QUEEN'S PLATES.
OP all popular complaints the outcry against the long list of aged officers who stand at the head of the" Navy List" seems - to be about the most shortsighted. What should we do without the British Admiral ? How desolate a prospect would the daily papers yield to the leisurely reader, if his eyes were never again to be greeted by the familiar signatures of Fitzroy, Sartorius, or Rous ! In a country like this we must have a class to be the champions of the causes which no one else will maintain, and now that the Bar has become a mercenary corporation it is reserved for the proverbial gallantry of the retired naval officer to be the forlorn hope of advocacy. Our chief astrologer is a naval lieu- tenant. More hopeful enterprises are led by the higher grades of the profession, and not even the difficulties of English grammar have deterred Admiral Fitzroy from his spirited attempt to settle the weather. But if there was a subject which apparently heaven had denied to the seaman it was horses. Storm, and rain, and wind are topics to which he has a professional claim, and Commodore Trunnion, when he tacked as he rode to church, dis-
played as profound a mastery over the one subject as ignorance of the other. All these things are now altered. Even the navy has succumbed to that strange influence which radiates from the equine genus, and a British Admiral is the great authority upon betting and blood, " light weights and short courses." Other professions have long since given in. In the reign of good Queen Anne horse-racing was declared illegal. At a later period it made Mr. Justice Blackstone quote Tacitus about the love of our German ancestors for gambling, and that arbiter of all elegance Lord Chesterfield denounced Newmarket in his will as an "infamous seminary of iniquity and ill manners." It was in vain. In 1740 a futile attempt was made to "restrain excessive horse-racing" by imposing conditions as to weights and prizes, but even the Legis- lature was obliged to concede full liberty to Newmarket and Black Hambleton." Five years later all restrictions disappeared, save only that the plate run for was to be at least 50/. Thence- forth the horse went forth conquering and to conquer. Since Queen Victoria has ascended the throne, says a grave writer, "the Bench has been touched by the sporting predilections and feelings of the age." A series of decisions evaded the precedents of former reigns, till the Court of Common Pleas, in 1842, de- clared that the law of horse-racing "sanctions any running upon the surface of the earth from point to point," and since then a statute of the realm has abolished the last rag of legislative prohibition. Earth being subdued, it only remained to conquer the sea, and after the judges were on the turf one has no right to be surprised if the admirals followed. Of course the Press has followed suit, and on Wednesday last Admiral Rona's letter shared with Mr. Disraeli's vote of censure the exclusive glory of the Tinies's large type.. All ranks, all ages, all professions alike now cultivate the horse. The Church is the only exception, if indeed exception it be. There is an anecdote of a Scotch minister which is often quoted by Episcopalians as an argument against extempore prayers,—but, as it has always seemed to us, with singular want of discernment. When the minister suddenly paused, as he was enumerating the various causes men have for gratitude to Heaven, and then after an interval proceeded, "We thank thee for that noble animal the horse," it was not, we are convinced, from want of matter, but from a desire to impress on his congregation the importance of the step he was taking in solemnly recognizing the racehorse as among the special blessings which elicit the thankful- ness of the Church.
It is therefore natural enough, now that we are awake to our responsibilities, that the lamentations of certain fainthearted grumblers over the deterioration of the breed of horses should have agitated the inmost heart of the nation, and that General Peel and Lord Palmerston should have found it necessary to sink party differences for the consolation of patriots. But while voices to which England is wont to listen are doubtless necessary to .cheer the hearts of those to whom the privilege of "homeyness': has not been granted, it has been reserved for Admiral Rous to give real racing men a reason for their faith. In former days, say the grumblers, the object was to have horses of great power of endurance and long wind, and accordingly races were for long distances and under heavy weights. Under that system the great races were between four and five-year-olds. But since horse-racing has been duly recognized as a national pursuit, great wealth has been expended on it. It has become to some degree a commercial speculation, and breeders of horses, like all other trades- men, look for quick returns. The consequence is an immense in- crease in the prizes offered for two-year olds, mere baby-horaes,
which can run only for short distances and under light weights. Instead of " Eclipses and Flying Childers's," the breeders aim only at producing "leggy weeds," which attain to great speed at an early age, and are exhausted before they are five year-olds. The Queen's plates of 100/. each are perfectly useless. Nobody cares for a hundred-pound prize nowadays. Of the thirty- eight run for in England seventeen were won by one mare, which had six or seventeen walks over ; and of seven run for in Ireland eight were awarded to the same animal. Since therefore the Queen's plates are useless for the only object in which the nation is interested, the raising, as the preamble of the 13th Geo.
c. 19, states, of "strong and useful horses," let them be abolished at once, and a useless expenditure of public money saved.
