The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-31 00:00:00

E "REVUE DES DEUX MONDES"
ON THE TURF.

On some points, as a people, we are singularly
sensitive to external criticism; on none more so
than on those connected with the :sports of the
field. To tell an Englishman that his boots may
be better made, his dinner better served, or his
rooms better furnished, is to go no way towards
exciting his bile. The most prejudiced will grant
that it may be a matter of habit or of taste.
But that any foreigner should have the temerity to
pass in review the "Turf system" of this country—
to exhibit to us our Derby, our Newmarket, our
Tattersall,s—to show up our trainers, our jockeys,
our bookmakers, and our betting men, with their
peculiarities of manner and costume, is almost in-
credible. In no unfriendly spirit, however, be it
said, and with considerable power, the Revue des
Deux blondes exhibits the scenes et mceurs du
turf Anglais. The view taken is eminently
French; the writer deals in the most minute de-
scription, mistaking cause for effect, and assuming
as necessaries the merest accidents of a system. He
paints a charmingly poetical picture of the Eng-
lish turf ; touches lightly enough on the incon-
veniences of bookmaking, touting, betting places,
and the " derniere esperance d'ane noble maison,
le dragon aile sur le dos duquel un gentilhomme
ruine espere franchir l'abime," &c., exhibits a
knowledge of racing slang, and an occasional igno-
rance of racing facts ; and evidently regards dust,
champagne, wooden dolls, pink bonnets, and crino-
line as the sustaining forces of the English turf.
We will not conduct our reader through these
details, which are familiar to most Englishmen ;
but, as the racing season of 1861 has closed, it
will be no unprofitable task to survey the position
of the British turf and to make M. Alphonse
Esquiro's article a basis for our remarks.
Until very lately, we have been accustomed to
regard the turf as a great national pastime. We
must now reject that name for one more identical
with its extent and interests, and call it an institu-
tion. We do this with much regret; but a specu-
lative science can hardly be regarded as the pastime
of a people. We believe that it becomes year by year
less identified with the sport of the nation. With
the exception of one or two great saturnalia, a race-
course is no more a scene of enjoyment, a fete na-
tionale, than the Stock Exchange or the Bourse.
Take away the great southern and northern holy-
days, the Derby and St. Leger, and the racing world
presents one vast scene of unhealthy excitement, cal-
culation, jobbing, and chicanery. So thoroughly
has the national sport been turned into a business,
that the information required compels the admis-
sion of every provincial meeting into the columns:of
the most fastidious journals.
Persons' vanity and the desire to be suddenly
rich are the main causes of this unhealthy state of
things. Formerly the proprietors'of the great racing
studs were the nobility and the gentlemen of wealth
and position. Little temptation to err was ever
held out to them, and they were bound to support
the honour and integrity of their order. In process
of time, as the means of locomotion increased, the
readiest mode to a flattering freemasonry was
opened by a congeniality of pursuits ; and the ac-
quisition of a racing establishment by men of lower
grade naturally followed. Mutual interest broke
down the party wall. In cases where funds were in-
sufficient a partnership has been entered into, and
the ramifications among a different class of men
have so extended racing operations as totally to
change the features and the character of " the
Turf."

