CONCLUSION 363 



ever eligible they may have been) members of the 

 ' Cercle,' namely, Baron de la Bastide, Marquis de 

 Marmier, Comte Edouard de Montgregon, le Chevalier 

 Nogent, Monsieur Couret Pleville, Marquis de Mira- 

 mon, Comte Max de Bethune Sully, and Major Cado- 

 gan. Thus, in France, a huge fashionable Club has 

 grown out of a horse-improving Society, and has 

 usurped the dominion which, there is reason to believe, 

 was originally intended for a very different body, 

 consisting of all manner of men interested in horse- 

 breeding and horse-racing. The reason, of course, is 

 that, the founders having been men of rank, station, 

 wealth, and fashion, and the idea of combining the 

 business of a company with the sociality of a club 

 having occurred to them, the social question prevailed 

 over every other, and the main object, after the first 

 year or two, was to keep out all that was uncongenial. 

 How much more must that be the case with a club 

 such as our Jockey Club, which seems to have been 

 started for the express purpose of knitting together 

 men of like class and pursuits, and keeping at arms' 

 length men of different class, though of like pursuits ? 

 You may 'extend the basis ' of such a Club; but, as 

 Lord Durham proved when he was challenged to 

 mention the names of eligible persons, and accepted 

 the challenge, you will not make it much more re- 

 presentative as regards variety of class. Nor is there 

 any reason in the world why a Club of gentlemen, 

 who have acquired the supreme authority in all 



