FROM HOWL FOR 'RECIPROCITY' TO PRESENT DAY 229 



of the original 'fourteen,' including the hon. members, 

 the Duke d'Orleans and the Duke de Nemours, was 

 still living and the real ' doyen ' of the Club). M. 

 Lupin, of course, justified the French, with the usual 

 arguments of ' non possumus,' as ' it is one of the 

 fundamental rules of the French Club that all their 

 races are confined to French horses ; ' of the wide differ- 

 ence between the great English and French races, the 

 former being run by owners for one another's subscrip- 

 tions and the latter for a prize consisting — mainly in 

 the earliest days, and to a very considerable extent still 

 — of ' added money ' in the form of a ' dotation ' from 

 the Societe d'Encouragement ; of the difficulty that 

 there would be in making, and certainly in carrying, a 

 proposal for so great an alteration as was demanded, 

 and even of the danger there would be of disheartening 

 French owners by the alteration, and so checking the 

 already wonderful development of French horse-racing, 

 and so forth. Admiral Rous was not quite so out- 

 spoken and dictatorial as was usual with him, but he 

 certainly inclined towards Lord Falmouth's views. 

 Lord Ailesbury, on the contrary, was diametrically 

 opposed to Lord Falmouth, expressing the most manly, 

 noble-manly, liberal, and sensible opinions, and declaring 

 that, for his part, he would ' breed from foreign horses 

 if necessary ; but exclude them — never.' 



The question was naturally much discussed in 

 France, and this is the place to give what was written 

 at the time by one of the ablest and most experienced 

 French authorities (' Le Sport '). 



When a man of Lord Falmouth's importance takes the 

 trouble to occupy liis mind with a proposal calculated to make 

 so much stir as that which lie intends to submit to the English 

 Jockey Club, the question is : What is really in his thoughts ? 



