TJm'oughhred Stallions at Nof>tin(/ham. 
243 
anxiety of tlie various Powers to keep themselves in complete 
readiness. England, dependent on lier insular position, and on 
the old principle that means will meet extremes, has been more 
lax than her neighljours, for, at any rate, she has allowed the 
foreigner to strengthen his own position at her expense through 
an excess in the exportation of horses from these shores. 
The two remaining objections to Government interference 
can be classed together, as, in the absence of any State control 
over the supply of horses, the work is left entirely to indi\ndual 
interest and enterprise. That such a state of things should 
have been allowed to exist so long is to be wondered at, from 
whatever side the question is viewed. English horses, through 
the sporting manners of the people, the climate, soil, and other 
essentials, are immensely superior to those that can be bred in 
other countries. Is it not, therefore, a source of wealth to the 
nation, worth preserving with the most jealous care ? 
The strenuous efforts of other countries to cultivate our 
breeds, the great expenditure allowed, and the importance of 
the State departments devoted almost entirely to the horse 
supply, should surely be sufficient to convince our rulers that 
this country is being made use of, and that if we husband a 
natural product in anything like the degree others consider it 
is worth, the result must be a national gain. Singularly enough, 
there has been no awakening to such ideas with any party hold- 
ing office, albeit the question has been often enough before the 
country, and time after time Government studs have been pro- 
posed, besides other special encouragement. 
In the opinion of the late Admiral Rous, a Haras system 
would be fraught with fraud and corruption, and this has been 
the cuckoo-cry ever since ; but it seems extraordinary that a 
great nation should have any fear of incapacity in the control 
of a special department. If such conceptions were allowed, 
every effort in the cause of improvement and progress would 
come to a standstill, as there must be contractors and middle- 
men in almost every concern of life. It may be a subject of 
regret that a State stud was not established thirty or forty years 
ago, in consequence of the success then attending the movement 
in France. That country may be taken as the greatest example 
of how a national stock of horses can be raised in half a century ; 
indeed, it was in France, under Napoleon the Great, that the 
idea was originated which has recently been put into substantial 
form by the Royal Agricultural Society and the Royal Com- 
mission on Horse Breeding. 
There had been State Haras in France so far back as the 
middle of the seventeenth century ; but, after an existence of 
125 years, they were suppressed during the Revolution by a 
B 2 
