throughout the burst, able to head Skylark although Chifney afferts, that never, during his riding, had he known any horfe to have fo many fevere runs.

When the horses had run in, his Royal Highness faid, 'Sam Chifney, you have loft this race by not making ftrong play with Efcape, as I defired you; for Efcape certainly would have won, if you had done fo; (adding pleasantly), and I do tell you, Sam Chifney, that I am a better jockey than Mr. Lake and you both. The Prince afterwards feriously demanded of Chifney, why he fuffered Escape to be beaten that day, fince he had reprefented that horfe as the best in the world. Chifney replied, that he ftill thought Efcape the beft horfe in England, but that he was then unfit to run, it being a fortnight, or a fortnight and a day, fince Efcape ran laft, during which time he had not a fweat, nor was tried, but had been tenderly treated.' Indeed, he appears to have had nothing to do with the management of the horfe in the intermediate time, nor to have been apprized of the intent to flart him but at a very fhort interval before the race.

Notwithstanding the inferior form in which Efcape ran this race, Chifney gave the strongest encouragement to run him over the courfe the following day; and even recommended to the Prince to back him to the amount of fix or feven hundred pounds: his reafons for this advice he states to be, that the fharp rally to day had not fatigued the horfe, but had caufed a good perfpiration, fo as to lighten him of his flesh, and open his pores; that he will run both fafter and longer to-morrow; and had he not ran to day, Chifney would not have advised to back him to-morrow.'

On the morrow his Royal High nefs came up to Chifney, upon the courfe, and gave his orders to the

following effect.--I will give you your orders again to-day, and let me beg of you to make no mistake. I wish you, Sam Chifney, to make play with Efcape to-day; but I will not compel you to make play. Should there be tolerable good play made by any other horfe, you may then wait with Efcape; but should no other horfe make tolerable good play, you must make good play. God blefs you.' His Royal Highnefs promised to back Efcape;, but, on Chifney's application to Mr. Lake, foon afterwards, for the fame purpose, that gentleman declared he would have nothing to do with it: so many unpleafant things happen.' lark, faft, a flug, and a jade, in Chifney's opinion, made strong play in this four mile race; a very prepofterous method, granting he ran to win, and that fuch was his real character. But Chifney feems to think, from what he felt during the race, that, had Skylark been otherwife managed, the fuccefs of Efcape, from the not altogether per fect ftate of his body, would not have been quite certain; otherwife, entirely fo.

Sky

As to the merits of the question, and to what degree it affects Chifney's character, thefe are my fentiments. A former groom of mine rode at Newmarket at that time. He was a threwd fellow, and must have both feen and heard what was going forward; but, on very closely queftioning, I could never get any thing more from him than the common charge, that it was well known to all judges that Chifney rode foul, and that a vast fum was won by the confederates on the fecond race.' This general charge I have heard from all quarters, and farther,that,asa jockey, Chifney was a fufpicious character; but I could never obtain any other proof than a repetition of the charge, accom→ panied by a remark, that his conduct fpoke for itself. So many years out of the habit of converfation

with fporting people, granting there be a fecret, it is very unlikely that I fhould be in it; that I can proceed only upon known facts, and the beft deductions I am able to make from them, and as far as these will go, it appears evitlent to me, that no man had or has a right to fix that foul charge, concerning the two races of October 1791, upon the character of Samuel Chifney.

It may be afferted, that Chifney was infincere in his pretended opinion that speed was the beft of Efcape; and that, inwardly knowing the contrary, he had waited with him, on the firft day's race, on purpose to get him beat; but a mere opinion of a man's intentions, however univerfal it may be, can never form a juft ground of crimination. Open and explicit as he has been in his publication, and letting out every thing which came uppermoft, whether it make for or against him, he may demand, at leaft, an equal degree of credit for his own statements and affertions. Notwithstanding Chifney's profound skill in the close and delicate points of a race horfe's character, I am fometimes ftrongly inclined to fufpect his judgement in relation to Efcape, and to adopt the opinion of his Royal Highnefs. It appears to me, that, for the two days in queftion, at least, Efcape's game was the beft of him; and that, as it has naturally and fairly happenéd in a thousand inftances, he was outfooted in the fhort race, and won the long one by his ftoutnefs: for although, in the laft race, Chifney tells us he waited, they must have gone the courfe through at a choak-jade rate, fince Skylark made fuch strong play. Could this opinion be rationally adopted, the question would be at reft for ever; but, even if not, Chifney's arguments are both strong and rational, and must be valid until anfwered with equal reafon and strength.

In order to fatisfy the minds of thofe, who, perhaps, without mature confideration, had backed his horfe at four and five to one on one day, and betted four and five to one against him the next, the Royal fportfman appears to have done all that could be required of a man of honour, a gentleman, and a prince. His Royal Highnefs put his fervant to his oath on all the points in difpute, and commanded him to fubmit himself unrefervedly to the examination of his accufers. By Chifney's account, the Prince won, on the fecond race, ' under four hundred guineas, and near four hundred guineas.'

