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I proceed to the other English author, on whose opinions we are told to rely.

"France is threatened to be overpowered, not only with a redundant, but with a potatoefeeding population," (p. 480); "by persevering in this system (the division of property), it will soon exceed the populousness of China, where the putrid carcasses of dogs, cats, rats, and every species of vermin and filth, are sought after with avidity, to sustain the wretches born only to be starved."

Alas! for a long time the poor Frenchman has been painted with a frog on his plate—but now he is to eat all kinds of filth and vermin!

Is it any consolation to know that this was prognosticated by Mr. Young, upwards of forty years ago? That the system of which he complained, a system which had immemorially prevailed in many parts of France without quite producing those disastrous effects, has not only been persevered in, but enlarged upon since the prophecy was announced. Is this any consolation?

No!-if such was

Mr. Macculloch answers, Mr. Young's opinion in 1789-how much more reason would he have for coming to such a conclusion now, when almost all the large

estates, then existing in the country, have been broken up, and the succession of small patches generally regulated by law."

Is Mr. Macculloch right ?*

There was a philosopher who once predicted that if a comet, which was then making its appearance, were to continue visible for three weeks, it would destroy the world; the philosopher died, and the comet continued visible for six weeks instead of three, and the world was not burnt. The people, who are ignorant, said, "if the philosopher were alive, he would see he had been mistaken." "Mistaken," said another philosopher, the defunct's friend,

* Suppose, reader, that you lay it down as a principle that any cause will produce the most deplorable effects. Suppose that cause developes and extends itself prodigi. ously, and that it produces none of the effects predicted— does it not seem as clear, as that Scotland is on the north side of the Tweed, that your cause having increased, and none of your effects having been produced, that you have greatly exaggerated the influence of your cause?

If the people of France, instead of eating filth and vermin in 1834, live much better than they did in 1789, and that the land (the terrible division of which was to have driven them to such extremity) has been still more divided, would you, a gloomy prophet in 1789, have been confirmed or shaken in your predictions in 1834 ?

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my friend predicted that the world would be destroyed if the comet lasted three weeks,

how much more reason would he have to declare that the world would be destroyed now, when the comet has lasted six weeks!"

CHAPTER XIII.

How far Property is likely to go on Dividing-What the Law respecting the Division of Property in France is— Table of Properties subjected to the Land-tax-Checks to Division.

ALTHOUGH Mr. Birkbeck and others have seen no especial evils from the division of property in France, as it exists at present, many, and Mr. Birkbeck among the number, have imagined that enormous evils must necessarily ensue; and this, from falling into the vulgar belief, that land will go on subdividing ad infinitum, because the law favours its division. The extent to which the division of land will be carried is probably the most important part of the subject under our consideration.

Now, there are two mistakes, which, in reasoning on the conduct of mankind, we are equally liable to commit.

"Men are wholly governed by their interest,” say some.-Exaggeration!

"Men are not governed by their interests,

but by their passions," say others.-Exaggeration!

Men are partly governed by their passions, partly by their interests.-The course which they take is usually a compromise between the

two.

"Où il y aura bénéfice à diviser les terres, le morcellement aura lieu, toutefois jusqu'au point seulement où son excès donnerait de la perte; et là où il y aura avantage à ne point diviser, ou même à accroître la propriété, la conservation ou l'agglomération se pratiqueront, et cela tant qu'il y aura bénéfice à le faire.”*. M. de Morel Vendé.

This is a charming theory; but rather too charming to be precisely true.

:

"Le morcellement des terres croît en raison géométrique chez les petits propriétaires, ce mal se fait sentir à la première génération: chacun cependant reste attaché à sa petite fraction de propriété, et se tourmente pour en tirer une chétive subsistence qu'il aurait gagnée avec

"Where there is an advantage in dividing land, the division will take place only, however, to that point where its excess will occasion loss; and there, where it will be advantageous not to divide or even to increase a property, the conservation or the agglomeration will take place."

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