roads, rivers, brooks, mountains, sterile rocks, etc. It also results from this statement, that one half of the soil is arable land, an eighth in wood, a fifth in pasture, a fifteenth in meadow, a twentysecond in vines, a thirteenth in waste lands, etc..

Manufactures.

The actual state of the manufactures of a country, and the estimation of the wealth which they put in circulation, are the most important points of statistics in political economy. But as our limits will not permit us to dwell on the details of each particular branch of manufactures, we shall give an idea of the two principal ones, silk and wool, and then proceed to the general results of all the French manufactures.,

I. Silks.

The proportional mean of the produce of the silk-cods calculated on five years is 5,147,609 kilograms; which, at the rate of 3 fr. the kilogram, give to agriculture a produce of 15,442,827 fr.

These 5,147,609 kilograms of silk-cods produce in spinning, of soie grèse 278,000 kilograms, of Soie organsinée 161,000 kilograms.

59

The soie grèse is worth, in common years, fr., the soie organsinée 60 fr. ; the former therefore represents a value of 13,900,000 fr., and the latter 9,660,000 fr.; total 23,560,000 fr. a year.

The labour employed in the spinning of silk begins, therefore, by increasing the value of the silk-cods to the amount of 8,117,173 fr., reducing the mean year of the exportation of soies filées et organsinées from those that are imported, t there remains for the importation an annual sum of about 22,000,000 fr., which, added to the value of 23,560,000 fr. arising from the indigenous soies filées et organsinées in France, represent a result of 45,560,000 fr., forming the capital on which the manufacture is employed.

The bleaching, the winding, the weaving, etc., of the silk, with the profits of the manufacturer, etc., nearly double this capital in the manufacture of stockings and plain stuffs, and triple it at least in the articles of luxury and fine ribban; so that the manufacture adds a value of about 62 millions to that of the silk; thus the rough produce of silk in France is 107,560,000 fr.; France exports annually for about 30,000,000 fr. of silks, and the remainder is employed in the consumption of the country.

II. Wool.-Such is the result of labour; with a substance apparently useless it spreads immense profits in society, and feeds an industrious popu lation's but the results of the woollen manufac tures are not less worthy of attention : it is proved that with 93,339,317 fr., the value of the wool arising from the soil or from importation, there is manufactured in stuffs, hosiery, blankets, car pets, matrasses, etc., to about the amount of 200,000,000 fr.

The mean value of the exportation of cloth is 23,693,700 fr., that of importation 2,291,333 fr. There remains therefore to the advantage of exportation 21,402,367 fr. The value of all the produce of wool that is reserved for the consumption of France is 216,731,565 fr,

By thus submitting every branch of manufacTures to a complete analysis, the author comes to the following conclusion, which has all the characters of demonstration: 2016 95 of aban-he The products of the manufactures represent a commercial value of 1,820,102,409 fr. This value. is composed trials; 2°. of 186,000,000 frin 16. of about 416,000,000 fr.imindigenous raw exotic raw materials; 3°. of 884,000,000 fr. in workmanship; 4°. of 192,000,000 fr. of general expenses, as wear of tools, reparations, fire, canbigato 2,54mins of doin

dles, interest of money sunk in buildings, purchase of looms, etc.; 5o. of 182,005,221 fr. for the profits of the manufacturer.

1

As in the evaluation of the produce of the soil, the value of almost all the objects which agriculture furnishes to manufactures was estimated, this value must of course be deducted in estimating the na tional wealth from the general result of agriculture and manufactures united. Thus, deducting from the total produce of the latter the sum of 416 millions of raw material which it borrows from the former, there will remain 1,404,102,409 fr. which represent the expenses of every kind of manufactures, the workmanship, the value of the materials imported, and the profits of the manufacturer.

In this work will also be found some details of the numerous difficulties to which the cottonmanufactures were exposed during the last war, with an account of the extraordinary manner in which, notwithstanding, they have spread and been improved in almost every part of France.

Commerce.

The external commerce of France has experienced a fate very different from that of its manufactures; it has suffered every where, and the loss of its colonies and of the trade to the Levant has reduced its commercial enterprises almost to nothing. Commerce in France is again in its infancy, forced to make trials and experiments, more or less hazardous. In the year 1789, and the two preceding years, France received in her ports for reign and colonial merchandise to the amount of 651,365,000 fr.; and exported 458,477,000 fr. worth of the productions of her soil, of her colonics, and her manufactures; an immense concern, which, articles areover, by the re-exportation of colonial

the introduction of 60 millions of the

precious metals or coin, left anmially an advantageous balance to French commerce.

It is not likely that France will soon regain this state of things. The quantity of the objects of her exportation at present can hardly be increased, and with respect to her new manufactures, they cannot be expected to surpass, either in quantity or in quality, those of the other principal countries of Europe.

Language. The French language is the most universally diffused of any in Europe. In variety, clearness and precision, and idioms adapted to life, business and pleasure, it yields to no modern tongue. The critics' and academicians of the seventeenth century enacted such severe laws of purity, that, like gold reduced to the utmost fineness, it has become soft, and incapable of deep impressions. The French language is a well known corruption of the Roman, mingled with Celtic and Gothic words and idioms. In the bold exertions of inventive genius, and even in profound productions of philosophy, France cannot aspire to vie with Italy or England; but in the pleasing and beautiful paths of invention, and in books of elegant learning and exact science, she remains' almost unrivalled. It were superfluous to enumerate the crowd of authors who have reflected honour on their language and country. Who is a stranger to the Roman grandeur of Corneille, to the tender and elegiac elegance of Racine, the tragie pomp and terror of Crebillon, the comic powers of Moliere, the naiveté, the subtle simplicity of La Fontaine, the placid instruction of Fenelon, the gaiety of Gresset, the caustic vivacity of Voltaire, and the impressive eloquence of Rousseau?

Education. Till lately, the mode of education in France was by two sets of schools, the first called primary, for the earlier rudiments of in

struction; and the other secondary, for the clas sics, etc. These, together with the Lycées, which existed in every considerable town in France, are now somewhat modified and altered, and the au cient colleges are about to be re-established. The Lancasterian, or new method of instruction, has made great progress both in Paris and the provinces and there is every reason to hope that it will soon become general. In the capital there are fifteen schools in full activity; one of them has 333 scholars. The prefect of the department of the Seine has effected the establishment of two normal schools, one for training masters and the other mistresses. The country towns have recently founded no less than 900 institutions similar to those of Paris, and in several places societies, numbering more than 700 subscribers, have been formed. The methods of Bell and Lancaster have been com bined and improved in various respects,

Religion. The Roman Catholic has been again declared the state religion, and Protestants and others are tolerated,

Laws.-The code of laws breathes a spirit of humanity throughout which will perhaps astonish some of our English readers. The punishment of death, which, according to Blackstone, may be inflicted by the English law on 150 different offences, is now in France confined to the very highest crimes only, the number of which does not exceed twelve. A minute attention has been paid to the different degrees of guilt in the commission of the same crime; and according to these, the punishments are as accurately proportioned as the cases will permit. One species of capital punishment has been ordained, instead of that multitude of cruel and barbarous deaths which were marshalled in terrible array along the columns of the former code. This punishment is decapitation by the guil