650 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 11 



or to supply (he poor with food at the gates of con- 

 vents or chateaux, as in Spain. 



The subsistence of the laborer without property 

 is never certain; the frequent diminution or suspen- 

 sion of labor in manufacturing establishments re- 

 duces him to misery, and promotes the develope- 

 ment of all the vices which result from it; the la- 

 bors of the country vary with times and seasons, 

 and do not offer constant employment to one not 

 attached to the farm. His lot is then always va- 

 riable and precarious. 



The man without property who is single, com- 

 monly leads a dissolute and intemperate life; he 

 who would have a family commonly becomes 

 more unhappy; he cannot give his children a suita- 

 ble education, and they soon contract all the vices 

 of a depraved society. 



The condition of the small proprietor is very 

 different from this; he is rooted to the sod, and 

 thence derives all the advantages of his situation. 

 He works on his own land in his leisure moments, 

 and devotes the rest of his time to earning wages 

 on the estates of others. This double source of 

 profit abundantly secures his existence and that of 

 his family. His children and his wife co-operate 

 in the culture of his little farm; idleness is banished 

 from their household, and good morals, which are 

 always the result of a laborious life, prevail there. 



The small proprietor is interested in the mainte- 

 nance of public order, because he would be a loser 

 by trouble and disorder; he loves the institutions 

 and the government which protect his property; he 

 regards the welfare of others, because he would 

 have others regard his own. His interest, his al- 

 fections, his fears, his hopes, are concentrated and 

 repose in that little spot of earth whose safety and 

 prosperity are his only wish. He has in truth a 

 country, whilst the other is a true cosmopolite, a 

 •tranger to all social interest. 



Some appear to be alarmed at the increase of 



Eopulation attendant upon small proprietorship; 

 ut this increase of population is a certain sign of 

 an increase of the means of subsistence and of the 

 wealth of the inhabitants, whilst the diminution of 

 population announces public misery. 



In proportion as the population of the country 

 increases, manual labor becomes more abundant, 

 and produce increases in quantity and is reduced in 

 price. 



Thus, stripping the question of all that is con- 

 nected with certain political considerations, the di- 

 vision of landed property is an advantage to agri- 

 culture, to the state, to public morals. 



Men who take their opinion only from the past, 

 would bring back property to its former state; but 

 times are not the same, and a return to the ancient 

 order of things is impossible. The division of 

 property will continue to take place, so long as the 

 email proprietor shall obtain more produce from a 

 given extent of land than the large one, and so 

 long as large owners shall divide their lands into 

 email lots, to obtain a more advantageous sale of 

 them; it is evident that a different result could be 

 obtained only by reducing the destitute laborer to 

 a degree of misery which would not permit him tp 

 economize with a view to acquiring property, or 

 by prohibiting sales of land in small portions; now, 

 the first of these means is contrary to justice and 

 good morals, and the second to the rights of pro- 

 perty. 



When, in the session of 1825, the government 



proposed to re-establish the right of primogeniture, 

 it had neither paid regard to the changes which 

 had taken place since the revolution, nor to the re- 

 spective rights of the different members of the 

 same family. Formerly, almost all the large es- 

 tates belonged to the most ancient families in the 

 kingdom; they passed, undivided, into the hands 

 of the eldest son, because the army, the clergy, or 

 the order of Malta afforded rich endowments for 

 younger sons, and convents offered great resources 

 for daughters; but, at the present day, what, would 

 become of younger sons if the right of primogeni- 

 ture were re-established? Deprived of the expe- 

 dients offered by the old state of things, incapable of 

 laboring upon the soil, they would live at the mer- 

 cy of the head of their family. It is then particu- 

 larly to old families, which, notwithstanding, it is 

 meant to benefit, that the re-establishment of the 

 right of primogeniture would be fatal. 



Let us but leave it to time and to private inter- 

 est, and the division of property will not pass the 

 bounds prescribed to it by these supreme regula- 

 tors of all things. 



The division of estates will continue to take 

 place, 1. in the vicinity of cities, where, from the 

 constant attention bestowed on the soil, from the 

 abundance of manure, the facility of transporta- 

 tion, the proximity of the market, and the cer- 

 tainty of a safe and advantageous sale, immense 

 crops of vegetables and fruits of all kinds and of 

 every season may be obtained my manual labor; 



2. in vine countries, where the cultivation requires 

 constant labor, and where the production is always 

 proportional to the care bestowed upon the land; 



3. in uneven lands, like valleys, mountains, &c. 

 where cultivation is confined within narrow limits, 

 and where the lands capable of it are separated by 

 a barren soil. 



In all these cases, the plough and working-cat- 

 tle cannot be employed in labor; every thing is 

 done by manual labor, and at most, the owner of 

 each estate possesses a few cows and goats, and 

 sometimes a few sheep, to secure subsistence, and 

 increase the comfort of his household. We often 

 find a numerous population assembled in those 

 wild places where the soil seems to refuse any cul- 

 tivation, and where the inhabitant, temperate and 

 hardy, obtains, by industrious labor, crops which 

 satisfy his wants and supply the neighboring mar- 

 kets. Those numerous countries, which are not 

 capable of high cultivation, would be deserted 

 without the assistance of the small proprietor; and 

 it may be said, to his credit, that he creates pro- 

 duce in places which nature had devoted to the 

 most complete sterility. 



We no where see small proprietorships existing 

 in places favorable to high cultivation. The vast 

 domains of Beauce, Brie, Soissonnais, Upper 

 Languedoc, exist undivided, and are always the 

 granaries of France; the rich pasture lands of 

 Normandy, Poitou, Anjou, &c. always maintain 

 the same number of cattle; our large forests have 

 remained untouched; population and the means of 

 living have considerably increased; our markets 

 are abundantly supplied; wealth has spread 

 through the country; manufactures have made im- 

 mense progress; taxes are paid regularly and with- 

 out compulsion. 



Let us beware of disturbing, by laws or regula- 

 tions relative to property, this general harmony 



