I860.] 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



697 



Europe, who yet have been so neglected by 

 their glory-seeking rulers, that they have 



: become a mass of non-productive and non- 

 consumptive paupers. France is not to be 

 estimated by the wealth and luxury of Paris, 



: nor by the numbers and the boasted bravery 

 of her soldiery. These imposing aspects of 

 French society naturally strike us most forci- 

 bly ) but the truth is that they but cover, 



j with a splendid disguise, an amount of pov- 

 erty and of abject degradation of«which the 

 general world has no conception. France 

 has her millionaires luxuriating in their pal- 

 aces; but she has, also, according to the tes- 

 timony of her own economists, a million of 

 wretched cottages containing but one window, 

 and fifteen millions of people living within 

 a hair's breadth of pauperism. This im- 

 mense proportion of the population of the 

 country, instead of being the foundation of 

 great national industries, is a dead, inert 

 mass, retarding in every sense the progress 

 of the country. The Emperor has had the 

 sagacity to discover this plague spot in 

 French society, and he has the policy to at- 

 tempt its remedy. The cure he purposes 

 applying is specified in the extract from his 

 late speech before his Legislators quoted 

 above. These splendid utterances may do 

 very well as a specimen of fine speechify- 

 ing; but, tested by their practical merit, 

 they will, be found wanting in the quality of 

 economic prudence'. They savor much more 

 of the elation of one who is planning a 

 piece of gardening for the adornment of his 

 estate, — than of the weighty sentiments of 

 a statesman who feels himself charged with 

 the difficult task of elevating many millions 

 of people from a compacted and spiritless 

 degradation into which they have been set- 

 tling through a long series of years. 



We apprehend that this splendid scheme 

 will be found to be too much in advance of 

 the condition of the people for whose bene- 

 fit it is more especially designed. The advan- 

 tages offered through banking institutions 

 and great public works of agriculture, to be 

 useful must be put into the hands of those 

 who know how to appreciate them and to 

 turn them to practical account. The aids 

 proffered can be of no -permanent service to 

 a class of people destitute alike of intelli- 

 gence and enterprise. The French govern- 

 ment will certainly find that the capital it 

 loans out to its indolent and abject peasan- 

 try, instead of developing the untillcd lands, 

 will be wasted through the incompetence 



of those who receive it. The fact is, that 

 the government has so completely enner- 

 vated this class of the population by the sup- 

 pression of the freedom of the press, and, 

 much more, by its system of conscription, 

 which withdraws from active pursuits the 

 flower of the country's strength and enter- 

 prise — that it has thrown upon its hands a 

 mass of people utterly useless as to the pur- 

 poses of national wealth, and incapable of 

 any immediate improvement. The millions 

 of the poorer peasantry serve no public pur- 

 pose beyond that of an army reserve. If 

 the Emperor desires to elevate his fifteen 

 millions of paupers, let him not think of 

 turning them into prosperous farmers by 

 loaning them capital ; but rather let him 

 send the schoolmaster and the newspaper 

 into their midst, allowing both agents to be 

 the representatives of a vigorous freedom ; 

 and let him cease to take from their families 

 those stalwart sons who are their chief hope. 

 As to the scheme of transplanting the for- 

 ests from the plains where Nature has placed 

 them, to the tops of the mountains, it is a 

 piece of splendid moonshine. It may be 

 well enough as a dream of visionary theor- 

 ists, who imagine that it would be the means 

 of enticing the clouds to be more propi- 

 tious; but as-an actual project contemplated 

 by the government of the country, it is a 

 monstrous utopia. If there were a scarcity 

 of land capable of cultivation, and the coun- 

 try were absolutely driven to it by a neces- 

 sity so urgent as to make it imperative to 

 try even such an unpromising experiment — 

 then there might be some apology for the 

 scheme. But the reverse is the fact. There 

 are now five millions of acres of communal 

 lands in France waiting for cultivation ; 

 why not operate upon this instead of exper- 

 imenting upon the transplantation of for- 

 ests ? 



There are those who are taking fright lest 

 this attempt at the development of French 

 agriculture should seriously interfere with 

 the demand for American breadstuffs, by 

 supplying the markets of Europe at rates 

 cheaper than those at which we can afford 

 to produce. There must, however, be more 

 common sense and practicability about the 

 efforts of the Emperor's government before 

 any results can be forthcoming, likely at all 

 to affect any existing sources of supply. 

 We predict for this splendid scheme, a splen- 

 did failure. — U. S. Economist. 



