TRAVELS During the Tears ' 1787 , 1788 , & 1 789 ; UNDERTAKEN MORE PARTICULARLY WITH A VIEW OF ASCERTAINING THE CULTIVATION, WEALTH, RESOURCES, AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY OF THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE. THE SECOND EDITION. VOL. I. By ARTHUR YOUNG, Esq, F.R.S. SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE ; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE SOCIETIES OF DUBLIN, BATH, YORK, SALFORD, ODIHAM, AND KENT ; THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER ; THE VETERINARY COLLEGE OF LONDON ; THE OECONOMICAL SOCIETY OF BERNE j THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF ZURICH ; THE PALATINE ACADEMY OF AGRICUL- TURE AT MANHE1M ; THE IMPERIAL OECONOMICAL SOCIETY ESTABLISHED AT PETERSBURGH ; THE ROYAL AND ELECTORAL OECONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CELLE; ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURE AT PARIS ; AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ' ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURE AT FLORENCE; AND OF THE PATRIOTIC SOCIETY AT MILAN. petition : PRINTED FOR W. RICHARDSON, ROYAL-EXCHANGE. U94 PREFACE. I T is a queffion whether modern hiftory has any thing more curious to offer to the attention of the politician, than the progrefs and rivalfhip of the French and Englifh empires, from the miniffry of Colbert to the revolution in France. In the courfe of thofe 130 years, both have figured with a degree of fplendour that has attracted the admiration of mankind. In proportion to the power, the wealth, and the refources of thefe nations, is the intereft which the world in general takes in the maxims of political oeco- nomy by which they have been governed. To examine how far the fyffem of that ceconomy has influenced agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and public felicity, is certainly an inquiry of no flight importance } and fo many books have been compofed on the theory of thefe, that the public can hardly think that time mifemployed which attempts to give the practice. The furvey which I made, fome years paid, of the agriculture of England and Ireland (the minutes of which I published under the title of Tours), was fuch a ftep towards underffanding the date of our hufbandry as I Shall not prefume to charadterife $ there are but few of the European nations that do not read thefe Tours in their own language ; and, notwithstanding all their faults and deficiencies, it has been often regreted, that no fimilar defeription of France could be reforted to either by the farmer or the politician. Indeed it could not but be lamented, that this vaffc kingdom, which has fo much figured in hiffory, were like to remain another century unknown, with refpedt to thofe circum- stances that are the objedts of my inquiries. An hundred and thirty years have pafled, including one of the molt adtive and confpicuous reigns upon record, in which the French power and refources, though much overftrained, were for- midable to Europe* How far were that power and thofe refources founded 011 the permanent bafis of an enlightened agriculture ? How far on the more infe- cure fupport of manufadtures and commerce ? How far have wealth and power and exterior fplendour, from whatever caufe they may have arifen, refledted back upon the people the profperity they implied? Very curious inquiries ; yet refolved insufficiently by thofe whofe political reveries are fpun by their fire- fides, or caught flying as they are whirled through Europe in poft-chaifes. A man who is not pradtically acquainted with agriculture, knows not how to make A 2 thofe IV PREFACE. thofe inquiries j he fcarcely knows how to difcriminate the circumflances pro- du£live of mifery, from thofe which generate the felicity of a people ; an affer- tion that will not appear paradoxical, to thofe who have attended clofely to thefe fubje&s. At the fame time, the mere agriculturift, who makes fuch journies, fees little or nothing of the connexion between the pra&ice in the fields, and the refources of the empire ; of combinations that take place between operations apparently unimportant, and the general interefl of the Rate ; combinations fo curious, as to convert, in fome cafes, well cultivated fields into fcenes of mi- fery, and accuracy of hufbandry into the parent of national weaknefs. Thefe are lubjedts that never will be underfiood from the fpeculations of the mere farmer, or the mere politician ; they demand a mixture of both ; and the in- veftigation of a mind free from prejudice, particularly national prejudice ; from the love of fyftem, and of the vain theories that are to be found in the clofets of fpeculators alone, God forbid that I fhould be guilty of the vanity of fuppofing myielf thus endowed ! I know too well the contrary ; ana have no other pre- tenfion to undertake fo arduous a work, than that of having reported the agri- culture of England with fome little fuccefs. Twenty years experience, lince that attempt, may make me hope to be not lefs qualified for fimilar exertions at prefent. The clouds that for four or five years pad, have indicated a change in the political fky of the French hemifphere, and which have fince gathered to fo lin- gular a ftorm, have rendered it mominterefting, to know what France was previoufly to any change. It would indeed have been matter of aftoniffiment, if monarchy had rifen, and had fet in that region, without the kingdom having had any examination profeffedly agricultural. The candid reader will not expedt, from the regifters of a traveller, that mi- nute analyfis of common practice, which a man is enabled to give, who refides fome months, or years, confined to one fpot ; twenty men, employed during twenty years, would nor effedt it •> and fuppofing it done, not one thoufandth part of their labours would be worth a perufal. Some fingularly enlightened diftri&s merit luch attention : but the number of them, in any country, is in- confiderable ; and the practices that deferve fuch a Rudy, perhaps, ftill fewer : to know that unlightened practices exift, and want improvement, is the chief knowledge that is of ufe to convey ; and this rather for the ftatefman than the farmer. No reader, if he knows any thing of my fituation, will expert, in this work, what the advantages of rank and fortune are neceffary to produce — of fuch I had none to exert, and could combat difficulties with no other arms than un- remitted attention, and unabating induftry. Had my aims been feconded by that fuccefs in life, which gives energy to effort, and vigour to purfuit, the work would have been more worthy of the public eye ; but fuch fuccefs muft, in this kingdom. PREFACE. v kingdom, be fooner looked for in any other path than that of the plough j the non ullus aratro dignus honos , was not more applicable to a period of oonfufion and bloodshed at Rome, than to one of peace and luxury in England. One circumftance I may be allowed to mention, becaufe it will fhew, that whatever faults the enfuing pages contain, they do not flow from any prefump- tive expectation of fuccefs : a feeling that belongs to writers only, much moie popular than myfelf : when the publifher agreed to run the hazard of printing thefe papers, and fome progrefs being made in the journal, the whole MS. was put into the compofltor’s hand to be examined, if there were a fufflciency foi a volume of iixty lheets ; he found enough prepared for the prefs to fill 1 40 : and I afiure the reader, that the fucceflive employment of ft r iking out and mutilating more than the half of what I had written, was executed with more indirrerence than regret, even though it obliged me to exclude feveral chapters, upon which I had taken confiderable pains. The publifher would have printed the wnole ; but whatever faults may be found with the author, he ought at leaf! to be ex- empted from the imputation of an undue confidence in the public favour ; fince, to expunge was undertaken as readily as to compofe. — So much depended in the fecond part of the work on accurate figures, that I did not care to truft to myfelf, but employed a fchoolmafter, who has the reputation of being a good arithme- tician, for examining the calculations, and I hope he has not let any material er- rors efcape him. The revolution in France was a hazardous and critical fubjeCt, but too im- portant to be negleCted ; the details I have given, and the reflections I have ventured, will, I truft, be received with candour, by thofe who confider how many authors, of no inconfiderable ability and reputation, have failed on that difficult theme : the courfe I have fteered is fo removed from extremes, that I can hardly hope for the approbation of more than a few ; and I may apply to myfelf, in this inftance, the words of Swift : — “ I have the ambition, common with other reafoners, to wifh at leaft that both parties may think me in the right $ but if that is not to be hoped for, my next wifh fhould be, that both might think me in the wrong ; which I would underhand as an ample j unification of myfelf, and a fure ground to believe that 1 have proceeded at leaft with impar - tiality, and perhaps with truth. ” / REDUCTION tf LUCRES, At TEN-PENCE Ne. i. 4. No. £■ 5. d. No.. £• ] 0 O iof 42 1 16 9 83 3 2 0 I 9 43 1 17 7 f 84 3 o O 0 2 7 i 44 1 18 6 81 3 4 0 3 6 45 1 !9 4 f 86 3 5 0 4 4 f 4 6 2 0 3 87 3 6 0 5 3 47 2‘ r if 88 3 7 0 6 if 48 2 2 0 89 3 8 0 7 0 49 2 2 iof 90 3 9 0 7 1 of 5 ° 2 J 9 9 1 3 IQ 0 8 9 5 1 2 4 7 f 92 4 I I 0 9 7 f 5 a 2 5 6 93 4 12 0 10 6 53 2 6 4 f 94 4 *3 0 1 1 4 f 54 2 7 3 95 4 14 0 12 3 55 2 8 if 9 6 4 *5 0 13 if 5 6 2 9 0 97 4 16 0 14 0 57 2 9 iof 98 4 i 7 0 14 iof 58 2 10 9 99 4 18 0 9 59 2 n 7 i 100 4 1 9 0 1 6 7 f 60 2 12 6 1 10 4 20 0 17 6 61 2 13 4 f 120 5 21 0 18 4 f 62 2 14 3 130 5 22 0 19 3 6 3 2 15 if 140 6 a 3 1 0 if 64 2 16 0 150 6 24 1 1 0 6S 2 16 iof 160 7 25 1 1 iof 66 2. 17 9 170 7 26 1 2 9 67 2 18 7 f 180 7 27 1 3 7 f 68- 2 19 6 190 8 28 1 4 6 69 3 0 4 f 200 8 29 1 5 4 ? 70 3 1 3 210 9 30 1 6 3 71 3 2 if 220 9 3 i 1 7 if 72 3 3 0 230 10 32 1 8 0 73 3 3 iof 240 10 33 1 8 iof 74 3 4 9 250 10 34 1 9 9 75 - 3 5 7 1 260 1 1 35 1 10 7 f 76 3 6 6 270 n 36 1 1 1 6 77 3 7 4 f 280 12 37 1 12 4 f 73 3 8 3 290 L2 33 1 J 3 3 79 3 9 if 3 00 13 39 1 14 if 80 3 10 0 3 W 13 40 1 15 0 81 3 10 TO I 320 14 4.1 1 iof 82 3 11 9 33 ° 14 HALFPENNY each. s. d. No. No. I. d. I- 2 - 7 f 340 14 17 6 750 32 16 3 r 3 6 35 ° 15 6 3 760 33 5 0 14 4 f 360 15 15 0 77O 33 13 9 15 3 37 ° 16 3 9 780 34 2 6, 16 if 380 1 (>. 12 6 79 ° 34 1 1 3 17 0 39 ° 17 1 3 800 35 0 0 17 iof 400 17 10 0 810 35 8 9 18 9 410 17 18 9 820 35 17 6 19 7 f 420 18 7 6 830 3 6 6 3 - 0 6 43 ° 18 16 3 &40 3 ° >5 0 1 4 l 440 T 9 - 5 0 8.50 37 3 9 2 3 450 !9 *3 9 860 37 12 6 3 if 460 20 2 6 870 3 « 1 3 4 0 470 20 1.1 3 880 10 0 4 iof 4.80 21 0 0 890 38 18 9 5 9 49 ° 21 8 9 900 39 7 6 6 7 t 500 21 I? 6 910 39 16 3 7 6 510 22 6 3 920 40 5 0 16 3 £20 22 15 0 930 40 13 9 5 0 53 ° 23 3 9 940 41 -2 6 13 9 ’540 23 12 6 950 41 1 1 3 2 6 5 . 5 © 24 1 . 3 960 4 £ 0 O' 11 3 £60 24 10 0 970 42 8 9 0 0 ■£ 7 ° 24 18 9 980 42 17 6 8 9 580 25 7 6 990 43 6 3 - 17 6, 590 25 16 3 1000 43 15 0? 6 3 600 26 5 0 1 100 48 2 6 15 Q 610 26 13 9 1.200 52 10 0 3 9 620 27 2 6 1300 S6 i7 6 12 6 630 27 1 1 3 1400 6l 5 0 1 3 640 28: 0 0 15.00 6 5 12 6 10 0 650 28 8 9 1600 7 °> 0 0 18 9 66 0 28. 17 6 1700 74 7 6* 7 6 670 29 6 3 1,800 78 15 0 16 3 680 29 15 0 19 CO 83 2 6> 5 0 690 3 ° 3 9 2000 87 10 0 13 9 700. 3 ° 12 6 2100. 9 1 17 6’ 2 6. 71.0 3 i 1 3 2200 96 5 0 11 3 720 3 1 10 0 23OO 100 12 6- 0 0 730 3 1 18 9 24OO io 5 0 0 8 9 740 32 7 6 25OO 109. 7 6 > [ viii ] No. £• ■ 5. d. No. 5* d. No. 2600 n 3 15 O 20,000 875 0 0 14,000,000 612,500 2700 1 18 2 6 30,000 1312 10 0 1 5,000,000 656,250 2800 122 10 0 40,000 1750 0 0 16,000,000 700,000 29OO 1 26 17 6 50,000 2187 0 0 17,000,000 743 > 75 ° 3000 131 5 0 6c,ooo 2625 0 0 1 8,000,000 787,500 3 100 135 12 6 70,000 3062 10 0 1 9,000,000 831,250 3200 140 0 0 80,000 35 °° 0 0 20,000,000 875,000 33 °° 144 7 6 90.000 3937 0 0 30,000,000 1,312,500 3400 148 15 0 100,000 4375 0 0 40,000,000 i>75°,ooo 350 ° 153 2 6 200,000 8750 0 0 50,000,000 2,187,500 3600 157 10 0 300,000 > 3 > I2 S 0 0 60,000,000 2,625,000 3700 161 17 6 400,000 17,500 0 0 70,000,000 3,062,500 3800 166 5 0 500,000 21,875 0 0 80,000,000 3,500,000 39 °° 170 12 6 600,600 26,250 0 0 90,000,000 3>937j5°° 4000 175 0 4 0 700,000 30,625 0 0 100,000,000 4,375>oo» 4100 i 79 7 6 800,000 35,000 0 0 200,000,000 8,750,000 4200 1 83 15 0 900,000 39.373 0 0 300,000,000 i 3 > 12 5 > 00 ° 43 °° 188 2 6 1,000,000 43 > 75 ° 0 0 400,000,000 1 7, 500,000 4400 192 10 0 2,000,000 ' 87,500 0 0 500,000,000 21,875,000 45 °° 196 17 6 3,000,000 i 3 l , 25 ° 0 0 600,000,000 26,250,000 4600 201 5 0 4,000,000 175,000 0 0 700,000,000 30,625,000 47 00 205 12 6 5,000,000 218,750 0 0 800,000,000 35,000,000 4800 210 0 0 6,000,000 262,500 0 0 900,000,000 39>375j°°° 4900 214 7 6 7,000,000 306,250 0 0 1 000,000,000 43 > 75 °> o0 ° 5000 218 15 0 8,000,000 350,000 0 0 2000,000,000 87,500,000 6000 262 10 0 9,000,000 393.750 0 0 3000,000,000 131,250,000 7000 3°6 5 0 10,000,000 437 > 5 °° 0 0 4000,000,000 175,000,000 8000 35 ° 0 0 I 1,000,000 48 1,250 0 0 5000,000,000 218,7 50,000 9000 393 15 0 12,000,020 425,000 0 0 6000,000,000 262,500,000 IOjOOO 437 10 0 13,000,000 568,75° 0 0 - — -tea — TRAVELS, &c. T HERE are two methods of writing travels ; to regifter the journey itfelf, or the refult of it. In the former cafe, it is a diary, under which head are to be clafled all thofe books of travels written in the form of letters. The latter ufually falls into the ffiape of effiays on diftind fubjeds. Of the former method of compofing, almofl every book of modern travels is an example. Of the latter, the admirable effiays of my valuable friend Mr. Profeffior Sy- monds, upon Italian agriculture, are the 'moft perfed fpecimens. It is of very little importance what form is adopted by a man of real genius ; he will make any form ufeful, and any information interefting. But for per- fons of more moderate talents, it is of confequence to confider the circum- ffiances for and againft both thele modes. The journal form hath the advantage of carrying with it a greater degree of credibility ; and, of courfe, more weight. A traveller who thus regifters his obfervations is deteded the moment he writes of things he has not feen. He is precluded from giving ftudied or elaborate remarks upon inefficient founda- tions : If he lees little, he mult regifter little : if he has few good opportuni- ties of oeing well informed, the reader is enabled to obferve it, and will be in- duced to give no more credit to his relations than the fources of them appear to deferve : if he paffes fo rapidly through a country as neceflarily to be no judge of what he fees, the reader knows it : if he dwells long in places of little or no moment with private views or for private bufinefs, the circumftance is leen _$ and thus the reader nas the fatisfadion of being as iafe from impofition either defigned or involuntary, as the nature of the cafe will admit: all which advan- tages are wanted in the other method. B But [ 2 ] But to balance them, there are on the other hand fome weighty inconveni- ences; among thefe the principal is, the prolixity to which a diary generally leads j the very mode of writing almoft making it inevitable. It neceftarily caufes repetitions of the fame fubjedts and the fame ideas ; and that furely muft be deemed no inconfiderable fault, when one employs many words to fay what might be better faid in a few. Another capital objection is, that fubjedts of importance, inftead of being treated de fuite for illuftration or companion, are given by.fcraps as received, without order, and without connection ; a mode which lelfens the effedt of writing, and deftroys much of its utility. In favour of compoling elfays on the principal objedts that have been ob- ferved, that is, giving the refult of travels and not the travels themlelves, there is this obvious and great advantage, that the fubjedts thus treated are in as com- plete a date of combination and illuftration as .the abilities of the author can make them; the matter comes with full force and effedt. Another admirable circumftance is brevity; for by the rejection of all ufelefs details, the reader has nothing before him but what tends to the full explanation of the fubjedt: of the di fad vantages, I need not fpeak ; they are fufficiently noted by fhewing the benefits of the diary form; for proportionably to the benefits of the one, will clearly be the difadvantages of the other. After weighing the pour and the contre , I think that it is not impracticable in my peculiar cafe to retain the benefits of both thefe plans. With one leading and predominant object in view, namely agriculture, I have conceived that I might throw each fubjedt of it into diftindt chapters, retaining all the advantages which arife from compofing the refult only of my travels. At the fame time, that the reader may have whatever fatisfadtion flows from the diary form, the obfervations which I made upon the face of the countries through which I pafted ; and upon the manners, cuftoms, amufements, towns, roads, feats, &c. may, without injury, be given in a journal, and thus fatisfy the reader in all tbofe points, with which he ought in candour to be made ac- quainted, for the reafons above intimated. It is upon this idea that I have reviewed my notes, and executed the work I now offer to the public. But travelling upon paper, as well as moving amongft rocks and rivers, hath its difficulties. When I had traced my plan, and begun to work upon it, I re- jected, without mercy, a variety of little circumftances relating to myfelf only, and of conventions with various perfons which I had thrown upon paper for the amufement of my family and intimate friends. For this I was remonftrated with by a perfon, of whole judgment I think highly, as having abfolutely ipoiled my diary, by expunging the very palfages that would beft pleafe the mafs of common readers; in a word, that I muft give up the journal plan entirely, or let C 3 ] Jet it go as it was written. — To treat the public like a friend, let them fee all, and truft to their candour for forgiving trifles. He reafoned thus: Depend on it. Young, that thofe notes you wrote at the moment, are more likely to pleafe than what you will now produce coolly, with the idea of reputation in your head : whatever you jirike out will be what is mo ft interefling, for you will be guided by the importance of the fubject ; and believe me, it is not this conjideration that pleafes fo much as a care - lefs and eafy mode of thinking and writing, which every man exercifes moji when he does not compofe for the prefs. That I am right in this opinion you yourfelf afford a proof. Your tour of Ireland (he was pleated to fay) is one of the beji accounts of a country I have read, yet it had no great juccefs. Why ? Becaufe the chief part of it is a farming diary, which, however valuable it may be to confult , nobody will read. If, therefore, you print your journal at all . print it fo as to be read \ or refold the method entirely , and confine yourfelf to fet differ tat ions. Remember the travels of Dr. and Mrs. , from which it would be difficult to gather one fmgle important idea, yet they were received with applaufe-, nay, the bagatelles' of Baretti, amongfl the Spanifh muleteers, were read with avidity. The high opinion I have of the judgment of my friend, induced me to follow his advice; in confequence of which, I venture to offer my itinerary to the public, juft as it was written on the fpot: requefting my reader, if much thould be found of a trifling nature, to pardon it, from a reflection, that the chief ob- ject of my travels is to be found in another part of the work, to which he may at once have recourfe, if he with to attend only to fubjeCts of a more important character. J O U R N A L. May 15, 1787. '~pHE ftreight that feparates England, fo fortunately for her, from all the reft of the world, mult be crofted many times before a traveller ceafes to be furprifed at the fudden and univerfal change that furrounds him on landing at Calais. The feene, the people, the language, every objeCt is new; and in thofe circumftances in which there is moft refemblance, a diferiminating eye finds little difficulty in difeovering marks of diftinCtion. The noble improvement of a fait marlh, worked by Monf. Mouron of this town, occafioned my acquaintance fome time ago with that gentleman ; and I B 2 : had 4 C A L A I S. B OULOGNE, had found him too well informed, upon various important objects, not to renew it with pleafure. I fpent an agreeable and inftrudtive evening at his houfe, 165 miles. The 17th. Nine hours rolling at anchor had fo fatigued my mare, that I thought it neceflary for her to red: one day; but this morning I left Calais. For a few miles the country refembles parts of Norfolk and Suffolk ; gentle hills, with fome inclofures around the houfes in the vales, and a diftant range Of wood. The country is the fame to Boulogne. Towards that town, I was pleafed to find many feats belonging to people who refide there. How often are falfe ideas conceived from reading and report ! I imagined that nobody but farmers and labourers in France lived in the country; and the firft ride I take in that kingdom fhews me many country feats. The road excellent. Boulogne, is not an ugly town ; and from the ramparts of the upper part the view is beautiful, though low water in the river would not let me fee it to advantage. It is well known that this place has long been the refort of great numbers of perfons from England, whofe misfortunes in trade, or extravagance in life, have made a refidence abroad more agreeable than at home. It is eafy to fuppofe that they here find a level of fociety that tempts them to herd in the fame place. Certainly it is not cheapnefs, for it is rather dear. The mixture of French and Englifh women makes an odd appearance in the ftreets; the latter are dreffed in their own fafhion; but the French heads are all without hats, with clofe caps, and the body covered with a long cloak that reaches to the feet. The town has the appearance of being flourifhing : the buildings good, and in repair, with fome modern ones ; perhaps as fure a teft of profpe- rity as any other. They are raifing alfo a new church, on a large and expen- five fcale. The place on the whole is chearful, the environs pleafing, and the fea-fhore is a flat firand of firm fand as far as the tide reaches. The high land adjoining is worth viewing by thofe who have not already feen the petrification of clay; it is found in the Honey and argilaceous Hate, juft as I defcribed at Harwich. (Annals of Agriculture y vol. vi. p. 218.) — 24 miles. The 1 8 th. The view of Boulogne from the other fide, at the diftance of a mile is a pleafing landfcape ; the river meanders in the vale, and fpreads in a fine reach under the town, juft before it falls into the fea, which opens between two high lands, one of which backs the town. — The view wants only wood; for if the hills had more, fancy could fcarcely paint a more agreeable fcene. The country improves, more inclofed, and fome parts firongly refem filing England.. Some fine meadows about Bonbrie, and feveral chateaus. I am not profefiedLy in this diary on hufbandry, but muft juft obferve, that it is to the full as bad as the country is good; corn miferable and yellow with weeds, yet ail fummer fallowed with loft attention. On the hills, which are at no great diftance from the fea, the trees turn ■ ROADS.