it would be temerity of no ordinary description to assert; but, certainly, the difficulty is great; it is \ even impossible to foresee whether that can be repaired in peace, that has been ruined in hostility.

The immediate consequences of the alienation of the property of the church, and of those proprie

and particularly the war, prevented that favourite form of government from obtaining consistency and continuing.

Their vanity is much hurt by the failure of their favourite project, and they secretly wish to have it revived under better auspices and more favourable circumstances. To attempt to convince the favourers of republicanism that it would not succeed in France, would be quite useless. Men who scarcely admit that they have erred, even where experience has proved their error, can scarcely be expected to be converted by argument. Rome was governed as a republic when she had nearly, if not quite, arrived at her greatest power. Her splendour was during the imperial government; but when splendour succeeded to power, the decline soon began. There is no case in point to determine whether France might, or might not be governed as a republic; but the greatest doubt arises from the intrigues of other courts, which would probably interfere, not only in elections, but in bribing those elected. Rome, Carthage, and Holland, those are the republics from which we alone can judge. But the two former nations were insulated; they had no neighbours to interfere; and as to Holland, if its friendship or enmity had been of much importance, it would have been purchased, or the country would have been torn by intrigues, as Poland was,

tors of land who were obliged to seek safety in flight, however, far from being so formidable as other dangers that are more remote.

are,

When the lands seized by the nation, as it was called, and which are now termed national property, were exposed for sale, the quantity was so immense, that a long term was given for their payment; and as equality was the aim of those who conducted matters at the time, a great proportion was sold, in small lots, to men who had merely sufficient to pay the first instalment.

Twelve years being allowed for payment, and those payments being made in assignats, which depreciated at an unexampled rate, the whole price scarcely in any case amounted to what in ordinary times would have been the annual rent. About a tenth part of the land in France thus became portioned out amongst a set of proprietors, who had neither capital nor knowledge to cultivate their

owing to the king being elective, like the chief of a republic. There are different accounts of the strength of the republicans in France; and, as it is impossible to imagine that they would show themselves unreservedly under a monarchy, it is believed that they are far more numerous in reality than they appear, or are thought to be. Some persons think that they will rise up at once, at a future and no distant day.

lots. And as the law of primojeniture, which made the landed estate descend to the eldest son, was done away, even those small proprietors divided their scanty possessions amongst their children; so that it is difficult to say at what point of subdivision this agrarian system of equality will terminate; but it is not difficult to see that no great length of time will be necessary to destroy all the ancient splendour of France.

Wherever, by the vicissitudes of fortune, exten sive estates are put up to sale, the proprietor obtains a much greater price by selling it in small parcels, than in large ones, or all to one person; so that here is another cause for the destruction of the ancient castles and country-seats, which we see taking place throughout the whole of France.

So many concurrent causes, acting simultaneously and universally throughout France, towards the producing of one great effect, there cannot be a doubt, but that before many years elapse, nearly the whole of the arable and pasture lands of France will be in the hands of small proprietors, who will cultivate chiefly for the consumption of themselves and their families, and then the great cities must decline. Then the state will be compelled to raise the taxes chiefly from land, and

the impôt foncière, which, before the revolution, was so small, and which is now so great, will be further augmented, and will fall with double weight on the numerous proprietors of the soil*.

Such a change in so great a nation as France, while in other nations the tendency of property is to accumulate, must produce a very strange, and a very novel effect. What that will be, it is not easy to ascertain; but we should think it would be very far from advantageous.

The population will be great, but it will be

poor

*The fanciful reverie of Voltaire's Homme aux quarant Ecus, will in time be realized; each man will have land enough to feed himself and family, with a little over for sale to pay the tax and buy the few things that a family, living in that state, wants. This will be a change that must materially alter the French nation in respect to exterior relations. The population will become immense, but then that immense number will be in that state of indigent industry, which touches close upon mendicity and actual want. As the productions of France, though valuable, are very subject to casualties, as bad years are frequent, it is not desirable to have a population nearly all depending on agriculture. Probably, the cause that famines were so frequent and terrible in ancient times, was, that agriculture was the only resource, and the people having nothing to do but to raise produce and consume it, whenever a scarcity came, it was in the form of actual famine, which is not the case in modern times.

and wretched; for unfortunately there is not the same remedy, as when too much property accumulates in the hands of a few. The proprietors will not sell the estates of which they are so proud, to become tenants or servants, neither could they find purchasers if they had such an intention.

On this subject, which is in our opinion the most important of all, we have been at great pains to collect the most authentic information in respect to facts, and the best authorities in respect to opinion, and the result is far from offering consolation. The finances of France are another important object; and, in order to appreciate their present situation, we have given a short history of the past. How far, under the present new order of things, they may be differently managed, we cannot even guess; but we must observe, that uniformly, in times past, expenses have increased in a very unaccountable way.

There appears to have been always some unforeseen cause of expenditure, which rendered the previous calculations totally erroneous, and which, when fresh accounts were laid before the king, were not satisfactorily accounted for.

When Louis XVI. ascended the throne in 1774, the receipt and expenditure were nearly on a level.