and is payable whenever the farm changes hands. This payment is, so to speak, the price of the tenant's investiture. On some estates another sum, called chapeau, or pot de vin, is payable whenever the lease is renewed.

The intrade varies with the relationship which the incoming tenant bears to his predecessor in title. Thus, a stranger acquiring the tenant-right by purchase, pays more than a collateral descendant; the rate is almost nothing in the case of a tenant in the direct line of descent. The new tenant is, as has been said, the nominee of the former occupier; he has acquired from him, whether by purchase or inheritance, the tenant-right, with all its accessory privileges. Theoretically, the purchase money paid for the droit de marché represents the value of the tenant's interest in the land after satisfying the landlord's claim for rent. It necessarily varies in amount, and fluctuates with the rise or fall in rent or agricultural prices. This perpetual readjustment of the balance is practically neglected; it is the weak feature of the system, and the point in which the droit de marché has been most abused. Certain communes of the canton of Péronne, notably Brie, Bouvincourt, Mons-en-chausée, and Estrées-en-chausée, have distinguished themselves by the extravagance of their claims. Landlords have been powerless to raise the old rents of half-a-century ago. Consequently, in 1836, the value of the droit de marché was estimated at nearly three-quarters of the value of the land. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the soil of this canton is for the most part of so poor a quality, that it can only be rendered profitable by unremitting toil. In other cantons, farmers have allowed rents to follow the rise in prices. To this fact must be attributed such a change as that which took place in the canton of Roissel. In 1826 the value of the tenant-right was calculated at from 1200 to 1800 francs the hectare (two-and-a-half acres); in 1836 it had fallen to between 800 and 900 francs. At this latter date the droit could be purchased in the canton of Montdidier for from 200 to 500 francs the hectare. Of late years the fall of agricultural prices has further diminished the value of the droit de marché. In Santerre the selling and letting value of terre libre has fallen 25 per cent. Much less depreciation has taken place on land subject to the tenant-right. The reasons are obvious. The small tenant-right farmer, whose produce chiefly consists of butter, eggs, and poultry, has suffered less from foreign competition than the large free-land farmer, who grows wheat or beetroot. Whatever loss small farmers have sustained has been chiefly due to disastrous seasons. Inclement weather, diminished profits, and social causes have lowered the Finistère. In the customs of Bourbonnais the intrade appears as " Entrages d'argent, Entrages, ou deniers baillez."

market value of the tenant-right. Its value throughout the whole district of Santerre ranges from 500 to 1200 francs the hectare. Free land now sells for about £40 the acre. The tenant-right may, therefore, be calculated as between a quarter and a half of the value of the land.

A farmer has purchased from his predecessor his droit de marché ; he has paid the landlord his intrade; he has taken a lease. What is his position? Leases are generally for nine or eighteen years; but, whatever clauses are inserted to provide for the surrender of the farm at the expiration of the specified term, the tenant considers himself as a co-proprietor of the land. He has acquired a right against all the world, a right which he can transmit to his representatives, to successive leases of the farm on the conditions contained in the original lease. Of this joint ownership, he considers the payment of rent in kind to be a sign; at the present day he pays in money, but the amount is calculated upon the market price, on certain days, of a fixed quantity of corn. The landlord has parted with all control over his property: he cannot choose his tenant; he cannot raise the rent, or enforce new conditions. The landlord receives his pots de vin, intrades, and rent; but the tenant regards these payments as entitling him to the hereditary enjoyment of the land, and as conferring the power to dispose of his farm by will, sale, gift, or sub-lease. In Picard phrase the tenant says of the farm, ch'est à Dieu et à mi, and treats it accordingly. Jealous of his independence, he often conceals from the landlord even his name. The rent or the intrade is paid by third persons, and the receipt is drawn in blank. Often the farmer does not consider a renewal of the lease necessary; his tenant-right and the implication of the tacite réconduction (sect. 1776 Code Civil) afford him sufficient security.

