The first French sportsmen--to use the word in its limited
sense--thus found themselves not only unsupported by public opinion,
but alone in the midst of an actively-hostile community, and no one can
say how the unequal contest might have ended had not the graver events
of the Revolution intervened to put an end, for a time at least, not
only to the luxurious pleasures, but to all the hopes and ambitions, of
the noble class of idlers.
The wars with England that followed retarded for a quarter of a century
the introduction of racing into France. The first ministerial ordinance
in which the words _pur sang_ occur is that of the 3d of March, 1833,
signed by Louis Philippe and countersigned by Adolphe Thiers,
establishing a register of the thoroughbreds existing in France--in
other words, a national _stud-book_, by which name it is universally
known. The following year witnessed the foundation of the celebrated
Society for the Encouragement of the Improvement of Breeds of French
Horses, more easily recognized under the familiar title of the "Jockey
Club." The first report of this society exposed the deplorable
condition of all the races of horses in the country, exhausted as they
had been by the frightful draughts made upon them in the imperial wars,
and concluded by urging the necessity of the creation of a pure native
stock, of which the best individuals, to be selected by trial of their
qualities of speed and endurance upon the track, should be devoted to
reproduction.
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