Notwithstanding the magnificence of the present quarters of the club to
which I have referred, one cannot help regretting that, unlike the
Agricultural Society and the Club of the Champs Elyses, it is obliged
to confine itself to one story of the building--the first floor,
according to continental enumeration--though the rental of this floor
alone amounts to some three hundred thousand francs a year.
The committee on races, composed of fifteen members (founders) and
fifteen associate members--the latter elected every year by the
founders--represents the club in all that concerns its finances and
property, votes the budget, the programme of all races and the
conditions of the prizes, and not only legislates in making the laws
that govern the course, but acts also as judge in deciding questions
that may arise under the code that it has established. And as a
legislative body it has its hands almost as full as that of the state,
for the budget of the society grows from year to year as rapidly as the
nation's, and there are now forty-nine turfs for which it is
responsible or to which it has extended its protection. The presidency
of the committee, after having been held for many years by the lamented
Vicomte Daru, passed on his death last year to M.
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