The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-02

| great ma jority OF lawyers. Judges ana CIVIL
servants. as well rs of the contrac tors VINO
reaped rich harvest in every war. and the
fnanciers " no farmed the indirect taxes
I,If the bolrgeoisie had little land, they pos
IIsessed nearly all the capital Of France.
Ilhcld the bulk OF the public securities and
counted many noble and prelate among
their debtors We add that any opulent
citizen could easily get himself ennobled
| Whatever the prosp Gritty of the towns,
France remained eminently agricultural,
and it appears that after the townspeople,
! the mobiles, the clergy and other professional
men in the country districts were deducted
! four-fifth Of the nation, or fully 20,0OO,0OO
souls. were employed in tiling the earth.
, Inasmuch as the condition of the peasants
varied in different parts of France. and as,
until recently, our information concerning
it was imperfect. it used to be very differ.
emily depicted by different writers, ac-
cording to the regions which they knew
best their own temperament, or the political
opinions which they cherished. 1t is
urdisputed that the bulk OF the French
peasantry had achieved personal freedom.
I Vilenage had been declining in France
ever since the twelfth century. and the
number Of persons more or less unfree in
their status at the accession OF Louis XVI.
did not exceed fifteen hundred thousand.
Louis himself emancipated the last serfs
on the royal domain (Which comprised a
fifth part of the French soiD, and might
easily have enforced universal emancipa-
ton, but serfdom was so exceptional
that such a reform would probably have
had little influence on the course of events.
In the administration, also, OF their COM
munes the peasants had been relieved from
the control or supervision Of their lords.
That, nevertheless their local independence
was little more than form was due TO the
action of the Royal 1ntendant, with his SUBJ
delegates, not Of the gentry. who had been
carefully Invested of administrative power.
Above all, the French peasants had ac-
quired an immense interest in the land.
A recent writer of authority has accepted
the opinion that before the Revolution
two-ffths OF the soil belonged to the Third
Estate, and as few Of the middle class were
land owners, the share Of the Third Estate
must have belonged mostly to the peasants.
Arthur Young expressed the belief that
more than one-thrd Of the kingdom was
occupied by peasant proprietors. Some
writer's, indeed, have maintained that
small peasant proprietors were as numerous
toward the close of the ancen regime as
they now are in France. the great estates
confiscated in the course Of the Revolution
having been bought in relatively large
portions by purchasers often belong ing to
the middle class. Arthur Young, who
had high standard of farming and comfort.
thought that peasant proprietorship was
carried much too far In France. Yet he
acknowledged that in the regions of vines
and maize and olives, as well as in some
northern provinces, France possesses
husbandry equal to our own In 1895
Wapole described the condition OF the
country people in France as wonderfully
improved within his own recollection: 1'rhe
worst villas es are tight, and wooden shoes
have Disappeared In 1889 DR.. Rigby,
a man accomplished in natural science,
and an agricultural amateur from the
pioneer county of Norfolk, was in raptures
at the aspect of rural France.
A regards the food Of the French peas
antry, which formerly was depicted in
popular histories and novels as universally
stinted and detestable. the evidence col
lected by Babeau concerning the PEASANTS
domestic economy indicates undoubtedly
that his diet varied in surprising manner
from one district to another. Here he
would eat good bread, made chiefly or
entirely of wheat; there rye bread would
be the staple article OF food. In some
places the French peasants ate meat only
on holidays; in other places they con-
al r.,
paid English laborers. Babeau has proved
that a peasant family often accumulated
a surprising quantity of clothes and linen,
and that peasant women usually allowed
themselves some trinkets. at least cross
and chain of silver, sometimes OF gold.
To what extent the elements Of knowledge
were diflused among the peasants is an
interesting but difficult inquiry. Many
a commune possessed an elementary school;
but, for lack Of funds, the schoolmaster
was usually i'll qualified. Taine's assertion
that out Of $4,000, 900 French people only
,OOO, 900 could read is pronounced by Prof.
Montague lin itself improbable. and GER
tainly not proved by the few particulars
which he adduces." Babeau processes to
have established that in the rural districts
now forming the Department Of the Aube
~ per cent Of the men and % per cent.
Of the women knew how to read. Prof.
Montague. however. does not overlook
the fact that great number Of the mu-
nicipa officers elected under the law Of the
Constituent Assembly we're said to have |
been unable to read or write.
Thus far we have referred only to the
peasant proprietors, because they consti-
tuted the bulk Of the agricultural popula-
ton and owned two-flfths OF the land |
The three-ffths held by the Crown, the
clergy and the mobiles were, for the most
part, left to meta ers, or tenant farmers, the
lord furnishing varying proportion Of the
capital required and taking a variable pro.
portion Of the gross produce. Young thought
that perhaps seven -eighths of such land az
was let at all was held on this tenure. His