— MONT REU I L.— ABBEVILLE. $ turn their heads from it, fhorn of their foliage: it is not therefore to the S. W. alone that we fhould attribute this effeCt. — If the French have not hufbandry to £hew us, they have roads ; nothing can be more beautiful, or kept in more gar- den order, if I may ufe the expreffion, than that which pafies through a fine wood of Monf. Neuvillier’s ; and indeed for the whole way from Samer it is wonderfully formed: a vafi: caufeway, with hills cut to level vales ; which' would fill me with admiration, if I had known nothing of the abominable corvees, that make me commiferate the opprefied farmers, from whofe extorted labour this magnificence has been wrung. Women gathering grafs and weeds by hand in the woods for their cows is a trait of poverty. Pafs turbemesy near Montreuil, like thofe at Newbury. The walk round the ramparts of that town is pretty : the little gardens in the baftions below are An- gular. The place has many Englifh; for what purpofe riot eafy to conceive, for it is unenlivened by thofe circumftances that render towns pleafant. In a fhort converfation with an Englifh family returning home, the lady,, who is young, and I conjecture agreeable, allured me I fhould find, the court of Ve>r~ failles amazingly fplendid. Oh ! how fhe loved France ! — and (hould regret going to England if fhe did not expeCt foon to return. As {he had eroded the kingdom of France, I afked her what part of it pleafed her belt; the anfwer was, fuch as a pair of pretty lips would be fure to utter, “ Oh ! Paris and Ver- sailles.” Her hufband, who is not fo young, faid “ Touraine.” It is probable, that a farmer is much more likely to agree with the fentiments of the hufband^ than of the lady, notwithstanding her charms. —24 miles. The 1 9th. Dined, or rather ftarved, at Bernay, where for the firfir time I met with that wine of whofe ill fame I had heard fo much in England, that of be- ing worfe than fmall beer. No fcattered farm-houfes in this part of Picardy, all being collected in villages, which is as unfortunate for the beauty of a country, as it is inconvenient to its cultivation. To Abbeville, unpleafant, nearly flat; and though there are many and great woods, yet they are uninterefting. Pafs the new chalk chateau of Monf. St. Maritan, who, had he been in England, would not have built a good houfe in that fituation, nor have projected his walls like thofe of an alms-houfe. Abbeville is faid to contain 22,000 fouls; it is old, and difagreeably built; many of the houfes of Wood, with a greater air of antiquity than I remember, to have ieen; their brethren in England have been long ago demolifhed. Viewed the manufacture of Van Robais, which was eftablifhed by Louis XIV. and of which Voltaire and others have fpoken fo much. I had many enquiries con- cerning wool and woollens to make here ; and, in converfation with the manu- facturers, found them great politicians, condemning with violence the new com- mercial treaty with England. 30 miles- The 6 AMIENS.' ■BRETEUIL, The 2 1 ft. It is the fame flat and unpleafing country to Flixcourt. — 1 5 miles. The 2 2d. Poverty and poor crops to Amiens > women are now ploughing with a pair of horfes to fow barley. The difference of the cuftoms of the two nations is in nothing more ftriking than in the labours of the fex; in England, it is very little that they will do in the fields except to glean and make hay; the firft is a party of pilfering, and the fecond of plealure: in France, they plough and fill the dung-cart. Lombardy poplars feem to have been introduced here about the fame time as in England.. Picquigny has been the fcene of a remarkable tranfadfion, that does great ho- nour to the tolerating lpirit of the French nation. Monf. Colmar, a Jew, bought the feignory and ellate, including the vifcounty of Amiens, of the Duke of Chaulnes, by virtue of which he appoints the canons of the cathe- dral of Amiens. The bifhop refilled his nomination, and it was carried by ap- peal to the parliament of Paris, whole decree was in favour of Monf. Colmar. 'The immediate feignory of Picquigny, but without its dependences, is refold to the Count d’ Artois. At Amiens, view the cathedral, faid to be built by the Englifh; it is very large, and beautifully light and decorated. They are fitting it up in black drapery, and a great canopy, with illuminations for the burial of the Prince de Tingry, colonel of the regiment of cavalry, whole ftation is here. To view this was an objedt among the people, and crouds were at each door. I was re- fufed entrance, but fome officers being admitted, gave orders that an Englifh gentleman without ffiould be let in, and I was called back from fome diftance and delired very politely to enter, as they did not know at firft that I was an Englifhman. Thefe are but trifles, but they fhew liberality ; and it is fair to re- port them. If an Englilhman receives attentions in France, becaufe he is an Englijhman , what return ought to be made to a Frenchman in England, is fufficiently obvious. The chateau d’eau, or machine for fupplying Amiens with water, is worth viewing; but plates only could give an idea of it. The town abounds with woollen manufadfures. I converted with feveral mafters, who united entirely with thofe of Abbeville in condemning the treaty of com- merce. 15 miles. The 23d. To Breteuil the country is diverfified, woods every where in fight the whole journey. 21 miles. The 24th. A flat and uninterefting chalky country continues almoft to Clermont; where it improves; is hilly and has wood. The view of the town, as foon as the dale is feen, with the Duke of Fitzjames’s plantations, is pretty. 24 miles. The 25th. The environs of Clermont are pidturefaue. The hills about Liancourt are pretty; and fpread with a fort of cultivation I had never feen be- fore. CHANTILLY. ? fore, a mixture of vineyard (for here the vines fird appear) ; garden, and corn. A piece of wheat ; a fcrap of lucerne ; a patch of clover or vetches ; a bit of vines ; with cherry, and other fruit-trees fcattered among all, and the whole cultivated with the fpade : it makes a pretty appearance, but mud form a poor fydem of trifling. Chantilly! — magnificence is its reigning character; it is never loll. There is not tade or beauty enough to foften it into milder features t all but the cha- teau is great ; and there is fomething impofing" in that except the gallery of the Great Conde’s battle, and the cabinet of natural hidory which is rich in very fine fpecknens, mod advantageoufly arranged, it contains nothing that demands particular notice ; nor is there one room which in England would be called large. The liable is truly great,, and exceeds very much indeed any thing of the kind I had ever feen. It is 580 feet long, and 40 broad, and is fometimes filled with 240 Englifh horfes. I had been fo accudomed to the imitation in water, of the waving and irregular lines of nature, that I came to Chantilly prepoflefied againfl the idea of a canal ; but the view of one here is linking, and had the ef- fect which magnificent fceues imprefs. It arifes from extent, and from the right lines of the water uniting with the regularity of the objects in view. It is Lord Kaimes, I think, who fays, that the part of the garden contiguous to the houfe lliould partake of the regularity of the building ; with much magnifi- cence about a place, this is almoft unavoidable. The eflfedt here, however, is lefiened by the parterre before the caftle, in which the divifions and the dimi- nutive jets-d’eau are not of a fize to correfpond with the magnificence of the canal. The menagerie is very pretty, and exhibits a prodigious variety of domeflic poultry, from all parts of the world ; one of the bell objeds to which a menagerie can be applied ; thefe, and the Corfican flag, had all my attention. The hamsau contains an imitation of an Englifh garden ; the tafle is but jufl introduced into France, fo that it will not fland a cntical examination. a he mod Englifh idea I faw is the lawn in front of the flables ; it is large, of a good verdure, and well kept ; proving clearly that they may have as fine lawns- in the north of France as in England. The labyrinth is the only complete one I have feen, and I have no inclination to fee another : it is in gardening wnat a rebus is in poetry. In the Sylvae are many very fine and fcarce plants. I with thofe perfons who view Chantilly, and are fond ot fine trees, would not foiget to afk for the great beech ; this is the fined I ever faw ; drait as an arrow, ana, as I guefs, not lefs than 80 or 90 feet high; 40 feet to the fird branch, and i 2 feet diameter at five from the ground. It is in all refpeds one 01 the fined tFees that can any where be met with. Two others are near it, but not equal to this fuperb one. The fored around Chantilly, belonging to- the Prince ot tConde, is immenfe,. fpreading far and wide ; the Paris road erodes it for ten miles, LUZARCH,- ■PAR I S. .miles, which is its lead extent. They fay the capitainerie, or paramount (hip, is above 100 miles in circumference. That is to fay, all the inhabitants for that extent are peflered with game. Without permifiion to deftroy it, in order to give one man diverfion. Ought not thefe capitaineries to be extirpated ? At Luzarch, I found that my mAre, from illnefs, would travel no fur- ther; French ilables, which are covered dung-hills, and the careleffnefs of gargms d'ecuries , an execrable fet of vermin, had given her cold. I therefore left her to fend for from Paris, and went thither pod y by which experiment I found that polling in France is much worfe, and even, upon the whole, dearer than in England. Being in a poft-chaife I travelled to Paris, as other travel- lers in poft-chaifes do, that is to fay, knowing little or nothing. The lad ten miles I was eagerly on the watch for that throng of carriages which near Lon- don impede the traveller. I watched in vain ; for the road, quite to the gates, is, on comparifon, a perfedt defert. So many great roads join here, that I fup- pofe this muil be accidental. The entrance has nothing magnificent; ill built and dirty. To get to the Rue de Varenne Fauxbourg St. Germain, I had the whole city to crols, and pafied it by narrow, ugly, and crouded dreets. At the hotel de la Rochefoucauld I found the Duke of Liancourt and his fons, the Count de la Rochefoucauld, and the Count Alexander, with my excel- lent friend Monfieur de Lazowfki, all of whom I had the pleafure of knowing in Suffolk. They introduced me to the Duchefs D’ bdiffac, mother of the Duke of Liancourt, and to the Duchefs of Liancourt. The agreeable reception and friendly attentions I met with from all this liberal family were well calculated to give me the mod favourable imprefiion * * * * *. 42 miles. The 26th. So (hort a time had I pafied before in France, that the feene is totally new to me. Till we have been accuflomed to travelling, we have a propenfity to llare at and admire every thing — and to be on the fearch for no- velty, even in circumdances. in which it is ridiculous to look for it. I have been upon the full filly gape to find out things that I had not found before, as if a flreet in Paris could be compofed of any thing but houfes, or houfes formed of any thing but brick or (lone — or that the people in them, not being Englifh, would be walking on their heads. I (hall fhake off this folly as fafl as I can, and bend my attention to mark the character and difpofition of the nation. Such views naturally lead us to catch the little circumflances which fometimes exprefs them ; not an eafy tafk, but fubjedt to many errors. I have only one day to pafs at Paris, and that is taken up with buying necef- faries. At Calais my abundant care produced the inconvenience it was meant to avoid ; I was afraid of lofing my trunk, by leaving it at Deifein’s for the dili- gence; fo I fent it to M. Mouron’s. — The confequence is, that it is not to be found at Paris, and its contents are to be bought again before I can leave this city city on our journey to the Pyrenees. I believe it may be received as. a maxim, that a traveller fhould always truft his baggage to the common voitures of the country, without any extraordinary precautions. After a rapid excurfion, with my friend Lazowfki, to fee many things, but too haftily to form any correct idea, fpent the evening at his brother’s, where I had the pleafure of meeting Monf. de Brouftonet, fecretary of the Royal So- ciety of Agriculture, and Monf. Defmarets, both of the Academy of Sciences. As Monf. Lazowfki is well informed in the manufactures of France, in the police of which he enjoys a port of conhderation, and as the other gentle- men have paid much attention to agriculture, the converfation was in no flight degiee inftrudiive, and I regretted that a very early departure from Paris would noMet me promife myfelf a further enjoyment fo congenial with my feelings, as tne company of men, whofe converfation fhewed a marked attention to ob- jects of national importance. On the breaking up of the party, went with Count Alexander de la Rochefoucauld poll to Verfailles, to be prefen t at the fete of the day following (Whitfunday) fleptat the Duke de Liancourfs hotel. The 27th. Breakfafted with him at his apartments in the palace, which aie annexed to his office of grand matter of the wardrobe, one of the principal in the court of France. — Here I found the duke furrounded by a circle of noble- men, among whom was the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, well known for his attention to natural hiftory ; I was introduced to him, as he is going to Bagnere de Luchon in the Pyrenees, where I am to have the honour of being in his party. The ceremony of the day was, the King’s inverting the Duke of Berri, fon of the Count D Artois, with the cordon blue . The Queen’s band was in the chapel where the ceremony was performed, but the mufical effeCf was thin and weak. During the fervice the King was feated between his two brothers, and feemed by his carriage and inattention to wifh himfelf a hunting. He would certainly have been as well employed, as in hearing afterwards from his throne a feudal oath of chivalry, I fuppofe, or fome fuch nonfenfe, adminirtered to a boy of ten years old. Seeing fo much pompous folly I imagined it .was the dauphin, and afked a lady of fafhion near me ; at which (he laughed in my face, as if I had been guilty of the moft egregious idiotifm : nothing could be done m a woife manner ; for the Lining of her expreffion only marked it the more. applied to Monf. de la Rochefoucauld to learn what grofs abfurdity I had been guilty of fo unwittingly ; when, forfooth, it was becaufe the dauphin, ns a the wortd knows m France, has the cordon blue put around him as foon as e is born. So unpardonable was it for a foreigner to be ignorant of fuch an important part of French hiftory, as that of giving a babe a blue flobbering bib mftead of a white one ! c After 10 VERSAILLES. After this ceremony was finished, the King and the knights walked in a fort of proceffion to a fmall apartment in which he dined, faluting the Queen as they palled. There appeared to be more eafe and familiarity than form in this part of the ceremony ; her majelly, who, by the way, is -the mod: beautiful woman I faw to-day, received them with a variety of exprellion. On fome fhe fmiled ; to others Ihe talked; a few feemed to have the honour of being more in her inti- macy. Her return to fome was formal, and to others didant. To the gallant Suf- frein it was refpeCtful and benign. The ceremony of the King’s dining in public is more odd than fplendid. The Queen fat by him with a cover before her, but ate nothing; converling with the Duke of Orleans, and the Duke of Liancourt, who flood behind her chair. To me it would have been a mod: un- comfortable meal, and were I a fovereign, I would fweep away three-fourths of thefe flupid forms ; if Kings do not dine like other people, they lofe much of the pleafure of life ; their flation is very well calculated to deprive them of much, and they fubmlt to nonfenfical cufloms, the foie tendency of which is to lelfen the remainder. The only comfortable or amufing dinner is a table of ten or twelve covers for the people whom -they like ; travellers tell us that this was fhe mode of the late King of Prudia, who knew the value of 'life too well to facrifice it to empty forms on the one hand, or to a monadic referve on the other* The palace of Verfailles, one of the objeCts of which report had given me the created expectation, is not in the lead driking : I view it without emotion : the impreffion it makes is nothing. What can compenfate the want of unity ? From whatever point viewed, it appears an affeinblage of buildings ; a fplendid •quarter of a town, but not a fine edifice ; an objection from which the garden front is not free, though by far the mod beautiful. — The great gallery is the fined room I have feen ; the other apartments are nothing; but the pictures and datues are well known to be a capital collection. The whole palace, except the chapel, feems to be open to all the world ; we puthed through an amazing croud of all forts of people to fee the proceffion, many of them not very well dreffed, whence it appears, that no quedions are adeed. But the officers at the door of the apartment in which the King dined, made adidinCtion, and would not per- mit all to enter promifeuoudy. Travellers fpeak much, even very kte ; Ones, of the remarkable intered the French take in all that'perfonally concerns their King, fhewing by the eagernefs of their attention not curiofity only, but love. Where, how, and in whom thofe gentlemen difeovered this I know not. — It is either mifreprefentation, or the people are changed in a few years more than is credible. Dine at Paris, and in the evening the Duchefs of Liancourt, who feems to be one of the bed of women, carried me to the opera at St. Cloud, where alfo we viewed the palace ■which E S T A M P S. O R L E A N S. „ which the Qjjeen is building; it is large, but there is much in the front that does not pleafe me 20 miles. The 28th. Finding my mare fufficiently recovered for a journey, a point of importance to a traveller fo weak in cavalry as myfelf, I left Paris, accomoanv- ing the Count de la Rochefoucauld and my friend Lazowlki, and commencing a journey that is to crofs the whole kingdom to the Pyrenees. The road to Or- leans is one of the greateft that leads from Paris; I expedted, therefore," to have my former impreffion of the little traffic near that city removed; but on the con- trary it was. confirmed; it is a defert compared with thofe around London. In ten miles we met not one ftage or diligence; only two melfageries, and very few chaifes; not a tenth of what would have been met had we been leaving London at the lame hour. Knowing how great, rich, and important a city Paris is, this circumftance perplexes me much. Should it afterwards be confirmed, conclu - iions in abundance are to be drawn.. For a few miles, the fcene is every where fcattered with the lhafts of quarries the Hone drawn up by lanthorn wheels of a great diameter. The country diver- fified; and its greateft want to pleafe the eye is a river ; woods generally in view; the proportion of the French territory covered by this production for want of coals, muft be piodigious, for it has been the lame all the way from Calais. At Arpajon, the Marechal Duke de Mouchy has a fmall houfe, which has nothing to recommend it. 20 miles. The 29th. To Ellamps is partly through a flat country, the beginning of the famous I ays de Beauce. To Toury, flat and dilagreeable, only two or three gentlemen’s feats in fight. 