FRENCH HORSES 297 



sentiment. He laments the Limousin in quite a broken- 

 hearted strain. ' Le coeur saigne quand on pense qu'elle 

 n'existe phis que dans quelques rejetons pa et la,' and, with 

 a burst of patriotism which is worthy of M. Le Jeune, he 

 goes on to declare that no country in the world can lay 

 claim to a breed equal to the Limousin, or worthy to be 

 compared to it for quality, stamina and good looks. 



Something had to be done, and in 1806 there was a man 

 at the head of affairs quite able to do it. That year Napoleon 

 insisted upon the importation of a large number of Mecklen- 

 burg, Hessian, and Baden horses. This recollection was 

 the only thing, indeed, which reconciled me for the moment 

 to the Prussian I had to mount in front of the Cour des 

 Adieux, and in view of ihe long windows of the room in 

 which he signed his abdication a very few years later. The 

 direct and personal interest which the Emperor (who knew 

 little about horses, and was a bad rider) took in the horse 

 question was from the military, or, rather, the national point 

 of view. National, that is, in the best sense. His de- 

 spatches abound in special instructions to his cavalry generals 

 to make the most of their horses ; to Murat especially, who 

 had Rupert-like conceptions of possibilities and functions of 

 cavalry, and the waste of horseflesh in his campaigns was 

 enormous. But the industrial requirements of the country 

 were evidently also present to him when, in 1806, he appointed 

 and drew the instructions of a Commission to investigate 

 and report upon the alleged scarcity of serviceable horses, 

 the extinction of the ancient strains, and the best means of 

 reconstructing a State system of horse-breeding. 



It is not my intention to pursue the more modern history 

 of State-aided horse-breeding any further. Suffice it to say 

 that the recommendations of the Report of 1806 were given 

 effect to, that they were amplified in 1815, and again in 

 1820. Between the year 1830 and the year 1863, when the 



