of
But
tice badly Leicester
mstaeara
better bear to be called felons even, than they could endure
the insinuation that they were fools. But on account of
this balloon affair they had been designated as something
windy and frothy. He thought that was a reflection upon
the mayor and all the distinguished gentlemen who held
office and gave character to Leicester. Several members
of the Order of Foresters having expressed a desire to take
part in the subscription, the resolution was put and carried
unanimously. A committee having been formed to carry
out the object, the meeting separated ou a vote of thanks to
the mayor,