31 miles. The 30th. One univerftl flat, uninclofed, uninterefting, and even tedious, though fmall towns and villages are every where in fight; the features that might compound a landfcape are not brought together. This Pays de Beauce contains, by reputation, the cream of French hulbandry; the foil excellent; but the management all fallow. Pafs through part of the foreft of Orleans b'elon ing to the duke of that name ; it is one of the largeft in France. From the fteeple of the catnedral at Orleans, the prolpedt is very fine. The town large, and its fuburbs, of Angle ftreets, extend near a league. The vaft range of country, that fpreads on every fide, is an unbounded plain, through which the magnificent Loire bends his ftately way, in fight for 14 leagues; the whole fcattered with rich meadows, vineyards, gardens, and forefts. The po- pulation muft be very great; for, befide the city, which contains near 40,000 people, the number of fmaller towns and villages ftrewed thickly over the plain is fuch as to render the whole fcene animated. The cathedral, from which we had this noble profped, is a fine building, the choir raifed by Henry IV. The ^ 2 new 12 ■LA LOGE, S O L O G N E. new church is a pleafing edifice ; the bridge a noble ftrudture of flone, and the firft experiment of the flat arch made in France, where it is now fo fafhionable. It contains nine, and is 410 feet long, and 45 wide. To hear fome Englifh- men talk, one would fuppofe there was not a fine bridge in all France; not the firfl:, nor the laft error I hope that travelling will remove. There are many barges and boats at the quay, built upon the river in the Bourbonnois, &c. loaded with wood, brandy, wine, and other goods; on arriving at Nantes, the veflels are broken up and fold with the cargo. Great numbers built with fpruce fir. A boat goes from hence to that city, when demanded by fix jpafifen- gers, each paying a louis-d’or: they lie on fhore every night, and reach Nantes in four days and an half. The principal ftreet leading to the bridge is a fine one all bufy and alive, for trade is brifk here. Admire the fine acacias Scattered about the town. 20 miles. The 31ft. On leaving it, enter foon the miferable province of Sologne, which the French writers call the trifle Sologne. Through all this country they have had fevere fpring frofls, for the leaves of the walnuts are black and cut off. I fhould not have expedted this unequivocal mark of a bad climate after paffing the Loire. To La Ferte Lowendahl, a dead flat of hungry fandy gravel, with much heath. The poor people, who cultivate the foil here, are metayers , that is, men who hire the land without ability to flock it; the proprietor is forced to provide cattle and feed, and he and his tenant divide the produce ; a miferable fyflem, that perpetuates poverty and excludes inflrudtion. At La Ferte is a handfome chateau of the Marquis de Coix, with feveral canals, and a great command of water. To Nonant-le-Fuzelier, a flrange mixture of fand and water. Much inclofed, and the houfes and cottages of wood filled between the fluds with clay or bricks, and covered not with flate but tile, with fome barns boarded like thofe in Suffolk — rows of pollards in fome of the hedges; an excellent road of fand ; the general features of a woodland country ; all combined to give a flrong refemblance to many parts of England ; but the hufbandry is fo little like that of England, that the leafl attention to it deflroyed every notion of fimilarity. • 27 miles. June i. The fame wretched country continues to La Loge;- the fields are fcenes of pitiable management, as the houfes are of rnifery. Yet all this coun- try highly improveable, if they knew what to do with it: the property, perhaps* of fome of thofe glittering beings, who figured in the procefiion the other day at Verfailles. Heaven grant me patience while I fee a country thus negledted— * and forgive me the oaths I fwear at the abfence and ignorance of the pofieffors. Enter the generality of Bourges, and foon after a foreil of oak belonging to the Count d’ Artois ; the trees are dying at top, before they attaip any fize. There VERSO N. A R G E N T O N. 13 tLe miferatle Sologne ends; the firft view of Verfon and its vicinity is fine. A noble vale fpreads at your feet, through which the river Cheere leads, fecn in feveral places to the diftance of fome leagues, a bright fun burniftied the water, like a firing of lakes amidft the ftiade of a vafl woodland. See Bourses to the left. 1 3 miles. The 2d. Pafs the rivets Cheere and Lave; the bridges well built; theftream fine, and with the wood, buildings, boats, and adjoining hills, form an animated icene. Several new houfes, and buildings of good Rone in Verfon ; the place appears thriving, and doubtlefs owes much to the navigation. We are now in Berri, a province governed by a provincial aftembly, confequently the roads good, and made without corvees. Vatan is a little town that fubfifts chiefly by fpin- ning. We drank there excellent Sancere wine, of a deep colour, rich flavour, and good body, 2 of. the bottle; but in the country io. An extenfive profpeCt be- fore we arrived at Chateauroux where we viewed the manufactures. 40 miles. The 3d. Within about three miles of Argenton come upon a fine fcene, beau- tiful, yet with bold features ; a narrow vale bounded on every fide with hills, co- vered with wood, all of which are immediately under the eye, without a level acre, except the bottom of the vale, through which a river flows, by an old cattle piCturefquely fituated to the right; and to the left, a tower riling out of a wood. . At Argenton, walk up a rock that hangs almott over the town. It is a de- licious fcene. A natural ledge of perpendicular rock pulhes forward abruptly over the vale, which is half a mile broad, and two or three long: at one end Ciofed by hills, and at the other filled by the town with vineyards riling above it; the furrounding fcene that hems in the vale is high enough for relief; vine- yards, rocks or hills covered with wood. The vale cut into inclofures of a lovely verdure, and a fine river winds through it, with an outline that leaves no- thing to wifh. The venerable fragments of a cattle’s ruins, near the point of view, are well adapted to awaken reflections on the triumph of the arts of peace over the barbarous ravages of the feudal ages, when every clafs of fociety was involved in commotion, and the lower ranks were worfe Haves than at prefen t. . g cnera * face of the country, from Verfon to Argenton, is an uninterett- mg flat with many heaths of ling. No appearance of population, and even towns ai e thin. I he hulbandry poor and the people miferable. By the cir-*.. cum 1 Lances to which I could give attention I conceive them to be honett and. mduttrious; they feem clean; are civil, and have good countenances. They appear to me as if they would improve their country, if they formed the part of a lyttem, the principles of which tended to national profperity.- 18 miles. , Pafs an inclofed country, which would have a better appearance if tne oaks had not loft their foliage by infeCts, whofe webs hang over the buds. They H LA MARCH E. L I M O G E. They are. but now coming into leaf again. Crofs a flream which feparaies Bern from La Marche ; chefnuts appear at the fame time; they are fpread over all the fields, and yield the food of the poor. A variety of hill and dale, with fine woods, but little figns of population. Lizards for the firfi time alfo. There feems a connection relative to climate between the chefnuts and thefe harmlefs animals. They are very numerous, and fome of them near a foot long. Sleep at La Ville au Brun. 24 miles. The 5 th. The country improves in beauty greatly ; pafs a vale, where a caufeway flops the water of a fmall rivulet and fwells it into a lake, that forms one feature of a delicious fcene. The indented outlines and the fwells margined with wood are beautiful ; the hills on every fide in unifon ; one now covered with ling the prophetic eye of tafte may imagine lawn. Nothing is wanted to render the fcene a garden, but to clear away rubbiih. The general face of the country, for 1 6 miles, by far the mod beautiful I have feen in France; it is thickly inclofed, and full of wood; the umbrageous foliage of the chefnuts gives the fame beautiful verdure to the hills, as watered mea- dows (feen for the firfi time to-day) to the vales. Diflant mountainous ridges form the back ground, and make the whole interefling. The declivity of coun- try, as we go down to Bafiies, offers a beautiful view; and the appr®ach to the town prefents a landfcape fancifully grouped of rock, and wood, and water. To Limoge, pafs another artificial lake between cultivated hills; beyond are wilder heights, but mixed with pleafant vales; flill another lake more beautiful than the former, with a fine accompanyment of wood; aerofs a mountain. oF chefnut copfe, which commands a fcene of a character different from, any I have viewed either in France or England, a great range of hill and dale all covered with forefl, and bounded by diflant mountains-.. Not a veflige of any human refidence; no village; no houfe or hut, no fmoke to raife the idea of a peopled country ; an American fcene; wild enough for the tomohawk of the favage. Stop at an execrable auberge, called Maifon Rouge, where we intended to fleep; but, on examination, found every appearance fo forbidding, and fo beggarly an account of a larder, that we paffed on to Limoge. The roads through all this country are truly noble, far beyond any thing I have feen in France or elfewhere. 44 miles. The 6th. View Limoge, and examine its manufactures. It was certainly a Roman Ration, and fome traces of its antiquity are flill remaining. It is ill built, with narrow and crooked flreets, the houfes high and difagreeable. They are raifed of granite, or wood with lath and plaifler, which faves lime, an expen- five article here, being brought from a diflance of twelve leagues; the roofs are of pantiles, with projecting eaves, and almofl flat; a fireproof we have quitted the region of heavy fnows. The beft of their public works is a noble fountain, th$ L I M O G £. ine water condufted three quarters of a league by an arched aquedudt, brought under the bed of a rock 60 feet deep to the higheft fpot in the town, where it f U f S m0 . a balon feet dimeter, cut out of one piece of granite; thence the clofed by fluices ' which are °^ d for ^ ** The^ cathedral is ancient, and the roof of ftone; there are fome arabefque or- naments cut in ftone, as light, airy, and elegant as any modern houfe can boaft whofe decorations are in the fame tafte. * The prefent bifliop has erefted a large and handfome palace, and his garden is rnVr l ° bC fe£n 31 Limoge ’ for i( commands a landfcape hardly to be equalled for beauty : it would be idle to give any other defcription than juft enough to induce travellers to view it. A river winds through a vale, furround- by hills that prefent the gayeft and moft animated affemblage of villas firms, vines, hanging meadows, and chefnuts blended fo fortunately as to com- fonira 3 "f ‘"“i 7 Thls blfll °P “ a &iend of the Count de la Roche- r-ent / to dine ’ and gave us a very handfome entertain- ment. Lord Macartney, when a prifoner in France, after the Grenades were ‘ en ’ fome time Wltb ; there was an inftance of French politenefs fliewn to his lordfliip, that marks the urbanity of this people. The order came from court to ling Te Deum on the very day that Lord Macartney was to arrive Conceiving that the public demonftrations of joy for a victory that ■ ought his noble gueft a prifoner, might be perfonally unpleafant to him the bifliop propofed to the intendant to poftpone the ceremony for a few days, in or- ™ bem V gh ! n0t meet k fo abru P ( ly; this was inftantly acceded to, and conduftea m fuch a manner afterwards as to mark as much attention to Lord Macartneys feelings as to their own. The bithop told me, that Lord Macart- ney fpoke trench- better than he could have conceived poffible. for a foreigner had he not heard him ; better than many well educated Frenchmen. 8 ' ic poftoi intendant here was rendered celebrated by being filled by that riend of mamund, Turgot, whofe well earned reputation in this province placed thrt :‘ tb % hei,d0 / the , Fre " Ch fi J nanCeS ’ aSma / b every agreeab^ iearnff m P^-Lonofequaltmthancldegance, his life by the Marquis of Condor- £ rt h j ‘“j- er Wh \ ch 1 Urg0t left here is considerable. The noble roads itl ’j 7 £XCeed / ng any ° ther 1 have feen in France, were • ngft Ins good woncs ; an epithet due to them becaufe not made by corves 1 here is here a fociety of agriculture, which owes its origin to the fame diftin- b “ t in that mok unIuck y path of French exertion he was able Tli' r°- ling j eV |lf t0 ° ra dically fixed were in the way of the attempt STJSSjTf ! lC S? conrafc o*, prtmiZI, P L nonftnfe. This is not of much confequence, for the people, in- ilead B R I V E. it LIMOSI N. ftead of reading their memoirs, are not able to read at all. They can however fee } and if a farm was eftablifhed in that good cultivation which they ought to copy, fomething would be prefented from which they might learn. I afked particularly if the members of this fociety had land in their own hands, from which it might be judged if they knew any thing of the matter themfelves . I was allured that they had ; but the convention presently explained it : they had metayers around their country -feats, and this was conlidered as farming their own lands, fo that they alfume fomething of a merit from the identical circumftance, which is the curie and ruin of the whole country. In the agricultural conventions we have had on the journey from Orleans, I have not found one perfon who feemed fenlible of the mifehief of this fyftem. The 7th. No chefnuts for a league before we reach Piere Buffiere, they fay becaufe the balls of the country is a hard granite j and tney afieit alfo at Limoge, that in this granite there grow neither vines, wheat, nor chefnuts, but that on the fofter granites thefe plants thrive well : it is true, that chefnuts and this granite appeared together when we entered Eimofin. The road has been incomparably fine, and much more like the well kept alleys of a garden than a common high way. See for the firft time old towers, that appeal numeious in this country. — * — 3 3 miles. The 8th. Pafs an extraordinary fpe&acle for Englilh eyes, of many houfes too good to be called cottages, without any glafs windows. Some miles to the right is Pompadour, where the King has a ffud ; there aie all kinds of horfes, but chiefly Arabian, Turkilh, and Englilh. Three years ago four Arabians were imported, which had been procured at the expence of 72,000 livres (3149I.) the price of covering a mare is only three livres to the groom ; the owners are permitted to fell their colts as they pleafe, but if thefe come up to the flandard height, the King’s officers have the preference, pro- vided they give the price offered by others. Thefe horfes are not faddled till fix years old. They pafture all day, but at night are confined on account of wolves, which are fo common as to be a great plague to the people. A horfe of fix years old, a little more than four feet fix inches high, is fold for 70I. ; and 15I. has been offered for a colt of one year old. Pafs Uzarch; dine at Douzenac , between which place and Brive meet the firfl maiz, or Indian corn. The beauty of the country, through the 34 miles from St. George to Brive, is fo various, and in every refped fo ftriking and interefling, that I fhall attempt no particular defeription, but obferve in general, that I am much in doubt, whe- ther there be any thing comparable to it either in England or Ireland. It is not that a fine view breaks now and then upon the eye to compenfate the tra- veller for the dulnefs of a much longer diftridt ; but a quick fucceffion of land- fcapes, many of which would be rendered famous in England, by the refort of r travellers SOUILLAC. *7 B R I V E.- travellers to view them. The country is all hill or valley ; the lulls are very high, and would be called with us mountains, if waile and covered with heath ; but being cultivated to the very tops, their magnitude is leffened to the. eye. Their forms are various : they fwell in beautiful femi-globes • thev projedt m abrupt maffes, which inclofe deep glens : they expand into amphi- theatres of cultivation that rife in gradation to the eye : in l'orne places tolled into a thoufand inequalities of furface ; in others the eye repofes on feenes of the foftelt verdure. Add to this the rich robe, with which nature’s bounteous hand has drelfed the Hopes, with hanging woods of chefnut. And whether the vales open their verdant bofoms, and admit the fun to illumine the rivers in t eir comparative repole ; or whether they be clofed in deep glens, that afford a pa age with difficulty to the water rolling over their rocky beds, and dazz lino- t e eye with , the lultre of cafcades 3 in every cafe the features are interefling and charadterillic of the feenery. Some views of fmgular beauty rivetted us to the fpots } that of the town of Uzarch, covering a conical hill, riling in the hol- low of an amphitheatre of wood, and furrounded at its feet by a noble fiver, is unique. Derry in Ireland has fomething of its form, but wants fome of its lichelt features. The water-feenes from the town itfelf, and immediately after palling it, are delicious. The immenle view from the defeent to Douzenach is equally magnificent. To all this is added the fineft road in the world, every where foimed in the perfedt manner, and kept in the highelt prefervation, like the well ordered alley of a garden, without dull, fand. Hones, or inequality, him and level, of pounded granite, and traced with fuch a perpetual command of profpedt, that had the engineer no other objedt in view, he could not have exe- cuted it with a more hnilhed tafle. The view of -Brive, from the hill, is fo fine, that it gives the expedition of a eautiful little town, and the gaiety of the environs encourages the idea ; but, on entering, fuch a contrail is found as difgulls completely. Clofe, ill built, crooked, dirty, Hinking Hreets, exclude the fun, and almolt the air, from every habitation, except a few tolerable ones on the promenade. 34 miles. . 9 tk - Enter a different countiy, with the new province of Quercy, which is a part of Guienne ; not near fo beautiful as Limolin, but, to make amends, it is ai etter cultivated. Thanks to maiz, which does wonders ! Pafs Noailles, on the fummit of a high hill, the chateau of the Marfhal Duke of that name.- nter a calcareous country, and lole chef nuts at the lame time. . . n down to Souillac, there is a profpedt that mull univerlally pleafe : h u I 8 ' 67 * ViCW ° f a delicious little va %> funk deep amonglt fome very ° 1 s that inclofe it ^ a margin of wild mountain contrails the extreme eauty of the level fuiface below, a feene of cultivation fcattered with line wal- nut trees i nothing can apparently exceed the exuberant fertility of this fpot. P Souillac jg DOEDONN E. P E Y R A C. Souillac is a little town in a thriving ftate, having feme rich merchants. They receive ftaves from the mountains of Auvergne by their river Dordonne, which is navigable eight months in the year; thefe they export to Bordeaux iTibounr/alfo wine, corn, andcattle, and import fait in great is not in the power of an Engltih imagination to figure *0 animals tha^wa^d d S si ^rr£“ ing in at one end and out at the other, without the abommab e operat.on com men in England, of beating horfes till they leap into them; a contrail a°s the excellence; we paid for an Enghflr wh flty, a one faddle-horfe, and fix perfons,_ no more than 50/ (2 :• •) ^ half-a-crown a wheel in England for execrable femes J of the horfes limbs.— This river runs in a very deep valley between two n g 0 hivh hills • extenfive views, all fcattered with villages and Angle houfes ; an ap- population. ChoTnut. on . c.lceoua W, cow™, » fe Lim°fin maxim . ^ ^ many beggars-, which we had not done before. Ail the counuy^girls and women, are without Ihces or toekings; and the_plougi- tne country, g ^ fabots ^ ^ tQ their ftockmgs.. This is a. poverty, that ftrikes at the root of nati on ai P roi P eri ^ ; ^ l^|; A^vellth among the poor being of more conference than among the Ireland ^ come to high land, whence an im- V 1 Wnlar nrofped of ridges, hills, vales, and gentle Hopes, rung menfe and fingular prop g maffes of wood* but many fonales exceed Lgly well built, of ftone and flate or tiles, yet without any glafe U *• 3 °The 1 Lth See for the firft time the Pyrenees, at the difiar.ee of 1 50 miles.— To me, who had never feen.au objeft farther than 60 or 7 «„ I mean the Wick- C A H O R S. — -V ENTILLAC. 19 low mountains, as I was goingout of Holyhead, this was interefting. Where- ever the eye wandered in fearch of new objects it was Cure to reft there. Their magnitude, their fnowy height, the line of feparation between two great king- doms, and the end of our travels altogether account for this effect. Towards Cahors the country changes, and has fomething of a favage afpedt ; yet houfes are feen eveiy where, and one-third of it under vines. That town is bad ; the flreets neither wide nor flrait, but the new road is an improvement. The chief objedts of its trade and refource are vines and brandies. The true Vin de Cahors, which has a great reputation, is the produce of a range of vineyards, very rocky, on a ridge of hills full to the fouth, and is called Vin de Grave, becaufe growing on a gravelly foil. In plentiful years, the price of good wine here does not exceed that of the cafk; lafl year it was fold at 10s. 6d. a barique, or 8d. a dozen. We drank it at the Trois Rois from three to ten years old, the latter at 30^ (is. 3d.) the bottle; both excellent, full bodied, great fpirit, without being fiery, and to my palate much better than our ports. I liked it fo well, that I eflablifhed a correfpondence with Monf. Andoury, the innkeeper*. The heat of this country is equal to the produdtion of flrong wine. This was the mod: burning day we had experienced. On leaving Cahors, the mountain of rock rifes fo immediately, that it feems as if it would tumble into the town. The leaves of walnuts are now black with frofls that happened within a fortnight. On enquiry, I found they are fubjedt to thefe frofls all through the fpring months ; and though rye is fometimes killed by them, the mildew in wheat is hardly known ; — a fad fufficiently deifruclive of the theory of frofls being the caufe of that diflemper. It is very rare that any fnow falls here. Sleep at Ventillac. 