ed, at as remote a period as the time of
Charlemagne, and have descended to the present possessors from
generation to generation, whilst there does not appear to have been in
all that period any great elevation or depression in their
circumstances. The habit of living up to their incomes as in England is
very rare in France; if they have daughters, from the day they are born
the parents begin to save for their dowry; even the peasant will follow
that practice if he can only put by a sou a day. I have known many
landed proprietors of from fifteen hundred to two thousand a year that
did not support any thing like the style that a person with a similar
fortune would in England; if a Frenchman has more than two or three
children, he seldom spends half his income if it be possible to live
upon a quarter, his object is that he may leave all his children in an
equal pecuniary position without dividing his land; as although the law
of primogeniture does not exist, yet parents like that one son should
keep up the estate intact, and the one fixed upon for that purpose is
generally the eldest, the others receive their portions in money from
the father's savings, and are usually brought up to one of the liberal
professions, and in many instances are sufficiently fortunate as to
realize by promotion or their talents, emoluments equal with what
portion they inherit to place them in as favourable a position as the
brother on whom devolves the estate. In other instances the son who
holds the land is taxed to pay from it a certain amount to his brothers
and sisters, in order to render their situation in life somewhat upon a
par; but it so happens that very large families are not so frequent in
France as in England. A system of frugality is prevalent amongst all
classes of the French, and a habit of contenting themselves with but
little as regards their daily expenses; nor have they that ambition to
step out of their class so general throughout England. A farmer in
France works much the same as his men, dresses in a plain decent manner,
and considers himself very little superior to his men, whilst his wife
goes to market with her butter and eggs upon one of the farm horses; and
without any education herself she thinks she does wonders in having her
daughters taught to read, write and cypher, but invariably economises to
give them a marriage portion. This applies to most of the farmers
throughout France, and will be found descriptive of tho