FRANCE. 139 



hair's -breadth perpetually between them 

 and ruin with landlords in the mod di- 

 flrefled of fituations; their farms often upon 

 their hands, and unable to find people with 

 whom to trufl their flock ; all their lofTes 

 deducted, and the mtereft of the value of 

 the flock, they do not, on the finefl lands 

 in trie kingdom, receive a nett profit of 

 more than 53. an acre. Lands, which, in 

 England, you would have from fifteen to 

 twenty for. 



Here, therefore, we take, firft, the land- 

 lord's lofs, which is receiving not more 

 than a third or fourth of what he ought to 

 do: then there is the metayer, or -farmer, 

 or bailiff, or whatever you will call him, 

 who, inflead of a tenant under leafe, with 

 wealth in his pocket, and making a profit 

 almofl equal to the landlord's rent, is a poor 

 beggar, who receives not enough to keep 

 his family from flarving, and himfelf from 

 ruin. Then come the labourers or pea- 

 fants, who muft every where follow the 

 fortunes of their employers, and fiourifh or 

 fall with them, when the owner and far- 

 mer can neither of them get any thing : it 

 is impoffible that thefe people fhould be 



well 



