324 HORSE-RACING IN FRANCE 



other horses which made names for themselves in the annals of 

 the turf. The civil interdiction implies that the person who has 

 been ornamented with a conseil judiciaire cannot contract any 

 valid engagement or liability, and becomes at the same time 

 freed from all the irksome procedure to which creditors are apt 

 to resort when they find that their debtors find ' parting ' too 

 sweet a sorrow. The petition on which the ruling of the Court 

 was founded was presented by Baron Frank Seilliere, who based 

 his prayer on the fact that during the last twelve years his 

 brother had spent 40,000Z. a year, besides incurring debts and 

 liabilities to the extent of 200,000L Opposition was offered by 

 a lai-ge creditor, who asked the tribunal not to assent to such a 

 method of wiping off old scores, but the Court thought that the 

 expenditure amounted to prodigality, and gave judgment in 

 £ivour of the petitioner. 



This was a grievous ending of what had once pro- 

 mised to be a very brilliant career : it shows, neverthe- 

 less, how faithfully the traditions of the English turf 

 (where so many noblemen, young, middle-aged, or 

 old, have ' come to grief) are reproduced upon the 

 French. Baron Raymond Seilliere (who was well 

 known in England, in flat-racing and steeplechasing, at 

 Newmarket, Sandown Park, and elsewhere and every- 

 where) did not run horses in his own name until 

 about the year 1877, but he was connected some- 

 how with the stable whose horses ran in the name of 

 Mr. Henry or Count Henry or Henri (Count Henri de 

 Breteuil), in 1874 (Flamen, Peau d'Ane, Soup9on, &c.), 

 in 1875 (Eabagas II. &c.), in 1876 (Vellon, Lord Sey- 

 mour, Bibletto, &c.), and in 1877 (Roi de la Montague, 

 &c.). Mr. H. Gibson was the trainer ; and the stable 

 would win in stakes during a year (1877 and 1878, for 

 instance) some 55,000 francs (about 2,200/,). But it 

 was not for stakes that the Baron ran his horses : ac- 

 cording to 'Robert Milton' (writing in 1879), he would 

 * risk a thousand louis like nothinij at all,' he shared 



