The only compulsory laws of the A.A.A. which must be observed at every meeting are the following, and it will be admitted that they are not such as to interfere unduly with the freedom of any club which is desirous of giving sports:

1. All competitions must be limited to amateurs.

'An amateur is one who has never competed for a money prize or staked bet, or with or against a professional for any prize, or who has never taught, pursued, or assisted in the practice of athletic exercises as a means of obtaining a livelihood.'

2. No person must be allowed to compete while under a sentence of suspension passed by either the A.A.A., National Cyclists' Union, Swimming Association 01 Great Britain, Scottish A.A.A., or Irish AAA

3. No 'value' prize (i.e. a cheque on a tradesman) must be offered.

4. No prize must be offered in a handicap of greater value than 10l. lay.

5. Every prize of the value of 5l. or upwards must be engraved with the name and date of the meeting.

6. In no case must a prize and money be offered as alternatives.

7. All prizes shall be publicly presented on the grounds on the day of the sports.

8. All open betting must be put down.

9. All clubs holding and advertising their sports 'under the laws of the Amateur Athletic Association' must have printed on their entry forms 'the definition of an Amateur ' as adopted by the Amateur Athletic Association.

It will be seen that it has throughout been the main principle of policy of the A. A. A. to insist upon the orderly management of meetings and the suppression of unfair practice, but yet not to interfere with the free right of any club, whether affiliated or 'approved,' to appoint its own officers and manage its own meetings, provided they respected the essential laws of amateurism. Unfortunately, during the whole of the year 1885 the amateur world was thrown into disorganisation by a vehement dispute between the A.A.A. and the National Cyclists' Union, a body which occupies a similar position as the recognised governing body of amateur cyclists. Like many other party conflicts, this arose out of a very small matter and grew into serious proportions, rather through misunderstandings than through ill-will, on both sides. The point in dispute was the management of cycling races given by athletic clubs, and generally of all meetings where there were both foot-races and cycling races, the cyclists claiming to have absolute control over every cycling race, wherever held, and the A.A.A. resisting the claim of the Cyclists' Union to interfere with the management of meetings of the affiliated clubs of the A.A.A. Happily, at the end of the year 1885, terms of arrangement were concluded between the belligerent associations, which we think were, to use a wellworn phrase, 'honourable to both parties concerned,' and have certainly made the interests of both bodies so far identical as to strengthen the position of each with the amateur public.

All mixed meetings since the arrangement are advertised under both rules, the foot-races and other athletic sports being under the A.A.A. rules, and the cycle races under the N.C.U. rules, the N.C.U. undertaking, in the case of meetings held by the clubs affiliated to the A.A.A., not to make any order (except at the invitation of the A.A.A. club) upon the committee of that A.A.A. club to alter its decision.

We have probably said enough of the A.A.A. and its objects and principles to convey some idea of the work it performs.' Soon after its foundation it was found necessary to put the greatest possible administrative power into the hands of the local associations in the North and Midlands, and the A.A.A. may now practically be said to consist of three bodies in the North, South, and Midlands, the general committee only sitting as a court of appeal from the decisions of the local committees, and the general body of clubs rarely meeting more than once a year, to effect alterations in the rules, and to supervise the management and expenditure. It has naturally been a matter of time and trouble to get the Association known and its power felt throughout the kingdom, and for its present strong position the A.A.A. owes a great debt of gratitude to its present honorary secretary, Mr. Herbert, of the Civil Service Athletic Association, in whose hands the management of the body has been since 1883. In the early days of the Association also, it owed much of its success to the support of the Press, most of the sporting papers of influence giving assistance and encouragement to the movement for the organisation and purification of amateur athletics.

So far, however, we have presented the bright side of the picture in sketching the history of a body which has undoubtedly by its influence brought all classes of athletes and all districts into communion, and has also done much to remedy some of the grosser abuses of the sport. On the other hand, those who are familiar with the working of athletic meetings and athletic clubs know that outside the Universities, and a few other similar places, the state of amateurism has never been so bad as it is at the present day. When open races were first thought of, nearly all the competitors were 'gentleman amateurs.' It was soon found that, hard as it was to define an amateur, it was still harder to define a 'gentleman' for athletic purposes. The 'gentleman amateur' was replaced by the 'amateur,' who was what his name represented, a man who competed for love of the sport, and respected the rules of honour and fair play. Then came the time when athletics were at the height -of their popularity, when the 'gate-money' takenatthe meetings was enough to support a club without paying much attention to subscriptions of members, and when meetings began to spring up throughout the country. This prosperity has led perhaps almost inevitably to decay.

Thousands of men of every class of the community, but, for obvious reasons, chiefly those of the lower class, found that by taking up amateur athletics there were prizes to be won, which were readily exchangeable for cash, and opportunities also could be provided for making money by betting in those mysterious ways which had long been so familiar upon the turf and with the professional pedestrians. The result is that the last state of amateurism is worse than the first, and that the ranks of so-called amateurs are crowded with athletes who have absolutely no further thought in entering for races than the amount of money they can, by fair means or foul, extract from them. Probably not one tithe of the malpractices that are committed are so obvious in their nature as to render it possible that they can be brought before the notice of the Athletic Association; but we imagine that an evening spent with any of the committees of that body would astonish an uninitiated patron of athletic sports, for he would discover the existence of an amount of petty swindling, deceit, and unfair play, which would give him but a poor opinion of the modern amateur.