PEASANT PEOPEIETOES 135 



ratlier on the presumed results than the actual effect of the 

 partage force ; customs have sprung up which so far evade 

 the law as to prevent morcellement becoming pulverisation. 

 Greater objections may be urged against the operation of 

 a law which subdivides the soil on mechanical rules with- 

 out reference to demand and supply, which splits up 

 estates into minutely scattered parcels, wasting both the 

 soil and the time of the owner, and breeding perpetual 

 litigation. Another formidable danger is the amount of 

 the French peasant's debt. No one is more possessed by 

 the demon of property, more maddened by the soif du 

 sillon, or more seduced by the fascinations of anguliis iste. 

 He raises money, not for improvements, but for additional 

 purchases; he increases his debt with blind recklessness, 

 borrowing often at 7 per cent, from the local Kigou, and 

 becomes proprietor only in name. Yet the mortgages on 

 landed property in France do not amount to half the sum 

 with which land in England is encumbered. In some 

 parts of France the mortgage debt is said to be 80 per 

 cent, of the value of the land, but the general average is 

 only 15 per cent. Balzac's portrait of ' Courtecaisse ' is 

 less favourable than Michelet's graphic picture. Perhaps 

 the true condition of the modern peasant lies midway 

 between the two. In actual command of the luxuries of 

 life, the creation of a class of small owners in England 

 would lower the standard of comfort. The French peasant 

 is worse housed and worse fed than the English labourer. 

 His cottage is generally a single room with a mud floor, in 

 which he, his family, and his livestock live, eat, sleep, 

 work, and die ; in cold weather he defies all sanitary laws, 

 and makes his room a tank of stagnant air. From morning 

 to night his toil is excessive and prolonged ; female 

 labour is the rule; children are continuously employed. 