But the expenses themselves have induced a sys-
tem of betting and bookmaking based upon scientific
principles, in which it is not so much a question of
abstract excellence in the horse, as his excellence
for a particular purpose. And yet we aro asked to
believe that the motive principle and the mainstay
of the Turf is the improvement of the breed of
horses for national purposes ! Is it not rather an
indisputable fact that there were never before so
many worthless animals in training, and that the
early calls upon their imperfect powers, the short
distances, and the lightness of the weights, are
things calculated to perpetuate infirmities already
transmitted, or to produce others not yet existing ?
We are willing to look upon the world in no utopian
light, but to take it, with its imperfections, as we
End it. We do not suppose that the Turf could exist,
to any practical good, upon Queen's Plates. Stakes
and gambling are, we fear, necessary to its prospe-
rity. An Englishman is said to be especially open to
the influence of a bet. We believe he is so. But why
is that to involve a practice which draws the poor
man from his legitimate business ? Why is it to
transform a carpenter or a weaver into a patron of
the Turf ? Why is it to bring a linendraper's ap-
prentice from behind his counter, or a lawyer's
clerk from off his stool, that he may have the plea-
sure of addressing " My Lord" with " three to one
in ponies," and, after a career of extravagance, end
his days in beggary ? That the breed of horses can
be improved, or the legitimate objects of the Turf
promoted, by the crowd of hangers on, whose acci-
dents are graphically described by M. Esquires,
seems to us an absurdity. But the system is rife
with inconveniences; it gives opportunities for the
grossest robberies ; it places temptation before those
least able to withstand it; and it brings the honest
and legitimate sportsman before the world in a
false position. Formerly the possession of a racing
stud was the mark of an honourable station ; in
these days it is too often allied with well-grounded
suspicion and distrust.
One of the advantages attendant upon English
sport is the increased energy that it calls into play,
the legitimate occupation it gives to many who
might otherwise swell the poor-rate or people the
county-gaol. Hunting, shooting, and racing, all
fulfil their objects in this respect. Huntsmen,
second horsemen, helpers, keepers, watchers,
trainers, jockeys, and stable-boys may all thank
the national mania that gives them employment,
But that racing should become a mere cold mat-
ter of calculation, unrelieved by that geniality
which has redeemed sport in times gone by from
every charge; that it should be itself the hotbed
of vices which oppose honourable exertion, the
temple of illicit barter, excites some curiosity, not
over-complimentary, in minds unaccustomed to re•
gard it from the same point of view.
It is not remarkable that the French writer whom
we have quoted above should have struck upon
some of the salient points for the exercise of his
pen. But we should have been much surprised had
those salients yielded to his attacks, He strikes the
surface ; he levels his ordnance at our jockeys, their
assumption of fashionable life, their oaths, their
champagne suppers, their cigars, and their " bowies
fortunes :" these " joujois du turf," who " inspirent
des passions fortes et romanesques." The bird's-eye
View he has taken shows him their power, their
capabilities, their vices ; but it does not exhibit to
him the peculiarities of a system which is account-
able for them. It has not occurred to him that
weight is at the bottom of these accidents ; that
when the Turf requires a race of men or boys w'iose
weight is to vary from about five to eight stone, and
not go beyond it, the demand will more than equal
the supply ; that when we attack the weight under
which the good, bad, and indifferent are to be brought
to the post, we call in question the age at which the
horses are to run, and raise a host of hornets about
us, whose only hope is in handicaps. When boys
are placed in a situation where discipline ends and
temptation begins, we can find excuse for the fall,
but none for the system. As a general rule, children
introduced to the dissipation of men are not long in
acquiring a taste for it ; the taste must be gratified ;
and the principles of honesty, however insisted on,
are not so rooted in the Turf as to prevent error.
Nothing marks so decidedly the character of the
present system as the position and the tactics of its
supporters. In 20 or 30 years we have become
familiar with even a new vocabulary to distinguish
the men and the measures by which the Turf is
disgraced. Prophets, tipsters, and welshers—the
parasites of the ring—are flourishing upon the in-
fatuation or the ignorance of society. Pay a visit
on the eve, or the settling day, of anj of the great
races to the doors and windows of certain sporting
journals, and see the motley groups, whose interests
vary from half-a-crown to some few sovereigns, who
care nothing.and feel nothing for the sport, or the
generous EtuinAlc concerned in it, but whose whole

