The New York herald., 1862-11-23
The New, Absorbing Topic An Eag-
land.


The philosopher who discovered that there
was but q step between the sublime and the
ridiculous must have been q careful student of
the English papers. Until very recently the
absorbing topic Of discussion in England kas
been our civil war; Russell, Palmerston. CHAD
stone and other official worthless have made long
speeches about it, and written any number OF
letters explaining and qualifying their speeches.
That great debating society, the British Parha-
ment, and that premature parliament the
| Oxford Debating Society, have been laboring in
| vain to fully understand and fairly discuss this
great question of the day Those districts in
which the cotton famine prevails have been
blessed with public meetings and public lee
lures beneyolently calculated TO show the peo-
| pie why they are starving, and to encourage
them to starve on until this plan, or that plan,
| or the other plan, has been adopted for their
| relief The English papers have mingled daily
doses Of sophistical argument. tawdry rhetoric
and violent invectve, and, with the selfsatisded
air OF low comedy physician, have admins
| tered these remedies for rebellion to the sick
| man of America and the starving men of Eng
land, only to make matters worse and the
patients more unwsll by their quack medi-
| cnes A new and more exciting topic has
at length come upon the English tapis, however
and. according to the London Times, "is dis
cussed with more vivacity in clubs and social
circles than any question of politics, whether
foreign or domestic" This great absorbing
subject is the decision of bet about the spell
! ing of tho word reindeer"
| Not only the clubs and social circles, but the
whole press Of England is deeply interested in
this momentous affair. Our English files by
the Persia treat Of very little else. The jour
nails are filed with communications pro and con-.
| explanations, corrections and contradictions
The London Times and its leading contempora-
ries devote long and solemn editorials to the
subject and argue about it with that sublime
and ponderous gravity becoming herd of ele-
plants in chase Of fly, or Mrs. Partington dis
cussing the abstruse problem whether or not
the moon is inhabited if it be made of green
| cheese Of course there is Yankee at the
bottom of this important business, upon the
proper settlement of which such tremendous
consequences depend and we shrewdly suspect
that Mr.. Ten Broeck-the Yankee in question
is deliberately and maliciously prpetrating a
terrible hoax upon our British relatives, in
order to obtain fair equivalent in amusement
for the one hundred pounds out of which he has
been swindled. The facts of the affair, as far
as developed, seem to be these:-Colonel Bur-
naby and the Hon. Captain Stewart, Of the Eng
lish army--illustrious as men about town and
on the turf-had horse named Palm Oil.
Sitting at the Jockey Club Room one day,
they determined to change the name of their
horse to Reindeer, very naturally preferring
that title to the slippery cognomen previously
selected. Unfortunately the English fashiona-
bles are not very remarkable in an educational
| point Of view, and neither the Colonel nor the
Captain could spell reindeer. A waiter was
therefore despatched for dictionary. and re-
turned with DR.. Johnson's slightly obsolete pro-
| duction, in which the word is spelled rain
deer. This point decided, the horse was named,
and no moro was then said about the matter.
Both Colonel Burnaby and Captain Stewart
ware struck with brilliant idea, however, and
prepared to put it into execution.
| BY and by Mr.. Ten Brock drops into the
| ckb, and after some off hand talk the CONVEX
sation is adroitly turned to the newly named
horse, and Mr.. Ten Broeck is informed of the
rechristening. Then Colonel Burnaby takes
| out his betting book and asks, /" How do you
| spell that word, Stewart" Captain Stewart re-
| plies, 'Why spell it reindeer "Bet
you five pounds it's r-a-in-d-e-e-r," says Bur
naby, ''and we'll decide it by Johnson's Diction-
ary" "Done," says Captain Stewart and the
bet is booked. Mr.. Ten Brock, coming from
the land of free schools, knows that Burnaby is
wrong and tells him SO. Burnaby offers to bet
Ten Broeck any sum he likes. Ten Brock,
10th to take advantage of his friends ignorance
but willing to humor his evident desire for a
reindeer. Johnson's Dictionary is again
procured, and Ten Broeck loses his one hundred
pounds, which the Colonel and the Captain
divide between them. This is what is called a
.sput up" or q bubble bet, and is obviously
unfair, since two persons, having previously
ascertained a fact inveigle third person into
betting about it by pretending to get up bet
between themselves. Our thmbls riggers and
patent safe operators, and their high born imi-
tators in the English aristocracy, practise this
dodge exclusively, and it is never attempted by
an honorable sporting man. This, then.
is the subject which now engrosses the
English mind. Admiral Rous, the Hon. Ar
thur Anneslsy and the Hon. Robert Law
ley (brother Of Frank Lawley, the London
Tines Baltimore correspondent are inter-
ested as witnesses, and the Duke Of Cambridge,
the Comnanderin-C Chief Of the British army,
threatens that unless the affair is fully explain
ed he will issue general order prohibiting
army officers from belonging to sporting clubs
or societies The sensation thus created in
aristocratic circles may readily be imagined.
Very probably Parliament will be called upon