view raw text
STATESMEN COM W1EIID RACING Disraeli and Bismarck in Accord in Regard to Its National Benefits. The most entrancing volumes I have ever read are the six books of the Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, and it would be easy to dilate on our lack of that "vanished hand" in these evil days, but The Sportsman is not a proper medium for such discussion. It is to the point here, however, to show how Disraeli had a really serious interest in bloodstock breeding, far and away beyond that which was connected with Lord George Bentinck and his "splendid groan ovsr Surplice. Writing -to Lady Bradford on July 27, 1875, he committed himself to the following words of advice: "Tell Bradford I was greatly disappointed that his horse, came in second. I cannot understand why a great noble with his brains and knowledge of horses does not command the turf. I do not want him to have a great stable, but I want him to have a famous one; that should, at any rate, obtain some first-rate blood, and then care-.fully and sedulously breed from it, as Rothschild did with King Tom. I saw the beginning of his; plan at Mentmore, and people turned up their noses at his scheme and his sire for a while; and yet eventually that blood gave him the Derby, the Oaks and the St. Leger in, one year. I should like to see that done at dear Weston." There, Indeed, was sound advice from a man who was always practical while gifted with wondrous imagination. I can : well believe that the Improvement in Lord Bradfords stud emanated from that letter. Even more interesting, however, from a general point of view, in regard to racing, is the following extract from Lord Beacons-fields Diary as communicated to Queen Victoria while he was at the Berlin conference in the summer of 1878. BISMARCKS VIEW IN APPROVAL. "July 5. I dined with Bismarck alone, i. e., with his family, who disappeared after the repast, and then we talked and smoked. If you do not smoke under such circumstances you look like a spy, taking down his conversation in your mind. Smoking in common puts, him at his ease. He asked me today whether racing was still much encouraged in England. I replied, never more so; that when I was young, though there were numerous race meetings, they" were at intervals and some times long intervals Epsom, Ascot, Doncaster, Goodwood and Newmarket frequently; but now there were rates throughout the year it might be said, every day of the year and much attended. " Then, cried the prince eagerly, there will never be Socialism in England. You are a happy country. You are safe as long as the people are devoted to racing. Here a gentleman cannot ride down the street without twenty persons saying to .themselves, or each other "Why has that fellow horse and I have not one" In England the more horses a nobleman lias the more popular he is. So long as the English are devoted to racing Socialism has no chance with you! " This will give you a slight idea of the style of his conversation." THE HUMAN TOUCH. No one has ever suggested that Bismarck was lacking in common sense, and his remarks on the salutary influence of racing, as quoted above, should be widely circulated. I cannot hope that my poor effort here will produce any such effect unless other papers will quote the extract, and some, at least, of my readers will cut it out and show it to their friends. It is strange to think of Bismarck realizing the importance of racing from the human point of view when such mighty issues were at stake as those which the Berlin conference settled for a generation. Some of us knew well what it meant during the recent war and racing was maintained against desperate opposition. Those who are trying to settle the affairs of the world now differ vastly from Bismarck and Disraeli. They seem to have no grip of the sporting spirit which touches .the whole people; and without it their efforts seem likely to be merged in a morass of Bolshevism. Sinn Feinism. and chaos. Yet from it all I steadfastly believe that the true British spirit will hold up the empire, tempered; as it has been ly the hammering blows of hundreds of years. I here would never have been trouble but for the aliens, and goodness knows there are multitudes of them among us still, who, not content to have gained a sanctuary, seek to Incite honest Englishmen to join them in ruuniug amok against business and trade throguhout the world. "The Speciul Commissioner" in Loudon Sportsman,
