ow, it is perfectly plain to all of
us who live in the country and observe the state of affairs, that every
peasant has his eye on the land he covets; he is watching and waiting
for it, and he never invests his savings elsewhere; he buries them. In
seven years the savings thus rendered inert and unproductive amount to
eleven hundred million francs. But since the lesser bourgeoisie bury
as much more, with the same purpose, France loses every seven years the
interest of at least two thousand millions,--that is to say, about one
hundred millions; a loss which in forty-two years amounts to six hundred
million francs. But she not only loses six hundred millions, she fails
to create with that money manufacturing or agricultural products, which
represent a loss of twelve hundred millions; for, if the manufactured
product were not double in value to its cost price, commerce could not
exist. The proletariat actually deprives itself of six hundred millions
in wages. These six hundred millions of dead loss (representing to a
stern economist a loss of twelve hundred millions, through lack of the
benefits of circulation) explain the condition of inferiority in which
our commerce, our merchant service, and our agriculture stand,
as compared with England. In spite of the difference of the two
territories, which is more than two thirds in our favor, England could
remount the cavalry of two French armies, and she has meat for every
man. But there, as the system of landed property makes it almost
impossible for the lower classes to obtain it, money is not hoarded;
it becomes commercial, and is turned over. Thus, besides the evil of
parcelling the land, involving that of the diminution of horses, cattle,
and sheep, the section of the Code on inheritance costs us six hundred
millions of interest, lost by the hoarding of the money of the peasantry
and bourgeoisie, and twelve hundred millions, at least, of products; or,
including the loss from non-circulation, three thousand millions in half
a century!"

"The moral effect is worse than the material effect," cried the rector.
"We are making beggar-proprietors among the people and half-taught
communities of the lesser bourgeoisie; and the fatal maxim 'Each for
himself,' which had its effect upon the upper classes in July of this
year, will soon have gangrened the middle classes. A proletariat devoid
of sentiment, with no other god than envy, no other fanaticism than
the despair of hunger, with