inches.

Brittany is considered as rainy as Cornwall. In the interior the rains are less frequent, but more heavy; so that there is much less difference in the quantity of rain that falls in the course of the year than in the number of rainy days. The atmosphere of this country is much less cloudy than ours: but the most frequent wind in the north and central part of France is, as in Britain and Ireland, the south-west. In the south of France the winds are commonly from the north. Nor is the difference of temperature between London and Paris considerable: the degree of heat indeed, along the west coast of France, is not felt to be intense until passing Poitou. In the interior it is more perceptible, being strongly felt at Lyons, and still more in the latitude of Nismes, Aix, Marseilles, and Tou

lon. The variations of climate are considerably greater on the whole between the north and south of France than between the north and south of Britain, where the difference of latitude is so much modified by the vicinity of the sea.

France has a most diversified and abundant soil, speaking generally. Arthur Young considers it much freer from poor lands than that of England. It consists chiefly of different kinds of loam, varying from the deepest and richest to the calcareous and gravelly. This author gives the following estimate of the proportion of the different soils. But his numbers it is to be observed include the whole surface of the kingdom, making no deductions for roads, rivers, ponds, &c. Necker estimated the roads of France alone at 9000 square leagues.

Plain of Garonne

18,179,590 7,654,564

Plain of Alsace

Lower Poitou, &c.

637,880 1,913,641

Rich loam

28,385,675

Heath

25,513,213 28,707,037

&c.

16,584,889

3,827,282

The agriculture of France is not equal to its advantages in point of soil and climate. Before the revolution it languished under the seigneurships and ecclesiastical tenures: and since that event the law which directs an equal division of landed property among the children of a family, in most cases, has greatly increased the evils of its minute subdivision. The parent of two children has the free disposal of only one-third of his property; the parent of three children of only one-fourth; the residue being shared equally among all. The claim of primogeniture is thus in a great degree annulled.

One-half of the population of France, it is considered, have from these provisions, and the extensive sales of land in modern times, become landed proprietors; and one-fourth agricultural laborers: consequently two-thirds of the whole are employed in agricultural pursuits; while, in Great Britain, those so occupied do not amount to more than one-third of the population. A recent statement of M. Chaptal (De l'Industrie François) reckons the surface of France at 52,000,000 hectares, which are thus distributed :

It further appears, from this writer, that the whole value of the agricultural produce of France is 4,678,708,855 francs. The expenses of raising this he estimates at 3,334,005,515 francs, which reduces the net profits to 1,334,703,370 francs. Besides this statement of the net profits, three others have been given, arising from them

The pasturage is, as we have stated, chiefly confined to the north and west of France: and here clover and sainfoin abound; lucerne is much more general, being raised not merely in the north, but in the central and southern provinces, wherever irrigation is practicable and the soil and climate suitable.

The art of breeding cattle is little understood in France, nor is there much judgment shown in fattening them. The beef and mutton of the north and west are, however, very tolerable, and their price, though varying in different provinces, thirty per cent. less than in England. Butter is made and used extensively, but cheese much less than in England. In the south, however, olive oil, largely supplies the place of butter in cooking. The French horses are inferior, both in size, number, and general appearance, to those of our own country. In the performance of labor, however, they are found strong and tolerably expeditious. A French mail-coach performs only five instead of seven miles an hour, as with us; but this is owing less to inferiority in the horses, than to the state of the roads, and to general want of despatch at posthouses. More than one-half of the horses belong to the northern provinces, viz. Normandy, Brittany, Picardy, Alsace, and the Isle of France. In the central and southern departments the work is chiefly done by oxen. The total of horned cattle in France, in 1812, was reported officially as follows:-Chaptal, vol. i. p. 197.