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1861 (un aid C,

' soul is bent upon the return for their pitiful outlay,
and whose knowledge is bounded by the oracular
outpourings of professional imposition.
In 1853 the Government did something by the
abolition of open houses for the reception of deposits
on races. It stopped for a time that fatal facility
to ruin. It .saw its middle and w rking classes
unfitting themselves for their legitimate occupa-
tions, and encouraging a thirst which could never
be slaked by honest means. It destroyed, therefore,
or blocked, the direct road to the workhouse and
the gaol; but it is powerless to stop the by-lanes
which equally conduct the traveller to those re-
ceptacles. Does the system of deposit flourish less
surely because less openly ? Ask the welsher who
has just been kicked out of the enclosure how
many of his fraternity he has left behind, accommo-
dating the golden fleeced lambkins within, and
what remedy is proposed for the annihilation of
these advanced works of demoralisation. Legal
remedy there can be none. It must be left to the
feeling and measures of the gentlemen of the Turf,
whose interest lies in vindicating the integrity of
their pursuit. They must cease to regard their
horses at one moment as the property of the public
when it suits their book to do so, and at another
moment as their own. It must be " p.p." with
them throughout. The Turf to flourish in its
natural soundness must be free from " milkings"
and " scratchings" and other dark deeds. We must
do the Jockey Club the justice to say that it has not
indulged in its proverbial blindness upon some late
occasions; but the Turf receives a severe blow when
an eminent member of that body ventures to dictate
the terms upon which a favourite is to start. Such
conduct must lessen the influence which men in
high positions hold. It sets an example which is
ever ready to be followed, and it paralyses the
hand which, in nine cases out of ten, is the only
substitute for the law.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—Dec. 30.

Unfortunately, the race-course holds out to the
young and unsettled of the middle and lower classes
a delusive road to fortune, stripped of the steady
energy and perseverance which makes wealth
valuable. They will not regard the moral of the
classic allegory which makes Plutus to descend
from heaven with " halting steps and slow," and to
rise from hell only with the activity of a Mercury.
It remains to be seen with what success the outposts
of robbery may be attacked in the season of 1862 ;
and we may take a further opportunity of examin-
ing some more intimate:dangers of the system in
which the worst enemies of a man appear to be those
of his own household.

CLOTHING OF •TIZE ARMY AND THE
POLICE.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Registrar Roche.)
IN RE JAMES HENRY BORDIEU "VAUGHAN-EXTRA-

ORDINARY DISCLOSURES.

The bankrupt was described as late of Leinster-
square, Hyde-park, and now a prisoner for debt in
the Queen's Bench. This was the first sitting.
Mr. Sargood appeared for creditors.
Mr. Bell, the official assignee, stated that no pro-
perty had been given up under the bankruptcy.
The bankrupt, in examination, stated that he was
not married. He was a lieutenant in the 12th
Lancers, but sold out about October, 1860. He re-
ceived £B5O by the sale of his commission. Had
since done nothing at all- He had been supported
in some way, and had borrowed money. Did not
know the amount. It might be £2OO altogether.
He had given security on property to which he was
entitled when of age. He gave a mortgage for £74
to Mr. Sampson; that was for pictures and books.
He was entitled to about £2,400 when he came of
age, in March last. Sampson had not yet been
paid. Also gave a charge on the £2,400 to a person
named Collins for £l2O to secure £6O lent. Col-
lins had been paid by the bankrupt. He also gave
a charge for £64 to Capt. M.S weeny, by mortgage.
He had not been paid. He got the £2,400 in June.
He had also borrowed £3OO, and bad assigned a
reversion of £2,965 in June last to Mr. Staunton,
a private gentleman, and received £2,000.
Mr. Staunton afterwards sold the reversion,
and gave him £2OO more. Had had up-
wards of £3OO of jewellery from Mr. Hancock, of
Bond-street. Had none of that left now. A gold
bracelet of £2B he had given to a lady named
Evans, a married woman, who had lived with him.
A diamond and sapphire locket, value £24, was
given to the same person. He had pawned a &a-
men shoe pin for £2; had the duplicate at home.
Had sold a gold key at Boulogne. A diamond and
sapphire ring was given to Mrs. Evans. Had pledged
a waistcoat chain, £2l, at Attenborough's for £7,
and had sold the ticket to Mr. Jackson, df Dublin,
for £B. Had pledged other articles at Atten-
borough's, and disposed of the tickets. Some of the
tickets were taken by Mr. Collins, a money-lender,
formerly of Duke-street, St. James's. Mr.
Collins promised to redeem the articles, but had not
done so. Had given a pair of enamelled sleeve
buttons, value five guineas, to Miss Scaife, of Hull.
She was nothing at all—a lady of no occupation,
living alone. She also had a turquoise and dia-
mond bracelet, value £2O. had given a duplicate
of a pin, pledged for £2 10s. or £3, to his own at-
torney. He gave a sapphire and diamond locket,
value £l6, to Miss Hancock, of Leinster-square.
She was no connexion of his, but he liked her. She
was a young lady living alone. Bankrupt was
there for a short time. He was there as a
visitor :when he was arrested. Miss Hancock
had visited Mtn in the Queen's Prison three or
four times. He also gave her a pair of brilliant
ear-rings, value £73 10s. ; also a brilliant bird
brooch, value £4B. Had been arrested thrice in
1861 ; frst in April or May, at the suit of Mr.
Collins, for £2OO. Witness paid him. Was next
arrested in August at the suit of Mr. Graham, for
£270. He got rid of that by warrant of attorney.
The next was in October, and he remained in
prison till discharged by Mr. Higgins, the registrar.
He had no property whatever.
Mr. Philip Rowden, of 4, Old Bond-street, was
chosen trade assignee, and further inquiry was
adjourned until the examination meeting on the
6th of February. The bankrupts liabilities are
stated at about £2,000.

