THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, OF FEBRUARY, 1848. TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE ADVERTISER. SIR, The writer of a leading article in the Times of the 6th, speaking of the extraordinary events that have so recently taken place in France, well says, "No doubt, the true causes of the revolution may be traced much beyond any incidents of the past week;" and, as it appears to me, much beyond any of the incidents he seems inclined to limit it to, viz: -the French nation's loss of faith in the institutions of 1830, the deplorable disclosures of atrocity and infamy, which were multiplied last year; and more than all, the unblushing corruption, hypocrisy, and selfishness, that characterized the political career of Louis Philippe, the first, and the last, King of the French. That all these particulars precipitated the catastrophe, there can be little doubt, but the principal cause is, probably, to be found in the vast change in the law of landed property, effectuated by the national convention, which, in process of time, has produced in France a much more numerous body of landed proprietors (such as they are), than can be found to exist in any other country. (It appears from statistical returns, recently published in Paris, that there are in France 10,282,946 landed proprietors, 213,168 fund-holders, 38,305 owners of annuities, 154,875 pensioners of the state, 104,325 individuals holding offices requiring security, and 627,830 individuals paid by the government. Lord Brougham, in a recent speech of his, in the House of Lords, says, "There were in England only 200,000 landowners, according to a calculation made twenty-five years ago, and they must be fewer now; while in Ireland there were only 8,000 owners-in-fee; being one in seventy-five in England, and one in a thousand in Ireland. In France, on the other hand, every one in three of the population is a landed proprietor.") Under that impression, I send you an extract, from notes I made in the United States, some twenty years ago; in which, after speculating upon some of the political institutions of that country, of the change that has taken place in the law of landed property there, of its effects, and comparing it with the present French law, I arrived at the conclusion, that it must inevitably produce, within a given time, the change of government in that country, we have hardly yet ceased to wonder at. they As the French people will-if they are well advised, and open to advice, and Lord Bacon assures are wiser than they seem "-adopt, ultimately, the United States' constitution, as a model for their own; and, as its electoral details, law of property, and the speculation above referred to, may possibly interest some of your readers, I leave you at liberty to publish these presents, if you think it will answer your purpose. The French people seem now to have fairly set up for themselves; and, I believe that we have much less to apprehend from them in their present position, than we had from the underhand habits and practices of the late government. With respect to their law of landed property, they are embarked in a sea of unknown quantities, without chart, compass, despotism, or analogy, to direct, or control them; and what the result of this most extraordinary experiment will be, is a most curious and interesting problem, the solution of which is in the womb of time and chance, for the same supreme state power that enacted the law, can repeal it; and, in the long run, repeal will, probably, prove the solution and dissolution of the many-headed monster. The most analogous results, I apprehend, will be found in Irish poverty, and sub-division of soil; the difference, be it for better or worse, being, that the French are, for the most part, owners, as well as occupiers—the Irish, occupiers only; and what effect that difference will produce upon the vulgar, decimal, and other fractions, into which the soil of France is being constantly split, remains to be shewn. I do not pretend to be wiser than my neighbours; and, perhaps, the flattering tale that Hope and Lord Bacon tell us, about the French being wiser than they seem, will be disenchanted by the apothegm of one, who had far better opportunities of knowing his countrymen, than he had, viz.-the celebrated Voltaire, who tells us, per contra, that the composition of our volatile neighbours is half monkey, half tiger, |