80 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [xix. 



Even the French peasantry, economical as they are 

 and inured to hardship, suffer grievously from the 

 same cause : its effects in their case being, no doubt 

 exaggerated by the law of succession, which tends to 

 the perpetual subdivision of the land, and throws 

 ever-increasing difficulties in the way of profitable 

 cultivation. Meanwhile, agriculture in France shows 

 little, if any, sign of improvement, there is no emi- 

 gration, and yet the population, if not diminishing, 

 is almost stationary. 



The difficulties, which beset schemes for the 

 establishment of permanent peasant proprietors, 

 render it desirable to consider attentively those 

 measures which have been found, in practice, bene- 

 ficial to the agricultural labourers. 



Experience has shown that small allotments, let 

 at moderate rents, can be cultivated by agricultural 

 labourers with advantage to themselves, and without 

 interfering materially with their ordinary vocation. 

 If this system were generally adopted, and in excep- 

 tionally bad years, attended with a reduction or 

 remission of rent, the condition of the labourer 

 would be raised, and the owner or farmer of the land 

 would probably find, that the sacrifices, which he 

 might occasionally be called upon to make, would be 

 compensated, by a reduction of poor-rates, and an 

 improvement in the moral qualities of his labourers. 



This plan might be supplemented on considerable 

 estates, by the formation of small farms, for the 



