CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL
CONTENTS
THE PATTERN NATION.
MY TRAVELLING COMPANION.
POPULAR MUSIC—MAINZER.
A NEWCASTLE PAPER IN 1765-6.
GENIUS FOR EMIGRATION.
EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED.
ANECDOTE OF THE FIELD OF SHERRIFMUIR.
THINNESS OF A SOAP-BUBBLE.
ENGLISH PLOUGHING.
JOHN BUNYAN AND MINCE-PIES.
FOREST-TEACHINGS.
CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'SINFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
| No. 424. NEW SERIES. | SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1852. | PRICE 1½d. |
THE PATTERN NATION.
It seems to be the destiny of France to work out all sorts of problemsin state and social policy. It may be said to volunteer experiments ingovernment for the benefit of mankind. All kinds of forms it tries,one after the other: each, in turn, is supposed to be the right thing;and when found to be wrong, an effort, fair or unfair, is made to trysomething else. It would surely be the height of ingratitude not tothank our versatile neighbour for this apparently endless series ofexperiments.
Unfortunately, the novel projects extemporised by the French are noton all occasions easily laid aside. What they have laid hold on, theycannot get rid of. We have a striking instance of this in the practiceof subdividing lands. Forms of state administration may be altered,and after all not much harm done; it is only changing one variety ofpower at the Tuileries for another. A very different thing is arevolution in the method of holding landed property. Few things aremore dangerous than to meddle with laws of inheritance: if care be nottaken, the whole fabric of society may be overthrown. The unpleasantpredicament which the French have got into on this account is mostalarming—far more terrible than the wildest of their revolutions. Howthey are to get out of it, no man can tell.
Latterly, the world has heard much of Socialism. This is the termapplied to certain new and untried schemes of social organisation, bywhich, among other things, it is proposed to supersede the ordinaryrights of property and laws of inheritance—the latter, as isobserved, having, after due experience, failed to realise thathappiness of condition which was anticipated sixty years ago at theirinstitution. As it is always instructive to l