PROPHETIC ORACLES OF THE HORSE. 
101 
vice to the constitution makers. It was not enough to have bor- 
rowed from England her Puritan hats, her narrow coats, her 
constitutional S3'Stem, and her paltry smoking-rooms. France, in 
her paroxysm of Anglomania, must have also the betting-horse. 
At the present day every second-rate town in France is occupied 
in the construction of race courses, and imposing extra taxes on 
itself to favor the developments of the racing interest. All the 
funds destined to the encouragement of agriculture, are consecra- 
ted to furnish prizes to fortunate gamblers. But these absurd 
prodigalities are perfectly logical in a country where the ministry 
of agriculture has been confided, during ten years, to a maker of 
black cassimere breeches, completely incapable of distinguishing a 
beet from a cauliflower. The constantly increasing popularity of 
the race course, has obliged the Parisian journals to employ the 
special editorial services of a writer on horses, who must be up to 
all the sporting terms or stable slang. 
I remark that it is the Count of Artois and the Duke of Or- 
leans, father of King Louis Philippe, who chiefly contributed to 
introduce the race-horse into France. We know the profit which 
has accrued to both from the progress of English ideas. 
Old Priam’s kingdom also perished long ago by the intro- 
duction of a strange horse within the walls of Ilium. Alas ! what 
avail precedents against fiitalities."^ 
Paris is the mirror and the axis of France. The capital gives 
tone to the provinces. The horse which plays the first part in 
Paris, and in the rest of the kingdom, is the horse of the express 
— post, diligence, and omnibus. The city statistics show that this 
heavy quadruped lames two persons and a fraction every day, and 
that it costs the Parisian population two victims every month. It 
is not his fault. There exists at Paris — seat of opulence and hap- 
piness — a number of individuals who have nothing better to do 
than to throw themselves under the wheels of a carriage to get a 
limb broken, and entitle themselves to an indemnit}^^, which secures 
them bread for the rest of their lives. Some succeed, others fail, 
and others, without making special attempts, are not sorry to take 
their chance. 
* Toussenel’s prophecy has become history between the dates of the orig- 
inal work and this the translation. — T r. 
