VIII 



COMPARISON BETWEEN ENGLAND AND 

 OTHER COUNTRIES 



THOSE who would dispute the conclusions to which 

 I have arrived are constantly appealing to other countries 

 where a peasant proprietary is still to be found, and more 

 especially to France and to Belgium. It would therefore 

 seem appropriate that I should devote a few words to 

 these countries, and more particularly to France. 



It is sometimes said that the existence of peasant 

 proprietorship in that country is due to the Great Revolu- 

 tion and to the direct and indirect influence of the rule 

 of intestate succession laid down by the Code Napoleon, 

 which insists, with some limitations, on equal succession. 

 Whether such laws are of much avail unless they agree 

 with the habits and interests of the people, is a question 

 which has been already discussed in my first lecture, but 

 whatever may be the true answer, the statement forgets 

 that the peasant proprietor was well known in France 

 before the Revolution itself, 1 and held about one quarter 

 of the area of the country, 2 and that at a time when the 

 law of intestate succession was the same as in England. 

 M. Loutchisky, the latest authority on the subject, holds 

 the opinion that there were 5,000,000 landed proprietors 

 in France before the Revolution, and that the increase 

 since that date, relatively to the population, has been tather 



1 Cf. Doniol, Hist, des classes rurales. 



2 A. Young puts it as high as one third. 



