se inhabiting the
country from Calais to Paris; but in Normandy they are frequently what
is in French estimation considered very rich, and their habits and
expenses are in proportion; and about Melun and some few parts of France
where the farms are very large, the occupiers would even in England be
termed wealthy. The extreme of poverty or what may be designated misery
is but little known; the traveller is deceived by the number of beggars
which infest the high roads, and is induced to imagine that the lowest
orders must be in a most wretched state, but the fact is otherwise, and
begging is no other than a trade on the most frequented roads. Turn into
the by-lanes, penetrate the interior of the country and in the villages
distant from the highways and but few beggars are to be found, nor could
I ever hear of an instance of any one in the country parts of France
perishing from want; yet there are no forced poor rates, the landed
proprietors however regularly give so much a month voluntarily to those
who are past labour and have no relations to provide for them, and
houseless and pennyless wanderers are received and sheltered for a night
by the higher farmers and people of property, the mendicant having soup
and bread given him at night and the same when he starts in the morning.
Of these there are great numbers within the last few years, being
refugees from Spain, Italy and even Poland, driven to seek shelter where
they can find it by the political convulsions of their countries. In
this manner, the French have recently been severely taxed, but they
appear never to have the heart to deny shelter and food, although they
carry economy to such a height as would be styled by many of my affluent
countrymen absolute parsimony; which is perceptible in all their
transactions, and is in a great degree the cause of the miserable state
of their agriculture, which is also in some measure owing to the utter
ignorance of the farmers, who in all that tends towards improvement
display the stupidity of asses with the obstinacy of mules. There can be
no doubt that, generally speaking, the soil of France is capable of
producing half as much more than it at present yields; they still
persevere in the same system as existed in England in the year 1770,
when Arthur Young wrote his Agricultural Tour, describing the various
practices in the different counties throughout the kingdom. Two white
crops and a summer fallow is the usual course in Franc