Dr. Borlaco Childs, the surgeon to the City
Police Force, has just issued a report, ad-
dressed to the Police Committee, upon the subject
of the clothing of that body, which contains some
very interesting details: After some introductory
remarks, Dr. Childs says :
" Clothing suited to the necessities and duties of
any body of men expected to be efficient at all times,
by night and by day, is a matter of the highest im-
portance. The badly clothed are always miserable
and generally inefficient, as is well known to mili-
tary men. If this be added to a defective commis-
sariat, the army or force becomes wholly useless,
and speedily breaks up. Viewing this matter
strictly with reference to the police force, it will, I
think, be conceded that the clothing should be such
as-Ist, To protect the men from injury and in-
clemency of the weather; 2d, To interfere as little
as possible with the men when called upon to act,
bearing in mind that these calls are not unfre-
quently sudden, unexpected, and more of the nature
of contingencies, demanding the utmost courage,
energy, and forbearance on the part of the men ;
and 3d, the dress generally should be of such tex-
ture, colour, and form, as to give to the men that
claim to respectability of appearance, to which they
are not well entitled by their conduct, but which
forms an essential element in the arrangements of
Nodal civilised life. If I have not spoken of eco-
nomy, it is because whenever injudiciously at-
tempted to be carried out, it uniformly defeats its
own objects. Unsuitable clothing adds to the sick
list, maintains at a high rate the ratio of men in
hospital or on that list, deprives the force of their
services, thus throwing additional duties on the
healthy; and lays the foundatiou for an enlarge-
ment of the pension list—the dead weight of every
force. I feel confident that the members of this
committee will be disposed to agree with me in
these opinions, based as they are on much expe-
rience and long reflection.
"The daily walk of the policeman is about 16
miles; a few miles more is known to be above the
power of any man. In addition, his walk is tedious,
wearisome, and monotonous. He cannot well rest,
nor even vary his movements, and with his thoughts
unemployed he must ever be on the watch.
" In many respects the pcliceman is a soldier; his
enemy is the drunken, the debauched, the evil dis-
posed, the malicious, and those who, regarding him
as their worst enemy, delight in injuring him.
Against these—unhappily a numerous class—he
must be ever on the watch. Cowardly by their
nature and calling, they aim at his head. The im-
portance therefore of affording him every protection
for that vital part is apparent. Now the ancient ---
Greeks, to whom we owe the arts, sciences, and BOW-STREET.—Three men and two women,
civilisation of the present day, placed on the head of who gave the names James Trevor, James Brown,
a man exposed to danger a helmet, so exquisitely William Jackson, Harriet Roberts, and Harriet
formed, so adapted to the object in view, as to
Young, were charged with loitering in Tavistock-
street, Covent-garden, and having housebreaking
leave nothing to be desired, and as was to bo ex- implements in their possession, for the supposed
pelted, so elegant in appearance that nothing has purpose of committing a burglary at the Salutation
ever been imagined since their era at all approach- Tavern, at the corner of Tuvistock-court.
ing it. The hat now worn by the police force fulfils
day Sergeant Holmes, of the F division, observed Shortly before 5 o'clock on the afternoon of Sun-
no indication which the covering for the head of
the prisoners Brown and Jackson loitering in Ta-
men so exposed requires. It affords no protection in vistock-court, 13oth were known to him, Brown,
a struggle, for it either immediately falls, or is whose real name is Mills, having been twice trans-
struck off, and the man becoming conscious that his ported. He saw them for about an hour walking
head is exposed to great danger, hesitates, and be- about within sight of the Salutation, looking up
and examining the front of the house from every
gins to think only of self-defence. It is, moreover, •• •
possible point of view. Being satisfied that they
heavy, weighing 14 ounces even when dry, affords were engaged in what is technically termed " spot-
no protection to the eyes, face, ears, or neck, causes i ting" the house, he went to the stationhouse and
headaches, &c. ; not being arched, it does not suffi- t obtained the assistance of two constables, Ackrill and
ciently (even if kept on) protect the head from a Shore, with whom he kept watch till 1 o'clock on
blow, no matter what may be its strength ; while as Monday morning.
with the landlord, with whom he was speaking At that hour he communicated
to appearance, it presents the additional absurdity
