New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-06-22
EUROPE REVISITED. .....No. X.
Yssss.i csnsspsaasses o. ne N. Y. Tribune.
THE LAND OF THE VINE.

WalkiDE CUT IN tno en'Hoas VI 4 ais 10"
1.vs sinee 70 observe the French methods Of
Aer,eulture, was somewhat surprised, know
~ nv American friend aad companion to be a
moderate drIpker of wine, by his casual remstk
Nat be regarded The Vine as the great scourge
a France. From enc who discards aud rejects
ne inspiration Of the generous juice" such
:. observation would not have seemed remark
able; but from my intelligent friend, who has
spent some years in Paris, and has confcrmed in
HI beverage to the habts Of her people, GER
tainly did not expect it.
3, And vet il is the literal and momentous truth.
France has more arabic soil than almost any
other country Of equal extent; and it is very
generally and laboriousy though not thoroughly,
efficiently cultivated. Naturally fertile, 1t
ewes little to subsequent applications; not one
acre in thousand is underdraiued or subsoil-
ed; and while England has bought millions of
dollars worth Of imported fertilizers within the
last thirty years, am confident half million
would pay for all the guano, bones, &c, i'm
ported into France Throughout this country you
pass miles after miles of growing grain or vegeta-
bles which promise fair to mid ling crops Inever
yet observed French acre that promised luxu-
rant or great oue The rigorous division Of
decedent's real estate among his heirs, which
fundamental law of the first Republic DEGREES, and
which no subsequent Monarchy has dared to re-
peal, exerts salutary influence in mitigating des-
titution and diminishing beggary, but it does not
tend to raise French Agriculture above the state OF
nediocrity into which it seems to have been hope
lessly plunged The dying peasants acre must be
dividec among his four or five children, who must
cultivate their several pittaDces with spade and
hoe only; no fertilizers can be bought by the i'm
poverished owners; no animals employed; the
thin soil, slowly and sballowly turned over by the
rude exertion Of human muscle alone, is sown,
TILED and harvested in the rude slow fashion,
and the sheaves borne on human shoulders to the
distant thrasbing-noor. All is clumsy, feeble,
ineffective, and / judge that the gross pro-
duct Of the rural labor of France is less than half
abushel of grain per day. Subtract from this the
ENORMOUS aggregate exacted for the support Of
Government, with it's million functionaries, sala-
ried priests, and seven hundred thousand janiza-
ries, and IL is plain that the subsistence Of its
i1ally freeholding cultivators must be scanty in
deed doubt that the peasant laborers of Eng
land, who own no land at all, but live upon the
scsnty wages accorded them by the tenant farm
ors are worse lodged and fed than the two or three
millions Of rural freeholders in France who own
and cultivate less than an acre each. 1t is mourn
full to see steep hillsdes labOri0usly titled from
year to year when tillage is certain to wash and
exhaust them; the excuse Of their cultivators be-
ing tbat they strip OF this land and no other,
and that to lay it down TO grass wood is to doom
themselves to idleness and their children to famine
The division of lands among their cultivators is
noble, benefcent idea; but the division of half
an acre among half dozen heirs of the late culti
vator, now deceased, is not happy illustration of
Il. Practically, it is found that tho petty
holdings are split up while the large estates are
held intact through several generations and even
Increased. may here mention, by way of illos-
tration, that the fine estate of Lafayette, LA
GraDge,) comprising fine chateau aud 200 acres
OF good land in the heart of France near this city,
is now in the market, his son being dead and the
property not we'll adapted to partition among the
heirs. Were it but an acre or so, each inheritOr
would insist on having and holding his share oft.
France, though rich in silver is essentially
poor country-that is TO say, the great mass of her
people are poor. Labor is less effective here than
In America, and is not so well paid for what it
tualy accomplishes There are millions of French
men who earn less than a franc per day when they
work, and cannot get work at any price during
good part OF each year. Of course these are the
more ignorant and i'll placed as well as Inefficient
but two francs forty cents) per day for the men
and half as much for the women exceed the actual
average earnings of the laboring class throughout
the Empire Of Louis Napoleon Yet it is held to !
be crime under the Government OF the man who |
tries ~ ingratate himself with the toiing millions
by dabblng with the price of bread, and opening
for day the Palace of Industry at his own cost to
the POOR for those recipients of his bounty to de-
nand peaceably an increase of their petty wages.
Witness the following, which cut from the Paris
journals Of the last few days:
Five joureymen saddles employed in the estab- |
&hment Of NJ Getting, at Passy were the day before
yesterday tried by the Correctional Police charge
Of forming a coalition to obtain an advance of wages,
and for melting other workmen who content with
their present pay 10 join them. The evidence pro-
duced clearly proved the ofiense, aud two Of them
we're condemned to three months imprisonment and
IL f. fine, and the three Others to two months imprs
oLmept and the same amount of fine"
The journals have lately noticed signal i'm
proyement Of trade at Lyons, consequent on re-
newed orders from America and other quarters.
Masters have been seen running from house to
bOute IN quest of looms that they could set to
work-a very unusual circumstance. Very nat
uIslly the i'll paid weavers, who are always ground
down when orders fall off, thought they might
pire to share the benefits of this Improvement and
this IL the treatment provoked by their audacity.
"Srrikes among woikmen seem at present to be
quite the order of the day. number of workmen
wtre arrested the day before yesterday at Lyons, for
attempting to induce their comrades to leave off work
and dtmasd higher wages The men thus taken into
custody assign the exceedingly high price of provisions
~ the motive of their conduct, their present wages,
they declare, not being sufficient to enable them to
support their families
Cf course, they will be tried and convicted in
due season; but who can wonder that barricades
70 up and thrones topple down in country where
ssch Law is dealt out to hungry Poverty, peace
fsy endeavoring to convertits labor into adequate
breadi
France annually produces more elegant and
tasteful fabrics than any other country; yet her
>,pla are coarsel, clad she civ orovs and man