The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-31 00:00:00

THE EARL OF DERBY 02V THE TURF.

The Earl of Derby has written a letter to Sir Joseph
Hawley on the Turf, a proposof the motion for the altera.
tion of rules concerning two-year-olds. The letter is dated
from St. James's-square, May 23, and runs as follows :
" Dear llawley,--I have so entirely, and for so many
years, abandoned the Turf, that I should hardly feel jus-
tified in attending the meeting of the Jockey Club to-
morrow to vote upon your proposed resolutions ; but
I have no hesitation in saying that if I were present I
should cordially support your three first resolutions (I
have some doubt about the fourth, which I think would
be better omitted). I should even go further than you
propose to do, and would gladly see the ' close time'
extended, as in France, to the let of August, or even of
September. Wherever you draw the line you must inter-
fere with some meeting or other; but, in my opinion, a
promising two-year-old should never make his public
appearance before autumn. But I cannot conceal my
opinion that your resolutions deal with only one of the vices
which, as it seems to me, are yearly lowering the character
of the Turf. I know that some persons consider the multi-
plication of races and of starters a sign of success—l look
on them as the very opposite, and I should hail with satis-
faction the disappearance from the calendar of one-half
of the present meetings. I take it that the dcteriora.
tion of the Turf in public estimation, of which there is
no doubt, is mainly owing to the fact that the
majority of horses are now in the possession of
men who run for profit and not for sport—who cite
nothing for the animal horse—who cannot afford to wait
fbr a return of their money, but who, in the language Of
the Manchester school, prefer a nimble ninepeuce to
a slow shilling,' and in whose hands a wretched animal,
especially if not quite so wretched as he is thought, is as
valuable as one of a high class, if not more so. This
vicious system is mainly fostered—First, by the pret;na.
ture running of two-year-olds ; secondly, by 'the
multiplication of short races, which enables horses* be
brought out oftener, and so afford more frequent oppor-
tunities of gambling; and, thirdly, by the great prepon-
derance of handicaps. These last are a necessary evil ;
but their avowed purpose is to place the best and the
worst horses on an equal footing, and thus to encourage
the breed of the latter, at least equally with the former.
Now I know, that handicaps cannot be dispensed with, but
I think the evil may be greatly mitigated by fixing a maxi-
mum and a minimum weight, and I do not hesitate to ex-

press my opinion that horses which cannot meet the best
likely to be entered at a difference of 4st., or 4st. 71b., have
Lave no business in important handicaps. I cannot refrain
from mentioning two other points which deserve the serious
consideration of the Jockey Club—l mean the employment
of touts and others, not merely to watch horses, but to
obtain illicit information by the corruption of stable boys;
and the practice, now so common as hardly to be repro-
bated, of running horses not to win, leading to such corn-
ments in the papers as 'if he meant,' it is not his
journey,' &c. My ideas may be considered Utopian, and
I do.not doubt that each and all of them will be vehemently
opposed by clerks of the course and others pecuniarily
interested in country meetings, but I am satisfied that
unless the Jockey Club apply themselves vigorously to
check the acknowledged abuses of the Turf, not only will
there be an increasing secession of men of station and
character, and an increasing accession of those who have
neither, but they themselves will lose ground in public
estimation, and public opinion will ere long demand and
enforce a sweeping suppression of abuses by external
authority. I think nothing of the argument that the
Jockey Club have no power over local meetings. I have
no doubt that their decisions would be readily accepted;
and if they were not, the disqualification of horses, run-
ning in violation of their rules, from running at any meet-
ing over which they have direct control, would place a
very effective weapon in their hands. Pray excuse this
long letter, which goes so far beyond the object in your
resolutions, and exercise your own discretion as to using it
in any way you like, or not at all."

The Queen will return to Windsor Castle from '
Balmoral on Tuesday, the 15th of June.
CABINET COUNCIL.—At the Cabinet Council held
in Downing-street on Saturday, the Ministers present
were the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, the Lord Chan-
-cellor, the Earl of Kimberley, the Right Hon. H. A.
Bruce, the Earl of Clarendon, Earl Granville, the Right
Hon. E. Cardwell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Right Hon. Hugh Childers, the Right Hon. J. Bright,
the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, the Marquis of Harting-
tun, and the Right Hon. C. Fortescue.
CURISTOLOGIES.— Mr. Henry Ward Beecher
not long since announced his intention of writing a life of
the Saviour. Instantly every minister in the Union who
thought himself celebrated, or wished to become so,
undertook a life of the Saviour. The competition among
publishers for clergymen who could write lives of the
Saviour became fierce and furious. One firm, more enter-
prising than the rest, wrote to Mr. Spurgeon, and made
him a very liberal offer for a life of the Saviour. M.
Spurgeon replied " Such a work is beyond my ability ; I
have also no time at my disposal ; and, thirdly, it would
not be to my taste. The only life of Christ worth a cent
is the New Testament."

EXAMINING THE HAIR.—A short time previous
to the introduction of the chignon, some of the ladies
adopted masculine manners and dress. This combination
might have an awkward result if they were put in the
position of a woman who, at Belfast, the other day, was
thought to be a man because she had, the report says, " a
masculine appearance, spoke like a man, and smoked a
pipe." The police were called in, and with their usual
sagacity, after examining the woman's face, declared, as
does Signor Bosco, that there was "no deception." Alas!
should they be called upon to decide whether' a " girl of
the period," who talked slangy and looked masculine, was
an impostor, the examination of the hair would be a most
unsatisfactory proceeding.—Manchester Courier.
FASII lON AEL ?. AN D POLITICAL.— The Premier
will entertain a full-dress party, numbering upwards of
thirty, at dinner on Wednesday next, in celebration of
her Majesty's birthday, after which Mrs. Gladstone will
have an evening party, for which several hundreds of
invitations have been issued. The Earl of Clarendon, SE
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, will give a full
dress banquet to the whole of the foreign diplomatic corps
on Wednesday, at the Foreign Office. Later in the even
ing the Countess of Clarendon will have a reception, tc
which a large company are invited. The Countess will
also have an assembly on the 16th instant. The First
Lord of the Admiralty will give a full-dress banquet or
Wednesday at the Admiralty, Whitehall, after which Mrs.
Childers will have an assembly. The Eight Hon. the,
Home Secretary will give an entertainment to the Lord
Mayor And.the judges on Wednesday next,