AN ADMIRAL ROUS STORY

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 55

AN ADMIRAL ROUS STORY

The attempt to repeal the declaration-to-win rule served Mr John Corlett with an opportunity for reminiscences about tOie law of libel and Admiral Rous. He writes : — "We recollect an extraordinary case of * declaring not to win ' that took place at Brighton about 40 years ago, and the name of the horse, if we recollect rightly, was Selsea Bill. Hi« weight in r race was 8.3, and when an unknown jockey weighed out for him at 9.0 great was our astonishment. The owner, in the most ingenuous manner, explained this by saying that the animal was in a good race in which there was a considerable allowance for horses that had baen beaten a certain number of times, and that he was running in this race simply to complete the number of d-efeate that would .qualify him for that allowance. In those days the reporters were located on a little wooden platform immediately opposite the winning post, and above- was the curious structure from which Admiral Rons and the other stewards watched the proceed i-rors. We had taken our place to see this race when we heard the window above go up with a bang and the head and shoulders of, Admiral Rous appeared. Said he in Ins more than usual breezy and quarter''ect manner, 'I -wist j-otr, gentlemen of fcKapress, to state that I consider that the ciwpet of Selsea Bill, in giving the -orders .'■•e ha# done, has acted in a brutal and < ' isgraoeful manner, and that he has set an ■ -vsxnple that honest men should avoid.' • fee, Admiral,' we replied meekly, 'we v ill say it if you will promise, to come and «-je us when we are in prison.' The old man laughed, and said that perhaps he had «poken too strongly, and the incident terminated. In those days the law of libel was not what it is now. A man bad only to go to a magistrate and swear an informaTton of libel for the alleged offender to be hauled up and committed to take his trial at the Assizes forthwith. He waa not allowed in the police count to say one word in his own defence, and if he could not find bail had to go to gaol till he did. A newspaper proprietor was then the only man who could be sent to prison for the unauthorised act of his servant- A Lord Chancellor on his way to the House of liords might find that his coachman had run over a man and killed him. That coachman would probably be tried for manslaughter and sentenced to imprisonment. That same Lord Ghanoellor would have thought it very hard if ne had been sent to. gaol, too, and yet he had no scruples in holding that a newspaper proprietor, who, in -one case wae eight thousand miles away -when the libel Appeared for which he was prosecuted, and of whidh he bad no knowledge and oouid not . have had!, ought to be sent to gael. We havo Mr Labouchere to thank for an end being put to that iniquity.. It will be sees- from thie that we had some grounds for the -answer that we made to Admiral Roue."

— The Dunedin Jockey Club have removed the disqualification imposed upon George Mason by the Taieri Amateur Turf Club in 1905. Mawn came under the ban in connection with the horee Flying Spark, who has since won several races at unregistered t&eetinfs in Australia.