Rural Economy of France since 1789. 
533 
employed : it may be assumed that the annual income of farm 
labourers has doubled since 1789. On the other hand, the price 
of the necessaries of life, except meat, being pretty much the 
same now as then, and the price of manufactured articles of 
household use and that of textile fabrics having considerably 
diminished, it may be inferred that the general condition of 
labourers has greatly improved in our times. 
The following table will give a clear idea of the distribution 
of the gross produce of the land at the three periods of 1789, 
1815, and 1859 :— 
1789. 1815. 1859. 
£. s. (1. £. s. d. £. s. d. 
Lfimllord's rent per acre ..040 059 096 
'J enant's profit 018 020 032 
Working expenses .... 004 008 018 
Land-taxes, tithes, &c. ..023 013 019 
Labour 0 7 9 0 9 G 0 15 11 
Gross produce .. 0 16 0 0 19 0 1 12 0 
M, de Lavergne draws from this table the following observa- 
tions : — 
" This progress suffices no doubt to excite within Us a legiti- 
mate pride and a just confidence in the future ; but we must 
never forget that it might have been ,at least twice as considerable, 
since we have wasted about the half of the time that has elapsed 
since the Revolution. A neighbouring country, in which the 
principles of 1789 have been, notwithstanding a few apparent 
exceptions, more anciently and more constantly applied than 
with us, has accomplished in the same time a progress much 
more rapid still. In 1789 the United Kingdom had 13 millions 
and a-half inhabitants ; in 1856, the population had increased 
to 28 millions, without reckoning the millions of English-born 
individuals scattered in distant colonies and all over the world. 
The population of England has thus more than doubled, whilst 
ours has increased only by one-third. It has taken us 70 years 
to reclaim five million acres of waste lands, suppress half of our 
bare fallows, double our agricultural produce, increase our popu- 
lation by 30 per cent., wages 100 per cent., and rent 150 per 
cent. ! At this rate we should require three-quarters of a century 
more to reach the point of prosperity which England has already 
attained." 
Such is the substance of what M. de Lavergne modestl}' calls 
the " Introduction " to his book, but which must be considered 
as the very pith of the work itself. The remaining pages are 
filled with the most graphic descriptions of the various parts of 
the French territory, under their multifarious and varied aspects 
as regards topographical features and climate. In that detailed 
