The Express.
London, England, 1864-06-06 00:00:00

commercial

treaty, there is no gainsaying the fact that it was a
master stroke of Imperial policy. It took the
authoritative public opinion of England by storm ;
drew away attention from the foreign and do-
mestic policy of the Second Empire ; silenced
a host of pohtical objectors to institutions most re-
pugnant to English freedom ; and fairly bound
over the two great neighbouring Powers to keep the
peace, in spite of mutual jealousies and misunder-
standings.

But it is not so much to acts of public policy
that we refer at this moment in estimating what
the Emperor of the Frizaien has done, by virtue,
we believe, of his English predilections and asso-
ciations, to make the people of the two countries
know each other better, not only through increas-
ing business relations, but by the adoption and
naturalization of English manly sports. Twenty
years ago and more there were races in France—
so select, so innocent, so ingenuously earnest and
self-conscious in their conduct and management,
that they looked like • fancy fair, or • picnic on
horseback, or the theatrical represent►tion of a
real racecourse. No Englishmen ever thought
of crossing the water to "moist at" such harmless
recreations ; and very few Frenchmen went out of
their way to see an eccentric English lord
win a few small prizes from • few humble
French followers in • succesaion of canters.
Twenty or thirty French gentlemen took seriously to
the Turf, and made a dreadful business of learning
how to dress like grooms and to talk like trainers.
But there was no racing " world " even in
Paris ; and as for the French public, they
knew about as much of horse•racing as of
cricket, or as English ladies do of the manoeuvres
of • yacht match. la the last years of Loom
Piimirre the taste for "sport " had grown
into a study or pursuit among not leas than fifty
or sixty aspiring young Frenchmen in advance of
their age, and was beginning to be cultivated in
the principal provincial towns. But it was culti-
vated as an exotic, and admired like green peas
and strawberries in December. To NAPOLEON
111. belongs all the glory of having made the Turf,
as we have it in England, something like an institu-
tion in France. His knowledge of horseflesh,
acquired in England, and his capacity to

(as the owner of Blink Bonny can bear witness),
and utterly unconnected with what our neigh-
bours would call the " nationality " of the winner.
It is certainly to be regretted that on the eve of
the great meeting in Paris the French official prints
should have gratuitously elevated a vulgar fracas
of some honest gentlemen of the Ring, who con-
sidered themselves sold, to the proportions of an
international outrage. Had Fills de l'Air been
bred, trained, and owned in England there
I would have been the lame astonishment and
dissatisfaction at the contrast between her
performances at Newmarket and at Epsom. No
doubt it was all fair and square enough, and the
mare's owner and trainer could explain if they
would how and why she was distanced for the Two
Thousand, and had it all to herself for the Oaks ;
why it was thought expedient to secure a gang of
professional pugilist. to attend her and her
jockey on their arrival at the post,
and why the Jockey Club in Paris was so
" precipitately " illuminated on the evening of
the race. These question., to our thinking, are
easily and satisfactorily answered without a shadow
of imputation on anybody'scharacter. Astotheilln-
mination of the Jockey Club at Paris, what could be
more /tail/ or more natural than such a celebration
of such a victory f The best of the joke is that all
these French animals who come to snatch away
the honours of the English turf are in all but the
accident of birth and ownership English, or
Irish, animals. Their blood, dam and sire,
is English, their trainers are English, their
riders are English. So that national suscep-
tibility has really as little as possible to do
with their victories or their defeats. It was
tolerably absurd that England and America should
celebrate the fight between an Englishman and an
Irishman once removed as an "international "
contest between the Old World and the New ;
but that a race between an English horse and an
Irish mare, bred in France but trained and
ridden by an Englishman, should be called an
international affair is scarcely less ridiculous. The
Turf, that is, the Ring, is cosmopolitan ; only all
the animals, and almost all the trainers and riders,
are English ; and no one on this side of the water
will regret to find our Imperial neighbours making
up for lost time by bettering our instructions, and
carrying a new sort of Credit Mobilier from
Newmarket to Epsom, and from Epsom to Long-
champs.

ne Qrourt.

