aggregate from that period to the present time; unless with those who have bred more with a view to variation and novelty than SPEED for the TURF. RACES were formerly decided in much shorter distances than at present, and few colts or fillies were then ever brought to the post till four years old. Plates for three years old are now common at all places of sport from one extremity of the kingdom to the other; and matches with _two years_ old COLTS and FILLIES, and even with _yearlings_, are seen constantly run at NEWMARKET; and is the very reason why so many of the most valuable are completely ruined, and all their faculties of superior speed destroyed, by the very time they attain the age at which their predecessors STARTED for the FIRST time. Few matches, sweepstakes, or plates, are now decided in a less distance than FOUR MILES, where the horses are five and six years old, as this is considered an unerring criterion of distinguishing _between_, or annexing BOTTOM to SPEED: many tolerable horses have taken the _lead_, and kept it for a _mile_, or even _two_, that have been nearly _distanced_ in running the FOUR; and a chain of well-observed and corroborating circumstances it was of this kind, that brought the farther propagation of Arabian blood in this country into disrepute. Whether such change may not have been occasioned by private prejudice transformed to public report, may be admitted a doubt; because it is universally known, some, indeed very many, of the fleetest horses this country ever produced, have been the immediate descendants from some of the ARABIANS before recited.