To this terrible declaration Admiral Rous first pleads the general issue,—the breed of horses has not deteriorated. Some men will deny the progress of mankind. Since the Darley Arabian was imported,—in thirteen generations,—we have one-fifth more speed and more strength, and one and a half hands increase of average stature, and the deteriorated Anglo-Arabian thoroughbred, even when degraded to a butcher's hack, will "beat the Flower of the Desert any distance under 100 miles." After this we give up the traditional faith of our childhood in the Arab steed. Indeed the picture the Admiral draws of the present condition of the noble animal is most encouraging. With what awe one hears of stallions like Stockwell and King Tom, which are framed to gallop under 20 at. And whose blood does notboil when "the 2,700 brood mares" are accused of giving birth to more "leggy weeds" than other do- mestic arkinvdg ? "Look at home," says the indignant Admiral, for- getting somewhat, we think, that respect for the weaker sex which is as much a characteristic of the navy as horseyness, "in the human race there is a difference much greater to their discredit." For ourselves, feeling most strongly the impudence of the Yahoo who has ventured to speak disparagingly of the Ilouynhmn brood mares, we must decline to sanction what seems to us, to say the least of it, an unnecessary insult to the British matron. But much may be forgiven to zeal. The upshot of the matter seems to be that you cannot have great speed under heavy weights. For every class of horse as well as man nature has its compensations. Even that despised body tailors, mere ninth parts of humanity, if they sit all day cross-legged and in slippers, can give 10 yards in 100 to any of the industrious classes who carry heavy burdens and wear heavy boots. This is the true cause why we have short courses and light weights. If, again, we have not horses famed for running long distances, it is because we breed now a days for size and strength. "The heroes of old" were small horses, who could not compete with the modern racer under heavy weights. If "the speedy and magnificent Sultan" on the Beacon Course at 9 at. 3 lb. and 9 at., "had the stout Centaur ex- tended at the turn of the lands," it cannot be denied that the "big one" had triumphed on the Round Course at 12 St. and 11 st. 9 lb. A large powerful horse that at light weights can- not get six furlongs in good company will carry a 17 at. Admiral four miles in eleven minutes. Who in the face of facts like these, can doubt that the national object has been, attained, and "the Anglo-Arabian adapted to carry heavy men across country and at the head of their regiments ?" If such noble animals are scarce it is because Mussoo has become a purchaser of thoroughbreds up to 14 st, and Royal and Imperial buyers will give 600/. for any- thing of that mark "which can bend his knees."
Still it seems to be admitted even by the Admiral that endur- ance as distinguished from muscular strength is not encouraged by the modern racing system ? No doubt it is, as General Peel says, a strange remedy to propose to abolish the Queen's plates, and so do away with all the weight-for-age races. But it is not as a remedy that it is proposed. The General admits that good horses will not be run for 100L in four-mile heats under heavy weights. What good, then, do they do? The idea that they will induce the owners of four-year olds to refuse a good offer from a foreigner and keep them in the country seems in these commercial days to be a very doubtful advantage. Instead of these small prizes Admiral bus would divide, if we understand him aright, the whole Government grant into two plates of 2,000/. each, augmented by a small sweepstakes,—the one to be run for at Newmarket on the Round Course by four-year olds and upwards - the other at the Houghton meeting, the Beacon Course, by horses of any kind carrying 11 at. This seems a sensible proposition, for it would make the Government bounties a direct test of capa- bility of endurance,—the only quality which breeders have no interest in producing, and therefore neglect,—but which, from a national point of view, is of far more importance than speed.
But for our part we believe it would be the highest wisdom if
the votaries of this great national pursuit of horse-breeding were to abjure Government trammels and agitate, as General Peel suggested, for the abolition at once of Queens' plates and. the tax on racehorses. Mr. Gladstone loves simplicity, and how he can so long have endured to take 7,000/. from sports- men with one hand, and give them back nearly 4,000/. with the other, passes comprehension. In horses, as in everything else, demand will produce supply, and this last relic of the old exploded system of bounties should be spurned by a class of men whose con- stant association with horses gives thorn a superiority to others. Even in 1745 the preamble of the Act of Parliament which restored liberty to racing men declared that "the thirteen Royal plates of 100 guineas each annually run for, as also the high prices that are con- stantly given for horses of strength and size, were sufficient to encourage breeders to raise their cattle to the utmost size and strength possible." Since then 100/. plates have become trifles in their eyes, and prices have mounted and mounted till even Mussoos give 600/. for any thoroughbred up to 14 at. "which can bend his knees." Let the turf, then, make some concession to the few austere moralists who disapprove of gambling, and shrink from that atmosphere of over-reaching and running dark which affects all horsey men, from Counts and Colonels to Yorkshire dealers. Let them throw off the trappings of their infancy, and cease to commit the Government to the support of their institution. They can run alone. Even if there are no Queen's plates the Court will still go to Ascot. And what is Royal favour to pursuits like horseracing and bookmaking, which are enshrined in the hearts of a Christian people?
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