s grape culture. We shall soon see a curious phenomenon
in the progressive rise in the cost of meat. In twenty years from now,
in 1850, Paris, which paid seven to eleven sous for a pound of beef in
1814, will be paying twenty--unless there comes a man of genius who can
carry out the plan of Charles X."

"You have laid your finger on the mortal wound of France," said the
_juge de paix_. "The root of our evils lies in the section relating to
inheritance in the Civil Code, in which the equal division of property
among heirs is ordained. That's the pestle that pounds territory into
crumbs, individualizes fortunes, and takes from them their needful
stability; decomposing ever and never recomposing,--a state of things
which must end in the ruin of France. The French Revolution emitted a
destructive virus to which the July days have given fresh activity. This
vitiating element is the accession of the peasantry to the ownership of
land. In the section 'On Inheritance' is the principle of the evil, the
peasant is the means through which it works. No sooner does that class
get a parcel of land into its maw than it begins to subdivide it, till
there are scarcely three furrows left in each lot. And even then the
peasant does not stop! He divides the three furrows across their length,
as Monsieur Grossetete has just shown us at Argenteuil. The unreasonable
price which the peasant attaches to the smallest scrap of his land makes
it impossible to repurchase and restore a fine estate. Monsieur," he
went on, indicating Grossetete, "has just mentioned the diminution in
the raising of horses and cattle; well, the Code has much to do with
that. The peasant-proprietor owns cows; he looks to them for his means
of living; he sells the calves, he sells his butter; he never dreams
of raising cattle, still less of raising horses; but as he cannot raise
enough fodder to support his cows through a dry season, he sends them to
market when he can feed them no longer. If by some fatal chance the hay
were to fail for two years running, you would see a startling change the
third year in the price of beef, but especially in that of veal."

"That may put a stop to 'patriotic banquets,'" said the doctor,
laughing.

"Oh!" exclaimed Madame Graslin, looking at Roubaud, "can't politics get
on without the wit of journalism, even here?"

"In this lamentable business, the bourgeoisie plays the same _role_ as
the pioneers of America," continued Clousier. "It b