be cppettator, Jap 29tb. 1852
DERBY OMENS
So ominous a conjunction as that of Wednesday last could not have done less than bring a gloomy sky—it was the Derby Day at Epsom, it was Opening Night at Vauxhall, and those two events occurred during a Derby reign—pluvious aera ! That the Derby, rule should have been so dry as it has been until lately, is surprising, since we know the effects when men dressed in brief authority play antics: on Wednesday, however, the heavens were unable to master their emotions. The painful conjunction will be marked by a black spot in the annals of Sporting and Protection. Lord Derby made his newest recan- tation—of course not his final recantation—on Monda*y, in the House of Lords; Wednesday was a wet Derby Day, on Epsom Downs.
Another omen. On Tuesday, Maynooth was again debated, Spooner clinging to his standard with devotion exemplary but not imitated; for although the satitical motion -to adjourn it to the Derby Day was negatived, no Members could be mustered to keep a House for the renewal of the debate on Tuesday evening; so that Maynooth was left to .do its worst. The Derby influence had done nothing to avert that stultifica- tion of the course on which Derby had smiled; the fatal omen befell on another course—on the next day at Epsom it was an Irish horse that won ! The wet ground was not propitious to the paces of the most eminent English horses; but Daniel O'Rourke and Barbarian, both Celtic, found it quite to their mind. England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity.
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