46 IIORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



latter must belong to the former), the payments for the 

 first year amounted apparently to 500 francs. One 

 black ball to five white was fixed as the measure of 

 exclusion. Various changes have been made, always 

 (of course) in the direction of higher payments, espe- 

 cially as regards the entrance fee, which is said to be, 

 or lately to have been, 1,050 fr. (40 gs.), with an annual 

 subscription of 500 fr. (20/.) In certain respects the 

 French Club has for many years been more liberal than 

 the English : ambassadors and foreign ministers may be 

 admitted — on application — without ballot, and any 

 member of the English Jockey Club — on application — 

 can obtain admission to the French Jockey Club's stand 

 at races, and can— or could in 1870 — be admitted to 

 the Club for a month. This apparently greater libe- 

 rality can, of course, be easily explained : the English 

 Jockey Club has so few members comparatively (and 

 consequently is not likely to overcrowd the French 

 stand), and has no large or even fixed Club House such 

 as the French Club has, to which temporary members 

 could be admitted ; and if it had the French visitors 

 miglit be numerous enough to swamp the place. 



However that may be, the liberality displayed 

 towards strangers, whether English or other, by the 

 French Jockey Club was not extended to the conditions 

 of the races (under the CUib's management), which were 

 confined to horses ' bred in France,' with a few insig- 

 nificant exceptions ; and this restrictive spirit led in time 

 to that English yell for ' reciprocity ' which will receive 

 due notice in the proper place. It should be remembered, 

 however, that the infant French Jockey Club could not 

 hope to compete at first with English antagonists, would 

 have disgusted the French people with horse-racing in 

 which victory must almost certainly have remained in 



