New Moon, 5th day, at 5 min. past midnight 2 T Bridport Regatta. Sun rises and sets. h. m. d. r4 25 26 3 W Brighton R.-Lyme Regis Regattar 4 28 28 4 T Staines Regatta. 5 F Brighton Club Races. 6 S r 4 31 N SETS. 7 S Eleventh Sundayafter Trinityr 4 35 8 M Wolverhampton Races. 9 T Yarmouth Races. 10 W Reading Races. s 7 4229 3 1 1 40 2 0 afternoon. 2 20 2 40 s 7 38 1 8 48 3 0 3 15 11 T Cr.-Horsham. M.C.C. v. Sussex. r 4 41 12 F 13 S Old Lammas Day. 14 Twelfth Sunday af. Trinity.s 7 23 9 Morning 17 W York Races. 18 T Cr.-Gt.Kent.v. Eng., Canterbury's 7 15 FRISES Thirteenth Sunday aft. Trinityr 4 57 16 19 F 20 S s 7 11 15 21 22 M Cr.-11 England v. 22 of Bradfords 7 717 8 55 4 15 4 30 23 TEgham Races. 24 W Liver. Hunt Races. Derby Races. s 7 Plymouth R. s 6 5025 0 510 4511 25 r 5 1326 1 5 At noon. No tide. 1 & 2 Great Grimsby ...... 8 & 9 | Radcliff..... 22 23 & 24 1 & 2 Yarmouth ..... • 9 & 10 Down Royal ... 23 24 25 & 26 Reading ..... 10 & 11 | Egham 23 & 24 North Staffordshire.. 10 & 11 Liverpool Hunt Club 24 & 25 Bungay. 16 Derby 24 & 25 Hereford 17 18 & 19 25 & 26 Edgware Brighton Club 4 & 5 Bellewstown ........ 17 & 18 | Lichfield ..29 30 & 31 29 & 30 Wolverhampton .... 8 9 & 10 | Tonbridge THE RACING SEASON-JULY, BY CRAVEN. "You are our enemy, and make our challenge; Have blown this coal." KING HENRY VIII. The man of most remote tradition-of early oriental pomp and circumstance, bonds and contumely; of Greece, the chivalrous, the poetic, the graceful; of Imperial Rome, ruler of the world, queen of arts and sciences; of the dark ages-those despots of Creeds; of England's ephemeris "When wild in woods the noble savage ran" or, later, her warrior, squire, merchant, noble-the man of all time and place, in his nature is "unus et idem." Like those of all the carnivorous animals, his instincts are essentially predatory. Leaving lions, tigers, "And other interesting beasts of prey," as not germane to the purpose, we read that the Anthropophagi roast ten times as many of their foes-or friends, as the case may be--as they require for the mere meal that they cook them for. In like manner does the Lord Mayor of-anywhere-when he spreadeth the convivial board, provide a pint of soup-turtle or otherwise; half a pound of fish-turbot, salmon, or whatever be in best season, and the appropriate sauce; half a pound of turkey, goose, capon, Dorking chickens; ditto venison, or ordinary butcher's meat; ditto peacock, swan, wildfowl, woodcock, pheasant, partridge, quail, snipe, patties, hors d'œuvres; made-dishes, vegetables, cheeses, butters, salads; liqueurs, malt liquors, ices, &c., to correspond; one bottle of champagne, and three of miscellaneous wines per head. Perish such penury! Multiply the bill of fare by decimals, and you will be nearer the average. The language has adopted one of its prominent symbolic phases from such practice of hospitality. We meet a jolly circular visage "a celestial rosy red"-carrying beneath it a stomach protruding like a bay-window, and we say "There goes a corporation!" ......It will be admitted, without logical demonstrations, that the cobler who lives in a stall"-just as you turn out of Leicester-square in the direction of St. Martin's Church-has not selected that place of residence in preference to Bridgewater House. Then can you conceive of the cannibalism which lodged Solomon in a palace of gold as big as Salisbury Plain, and endowed him with seven hundred wives and single gentlewomen ad libitum. Germany measures distance by time-thus it is so many hours from one place to another; that is to say, it is as far as a man might walk conveniently in so many hours. Now, according to this principle of calculation, what was the outlay of men required to accommodate "the great king?" What useful annals are those which relate to the interval between the Flood and the French Revolution? Do you conscientiously believe there is a good time coming? and, in the philanthropic philosophy of " All's Well that Ends Well," that "The time will bring on summer When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as sweet as sharp ?" For my part, I have my fears that the "O! generation of vipers" is significant of the classification of mankind" as it was in the beginning," &c., &c. It has an impertinent air to parade one's extracts from the "Gradus ad Parnassum;" but-grace