AGRICULTURAL AND MANUFACTURING NATIONS. 223 



More happy than England, France cannot be tormented 

 by these fears. In a population of from thirty to thirty- 

 two millions, the proportion of those possessing no prop- 

 erty, is hardly one sixth, and the resources which agricul- 

 ture presents are immense. France possesses but two 

 great manufacturing centres, Lyons and Rouen ; and when 

 the operatives there are out of employment, they disperse 

 themselves in the country, where they find occupation. 



Manu/acturing and commercial crises are less numerous 

 in France than in England, and there are two principal 

 reasons of this difference : the first is, that manufacturing 

 is carried on to a much greater extent in England than in 

 France ; the second is, that the principal markets for the 

 products of English labor are abroad, while France 

 possesses thirty-two millions ef consumers at home. 



This last advantage in favor of France is immense, be- 

 cause nothing can deprive her of it, and because it could 

 only be compensated for by the opening of numerous mar- 

 kets abroad. In England, agriculture holds a second place ; 

 in France, it takes the precedence over manufactures. 



The crises to which agriculture is liable, are less fre- 

 quent than those of manufactures, and are not attended 

 with the same consequences ; periods of scarcity are never 

 so terrible in the country as in cities ; the farmer always 

 husbands resources for these calamitous times, and his sub- 

 sistence is never made uncertain. 



The labors of agriculture maintain a frugal, healthy, and 

 hardy population ; those of manufactories often alter the 

 most robust health, and dissoluteness of all kinds is almost 

 alwayg" an appendage of the manufacturing laborer. 



There is, then, no doubt, that, in many respects, agricul- 

 tural is preferable to manufacturing life. 



But, on the other hand, the fortunes made in agriculture 

 are slowly and laboriously acquired : such a competition 

 in price exists as to the products of the soil, that the profits 

 of the proprietor are necessarily very limited ; and although 

 agriculture offers an honorable and certain subsistence, and 

 one presenting fewer chances of a reverse, yet the greater 

 number rush to manufactures, as promising more rapid 

 gains. 



Governments, however, almost universally favor manu- 

 factures rather than agriculture. This predilection would 

 seem to be suggested to them by the example of England, 

 who, by means of her manufactures, has reached, in a short 

 time, the highest degree of prosperity. 



