The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-01 00:00:00

THE DERBY DAY.

The day after the great Race, like the day
after a feast, is a day for moralizing. For
many it is a day of broken hopes and heavy
hearts. Poor humanity is continually preparing
tortures for itself; it speculates, it bets, it sets
its great heart on some one object, and when
the day of trial comes, the speculation fails, or
the hoped-for joy eludes the grasp ; or, like
the apple on the Dead Sea, fills the hungry
mouth with ashes ; or, as in the present in-
stance, the favourite of the Race plays false.
Year after year the moralist declaims against
the gigantic folly of- Staking vast fortunes on
.the chances of a race, and yet men go tni in the
-face of bitter experience risking the fortune or
.the happiness of a life on a single chance. The
Derby Day, in its darker aspect, is an illus-
tration i
of the growing tendencies in English
society towards extravagance, recklessness,
gambling, and love of excitement. The sober-
ness of the national character, the patience
that works steadily towards its end, the mode-
ration in pursuit, and contentedness with slow
or partial success, are giving way before
feverish excitement and its' consequent re-
sults. In the coming changes, political and
social as well as religious, which our genera-
tion is but too likely to witness, we shall need
every aid to steer clear of dangers, formidable
chiefly because of the growing alienation be-
tween the classes. If the upper classes be not
prepared to hold their own against the masses,
every day becoming more conscious of their
strength, power will pass from their hands
into those of an impatient and dangerous de-
mocracy. The high character which the pos-
sessors of the soil have so long borne for self-
restraint, for work for their country's good,
for homely sympathy with those dependent on
them, and the generally healthy tone of the
owners of the wealth of the country, have
succeeded in keeping down the antagonism
between the upper and the lower classes.
But a life of mere luxury and self-indulgence
spent in London, with wealth squandered,
or estates gambled away on a race, is not
likely, in the coming conflicts, to conciliate
respect. Individual instances of utter reck-
lessness are, of course, _of no public impor-
tance, unless they point to a growing tend-
ency;' and then it is wise to take warning in
time. And it is time that the tendency to sacri-
fice country to town, solid power to empty
show, steady and patient work to the spirit of
gambling as shown during the past few years
In the financial speculations which have
brought about such wide-spread ruin should be
checked. The great yearly Race is becoming
for too many of its supporters nothing more
than a huge gambling transaction, in which
more rapidly than elsewhere vast fortunes are
lost or made. It is a symptom of a growing
disease. In perilous times such social diseases
are dangerous to the commonwealth. In the
new distribution of power, such as the Reform
Bill is to bring about, and at a time when there
is a movement in the masses, and an expec-
tation greater than will be realized of exer-
cising control over the affairs of the country,
sobriety, self-restraint, and discretion are more
than ever needed on the part of the governing
classes, and of those who stand highest in
the realm. The failure on their part of
1 these necessary qualities cannot fail to pro-
voke criticism and the institution of dangerous
comparisons. 111-will between the various
classes of society is a far more dangerous
enemy than an economical grievance, even of
long standing, for it is a disturbance of the
delicately-balanced equilibrium of our State.
A class may take warning in time, indivi-
duals must pursue their own bent, and be
responsible for the loss of their own fortune,
or happiness, for it is their concern. All we
can bid them do is to meditate on the vanity
of human wishes. Yet, who does not sym-
pathize with poor- humanity, with its high
aims and its superabundant failures, its hopes
and too constant disappointments, the coming
to nought of the labours and of the persever-
ance of a lifetime. Some take the sweets or
flowers of life that are offered to them, others
cast them down the well, or throw them dis-
trustfully or disdainfully into the fire. The
individual must suffer, he is beyond our con-
trol. It is vain to warn him not to set his
heart on this or that, or stake his fortune on
the favourite of the turf, he must take his
course, all we can say is in the words of the
homely proverb :—" Don't put all your eggs
into one basket," for, to borrow the language
of the Derby day, it is a thousand to one that
they will be all smashed.—Westminster Gazette.