Morning journal and courier., 1893-03-20

Nl6N, tnht ETcuCu pcac6utS LAke little fQ- terest in such things, that they are wholly wrapped up in the hum drum life of the vineyard and the farm, and 50 absorbed in making living, and laying by 6 little for old age, that elections mean to them little moro than an acquiescence in what. ever form of government may happen for the time to be in power. Anything seems to suit them politically so long as it allows them to go on quietly with their ordinary pursuits. When Napoleon asks for their support they think of nothing beyond ssy- ing "Yes," and when Paris and other cen ters, having overthrown the empire, ask them to indoree 6 republic, the response naturally is the same. This at least is how 1t has been in the past, though one cannot help thinking that twenty years of prosperous republican rule must have awakened in many of these rustic French men pronounced liking for this simpler form of government, and that the in- creased enlightenment these years have brought will lead them hereafter to in creased political activity.
 In France, as in other nations, the complaint Is common that rural districts are undergoing a slow process of depop- ulstion. In two respects, however, France differs in this matter from both Germany and England. We have not heard that in either of theee countries there is any scarcity of births among the rural popu. lation; rather the contrary, whereas in France the birth-rate is as low in many of the rural districts as in any of the centers Of urbsne life, and the average of chil. dren per family no higher iu some parts than Tn the exceptional town of Roubsix, where the last census puts it st one. Not only so, but we are assured by . writer In the Nation that in many cases the ascertsined cause of this Is the de. sire of parents to better their own con- ditioD; in other words, French thrift. Another point to be noted Is that while the country districts of England and Germany, especially the latter, are being largely drawn upon by foreign emigra- ton, France Is snfferiug from this cause scarcely st all; a fact, by the wsy, which speaks suggestively of the superior con tentment of the French.
 The great drain in France is, not from that country to some other, but from the rural districts towards the great cities, especially towards Paris. With increas- ing education there has sprung up in the rural breast & fsverish craving for en- larged opportunities IL Is discovered. too, tbat cities offer an increased wage, and without thinking how much that is beyond price they must give up in the exchange of farm life for factory life, great numbers of the younger pesssntry, infatuated with this prospect of higher pay, are gfavitating yearly to the actual, and too often, the cad realization of what it means. Unfortunately, too, the uni verssl conscriptiou for military service has depicting effect upon country life; that, too, not only in the fact that ii takes young men of for three years just at the time they would naturally be set ting down to family life, but in the further fact that 1t weans them from country attachment, and makes them al home afterwards only in such scene. of hustle and pleasure as the big city of fers. This is the complaint In France and the facts to which it has reference srt decidedly suggestive, showing ss they dS that in our present-dsy civilization city life Is more than match for country lift In it's power to dszzle and draw, ever when farm life can offer, as 6 special st traction, the possible ownership of a small strip of land.
 But as to the latter point, there are many peasants who are not landowners To gay that one half of the soil is cultivs ted by those who are proprietors of it il to say much, but not all, for the other half has yet to be accounted for. This VI
 find Is occupied by two clssses-three fourths of it by thoss paying a regular rental, and the remaining one-fourth bJ what are called metsyers; that is, thoss who for the privilege of farming 1t halv' the products they realize with its own CTS. To indicate still further how farming operations arc carried on, 1t should be no ted that in some cases O number of meta yers take 6 holding together, bringing their combined capital to bear in the eff fort to make 1t profitable. It should slsc be noted that in districts where the hold ings of land are generally small 1t is no unusual for neighbors to own horse ant a COW In jointuTe, and that associations sr, common in such districts for the purchss and hiring ont of improved egricultura machinery, and for the granting on rar' occasions of such small loans as may b' needed while the impecunious peassn waits for his crops to rfpen.
 In social life the French peassntry ar, pre-eminent for the sobriety they exhibit that, too, spite of the fact that in som, parts their staple beverage is home-msd,
 wine. In morals they aie far superior ss rule to city folk; So much so that al
 intelligent and sympathetic writer, refer ring to the modern tendency to imitat city folk, ssys that if the peassntry onl knew how superior they are to the rect c France this crays would receive sn effectu al quistus In religion ths French peat ants are of course predominanily Roma Catholic, with. however, a fair intsrmir glIng of Protestante, and 1t Is pleasant | know that in most parts the rural reprt sentstives of these two sects are on friend ly terms with each other. Fl. T.