to Mr. Charles Keanit may be lawful to allude to Sardanapalus as one of the fast examples of olden days; while, at the same time, we must earnestly entreat "gents" who allude to that exquisite Assyrian in public by name, so as to be heard by others, to put the accent on the penultimate. So surely as they persist in calling him "Sardin'plus," some dark night, on their road home from the Coal Hole, the ghost of his " Own Ionian Myrrha" will call their vocabulary to an awful reckoning. May not people be told, who are raising a shindy about the poorrates, that it cost a Roman Emperor-out of the pocket P. R., which means of the Roman people-as much for a supper, equivalent to the west-end dinner of the middle of the nineteenth century, as England A. D. 1853 contributes towards the support of its pauperism in a twelvemonth? And that Cleopatra-a queen who made herself remarkable with Anthony, the "soft triumvir"-used to dissolve pearls in her wine to give it a flavour? "Aye! but those were dissolute persons-pagans-infamous pantheists; 'tis long before a professor of Christianity would contemplate such profusion while there was one poor man in the land lacking wherewithal to eat and drink. Christian is moderate-sober in his habits and his ways." The true That's your notion, or it suits your book to say so...... Now turn back to theological life which it is safe to deal with: "no scandal about the" Bishop of A, B, C, D, E, F, and so on to X, Z-take your "Friar of Orders Grey," or any other colour that better suits your views. Imagine a bevy of holy men bearing him. company, and, should occasion arise, "supporting him," as it is customary to say of convivial courtesy-(if you insist upon assuming that holy women were also of the party, we are too well-bred to contradict you). Hark to the oily cadences of that roundelay! How like the language of good cheer it is! The monks-if you must, the nuns -are singing such a glee! Here's the chorus-oh! for the Madrigal Society to accompany it !...... "Funde vinum! funde! tanquam sint fluminis undæ : Nec quæris unde? Sed funde-semper abunde." My good sir, the proverb wherein we are told to take the beam out of our own eyes, that we may be in a condition to espy the mote which is in our neighbour's, is a little seed of a lavish harvest of gain, to be had for the gathering. "But it is only moral wealth," says the world, and the world has let it rot upon the ground since the creation. Thus it is of man, that as he was, he is, and so he will be; while "of the earth, earthy "-unus et idem...... Sodom and Gomorrah were sad cities; Nero was not humane; and Henry the Eighth-Dei gratiâ, King of Great Britain, and so forth-used to cut off his wives' heads when he wanted a change, next day marry another, and the Church consecrated the nuptials!... That was but the other day, of historical chronology, about the time when Christianity was in a blaze all over the kingdom. You have heard your sire tell of the fall of the Bourbons-when Pity drank hot blood-and Satan stood aghast at the work of his hands! Here people took things more philosophically-lost a quarter of the globe, grinned and bore it." Don't alarm yourself, we will not transgress: it is "Little Pedlington in a Pucker" that thus interprets an infringement of the liberty of speech and licence of commentary... "No libel? Come, come; that's a good one! It says of me what I don't like, and you would have me believe it's no libel."... We have not gone beyond constructive treason for a long while. By "treason" is here meant conspiracy against the safety and welfare of the state. Chartism was such a national offence; so when it broke out, some years ago, we hung certain Chartists, and there was an end of it. To this succeeded a mighty, mythical enormity, supported to the coulters of their ploughs by the party yclept "Protectionists," while against it battled "The Corn Law League," whose cry was Charge! no quarter!" These no-surrenderists swore England should have the biggest loaf for the smallest sum that it could be supplied to her, no matter who might be the grower. "Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur;" Q. E. D. "When the home market's high, then the foreign's meeter' (metre?). This row waged long and furious-slaughtered cabinetsbrought upon Toryism the plague of "rats"-wrought political