CONCLUSION 349 



cessful their enterprise might be ; and they pubhshed 

 in December 1833 a manifesto (signed by the 

 ' founders '), of which the following is the most import- 

 ant portion : — 



The undersigned, impressed by the continually increasing 

 degeneracy among the breeds of horses in France, and anxious 

 to contribute by the improvement of them towards the creation 

 of a new source of wealth in this beautiful country, met together 

 to consult upon the means of doing so. They had no difficulty 

 in ascertaining the causes of the evil. There is no need to 

 enumerate them here in detail, but there was among them one 

 which particularly claimed their serious attention. The want 

 of encouragement given to the breeding of ' thoroughbreds ' has 

 for a long time past reduced this line of business to inactivity 

 and sterility; yet nothing could be more important than to 

 assist it and promote its development in every imaginable way, 

 for it is the sole means (and the fact can no longer be disputed 

 in these days) of providing France with those lighter species 

 (saddle horses, as distinguished from heavy draught horses) in 

 which she is so deficient, and of delivering her some day or other 

 from that annual tax which she has to pay to foreigners. The 

 propagation of thoroughbreds, then, at home in France is the 

 object to which the undersigned had to direct their efforts 

 chiefly ; and, with the view of helping on that propagation 

 to the best of their ability, they have founded the Societe 

 d'Encouragement pour I'Amelioration des Races de Chevaux en 

 France. 



For a long while arbitrary theories served in this country as 

 the sole guide of our trainers ; all sorts of experiments, com- 

 binations, and ' crosses ' were tried without success in the hope of 

 improving our breeds ; nor was the Government more fortunate 

 than private individuals in their attempts. Meanwhile the 

 peace, by rendering our communications with England more 

 frequent, permitted us to study more attentively the principles 

 she adopts in her production and breeding of horses ; and cer- 

 tain observant spirits, unshackled by time-honoured routine or 

 narrow-minded considerations, were not long before they ac- 

 quired the conviction that the immense superiority displayed by 