From the landlord's point of view, it is useless to specify any term in the contract, and in some communes clauses limiting the duration of the lease have been abandoned as verbiage. The retention of these clauses indicates a recent invasion of landlord's rights by tenant farmers. Before the Revolution landlords could always re-enter upon their land when a lease had expired, and cultivate it themselves. The droit de marché only protected the farmer against his own class. When the landlord grew tired of gentleman-farming, he was bound to re-let the farm to the representatives of the original tenant whom he had dispossessed. In 1867, even after the lapse of twenty years, men were willing to pay 150 francs the hectare to purchase from the evicted tenant his vague prospect of re-entry. So long as landlords could dispossess tenants, fixed terms were necessary for the protection of the latter. It is under this moderate form that the droit de marché exists in parts of Santerre, and in the arrondissement of St. Quentin;

and it was under this form that the analogous usage of the mauvais gré prevailed in Hainault. But in the greater part of Santerre, the farmer has now protected himself against his landlord as well as against his neighbour. Since 1789 the tenant cannot be dispossessed even by the owner of the soil, who is anxious to cultivate it himself. Commercial interests have, in fact, changed the quarter from which farmers anticipate danger. A new peril threatened tenant-right when land speculators bought up land, which was sold at a low price, because it was subject to the droit de marché, dispossessed the tenants, and threw their intermixed holdings of which the old farm consisted into one large colza, wheat, or beetroot farm. In old days there was little risk of the landlord taking into his own hands a farm which was made up of small detached parcels, and on which there were no farm buildings. He had little or no inducement for the necessary outlay of capital. The Santerre farmer only feared that his neighbours might outbid him, and annex his holding to that which they already occupied. Another privilege which is of infinite value to the tenant-right farmer, is the right of pre-emption. When land is offered for sale, the tenant-occupier claimed the first offer. No purchaser would bid till he had exercised his option. The principle of the droit de marché is now confined to land. But it once extended to everything which could form the object of a contract of letting and hiring. Thus, places in the market, or seats in church were transmitted in perpetuity, and could not be acquired, except with the consent of the last occupier. Similarly, ploughmen, threshers, reapers, and shepherds claimed a hereditary right to retain their situations in their families, or to nominate their successors, and boycotted employers who engaged strangers.

When once tenant-right has been acquired, farmers leave it by will, divide it among children, give it by way of dower, sell it to strangers by public auction or private bargain, make it the subject of contracts embodied in legal form by notaries. It forms an item of account in bankruptcies, liquidations, or inventories for valuations. It confers upon tenants rights of pre-emption, perpetual possession of their farms, powers to sublet, as well as to refuse increased rent or the insertion of new conditions. In defiance of the Code Civil it creates a species of droit d'atnesse. Whichever of the sons carries on the farm is treated as the eldest. To him alone brothers and sisters can sell or lease their shares of the land; and if he purchases the portion of a sister, custom only compels him to pay half-price. The droit de marché links together the tenants in the closest possible union, binding them to abstain from competition for each other's farms, to punish traitors, to conceal the perpetrators of agrarian crime, and to help one another in time of need. The extent to which this last

pledge is recognized, is illustrated by a story which De Verité tells in the Supplement to his "Essai sur l'Histoire de Picardie " (London and Abbeville, 1774). A farmer was hanged for the murder of another who had outbid him for his farm. The village council determined that the wealthiest bachelor should marry the widow of the murderer, and that a wedding present should be provided by the community, and "la chose fût exécutée." Yet this tenant-right which is thus openly dealt with, and which confers such important privileges on its owners, appears to have no legal existence. By the legislation of December, 1790, all tenancies of a perpetual nature were abolished, and they were at the same time rendered redeemable by the farmer. Tenants might convert their holdings into freehold, but after that date they could not continue to occupy under a permanent lease. The Code Civil renders null and void any disposition of property in perpetuity in favour of individuals. Thus, even assuming that the "droit" rested, before the Revolution, upon the prescriptive title of immemorial possession, it was abolished in 1790. Subsequently to that date it cannot be created, even if the two parties concur in the attempt. Existing French law abhors perpetuities, and the droit de marché is in flagrant violation of its essential principles. It is, in fact, an "atteinte sur la liberté de propriété." So careful is the law to avoid even the appearance of recognizing the legality of the droit de marché, that it refuses to assess it for purposes of taxation, and prefers to see the public revenue defrauded of a valuable source of income.

