Wales' horses, and the "infernal conduct" of Mr. Warwick Lake and Frank Neale. The best part of the book is the conclusion, where there are some hints which still should be of service in the "very fine parts in riding a race," and some close reasoning on the way in which horses vary in their running, as well as the absurd way in which they are, or rather were then, treated. As apropos of our plate, "it is destruction to horses to sweat them in the manner they are sweated at Newmarket, as the practice there is to sweat them once in six days, sometimes oftener; and between those days of sweating it is usual for the horse to go out twice a day, each time having strong exercise. In these sweating-days the horses are mostly covered with cloths two or three times doubled, and go in their sweats six miles, more or less, and at times go tolerably fast. Directly the horse pulls up he is hurried into the stable, which is on the spot for that purpose. As soon as he gets in, there is often more cloths thrown upon him, in addition to those he has been doing his sweat in. This is done to make the horse sweat the more, and he stands thus for a time panting, before he is stripped for scraping; that with being thus worked, clothed, and stoved, it so affects him at times, that he keeps breaking out in fresh sweats, that it pours from him, when scraping, as if water had been thrown on him. Nature cannot bear this. The horses must dwindle.'

Old Sam clearly lived before his time, as the gentleman on the brown hack would tell us. There is little of such barbarity now-adays; for some horses are never sweated, and none after such a fashion as our genuine genius denounces. The last nag of the three, just in front there, is going for the Two Thousand, and all Newmarket stands him to win, so of course he won't; while if they tout one of their own back to a hundred to one, you should then get on him for the Derby, as it has just been ascertained that the Newmarket people are the worst judges in the world, especially of horses they see every day of their lives. And so, if you should get up early in the morning for & stroll on the Heath before breakfast, you must take care to believe very little you see, and nothing you hear.

RUNNING A BYE.

ENGRAVED BY E, HACKER, FROM A PAINTING BY H, WEEKES,

So far master Rough would seem to have all the fun to himself, but the gentleman taking the rails looks vastly like Time the Avenger, in the shape of a much-outraged keeper. However, if all the new Game Bills get their will of us, there shall presently be no more harm in killing a rabbit than a rat or any other "destructive" creature.

Mr. Weekes has been best known hitherto by his studies of sheep, and other such renderings from rural life, while we hear that his present subject will have a place in the new home of the Royal Academy.

ON THE TRUE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING; WITH A SPECIAL APPLICATION TO THE TURF.

BY "SUUM CUIQUE."

The importance of arriving at correct conclusions in the breeding of stock, in a country like our own, or indeed in any country, can scarcely be overestimated; its introduction therefore into the pages of a magazine, though more specially devoted to animals bred for the sport and pastime of men, inasmuch as the subject is applicable to all, can scarcely be out of place, or require any apology at my hand. It has ever been too much the fashion of the day to trust to the skill and judgment of a few successful individuals, rather than to depend upon well-known laws and general principles, which, after all, it will be found, are the only safe rule and criterion of action. This, however, from the nature of the case, must ever be a very precarious staff on which to lean, and in the long run is certain to lead, not to success, but ruin. Happy then the individual or the community who in the breeding of their stock have something more stable wherin to trust, and who have some well-defined laws or principles to guide them.

A few short years ago there were no sheep like those of my native country-the Leicesters; but for some time past those best acquainted with them have known that they have been gradually declining. The cause is unknown; but the fact is patent. At the late Battersea show they were confessedly inferior to the exhibition of former years, while flockmasters in the country generally acknowledge that they are every year becoming more tender in their constitution, less prolific in their breeding, with a diminished yield both of fleece and mutton, unmistakable signs we take it of a general degeneracy of breed, not to be remedied by any haphazard experiments of a few individuals, if at all. The cause we fear will be found to be far deeper rooted, and to lie in the fact that the breed is the result of an original successful series of crossings, which is now unable any longer to continue itself, and which the continuous breeding in and in of so called pure-bred flocks will only further hasten the declining summit of decay, under any circumstances, experiment, valuable as it is in the end, and as laying a basis or facts from which inferences may be drawn, and general principles and laws may be deduced, must be a long time before it can be turned to practical account, and must necessarily be but a very hazardous and unsatisfactory way of proceeding in such an emergency. As likely as not, it may only aggravate the evil it seeks to cure, for how seldom is either the first or the second trials found to answer the expectations of him that makes it! No; one well established rule, one sure principle, one recognised law at such times and in such cases is worth a hundred doubtful experiments; but where are these to be sought? where may we hope that such may be found?

Well, it is the wisest saying of the wisest man that ever lived: "There is nothing new under the sun," and as applied to the particular matter of breeding, I firmly believe it. Nature, we know, is ever uni

form in her operations, and her laws are immutable. The revolutions of the planets, the revolving circle of our earth, the careering of the winds, the ebb and flow of the tide, are each and all guided by one law alike unchanging and unchangeable. "He who launched the universe from his hand and saw that it was good, endowed it with the principle of self-preservation, which shall last, we may rest assured, so long as the sun and moon endureth." In this respect no distinction was made between the animate and inanimate creation. To the grass, the herb, and the fruit tree, as well as to the fowl that flieth in the open firmament of heaven, the fish that moveth in the waters beneath, and the cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, this one property was given the seed was in itself; while to each was the command issued

"let it bring forth and multiply after his kind." Even man himself, the head and lord of all, forms no exception to the rule; to him also was it said, "Let him bring forth after his kind-be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth," and we are told not only that "it was so," but that "God saw that it was good."

Here, then, as it seems to me, we arrive at once at the object of our search; here we discover the first principles of all breeding-here is to be found the true basis of all operations which have for their object the improvement of the animal creation, for I take it that the nearer we follow the directions of nature, or rather the revealed will of the God of all nature, the more likely are we to succeed, and that in this respect it will yet be found, as the wise king averred, truly, "There is nothing new under the sun."

In the first place then we find that to the meanest no less than to the highest animal in creation was the power of perpetuating his race for ever given, and that for the one as well as the other one law of generation was prescribed. Bounds are set, within which this power was manifestly illimitable, but beyond which no race might with impunity transgress-no communication or commixture of any kind is allowed-each " was to bring forth after his kind," and so long as this was the case, the Divine blessing of God was to rest on all. Bearing these facts in mind, then, I think we may deduce the following propositions for our guidance in the breeding of all stock, and are bound to conclude:

First-That purity of breed is essential in every stage of our proceedings.

Secondly-That so long as this was the case, the close affinity of parents (if not actually incestuous) has not, and cannot have, any deteriorating effect upon the offspring.

Thirdly-That so far from anything of the kind, breeding from the same line or family of stock would appear to be the most likely means of developing its capabilities to the fullest extent.

Fourthly-That no cross-bred stock, however successful for a time, can ever hope to become a permanently successful breed, which is indeed but a corollary to the first proposition we have advanced.

In support of the proposition first advanced, that purity of breed is the great essential qualification for the continous successful propagation of any given race of animals, I think abundance of evidence meets us on every hand. In the first place, there is the negative argument that in animals feræ naturæ there is no such thing known as a hybrid race,