22 miles. The 1 2th. The fliape and colour of the peafants houfes here add a beauty to the country; they are fquare, white, and with rather flat roofs, but few win- dows. The peafants are for the mod part land- proprietors. Immenfe view of the Pyrenees before us, of an extent and height truly fublime : near Perges, a rich vale, that feems to reach uninterruptedly to thofe mountains, is a glorious feenery ; one vafl flieet of cultivation ; every where chequered with thefe well built white houfes ; — the eye lofing itfelf in the vapour, which ends only with that flupendous ridge, whofe fnow-capped heads are broken into the boldefl outline. The road to Cauflade leads through a very fine avenue of fix rows of trees, two of them mulberries, which are the firfl we have feen. Thus we have travelled almofl to the Pyrenees before we met with an article of culture which fome want to introduce into England. The vale here is all on a dead level ; the road finely made, and mended with gravel. Montauban is old, but * I fince had a barique of him ; but whether he fent bad wine, which I am not willing to believe, or that it came through bad bands, I know not. It is however fb bad, as £0 be item for felly. P 2 not 2,0 MONTAUBA N. C HEAPNESS. not ill built. There are many good houfes, without forming handfome ftreets. It is laid to be very populous, and the eye confirms the intelligence. The ca- thedral is modern, and pretty well built, but too heavy. The public college, the feminary, the bifhop’s palace, and the houfe of the firfl prefident of the court of aids are good buildings; the Lift large, with a mod fhewy entrance. The promenade is finely fituated; built on the higheft part of the rampart, and com- manding that noble vale, or rather plain, one of the richeft in Europe, which extends on one fide to the fea, and in front to the Pyrenees ; whofe towering maffes, heaped one upon another, in a flupendous manner, and covered with fnow, offer a variety of lights and fhades from indented forms, and the immenfity of their projections. This profpeCt, which contains a femi-circle of an hundred miles diameter, has an oceanic vallnefs, in which the eye lofes itfelf ; an alrnofl boundlefs fcene of cultivation ; an animated, but confuted mafs of infinitely varied parts — melting gradually into the diftant obfcure, from which emerges the amazing frame of the Pyrenees, rearing their filvered heads far above the clouds. At Montauban, I met Capt., Plampin, of the royal navy; he was with Major Crew, who has a houfe and family here, to which he politely carried us ; it is fweetly fituated on the fkirts of the town, commanding a fine view ; they were £o obliging as to refolve my enquiries upon fome points, of wlu.ch a lefidence made them complete judges.. Living is reckoned cheap here; a family was named, to us, whofe income was fuppofed to be about 1 500 louis a-year, and. who lived as handfomely as in England on ^oool. The comparative dearnefs and cheapnefs of different countries is a fubjeCt of confiderable importance, but difficult to analize. As I conceive the Englifh to have made far greater advan- ces in the ufeful arts, and in manufactures,, than the French have done, Eng- land ought to be the cheaper country. What we meet with in France, is a cheap mode of living , which is quite another confideration. 30 miles.. The 1 3 th. Pafs Grifolles, where are well built cottages without glafs, and fome with no other light than the door. Dine at Pompinion, at the Grand Soled, an uncommonly good inn, where Capt. Plampin, who accompanied us thus far, took, his leave. Here we had a violent Form- of thunder and* lightning, with rain much heavier I thought than I had known, in England ;, but, when we fet out for Toulouze, I was immediately convinced that fuch a violent fhower had never, fallen, in that kingdom ; for the deftruCtion it had poured on the noble fcene of cultivation, which but a moment before was finding- with exuberance, was ter- rible to behold. All now one fcene of did refs :■ the fined crops of wheat beaten io fiat to the ground, that- 1 quefiion whether they can ever rife again; other fields fo inundated, that, we were actually in doubt whether we were looking on what was lately land, or always water. The ditches had been filled rapidly with mud, had overflowed the road,, and fwept dirt and gravel over the crops . Crofs. ST. JORRY. TOULOUZE. 2I Crofs one of the fineft plains of wheat that is any where to be feen ; the florm, therefore, was fortunately partial. Pafs St. Jorry ; a noble road, but not better than, in Limofin. It is a defert to the very gates of Toulouze; meet not more perfons than if it were ioo miles from any town. 31 miles. The 14th. View the city, which is very ancient and very large, but not peopled in proportion to its fize: the buildings are a mixture of brick and wood, and have confequently a melancholy appearance. This place has always prided itfelf on its tafie for literature and the fine arts. It has had a univerfity lince 1215: and it pretends that its famous academy of Jeux Floraux is as old as 1323. It has alfo a royal academy of fciences, another of painting, fculpture, and archi- tecture. The church of the Cordelliers has vaults, into which we defcended, that have the property of preferving dead bodies from corruption; we faw many that tney afiert to be 500 years old. If I had a vault well lighted, that would preferve the countenance and phyfiognomy as well as the flefli and bones, I fhould like to have it peopled with all my anceflors ; and this defire would, I fuppofe, be proportioned to their merit and celebrity ; but to one like this, that preserves cadaverous deformity, and gives perpetuity to death, the voracity of a. common grave is preferable. But Toulouze is not without objects more inter- efting than academies; thefe are the new quay, the corn mills, and the canal de Brien. . The quay is of a great length, and in all refpects a noble work: the homes intended to be built will be regular like thofe already eredted,, in a flile aukward and inelegant. . The canal de Brien, lb called from the archbhhop of 1 oulouze, afterwards prime minifter and cardinal, was planned and executed in Oidei to join the Garonne here with the canal of Languedoc, which is united at two- miies Lorn the town with the fame river. The neceflity of fuch a junction arifes from the navigation of the river in the town being abtblutely impeded by the wear which is made acrofs it in favour of the corn mills. It pafies arched under the quay to the river, and one fluice levels the water with that of the Lan- guwdoc canal. It is broad enough for feveral barges to pafs abreaft. Thefe under- takings have been well planned, and their execution is truly magnificent : there is however more magnificence than trade; for while the Languedoc canal is alive with commerce, that of Brien is a defert. Among other things we viev/ed at Toulouze, was the houfe of Monf. du Barre, brother of the hufband of the celebrated countefs. By fome tranfadtions, favour- able to anecdote, which enabled him to draw her from obfeurity, and afterwards to marry hei to his brother, he contrived to make a pretty confiderable fortune. On the firfl floor is one principal and complete apartment, containing feven or eigut i ooms, fitted up and furnifhed with fuch profufion of expence, that if a fond over, at the head of a kingdom’s finances, were decorating for his miftrefs, he couai hardly give in large any thing that is not here to be ieen on & moderate feale. TOULOUZ E. s T. MARTINO. fcalc. To thofe who are fond of gilding here is enougn to fatiate ; fo much that to an Englifh eye it has too gaudy an appearance. . But the glaffes are large and numerous. The drawing-room very elegant (gilding always excepted). Here I remarked a contrivance which has a pleafmg effeC ; that of a looking-- glafs before the chimnies, inhead of thofe various fcreens ufed in England: it fiid^s backwards and forwards into the wall of the room. There is a poitiait or Madame du Barre, which is faid to be very like; if it really is, one would par- don a King fome follies committed at the fhrine of fo much beauty. As to the garden, it is beneath all contempt, except as an objedt to make a man llaie at the efforts to which folly can arrive: in the fpace of an acre, there are hdls oi o-enuine earth, mountains of pade-board, rocks of canvais: abbees, cows, iheep, and fhepherdeffes in lead ; monkeys and peafants, affes and altars, in hone. I ine ladies and blackfmiths, parrots and lovers, in wood. Windmills and cottages, fhops and villages, nothing excluded except nature. The 15th. Meet Highlanders, who put me in mind Oo. tho^e c* Scotland; faw them firft at Montauban; they have round hat caps, and loofe breeches : « Pipers, blue bonnets, and oat-meal, are found,” fays Sir James Stuart, “ in Catalonia, Auvergne and Swabia, as well as in Lochabar. Many of t e women here are without bookings. Meet them coming from the market, with their flioes in their bafkets. The Pyrenees, at fixty miles dihance, appear now io dihindt, that one would guefs it not more than fifteen ; the lights and tirades of the fnow are feen clearly. 30 miles. . The 1 6th. A ridge of hills on the other fide of the Garonne, which began at Toulouze, became more and more regular yeberday ; and is undoubtedly the moft dihant ramification of the Pyrenees, reaching into this vab vale quite to Toulouze, but no farther. Approach the mountains ; the lower ones are ail culti- vated, but the higher feem covered with wood : the road now is bad all the way. Meet many waggons, each loaded with two cades of wine, quite backward in the carriage, and as" the hind wheels are much higher than the fore ones, it fhews that thefe mountaineers have more fenfe than John Bull. 1 he wheels of th< ~ e waggons are all fhod with wood inbead of iron. Here, for the did time, fee rows" of maples, with vines, trained in fedoons, from tree to tree; they are con- duced by a rope of bramble, vine cutting, or willow. They give many grapes, but bad wine. Pafs St. Martino, and then a large village or well built houfes, without a Angle glafs window. 30 miles. . The 17th. St. Gaudens is an improving town, with many new houles, iome- thing more than comfortable. An uncommon view of St. Bertrand ; you break at once upon a vale funk deep enough beneath the point of view to comman every hedge and tree, with that town cludered round its large cathedral, on a ridng ground; if it had been built purpofely to add a feature to a Angular pro- GARONNE. ■L U C H O N. fpedl, it could not have been better placed. The mountains rife proudly around, and give their rough frame to this exquifite little picture. Crofs the Garonne, by a new bridge of one fine arch, built of hard blue lime- ilone. Medlars, plumbs, cherries, maples in every hedge, with vines trained. — * Stop at Laurefte ; after which the mountains almoft clofe, and leave only a nar- row vale, the Garonne and the road occupying fome portion of it. Immenfe quantities of poultry in ail this country ; moil of it the people fait and keep in greafe. We tailed a foup made of the leg of a goofe thus kept, and it was not nearly fo bad as I expedted. Every crop here is backward, and betrays a want of fun ; no wonder, for we have been long travelling on the banks of a rapid river, and mull now be very high, though hill apparently in vales. The mountains, in palling on, grow more interelling. Their beauty, to northern eyes, is very lingular ; the black and dreary profpedts which our mountains offer are known to every one ; but here the climate cloaths them with verdure, and the higheft fummits in fight are covered with wood ; there is fnow on flill higher ridges. Quit the Garonne fome leagues before Sirpe, where the river Nefle falls into it. The road to Bagnere is along this river, in a very narrow valley, at one end of which is built the town of Luchon, the termination of our journey ; which to me has been one of the moll agreeable I ever undertook ; the good humour and good fenfe of my companions are well calculated for travellings one renders a journey pleafing, and the other inflrudlive. — Having now croffed the kingdom, and been in many French inns, I fhall in general obferve, that they are on an average better in two refpedls, and worfe in all the reft, than thofe in England. We have lived better in point of eating and drinking beyond a queftion, than we fhould have done in going from London to the Highlands of Scotland, at double the expence.. But if in England the belt of every thing is ordered, without any attention to the expence, we fhould for double the money have lived better than we have done in France; the common cookery ©f the French gives great advantage.. It is true, they roaft every thing to a chip, if they are not cau- tioned : but they give fuch a number and variety of dilhes, that if you do not like fome, there are others to pleafe your palate. The defert at a French inn has no rival at an Englifh one ; nor are the liqueurs to be defpifed.- — We fometim.es have met with bad wine, but, upon the whole, far better than fuch port as Englifh inns give.. Beds are better in France; in England, they are good only at good inns ; and we have none of that torment, which is fb perplexing in England, to have the fheets aired ; for we never trouble our heads about them, doubtlefs on account of the climate. After thefe two" points, all is a blank. You have no parlour to eat in; only a room with two, three, or four beds. Apartments badly fitted up y the walls white-wafhed ; or paper of different $4 L U C H O N. different forts in the fame room ; or tapeffry fo old, as to be a fit nidus for moths and Riders ; and the furniture fuch, that an Englifh innkeeper would light his fire with it. For a table, you have every where a board laid on crofs bars, which are fo conveniently contrived, as to leave room for your legs only at the end. — • Oak chairs with rufh bottoms, and the back univerfally a diredt perpendicular, that defies all idea of reft after fatigue. Doors give muiic as well as entrance ; the wind whiffles through their chinks ; and hinges grate difcord. Windows admit rain as well as light ; when fhut they are not eafy to open ; and when open not eafy to fhut. Mops, brooms, and fcrubbing-brufhes are not in the catalogue of ihe neceffaries of a French inn. Bells there are none ; the Ji/le muff always be bawled for ; .and when fine appears, is neither neat, well drefied, nor handfome. The kitchen is black with fmoke ; the mafter commonly the cook, and the lefs you fee of the cooking, the more likely you are to have a ffomach to your dinner ; but this is not peculiar to France. Copper utenfils al- ways in great plenty, but not always well tinned. The miftrefs rarely claffes civility or attention to her gueffs among the requiiites of her trade.-— — 30 miles. The 28 th. Having been now ten days fixed in our lodgings, which the Count de la Rochefoucauld’s friends had provided for us ; it is time to minute a few particulars of our life here. Monf. Lazowfki and myfelf have two good rooms on a ground floor, with beds in them, and a fervant’s room, for 4 liv. (3s. 6d.) a-day. We are fo unaccuftomed in England to live in our bed-chambers, that it is at firft aukward in France to find that people live no where elfe: At all the inns I have been in, it has been always in bed-rooms ; and here I find, that every body, let his rank be what it may, lives in his bed-chamber. This is novel our Eng- lifh cuffom is far more convenient, as well as more pleafing. Bat this habit I clafs with the ceconomy of the French. The day after we came, I was intro- duced to the La Rochefoucauld party, with whom we have lived ; it confiffs of the Duke and Duchefs de la Rochefoucauld, daughter of the Duke de Chabot ; her brother, the Prince de Laon and his Princefs, the daughter of the Duke de Montmorenci ; the Count de Chabot, another brother of the Duchefs de la Rochefoucauld ; the Marquis D’Aubourval, who, with my two fellow-travellers and myfelf, make a party of nine at dinner and fupper. A traiieur ferves our table at 4 liv. a head for the two meals, two courles and a good defert for din- ner ; for fupper one courfe and a defert : the whole very well ferved, with every thing good in feafon : the wfine feparate, at 6/1 (3d.) a bottle. With difficulty the Counts groom found a ffable. Hay is little fhort of 5I. Englifh per ton; oats much the fame price as in England, but not fo good : ffraw dear, and fo fcarce, that very often there is no litter at all. The States of Languedoc are building a large and hjindfome batiing; houfe, to contain various feparate cells, with baths, and a large common room, with two arcades BAGNERE DE LUCHON, 25 arcades to walk in, free from fun and rain. The prcfent baths are horrible holes; the patients lie up to their chins in hot fulphureous water, which, with the beaffly dens they are placed in, one w r ould think fufficient to caufe as many diffempers as they cure. They are reforted to for cutaneous eruptions. The life led here has very little variety. Thofe who bathe, or drink the waters, do it at half after five or fix in the morning ; but my friend and myfelf are early in the mountains, v/hich are here ffupendous ; we wander among them to admire the wild and beautiful fcenes which are to be met with in almoft every direction. The whole region of the Pyrenees is of a nature and afpedt fo totally different from every thing that I had been accu homed to, that thefe ex- cursions were productive of much amufement. Cultivation is here carried to a conf derable perfection in feveral articles, efpecially in the irrigation of meadows : we feek out the moff intelligent peafants, and have many and long converfations with thofe who underhand French, which however is not the cafe with all, for the language of the country is a mixture of Catalan, Provencal, and French. This, with examining the minerals (an article for which the Duke de la Roche- foucauld likes to accompany us, as he poffeffes a conliderable knowledge in that branch of natural hihory), and with noting the plants with which we are ac- quainted, ferves well to keep our time employed fufficiently to our tahe. The ramble of the morning finifhed, we return in time to drefs for dinner, at half after twelve or one: then adjourn to the drawing room of Madam de la Rochefou- cauld, or the Countefs of Grandval alternately, the only ladies who have apart- ments large enough to contain the whole company. ' None are excluded; as the firft thing done, by every perfon who arrives, is to pay a morning vilit to each party already in the place; the vilit is returned, and then every body is of courfe acquainted at thefe a'ffemblies, which laft till the evening is cool enough for walking. There is nothing in them but cards, trick-track, chefs, and fome- times mufic ; but the great feature is cards : I need not add, that I ablented myfelf often from thefe parties, which are ever mortally infipid to me in Eng- land, and not lefs fo in France. In the evening, the company fplits into different parties, for their promenade, which lafts till half an hour after eight; fupper is ferved at nine: there is, after it, an hour’s converfation in the chamber of one of our ladies ; and this is the beff part of the day, — for the chat is free, lively, and unaffected; and uninterrupted, unlefs on a poft-day, when the duke has fuch packets of papers and pamphlets, that they make us all po- liticians. All the world are in bed by eleven. In this arrangement of the day, no circumftance is fo objectionable as that of dining at noon, the confluence of eating no breakfaft ; for as the ceremony of dreffmg is kept up, you muff be at home from any morning’s excurfion by twelve o’clock. This fingle circumffance, if adhered to. would be fufficient 26 MANNERS. to deftroy any purfuits, except the moft frivolous. Dividing the day exaCtly in halves, deftroys it for any expedition, enquiry, or bunnefs that demands feven 01 eight hours attention, uninterrupted by any calls to the taoie 01 the toilette . calls which, after fatigue or exertion, are obeyed with refreshment and with pleafure. 'We drefs for dinner in England with propriety, as tne red: oi the day is dedicated to eafe, to converfe, and relaxation : but by doing it at noon, too much time is loft. What is a man good for after his filk breeches and Stockings are on, his nat under his arm, and his head bien poudre ? ——Can he botanize in a watered meadow : Can he clamber the rocks to mineralize? — Can he farm with the peafant and the ploughman ?— -He is in order for the converfation of tne ladies, which to be iuie is in every country, but particularly in France, where the women are highly culti- vated, an excellent employment; but it is an employment that never leliffies better than after a day Spent in adtive toil or animated purfuit; in Something that has enlarged the fphere of our conceptions, or added to the Scores of our Know- ledge. — I am induced to make this observation, becaufe the noon dinners are cui- tomary all over France, except with perfons of considerable faShion at Paris. They cannot be treated with too much ridicule or Severity, tor tney are abso- lutely hoftile to every view of Science, to every Spirited exertion, and to every ufeful purfuit in life. Living in this way, however, with Several perfons of the firft faShion in tne kingdom, is an objeCt to a foreigner Solicitous to remark the manners and character of the nation. I have every reafon to be pleafed with the experi- ment; as it affords me a conflant opportunity to enjoy the advantages of an unaf- fedbed and polifhed Society, in which an invariable fweetnefs of difpofition, miid- nefs of charadter, and what in EngliSh we emphatically call good temper, emi- nently prevail: — Seeming to arife at leaft I conjedture it, tram a thoufand little namelefs and peculiar circumftances — -not refulting entirely from the per- sonal charadter of the individuals, but apparently holding of the national one.