One third of all the rental of France was discovered to be
absolutely mortgaged, and another third was swallowed up by other
encumbrances, leaving but one third free for the use and benefit of
its owners. In other words, a great proportion of the people of
France were embarrassed and poor, and a great proportion of the
remainder were fast becoming so.
"Such a state of things produced, of course, a wide-spread social
uneasiness. Part of this uneasiness was directed against the
existing government; another and more formidable portion was
directed against _all_ government, and against the very institution
of property. The convulsion of 1848 followed; France is still
unsettled; and Mr. Webster's prophecy seems still to be in the
course of a portentous fulfilment."
In the London Quarterly Review for 1846 there is an interesting
discussion on so much of the matter as relates to the subdivision of
real estate for agricultural purposes in France, as far as it had then
advanced, and from which many of the facts here alluded to are taken.
[Footnote 1: An interesting account of the Rock may be found in Dr.
Thacher's History of the Town of Plymouth, pp. 29, 198, 199.]
[Footnote 2: See Note A, at the end of the Discourse.]
[Footnote 3: For notices of Carver, Bradford, Standish, Brewster, and
Allerton, see Young's Chronicles of Plymouth and Massachusetts; Morton's
Memorial, p.
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