Messrs. Debrett, Lodge, Burke, Dod, Hardwicke, and the rest of
the Peerage publishers must be interested in watching the negotiation now going on between the wealthy breeders of short- horns and the owner of what ought to be called "the Bull Peerage," the " Herd-book " of England. This belongs to Mr. Strafford, but the great breeders, for an obvious reason, want to buy it up. It ought not to be in any one man's hand. Mr. Strafford has kept it with rare fidelity and skill, but it is clear that as the bulls, unlike the Peers, cannot correct the proofs or send notes of their pedigrees, a dishonest or incompetent owner of the book could in a few years make a fortune by improper entries. They would ruin the book and the herds, but they might make him. The Committee of Breeders therefore offer £,5,000 for the book, not, we should say, as outsiders, its value by one- half, and this is accepted by Mr. Strafford, on condition that he may nominate the next editor. The Committee, while acknow- ledging the merits of the gentleman named, reject this condition, and propose to buy Mr. Strafford's book if they can, but other- wise to keep a register of their own,—a curious evidence of the expenditure of energy and anxiety by which that "work of high art" a good beef-steak is now attained.
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