PEASANT PROPRIETARY 227 



It is a well-worn argument that the foreign peasant 

 proprietor succeeds because he is more thrifty and 

 frugal than our own labourers. But his thrift and 

 frugality are the result, not the cause, of his position. 

 Adam Smith remarks : " A person who can acquire no 

 property can have no other interest but to eat as much, 

 and to labour as little, as possible." 



No doubt the continental peasant has a rooted habit 

 of thrift, which too often degenerates into the vice of 

 avarice. For the sake of adding to his savings he 

 very often practises an extreme penuriousness and 

 self-denial. The dilapidated condition of his working- 

 dress, with that of his family, is too often taken by the 

 casual traveller as a sign of poverty and want, which 

 it is not. 



This superficial view is one of the causes of the 

 misunderstanding which, to a large extent, exists in 

 this country as to the condition of the peasantry on 

 the Continent. The present writer has, on some 

 occasions, accompanied these ill-clad peasants to their 

 homes, where a different state of things was found. 

 On Sundays and fete-days these same people appear 

 in their holiday clothes, the men in ill-fitting but sub- 

 stantial suits, and the women — in some parts of 

 Europe — in their picturesque native costumes, with 

 head-gear of silver ornaments, etc. 



A few years ago he watched the proceedings in a 

 well-attended market in a small town in Switzerland. 

 Among the notes made on the spot he finds the 

 following: "These shabby- looking peasants are 

 buying and selling cows, sheep, goats, pigs, etc. etc. 

 When paying for their purchases they produce old, 

 well-worn pocket-books with rolls of bank-notes, and 

 shabby purses well filled with cash. This shows the 



