shining bayonets, and, cantering by them, at once fell upon the dogs, to whom he had apparently taken an evident dislike in their life-time, however much he might relish them for an agreeable sort of déjeuner. At first these dogs defended themselves most gallantly, keeping clear of his jaws by seemingly a miracle, and attacking him in front and rear at the same time. Whilst this conflict was going on, the soldiers took advantage of it to re-load, and had just succeeded in doing so, when the first dog was caught in the gripe of the hyena, and laid lifeless at his feet, being bitten almost in two. The remaining animal, finding himself the sole object of attack, adopted Hudibras's notion of

"He who fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day;"

so, putting his tail between his legs, he made off with all possible speed. The hyena having found everything going on in his favour, now turned his attention to the lords of creation, and showed evident symptoms of disputing the said "lordship" with them. The party now commenced "file-firing," by which means the first man who fired would have time to reload before the last man had discharged his piece; but they made a pretty piece of business of it, having discharged about a dozen rounds each, without scarcely any effect, further than keeping the hyena at bay. Any English sportsman, after such an exposé of his "acrotormentarian" skill, would have given up his corpus to the hyena to be masticated, in sheer disgust with himself; but not so with the "Johnnies:" as their ammunition decreased, they commenced to look at the main chance, viz.—a means whereby to escape; whilst the animal was apparently only reconnoitring to see where he might find a point of attack most advantageously, and which a few flesh-wounds had caused him to put into execution with as much expedition as possible.

It was plain to see when a ball by accident struck him, for he would immediately commence "laughing," at which the crapauds invariably looked more serious, for

"There was a lurking devil in his smile,"

which his long, pointed, white teeth too truly and fearfully indicated. At length he chose an opportunity for an attack, and charged most manfully; but his selected opponent was ready to receive him, and, in a second more the bayonet of one of the men had pierced his throat, the impetus with which he had rushed on the "line" had, of course, borne the man to the ground; and hyena, soldier, and musket were for a second or two rolling over each other on the rocks, in most admired confusion. The hyena was the only one of the party seriously damaged; his struggles had only caused the bayonet to penetrate further in, whilst the astonished Frenchman, having regained his legs, began to console himself for his upset, bruises, and defeat, by sacréing his antagonist.

The horrible account that the "runaways" had given at the camp, of the struggle that was going on between the hyena and the remainder of the party, induced about fifty or sixty men to proceed, fully

equipped and armed, in the direction of the scene of action; and should this force not be effective, it was arranged that one of the small field-pieces, with a suitable detachment of artillery, should be sent out against the belligerent quadruped, who, poor devil! was entirely in the dark as to what had provoked such uncalled-for treatment against him.

It had now ceased to be a party of sport: it was becoming one of duty. Commanding officers actually entered the hyena's proceedings in the orderly-book, and orders were issued for a general turn out in case the present detachment did not succeed in putting a stop to the "laughing" of the facetious foe.

The application of "cold steel" had excited the temperament of the hyena in no slight degree; and as soon as he disencumbered himself from it, he charged every one that came across his path, but luckily very harmlessly, as is generally and almost unaccountably the case in a conflict between man and beast: whether it is from man's greater agility and presence of mind, I know not; but I have seen a person actually extricate himself from the gripe of a tiger and the proboscis of an elephant, when in appearance no earthly power could save them.

It was just at this juncture that the additional force arrived: the rocks were covered with the blood of the hyena, which was at first mistaken for that of their wounded comrades, and in revenge for which fierce was the onslaught on the imagined destroyer. A stray bullet, at last, out of some forty that riddled the striped skin of the common enemy, pierced a vital part, and the hyena fell covered with wounds, if not with glory. This was a great feat accomplished in the ideas of the French, who returned with the remaining portion of the defunct animal to camp, from whence "Johnny" issued on the morrow to wage war with a more crafty, if not a more dangerous foe.

LEATHERLUNGS THE "LEG."

BY THE EDITOR.

CHAP. IX.

THE TWO NATIONS.

"'Tis meet

That noble minds keep ever with their likes:
For who so firm that cannot be seduced?"

SHAKSPEARE.