Sheep are reared almost every where, and the mutton is good. Merinos were first brought from Spain in 1787, and formed into a royal flock at Rambouillet. The quality has been progressively improved, and distributions of Merinos have been successively made to proprietors of sheep pastures in all parts of France. The consequence is that, in many districts, the weight of the fleece has been nearly doubled. The animals are not folded during night, but crowded into covered buildings (bergeries), and suffer, particularly in winter, much injury from sudden exposure. Mules, though little known in the north of France, are reared in the central and southern parts very generally. Poultry, in France, is both larger and more abundant than with us.

France has some considerable mines of silver in the mountainous districts; but is very

rich in iron. The Ardennes, Vosges, Jura, Puy de Dôme, Pyrenees, &c., &c., all abound with this mineral; and numerous forges, estimated in all at about 250, have been built, principally in the departments des Ardennes, du Cher, du Côte d'Or, de la Dordogne, de la Haute Maine, du Nievre, de la Haute Saône. There are besides 100 forges à la Catalane, and about 900 faux d'affinerie, for refining the metal, producing nearly 75,000,000 kilos per annum. But, with

the exception of that found near Beffort (Bas Rhin), the quality is inferior. It is in general too brittle to be employed in machinery. Copper is only found, in any considerable quantities, at Baygorri (Basses Pyrenées), and at Chessy and St. Bel, near Lyons. A small supply is also derived from a few mines in the departments des Hautes Alpes and de Haut Rhin. Lead is found in the departments de l'Arriege, de la Haute Loire, and du Finisterre; and tin is found near St. Omer; but the whole product of these mines is quite insufficient to answer the demand in France, and zinc is frequently substituted for copper, especially for sheathing ships.

The fields of coal n France are inexhaustible, and the collieries very numerous. They are to be found in the north, near Valenciennes and Lisle, near the banks of the Allier, in the department du Puy de Dôme, de l'Aveyron, du Cantal, and in many other places. Many of them, however, are not worked, in great measure owing to the difficulty of carrying the coal away when brought to the surface. The whole value of coal annually extracted from the mines in France is not above £2,000,000 sterling; nor is the quality in general so good as in England.

Besides the mines that are actually worked, there are many others which exist, but which, owing to the impediments thrown in the way of speculators by the government, have not yet been opened. By the French law, all minerals of every kind belong to the crown, and the only advantage the proprietor of the soil enjoys, is the having the refusal of the mine at the rent fixed upon it by the crown surveyors. There is great difficulty sometimes in even obtaining the leave of the crown to sink a shaft upon the property of the individual, who is anxious to undertake the speculation, and to pay the rent usually demanded, a certain portion of the gross product. The comte Alexandre de B-, it is said, has been vainly seeking this permission for a lead mine on his estate in Brittany for upwards of ten years.

The imports of these metals, of course, are very considerable :—

Salt is made in various parts of France. Works corresponding with the salt mines, or brine springs of Cheshire, and called, from their position, Salines de l'Est, are situated at the small town of Salins in Franche Comté. They are wrought by undertakers on lease, yield about 20,000 tons a year, and afford a considerable revenue to government. The heat of the climate on the south and south-west coast, being favorable to the evaporation of salt water, bay salt is made here extensively, not by the action of fire, but by the heat of the sun, operating on sea water, enclosed in a shallow bay (in French_etang), so as to produce a saline deposit. The duty raised from salt in France in all is nearly £2,000,000. Mineral waters are found at Aix, Bagneres, Bareges. The first seem to have been known to the Romans, and a bath was erected by C. Sextius Calvinius. See Arx. The water has nearly the same temperature as some of those at Bath. Bagneres, in the eastern part of Guyenne, was also known to the Romans, and the hottest of its springs is about 123° of Fahrenheit's scale, and the coldest 86°. The baths are about thirty in number. Bareges is situated in a chasm among the mountains, and is only a summer residence, in consequence of the torrents and avalanches that so often prove destructive in winter. The waters issue from a hill in the centre of the village, and are distributed into three baths, the hottest of which exceeds 112°. They are strongly sulphureous and fetid, greasy to the touch, and turn silver black. The waters at St. Sauveur, near Luz, in the department of the Upper Pyrenees, are not so hot as those of Bareges, but are more nauseous to the taste. Hot springs also arise in the midst of beautiful scenery at Cauterets, in this department, the hottest of which is 118°. Other springs are found among the Pyrenees; and there are baths at Forges, Vichi, Bourbonne, Balaruc, and Plombieres.

