The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-18 00:00:00

PLOUGHBOY,

although I should by no means ignore the chance
of VIXEN g. The names having most attrac-
tion for me of those animals engaged in the
Weston Stakes are HILDA, BADSWORTII, and DE
VERE, and I fancy their chance in rotation. Bad
as he is I shall expect to see CORK JACKET
he starts, who is a win the Welter Stakes. The Badminton Stakes
Gdri°sNtainices of
race-
horsewill go
ground. I think
DEMONSTRATION will win the Dyrham Park Handi-
cap, and if beat it will most likely be by DEFIANCE.
One of the most agreeable day's sport of the
tove
over
Is Dh Do Ir Nt
week will be at Wye on Wednesday, where I can
only advise speculators to back MINUTE GUN for
both the Wye Handicap and The Olanteigh Tower
Handicap Plate.
A capital programme has also been issued for a
day's racing at Croydon, but none of the stakes are
complete for analysis.
The week's amusement will be concluded at Har-
penden on Friday, and as the acceptances for the
principal handicap are not made until to-morrow,
I can only say that COURT CARD is as well in as
anything. I think the issue of the Two Year Old
Stakes lays between LAMPOON and LELIA. The
other races I think it best to say nothing about.
A Flt Sl' NIAN.

THE At .4.IIQUISOF GS AN I) TIIE

TURF'.

(From the Sportsman.)
It is a thankless task to rake up the muddy waters of
turf scandal, but when they threaten the stability of the
institution itself, every one who would see it preserved
should gird up his loins fur the work. It is, we are assured
by the alag,e of
popular wisdom, impossible to touch pitch
without being defiled ; but the cleanest of hands should not
at times shrink front the( risk of contamination. These
observations, introductory of some few COUMICEAS on a
flagrant scandal which at present forms the chief topic of
conversation in turf circles, and which more deserves the
strictures it arouses than anything of the kind in the
modern history of our national sport, aro in no degree in-
tended as au apology,
for I consider it a duty to assume
for the moment a Curtian part, and speak out boldly
in the interest of justice, decency, and fair dealing.
After these remarks, it is almost unnecessary to add
that the esclandre referred to is that in reference to the
position, in regard to the turf, of the Marquis of Hast-
ings, whose non-settlement or non-arrangement of his
last year's racing accounts has excited an unprece-
dented amount of consternation and ill-feeling, not
only among his creditors, but throughout the sporting
world. When the argument of the whole story is, that
his lordship owes large sums of money to men from whom
it is possible h 3 may, through his agent-, in a few days
demand a fortune; that they will have to pay him, while
he distinctly refuses to pay them; that, in a word, the
greatest defaulter on the turf is at the same time the
owner of the first favourite for the coming Derby, your
readers will be somewhat prepared for the miserable de-
tails I must lay before them. In the Sporting Gazette of
last Wednesday I find the following sweet paragraph, a
work of art, executed with all the skill that b,neficent
nature and long practice furnish to the aristocratic
toady

settlement of the
THE MARQUIS OF HASTINGS'S ACCOU NTS.—The gentle-
man who has hi herto exerted himself towards effecting a
Marquis of Hastings's accounts, " re-
yesterday, on finding so many im-
pediments thrown in his way.
In the ordinary affairs of life, as conducted by straightfor-
ward,tired from the contest"
houourable, and business men, the only recoguised
mode of settling an account is to ply it. Strange as it
may seem to the soi-clisant
pious, who regard sport as the
broad road with the undesirable termiuus, there aro on
the turf straightforward, honourable, and business men,
who take precisely the same view of their own and other
people's liabilities. There are, undoubtedly, others who
delude the unwary into entrusting them with money, with
which they subsequently run off ; but, as a rule, they aro
not marquises, they are looked upon by :sporting men as
scoundrels, and they are known under the generic title of
" welshers." It is all very well for our friend Jeamea to
give " the gentleman" credit for " exertion," and to attri-
bute the non-payment of his lordship's debt's to " impedi-
ments thrown in his way." The writer evidently knows
on which side his own bread is buttered, and undoubtedly
deserves all credit for an ingenious mode of stating the case,
which serves his own interest; by at once " smoothing
down" the marquis of Hastings, in leading the world to
suppose he has been hardly dealt with, and, by implication,
throwing the onus of the unfortunate " situation" on the
shoulders of the very men
on whom it entails the
greatest hardship. In the face of a representation so
plausible but so misleading, I feel it my duty, knowing
the whole facts of the case, to i'ey a " plain, unvarnished
tale" before the sporting world. During the early part of
the present year, after much diplomacy on both sides, and
adeetite Firsteeting to the
more Spring M
a vastamount of smooth wards and broken vows on that of
propisal was at length
prominent creditors. It was to the effect that a sum
of £lO,OOO should be immediately forthcoming, and that
r ah
4s d
le o r
duringds i lordship's t advisers,eh N ewlnrk 4 definite
at the same time a guarantee should be given that a simi-
lar sum should b 3 furnished in six months.- It was esti-
mated that the total amount, £20,000, would be sufficient,
after clearing off some of the smaller claimants, to allow
of the payment, to those of larger interests, of a dividend
of something like 7s. in the pound. 'That these are the
true facts of the case I am in a position to assert fearlessly,
as some of the principal creditors—representing among
them more than half of the whole liabilities of the Mar-
quis—did me the honour to consult me as to what was
best to be done in the matter. I suggested that they
should demand a guarantee for the settlement in
full of their claim; in the event of Lady Eliza-
beth winning the Derby; but at the same time strongly
advised that in any case they should accept the terms
offered as describ:d. ab..ivo. My pr0p0.:313, meeting xvitli
favour, they were a !opted as a lino of ac,io.i ; aal it was
confidently hoped th.tt at length a roost trolleying and
harassi ig dispute woul I be brought to a happy termina-
tion. What was the result ? That the programme
chalked out by his lordship's advisers during the First
Spring Meeting was wholly abandoned, and that on Mon-
day last the creditors were offered a new arrangement, to
the effect that they should be paid £lO,OOO, but without
any guarantee that a like sam would be forthcoming iu
six months. The creditors were in fact offered what
would positively amount to a present payment of about
Os. or Os. 6d. in the pound, and were left to imply that
they might at once " abandon hope " of the balance.