ral Rous and Viscount Daru, the
respective presidents of the two societies, in the course of which the
admiral has urged that as English horses are admitted to only two races
in France, the Grand Prix de Paris and the D[/e]auville Cup, while
French horses are at liberty to enter upon any course in England, it is
quite time that a reciprocity of privileges were recognized, and that
racers be put upon an equal footing in the two countries. Not at all,
replies M. Daru; and for this reason: there are three times as many
race-horses in England as in France, and the small number of the latter
would bring down the value of the French prizes to next to nothing if
the stakes are based, as they are in England, upon the sum-total of the
entries. In France the government, the encouragement societies, the
towns, the railway companies, all have to help to make up the purses,
and often with very considerable sums. Would it be fair to let in
English horses in the proportion of, say, three to one--supposing the
value of the horses to be equal--to carry off two-thirds of these
subscriptions? To this the Englishman answers, not without a show of
reason, that if the foreign horses should come into France in any great
numbers this very circumstance would make the entrance-moneys a
sufficient remuneration to the winner, and that the government, the
Jockey Club and the rest would be relieved from a continuance of their
subventions. The discussion is still kept up, and it is not unlikely
that the successors of MM. Rous and Daru will keep on exchanging notes
for some years without coming nearer to a solution than the diplomats
have come to a settlement of the Eastern Question.

I have said that the Jockey Club of Paris grants subventions to the
racing societies of the provinces, which it takes under its patronage
to the number of about forty-five, but it undertakes the actual
direction of the races at only three places--namely, Chantilly,
Fontainebleau and Deauville-sur-Mer--besides those of Paris. Up to
1856, the Paris races were run on the Champ de Mars, where the track
was too hard and the turns were very sharp and awkward. In the
last-mentioned year the city ceded to the Societe d'Encouragement the
open field at Longchamps, lying between the western limit of the Bois
de Boulogne and the river Seine. The ground measures about sixty-six
hectares in superficial area, and this ample space has permitted the
laying out of several tracks of differ