he necessity of the creation of a pure native
stock, of which the best individuals, to be selected by trial of their
qualities of speed and endurance upon the track, should be devoted to
reproduction. This was the doctrine which had been practically applied
in England, and which had there produced in less than a century the
most important and valuable results. France had but to follow the
example of her neighbor, and, borrowing from the English stock of
thoroughbreds, to establish a regular system of races as the means of
developing and improving the breed of horses upon her own soil.

This reasoning seemed logical enough, but the administration of the
_Haras_, or breeding-stables--which is in France a branch of the civil
service--opposed this innovation, and contended that the only pure type
of horse was the primitive Arab, and that every departure from this
resulted in the production of an animal more or less degenerate and
debased. The reply of the Jockey Club was, that the English
thoroughbred is, in fact, nothing else than a pure Arab, modified only
by the influences of climate and treatment, and that it would be much
wiser and easier to profit by a result already obtained than to
undertake to retrace, with all its difficulties and delays, the same
road that England had taken a century to travel.

The experience gained since 1833 has shown that the conclusions of the
Jockey Club were right, but the evidence of facts and of the results
obtained has not yet brought the discussion to a close. The
administration of the Haras still keeps up its opposition to the
raising of thoroughbreds, and will no doubt continue to do so for some
time to come, so tenacious is the hold of routine--or, as the
Englishman might say, of red tape--upon the official mind in France,
whether the question be one of finance, of war or of the breeding of
horses.

But it is not only against the ill-will of the administration that the
Jockey Club has had to struggle during all these years: it has had also
to contend with the still more disheartening indifference of the public
in the matter of racing. There is no disputing the fact that the
genuine lover of the horse, the _homme de cheval_--or, if I may be
forgiven a bit of slang for the sake of its expressiveness, the
_horsey_ man, whether he be coachman or groom, jockey or trainer--is
not in France a genuine product of the soil, as he seems to be in
England. Look at the difference between the c