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to prove a negative and to show by the want of ornament that La Rochefoucauld avoided it. But he himself has in one of his maxims (No. 250) given a definition of eloquence which is a perfect description of his own practice: True eloquence consists in saying all that is needful and nothing more.' There will always be disputes, however, as to what is needful. The close expression which may contain a thought in its entirety, may yet be insufficient without reasons, illustrations, repetitions-a good deal of mere play-to make it clear to ordinary minds, and to give it the force of conviction. La Rochefoucauld himself was content in his most mature work to state his ideas clearly and tersely; but he left it to his readers to embroider them with fancies, and to sustain them with arguments.

His method of arriving at his maxims is interesting, and may be seen distinctly in his earlier ones. His later ones he threw out perfectly formed, and we can find little or no trace of work upon them. It is in the earlier ones that we can follow his conceptions from his first grasp of them on through successive mouldings to the final execution. He first of all projected his thought as any one else would, with the suggestions that led to it, with the reasons which seemed to justify it, and perhaps with illustrations to explain it. When ideas flash upon us, we are all more or less conscious of the thunderclouds from which they lightened, and are apt to bring all the storms of our doubts and perplexities before others, in order to show them distinctly how the electricity gathered upon us, how the two clouds came together, and where the bolt struck. It is curious to see what a number of La Rochefoucauld's earlier ideas are expressed in this way, with the accompaniment of explanations and inferences. A considerable number of his Maxims will be found interwoven with his Essays: the context is afterwards cut away, and we have then the maxim in the form he strove after, that of bare outline. Probably in the maturity of his powers, for he was never a writer of what the French call the first jet or throw, he worked in the same way, throwing his idea upon paper with preliminaries, accessories, and corollaries; but practice had taught him to suppress all this husk of outlying detail, useful to him in determining his thought, but useless to readers for its apprehension. His manner of peeling away phrase after phrase and detail after detail until he got to the kernel of his matter, demands perhaps an example: and we take the maxim on Jealousy, (No. 32), as it appeared in successive editions, until it was reduced to perfect form. It should be stated, however, that the first form given below comprises two maxims (Nos. 128 and 65) as they appear in the original MS.

First form, as in the original MS. :-Jealousy subsists only in doubts and lives only in new disquietudes. The remedy for jealousy is the certainty of what we fear, for it puts an end to life or an end to love. It is a cruel remedy, but it is milder than doubt and suspicions.

Second form, as in the first published Edition:-Jealousy subsists only in doubts; its substance is uncertainty; it is a passion which everyday seeks for new grounds of disquietude and for new torments. We cease to be jealous the moment we are

enlightened as to the cause of jealousy.

Third form, as in second Edition :-Jealousy feeds on doubts. It is a passion which seeks always for new grounds of disquietude and for new torments; and it turns to fury as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.

Fourth and final form :-Jealousy feeds on doubts, and it turns to fury or it ends as soon as we pass from doubt to certainty.

Such is the style of the man, and we should now go on to examine the substance of his writings and the nature of his ideals. This article is, however, already too long, and further elucidations must be reserved. The labour of the present paper is but a clearing of the ground, a statement of preliminaries and a demand for a new study of La Rochefoucauld.

E. S. DALLAS.

THE UNITED STATES AS A FIELD FOR AGRICULTURAL SETTLERS.

THE subject of this paper is not only a large one, but it is one on which much has been said and written already. It is also true that a most able and exhaustive report on the agricultural capacity of America has been recently issued by the commission which was appointed by the late Government to inquire into the causes of agricultural distress in this country. But I approach the subject from a somewhat different point of view. The purpose for which the assistant-commissioners were sent to America was to inquire into and report as to the probable effect of American competition on the owners and occupiers of land in this country. My object is rather to inquire what are the prospects of those who contemplate emigrating to America with a view to bettering their condition, and to point out what in my judgment are the localities best suited for intending emigrants.

I shall confine myself, as the title of this paper indicates, to the United States, not because I wish to ignore or disparage in any way the claims of Canada, but because I am not a competent witness with respect to that country. When I was last in America' I was not on Canadian soil at all, with the exception of a few hours which I passed on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. As regards the great and fertile district of Manitoba I could say nothing which had not appeared already in books or newspapers. And even in respect of the United States the knowledge which I have acquired from personal observation is limited to two regions, Western Oregon and Colorado, though I have endeavoured to avail myself of the best sources of information within my reach as to other parts of the country.

Agricultural emigrants may be divided into two classes: first, those who intend to cultivate their farms by the labour of their own hands; second, persons possessed of more or less capital, or perhaps, I should rather say, a class of larger capitalists, for, as I think I shall show presently, every one who goes to the United States with the intention of owning land, ought to be possessed of a certain amount of capital.