The growth of the droit de marché is an isolated phenomenon in rural France. Many forms of tenure, more or less perpetual in character, offer analogies to the droit de marché, but none present an exact parallel. It possesses no title deeds, no charter; no public record, no private document can be produced in its favour; it can only appeal to immemorial tradition, and to the deep-rooted, inveterate, and almost universal feeling of Santerre. The origin of the usage is uncertain; even its age is a subject of dispute. Its opponents regard it as a recent invasion upon the landowner's rights; its advocates assign to it a legal or equitable foundation in remote antiquity. Some writers have treated the droit de marché as the object for which the intrade is paid. But the intrade is really the effect of which the droit is the cause. It is the compensation paid to the landlord for the loss of his rights. The choice of explanation lies between many theories that have been offered to account for the growth of the usage, each of which is supported by some special circumstance in the history of the province.

The great forest of Ardennes originally covered the whole district, spreading down to the shores of the Channel. Traces of it still linger in the line of forests which join hands almost from Calais

to Paris,* in the names of numerous villages,† and even in the word Santerre itself, which is said to be derived from sarta terra, or cleared land. The droit de marché, says M. Vion, is the reward offered to the tenant for the exceptional labour of clearing the land. Somewhat similar is the explanation given by M. Troplong, who attributes the origin of the right to the necessities of cultivation, combined with imperfectly understood incidents of Gallo-Roman or feudal tenures.

This wild forest land is covered with vestiges of the Roman occupation. It is intersected with Roman roads, which converge upon their seaports upon the shores of the Channel. In the train of the Roman soldier followed the Roman farmer. Under the empire the "Colonus" was not a slave, but the owner of slaves: he held his land in perpetuity; he could not leave it, or be separated from it. He paid a fixed rent in kind which could not be raised. Tenantright, says M. Gouset, is the recognition by the Frankish conquerors of this hereditary claim to the perpetual occupation of the soil.

Picardy is studded with ruins of religious houses and feudal fortresses. Some writers have seen in the droit de marché special payment made to peasants for manual labour in their erection. It was thus, according to tradition, that the Abbey of Lihons-enSanterre was erected. Pioneers of agriculture, as well as backwoodsmen of Christianity, the monks induced their serfs, so says M. de Cagny, to clear the forest by granting perpetual leases of the reclaimed land. The example of the monks of Corbie was followed by the feudal nobility of Picardy. The same author quotes instances in which landowners surrendered their lands to the Church, and received them back to hold in perpetuity. They exchanged a brilliant but dangerous ownership for the protection which the Church offered to its tenants. In these practices M. de Cagny sees further explanations of the droit de marché, and regards the tenant-right farmers as the representatives of the original grantees or proprietors.

Peter the Hermit, whose statue stands in the square at the east end of the Cathedral of Amiens, was a native of Picardy. He drew from his native province the greater number of his followers. The piety of Picard Crusaders so enriched the county with relics, that the word Santerre has been derived from sancta terra. Local tradition, which is Catholic in its universality, assigns to the Crusades the origin of the droit de marché. The popular explanation which is in the mouth of every peasant, is that the feudal nobles raised money from their tenants to equip themselves for their expedition, and repaid

e.g., North of the Oise are the forests of Tingry, Suresnes, Crécy, Lucheux, Aronaise, Audigny, Regnaval, St. Gobain, Laigue, &c. South of the Oise are the forests of Compiègne, Villers Cotterets, Chantilly, &c.

te.g., Houssoye, Caix or Cayeux, Lucheux, Coisy, Breuil, and Brouchy, Bailleul, Créquí, and others terminating in "fay" or "oy."