ealth, morals, and wealth--to our ancestors. On
the whole, I rather incline myself to this comfortable philosophy; but
we must admit that we have not progressed in all things since the times
of our fathers.

In a work entitled "A Comparative View of the Form and Character of the
English Racer and Saddle Horse during the Last and Present Centuries,"
published by Hookham, of Old Bond Street, London, it is proved very
clearly that the English race-horse has sadly degenerated. The author
very properly traces the cause of its decay to the avarice of the
turfites: they look upon the noble animal as a mere gambling machine;
and they sacrifice all its other qualities to the excessive development
of that one which is likely to put money in their pockets. Formerly,
gentlemen kept horses for their own sakes--for their admiration and
enjoyment of one of the most beautiful, docile, and useful of animals.
They were incessant in their efforts to develop into perfection all the
really valuable points in the animal; and the result was, that the
English and Irish racer of the last century was unmatched for strength,
speed, and endurance. Models of this splendid race of horses are seldom
to be found at the present time; but there are, perhaps, sporting men
living who saw them in the celebrated Mambrino, Sweet Briar, and Sweet
William. Those horses possessed compact bodies, capacious lungs, strong
loins, large joints, and enormous masses of muscular tissue on the
shoulder-blades and arms. They were good weight-carrying hunters as well
as racers, and they could carry eight stones over a six miles heat,
or twelve stones over a four miles one. The Irish horses, at least,
were capable of safely carrying thirteen stones over what would now be
considered a very ugly ditch, and could get over a long steeplechase in
a style which would astonish the owners of the modern "weeds." Since the
distance to be traversed by competing horses has been reduced from the
old-fashioned three heats of four miles each to a single run of a mile
or two, and also since the weight imposed upon the animals has been
reduced to six or seven stones, from ten to twelve, the anatomical
structure of the race-horse has undergone a remarkable and serious
alteration. The back has become very long, the sides flat, the loins
weak, the limbs long and very thin; and this alteration in structure has
been attended by weakness of constitution and a remarkable tendency
to disease. The