CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY. 95 



numerous in London and other large towns, to be con- 

 vinced that properties of fifty to five hundred acres that 

 is, twenty to two hundred hectares are not rare in Eng- 

 land, and in fact are sold every day. 



These newspaper advertisements usually run as fol- 

 lows : " For sale, a property of so many acres in extent, let 

 to a substantial tenant, with an elegant and comfortable 

 residence, a good trouting stream, beautiful lawn, kitchen 

 and flower gardens, close to a railway and town, in a 

 picturesque country, &c." In the offices they also show a 

 plan of the land, and a tolerably well-executed view of the 

 house and offices. It is always a pretty building, almost 

 new, beautifully kept, with exterior decorations in bad 

 enough taste, but the interior arrangements simple and 

 commodious ; standing upon a lawn, more or less exten- 

 sive, with clumps of trees upon each side, and cows graz- 

 ing in front. There are two hundred thousand resi- 

 dences of this description scattered over the verdant 

 surface of the British Isles. 



Notwithstanding the strong desire in England for the 

 possession of land, which gives a man the title of land- 

 lord at once, its value is not proportionably higher 

 than in France. The cost is generally thirty times the 

 rent ; that it is to say, yielding about 3 per cent upon 

 the outlay. As soon as a man has made a little money 

 in business, and has a few thousand pounds to invest 

 in a country house, he has ten estates, varying in value 

 from 4000 to 40,000, to choose among. In a country 

 where the acre of land is worth on an average 40, it 

 only requires fifty acres to constitute a property of 

 4000, and only seven hundred and fifty for a value of 

 40,000, including house and offices. 



In France the land is certainly much more divided. 

 Everybody knows the celebrated number of eleven and 