Wrongfully accufed, oppreffed, as this man ftates he has been, and his innocent family injured in their livelihood, he is perfectly juftifiable, and even commendable, for his appeal to the public. The matter and language of his book are doubtlefs his own, whatever aid he may have received in their arrangement; and, if it be written with too keen a refentment, it certainly bears many and various marks of a fund of natural good fenfe, of a fimple mind, but of a man, perhaps, whofe heart lies too much in his tongue.' Nothing can be plainer upon the cards, than for a jockey to be fond of a crofs; and this man, for aught I can afcertain to the contrary, may be an arrant knave; but, were it decent or proper, I could give the name of a Noble Earl, whofe opinion would have fome weight in the world; and that opinion is, that Chifney is both a good jockey and an honest man.

Chitney and his fons have been accufed of infolence: if they are guilty, I do not defend them; but even the earthworm will turn when trodden upon. I have obferved, he speaks rafhly of his fuppofed enemies, and includes in the number, although with unusual respect, Sir Charles Bunbury, who is no

man's enemy, and himself without an enemy on earth; the kindeft mafter living, whofe fervice is an inheritance; the best brother, the warmest and kindeft relation, as a numerous family fully testify.

But, waving the other parts of Chifney's character, there is even a tranfcendant merit, in my eyes, to be allowed him, from the whole tenor of his book, which is humanity and kindness to his horfe. In a fweepstakes (page 56), in which he rode against Escape, and obferved that horse to be thoroughly beaten, he wished very much for an opportunity to call out to the rider to pull him up, that he might not be abufed after having been fo much beaten.' Going another time to fee Escape in his ftable, he coaxed him, kiffed him, then left him.' His fine part in riding a race, I muft acknowledge I cannot clearly understand; and I should not wonder if he has found it in the books of fome of our veterinary furgeons, who have imported fomething of the kind from France; and Chifney, fuppofing it a fine thing, has made hafte to apply it to the fervice of the turf: it is to ride a race horfe with a loofe rein. I have occationally ridden in public, and fufficiently often, in trials through a courfe of years; but, in truth, I can scarcely fee how a horfe is to be ridden with a flack rein in a waiting race, or even in making the play, without the risk of burfting him; far lefs can I tell how the loofe rein can keep a horse better together.' But I am not yet too old, too opiniated, or too heavy, to take a leffon of Sam Chifney.

Exclufive of the entertainment to be found in Chifney's book, there are matters of high intereft to every gentleman who keeps running horfes, and has confequent dealings with grooms and jockies. His reafons for the uncertainty and changes of horfes in their running, and for their degeneration, I have a ftrong conviction, are generally

well founded; and his advice on thofe heads, and other fubjects of the turf, are entitled to the utmost attention. The book is now faid to be very high priced; but I should conceive that it must be worth many times the fum to a confiderable majority of those who train race horses.

A GENTLEMAN JOCKEY.

THE INSPECTOR. NO. II. Be niggards of advice on no pretence, For the worst avarice is that of fenfe.

"How far is that opinion juft which fupposes that no painter can give the faces he delineates more profoundness of thought, flexibility of fancy, or animation of foul, than exift in his own mind; and that the portraits made by any artift exhibit as ftrikingly, and as indubitably, certain qualities of his own mind, as of the person's they pretend to prejent?"

IT is fo true that portraits are feldom minutely accurate, that our pleasure in contemplating those of eminent men is greatly diminished by the doubts which invariably fuggeft themfelves as to the accuracy of the likeness. At first fight, the negative of the question we are about to difcufs feems likely to afford a fatisfactory explanation of the general incorrectnefs which we are fo often compelled to lament: but fome confiderations naturally arise, which lead us to question the truth of this negative; and in the end, I believe, we must relinquish it altogether. Thofe who have feen the excellent and truly correct portraits of great, but of very diffimilar, characters delineated by the pencils of Lawrence and Opie, cannot but fufpect that a congenial conftitution of mind is by no means requifite to enfure accuracy in depicting the countenance with its characteristic expreffions; for it is no ill compliment to thefe celebrated artifts to affirm, that they are not themselves poffeffed of all the various faculties of thofe prelates, ftatefmen, and philofophers, whofe countenances they have fo admirably pourtrayed. But, when

we reflect farther, we find that hiftorical painting is connected with our enquiry, inafinuch as it confifts of imaginary expreffions of countenance in conditions or fituations invented by the painter; and the variety and degree of thefe expreffions which he is capable of delineating incline us to doubt the truth of the notion,--that he can only delineate the expreffion of qualities and feelings that exift or have been called forth in his own breast.

But, in order to arrive at a philofophical conclufion upon this queftion, it will be proper to examine in what degree the qualities of mind are capable of being distinctly expreffed in the countenance; in what manner this expreffion is effected; and what means the painter is poffeffed of to enable him to represent this expreffion on his canvafs.