"Guilt and Shame, says the allegory, were at first companions; and in the beginning of their journey inseparably kept together. But their union was soon found to be disagreeable to both: Guilt gave Shame frequent uneasiness, and Shame often betrayed the secret conspiracies of Guilt. After long disagreement, therefore, they at length consented to part for ever. Guilt boldly walked forward alone to overtake

Fate, that went before in the shape of an executioner; but Shame, being naturally timorons, returned back to keep company with Virtue, which in the beginning of their journey they had left behind."

GOLDSMITH.

The act of going on the turf, like that of going under it, levels all distinctions in the ring, as in the grave, all men are equal. Even when but one solitary pace from eternity, the consciousness of class has been known indignantly to vindicate itself, and a highwayman on the gallows has turned up his nose at being turned off in company with a chimney-sweep. In the betting circles only is there no precedence; no pretence of state or station; no assumption that virtue is more honourable than vice, or riches more worthy than rags. Only get them together at Tattersall's, and you shall see the Pope of Rome take the enemy of mankind by the hand; the archbishop of-anywhere canvassing the propriety of the odds with the arch-fiend. The convenience of this reduction of the social gradients we shall find dealt with as we go on: in the mean while, as regards the economy of the turf in high places, "surgit amari aliquid?" Let us examine. The racing republic is ruled over, I was going to say, by a popular assembly called the Jockey Club. Whether popular or unpopular, however, that self-elected and selected society has, for a series of years, been permitted to direct the destinies of the turf, and to enjoy a reign of singular tranquillity and success. Now and then a reformer-such as citizen Thornton-would start up, and give it a knock on the pate, as east-enders will do; but on the whole, no tide in the affairs of men" has flowed more calmly-to say nothing of its having "led on to fortune" some of its pilots. That such has been the case-not to speak it profanely, or in a mischievous spirit—they would be hardy who should seek to gainsay. "Where's the palace," -asks Shakspeare-"whereunto foul things sometimes intrude not?" Not that of St. Stephens-that we should write it !—as recent experience has taught us.

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And this brings us at once into straight running with the rules and regulations of the Jockey Club; not those enacted for the government of others, but applied by that body to their own practice. Probably, without exception, its members are in the habit of laying wagers on horse-races: without any invidious allusion, gentlemen known to be heavy betters round have filled the office of stewards; that is to say, have had votes in that council of three, by which, in effect, all questions brought before the Club are disposed of. A few weeks since, an ex-chancellor thus spoke in the great legislative assembly of the nation :-Members of parliament ought to know that if a man were interested directly or indirectly in any railway or private bill, he ought not to vote at all, either in committee or out. It was of the utmost importance that no member should vote on a bill with which he was in the slightest way concerned; and he hoped that this rule was adopted elsewhere!" Could the noble and learned lord have had the usage of the Jockey Club " in his mind's eye?"

"di

The fact that members of the legislature have taken money rectly or indirectly" to facilitate the objects of those who gave it has

been lately established beyond even an attempt at denial: the possibility that members of the turf could (always supposing that they have not done it already) do so, must be the first reform in the constitution of that sport. We will not stay to debate whether the Jockey Club be or be not "all honourable men:" as at backgammon, so in the games of life, a blot is not a blot till it is hit. But it is an anomaly, to use the politest form of speech, in the practice of a civilized community, alike inconvenient as inconsistent, for a man to unite in himself the offices of judge and juror in any case, to say nothing of one having reference to his breeches' pocket. For my own poor part, I think the existing movement in racing reform, excellent as it is, very much resembles the existing attempt, praiseworthy as the design must be admitted to be, to remedy the rotten foundations of Westminster Bridge, by removing the rubbish from its highway. This will very likely be pronounced twaddle by the party that supports the good old times; but it is in keeping with the philosophy, the morals and mathematics of Young England for all

that.