BALMORAL. Jazz 2.

The Queen went ont driving in the morning with
the Princess Louise, and went out in the afternoon with the
Princess Helena.
Aiwa Leopold went to laverreenld to fish.

JUNI 3.

The QtIWO went out in the morning with the Primes
Leiningee arid Princess Lades, and drove in the afternoon
with the Princess Helena and Phnom Leiningen to Alt
se Guithasseh.

The Prince and Princess of Wale' returned to Marl-
borougb-house, from Cambridge, at five o'clock on Bator
day af tarmac.
The Prince and PIitICIIII of Wales, with the Prime and
Princess Louis of Rama, sad the Ladies and Caution's is
Waiting. attended diviee service at the Chapel Royal, fit,
James's, yesterday morning.
The Commusias Service was read by the Rev. the fish.
Dees, the Rev. R. C. Pacentan, and the Very Be.. the
Dean of Chicheeter.

The Very Kew. the Dean of Chichester peaahed the arms.
from St. Luke, c. 14, Irene. 18 nod 17.
detheni, "Sing 0 heiress," Kent, sea` by Memos. R.
Marshy, Bassos, sod Lewis Thome.
Mr. Cooper presided st the cepa.

The Archbishop of Armagh, the Duke of St. Albans,
Q. Marquis of Bath, Earl St. Gsrmans, Viscount fiydosp
Lord Crewe, and Lord Llarrover, were present during tha
mervias.

The Prince and Princess of Wales, accompanied by the
Prince and Princess Louis of Hesse, drove to Kew in the
afternoon.

A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury,
in Downing•street. The ministers present were
Viscount Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor,
Earl Granville, Sir George Grey, Earl Rus-
sell, the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, Earl De
Grey, Sir Charles Wood, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, the Duke of Somerset, the Right Hon.
T. Milner Gibson, the Earl of Clarendon, Lord
Stanley of alderley, and the Right Hon. C. P.
Villiers.

Rxrußs or HER MAJESTY TO WINDBOR.—The
Queen and the royal family are expected to lorries at
Windsor from Balmoral on Wednesday. The Prisms and
Princess Louis of Hesse, it is understood, will reach Windsor
to-day.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Chusricarde
entertained Ai. Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge et
dinner 011 Wednesday at their residence in Strattomatreet.
There were present to moot the royal ink* their Sense
Highnesses Priam sod Princess Edward of Sami-Weiser,
Emily Duchene of Beaufort, the Marquis and Marthiesene
of Waterford, the Earl sod Coautene• of Bembormigh, the
Etrl sad Countess of Harswood, Lady Molesworth, the
Right Hoa. the Speaker and Lady Charlotte Denison, Dr.
Quin, Mr. Gather" Mr. Gr►nt, and Colonel the Hon.
James Macdonald, in 'rattier on his royal highness.
The Earl and Countess de Grey bad • dinner
party on Saturday at their house in Qs/Um-gardens. The
Archbishop of York sal Md. Thonmon, the Earl sad
Counts. Fitzwillisen, Gemmel Sir Richard sod Hon. Lady
Airey and Mine Airey, Hos. Alfred Standen, Mr. R.
Vyeer, M.P., Mr. Ingilby, ke., were among the guests
Covers were laid for SI

The Baroness de Bunsen, widow of the Baron de
Bunsen, who fur so assay years represented the Court of
Berlin in this country, arrived in Busked recently, and has
sloes left town on a visit to her sister, Lady Llsnover, in
South Wales.

TRZ GRAND YORESHIZZ BALL.—Viscountess
Nevill will haws Nary quadrille at the bell which is to
take plate to-al4ht, is addition to those of the Omatess de
Gin sod Yrs. F. Natasha. Above 400 of the leadieg
members of society comfooted with both Ridiap are im-
ported to be primal.