The Laud from the Citizens Standpoint. 393 



all three processes in vogue. He says that one-third of the 

 land belonged to the French peasant (though in reality it was 

 only one-fourth).^ The rest was distributed under the metayer 

 and domaine congeahle systems. The Code Napoleon was not 

 as yet in existence, and the sight of starving peasants clamour- 

 ing for bread and landed proprietors escaping from burning 

 chateaux afforded Young eloquent proofs that the French rural 

 economy in its then condition had become unbearable. Three 

 principal features attracted his notice — the vast extent of the 

 '' landes " or wastes, the scenes of pitiable management under 

 the metayer system, and the thrift, intelligence, and good 

 farming of the peasant proprietors. At first sight such evi- 

 dence appears wholly in favour of the wider distribution ol' 

 landed proprietorship brought about by the abolition of entails, 

 majorats, and primogeniture. The tendency of the Code 

 Napoleon to increase peasant proprietorship and diminish 

 metayage would appear the chief cause of the augmented pros- 

 perity which followed the march of the Jacquerie throughout 

 the French provinces. But before we ultimately decide that 

 this is so, we must examine the evidence of later experts who 

 visited France after the permanent, as opposed to the tem- 

 porary, effects of the Revolution had become visible. 



Notwithstanding Young's pronounced opinion to the con- 

 trary, it has long been contended that the reclamation of 

 wastes and. the vast increase of production have been brought 

 about by the agency of the metayer. This stepping-stone of 

 the hired labourer to landed proprietorship has been found so 

 essential to the French rural economy that by the census of 

 1872, 11,182,000 hectares of land were cultivated by metayers, 

 and 9,360,000 were in the hands of peasant proprietors. At 

 the present day 53 per cent, of the entire population in France 

 are agriculturists ; one-third of the soil is held by 50,000 

 owners, one-third by 500,000, and one-third by 5,000,000.^ Of 

 some four million cultivators one-sixteenth farm by deputy 

 and the remainder "de leitrs mains." ^ 



' Travels in France. Introduction. M. Betham Edwards. 



2 Edinburgh Eeriew, Jan. 1^93, sub vnc. " The Agricultural Crisis." 



^ Economie Rurale de la France. M. de Lavergue. 