Although it hath pleafed a fanciful and reverend Swifs to prefent to the world two huge folio volumes upon the subject of phyfiognomy, every one, who, attracted by novelty and the plates, has been induced to engage in the perufal of them has concluded with the conviction that they are folios of very common fenfe, and no very uncommon discoveries. Lavater, in fact, whatever may have been his practical fagacity, poffeffed no truths from induction, no phyfiognomical theorems, more certain or more scientific than are poffeffed by every man of moderate obfervation, who has lived a fhort time in active communication with the world :--not one, at least, is to be found in the aforefaid folios. We are left, therefore, to reafon upon this fubject, each according to his own faculties and means of obfervation.

In this conclufion, almost all, I apprehend, will coincide,---either that the countenance affords but an obfcure and very indefinite index to the various moral and intellectual qualities of the individual;

or, what amounts nearly to the fame thing, that we are not poffeffed, in general, of fufficient difcernment to be able to decipher this index with accuracy, and to pronounce upon it with confidence and precision:---this is evinced by facts of daily occurrence. We walk along the streets, and pafs, undiftinguifhed, the poets and philofophers of the age, whofe foreheads bear no unequivocal itamp of preeminence to arreft the admiration of the paffing eye; we mix in literary company, but our utmost penetration is unable to difcrimi nate the butterflies of literature, who flit about, and fip the nectar depofited in anas, and “ beauties," and "elegant extracts," from those who dig deep into the mines of wifdom, and thence bring forth treasures to enlighten the world; and, fhould an eminent character be particularly pointed out to us, although we then, in the pride of difcernment, often difcover strong marks of genius, which before had totally eluded our acutenefs, yet all our endeavours, even then, to detect fome extraordinary trait of talent are often unfortunately fruitlefs; and we are compelled to acknowledge, that his countenance would never have led us to fufpect the great attainments and energies of his mind :---fo imperfect is the countenance in its reprefentation of the characteristic faculties of the

man.

We are led to the fame conclufion when we reafon à priori, and compare the probabilities deduced from our knowledge of the nature of man, as when we appeal to establifhed facts. Man is, in truth, a heterogeneous compound, a motley aflemblage of grofs appetites, felfish paffions, and more exalted intellectual endowments; and these in different inftances variously predominate, and form more prominents traits in the character: yet all must be defignated in the countenance. The features are the fole

and common index, by which the more grofs and the more refined, the various combination of all the faculties and tendencies of the being, feek for an external delineation. What, then, must be the probable confequence ?---furely to affimilate more nearly to each other all the facial expreffions of the different claffes of mankind, by impeding the facility of diftinguishing fingle qualities of fuperior energy, where the whole mafs of common qualities muft neceffarily be conjoined. Befides, although the paffions have undoubtedly each an appropriate expreflion in the countenance, yet, in respect to intellectual qualities, perhaps the only impreffion which the countenance bears during mental exertion is a general and indefinite appearance of attention or thoughtfulnefs, which varies not according to the various faculties that may be exercifed, but is still the fame, whether we are following the Judgement in a feries of philofophical deductions; fearching the ftorehouse of Memory for the treafures which former ftudy has depofited in her cells; or exercifing Imagination's power, by pursuing a train of rapid affociations, linked together by almoft imperceptible connexions: to that, however various the talents, the expreflion of mental character that will fettle on the countenance in a ftate of inactivity will be fimply that of a thinking mind; and will be more liable to be modified by the animal fpirits, paffions, and difpofitions of the heart, than by the firength or variety of intellectual powers.

It appears, then, that the facial expreffion, although capable of conveying fome general notion of the character, is ufually fo indistinct and indefinite, that we do not discover the particular notions of it till we learn them by converfe with, or by information respecting, the individual; that different individuals interpret this expreffion vari

oufly, i.e. great numbers misinterpret · it; that degrees of the fame qualities are by no means determined by it; and that, in fact, in many inftances where we know that great qualities exift, we can difcover no external expreffion of them beaming from the countenance. In respect, therefore, to the pictorial skill of delineating the faces of men of energetic and characteristic talent, fince this is not always depicted in the countenance, but, on the contrary, is feldom to be unequivocally pronounced upon à priori, and never, perhaps, marked in its proper degree, the difficulty in a great meafure vanishes.

But granting, for the fake of argument, that the countenances of mankind are frequently fo formed as to convey a complete expreffion of their moral and intellectual faculties, be they of the fublimest kind, formed to command our ad. miration and homage; yet, if we examine the mode in which the facial expreffion is produced in the countenance, we shall be fatisfied, I think, that not the fmallest ́obftacle exifts to prevent the painter from giving to the face he delineates any expreffion whatever that is conveyed by the original, whether it implies talents exifting or not exifting in his own mind, or talents of which he may even have no conception.

The expreffion is, in fact, purely mechanical; and is thus mechanically produced, as the round and unmeaning face of infancy advances to the angular and intelligent countenance of manhood.--When a perfon is under the influence of any ardent paffion, or exerting any faculty of the mind, the mufcular parts of the face naturally affume a certain form or pofition, which we readily recoghife and interpret. By frequent repetitions of thefe actions or postions, the parts, even in a itate of repofe, at length fall into a fitua tion or form fomewhat refembling