Ch. vii. in France {continued). 389 



cent, worse fed, worse clothed, and worse sup- 

 ported, both in sickness and health, than the same 

 classes in England."* And though this statement 

 is perhaps rather too strong, and sufficient allow- 

 ance is not made for the real difference of prices, 

 yet his work every where abounds with observa- 

 tions which shew the depressed condition of the 

 labouring classes in France at that time, and imply 

 the pressure of the population very hard against 

 the limits of subsistence. 



On the other hand, it is universally allowed 

 that the condition of the French peasantry has 

 been decidedly improved by the revolution and 

 the division of the national domains. All the 

 writers who advert to the subject notice a consi- 

 derable rise in the price of labour, partly occasioned 

 by the extension of cultivation, and partly by the 

 demands of the army. In the Statistique Elemen- 

 taire of Peuchet, common labour is stated to have 

 risen from 20 to 30 sous,| while the price of pro- 

 visions appears to have remained nearly the same; 

 and Mr. Birbeck, in his late Agricultural Tour in 

 France, J says that the price of labour without 

 board is twenty pence a day, and that provisions 

 of all kinds are full as cheap again as in England. 

 This would give the French labourer the same 

 command of subsistence as an English labourer 

 would have with three shillings and four pence a 

 day. But at no time were the wages of common 



* Young's Travels in France, vol. i. p. 437. 

 t 1\ 301. 

 t P. 13. 