when the five prisoners came along Tavistock-street
of superadding a civilian's hat (the worst covering together. With the assistance of the landlord and
for the head ever invented) to semi military dress. a chance passenger they were all taken in custody.
The present police hat admits of no improvement. Roberts, whose real name is Jane Potter, and who
"The coatee worn at present by the force is has recently served a term of penal servitude, was
the relic of a past age; it affords no protection apprehended by Holmes. As soon as he seized her
from wet or cold to the vital organs contained she threw on the ground a small crowbar or jemmy.
stooped to pick it up, when Trevor (another
Holmes
within the cavities of the abdomen and pelvis, returned convict, whose real name is Wyse, and who
nor does it afford covering or warmth to the lives with Roberts as her husband) attempted to
haunches and limbs. In its place ought to be sub- kick him. Holmes, however, anticipated the as-
stituted a tunic, full, handsome, and provided with sault by striking him with the jemmy. Trevor then
ventilation in the arm-pits , and sufficiently warm asked
o f t
he vi,.',11
do i hv
ies
iN
ov
n as, s , andßaia
he
would receiving
go quietly.
the answer
At
the
to protect the wearer in our cold, damp, variable
climate, station-house they were locked up, the men and
women being kept separate. After they had been
" The modern trousers, when made of good mate- there some time, Holmes entered the room where
rial, sufficiently elastic, has been peeved the best ; Young was sitting on a bench, and, observing that
but the trousers as generally made do not give full she rose hastily and approached him, he went to
protection to the joints. Cold and damp aid in the the spot she had left and found a dark lanterner
undthe seat. All the prisoners refused their
production of rheumatism and other diseases in
addresses, or were
gave such as r found to
these parts, to remedy which it might be advisable be false. Holmes, however,on founqd y out where Tre-
to strengthen the trousers on the inside over the vor and Roberts lodged—at a first floor in Verulam-
knee, in those especially who may be liable to rheu- street, Gray's-inn-road. On entering the room he
matisin, and to afford the shins and ankles addi- hadrec inog.nisedthe furniture as being h
g thee
hsaadmeseaasrethheeyd
tional protection from wet by the use of waterproof a
somewhat former
similarlodging ciu which
rcmstances. in the
leggings worn over the trousers; but whatever underfront room he found concealed between the wains-
plans may be adopted, care must be taken so as not cot
and the wall a stock and two centre-bits. Ho
to interfere with the circulation in the superficial also found a number of files, such as are used for
veins of the limb." Dr. Childs then proceeds to altering keys. On being informed of this Trevor
make some remarks upon the importance of men
said there was no centre-bit in his possession, and employed as policemen or soldiers wearing flannel if one had been found the sergeant must have placed
Cher© himself. There was also a large number of
underclothing, and also upon the necessity of having d uplicates an a number of bear-
boots better formed to the
shape of the foot, and ing the addressesd of gentle scraps of paper,
men at the West-end. says, in conclusion, "although much mnst, and Large clasp knives were found on Jackson and
always should be, entrusted to the individual him- Brown, and lucifer matches on all the prisoners.
self, with a view to his acquiring that self-confi• In cross-examination by Trevor, Holmes said the
centre bit was such as was sometimes used by dence so necessary in all who have active public car-
penters, but not frequently. It might also be used
duties to perform, yet it must ever be useful, nay, by coopers to cut bung-holes. The files were such
highly advantageous, to convince men united in a as were used for sharpening saws, but he did not
corps that their wants and comforts are never ne- believe
.. that Trevor used them for that purpose.
lected by those requiring their services. Such a tools .
Ir. Corrie wasquite aware that all housebreakers'
g might be used for other purposes. A "jemmy"
view being acted on gives rise to promptness, acti- or crowbar might be very useful for things
y t ings
vity, energy on their part, and to respect for them- that had nothing to do with home-breaking. The
selves and for the corps to which they belong, question was what would a jury, taking all the facts,_
.consider to be the use they were intended for in thisl
which in the end never fails to react most benefi
• Instance.
dally on the safety, welfare, and finances of their
Trevor said the police made the most of very employers—the public. t frivolous matters, If thu first 20 men who passed

