i 
eS — 
Money rent. 
FRANCE. 
country in continental Europe. About two-fifths 
pp is land susceptible of cultivation, were in what is 
termed culture and and produced, on an 
culture, on the 
produced. 
at benefit and good must be looked for 
in the state of her landed property, and in the'condi- 
tion of her agricultural population. 
Before the Revolution, the land in France was held 
by various tenures, almost all of which were decidedly 
and extremely unfavourable to agriculture | The ma- 
nor rents of the clergy have been variously estimated. 
Condorcet, in his Life of Turgot, gives it as his opinion, 
that the cl enjo ednear & fish part of the property 
of the ki eckar calculated their revenue at 
180,000,000 livres ; but it is probable that their manor 
rents may fairly be estimated to have amounted to about 
120 of livres, or £4,800,000 sterling, exclu- 
sive of their tithes, which may be rated at about 
£3,600,000 sterling. The domains of the crown and 
of the princes of the blood, rented for about £1,200,000 
sterling ; the feudal and honorary dues paid to the no- 
bility, with corvées, militia, &c. amounted at least to 
£5,000,000 sterling. Besides, the government drew 
from the produce i the sum of £8,000,000 
sterling. In short, it has been calculated, that, exclu- 
sive of the rents of land paid to the lay-proprietors, 
and of the duties of excise, consumption, and the like, 
the uce of the soil was charged annually with up- 
wards of £21,000,000 sterling. } 
But agriculture laboured under disadvantages still 
more di ing and ive, previously to the 
Sra tnlotelster che‘ iicenk wtsioe ch-ictey> 
to ider the di t ° - 
ing land which then existed, some of which, ag 
ever, as we shall afterwards see, still remain. In the 
first place, there were the small ies of the pea- 
sants. These were to be found every where to a de- 
gree of which we have no conception in England, and 
which we should not ae See in the midst of the 
enormous possessions, and the oppressive privileges, 
of the nobility andthe clergy. Even in dante proces 
where other tenures prevailed, they were to be found ; 
but principally in edoc; Quercy, which now 
forms the department of Lot; the whole district of the 
a sg Bearn, Gascony, part of Guienne, Alsace, 
nders, and Lorraine. The condition of the peasant- 
ry, who possessed these small ren varied much 
in different parts of the kingdom. In Flanders, Alsace, 
on the Garonne, and more particularly in Bearne, they 
were in comfortable circumstances, and might rather 
be called farmers than ; and in Lower Britta- 
ny many of them were rich; but this character could 
by no means be applied to them ms geneaey. In fact, the 
minute division of property produced the effects 
which might be e from it; and poverty and mi- 
sery were too visible, especially in Lorraine, and the 
parts of Cham which are contiguous to it. 
The presto ee of possessing land, was 
rent. This, before the Revolution, was 
el in Picardy, Normandy, of Flanders, 
Artois, Isle of France, and the Pays de Beauce. It al- 
so existed in some of the southern districts of France, 
particularly in Bearn, and about Navareens, a town 
in the department of the Lower Pyrenees, These 
a mo- 
gene- 
— 695 
tenures were also found in other parts of France, scatters Statistica. , 
ed among those which were different and predominant ; 
but, upon a moderate estimate, before the Revolu-. 
tion, they did not exist in-more than a sixth or a se- 
venth of the kingdom. 
Feudal tenures were the third mode of occupying 
land. They abounded most in Brittany, Limosin, Ber- 
ry, La Manche, &c. but they were scattered in a great- 
er or less degree through the whole kingdom. These 
feudal tenures were fiefs granted by the seigneurs of 
the parishes, under a reservation of fines, quit rents, 
forfeitures, services, &c. As they formed the most op- 
pressive evil under which agriculture laboured previ- 
ously to'the Revolution, and from which that event 
must certainly be allowed the merit of having freed it, 
it may be proper to notice some of them. Even to 
enumerate the whole of these oppressions would far-ex~ 
ceed our limits ; and indeed, the English language does 
not supply terms by which many of them can be ex~ 
P 
Among the more mild and tolerable of these feudal 
tenures, may be mentioned the obligation the tenant 
was under, of grinding his corn at the mills of the 
seigneur only ; of pressing his grapes at his press only ; 
of baking his bread in his oven. The peasantry in 
Brittany were obliged to beat the waters in marshy 
districts, to keep the frogs silent, in order that the 
lady of the seigneur, during her lying-in, might not 
be disturbed by their noise. In short, every petty op- 
pression which could render the lives of the peasantry 
miserable, or interfere with the operations of agricul- 
ture, was authorised by these feudal tenures; though 
it must be confessed, that, before the Revolution, some 
of the seigneurs, convinced of their injustice as well 
as impolicy, forbore to exact them. Nor were the op- 
pressions of the feudal tenures the only ones to which 
agriculture was exposed. There were numerous edicts 
for preserving the game, which prohibited weeding and 
hoeing, lest the young partridges should be disturbed ; 
steeping seed, lest it should injure the game; manu- 
ring with night soil, lest the flavour of the partridges 
should be injured, by feeding on the corti so produ- 
ced ; mowing hay before a certain time, so late as ta 
spoil many crops ; and taking away the stubble, which 
would deprive the birds of shelter. These were op- 
pressions, to which all the tenants of land, as well as 
those who held under feudal tenures, and even the 
poet of land, in many cases, were exposed. The 
er, indeed, were dreadfully tormented by what 
were called the Capitainries, which, as affecting them 
in some measure, as the feudal tenures affected the 
farmers, may be noticed under this head. By this term 
was to be understood, the paramountship of certain dis- 
tricts, granted by the king to princes of the blood, by 
which they were put in possession of the property of 
all game, even on lands which did not belong to them, 
and even on manors granted long before to individu- 
als ; so that by this paramountship all manorial rights 
were annihilated. ‘The privileges thus conferred, were 
most grievous and oppressive ; for by game was under~ 
stood, whole droves of wild boars, and herds of deer 
not confined, but wandering over the whole country to 
the destruction of the crops ; and if any person presu- 
med to kill them, he was liable to be sent to the gallies. 
It may easily be conceived, that the minute vexations, 
as well as the more prominent tyranniés, to which 
the feudal tenures gave rise, would occasion frequent 
disputes between the seigneur and his tenants; but 
the latter preferred submitting to them, rather than ap- 
Feudal te- 
nures. 
