18 



sis and coniparisuii of the agricultural industry of France 

 the proposition that the great fault of our farming is too 

 great extent of land in each farm and too little cultiva- 

 tion? Is it not the duty of the Statesman to inquire 

 whether legislation should not ])e fitted to subdivide the 

 land for the l)enefit of the whole people ? — and is it not 

 ■equally the duty of the farmer to inquire whether less 

 land and more cultivation would not produce greater 

 crops ? 



I have given vou the facts and figures and have stu- 

 diously avoided giving any opinions of my own which 

 would not he valuahle. But I have endeavored to im- 

 press these very valuable and vital statistics upon you 

 in order to bring the questions I have last indicated, to 

 your consideration. It will be observed in this that I 

 have not taken into account the advantages w^e are sup- 

 posed to derive from the political liberty which we enjoy 

 compared with France bearing the Ijurdens of an empire, 

 which we have seen, in fact, are no greater than the un- 

 holy and unnecessary war through which we have passed, 

 have imposed upon us. Nor would it have been just if I 

 had undertaken to make any allowance in our fa^or for 

 this, because, to the statesman and statician it is evident 

 that for the last twenty years the agricultural portion of 

 the people of France have enjoyed the best government 

 possible for them. After a democracy, a pure despotism 

 is the best government. The wrongs, sins, crimes if you 

 please, of one man are infinitessimal in their bearing upon 

 thirty-eight million of people. The citizens of no coun- 

 try have enjoyed greater protection of life, liberty and 

 property, than has the French nation for nearly twenty 

 years past. A man there need only to conduct himself 