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—Dec. 30.

MANSION-HOUSE.—Edward Flynn, a dissi-
pated-looking lad about 18, and Mary M'Carthy,
described as a sock-maker, were charged before the
Lord Mayor, each with an aggravated assault.
The chief complainant was Margaret Bryant, a
respectable-looking young woman, the wife of a
mechanic, living in John-street, Mile-end New
Town. She carried a baby at the breast. One of
her eyes was fearfully bruised and swollen, while
her face bore other marks of ill-usage: She said she
was taking a walk with her husband and sister on
Thursday, Boxing-day, and, being tired, they went
into the Woolpack publichouse in the Minories to
have some refreshment at a luncheon bar. The
prisoners and several other persons, all of whom
were strangers to her, were drinking in the com-
partment to which they went. Flynn deliberately
blew the smoke of his cigar full in her sister's face.
The sister asked him to be kind enough to turn his
head the other way, upon which he called her a very
opprobrious name. Offended by his insolence, the
witness said he was an illbred fellow. Her husband
having also remonstrated with him for using such
language to a woman whom be knew nothing of,
into
the prisoner knocked his hat off and kicked it
the street. He went out to get it, when he was
knocked down by the prisoner Flynn and his com-
rades and most cruelly used. She was trying to
protect him, and the prisoner M'Carthy struck her
a violent blow in the eye, which caused its swollen
appearance. The whole proceedings were witnessed
by a police-constable of the H division, but he bad
been prevented from coming to depose to it by being
summoned to attend an inquest.
David Bryant, husband of the previous witness,
said the prisoner Flynn struck him in the eye,
besides knocking his hat off. He also was
knocked down twice by the prisoners and their
companions. All that he had done was to remon-
strate quietly with the prisoner Flynn for applying
an offensive term to his wife's sister.
The evidence as to both assaults was corroborated
by the sister of the Bryants and by the barman at
the Woolpack.
Flynn, in his defence, said he was drunk at the
time, and did not know what he was doing.
M'Carthy disclaimed all knowledge of Flynn, and
said she had been wrongfully confounded with an-
other woman, and had taken no part in the affray
The female complainant, Bryant, swore posi.
tively to M'Carthy having given her the black eye
The Lord Mayor fined each of the prisoners 20s.
with the alternative of 10 days' imprisonment.