Rural Economy of France since 1789. 
527 
subdivision may be too arduous to be amicably arranged, in which 
case the heirs agree to sell. With such a contingency staring 
him in the face, how can a prudent father of a family bring 
himself to attempt improvements of a permanent character upon 
his estate ? Is it not much better for him to invest his money in 
securities more easily realized, and consequently more easily 
divided among his children? This sentiment goes so far, that it 
is a prevalent opinion among landed proprietors in France that 
all money spent in land improvements is inevitably lost. 
Another great evil which modem enactments on the part of 
the Emperor have sought to remedy, is the existence of large 
tracts of land, mostly of excellent quality, remaining uncultivated, 
unenclosed, undrained, and consequently useless. These lands 
were peremptorily given to the parishes by the revolutionary 
power of 1793, even where the rights of private proprietors were 
clearly established : twelve millions and a half acres, or one- 
tenth of the whole territory, were thus snatched from cultivation 
and abandoned to waste and sterility. 
The foreign wars and consequent conscriptions under the 
First Empire were hardly less hostile to agricultural progress than 
the excesses which preceded them. It is calculated that dur- 
ing the wars that raged between 1792 and 1800, no less than 
one million Frenchmen were destroyed on battle-fields and in 
hospitals! and from 1804 to 1815 the number that fell has been 
fixed by the most competent authorities at no less than one mil- 
lion seven hundred thousand. 
Besides these dire influences, there were the foolish and mis- 
chievous enactments made by ignorant statesmen — strangers to the 
most vulgar rules of political economy. The abominable laws of 
Maximum, which professed to limit the price at which corn 
should be sold, were actually re-enacted in May, 1812, by a decree 
which made it a criminal act to speculate in corn, and fixed its 
price at 33 francs the hectolitre — about 76.?. a quarter. Of course 
this law, like that of 1793, only led to a famine. 
Another decree, dated 8th March, 1811, having for its object 
'■'■the improvement of jiocks^'' enacted that no breeder of Merino 
sheep should castrate any of his rams without the authorisation 
of an inspector ; and it was further enacted that every breeder who 
used a cross should have all his male lambs castrated, under the 
penalty of a fine not less than 4/., and not more than 40/., to be 
doubled in case of a subsequent offence! M. de Lavergne justly 
observes that it is really astonishing that in the face of all these 
adverse circumstances and fearful calamities, the cultivation of 
the soil did not come to a standstill altogether. The only in- 
centive to agricultural pursuits, in the midst of these difficulties, 
was the high price which all the necessaries of life long con- 
