When Sir Wilfrid Lawson rose, the Speaker asked him if
he rose to second the motion, at which there was a roar of laughter. After the motion had been seconded, Sir Wilfrid opposed it, and said that horse-racing was most popular with the lowest and with the highest classes, with what might be called "the dregs and the scum of society," but nevertheless there were hundreds of thousands and millions of people who strongly objected to this sort of thing. Well, we hope he may be right ; but we fear that hundreds of thousands is the highest denomination of which he could speak with confi- dence ; more and more the millions are going into captivity to the race-course. Mr. Labouchere pleaded for the Derby Day adjournment on the rather original plea that it had nothing to do with the race : it was an adjournment to the Epsom Downs in honour of the summer solstice. The Epsom Downs were in a sort of rivalry with public-houses. It was as an advocate of temperance that he asked the House to adjourn over the Derby Day. And the House, which likes holidays better than private Members' days, did adjourn over the Derby Day, Lord Elcho's motion being carried by the somewhat narrow majority of 27 (160 for to 133 against.).
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