* — Befides the perfons I have named, there are among others at our affemblies, the Marquis and Marchionefs de Hautfort; the Duke and Ducheis de Ville (this duchefs is among the good order of beings); the Chevalier dePeyrac; Monk l’Abbe Baftard; Baron de Serres; Vifcountefs Duhamel; the BiShops of Croire and Montauban ; Monf. de la Marche; the Baron de Montagu, a chefs player ; the Chevalier de Cheyron; and Monf. de Bellecomb, who commanded in Pondi- cherry, and was taken by the Englifh. There are alfo about half a dozen young, officers, and three or four abbees. If I may hazard a remark on the converfation of French affemblies, from what I have known here, I fhould praife them for equanimity but condemn them for infipidity. All vigour of thought Seems fo excluded fiom expiei- fion, that characters of ability and of inanity meet nearly on a par: tame and elegant. PYRENEES. a; elegant, uninterefling and polite, the mingled mafs of communicated ideas has powers neither to offend nor indraft ; where there is much polifh of cha- racter there is little argument; and if you neither argue nor difcufs, what is con- verfation ? — Good temper, and habitual eafe, are the fird ingredients in private fociety; but wit, knowledge, or originality, muft break their even furface into fome inequality of feeling, or convention is like a journey on an endlefs flat. Of the rural beauties we have to contemplate, the valley of Larbouffe, in a nook of which the town of Luchon is fituated, is the principal, with its fur- rounding accompanyment of mountain. The range that bounds it to the north is bare of wood but covered with cultivation ; and a large village, about three parts of its height, is perched on a deep, that almod makes the unaccuftomed eye tremble with apprehenfion, that the village, church, and people will come tumbling into the valley. Villages thus perched, like eagles nefts on rocks, are a general circumftance in the Pyrenees, which appear to be wonderfully peopled. The mountain, that forms the weftern wall of the valley, is of a prodigious magnitude. Watered meadow and cultivation rife more than one-third the height. A fored of oak and beech forms a noble belt above it; higher dill is a region of ling ; and above all fhow. From whatever point viewed, this moun- tain is commanding from its magnitude, and beautiful from its luxuriant foliage. The range which clofes in the valley to the ead is of a character different from the others ; it has more variety,- more cultivation, villages, foreds, glens, and cafcades. That of Gouzat, which turns a mill as foon as it falls from the moun- tain, is romantic, with every accompanyment neceflary to give a high degree of pifturefque beauty. There are features in that of Montauban, which Claude Loraine would not have failed transfufing on his canvafs ; and the view of the vale from the chelnut rock is gay and animated. The termination of our val- ley to the fouth is driking ; the river Nede pours in inceffant cafcades over rocks that feem an eternal refidance. The eminence in the centre of a fmall vale, on which is an old tower, is a wild and romantic fpot ; the roar of the waters beneath unites in efteft with the mountains, whofe towering foreds, hnifhing in inow, give an awful grandeur, a gloomy greatnefs to the fcene ; and feem to raife a barrier of feparation between the kingdoms, too formidable even for ar- mies to pafs. But what are rocks, and mountains, and {now, when cppofed to human ambition ? — In the recedes of the pendent woods, the bears find their habitation, and on the rocks above, the eagles have their neds. All around is great ; the fublime of nature, with impofing majedy, impreffes awe upon the mind ; attention is rivetted to the fpot ; and imagination, with all its excurfive powers, feeks not to wander beyond the fcene. Deepens the murmurs of the falling floods, And breathes a browner horror o’er the woods. E 2 To CLIMAT E. B EARS. To view tliefe icenes tolerably, is a bufinefs of fome days ; and fueh is the cli- mate here, or at leaft has been fince I was at Bagnere de Luchon, that not more than one day in three is to be depended on for fine weather. i he heigats of the mountains is fuch, that the clouds, perpetually broken, pour down quantities of rain. From June 26th to July 2d, we had one heavy {bower, which laftcd with- out intermifiion for fixty hours. The mountains, though fo near, were hidden to their bafes in the clouds. They do not only arreft the fleeting ones, which are pa-fling in the atmofphere, but feem to have a generative powei ; for you fee fmall ones at firft, like thin vapour rifing out of glens, forming on the fides of the hills, and increafing by degrees, till they become clouds heavy enough to refl on the tops, or elfe rife into the atmofphere, and pals away with others. Among the original tenants of this immenfe range of mountains, the firft in point of dignity, from the importance of the mifchief they do, are the bears. There are both forts, carnivorous and vegetable-eaters; the latter are more mifchievous than their more terrible brethren, coming down in the night and eating the corn, particularly buck-wheat and maiz; and they are fo nice in choofing the fweeteft ears of the latter, that they trample and fpoil infi- nitely more than they eat. The carnivorous bears wage war againft the cattle and fheep, fo that no flock can be left in the fields at night, blocks mu ft be watched by fhepherds, who have fire-arms, and the afliftance of many flout and fierce. dogs ; and cattle are (hut up in ftables every night in the year.. Sometimes, by accident, they wander from their keepers, and if left abroad, tney lun a con- fiderable rifque of being devoured. — i he bears attack tnefe animals by leaping on their back, force the head to the ground, anu thrufl theii paws into taw body in the violence of a dreadful hug. There are many hunting days every year for deftroying them; feveral parifhes joining for thatpurpofe. Great numbei s of men and boys form a cordon, and drive the wood where tne Dears aie known 01 fufpedted to be. They are the fatteft in winter, when a good one is worth three louis. A bear never ventures to attack a wolf; but feveral woives together, when hungry, will attack a bear, and kill and eat him. Wolves are here only in win- ter. In fummer, they are in the very remoteft parts of the Pyrenees — the moll diftant from human habitations : they are here, as every where elfe in France, dreadful to fheep. A part of our original plan of travelling to the Pyrenees, was an excurfton into Spain. Our landlord at Luchon had before procured mules and guides for per- fons travelling on bufinefs to Saragofla and Barcelona, and at our requeft wrote to Vielle, the firft Spanifh town aerofs the mountains, for three mules and a con- du&or, who fpeaks French ; and being arrived according to appointment, we let out on our expedition. July SPAIN. 29 July 10th. My friend and myfelf are mounted on the two beft mules, which are, however, but fmall ; his fervant, with our baggage, is on a third' and the owner of the mules, our conductor, marches on foot, boahing that his legs are good for fifteen leagues a day ; this is his bufinefs ; but we are not a little difappointed to find his French is pretty much that of a Spanifh cow, if I may ufie a common French expreffion. From Bagnere to Luchon, we afcended inceflantly, and, in our way, viewed the pafiures in the French moun- tains, which the Spanifh fiock-maflers hire for their fheep in fummer • which, in emigrating, make thirteen days march every year from the lower parts of Ca- talonia. The management of thefe flocks is an objed which mufl; be explained el fe where. Having fatisfied ourfelves with the examination, we returned to the dired road for Vielle, which quits the river Nefte, about a league from Bagnere ; it enters foon after one of the mod wooded regions of the Pyrenees, and, at the fame time, the moil; romantic. The way fo bad, that no horfes but thofe of the mountains could pafs it ; but our mules trod fecurely arnidfl: rolling hones on the edges of precipices of a tremendous depth - but though fare footed, they are not free from humbling; and, when they happen in thofe fituations to trip a little, they eledrify their riders in a manner not altogether fo pleafantly as Mr. Walker. Pafs the frontier line which divides France^ from' Spain, and hill riling on the mountains, we fee the Spaniih valley of Aran, with the river Garonne winding through it in a beautiful manner. The town of Bohofe and the Spaniih cuhom-houfe are at the foot of the mountains. This valley of Aran is richly cultivated ; nothing fcarcely can be finer than the view of it from heights fo great as to render the common objeds intereftirig ; the road leads under trees, whofe natural arches prefect, at every ten paces, new landicapes. The thick woods give fine rnafies of fliade ; the rocks large, and every outline bold; and the verdant vale, that is fpread far below at your feet, has all the features of beauty, in contrail: to the fublimity of the furrounding moun- tains. Defcend into this vale, and halt at our fir ft Spaniih inn. No hay, no corn, no meat, no glafs in the windows ;. but cheap, eggs and bread, and fome fmall trout, 1 y/i Englifh). hollow hence the Garonne, which is already a fine river, but very ra- pid; the inhabitants of the mountains float trees to their law-mills, which are at work cutting boards. The whole valley of Aran is- well cultivated and highly peopled ; it is a journey of eight hours, or about forty Englilh miles in length, and has thirty-two villages, or rather little towns,, which have a pretty- appearance, the walls being well- built, and the roofs well dated ; but, on en- tering, the fpedacle changes at once, for we found them the abodes of poverty and wretchednefs ; not one window of glafs to be ieert in a whole town ; fcarcely any ciiimnies; the rooms of both floors vomiting the fmoke out of the windows. Arrive 30 SPAIN. Arrive at Vielle, the capital of this valley, and the paflage from the part of France we had left, to Barcelona ; a circumftance which has given it fome trifling refources. We were here informed, that we could not go into Spain without a paflport : we waited, therefore, on the commandant, lieutenant- colonel and knight of Calatrava, who prefldes over the whole valley, and its thirty-two towns ; his houfe was the only one we had feen in tnis part that had glafs windows. In his ante-room, under a canopy of hate, hung the King’s pi&ure. We were received with the Spanifh formality, and allured, that a few months ago there was an order to fend every foreigner, found without a pafsport, to the troops, which Ihews well enough the number of foreigners here. On each fide of his excellency’s bed was a brace of p idols, and a crucifix in the middle ; we did not alk in which he puts the mold confidence. At Bagnere we were told that the inn at Vielle was good. We found the lower floor a liable, from which we mounted to a black kitchen, and, through that, to a baking room, with a large batch of loaves for an oven, which was heating to receive them. In this room were two beds for all the travellers who might happen to come ; if too numerous, flraw is fpread on the floor, and you may red as you can. No glafs to the windows, and a large hole in the deling to clamber into the garret above it, where the windows were without fhutters to keep out either rain or wind. One of the beds was occu- pied, fo that my companion laid on a table. The houfe, however, afforded cwgs for an omlet, good bread, thick wine, brandy, and fowls killed after we arrived. The people very dirty, but civil 26 miles. The nth. Left Vielle, and took that route to Barcelona, which is by the porte (paflage acrofs the mountains) of Piafs ; another fomewhat fliorter being reprefented as exceedingly deep and difficult, and the country to tnat city worfe. Pafs feveral of the thirty-two villages of the valley of Aran, that croud on each other, fo that the population muft be very great. It refults here, from the di- vifion of property, and from the plenty of cattle and fuel yielded by the moun- tains belonging to every pariih. Pafs Arteas and Jafa ; crofs the river that falls into the Garonne; there is a fine view of the mountains over the former of thefe places, of wood, rock, and fnow. The trees floating down the Garonne ftrike their ends againft the rocks in it, and make a mod lingular noife, very much like thunder. Pafs Salardeau and Tra- doze, which is the lad village of the valley, and near it the fource of the river Garonne to the left ; but a dream to the right, which we paffed, feems rather larger. All the villages we have feen appear equally wretched ; chimmes too great a luxury to look for in any of them. V r ad rocks of granite are rohed pio- mifcuoufly from the mountains, and innumerable fprings pour down their fides. SPAIN. We then mounted to the very top of the Pyrenees, much above feme of the - maining fnow, and from the fummit have a tremendous view of rift ^ of mountains, one beyond another, in Catalonia, many of them with fnowy 'tons, to the diflan ce oi fifty or fixty mixes. It took us four hours and three uuar- tci s to gel to the top of the higheft ridge ; yet, when we began to afeend, we muft have been, if we may judge from the rapidity of the Garonne for feveral hundred miles from hence to Bourdeaux, on fome of the higheft land m Europe. No wood at the top, but pafturage, amongft rocks of micaceous fchiftus, for great herds of cows and oxen that breathe the pure air of this ele- vated region. The fprings we now meet with flow towards the Mediterranean - pafs a church that Hands by itfelf in the defeent, and a beautiful cafcade of five or fix different falls, which pour down a torrent not lefs than five hundred feet amongft wood ; a vaft rock above it ; the whole a great but favage view. The trees here (pines) are finer than on the French hills; they are all cut for the Touloufe market, being carried over the mountains, and floated down the Ga- ronne ; from which we may draw conclufions on the comparative demand of the two kingdoms. Pafs a fpot where an earthquake threw down part of a mountain, flopped a ft ream, and formed a large pond : it muft have been a dreadful convulfion, for P 11-11 ^ immen f' e fra to m ents of. rock, large as cottages, that are tumbled about in fuch ruinous confufion as to be truly horrible to view. 1 he tradition is, that four men and their mules were buried under them. Come to the valley of Efteredano, where wheat and rye are cut. Every ferap on the defeent is cultivated ; it commands an extenfive favage view of mountains, with patches ox culture fcattered. about the declivities. The profpeft down the vale beautiful. , Crofs an arch at the junction of two rivers, on which rafters are now formed of planlc and trees, and floated down. Reach Sculldw ; the inn fo bad, that oui guide would not permit us to enter it ; we therefore went to the houfe of the cure. A feene followed fo new to Englifh eyes, that we could not refrain P om hiughing very heartily. As our reverend hoft had a chimney in his kit— cnen, we diu not quarrel with the want of glafs in his windows: he ran to the rivei to catch trout; a man brought fome chickens, that were put to death on the fpot. E or light, they kindled fplinters of pine, and two merry wenches and three or four men collected to flare at us, as well as we at them, were pre- sently bufy to fatisfy our hunger. They gave us red wine, fo dreadfully pu- °* tiiC boiaccio, that I could not touch it; and brandy, poifoned with aiiuifeed.. . What then were we to do ? Seeing our diftrefs, they brought out a oiue of rich, excellent white wine, refembling mountain ; all then was well : but SPAIN. but when we came to examine the beds, there was but one to be found. My friend would again do the honours, and infilled on my taking it . he made his on a table, and what with bugs, fleas, rats, and mice, flept not. I was not attacked 5 and though the bed and a pavement might be ranked in the fameclafs of foftnefs — fatigue converted it to down. This town and its inhabitants apneared ecpially wretched j the imoke holes, inflead of chimnies, tnc total want of glafs windows, the chearfulnefs of which, to the eye, is known only by the want j the drefs ot the women all black, witn c iotn of the fame colout about their heads, and hanging half down their backs, no fhoes, no (lockings ; the effedt, upon the whole, as difmal and favage as tneii locks and mountains. -£2 miles. The 1 2 th. The hills on each fide are now almoft clofe, and juft admit the river, the road, and a icrap of meadow. The rocks lamellated Ciaii- tus, feme micaceous. Lavender, for the firfl time, fpontaneous. I ais Briafca, a village perched on a mountain like an eagle s nelc. Come to La- bourfel, where is an iron work, fteel and iron made at the fame time, and the furnace blown by the fall of water fun ply, without bellows. The w a ter falls about ten feet, and, by its motion, drives the air into a fort of tunnel, w nich points to the centre of the furnace ; the bottom of the mafs of melted metal ■is fleel ; the middle of it foft, and the upper part hard iron. They burn char- coal made of pine wood. Pais Rudafs on the top of a rocky mountain,^ and come prefently to vines and fruit-trees, yet fnow in fight. As we defeend to the vale, every fpot is cultivated that is capable of it. CioL tne liver to •Realp, a long town with many fhops, in which hemp faoiics feern^a piincipal article. Hedges of pomegranates in blolTom. Line at a cream ul aubeige, •which, in Head of fatisfying, offended all the fenfes we were mailers of. Hitherto, in Catalonia, we have feen nothing to confirm the character given of that province ; for fbarcely any thing has a tolerable appearance ; the towns and the country appear equally poor and miferable. Come to Jare, whole environs wear a better countenance, on account of an immenfe falt-work belonging to the King. Here firfl meet with olives, and going up the mountain, which is all of pudding- (lone, end it cut into ter- races fuppor ted by walls, and planted with vines, mulberries, and olives. The road then led through a pafs in the mountains, which p relented, I think, without exception, themofl linking feene that I had ever beneld. I le- member the impreffion that the ocean made on me the firfl time I fav h, and •believe it to have been weaker than this ; I fin al 1 not fpend many woras in at- tempting to deferibe what the pencil itfelf in the hands of a mailer would fail to convey an adequate idea. The pafs is above a mile long ; the rocks feem rent afunder to make way for the river, which entirely fills the Dot torn of me chafm. SPAIN. 33 chadn. The road was cut out of the rock, and was wrought with gunpow- der, a work of prodigious labour and expence. It paffes on heights that varu die fcene, and that give a depth below the eye enough to be intereding The mountains of done, which rife on either fide, are the mod tremendous fn heir height, magnitude, and pendent form, that imagination can conceive Were all the rocks of England piled on one another, they would form bm pigmy heaps compared with thefe gigantic and dupendous malfes. Rock are commonly even in their mod bold appearances, detached parts of moun- ains , and, however great in themfelves, have malfes above them, which eien their ededt. It is otherwife here: if we fuppofe the fkeletons of moun- ms laid baie to the eye, it will be but a vague idea. Vadnefs of lize, per- pendicularity of form-pendent-and protruding-every circumdance Lt can gwe a power to inanimate nature, to command and arred attention, is fpread fcer,ery V1 ' ^ im ^° ln S lna g ri licence through every feature of this fublime _Pafs Coolagafe, the features of the countiy now begin to relax: the moun- ams are not fo high and.the vales are wider. Arrive at La Pobla, after a fa- tiguing journey of th.rty-fix Englilli miles, more than half of which, as in ge- b fthItweto°k n f 0t - He ? ^ fared fum P tuoufl y> ^ report made’the imf fo t 1 ; £fUge W1 ? a A °Pkeeper. It feems an extraordinary circum- dance that in thefe parts of Spain you ride to the door of a private houfe defire lodging and food, and P ay of courfe what they demand. P However d mud always be taken into the account of our fare, that the wine of all the coun ly is fo poifoned with the boraccio, that water is the bed beverage, unlefs annifeed brandy ftiould be to your tade. Salads alfo, a principal diih with them, aie no eatable by reafon of the oil of the country being dronla, and crofs the river, which is fixty yards 1- ’ 1 com P e o atos, by the ufe made of its waters in irrigation, the mif- cmef it does m floods, for we paffed two large trafts dedroyed by it. The mountains around of bold and intereding features , the country in general a mixture of cultivation and wade, for feme fpace pleating enough to "the eye" draw hey ^rr mead ° WS ’ fo that our mules have met with nothing like hav; d aw and barley are their food ; and they tell us, that all over Spin it is til r £ fomg L^let” 6 eXC£f>ti0nS in watered l an ds for lucerne. Much corn The F 34 SPAIN. The road leads by Monte Efquieu, the whole of which confifts of a white done and argilaceous marie. Look back over a great profped, but deftitute of wood Ourcafo a poor place : there, as every where elfe, the firft floor is a liable, which is cleaned out not more than once or twice a year, when the land is ready to jeceive the dung. The delicious effluvia given to the reft of the houfe, m io hot a climate, may be conjedured : rifing into the kitchen and the chambers, it there meets with fuch a variety of other unlavory eftences, as to foim com- pounds fufficient to puzzle the moft dextrous of the aerial philosophers to ana- lize All their white wine here is boiled. Defcend mountains terraced for olives which grow well on rocks, but add no beauty to them 3 infomuch that cloathing a country with this moft ugly of all trees adds nothing to the plea- Pafs in fight of St. Roma, and crofs a diftridt of fhells, and a large wafte eatirely covered with lavender. Pafs up a hill which commands a vaft proiped of diftant mountains, A . S. W. they are in Arragon , very high ; and feen one beyond another to a great diftance , alfo the fnowy ones of the Pyrenees which we have left. Following the road, we fee it opening to an immenfe view of what at firft appears to be a plain, a great ran ve of country towards the fea ; but it is all broken in mountainous ridges, which feem low, merely on comparifon with the greater heights from which we view them. The Pyrenees in one great chain to the left, and the mountains of Tor- tofa to the right. Defcend to Fulca, where we flop for the night at an inn kept by a confidence farmer, and meet, for Spain, with tolerable accommodation. We had here, in the evening, a moft tremendous, tempeft. The lightning which I have feen in England has been a mere glimmering, compared with, the dreadful corufcations of this ardent and eledtric atmofphere. A range or the Pyrenees was in fight for one hundred miles in a line 3 the forke fla es of the lightning darted in ftreams of fire to the length of half that extent, and muc i of it from an immenfe height. The colour was of the bnghteft whitemefs 3 the fcene was great, awful, and fublime.