The two nations of the turf are, to borrow a phrase from cricket, "The Gentlemen and Players;" as at cricket, so in racing, the former employing the latter to endeavour to beat them. As regards the miscellaneous people, however, the Gentlemen and Players are the active body; the mere public the passive: the former the doers; the latter the done. According to the letter and the spirit of turf law and practice as they stand, the owner of a race-horse backed for an event can win if he likes the speculator may win, in the prodigality of the proprietors' bowels. Horses are scratched at the eleventh hour (one was thus served for a great event not long ago, at twenty minutes past eleven the day before he should have run and probably won) without remorse or ruth. The monster machine of gullibility is assuredly the system of betting on horse-races known as "play or pay." There never was such a system conceived out of Bedlam. Has the reader ever canvassed it; examined the arguments in its favour; or has he any idea what they are?

Foremost, as most ad captandum, is urged the facility thus afforded subscribers to races to hedge to their stakes. By this contrivance the public become the underwriters of sporting gentlemen's ventures; with this handsome per-centage against them, that the insured may cast away his craft if it should so suit or please him, without prejudice to his policy. The merchants' and the turfites' cases are, in effect, the same-morally and physically. The commercial gentleman insures a cargo he knows to be worth nothing, for a large amount; contrives that the ship freighted with his rubbish shall go to the bottom, and the crew to the nearest port, or the devil, as it may fall out; steps down to Lloyd's, and receives the sums for which his vessel was underwritten. The sporting gentleman lays against a brute that he knows to be worth nothing, but which, by proper management in the market, has been got well up in the odds, and is backed by the public (the gaming underwriter of those who make mankind their quarry), contrives that his animal shall be amiss (perhaps hammers his shins a little), strolls down to Tattersalls on the "settling" day,

and pockets the odds of the takers, about his horse. The only dif ference is in the name by which society has thought fit to distinguish these operations. The merchant's goes by a vulgar appellationswindling, or may be something worse: the sportsman's is called genteelly" hedging."

Unless bets were p.p.-say the advocates of the plan there would be no betting at all; that is, the business of the ring would stand still; its occupation would be gone without the means-to be used on any emergency-of making the public "safe." Racing is not a game of chance; but it is required by the play-or-pay system that its jeopardies should out-Herod anything ever dreamt of in the philosophy of the hellite or thimble-and-pea man. Sit down to the hazard-table, and at all events you may shake your elbow and rattle the bones. Take a shy at the thimble-rig, and at least you catch a glimpse of the evanescent pea, whatever becomes of it when you turn the thimble under which it ought to be. But back a favourite for a great stake, and you are utterly without assurance that it will ever run for that event or any other; that you will ever lay your eyes upon it; that it will be alive at the time when its engagement is to come off; that it was alive at the time you backed it; that it ever was alive; that it ever was born!......

Now, sweet reader, don't dash the unoffending periodical to the ground: don't think we-I-the historian of these plain facts, would insult your common sense: there can be no doubt of your deserving our esteemed consideration, the more that you cannot believe such things be. But we are strangers; and peradventure you would have proof of that which is here set down. If in town (or should you be in the country, it may be accomplished by a letter post-paid, with a stamp enclosed, I dare say), apply to the Messrs. Weatherby, at No. 6, Old Burlington-street: they receive all nominations and stakes and forfeits, and so forth, for the turf. But to make it more simple, you shall use the Derby of 1847. Ask of them the number of colts and fillies named for that event; and whether they have the slightest idea -beyond receiving the names of their nominators; their own names if they have any or otherwise; those of their sires and dams-that one animal, so entered to run at Epsom in the year 1847, did ever see the light; was ever actually in rerum naturâ? Propound this question, I say, and then settle with yourself-and favour me with your opinion, if in the mood-what sort of a thing P.P. betting would be considered in the abstract by any sane man of your acquaintance not to the matter born or bred; and the economy of the turf in general?

How salutary and seasonable to common sense are the warnings given by our police-magistrates to retail shopkeepers, not to place their wares so as completely to reverse the supplication-" lead us not into temptation!" People who hang fathoms of sausages so that they dangle, as it were, into the mouths of the passers-by, should be held as accomplices, before the fact, of hungry beggars that steal them. But even here is a case far less flagrant than the usage of the turf, where those who deal in its goods not only offer them to the reach of any one who will lay hold of them, but solicit and countenance