Betting used to be chiefly confined to the large centres of population, but almost every town and village is now infected. A Chairman of Committees of the House of Commons, in joining the society organised to deal with the evil, stated that his doing so was owing to finding that it had penetrated to the rustic neighbourhood adjoining his Devonshire home. The strange increase in village telegrams on race days has become very noticeable, and charges of tampering with messages to cheat bookmakers are becoming quite common. Such facts, and others, incline those who have studied the subject to consider that the estimate adopted by Sir Robert Giffen at the last meeting of the British Association, in the Economic Science Section, during a discussion on the nation’s wealth, of £5,000,000 per annum as going into the pockets of bookmakers, is a very conservative one. As to the condition of the race-courses themselves, from the ruffianism of the professional betting men and their hangers-on, interesting revelations were made before the close of the nineteenth century by the efforts of one of the great London daily newspapers. It is not needful to quote the comments drawn forth by the journals friendly to reform, as those in favour of the institution of the Turf are sufficiently pungent. A few of these will suffice. Thus _The Field_, August 20, 1898:— Those unacquainted with race-courses must stand aghast as they read the extraordinary tale of misdoing that is unfolded day by day.... A body of miscreants who are prepared to stop at nothing in the way of violence so long as they attain their object, and care not the least if they leave their victim injured for life, as is sometimes the case. The scum that formerly attended the prize-ring has turned its attention to the most promising substitute.... It depends entirely upon the efficiency and vigilance of the management and those it employs by way of guardians, whether or not the rings are invaded by those who have only to be numerically strong enough to do as they please with the respectable element. The meeting at Epsom is then criticised, but we must devote our little space to the following, also from _The Field_:—