384 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



If thus much may be said of the economical results, still more 

 may be said of the beneficial moral influences of such a system. 

 Of all the influences which operate to promote exertion, indus 

 try, and good conduct, none certainly is more powerful than 

 the hope of bettering our condition ; and I may add, without 

 undertaking to give a reason for it, as an established truth, that 

 nothing inspires more self-respect, as connected with a feeling of 

 independence, than the possession of property, and especially the 

 possession of a fixed property in house or land. This effect is 

 constantly seen in the laboring classes among the French. They 

 are extremely ambitious of getting a piece of land ; and perhaps 

 too much so, after once coming into possession, of extending 

 their possessions. This stimulates them to industry, and induces 

 the most rigid economy. The subdivision of property or of 

 land in Prance renders this practicable, which, in other countries, 

 where the right of entail prevails, or where property is held in 

 large masses, and guarded with extreme jealousy, is out of the 

 question. There is a wise foresight likewise, in this matter, in 

 respect to the security of public order and the peace of the 

 country. The persons of all others least likely to engage in 

 projects of revolution certainly are those whose property must in 

 every case be endangered by such revolution ; whose possessions 

 are fixed, and not transferable from one place to another at pleas 

 ure. Their estates constitute the strongest pledge of their loy 

 alty and patriotism. The more property is divided in a country, 

 the more equally it is held, or rather, that it should be attainable 

 by all on equal conditions, the greater security is there for the 

 rights of property ; the more are concerned in the preservation 

 of the public peace. The humblest agricultural laborer in 

 France may look forward, by industry, sobriety, and economy, 

 to become a proprietor and a holder in fee-simple of some 

 portion of the soil which he cultivates. There is, therefore, the 

 strongest inducement held out to good conduct ; and the benefi 

 cial influence of this condition of things upon the character of 

 the French peasantry cannot be doubted. 



Few things have struck me more forcibly than the difference 

 in the condition of the agricultural population of France and 

 that of Great Britain a subject to which I have already 

 referred. I have never seen a more healthy, a better-clad, or a 

 happier population, than the French peasantry. Something may 



