THE LAND SYSTEM OF FRANCE 411 



the modes of its cultivation, are in reality traceable to the natural 

 play of economic forces, aided, indeed, by the law of France, 

 but not the part of it supposed. 



The contrast between the land systems of France and England, 

 two neighbouring countries at the head of civilisation, may, with- 

 out exaggeration, be called the most extraordinary spectacle which 

 European society offers for study to political and social philoso- 

 phy. The latest official statistics in France, 1 on the other hand 

 (following an enumeration of 185 1, now in arrear of the actual 

 numbers), reckon no less than 7,845,724 "proprietors," including 

 the owners of house property in towns a number which may 

 be assumed to denote the existence of eight million such pro- 

 prietors now. Of these, according to the computation of M. de 

 Lavergne, about five millions are "rural proprietors," of whom 

 nearly four millions are actual cultivators of the soil. The official 

 tables themselves return no fewer than 3,799,759 landowners as 

 cultivators, of whom 57,639 are represented as cultivating by 

 means of head-labourers or stewards, as against 3,740,793 cul- 

 tivating their land de leurs mains. This last figure is again 

 subdivided into 1,754,934 landowners cultivating only their own 

 land; 852,934 who, in addition to their own, farm land belong- 

 ing to others as tenants; and 1,134,190 who work also as 

 labourers for hire. But these figures, as already remarked, are 

 now in arrear ; and we may accept as a close approximation to 

 the actual situation the following estimate by M. de Lavergne : 



Of our five millions of small rural proprietors, three millions possess on the 

 average but a hectare - a-piece. Two millions possess on the average six hec- 

 tares. . . . Two million independent rural proprietors, a million tenant farmers 

 or metayers, and two million farmers and servants themselves, as well as the 

 million farmers, for the most part proprietors of land ; such is approximately 

 the composition of our rural population. 3 



It would hardly diminish the contrast of such statistics to our 

 own, were we to adopt the figure which M. de Lavergne has 

 introduced into his " Rural Economy of Great Britain," on the 



1 " Statistique de la France, Agriculture, 186S (Resultats generaux de Penquete 

 decennale de 1862)." 



2 Not quite two acres and a half. 3 " ficonomie rurale de la France." 