amalgams that would have thrown the old school High Churchman into convulsions-frightened squires from their propriety; and terminated in the recognition of cheap bread. The "Leaguers" triumphednone of the "Protectionists have suffered. The cause of humanity is in the ascendant; but there was a bitter fight for it. Thus has it ever been since self was the Golden Image that men fell down and worshipped. Thus, gleaning the field of history discursively, as those who seek to turn to account trifles that the fullfilled hand passes as unworthy of picking up, we reach our muttons, musing on the common alchemy of life-man-transmutation. Was the philosopher's stone a fable or an allegory? Are not all fables allegories? How much of THE WORD is allegory, yet to be ininterpreted for the lore whose price is beyond rubies? At all events, capital does in modern days that which the crucible of the mystic was supposed to do in antique time. And what is this wonder-working agent? Is it fact? or is it fairy craft?...... Gold, Shakspeare calls, the "slave of millions;" capital is their despot. It is an unreal, substance the fancy of convention, representing a proposition which assumes a fact whereof there is no demonstrative proof. The capital of England is the national debt; it is bought and sold for money, and gives securities in exchange. The name it is known by is "CREDIT," a subtlety combining certain pro portions of the precious metals-commercial adventure-mechanical skill-agricultural and pastoral enterprise, with its mighty staple, labour. The sponsors of this social vitality, credit, are honour and identity of interests. So long as these prevail, credit is the true national currency; it is a principle making provision for one contingency by means of another, as Beethoven ministered for the musical tendency of his butcher, and vice versa... "This fellow" (that's me)-the reader comments--" deals in 'great cry and little wool.' He told us he had 'reached his muttons, and here he's transcendentalizing about money, and ways and means, like the ghost of a Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Elysian fields. Leave off your d-nable man-transmutation,' and begin about The July.". ...... Such is the way of the wilful. "Blow, blow, thou wintry wind: As man's ingratitude"— That man's whom you were about to tell how you rescued him from the lotteries of the publicans and sinners-how you let the Lists have no rest till the Home Secretary administered their coup de grace-how, instead of paying them to rob you, provision was being made, so soon as occasion was ripe, to apply that same system of man-transmutation to sporting as well as commercial negotiation-that the flatcatching trap, once sealed according to Act of Parliament, a sphynx would arise from its ashes, and a special train of good news-and so forth. But now he won't-he'll hold his peace for another month, and then, if you are good, he will "a tale unfold" how "The time will bring on summer, When briars shall have leaves as well as thorns, And be as sweet as sharp; -how you may take the odds, if you go about it like a workman, and deal with your venture in exchange, as Credit does with the National Securities. And then, when you are really "on for a good thing," you will say: "My dear Craven, come and give me your opinion of some miraculous port, that Bacchus-being under an obligation-himself bore into my cellar." And won't the rump steak to prepare the way for it be prime? The Middle Meeting at Newmarket used to be consecrated to the domestic duties of the stud. The patrons of the Turf-the noble and the gentle who bestowed on it so much of their leisure as circumstances allowed-who brought to it the prestige of their countenance: the annuities of their stables and their stakes-who constituted it a great national sporting fact-were always to be seen there in Julythe pair of two-year-old races being, of course, one of the attractions. But it must be admitted that the characteristics of racing are not what they were. Handicaps-say what we will-have damaged the paramount interest which once attached to the positive properties of speed and strength in horses. Now that "the race is not always to the swift"-but, in weight for quality contests, simply a matter of adjustment, in which the handicapper nine times out of ten, on a very |