296 STAG-HUNTING RECOLLECTIONS 



themselves, owned stallions, and thereby shifted their rates 

 and taxes in a seemly way to other people's shoulders. The 

 effect of the operation is put by M. De la Font Pouloti in a 

 way which most ratepayers will appreciate, without much 

 knowledge of French or of the incidence of taxation. ' Les 

 privileges et exemptions des Garde-Etalons sont tres onereux 

 aux communautes, parce qu'etant presque toujours des 

 grands proprietaires, le rejet de leurs impositions sm' les 

 autres contribuables cause une augmentation considerable en 

 retombant sur le peuple.' 



This was in 1789. No fewer than 8,800 stallions were 

 registered, yet horse-breeding for many years prior to that 

 date had been in a languishing condition. The whole system 

 was a whited sepulchre. Production annually decreased, yet 

 the ' approuves ' and ' garde-etalons ' annually multiplied. 

 Every day, too, some fresh and vexatious restriction upon 

 private enterprise came to the further assistance of the ' garde- 

 etalon.' Cunningly drawn regulations, police supervision, 

 pains and penalties denied to private enterprise the bare neces- 

 sities of life. It is neither to be wondered at nor regretted 

 that this ' ensemble de privileges et de rigueurs,' again to quote 

 M. Bocher's eloquent Report, received short shrift at the 

 hands of the statesmen and economists of the Revolution. 



However, the horse-supply question soon thrust itself 

 again upon the attention of statesmen. The Haras and the 

 garde-etalons had been got rid of, but the practical difficulty 

 of working up a supply of useful horses to an increasing 

 demand still remained. In the year X. of the Republic, 

 Huzard, in a minute printed and circulated by order of the 

 Minister of the Interior, again calls attention to the decadence 

 of the ancient French breeds. Maledon, in 1803,' holds 

 mucli the same language, l3ut decorates it with poignant 



' li^ffcxions stir la lii'orf/airisatioii des Haras, par M. de Maledon, Paris, 

 1803. 



