144 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



quis d'Argenson, who thus wrote in 1739, five years 

 before his appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs to 

 Louis XV. : " The real evil that which undermines the 

 kingdom, and cannot fail to bring ruin upon it is, that 

 at Versailles they shut their eyes too much to the dis- 

 tressing state of things in the provinces. In my own 

 day I have observed a gradual decrease of wealth and 

 population in France. We have the present certainty 

 that misery has become general to an unheard-of degree. 

 While I write, in the midst of profound peace, with indi- 

 cations, if not of an abundant, at least of an average 

 harvest, men are dying around us, like flies, of want, 

 and eating grass. The provinces of Maine, Angoumois, 

 Touraine, Haut-Poitou, P^rigord, Orleanais, Berry, are 

 the most wretched, and the distress is advancing towards 

 Versailles. The Duke of Orleans lately laid before the 

 Council a piece of bread, which we got for him, made 

 of ferns : in placing it upon the king's table, he said, 

 ' Sire, here is what your subjects live upon!" 



This is the abyss from which France has had to rise, 

 and therefore it is not to be wondered at that, after a 

 century of endeavours, her wounds should not have been 

 completely healed. During this century, agricultural 

 production has quadrupled, population has doubled, rents 

 have risen from 150,000,000 to 1,500,000,000 francs, or in 

 the proportion of one to ten. This is enormous progress ; 

 and if our starting-point had not been so low, it would 

 have sufficed, and been more than enough, to have enabled 

 us to keep our proper position. No other nation except 

 England has made as great progress in so short a time ; 

 and, besides, circumstances during that time were not 

 always favourable. About fifty years out of the hundred 

 were disturbed by horrible revolutions and bloody wars. 

 We had no really good times, excepting the reign of 



