The TURF, in respect to its pleasures, pursued with prudence, and entered into with moderation, by those whose immense property will admit of its support, is certainly one of the most noble, exhilarating, and amusing gratifications in the long catalogue of human enjoyments; but, unfortunately, there is the same insatiate infection in _ambition_ as in _wealth_, and neither one, more than the other, are ever to be satisfied. From this inordinate thirst of fame, this furor of fashion, this excess of inconsideracy, has recently arisen RACING STUDS of such rapacious enormity, that they have reduced to a _degraded_ state of _necessity_, many of the most opulent and most dignified individuals in his Majesty's dominions; to whom it must prove, upon the _downy pillow_ of repentant reflection, a most mortifying retrospection, that, notwithstanding the _thousands_ upon _thousands_ ingulphed within the _vortex_ of the TURF, there has been hardly an instance in which they have been enabled to become the guardians of their own honour, the protectors of their own property, or barely thought worthy of being entrusted with the _secrets_ of their own stables; for the subordinates in a training establishment have their _cards to play_ as well as their superiors; and having skill enough, in the language of Tony Lumpkin in the comedy, "to manage their own affairs by the _rule of thumb_," they do not omit to recollect the ancient axiom, that self-preservation is the first or most predominant law in nature. The noblemen and gentlemen of the Jockey Club at Newmarket, have adopted every means, that superior wisdom could possibly devise, to restrain villainy, and reward integrity: but so long as human depravity shall have power to retain a seat within the heart; so long as the _secret betting_ emoluments of the _subordinates_ may be more increased by deceptively _opposing_, than by promoting the interest of their EMPLOYERS; so long as a pail of water, a nauseating ball, or half a peck of corn, can be privately administered in the night, or a horse rode on the wrong side of the post by day; no man existing (however dignified his station, however benevolent his heart, however expanded his mind, and liberal his hand) must expect to see the TURF rise from its late public and well-known degradation, to a state of the so-much-wished-for perfection.