The class of larger capitalists may be again subdivided into arable and pastoral farmers. In the more newly settled Western states this line is much more sharply drawn than it is in this country. In Illinois and the other middle states there are many persons who pursue a system of mixed husbandry, who raise grain crops and who

A few months ago.

also own fine herds of cattle. But in the more newly settled states the arable farmers for the most part possess very little live stock except their horses and a few cows, while those who apply themselves to rearing cattle or sheep do very little with the plough.

As regards the agricultural labourer I doubt whether a man who has been bred to agricultural labour only, and who has not the command of some little capital, is likely to do himself much good by emigrating to the United States. Wages, no doubt, are high while there is work to be done, but there is not so much constant employment as in this country. It is very much the practice in the United States to take men on by the job and to discharge them after the work has been done. And as there is very little green crop grown in the United States, there is much less employment there for women and children than there is here. These observations are borne out by the Report of the assistant-commissioners which has lately been issued. They say :——

The farm labourer can hardly be said to exist as a distinct class in the United States, unless it be among the coloured people in the middle and Southern states. In the large farms of the west the bothy system is carried out, and buildings are put up in which the summer men mess and sleep. In winter they are off to the towns and cities, and it is seldom the same faces are seen two years running on the farm.

It should be remarked that though wages may appear high, the hours of labour from spring to autumn are long, and winter is a period of almost complete cessation from work for man and beast on the American farm. The very few labourers that are required upon a great wheat-growing farm in America during the dead winter months is surprising. In one instance we were told that only two men were kept upon 5,000 acres. When the longer days and the harder work of the American labourer, together with his being employed only when he is wanted. are taken into account, the annual cost of labour per acre is much less than the amount paid in England.

At the same time there is no doubt that an energetic active man, who can put his hand to anything, who can, for instance, take a spell at lumbering or at carpenter work when agricultural employment is scarce, is likely to do exceedingly well in the United States.

To return to the classes who are possessed of some capital. The emigrant who wishes to cultivate his farm with his own hands may either enter on the Government land which is reserved for homesteads, in which case he has nothing to pay beyond the cost of the survey, amounting only to a few pounds, or he may purchase land and pay for it by instalments spread over a term of years. In the case of the Government lands he cannot homestead more than 160 acres, but he may also pre-empt, as it is called, 160 acres more, paying for it at the rate of $14 an acre if more than 20 miles from a railroad, or $21, or a little more than 10s. an acre, if within 20 miles. He has to pay about 18. an acre down, and the balance at the end of five years, by which time he must have executed certain improvements. In some states he may pre-empt 640 acres of what are called desert lands, that is, lands which will not grow crops without irrigation. He must in this case

at the end of five years produce a certificate that he has irrigated the land so as to make it grow crops.

And in some states the settlers may acquire from the Government 160 acres by planting 10 acres, and producing a certificate at the end of eight years that a certain number of trees are in a healthy growing state.

It may perhaps be asked what amount of money a settler ought to have to start with. To begin at the beginning, the journey out from Liverpool, say of a man with a wife and two children. to the place where they intend to locate themselves, will cost some 45l., more or less.2 As to the rest I will take the estimate of Mr. Eaton, a successful farmer who owns a considerable quantity of land in Colorado. Mr. Eaton's letter, which gives the amount required in detail, and which, besides, contains a great deal of valuable information, may be found in a pamphlet entitled 'Farm Lands in Colorado,' published by the Colorado Company, of which Mr. Barclay, M.P. for Forfarshire, is chairman. Mr. Eaton calculates that a man with a wife and two children will require 3261. to support himself and family, and bring a farm of 80 acres, which is about as much as a man with a pair of horses can till, into cultivation. If we add 451. for the cost of the journey out, we have a sum of 371l. as the amount which is required to support the family, and meet the necessary outgoings of the farm until the first crop has been reaped and marketed. In the case of the man who enters on a homestead we have to deduct 42l., which Mr. Eaton puts down as the first instalment of the purchase money, because the homesteader has nothing to pay for the land, and we thus get 3291., or say, including the cost of survey, 335l., as the amount required. The man who enters on a homestead with this sum in his possession ought, if this estimate is correct, to be free from debt and able to invest the proceeds of his crop, beyond what he may require for the support of himself and his family, in any way that may seem best to him. But there are some drawbacks. In order to get a homestead a man must now go very far West. He will in all probability not be very favourably situated as regards access to markets, and consequently the prices he will obtain will be low. the same reason he may probably have difficulty in procuring many comforts that he has come to look upon almost as necessaries of life, and he may have to pay very high prices for them. In the Northwestern states the winters are very long, the cold is intense, and the winds are piercing. Lastly, even in the remote North-west, great part of the best lands has been taken up already. When I was returning from San Francisco to New York, I met a man who told me that he had gone into the territory of Dakotah to look for land, and that there was no good land to be had, except by purchase, within 500 miles of Bismarck, which is the furthest point to which the

For

2 The above is about the cost of the journey to Denver; to Western Minnesota it will be somewhat less.