But the legislator's interference, which we claimed for the metaver, has, in some of the countries cultivated by corvees, actually taken place in favour of the vassal, pea sant, or serf. In the German provinces of the Austrian monarchy, contracts between the landlord and peasant are, by law, made irrevocable, and most of the corvees have been changed into a fixed and of money, or of fruits in a raw state. By this means, the peasant has acquired a true property in his house and land ; only, it continues to be charged with rents, and some feudal ser vices. Still farther to protect the peasantry from being afterwards oppressed or gradually expelled from their pro perties, by the opulent lords living among them, the law does not allow any noble to buy a vassal's land ; or, if he . does buy any, he is obliged to sell it, on the same condi tions, to some other family of peasants ; so that the pro perty of the nobles can never increase, or the agricultural population diminish. • These regulations of the Austrian government in behalf of an order, which, if left to itself, must needs be oppress ed, are almost sufficient to redeem the errors of its gene ral system, by this increase of happiness to the subject, and of stability to the system itself. In a country deprived of liberty, where the finances have at all times been wretch edly administered, where wars are eternal—and still dis astrous, obstinacy there being always joined with inca pacity ; the great mass of the population, composed almost lvholly of peasant-proprietors living in easy circumstances, have been rendered happy ; and this mass of subjects, feel ing their own happiness, and dreading every change, have mocked all the projects of revolution or of conquest direct ed against their country, the government of which is so little able to defend itself.
The system of cultivating land by capitation, could be adopted only, among a people scarcely emerged from bar barism. It is, in fact, nearly a modern farm-lease, the • parties to which in fixing the rent, pay no regard to the greater or smaller extent of the ground, to its comparative fertility or barrenness, to the improvements which labour has already made it undergo. Be the nature of those cir cumstances what it may, each proprietor of a whole Rus sian province pays thirty roubles yearly to the lord of it. Doubtless when the capitation was imposed, all those cir cumstances were equal ; there was more fertile land for each than each could cultivate, and no part of it had yet been improved by labour.
In free countries, capitation is looked upon as a degrad ing tax, because it recalls the idea of servitude. It was, indeed, originally always accompanied with servitude of thesoil. The peasant always depended on the good plea sure of his master; in executing their mutual contract, no law afforded him protection ; he was always liable to be ejected, carried off, sold, stript of all the property amassed by his industry ; and thus the kind of authority to which he was subject incessantly reminded him, that, whatever he saved, he took from himself to give it to his master ; that every effort on his part was useless, every invention dan gerous, every improvement contrary to his interest, and finally, that every sort of study but aggravated his wretch edness by more clearly informing him of his condition.
Even in Russia, however, the disinterestedness of some noble families, who for several generations have not chang ed the capitation, has inspired the peasantry with confidence sufficient to reanimate their industry, to infuse a taste for tabour and economy, and sometimes even to permit their realizing very large fortunes, which, however, always de pend on the master's good pleasure. But in countries
where servitude of the soil has been gradually abolished, the capitation has become a fixed rent ; united most fre quently to personal services, and sometimes reduced to mere feudal rights, as the system, by degrees, varied from its primitive uniformity. Such was the tenure by villanagc in France, by copy•hold in England, the origin of nearly all the property possessed by peasants cultivating their own heritages. On the other hand, such contracts helped to produce the notion of farm-leases, which, in the wealthiest countries of Europe, have succeeded every other kind of convention between proprietor and cultivator.
By a farm lease, the proprietor yields his land, and no thing more, to the cultivator; and demands an invariable rent for it ; whilst the farmer undertakes to direct and to execute all the labour by himself; to furnish the cattle, the implements, and the funds of agriculture ; to sell his produce, and to pay his taxes. The farmer takes upon him all the cares and all the gains of his agriculture ; he treats it as a commercial speculation, from which he ex pects a profit proportionate to the capital employed in it.
At the time when slavery was abolished, the system of farms could not be immediately established : freedmen could not yet undertake such important engagements, nor were they able to advance the labour of a year, much less that of several years, for putting the farm in a proper con dition. The master, on giving them their liberty, would have been obliged to give them also an establishment ; to furnish them with cattle, instruments of tillage, seed and food for a year ; and after all these advances, the farm would still have been a burdensome concern for the owner, because by his contract he had renounced the profit of good years on condition that his farmer should warrant him against bad years; but the farmer who had nothing could warrant nothing, and the master would have given up his good crops without any return.
The first farmers were mere labourers ; they executed most of the agricultural operations with their own hands; they adjusted their enterprises to the strength of their families ; and as the proprietor reposed little confidence in their management, he used to regulate their procedure by numerous obligatory clauses ; he limited their leases to a few years, and kept them in a continual state of dependence. During the last century, farmers, particularly in England, have risen to rank and importance. Political writers and legislators have uniformly viewed them with a favourable eye ; their leases have ceased to be limited in time to a small number of years, and hence farmers have issued from a more elevated class of society. With large capitals, they have taken farms of a larger size ; more extensive knowledge, and a better education have enabled them to treat agriculture as a science. They have applied to it several important dis coveries in chemistry and natural history ; they have also in some degree united the habits of the merchant with those of the cultivator. The hope of a larger profit has induced them to make larger advances ; they have re nounced that parsimony which originates in want, and stands in direct opposition to enlightened economy ; they have calculated and recorded the result of their operations with greater regularity, and this practice has furnished better opportunities of profiting by their own experience.