^ 28 miles. .111 The 14th. In the morning the hemifphere was all heavy with clouds, and fome rain fell 3 we exprefled apprehenfions of being wet, but. our lan Lord aid we ftiould have a very fine day 3 we had confidence, and it proved a c.ear Here I may obferve, that in above one hundred miles in Catalonia, we have feen but two houfes that appeared decidedly to be gentlemen s, one t. e govei nor’s at Viella, and the other in the town of La Pobla 3 and m the rarne : line of country not more than one acre probably in two hundred is .cultivate . us ai > therefore, we have experienced an entire difappointment in the expeo .ition o 1 finding this province a garden, SPAIN. dS Pafs t he fide of a mountain covered with rofemary, box, and brambles, and defcend into a rich vale to the town of Pous. Crofs the river Segre by a mod; commodious ferry boat, much better executed and contrived for carriages and horfes, than any I have feen in England. I have crofted the Thames, the Severn, and the Trent, but never faw any in which the horfes were not forced to leap through a narrow cut in the fide of the boat to the imminent danger of being lamed : and I have known both cows, oxen, and horfes killed in the ope- ration. A carriage may be driven in and out of this ferry boat without taking off a horie, or a perfon moving from his feat. The boat croffes the river by a great rope pafling over a lan thorn wheel. The care and attention given to irri- gation here cannot be exceeded. Much filk winding. They threfh their corn by driving mules in the oriental method on a circu- lar floor of earth in the open air; a girl drives; three and four men turn the ftraw, move it away, and fupply the floor. Pafs a wafle of marie, with ftrata of talc in fome places clear and tranfparent, fhining, and breaking in thin flakes. — Deferts for feveral miles. Pafs Ribel- les, a village whofe white church and houfes, on the pinnacle of a rocky hill, have a Angular effed: in the midft of an uncultivated dreary trad. Dine at Se- navia; the day exceflively hot, and the flies fo innumerable, as to be a per- fed plague. They have a good contrivance for keeping them off the table you eat at, which is a moveable and very light frame of canvafs, fufpended from the cieling by two pivots, and a girl keeps pulling it backwards and forwards while you are at table : the motion it gives the air drives off the flies. Where this invention is not adopted, fhe ufes a hand-flapper for the fame purpofe, fanning in a droll manner, and far from difagreeable, when the girl is pretty. Pafs many watered grounds, with peaches, apples, and ripe pears. Pomegranates in the hedges as large now as walnuts in the lhell. To Biofca mofldy defert hills, but with tome broad vales. No where any wood to be feen, except olives, and evergreen oaks, which are almoft as fad as olives. Towards Tora the coun- try is more cultivated, and has fome fcattered houfes, which I note as a new circumftance. Pafs Cafile Follit. The country improves to Calaf, where we arrived after a burning journey of 40 Englifh miles, having been fourteen hours on our mules. 40 miles. The 15th. — Sunday. To mafs at four in the morning: the church almofl full of muleteers; it was evident that we were in Spain, from the fervency of devotion with which they beat their breafls at fome of the refponfes in the fer- vice. Plow far this violent attention to religion is connected with the wafle Rate of their province, I fhall leave to others to determine. One thing, which furprifed me a good deal, was feeing great numbers of men going out of town with reap-hooks to cut their corn, juft as on any other day; this muft be with the F 2 leave } 6 SPAIN. leave of their priefts ; and to give fuch permiffion, fpeaks more liberality than I had been taught to expert. Crofs a great wade, and mount a hill, from whence an extenfive view over a naked country; and, for the fird time, we fee Montferrat, the outline of which is intereding. Dine at Camprat, in the midft of a rocky country, of a favage afped, with fo many wades, that not one acre in an hundred is cultivated. Arrive at the foot of Montferrat, which, from the defcription given of it by Mr. Thicknefs, was one objed of our journey. It is a remarkably ifolated mountain, but of an immenfe bafis. An admi- rable winding road is made, by which we mounted to the convent; to make this way was a great effort in a country where fo few good roads are to be found. Much of this is hewn out of the live rock. In other refpeds, it is one of the mod lingular in the world. On the right hand is a wall of mountain fringed with wood, at the top of which are thofe dupendous rocks, which render it famous : to the left a precipice horrible for depth, but all covered with plants, which in England are fought with anxiety and expence for adorning fhrubberies and gardens; and vegetation here has the luxuriance which may be expeded in one of the fined climates of the world. The road fo level, and thefe beautiful plants fo thick, that they altogether refemble the alley of a. decorated ground. The fcenery on which you look is every where uncommon ; fuch a confufion of fhades and maffes ; fuch a tumult of forms, that the eye wanders with a kind of amazement from part to part, without being able to repofe in the quiet com- mand of any didind objed. We arrived at the convent in time for the evening hymns and mufic. The church is fplendid, fome of the pidures fine, and* the multitude of offerings of diamonds, rubies, and all other precious dones, with the quantity of gold and fiiver lamps, vafes, &c. are the lad objeds for me to dwell on, flnce they nevei raife any other emotion in my bofom than of difgud. I hate the folly that gives; and if the monks are honed, I hate the folly that receives. On bur arrival we were conduded to a neat, plain apartment in the convent;, of two rooms .furnifhed with mere neceffaries, and we were fuppiied by the fer- vants with fuch food and wine as we requeded, at a very moderate expence. To this ufeful fpecies of hofpitality, we were obliged for a comfortable night s led. 27 miles. The 1 6th. The principal objed which had induced us to take Montfenat in our way, was the amazing profped commanded from the top of the moun- tain, and from the various hermitages defcribedby Mr. Thicknefs. This morn- ing we walked up the hill, but the weather proved fo perverfe to our views, both in mounting and defcending, that we were the whole time in the ciouds. I- Should mod, willingly have daid two or three days here, and waited lor a better time. 5. s P A I N. 37 time; but my friend was in fuch a hurry to return to Bagnere to the Count de la Rochefoucauld, that we muft have feparated, had I done it. In fuch tours as tiiefe, it is always bed; to take a fuperfluity of time; a thing very difficult to do. when one travels in company; and that of Monf. L. was much too valuable and interefting to me to allow fuch a queftion for a moment. All we could do in our elevated fituation, was to mortify ourielv.es with imagining the prodigious profpeCt before us, without a poffibility of feeing five hundred yards, for the clouds were beneath as well as around us. W e flopped at one of the hermi- tages, the inhabitant of which, a Maltefe of a gentleman-like deportment and manners, leceived us hoipitably and politely, fettmg out bread, wine, and fruit. He lamented our ill luck, telling us that the ifland of Majorca was diftinddy to be feen from his little garden, which we viewed with pleafure, but fhould have been better pleafed to have feen Majorca. But though the diftant profped was thus excluded, we had tne opportunity to examine and admire the uncommon and ftriking form of the rocks, of which this moft interefting mountain is com- pofed; the whole feems one vaft mafs of pudding ftone. Leave the convent, and take the road for Barcelona, which, in richnefs of vegetable accompanyment, is inferior to that by which we came; we were feve- ral miles defending. Pafs Orevoteau, where is a hedge of aloes four feet high : here we are in a high road, for we meet for the firft time a cabriolet. Pafs a wretched ftoney defer t, which yields only aromatic plants, fcattered with dif- mal evergreen oaks. Efparagarais the firft manufacturing town we met with ; woollen cloths, fluffs, and laces: the town is near a mile long. Near Marto- rell, fee the triumphal arch, faid to be built by Annibal; it has been lately re- paired. In that town every one is employed in lace making; they have, however, another occupation not quite fo agreeable to the eye, that of picking vermin out of each other s neads, in which numbers of them were employed; nor can any thing be more ftinking or filthy than their perfons, or more dirty than their houfes : to view ei tner, is enough to imprefs the idea, that cleanlinefs is one of the firft of the virtues, and doubly fo in fuch a hot climate. No new houfes in any of thefe towns. The country is difagreeable, and rendered worfe by many beds of tor- rents, without a drop of water; arid and hurtful. to the eye. Apricots, plumbs, melons, &c. ripe, and fold in the ftreets. Come to a noble road, which they are making at the expence of the King; fifty or Lxty feet wide, and walled on the fide to fupport the earth, of which it. is formed. 1 he country now is far more populous and better built, many vines, . and much cultivation.. ^ It will probably be found, that the great reputation of this province hasarifen, from the improvements in the lower, flat, and irrigated parts;, if fo, it. ought to- e ifcriminated ; for by far the larger part of it is mountainous, not lefs in pro*- portion,. SPAIN. 3 * portion, I fhould conceive, than feven-eighths. Pafs a large paper mill ; and con- tinuing on the fame fine road, join another equally great and well made, that leads to Villa Franca. Turn to the left for Barcelona, and crofs a bridge of red granite, a folid, durable, and noble work, 440 paces long ; but, though built only eio-ht years ago, is in a bad and inelegant fliie. Now meet a great number of carts and carriages, drawn by very fine mules, and mark every appearance of approaching a great city. Within two or three miles of it, there are many villas and o-ood buildings of all forts, fpreading to the right and left, and feen all over the country. I have been at no city fince we left Paris, whofe approach carries fuch a face of animation and chearf ulnefs ; and confidering Paris as the capital of a Great kingdom, and Barcelona as that of a province only, the latter is more firiking beyond all comparifon. This noble road does honour to tho prefent Kino- of Spain; it is carried in an even line over all narrow vales, fo that you have none of the inconveniencies which otherwife are the effedt of hills and declivities. A few palm trees add to the novelty of the profpedt to northern eyes. * The firfi: view of the town is very fine, and the lituation truly beautiful* The lafi: half mile we were in great hafte to be in time for the gates, as they am fhut at nine o’clock. We had had a burning ride of forty miles, and were a good deal fatiG-ued, yet forced to undergo a ridiculous fearch, as every thing pays an entree to government on going into the town; and we had fidl two miles I believe to pafs, firfi: to the French Crown, which inn was full, ana then to La Fonde , where we found good quarters. My friend thought this the moll fatiguing day he had ever experienced: tne ex- ceflive heat oppreffed him much; and, indeed, travellers in general are much more prudent than to ride during the whole day in the middle of July, choofing rather to expofe themfelves to fatigue here in the morning and evening only. But after a fucceffion of dog holes, with perpetual ftarving and mortification in the mountains, the contrail: of this inn was great. It is a very good one, w-tii many waiters, a&ive and alert as in England. A good fupper, with forne excel- lent Mediterranean fifh; ripe peaches; good wine; the moil delicious lemonade in the world; and good beds, all tended to revive us; but Monf. Lazowiiu was too much fatigued for enjoying them.— — 40 miles. . The 17th. View the town, which is large, and to the eye, in every ftreet, remarkably populous : many of them are narrow, which may be expected m m old town ; but there are alfo many others broader, with good homes ; yet one cannot on the whole confider it as well built, except as to public edifices, which are eredted in a magnificent fliie. There are fome confiderable opening?, v/nicn^ though not regular fquares, are ornamental, and have a good effedt in fitting off the new r buildings to the bed advantage. One quarter oi the city, ^ eeLonetta, is entirely new, and perfectly regular; tire meets cutting eaca ot iei a-. SPAIN. 39 } right angles ; but the houfes are all fmall and low, being meant for the refidence of failors, little fhop -keepers, and artizans: one front of this new town faces the quay. The breets are lighted, but the dub fo deep in fame of them, efpecially the broader ones, that I know not whether they are fell paved. The governor’s houfe and the new fountain are on a fcale, and in a bile, which thews, that there are no mean ideas of embellishment here. The royal foundry for cannon is very great. The buildings fpacious, and every thing feems executed in a man- ner that proves no expence was fpared. The guns cab are chiefly brafs : they are folid ; and lbme 24 pounders boring ; perhaps in all mechanics the mod: curK ous operation, and which can never be viewed without paying fome homage to the genius that firft invented it. In time of war 300 men are employed here; but at prefent the number is. not confiderable- But the objedt at Barcelona which is the mod: briking, and which, accord- ing to my knowledge at lead:, has no where a rival, is the quay. The dedgn and execution are equally good. I guefs it about half a mile long. A low plat- form of done is built but a few feet above the water, clofe to which the Ships are moored ; this is of breadth fudicient for goods and packages of all forts in load- ing and unloading the veffels. A row of arched warehoufes open on to this plat- form, and over thofe is the upper part of the quay on a level with the breet; and for the convenience of going up or down from one to the other, there are gently doping ways for carriages, and alfo bair-cafes. The whole is mob folidly eredted in hewn bone, and finifhed in a manner, that difcovers a true Spirit of mag- nificence in this, mob ufeful fort of public works. The road by which we tra- velled for feveral miles — the bridge by which we paffed the river — and this quay, are works that will do lading honour to the prefent King of Spain. There are now about 1 40 Ships in the harbour ; but the number fbmetimes much larger. It is impoffible to view fuch admirable works as the quay of Barcelona, with- out regretting the enormous fums waded in war and bloodshed. No quarrel, happens between two nations, but it cobs twenty fuch quays; a thoufand miles of magnificent road; an hundred bridges ;, the pavement, lights, fountains, palaces, and public ornaments of fifty cities. To tell a prince or a parliament (the latter wants this lefTon to the full as much as the former), that a war is as abfurd as it is cruel, for it will cob fo much money in figures, makes not the lead imprefi- fion ; they never fee the money, and the expence is of fomething ideal ; but to tell the King of Spain that it would cob the Efcurial, St. Ildefonfo, his palace at Madrid, and all the roads in his kingdom, and he would think very ferioufly be- fore he engaged in it. To reafon with a Britibi parliament, when her noify fac- tious orators are bawling for the honour of the Britilh lion, for the. rights of commerce, and freedom of navigation ; that is,, for a war — that fuch. a war will cob an hundred millions berling, and they are deaf to you. But let It cob them thofe SPAIN. 40 thole roads on which they roll fo luxurioufly, the public bridges, and the great edifices that decorate the capital, and our other cities, if the members were willing at fuch a price to hazard a war, the people would probably pull down their houfes. Yet the cafes are precifely the fame; for if you fpend the money that would form and build fuch things, you in effed fpend the things them- felves. A very little calculation would fhew, that the expence of our three lafl wars, which had no other effed whatever but to fpill blood and fill gazettes, would have made the whole ifland of Great Britain a garden ; her whole coaft a quay; and have converted all the houfes in her towns into palaces, and her cot- tages into houfes. But to return. The manufadories at Barcelona are confiderable. There is every appearance as you walk the flreets of great and adive induftry : you move no where without hearing the creak of flocking engines. Silk is wrought into handkerchiefs, though not on fo great a fcaleas at Valencia; dockings, laces, and various fluffs. They have alfo fome woollen fabrics, but not confiderable. The chief bufinefs ■of the place is that of commiffion ; the amount of the trade tranfaded is confi- derable, though not many fhips belong to the port. The induflry and trade, however, which have taken root, and profpered in this city, have withflood the continued fyflem of the court to deal feverely with the whole province of Catalonia. The famous eff orts v/hich the Catalans made to place a prince of the Houfe of Auflria on the throne of Spain, were not foon forgotten by the princes of the Houfe of Bourbon, to their difhonour. Heavy taxes have been laid on the people; and the whole province continues to this day difarmed; fo that a nobleman cannot wear a fword, unlefs privileged to do it by grace or office; and this gees fo far, that in order to be able to fhew this mark ot diflindion, they are known to get them felves enrolled as familiars of the inqui- fition, an office which carries with it that licence. I note this corredly accord- ing to the information given me; but I hope the perfon who gave it was mii- takem For the nobility to floop to fuch a meannefs, and the court to drive men to fuch unworthy means of diftindion, fourfeore years after their offence, which was fidelity to the prince whom they efleemed their lawful fovereign, fuch an ad refleds equal difhonour upon the nobility and the crown. The mention of the inquiiition made us enquire into the prefen t flate of that holy office, and we were informed, that it was now formidable only to perfons of very notorious ill fame; and that whenever it does ad againfl offenders, an inquifitor comes from Madrid to condud the procefs. From the expreffions, however, which were ufed, and the inflances given, it appeared that they take cognizance of cafes not at all con- neded with faith in religion ; and that if men or women are guilty of vices, which render them offenfive, this was the power that interpofed ; an account, in my opinion, by no means favourable for the circumffance, which was fuppofed mofl to s P A I N. AT 4i to limit their power, was the explicit nature of the offence, viz. being againft the Catholic faith, and by no means againfl public morals, to fecure which is an objeCt for very different judicatures in every country. 1 lie markets here are now full of ripe figs, peaches, melons, and the more common fruits m great profufion. 1 bought three large peaches for a penny, and om laquais de place faid, that I gave too much, and paid like a foreigner • but they have not the flavour of the fame fruit in England. In the gardens there are noble orange trees loaded with fruit, and all forts of garden vegetables in the gieateft plenty. The climate here in winter may be conjectured from their having green pqafe every month in the year. View the very pretty fort to the fouth of the town, which is on the fummit 0 a hill that commands a vaft profpeCt by fea and land. It is exceedingly well built and well kept. Notwithftanding this fort to the fouth, and a citadel to the north of the town, corfairs in time of war have cut fiihing veffels out of the road, and very near the fhore. In the evening to the play; the theatre is very large, and the feats on the two 1 es o tie pit (for the centre is at a lower price) extremely commodious ; each ieat is feparate fo that you fit as in an elbow chair. A Spanifh comedy was re- prefented, and an Italian opera after it. We were furprized to find clergymen in every part of the houfe ; a circumftance never feen in France. Twice a week they have an Italian opera, and plays the other evenings. In the centre of the pit on benches the common people feat themfelves. I faw a blackfmith, hot rom the anvil, with his fhirt fleeves tucked above his elbows, who enjoyed the entertainment equally with the beff company in the boxes, and probably much more. Every well dreffed perfon was in the French fafbion; but there were many who dill retained the Spanifh mode of wearing their hair without powder, m a thick black net which hangs down the back: nothing can have a worfe effeCt, or appear mere offenfive in fo hot a climate. The 1 8 th. On leaving the town we were fearched again, which feems both ufe- Ids and burthenfome. Enter immediately an extraordinary feene of watered culti- vation, fo fine, that I fuppofe it has given the general reputation to the whole province. .The Indian fig, called here jigua de Maura, grows fix or feven feet tgh, very branching and crooked ; the arms at bottom as thick as the thigh of a common man ; thefe and many aloes in the hedges. At Ballalo, two hours from Barcelona, meet with the firit vineyards, but the hills here, for the molt part, come down to the fea; and where they do not, the vale is not more than half a mile wide. Lycium in the hedges ; oranges in the gardens ; a few palm tiees wit vines around them. All here inclofed, and the men mending gaps in their hedges. The appearance of induftry on this coaft is as great as poffible. iNitm ers of fiihing boats and nets, with rows of good white houfes on the fea G fide; SPAIN. 42 fide ; and while the men are aftive in their fifheries, the women are equally bufy in making lace. Dine at Gremah : many large villages and fcattered houfes all the way. Wherever there is an opening in the mountains, more dis- tant and flill higher ones are feen ; a circumftance which unites with the vail view from Montferrat, and (hews that all behind is mountainous, and that the vales are no where large. Pafs a valley, part highly cultivated, but the reft for a quarter of a mile of breadth totally ruined by a torrent. Reach Mar- taro, a large town of white and clean well built houfes, the ftreets crofting each other at right angles. The inhabitants appear exceedingly induftrious there are fome flocking engines, and lace makers at every corner. Every houfe has one large door, which ferves both for door and window to that room; an undoubted proof of the warmth of the climate. I am forry to add, that here: alfo the induftry of catching vermin in each other’s heads is very adlive. Pafs, Arenys, a large town, where fhipbuilding feems a bufinefs of fome con- fequence : making thread lace univerfal here; the thread comes froqi France.. Canet, another large town, employed in fhipbuilding, fifhing, and making lace. All thefe towns are well built, with an equal appearance of general in- duftry, and its infeparable companion, private comfort. Every fcrap of fiatland well cultivated, and the hills covered with vines. At Callella, a large town like the former, full of induftry, but the inn no < better than in the mountains, a ftinking, dirty, dreadful hole, without any thing to eat or drink but for muleteers ; yet we are now in the high road from Paris to Madrid.