next and equally important thing to be well looked into is, is he quite sure he possesses steadiness and nerve enough to resist the temptation to bet heavily? If he has not these two requisites, for the sake of himself and the feelings of his friends let him keep from the turf, for it will be all but certain ruin. If he possesses both these requisites, let him begin keeping race-horses as soon as he likes-they will do him no more harm than any other expensive pursuit.

I have ventured in these few pages to give my impressions on some parts of racing affairs. That they may not be perfectly correct is doubtless the case; but take them as a whole, however feebly expressed, they are founded on fact and truth, and as such may be in some slight degree useful to the very young and the very unwary. If I have only brightened one spark of indignation in the breasts of men of honour against the class of pests I have alluded to, I have done something: if among the thousands who could handle the subject so much better than I have done, I can induce one to take up his pen in the same cause, I have done a great deal: and if this should eventually tend to the driving these harpies back to the insignificance from which they sprung, it would indeed be a glorious achievement. Then and not till then will racing again become a harmless and exhilarating amusement to the public, a benefit to the country, a manly and national sport, the pride and glory of Englishmen.

OPINIONS ON CRUELTY.

"Cruel or not cruel? that's the question."

THAT there can be a shadow of doubt as to what is or is not cruel may at first appear as a perfectly absurd idea. It is laconically remarked in the play of John Bull, "Justice is justice, Mr. Thornbury." This is self-evident, and that cruelty is cruelty is equally certain. Still, what is cruelty to a particular object is not quite so easily defined as it may be supposed to be. An atrocious act of barbarity can admit of but one construction, and can excite but one feeling in any commonly well-regulated mind, and that feeling must be one of unmitigated abhorrence and disgust. That there are stages of cruelty we learn so long ago as the time of Hogarth, and that those stages are still exhibited and practised even in these days of refinement, our every day's experience and observation are quite sufficient evidence. Many things are, however, daily done, and others left undone, by which acts of cruelty are inflicted both by commission and omission where none were really intended; and at the same time many things are done that bear the appearance of cruelty that really cannot admit of such a construction when properly investigated.

I regret to say, I consider that in this country the horse is more subject to cruelty and ill-usage than any other indigenous animal we possess. I do not except even that ill-used animal the ass for Jack is rather a difficult gentleman to understand and appreciate. I am a devoted friend to all animals, and to Jack

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ENGLISH DONKIES AND GERMAN POSTBOYS.

among the number. In an ordinary way he certainly gets coarser fare and harder blows than the horse: but as to his fare, it is well known he would leave the hay of the race-horse for the first thistle he could get hold of; and as to the blows, I must in candour allow that in very many cases it "sarves him right." That there is a difference in the dispositions of these animals is beyond doubt, but much less so than in perhaps those of most other animals that come under our immediate observation. With a sluggish one, feed him as you may, work him as little as you may, he will prefer having his sides and quarters visited by an ash plant in the hands of an athletic savage, to accelerating his wonted pace; and should those strokes be applied with the rapidity of a mountebank playing on a saltbox, a twist to the right or left of his nether parts is generally the only result. Perhaps he goes upon the principle of the schoolboy: "If I learn A, which I could soon do, they'll make me learn B and all the cross row: " so Jack concludes that if he evinced his perfect understanding of these hints by quickening his walk, a trot would then be demanded, and this he considers "a consummation devoutly " to be avoided. I am quite willing to agree with Sterne, that "with an ass one might converse for ever: so one might with a German postilion: but whoever has had the gratification of riding behind these imperturbable animals must have found, that, converse as long as you will, you will persuade neither the one nor the other to quicken his progression. If we wantonly put any two animals to the same degree of pain, the atrocity of the act is as great in the one case as in the other, and of course the suffering is equal to the animals: but as Jack prefers being bastinadoed to mend

ENGLISH IDEAS OF POSTING.

25

ing his pace, and the horse does not, it must be evident that they do not endure the same degree of pain from the same mode of punishment, though to a bystander the brutality of the driver might appear the same whether applied to the horse or the ass. Still in point of fact the quantum of cruelty in the two cases is very disproportionate, and is some proof that we may in many instances be misled in our estimation of cruelty by the appearance of it; whereas, on the other hand, many acts of absolute cruelty are daily practised without the suffering object of them exciting the slightest sympathy or commiseration.

In reference to German postilions, I must in justice mention an anecdote of one of these really queer fellows that did so much honour to his heart and feelings, that, in compliment to his nation, it ought not to be omitted. A young friend of mine, who had been accustomed to four merry English posters and English post-boys (the generality of whom, to their eternal infamy be it spoken, would at any time risk killing their horses for an extra five shillings), was travelling in Germany, and had paid the postilions with his accustomed English profusion. He got by this extra thanks and extra bows; but an extra mile within the hour was out of the question; so he determined the next stage to give the men as little as he possibly could; did so, and told them why he did so they merely shrugged their shoulders a little higher than usual. Now, in England, from such bad pay being told to the new postilions, he would have travelled the next stage about the pace of a hearse. But here he went on exactly at the same rate of going he had done before. My friend stopped the drivers, told them why he had paid with such parsimony,

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THE AUTHOR IN TROUBLE:

and now offered an additional bribe for additional speed. The reply he got from one of the postilions was this, and which he had the good sense and good feeling to appreciate: "He would be happy to oblige, but he might never have the honour to see Mynheer again; but he saw his cattle every day, and would not distress them."

I could have hugged the fine fellow had I been there, though this mode of salutation is not much in my way. Show me an English post-boy who would have acted thus against his interest: show me any English coach-owner who would let feeling for his horses interfere with his interest: to such men I would say, but should say it without the hope of producing any effect, "Go and do thou likewise:" not they indeed.

I am quite aware I am now about to tread on, if not forbidden, at all events very dangerous ground. I am going to accuse ladies of being very frequently the perpetrators, I should rather say instigators, of cruelty towards that animal who conduces so much to their comfort and amusement-namely, the horse. I can fancy I now hear myself exclaimed against by all parties as a perfect savage. "What," exclaim the fairer part of the creation, "can the monster mean by accusing us of cruelty ?"-"What!" exclaim equally loudly the male part of my readers; "accuse woman, lovely woman, of cruelty !—her, whose softness alone humanises our rugged nature!-her, whose tender. ness and smiles can alone by their fascination control our coarser feelings and passions!-her, the bright ornament of our homes, the projector of and participator in all those commendable and social virtues she alone has taught us to prize and to enjoy!—her,