Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 424 | Page 2

to observe the error into
which they were plunging.
For every law, however bad, there is always some justification or plea
of necessity. Besides tending to level the position of individuals, the
plan of equal distribution of property was said to be justifiable on the
ground that there are more than two parties concerned. Society, it was
alleged, comes in as a third, and says to the parent: 'You must provide
for this son, however worthless; you must not throw him destitute on
our hands; for that is to shift the responsibility from yourself, who
brought him into the world, to us, who have nothing to do with him.'
This plea, more plausible than sound, had its effect. That an occasional
wrong might not be inflicted, a great national error, practically
injurious, was committed.
A compulsory law of equal division of lands among the children of a

deceased proprietor, may be long in revealing its horrors in a country
where the redundant population sheds habitually off. In Switzerland,
for example, the evil of a subdivision of lands is marked but in a
moderate degree--though bad enough in the main--because a certain
proportion of each generation emigrates in quest of a livelihood--the
young men going off to be mercenary soldiers in Italy, waiters at hotels,
and so forth; and the young women to be governesses and domestic
servants. France, on the contrary, is the last nation in the world to try
the subdivision principle. Its people, with some trifling exceptions, go
nowhere, as if affecting to despise all the rest of the world. Contented
with moderate fortunes, inclined to make amusement their occupation,
unwilling or unable to learn foreign languages, or to care for anything
abroad, and having so intense a love of France, that they will not
emigrate, they necessarily settle down in a gradually aggregating mass,
and are driven to the very last shifts for existence. Only two things have
saved the nation from anarchy: the remarkable circumstance of few
families consisting of more than two, or at most three children, any
more being deemed a culpable monstrosity; and the draughting of
young men for the army. In other words, the war-demon is an engine to
keep the population in check; for if it does not at once kill off men, it
occupies them in military affairs at the public expense. The prodigious
number of civil posts under government--said to be upwards of half a
million--acts also as a means for absorbing the overplus rural
population.
Circumstances of the nature here pointed out have modified the evil
effects of the law of subdivision; but after making every allowance on
this and every other score that can be suggested, it is undeniable that
the partition of property has gone down and down, till at length, in
some situations, it can go no further. The morsels of land have become
so small, that they are not worth occupying, and will barely realise the
expense of legal transfer. In certain quarters, we are informed, the
individual properties are not larger than a single furrow, or a patch the
size of a cabbage-garden. A good number of these landed estates--one
authority says a million and a quarter--are about five acres in extent,
which is considered quite a respectable property; but as, at the death of
each proprietor, there is a further partition, the probability would seem
to be that, ultimately, the surface of France will resemble the worst

parts of Ireland, with a population sunk to the lowest grade of humanity.
Perhaps, however, the evils inflicted on society through the agency of
subdivision, are mainly incidental. General injury goes on at a more
rapid rate than the actual partition of property. From the causes above
mentioned, the population in France is long in doubling itself; and the
slower the increase, the slower the subdivision. Already, however, the
properties are so small, that they do not admit of that profitable culture
enjoined by principles of improved husbandry and correct social policy.
In the proper cultivation of the soil, other parties besides agriculturists
are concerned; for whatever limits production, affects the national
wealth. The meagre husbandry of the small properties in France is thus
a serious loss to the country, and tends to general impoverishment. But
there is another and equally calamitous consequence of excessive
subdivision. The small proprietors in France are for the greater part
owners only in name: practically, they are tenants. Desperate in their
circumstances, they have borrowed money on their wretched holdings;
and so poor is the security, and so limited is the capital at disposal on
loan, that the interest paid on mortgage runs from 8 to 10 per
cent.--often is as high as 20 per cent. After paying taxes, interest on
loans, and other necessary expenses, such is the exhaustion of