— —36 miles. The 19th. Leave Callella, and in lefs than a league come to Pineda, ano- ther large town, and pafs Malgrat, which is not lo well built, as the preceding, but much lace made in it. The road here turns from, the fea into an inclofed woodland. Pomegranates make very fine thick hedges. There are old caftles on the hills to defend the ccaft againft the Africans.. Houfes fcattered every where, a feature eftential to a fine country, and am agreeable landfcape. Poplars planted in fome fields, and vines trained from one to another.. From reading accounts of this huf- bandry, I had formed an idea that it muft be fingularly beautiful to fee feftoons of vines hanging from tree to tree ; but there is nothing either pleafing or link- ing in it. The Pyrenees are now in front, with very high mountains to the left, with their heads in. the clouds. Pafs for feveral miles a country much mixed with wafles ; and come to a very large one fpreading over feveral extenfive hills for many miles, that prefents an extraordinary fpedlacle to northern eyes. It is a thicket of aromatic plants, and beautiful flowering fhrubs, with but a fmall mixture of plants common in England. Large fpreading myrtles three or four feet high, jeftamins, honey fuckles. 43 J U N Q_U E R R A S E R P I G N A N. fackles, lavender, rofemary, bay, lentifcus, tamarifc, caffia, &c. &c. but all nunances here even worfe than heath with us, for we fee neither iheep nor goats, faio Goronota and many waftes for feme miles on gentle dopes, ‘ and come again to a thick woodland mclofed country, like fome parts of England. Many t.Jgcs of the yellow bloffomed prickly acacia, which anfwers well for that pur'- pote. Reach Girona, an old town walled and fortified with fome redoubts, and a fort on the hill above it; but not kept up, nor indeed would it flop an army half an hour. Here is a cathedral and a bilhop, who gave us his bleffino- as w„ palled him drawn in his coach by fix mules. His revenue is 24,000 French livres ; there are curbs, who have from 1200 to 3000 livres. They n re no live frock. They have no manufadtures of any confequence, and no reiouice but that of agriculture; yet, what is extraordinary, Caftilian and F rench workmen come hither for employment. 36 miles. Snow is on the Pyrenees as well as at Bagnere de Luchon. then^l 21 ' iFT J un ^ uerras > where the countenances and manners of the people would make one believe all the inhabitants were fmugglers. Come to maTk tirebo' ^ ’ fi^ Kin S ofS P™ is ma king; it begins ft the pillars that ] k ™ bou ndanes of the two monarchies, joining with the French road . it SSSSra, H “ “ l „' ‘T rf S f*“ *5 France r^the “n- trait is linking. When one crofles the fea from Dover to Calais, the nreDaration bm here Un fwth C ouf * naval P affa f lead mind by fome gradation to a change : but here without going through a town, a barrier, or even wall, you enter a new world. From the natural and referable roads of Catalonia you tread at oncconanob ecaufeway, made with all thefolidity and magnificence that dif tinguiih the highways of France. Inrtead of beds of torrents you have Veil built m df f cukivatio * “T* *** “ d P° 0r ’ “ ourfelvef in the dit ot cultivation and improvement. Every other circumftance fooke the a937h) e * ten 3 ’ but a few hundred yards. Three leagues and an hall from Sejean to Nar onne coft 1 ,800,000 liv. (78,7 50I.) Thefe ways are fuperb even to a folly. Enormous fums have been fpent to level even gentle Hopes. The caufeways are rai ec . and walled on each fide, forming one folid mafs of artificial, road came acrofs the vallies.to the height of fix, feven, or eight feet, and never dels an 50 wide. There is a bridge of a tingle arch, and a cauleway to it, truly magnificent , we have not an idea of what fuch a road is in England The trariiC of he way however, demands no fuch exertions ; one-third of the breadth is beaten, ^o^ LANGUEDOC CANAL. 4 -S' third tougn, and one- third covered with weeds. In 36 miles, I have met one caoriolet, halt a dozen carts, and Tome old women with afles. For what all this wafte of tieafure ? In Languedoc, it is true, thefe works are not done by coivees • but there is an injufiice in levying the amount not far fhort of them The money is raifed by tallies, and, in making the affeffment, lands held by a noble tenuie aie fo much eafed, and others by a bale one fo burthened, that 12° at pents in this neighbourhood, held by the former, pay 90 liv. and 400 poifelfed by a plebeian right, which ought proportionally to pay 300 liv. is, inflead of that, affeffed at 1400 liv. At Narbonne, the canal which joins that oi Languedoc deferves attention ; it is a very fine work, and will, they fay, be finifhed next month. 36 miles. The 24th. Women without blockings, and many without fhoes ; but if their feet are poorly clad, they have. a fnperb confolation in walking upon magnificent. caufeways : the new road is 50 feet- wide,, and .50 more digged away or defiroyed to make it. J The vintage itfelf can hardly be fuch a fcene of adlivity and animation as this universal one of treading out the corn, with which all the towns and villages in Languedoc are now alive. The corn is all roughly flacked around a dry firm. ipot„ where great numbers of mules and horfes are driven on a trot round a centre, a woman holding the reins, and another, or a girl or two, with whips a rive ; the men fupply and clear the floor; other parties are dreffino-, by tnrowing the corn into the air for the wind to blow away the chaff. . Every, foul is employed, and with fuch an air of cheerfulnefs, that the pcople feem as well pleated with their labour, as the farmer himfelf with his great heaps of wieat. The fcene is uncommonly animated and joyous. I flopped, and alighted oiten to fee. their method; I wars always very civilly treated, and my wifhes t0 ! a S 00c * P nce for the farmer, and not- too good a one for the poor, , well re- ceived. This method, which entirely faves barns, depends abfolutely on cli- mate : from my leaving Bagnere de Luchon to this moment, all through Cata- lonia, Ivouffillon, and tins part of Languedoc, there has been nothino- like rain ; but one unvarying clear bright fky and burning Tun, yet not at all fuffocating, or to me even unpleafant. I allied whether they were not fome times cau-dit m tiie rain ? they find, very rarely indeed ; but if rain did come, , it is feldom Which a hot q^kly fucceeds and dries every, or J ’ can ^ 0i Languedoc is the.capital feature of all this country. The moun- tain torough which it pierces is infulated, in the midfl of an extended valley, aw on y a a mile from the road. It is a noble and flupendous work, goes fhafts^ 1 1 £ * about the breadth of three toifes, and was digged without Leave 4 6 BEZIERS, Leave the road, and eroding the canal, follow it to Beziers ; nine lluicegates let the water down the hill to join the river at the town.— A noble work ! The port is broad enough for four large veffels to lie abreaft ; the greatell of them carries from 90 to 100 tons. Many of them were at the quay, fome in motion, and every fign of an animated bufmefs. This is the bed: light I have feen in France. Here Louis XIV. thou art truly great!— Here, with a generous •and benignant hand, thou difpenfeft eafe and wealth to thy people! St Jic omnia , thy name would indeed have been revered! To effetf: this noble work, of uniting the two feas, lefs money was expended than to beliege Turin, or to Teize Strafbourg like a robber. Such an employment of the revenues of a great kingdom is the only laudable way of a monarch’s acquiring immortality ; a other means make their names furvive with thole only of the incendiaries, rob- bers, and violators of mankind. The canal palfes through the river for about half a league, feparated from it by walls which are covered in floods ; and then turns off for Cette. Dine at Beziers. Knowing that Monf. 1 Abbe Roziei , the celebrated editor of the Journal Phyfique, and who is now pubhlhing a dic- tionary of hulbandry, which in France has much reputation, lived and farmed near Beziers, I enquired at the inn the way to his houfe. They told me that he had left Beziers two years, but that the houfe was to be feen from the Itreet, and accordingly they fhewed it me from fomething of a fquare open on one fide to the country; adding, that it belonged now to a Monf. de Rieufe, who had purchafed the eff ate of the Abbd. To view the farm of a man celebrated for his writings, was an object, as it would at lead: enable me, in leading us ^00 , to underftand better the allufions he might make to the foil, fituation, an ot ter circumftances. I was forry to hear, at the table d’hote, much ridicu e t irown on the Abbe Rozier’s hufbandry, that it had beaucoup dejantafie mats rienjbhde ; in particular, they treated his paving his vineyards as a ridiculous circumftance. Such an experiment feemed remarkable, and I was glad to heai of it, t lat mig it defire to fee thefe paved vineyards. The Abbe here, as a faimer, .as ju t lat character which every man will be fure to have who departs from the methods of his neighbours ; for it is not in the nature of countrymen, that any body Ihou d come among them who can prefume with impunity to think for him el . afked why he left the country? and they gave me a curious anecdote of the bifhop of Beziers cutting a road through the Abbe’s farm, at the expence of the province, to lead to the houfe of his (the bilhop’s) miffrefs, whic occa lone fuch a quarrel, that Monf. Rozier could flay no longer in the country. 1 his is a pretty feature of a government: that a man is to be forced to fell ns e Ldte, an driven out of a country, becaufe bilhops make love — I fuppofe to their neig^ - hours wives, as no other love is fafhionable in France. Which o my neign 47 P E Z E N A S. M ONTPELLIER. hours wives will tempt the bi/hop of Norwich to make a road through mw faim, and drive me to fell Bradfield ? — I give my authority for this anecdote the chat of a table d’hote: it is as likely to be falfe as true; but Languedocian bifltops are certainly not Englilh ones.— Monf. de Rieufe received me politely and fatisfied as many of my enquiries as he could ; for he knew little more of the Abbe s huibandry than common report, and what the farm itfelf told him As to paved vineyards, there was no fuch thing: . the report muft have taken rife from a vineyard of Burgundy grapes, which the Abbd planted in a new manner- 'u a C , UI T ed f° rm T ' mafofs * covering them only with flints inftead of on the n hlS fUCC ? eded T U -J Walked over the farm > wllic h is beautifully lituated, on the Hope and top of a hill, which commands Beziers, its rich vale, its navi- gauon, and a fine accompaniment of mountains. fnr B th ie p h rl fine P r0ffienadej and is becoming, they. fay, a favourite ref.dence p° Lr, ■ pwftmng the air to that of Montpellier. Take the road to t'ezenas. It leads up a hill, which commands, for fome time, a view of the Mediterranean. Through all this country, but particularly in the olive grounds e cricket f aca J*J makes a conftant, Iharp,, monotonous.- noifej a more odious’ coZ™™ th ^ ™ ad can bardl X be imagined.- Pezenas opens on a very fine untry, a vale of fix or eight leagues extent all cultivated; a beautiful mkture of vines, mulberries olives,, towns, and fcattered houfes, with a great dea of fine lucerne ; the whole bounded by gentle hills, cultivated to thefr tops -A Apper, at the table d’hdte, we were waited on by a female without Les or ever k, a S c’ c 7 and diffufing odours not of rofes : there were, how- J’ Tu de St ' r L °“ S, and two or three mercantile-looking people, who prated with her very familiarly : at an ordinary of farmers, at the Dooreft and r- noteft market village in England, fuch an animal would not be allowed by the landlord to enter his houfe; or by the guefts their room. 3 2 miles. 7 fi . 2 n a r ,le r0ad ’ m Croirin S a vaUe f t0 and from a bridge, is a magni ficent waked caufeway, more than a mile long, ten yards wide, and from eight o twelve feet hign ; with ftone polls on each fide at every fix yards— a prodigi ous work— I know nothing more linking to a traveller than the roads of Lm guedoc we have not m England a conception of fuch exertions ; they are fplen id and fuperb; and if I could free my mind of the recolleftion of the unjufl: taxation which pays them I ihould travel with admiration at the magnified difplayed by the States of this province. The police of thefe roads is however exeerabJe— for I fcarceiy meet a cart but the driver is afleep in it. Taking the road to Montpellier, pat’s through a pleating country; and by an- trthertmmenfe walled caufeway, twelve yards broad and three high| fcadingcSe to the fea. To Gigean, near Frontignan and Montbafin, famous for their muf cat wines— Appr oach Montpellier; the environs, for near a league, are delicious, and 4 $ B E A U C A I R E. N 1 S M E S. and more highly ornamented than any thing I have feen in France.— Villas well built, clean, and comfortable, with every appearance of wealthy owners, are ipread thickly through the country. They are, in general, pretty Iquaie buildings; feme very large. Montpellier, with the air rather ot a great capital tnan of a provincial town, covers a hill that fwelis proudly to the view. But on emeijng it, you experience a difappointment from narrow, ill-bin It, crooked ftreets, but full of people, and apparently alive with bufmefs; yet there is no confiderabk manufacture in the place; the principal are verdigreaie, iilk handkerchiefs, blankets, perfumes, and liqueurs. q he great object lor a ftranger to view is the promenade, or fquare, for it partakes ot both, caked tne I erou.— 1 heie is a magnificent aqueduct on three tires of arches for iupplying the city with water, fronma hill at a confiderable diftance ; a very noble work; a chateau d eau receives the water in a circular baton, from which it falls into an external reieivoii, to lii poly the city, and the jets d' eau that cool the air of a garden below, the whole in a fine fquare conhderably elevated above the 4 {Unrounding ground, walled in with a balluftrade, and other mural decorations, and in the centre a goodequef- trian ftatue of Louis XIV. There is an air of real grandeur and magnificence in this ufeful work, that ftruck me more than any thing at Venables. The v ^ ew is aifo fingularly beautiful. To the iouth, the eye wanders with delight over a rich vale, fpreaei with villas, and terminated by the lea. To tne north, a femes of cultivated hills. On one fide, the vaft range of the Pyrenees trend away till loft in remotenefs. On the other, the eternal lhows ot the Alps pierce the clouds. The whole view one of the moft ftupendous to be feen, when a cleai Iky approximates thefe diftant objeefts. -32 miles. The 26th. The fair of Beaucaire fills the whole country with bulmefs and motion ; meet many carts loaded ; and nine diligences going or coming. Yeftem day and to-day the hotteft I ever experienced; we had none like them m bpain — the flies much worle than the heat. -30 miles. ^ The 27th. The amphitheatre of Nifmes is a prodigious work, which mews how well the Romans had adapted thefe edifices to the abominable ufes to which they were erefted. The convenience of a theatre that could hold 17000 ipec- tators without confufion; the magnitude; the maffive and fubftantial manner m which it is built without mortar, that lias withftood the attacks of the wcat ner, and the worfe depredations of the barbarians in the various revolutions ot iixteen centuries, all ftrike the attention forcibly. . I viewed the Maifon Quarre laft night; again this morning, and twice more in the day; it is beyond all comparifon the moft light, elegant, and plea ing building I ever beheld. Without any magnitude to render it impofmg ; with- out any extraordinary magnificence to furprize, it rivets attention. There is a magic harmony in the proportions that charms the eye. One can fix on no NISMES PONT DU GARD. 4? particularpart ° f pre-eminent beauty; it is one perfedt whole offymmetry and 6 race. What an infatuation in modern architeds, that can overlook the chafle and elegant fimphety of tafte, manifefl in fuch a work, and yet rear fuch piles of laboured foppeiy and heavmefs as are to be met with in France 1 The temple aL D th™’ aS “ ‘!, Ca r ed ’ and the anC ‘ ent baths> With their modern reftoration’ e piomen-de, form part of the fame feene, and are magnificent decoratf ons ol the city. I was, in relation to the baths, in ill luck, for the water was draven off, in Older to clean them and the canals. — The Roman navemenf- atAe Lo ^ te f tlfld ’ 2nd “ , high P refe ™ition. My quarters at Nifmes were e Lou vie, a large, commodious, and excellent inn— the houfe was almolt as much a xair from morning to night as Beaucaire itfelf could be, I dined and fe« P Wthin^of e tf 10165 tHe ch /f nerS ° f thefe tabl£S fuits m V fi uances, and one ices fomething of die manners of the people; we fat down from twenty to forty at every meal, molt motley companies of French, Italians, Spaniards, and Ger- mans, with a Greek and Armenian; and I was informed, that there is hardlv rawTlk" of U wf e I" Afla ’ ‘if merchants at great fair, chiefly for raw filk, of which many millions in value are fold in four days • all the other commodities of the world are to be found there. 7 ' One circumffance I mull remark on this numerous table d’hdte, becaufe it has ftruck me repeatedly, which is the taciturnity of the French. I came to ItrH l > ngd ^r t0 have m y ears conllantly fatigued with the infinite vo lability and fpints of the ptxpple, of which Co many perfons have written fmiZ I fuppole, by their Englifli fire-fidcs. At Montjellier, though * 5 Sffid their i^eriMe^fiten S ce V£ ^th Pre ^ nt "l ^ f ° Und * im P offible t0 ™ ak * *?m break it morc bke !n tr KT c m0re than 3 mono fy llab ^, and the whole company aneonle J ™ f ? 7 t0ngUe - tied V ake «, than the mixed company of X mea Tt ri tJ° r r qUaCIty - ^ alfo ’ at NifmeS > witb a ***** £4 at 1. ^ , he fame; not a Frenchman will open his lips. To~dav at foTtde r £ t ° f that nati ° n ’ and ftaring t0 lofe the ' Hfc of an or S an they had lo little inclination to employ, I fixed myfelf by a Spaniard, and having been fo ately in his country I found him ready to converfe, and tolerably commufoca amonrthemfotr “ nVtt&,i0a ° ther ^ ™aintaind „„ T J le 2 ? th- _ Earl y in the morning to the Pont du Gard, through a plain co- ^t thefirft ^ P antations 01 olives to the left, but much wafte rocky land fxneaed fomeiV c at Cdebrated a V eduft > d was rather difappointed, having 'P . . . mg of greater magnitude; but fopn found the error: I was on makeaftmngTmLeffiou’ TT? ft ^ d P °“ ' "7 ^ ** ° Ugbt £ ° maflivefolidil-n/il t-o a ft ^ndous work; the magnitude, and the maliive fohdity of the arch, tenure, which may probably endure two or three ^ thousand Ul S A u V E. c HE-APNESS. thoufand years more, united with the undoubted utility of the undertaking to live us a high idea of the fpirit of exertion which executed it for the lupply of a provincial town : the furprife, however, may ceafe, when we confider the nation enflave^ that were the workmen.-Returning to Nifmes meet many merchants emlav ed tnat w a child . s drum tied to his cloak-bag : my own lktle'girf was too much in my head not to love them for this mark attention ,o their tom “l'thl honours, mfpeftrnd p T1 » however, ir , capital point, in that Montpellier « laid to ea.eed * Tfffl'qth. Paft fix leagues of difagreeable country to Sauve. Vines and t.;‘ % he chateau of Monf. Sabbatier ftrikes in this wild country; he has in- doled' much with dry walls, planted many _mulber*s and ^ fivVhigh whence it feems, he TfrlppoTe he refidlTon'lhis eftate for improving it. I hope he does not ferve ; that no moon-lhine purfuit may divert him from a conduft ; felf, and beneficial to his country. Leaving auve, mo ftofit inclofed large trait of land, feemlngly nothing but huge roc ; y and olanted with the molt induftrious attention. Every man has an » ” E iCw«“ EM 1 Such a knot ofadive hulbandmen, who turn their rocks into fcenes of fertility, , f T fnnnofe their own, would do the fame by the waftes, lf anima e SFESKEi* «- - f TiTiatoTto * merr hants returning home to Rouverge, from the fair of Beaucaire , as we learned feme circumftances of which I wanted to be informed ; they ^ alfo that mulberries extend beyond- Vigan, but then, and efpecia y baud almonds take their place, and are in very great quantities. , M, Cvnge friends pUd me to p.fs with them to Mdtad .nd Rofa, dSota, me. that the cheapaets of their province w.t fo pal, that it ™ M 0 N T A D I E R. 1 GNORANCE. 51 tempt me to live fome time among# them. That I might have a houfe at Milhaud, of fouf tolerable rooms on a floor furnifhed, for 12 louis a-year; and live in the utmoft plenty with all my family, if I would bring them over, for 100 louis a-year: that there were many families of noblefle, who fubfifled on 50, and even on 25 a-year. Such anecdotes of cheapnels are only curious when confidered in a political light, as contributing on one hand to the welfare of indi- viduals; and on the other, as contributing to the profperity, wealth, and power of the kingdom ; if I fhould meet with many fuch inftances, and alfb with others direttly contrary, it will be neceffary to confider them more at large, — 30 miles. The 30th. Going out of Gange, I was furprifed to find by far the greate# exertion in irrigation which I had yet feen in France ; and then pafs by fome #eep mountains, highly cultivated in terraces. Much watering at St. Lau- rence. The fcenery very interefting to a farmer. From Gange, to the moun- tain of rough ground which I eroded, the ride has been the mo# interefting which I have taken in France; the efforts of induftry the mofl vigorous; the animation the mofl lively. An a&ivity has been here, that has fwept away all difficulties before it, and has cloathed the very rocks with verdure. It would be a difgrace to common fenfe to afk the caufe : the enjoyment of property muji have done it. Give a man the fecure poffeffion of a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden; give him a nine years leafe of a garden, and he will convert it into a defert. T o Montadier, over a rough mountain covered with box and lavender; it is a beggarly village, with an auberge that made me almo# ffirink. Some cut- throat figures were eating black bread, whofe vifages had fo much of the gallies that I thought I heard their chains rattle. I looked at their legs, and could not but imagine they had no bufinefs to be free. There is a fpecies of countenance fo horribly bad, that it is impoffible to be miftaken in one’s reading. I was quite alone, and abfolutely without arms. Till this moment, I had not dreamt or carrying pifrols: I fhould now have been better fatisfied, if I had had them. The mailer of the auberge, who feemed firfl coufin to his guefls, procured for me fome wretched bread with difficulty, but it was not black. — No meat, no e gg s > no legumes, and execrable wine : no corn for my mule; no hay; no flraw; no grafs : the loaf fortunately was large ; I took a piece, and diced the refl for my four-footed Spaniffi friend, who ate it thankfully, but the aubergifle growl - cd -Defcend by a winding and excellent road to Maudieres, where a vafl arch is t rown acrofs the torrent. Pafs St. Maurice, and crofs a ruined forefl among# 1 agments of trees. Defcend three hours, by a mo# noble road hewn out of the mountain fide to Lodeve, a dirty, ugly, ill built town, with crooked dole #reets, ut populous, and very indu#rious. — Here I drank excellent light and pleafins* wnite wine. at $J] a bottle. 