The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—The friendly nation whose versatile
genius has challenged us in so many and such
various contests has at length achieved a success-
ful rivalry in our great national pastime. The perse-
verance and enterprise of French sportsmen were
yesterday rewarded by the greatest and most coveted
honour on the English Turf. Anticipations which
had been marked by a singular • unanimity were
amply confirmed by the race, and Gladiateur will
long be honourably celebrated as the winner of the
Derby of 1865. We most heartily congratulate our
neighbours on this happy result of a healthy and
friendly rivalry. The prize has been well and fairly
earned. It is no chance stroke of skill or wealth.
The French horses have been gradually improved
by constant emulation and care, and last year the
race which at Epsom is second only to the Derby
was won by a French mare from the same stable as
that which achieved yesterday's success. Now that
the French have also won the chief of all our races,
they must be considered to have fairly established
themselves as our rivals on the Turf, and by this
success they have not only earned a just gratifica-
tion for themselves, but have done what would have
seemed almost impossible—they have added a new
interest to the Derby. The sense of international
rivalry added a new and keen zest to yesterday's
race, and for the future the interest of the contest
must be always enhanced by the knowledge that
we may have not merely to settle the claims of pre-
cedence among ourselves, but to hold our own
against the energies of a rival natiiou. Nor can we
fail to be sensible how considerable a homage is
paid to our national institution when a great foreign
nation conceives the ambition to emulate us, and
pursues it so eagerly as to defeat us on our own
ground. It is necessary, if we would properly ap-
preciate the value of the triumph thus achieved, to
remember how specially and peculiarly national is
the pastime in which the French have now sur-
passed us. The astonishing completeness with
which all classes are represented at this annual
festival is the best proof and illustration of the
hold this sport has acquired upon the English
people. It scarcely needs a visit to Epsom, nor a
perusal of such a description of the Downs as we
publish this morning, to display the extent and
depth of this national instinct. It was impossible even
to walk through the streets, much Jess to mix with
any society whatever during the last few days, and
fail to discover that the Derby was more or less in
everybody's thoughts. That Parliament should sys-
tematically postpone its business, that the rigid dis-
cipline of the army should be modified, for this single
race, are but natural developments of the feeling
which pervades every class of society ; and in pro-
portion to the interest felt in the contest are the
efforts which are made to secure the prize. Into those
short two and a-half minutes is concentrated an ex-
penditure of wealth, skill, labour, patience, anxiety,
and excitement lavish beyond any possible concep-
tion. ThiS is the one honour which is equally coveted
by all ranks who have the opportunity to engage in
the struggle for it. English noblemen and men of
wealth of all classes are each year straining every
nerve to carry off this unique prize. It is no slight
triumph, therefore, which the French have thus
achieved. They have beaten all the energy, wealth,.
and skill of Englishmen in their own most cherished
pursuit. When we have enumerated, moreover, the
special advantages which Englishmen possess in this
contest, we must not forget the corresponding dis-
advantages with which a Frenchman enters upon it.
It is a sport of no natural growth in his own nation ;
the genius of the people has not hitherto shown any
aptitude for it; and it is therefore almost single-
handed, and with but little practice, that he has had
to encounter the wide-spread experience and enthu-
siastic energy of the English nation. Against such
odds it is a rare and honourable triumph to have
been successful. It must, indeed, in fairness be
confessed that the winning horse came of English
blood, was prepared by English trainers, and ridden
by an English jockey. But still, no expenditure,
however lavish, upon the mere machinery of
English success would be sufficient, without
the possession of genuine love for the sport
and real skill in the owner of the stable.
The French should receive the credit of having
defeated .all probable anticipations. French imi-
tations of English sports have been the common
theme of humourists, and were an especial delight to
the most reticent, and perhaps the greatest of our
humorous artists. If we venture to recall John
Leech's pictures to the recollection of our readers, it
is only in order to enhance the French success by the
force of contrast, and we only wish the same artist
were still living to acknowledge how the tables have
been turned upon his good-humoured caricatures.
It is not, however, merely upon a great triumph in
an uncongenial contest that we offer our congratu-
lations to the French people upon this event. It is
still more because this success may be the possible
inauguration among them of one of the most healthy
and useful of national habits. The benefit to the
breed of horses, the amusement, and the. spectacle,
are far from being among Englishmen the most im-
portant results of this sport. The Derby is really
but the climax of a disposition which pervades Eng-
lish life from the top to the bottom. The love of
manly exercises, of racing in all its forms, of vigor-
ous and friendly competition in trials of strength
and skill, is one of the deepest and most influential
of all the habits of this country. Perhaps it is the
most potent of all the moral influences which de-
velope the character of our boys and young men. It
educates that spirit of manly and generous rivalry
which preserves our political struggles from the per-
sonal bitterness which marks similar contests in
other nations. It teaches us how to respect one an-
other, and how to accept a defeat. It is just this
rough moral frankness which, if we may on such an
occasion observe on a defect, is one of the chief
wants of French society. Not less important is the
extraordinary influence which these common pas-
times exercise in binding together the different classes
of the country. As " one touch of nature makes the
whole world kin," so, by means of the Derby, for
one day at least in the year, everybody in England,
from peer to beggar, has one common interest.