Woollen cloth is perhaps the most important and most extensive manufacture of France. The best superfine cloths are made at Louvieres in Normandy; those of Abbeville, in Picardy, though fine, are not to be compared with them in quality. The Londrines, made at Carcassone in Languedoc, which were formerly the most successful manufacture in France, and were manufactured expressly for the Turkish and Chinese markets, are also of beautiful quality. The cloths of Julienne, and the superfine fabrics of Sedan, as well in scarlet as in other bright colors, and in black, are only suitable to the affluent. Fine cloths are also manufactured at Rouen, Darental, Audelis, Montauban, and in various places in Languedoc and Champagne. Those of Andelis in Normandy are fine mixed cloths. Fabrics of a second sort of cloth are found at Elbeuf in Normandy, and at Sedan: those of Elbeuf are best suited for workmen and mechanics. Chateaurouge, before the revolution, furnished a great deal of livery cloth. Romarantin, Issodoren, and Lodeve, furnish cloths for military clothing. There are still inferior coarser cloths, made for the wear of the country laborer. The fabrics at Rheims, before the revolution, besides the sort called draps de Rheims, consisted

of an imitation of Silesian drapery, called Silesies, imitations of our Wiltons, called Wiltons, and casimeres, which they called maroes. Ratteens were made at Roybons, Crest, and Saillans; cloths and ratteens at Romans; cloths for billiard tables at St. Jean-en Royans. Cloths of different descriptions and qualities were also made at Grenoble, Valence, Troyes, St. Leo, Bayeux, Amboise, Niort, Coutange, Lusignon, &c. In the rank of coarse cloths may also be placed the woollen stuffs of Aix, Apt, Tarascon, Oleron, Orthes, Bagneres, Pau, Auch, the valley of Aure; the cloths of Cevennes, Sommieres, Limoux, &c. The greater part of these cloths bear the names of the various places in which they were fabricated. Besides cloths, properly so called, camblets, callimancoes, baizes, kerseys, wool and hair plushes, are made at Amiens; druggets, flannels, blankets, at Rheims; blankets in the suburbs of Paris; flannels at Beauvais; serges at Aumale, Bicomt, &c.; camblets and plushes at Margny.

It has been thought that the woollen manufacture decreased during the revolution, and even subsequently; but the following are the official numbers of the workmen employed in this branch in the three specified years:—

The machinery used is very defective. It was only in 1804 that carding engines were introduced. The greater part of the spinning-mills, too, are worked by water, or by horses. In Elbœuf and its vicinity several are situated on the small streams: upwards of twenty are turned by horses; there were here in 1825 eleven steamengines.

The greatest woollen manufacturer, in 1825 in France, was M. Ternaux, late deputy of Paris. He had twenty-two different manufactories, situated in different towns: four at Rheims, two at Sedan, two at Louviers, at Liege, &c. &c. Yet although possessed of the abundant capital which such manufactories must require, he had not thought fit, at that period, to concentrate his establishments, nor even at any one to erect a steamengine. He employed nearly 6,000 men in that year; twenty years ago he had upwards of 12,000 in his pay; the 6,000 now producing probably as much as the 12,000 then, owing to the use of improved machinery. Besides his general trade as a clothier, M. Ternaux has pursued with great eagerness one particular branch which, till this time, was quite unknown in Europe, the making of Cashmere shawls. He imported with great difficulty, and at considerable expense, a certain number of the Thibet, Angola, and other oriental goats, from whose duvet these celebrated shawls are made. They have bred in France, and he has been very successful in increasing the number