contented owners of their homesteads, and from that day of fortunate possession they have continued to grow in prosperity year by year, and to settle down, from be: seething mass of dangerous discontent, into undoubtedly the most orderly and peaceable community in Europe. They are thus described by an eminent French economist, M. le Play ('Réforme Sociale en France'):
'Les families attachées á la petite Industrie se distinguent par moralité, par leur sage esprit d'independence, par leur appliciation soutenue au travail. Elles conservent et augmentent sans cesse le bien-être conquis par les aieux sans fournir de recrues au pauperisme . . . Elles aiment la paix et n'inquietent guère leurs voisins par des pretensions á la suprematie.'
In a most interesting and impartial review of the relative merits of 'la petite et la grande industrie,' as affecting agriculture, he says:
'Plusieurs de ces races frugalcs et laborieuses constituent des provinces autonomes ou des Etats independants. En Europe les Basques, les petits cantons Allemands ou Italiens de la Suisse, le Tyrol, le Norwège conservent encore ce caractère. Au milieu des societes contemporaines ellcs leur sont superieures en re qu'elles font participer tous leurs membres au bien-etre materiel et á l'ordre moral.'
These are but the general opinions held of the French peasantry, and it is believed that the great factor which gives stability to that government is the calm, restful spirit of 'les petits propriétaires,' their resolve to conserve the present order of things, and counterpoise the erratic tendencies of the artisans and the great desire for change which always affects the unprosperous of the cities. It surely were a desirable formation to create such an improved state in Ireland, to infuse some elements of solidity, strength and stability into the shifting, restless that makes up our agrarian population. There was a when French landlords had much to fear, when boycotting was a pastime and outrage an institution. But all