It is these rough touches, again, of common hu-
manity which are so especially wanted in a
country like France in order to supply the cement
which an artificial organisation of society more par-
ticularly needs. If, therefore, the French should be
so encouraged by this auspicious success as to adopt
to any large extent our English habits of sport, a
real and permanent benefit would have been con-
ferred upon them by the enterprise of French sports-
men. It seems to be quite agreeable to French
habits that such changes should begin from the top,
and not from the bottom. The Emperor, is endea-
vouring to establish liberty by introducing it from
above instead of letting it grow up from below, and
it is but following his example for a few Frenchmen
to take the initiative in introducing English sports.
We sincerely wish the two experiments an equal
success. It is a happy thing that this friendly and
genial rivalry should he the most exciting contest
which the two nations are now engaged in. Just
50 years ago we were occupied in a very different
struggle. It may be hoped we have both grown
wiser since then, and that the race of yesterday is a
type of all the contests in which we shall for the
future be engaged. At the date we refer to we were
struggling against a gigantic scheme to obliterate all
the peculiarities of nations in one vast French domi-
nation. A truer conception of cosmopolitanism has
succeeded to that delusive dream. Nations are now
learning to unite, not by destroying, but by adopt-
ing one another's characteristics. Each is learning
of each, and conquering its rivals by submitting to,
their customs and laws. In this spirit the French
are with no slight success appropriating our vic-
tories by adopting our principles and practice. We
have, however, as much to learn from them as
they have from us, and we only hope we may imi-
tate them with equal energy and with similar suc-
cess.

POST.—We congratulate our neighbours on their
success. The cheers which saluted the winner of the
Derby of 1865, on the broad downs of Epsom, will
prove to the French how sincerely we acknowledge
the deserts of the best horse, andhow contentedly we
resign, for the first time in history, the " blue
riband" to the winner who fairly bears it away. We
have been honourably beaten on our own ground,
and surpassed where we fondly thought we were
unsurpassable. A few may talk of the French horse
being after all the product of English blood, but we
think it absurd to rob the victor of one single leaf
of the wreath which he has won. Besides the mere
question of blood, there are the questions of train-
ing, judgment, and capital for the risk 'of large
stakes. The French have now produced gentlemen
sufficiently imbued with the love of sport to give all
the necessary attention, anxiety, and care, as well
as to run the concurrent risks incumbent on those
who aspire to the highest honours of the turf. Many
a sporting' member of our aristocracy, many an
eager commoner, and even Prime Ministers, have for
years sought, and often in vain, for the glory of
winning the Derby. The great national race confers
immortality on its winner, and in the sporting world
of England the very years are known by the names
of the successful horses. Strange as it may sound,
this is Gladiateur's year when Lagrange wins the
Derby. The French will be exultant, for they in-
vest these matters with an international interest, and
look upon them as a positive struggle between the
two countries. About their grand and glorious
victory there is happily no drawback; • The race was
fair. Thirty magnificent thoroughbreds started, and
of these at least six were horses of themost admirable
kind—of illustrious parentage, costing great sums,
and backed for vast risks. The courage that could
meet them deserved a triumph, and the magnificent
animal sent by the French stable justified the auda-
city of his owner, who ventured to encounter the

whole sporting power of England on its chosen histo-
ric ground. This notable event will do as much for
the entente cordiale as diplomatic alliances or treaties
of commerce. It will promote an immense good-
feeling between the two people. The English will
respect French prowess, while the French will not
fail to observe the honest cheerfulness with which
we can meet defeat A false and most deplorable
impression was raised among our neighbours on
the occasion of the victory of File de I'Air two
years ago. That redoubtable mare was hissed on
her winning, not because she won, but because a
popular impression had got abroad that she bad
purposely and unfairly lost a previous race. The
fact was misrepresented. The French were made
to believe that she was hissed from jealousy,
and, arguing from these premises, they might Nved
suppose that on the present occasion horse ann;
jockey would be torn to pieces by a populace mat;
at seeing the sacred and time-honoured prize u`
the English turf snatched from us. On the con-
trary, however, they will find it chronicled in
every journal, and they will hear from their own,
correspondents that the triumph of Gladiateur and
Count de Lagrange was hailed with shouts even
more lusty than those which would have greeted
a Breadalbane, an Archimedes, a Christmas Carob
or any other of the number of Derby runners who
won favour by their own merits or from the pope"
larity of their owners. It must be acknowledge,'
that fair play is ever the guiding principle of the
English, and in accordance with its dictates the
multitude at Epsom hailed with unanimous and
enthusiastic acclamation the achievement of the best
horse of 1863. To the voice of that vast constitu-
ency will be added the congratulations of all Pig'
land, who, by a quasi-plebiscite, will acknowledge
the hardly-earned honours of the victorious French.
The event is almost a surprise, but it has been
brought about in the most legitimate manner ; and
while we shall assuredly do our best to prevent
its
recurrence, and to maintain the pre-eminence
of
England in all matters of sport, we shall welcome
the rivalry of our neighbours, promising them that
in all future contests they will find, as they found
yesterday, " a fair field and no favour."