"At Shrewsbury a scale of points originally drawn up by Mr. Brailsford is adopted, in which a certain value is attached to the several qualities demanded in the setter and pointer in the abstract, calculating the whole, when perfectly displayed, at 100. This scale is printed, and furnished to the judges, with the addition of the names of the competitors in each stake, and is made up as follows - namely, for pace and range, 20; obedience, 20; style in hunting, 15; game finding abilities, 20; style in pointing, 15; merit in backing, 10 - total 100. After trying a brace of dogs, the judges have only to go through the scale with each, and set down under the above heads the comparative degree of merit shown by them. Thus, under 'pace and range,' if a dog is only of average merit, they put down 10; if three-quarters, 15; or if perfect, 20. Proceeding next to 'obedience,' they estimate his merits in the same way as compared with perfection, putting down 10 if an average display has been made, and 20 if perfect; and so on through the whole scale, calculating the figures according to the amount of merit.

"After thus estimating A., the next thing is to proceed in the same way with B., and whichever has the higher figure of merit is declared the winner; or, if equal, a further trial is necessary. On concluding the first round or series of pairs, the judges have only to select the dogs with the highest figure of merit, and place them first, second, and third accordingly, unless the figures of two or more are very near together, when it has been customary to give these animals a further trial; and at the last Shrewsbury meeting it was very properly, as we think, decided that in all cases the highest two should have this. Under both the Shrewsbury and Kennel Club plans, it often happens that the two best dogs come together in the first or second round; but in the former plan they may be ultimately placed first and second; whereas in the latter this is. impossible, as the inferior of the two in any particular trial is at once hors de combat. As an illustration of this statement, we may instance the fact that in the first two pointer staked at Shrewsbury this actually occurred in the second round; whilst in the third and most important it took place in the first, Bang and Dick meeting in that position, and being ultimately declared the first and second prize holders.

No doubt a mistake was here committed, which the Kennel Club plan would have prevented; but this was manifestly a fault in the practice of the judges, and was not incidental to the plan itself, as proved by the general opinion of the spectators declared at the time, and embodied in our report. It occurred in this way. After a long and very tiring day, the first round of the Combermere Stakes had been completed at seven o'clock, and the judges, overlooking the new rule to which we have adverted above, and considering Bang to be undoubtedly the best in the stake, at once declared him the winner, and ordered three dogs, including Dick, beaten by him, to compete next day for second and third prizes. In this decision they overlooked, most probably from inadvertence, Mr. Whitehouse's Rapid, who had just defeated * Rector (the winner there for the last two years) in a short trial, confined to one field, in which Rapid made only the pardonable mistake of flushing a brace of birds the moment he was cast off, and with an undeniably bad scent - a mistake also partially condoned by a subsequent good find.

Now, if the judges had at once cast up the ' points' made by Rapid and Bang, they must, according to the Shrewsbury scale, have made them at least equal, and thus insured a second trial, since ' the pace, range, and style' of Rapid are very superior to those of Bang; and these qualities are estimated at the high relative value of thirty-five out of one hundred, whereas 'game-finding,' the only quality in which the former could be considered to be excelled by the latter, is valued at twenty. As before remarked, the Kennel Club plan would have prevented this; but in rescuing Rapid from Scylla it would have drawn Dick into Charybdis, since his defeat by Bang would have prevented his getting even the third prize, except under the special provision made by the competitors themselves in the case of the Horseheath 'Derby,' which, though an improvement on the 'heats' method, renders it still more complicated and tedious. Curiously enough, Rapid endorsed this opinion formed by the spectators at Shrewsbury, by defeating Bang at Horseheath, though, as we all know the variation of these animals on different days, it does not prove that he would have done the same at Shrewsbury if they had come together.

Passing from the pointers to the setters, we find at Shrewsbury Brave Boy, to whom the third prize was allotted, defeated by Nora (the winner) in the first round, which would have stopped his career under the Kennel Club plan. On the other hand, in the 'Derby' at Horseheath, according to the opinion of our reporter, the two best performers came together in the first round, when Danger, who was ultimately placed fourth, beat Norna (the winner at Shrewsbury), and the latter was consequently not allowed another trial. These two were first and second at Shrewsbury without dispute, but in a reverse position to that at Horseheath; and with Die behind them both, she being beaten by Norna in the second round, and not tried a third time. At Horseheath, Die, the winner of the first prize, behaved shamefully in her first two trials, and, if estimated on her average performance throughout the Derby, would have come out badly; but, happening to meet in the first two rounds animals worse than herself, she luckily reached the third round, when, being paired with Danger, who did not do so well as in her previous trials, she just managed to score a win, though, according to our reporter, Danger, on the whole, showed herself to be evidently 'the better setter of the two;' and this opinion, coming from a supporter of the 'heats' plan, is not likely to be prejudiced in favour of Danger.