sions are, where many new properties start up, from one large property being sold. But as even in these cases, the persons who purchase land are, for the most part, those who already possess it; twenty estates are increased to ten that are created.*

There are many feelings, then, which arise. from the disposal of landed property in small divisions, which are in themselves inimical to its indefinite sub-division. There are likewise circumstances directly opposed to such a system of small divisions, which tend to moderate their excess.

Any person travelling over France will observe, though the system of division may not in

*The high price which such estates, sold in small lots, produce, has led to two false conclusions. Some have quoted this price as a proof that small pieces of land produce the most to the cultivator; others, as an evidence, that all large estates will soon be sold in small lots. Estates sell for the most part in small lots, because in a country where there are only small fortunes, there can only be competition for small pieces of land.

All large estates will not be sold in small lots, because that passion for property, which will instigate the small proprietor to buy property, beyond its value, induces the large proprietor to keep his property when he can get more than its value for it. Few estates are sold in France, which for some reason or other, are not obliged to be sold.

every identical instance be exactly regulated, as M. de Morel-Vendé supposes, by its advantages, that yet it is carried to a far greater extent in those places, and under those circumstances where it is least calculated to be prejudicial, or most calculated to be the re

verse.

As in Vineyards for instance:

The quantity of land in which the vine is

The quantity of land thus cultivated has been only increased by one quarter since 1788; the value of the produce has doubled.

"Le morcellement des terres est subordonné aux localités,"* says the Rapport des Géomètres en chef du cadastre. Thus, in some places where division is not disadvantageous, property will be exceedingly divided; so in others where great division would be ruinous, it will not take place. Now there is a much smaller portion of France where a very minute division of property is possible, than where a tendency to agglomeration is prescribed.

* The division of lands will vary according to their situation.

In those districts where great manufactures have raised the price of labor to such a height, that it is impossible to cultivate otherwise than by the plough-in the forests, in the great pasturages, and 'landes'-in those countries where the proprietor can neither sell nor transport his crops, and is therefore obliged to create immense flocks wandering over immense plains, in order to obtain a produce which transports itself—in all these districts, forming a considerable portion of France; the necessity of great properties is instituted by a law, independent of man.

Such are many of the causes to which we must attribute, what at first sight may appear a phenomenon, but which, nevertheless, is a fact, viz.

The very slight increase in the division of the soil, notwithstanding the law seeming to favor its extreme and continued sub-division.

In 1826, when "la loi d'aînesse" was agitated in France, and an attempt made by the ministry to institute something like a system of primogeniture, it is to be remarked that the government, although pressed on all sides to present the chambers with some statistical proof of the increased division of landed property, (a proof easy for them to procure, and which, for the departments adjoining Paris

they might even have procured during the time that the debate was continued), evaded the demand, and presented, instead of authentic facts, nothing but vague and desultory observations.

There was one person at that time peculiarly qualified to form a just opinion, upon the subject, as well from the high ministerial situation he had lately filled, as from his peculiar attention to agricultural pursuits, and the political moderation for which he had always been distinguished. In a speech delivered 3rd April, M. Decazes gives, as the result of his own personal and practical experience, facts exceedingly different from those which would be deduced from Mr. Young's and Mr. Macculloch's theory.

"Chacun de nous pouvait, plus ou moins aisément, se procurer un travail facile pour le gouvernement, plus difficile pour les individus, non pour la totalité de la France mais pour un point particulier qui, une fois connu, servirait d'appréciation pour les autres.

"Je l'ai fait, Messieurs, en partie pour l'arrondissement qui m'est plus particulièrement connu, et à la prospérité duquel la reconnaissance et tous les sentimens de la nature me commandent de porter un intérêt plus spécial.

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"A un petit nombre près, tous les habitans y sont propriétaires. L'amour de la propriété y est poussé au plus haut degré : chez les pères comme chez les enfans; chez les riches comme chez les pauvres, elle est le sentiment et le besoin dominant.

"Le partage égal des successions y est la règle la plus commune, et la plus générale; là, comme dans la grande majorité des autres arrondissemens de France, les personnes aisées y disposent rarement de la portion disponible. Les exemples en sont si peu fréquens, que je n'en sais pas un seul autour de moi, dans aucune classe de la societé, les paysans exceptés; et pour ceux-ci, ce n'est pas du préciput entier qu'ils disposent lorsqu'ils le font, mais de telle où telle pièce de terre, de telle ou telle quotité de leur succession; non par préférence habituelle, au profit de leur aîné, mais le plus souvent par reconnaissance pour celui de leurs enfans qui est resté auprès d'eux, qui a partagé leurs travaux, qui a soigné leur vieillesse.

"Eh bien ! dans cet arrondissement," (where the division was most likely to have been excessive) "loin qu'il y ait eu morcellement dans les douze années qui viennent de s'écouler, il y a eu agglomération.