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II. — The Prize Farms of France. By P. H. Frere. 
Many circumstances tend to give us a lively and increasing- 
interest in French agriculture. The same rule applies to the two 
empires parted by the British Channel as to all subdivisions, 
whether natural or scientific, viz., that in some respects parts ot" 
the bodies which have been severed are more akin than certain 
of the members of the same body or group. In ease of access to 
either metropolis and its markets, in soil, in climate, and pro- 
ducts, perhaps even in race, the two shores of the Channel stand 
in nearer relation to each other than the one to Ireland or Scotland, 
or the other to Provence, Savoy, and the Pyrenees. 
Again, if contrasts teach us only less pointedly than patterns, 
Ave may have much to learn from the South of France, which 
seems designed in some measure to play, under different con- 
ditions, the same part as our North- Western Provinces ; for 
whilst the adjacent parts of the two empires form an almost 
continuous cereal zone, the two extremities furnish a northern 
and southern pastoral region, in which a resemblance in geology 
(and therefore in soil), in physical outline (and therefore in 
climate), overrules to some extent the difference of latitude. 
The contrasts offered by our social and national institutions, as 
influenced by law, custom, or art, likewise furnish many aids for 
reflection and incitements to action. We may, therefore, naturally 
hope to learn something from our neighbours. But further, a 
very slight survey of the state of France will lead us to expect 
that there really is much to be learnt there. 
Many events have combined to foster French agriculture. The 
Empire rests upon the rural franchises, and is not unmindful of its 
origin or ungrateful. The Emperor has had almost an English 
training, and has as much energy and more power than any farmer 
among us ; his courtiers naturally follow his steps ; the statesman has 
felt the inconvenience of " Paris being France ;" whilst the defeated 
of all parties retire to their homes, where, if they cherish resent- 
ment, they likewise cherish their dependents and lands, the one 
feeling probably waning as the other interest grows upon them. 
The French law for the distribution of landed property, though 
it has thrown many an obstacle in the way of improvement, seems 
now to have received a check, which, however unsatisfactory to 
the moralist, proves on the whole conducive to agricultural 
progress, the subdivision of land being practically arrested at a 
point which leaves many estates sufficiently large to afford a field 
for the energies of the gentleman or yeoman owner, who is con- 
tent with a modest competence unattended with anxieties for the 
future. Moreover in France, as among ourselves, men who 
have made large and successful ventures in trade, in railways^ 
