The Contemporary Review, August.—The most readable paper is one on
"The Horse as an Instrument of Gambling," by Mr. Curzon, who estimates the eost of racing in England—the direct cost, without betting —at £673,950 a year. It is nearly impossible, he calculates, that a racer should recoup its owner out of stakes alone :—
"Taking the returns of a recent year as a fair average one, we find that forty-four persons won from £200 to £300 each, forty-five gained sums ranging from £800 to £500, sixty won amounts ranging from £500 to £994, and sixty-three persons won sums of £1,000 and upwards. In that year (1874) 1,965 horses competed, which gives an average of over nine horses to those we have scheduled as winners ; the nine horses would cost, in interest and keep, over £2,850, so that the larger number of those who ran their horses, if they did not bet, must have been greatly out of pocket."
The temptation, consequently, is to bet, and betting has become, Mr. Curzon thinks, "a huge social nuleance." There is a very remarkable and interesting paper by Mr. A. Taylor Innes, on "The Trial of Jesus Christ," in which he shows that Christ repeatedly appealed to well- known principles of Hebrew law, which were as repeatedly broken through. He shows that the technical offence with which the Saviour was charged was blasphemy, and that the only relevant evidence was his own statement,—" I am the Son, of God," which could not legally be received against him. Mr. Gray's article, "On Some Neglected Aspects of the Drink Question," is a fierce, not to say furious, attack on tee- totallers, as a parcel of fools who want to abridge human liberty. He -almost sings a hymn in praise of boor, which he assorts, oven when taken in great quantities, to be beneficial, and appears to believe that
Ithe bad will be bad, whether you give them drink or not. He is, in fact, nearly as savage in argument as a teetotaller.
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