36 miles. 1 he 31#. Crofs a mountain by a miferable road, and reach Beg de Rieux, H 2 which MIREPOIX. which Shares with Cafcaflonne, the fabric of Londrins, for the^ Levant trade.— Crofs much wafle to Beziers. — I met to-day with an inflance of ignorance in a well drefled French merchant, that furprized me. He had plagued me with abundance of tirefbme foolifh queftions, and then afked for the third or fourth time what country I was of. I told him I was a Chinefe. Flow far off is that country? — I replied, 200 leagues. Deux cents lieuxl D table! c eft un grand chemin ! The other day a Frenchman afked me, after telling him I was an Eng- lishman, if we had trees in England ? — I replied, that we had a few. Had we any rivers? — Oh, none at all. Ah ma foi c eft bien trifte! This incredible igno- rance, when compared with the knowledge fo univerlally diffeminated in Eng- land, is to be attributed, like every thing elfe, to government. 40 miles. AugSjst 1 . Leave Beziers, in order to go to Capeflan by the pierced moun- tain. Crofs the canal of Languedoc feveral times ; and over many wades to Pleraville. The Pyrenees now full to the left, and their roots but a few leagues off. At Carcaflonne they carried me to a fountain of muddy water, and to a gate of the barracks ; but I was better pleafed to fee feveral large good houles of manufacturers, that fhew wealth. 40 miles. The 2d. Pafs a considerable convent, with a long line of front, and rife to Fanjour. 16 miles. The 3d. At Mirepoix they are building a m©fl magnificent bridge of feven flat arches, each of 64 feet Span, which will cofl 1,800,000 liv. (78,750k) ; it. has been twelve years ere&ing, and will be finished in two more. The weather for feveral days has been as fine as poflible, but very hot ; to-day the heat was fo difagreeable, that I refled from twelve to three at Mirepoix ; and found it fo burning, that it was an effort to go half a quarter of a mile to view the bridge. The myriads of flies were ready to devour me, and I could hardly Support any light in the room. Riding fatigued me, and I enquired for a carriage of Some fort to carry me, while thefe great heats Should continue ; I had done the fame at Carcaflonne ; but nothing like a cabriolet of any fort was to be had. When it is recollected that that place is one of the rnofl considerable manufacturing towns in France, containing 15,000 people, and that Mirepoix is far from being a mean place, and yet not a voiture of any kind to be had, how will an Englishman blefs himfelf for the univerfal conveniences that are fpread through his own country, in which I believe there is not a town of 1500 people in the kingdom where poft chaifes and able horfes are not to be had at a moment’s warning! What a contrail! This confirms the faCt deducible from the little traffic on the roads even around Paris itfelf. . Circulation is flagnant in k ranee . — The heat was Sb great that I left Mirepoix difordered with it : this was by far the hottefl day that I ever felt. The hemiiphere Seemed almofl in a flame with burning rays that rendered it impoifible to turn one’s eyes within many degrees of ST. GEROND S. 1 N N S. S3 the radiant orb that now blazed in the heavens.-— -Crofs another fine new bridge of three arches ; and come to a woodland, the firff I had feen for a great difiance. Many vines about Pamiers, which is fituated in a beautiful vale, upon a fine livei. The place itfelf is ugly, {linking, and ill built ; with an inn ! Adieu, Monf. Galcitj if fate fend me to fuch another houle as thine— be it an expia- tion for my fins ! — 28 miles. * The 4th. Upon leaving Amous, there is the extraordinary {pediacle of a river iffuing out of a cavern in a mountain of rock ; on eroding the hill you fee where -it enters by another cavern.— It pierces the mountain. Mofi countries, however, have inftances of rivers paffing under ground. At St. Geronds go to the Cro be Blanche, the mofi execrable receptacle of filth, vermin, impudence, and impo- fition that evei exercifed the patience, or wounded the feelings of a traveller A withered hag, the daemon of beafilinefs, prefides there. I laid, not refil ed, in a chamber over a liable,, whofe effluvia; through the broken floor were the leaf! offenfive of the perfumes afforded by this hideous place— It could give me: nothing but two ffale eggs, for which I paid,, exclufive of all other charges, 20/C Spain brought nothing to my eyes that equalled this fink, from which an Englifih hog would turn with difgufi. But the inns- all the way from Nifines are wretched, except at Lodeve, Gange, Carcaffonne, and Miiepoix. St. Geronds muff have, from. its appearance, four or five thou- fand people. Pamiers near twice that number. What can be the circulating connection between fuch mafles of people and other towns and countries, that can be held together and fupported by fuch inns ? There have been writeis who look upon fuch obfervations as arifing merely from the petu- lance of travellers, but it {hews their extreme ignorance. Such circumffances are political data. We cannot demand all the books of France to be opened in order to explain the amount of circulation in that kingdom ; a politician muff therefoie colled it from iuch circumftances as he can afeertain ; and among thele, traffic on the great roads, and the convenience of the houfes prepared for the reception of travellers, tell us both the number and the condition of thole travellers ; by which term I chiefly allude to the natives, who move on bufinels- or pleafure from place to place; for if they be not confiderable enough to caufe good inns, thofe who come from a difiance will not, which is evident from the bad accommodations even in the high road from Calais to Rome. On the contrary, go in England to towns that contain 1500, 2000, or 3000 people, in fituations abfolutely cut off irom all dependence. Or almoft the expedition of what are properly called travellers, yet you will meet with neat inns, well diefied and clean people keeping them, good furniture, and a refrefiiing civi- lity ; your fenfes may not be gratified, but they will not be offended ; and if you demand a pofi chaife and a pair of horfes, the cofi of which is not lefs than Boh in 54 ST, MARTORY. in fpite of a heavy tax, it will be ready to carry you whither you pleafe. Are no political conclufions to be drawn from this amafing contrail: ? It proves that fuch a population in England have connections with other places to the amount of fupporting fuch houfes. The friendly clubs of the inhabitants, the vifits of friends and relations, the parties of pleafure, the refort of farmers, the intercourfe with the capital and with other towns, form the fupport of good inns ; and in a country where they are not to be found, it is a proof that there is not the fame quantity of motion ; or that it moves by means of lefs wealth, lefs confumption, and lefs enjoyment. In this journey through Languedoc, I have palled an incredible number of fplendid bridges, and many fuperb caufe- ways. But this only proves the abfurditv and oppreffion of government. Bridges that cod: jo or 8o,oool. and immenfe caufeways to connect towns, that have no better inns than fuch as I have defcribed, appear to be grofs abfui di- ties. They cannot be made for the mereufe of the inhabitants, becaufe one- fourth of the expence would anfwer the purpofe o real utility. They are therefore objects of public magnificence, and confequentiy ior^ the eye of tra- vellers. But what traveller, with his perfon furrounded by tne beggany filth of an inn, and with all his fenfes offended, will not condemn fuch inconfiff- encies, and will not with for more comfort and lefs appearance of fplendour ? —30 miles. The 5th. To St. Martory is an almoft uninterrupted range of well inclofed and well cultivated country.— For an hundred miles pall, the women generally without fhoes, even in the towns ; and in the country many men all'o. The heat yefterday and to-day as intenfe as it was before : there is no bearing any light in the rooms ; all muff be fhut clofe, or none are toieiably cool . in going out of a light room into a dark one, though both to the noith, tneie is a very fenfible coolnefs ; and out of a dark one into a roofed balcony, is like go- ing into an oven. I have been adviled every day not to ffir till four o clock. From ten in the morning till five in the afternoon, the heat makes all exercife moft uncomfortable ; and the flies are a curfe of Egypt. Give me the cold and fogs of England, rather than fuch a heat, fhould it be lading. 1 he natives, how- ever, affert, that this intenfity has now continued as long as it commonly does, namely, four or five days ; and that the greateff part even of the hotteft months is much cooler than the weather is at prefent. — In 250 miles diitant, I have met on the road two cabriolets only, and three miferable things line old Englifh one- horfe chaifes ; not one gentleman ; though many merchants, as they call them- felves, each with two or three cloak-bags behind him : — a fcarcity of travelleis that is amazing. 28 miles. The 6th. To Bagnere de Luchon, rejoining my friends, and not difpleafed to have a little reft in the cool mountains, after io burning a ride. 28 miles. The P A U. 55 L O U R D E, The loth. Finding our party not yet ready to fet out on their return to Paris, I determined to make ufe of the time there was yet to fpare, ten or eleven days, in a tour to Bagnere de Bigorre, to Bayonne, and to meet them on the way to Bourdeax, at Auch. This being fettled, I mounted my Engliih mare, and took my lad leave of Luchon. — 28 miles. The 1 1 th . Pafs a convent of Bernardine monks, who have a revenue of 3 0,000 liv. Itis fituatedinavale, watered by a charming chrydal dream, and fome hills, cover- ed with oak, fhelter it behind. — Arrive at Bagnere, which contains little worthy of notice, but it is much frequented by company on account of its waters. To the valley of Campan, of which I had heard great things, and which yet much furpaffed my expectation. It is quite different from all the other vales I have feen in the Pyrenees or in Catalonia. The features and the arrangement novel. In general the richly cultivated flopes of thofe mountains are thickly inclofed $ this, on the contrary, is open. The vale itfelf is a flat range of cultivation and watered meadow, fpread thickly with villages and fcattered houfes. The eadern boundary is a rough, deep, and rocky mountain, and affords padurage to goats and dieep a contrad to the wedern, which forms the lingular feature of the fcene. It is one noble fheet of corn and grafs uninclofed, and interfered only by lines that mark the divifion of properties, or the channels that conduCt water from the higher regions for irrigating the lower ones ; the whole is one matchlefs dope of the riched and mod luxuriant vegetation. Plere and there are fcattered fome fmall maffes of wood, which chance has grouped with won- derful happinefs for giving variety to the fcene. The feafon of the year, b y mixing the rich yellow of ripe corn with the green of the watered meadows, added greatly to the colouring of the landfcape, which is upon the whole the mod exquid te for for?n and colour that my eye has ever been regaled with. — . Take the road to Lourde, where is a cadle on a rock, garrifoned for the mere purpofe of keeping date prifoners, fent hither by lettres de cachet. Seven or eight are known to be here at prefent ; thirty have been here at a time ; and many for life — torn by the reientlefs hand of jealous tyranny from the bofom of domedic comfort ; from wives, children, friends, and hurried for crimes unknown to themfeives — more probably for virtues — to languid} in this deteded abode of mifery — and die of defpair. Oh, liberty 1 liberty ! — and yet this is the milded government of any condderable country in Europe, our own ex- cepted. The difpenfations of providence feem to have permitted the human race to exid only as the prey of tyrants, as it has made pigeons for the prey of hawks. — 35 miles. The 1 2th. Pau is a condderable town, that has a parliament and a linen ma- nufacture; but it is more famous for being the birth-place of Henry IV* I viewed ■A N S P A N. s e M C N E N G. I viewed the cattle, and was fhewn, as all travellers are, the room in which that amiable prince was bom, and the cradle, the (hell of a tortoife, in which he was nuried. Vfhat an effect on pofterity have great and diftinguifhed ta- lents ! This is a confiderable town, but I queftion whether any thing would ever carry a ftranger to it but its polfefiing the cradle of a favounte character. Take the road to Moneng, and come prefen tly to a fcene which was fo new to me in France, that I could hardly hplieve my own eyes. A fuccefiion of many well built, tight, and comfortable farming cottages, built of ttone, and covered with tiles ; each having its little garden, inclofea by dipt thorn edges, with plenty of peach and other fruit-trees, fome fine oaks fcattered in the hedges, and young trees nurfed up with fo much care, that nothing but the fottering attention of the owner could efiedt any thing like it. To every houfe belongs a farm, perfectly well inclofed, with grafs borders mown and neatly kept around the corn fields, with gates to pafs from one inclofure to another* The men are all dreffed with red caps, like the highlanders of Scotland. There are fome parts of England (where fmall yeo- men ftill remain) that refemble this country of Bearne ; but we have very little that is equal to what I have feen in this ride of twelve miles from Pau to Mon- eng. It is all in the hands of little proprietors, without the farms being fo fmall as to occafion a vicious and miferable population. An air of neatnefs, warmth, and comfort breathes over the whole. It is vifible in their new built houfes and ftables ; in their little gardens ; in their hedges 5 in the courts before their doors , even in the coops for their poultry, and the fties for their hogs. A peafant does not think of rendering his pig comfortable, if his own happinefs hang by the thread of a nine years leafe. We are now in Bearne, within a few miles of the cradle of Henry IV . Do they inherit theie bleffings from that good prince ? The benignant genius of that good monarch feems to reign ttill over the country ; eachpeaiant has the fowl m the pot.—~2A miles. The 13th. The agreeable fcene of yefterday continues ; many fmall pro- perties ; and every appearance of rural happinefs. Navareen is a fmall walled and fortified town, confifting of three principal ttreets, which crols at right angles, with a fmall fquare. From the ramparts there is the view of a fine country. The linen fabric fpreads through it. To St. Palais the country is mottly inclofed, and much of it with thorn-hedges, admirably trained, and kept neatly clipped. — 25 miles. The 14th. Left St. Palais, and took a guide to condud me four leagues to Anfpan. Fair day, and the place crouded with farmers ; I fawthefoup prepared for what we fhould call the farmer’s ordinary. There was a mountain of diced bread, the colour of which was not inviting j ample provifion of cabbage, greafe, -and B A Y O N N E. D A X. 57 and water, and about as much meat for fome fcores of people, as half a dozen Englifh farmers would have eaten, and grumbled at thefr hod: for fhort com- mons.*— — 26 miles. The 1 5 th. Bayonne is by much the prettied town I have feen in France • the houfes are not only well built of ftone, but the ftreets are wide, and there are many openings which, though not regular fquares, have a good effeft. The river is broad, and many of the houfes being fronted to it, the view of them from the bridge is fine. _ The promenade is charming; it has many rows of trees, whofe heads join and form a lhade delicious in this hot climate In the evening, it was thronged with well dreffed people of both fexes: and the women, through all the country, are the handfomell I have feen in France. In coming hither from Pau, I faw what is very rare in that kingdom, clean and pretty country girls; in moll of the provinces, hard labour de- ftroys both perfon and complexion. The bloom of health on the cheeks of a well dreffed country girl is not the worft feature in any landfcape. I hired a chaloup for viewing the embarkment at the mouth of the river. By the water prea mg ltfelf too much, the harbour was injured ; and government, to contrail it, has built a wall on the north bank a mile long, and another on the fouth Ihoie of half in length. It is from ten to twenty feet wide, and about twelve tig , rom the top of the bafe of rough ftone, which extends twelve or fifteen leet more Towards the mouth of the harbour, it is twenty feet wide, and the ftones on both fides crampt together with irons. They are now driving piles of pine 1 6 feet deep, for the foundation. It is, on the whole, a work of great ex pence, magnificence, and utility. 6 The 1 6th. To Dax is not the beft way to Audi, but I had a mind to fee the famous wafte called Les Landes de Bourdeaux, of which I had lon°- heard and read fo much. I was informed, that by this route, I fhould pafs through more than twelve leagues of them. They reach almoft to the gates of Bayonne • but broken by cultivated fpots for a league or two. Thefe landes are fandy trails covered with pine trees, cut regularly for refin. Hiftorians report, that when tne Moors were expelled from Spain, they applied to the court of France for leave to fettle on and cultivate thefe landes and that the court was much con- emned for refufing them. It feems to have been taken for granted, that they could not be peopled with French ; and therefore ought rather to be o-i ven to loors, than to be left wafte. — At Dax, there is a remarkably hot fprino- i n the ini e o the town. It is a very fine one, bubbling powerfully out of the ground in a large bafon, walled in ; it is boiling hot ; it taftes like common water and 1 was. told that it was not impregnated with any mineral. The only ufe to which it is applied is for walhing linen. It is at all feafons of the fame heat and in the fame quantity. 27 miles. * I The 5 * A I R E, A U C H. The 17th. Pafs a diftrift of fand as white as fnow, and fo loofe as to blow ; yet it. has oaks two feet in diameter, by reafon of a bottom ofjjwhite adhefive earth like marl. Pafs three rivers, the waters of which might be applied in irrigation, yet no ufe made of them. The Duke de Bouillon has vaft pofledions in thefe lands. A Grand Seigneur will at any time, and in any country, explain the rea- fon of improveable land being left wade. 29 miles. The 1 8th. As dearnefs is, in my opinion, the general feature of all money exchanges in France, it is but candid to note indances to the contrary. At Aire, they gave me, at the Croix d’Or, foup, eels, fweet-bread, and green-peas* a pigeon, a chicken, and veal-cutlets, with a deffert of bifeuits, peaches, nedbu lines, plumbs, and a glafs of liqueur , with a bottle of good wine, all for 40 f. (2od.) oats for my mare 20 f. and hay iq/I At the fame price at St. Severe, I had a fupper lad night not inferior to it. Every thing at Aire feemed good and clean 3 and what is very uncommon, I had a parlour to eat my dinner in, and was attended by a neat well dreffed girl. The lad two hours to Aire it rained fo violently, that my filk furtout was an infufficient defence ; and the old landlady was in no hade to give me dre enough to be dried. 35 miles. The 19th.. Pafs Beek, which feems a dourifhing little place,, if we may judge by the building of new houfes. The Clef d’Or is a large, new, and good inn. In the 270 miles, from Bagnere de Luchon to Auch, a general obfervation I may make is, that the whole, with very few exceptions, is inclofed; and that the farm-houfes are every where fcattered, indead of being, as in many parts of France, collected in towns.. I have feen fcarcely any gentlemen’s country-feats that feem at all modern ; and, in general, they are thin to a furpridng degree. I have not met with one country equipage, nor any thing like a gentleman riding to fee a neighbour. Scarcely a gentleman at all. At Auch, met by appointment my friends, on their return to Paris. The town is almod without manufactures or commerce, and is fupported chiefly by the rents of the country,. But they have many of the noblefle in the province, too poor to live here 5 fome indeed fo poor, that they plough their own delds ; and thefe may podibly be much more edimable members of fociety, than the fools and knaves who laugh at them. 31 miles. Tlie 20th. -Pafs Fleuran, . which contains many good houfes, and go through a populous country to Leitour, a bifhoprick, the diocelan of which we left at Bagnere de Luchon. The dtuation is beautiful on the point of a ridge of hills. - — — 20 miles. The 2 2d. By Leyrac, through a fine country, to the Garonne, which we crofs by a ferry. This river is here a quarter of a mile broad, with every appear- ance of commerce. A large barge. palled loaded .with cages of poultry; of fuch confequence throughout the extent of this navigation is the confumption of the great AGUILLON. BOURDEAUX. 59 great city of Bourdeaux! The rich vale continues to Agen, and is very highly cu tivated; but has not the beauty of the environs of Leitour. If new buildings be a criterion of the flourilhing Rate of a place, Agen profpers. The bifcop -as raifed a magnificent palace, the centre of which is in a good tafte • but the junction with the wings not equally happy. 23 miles. The 23d. Pafs a rich and highly cultivated vale to Aguillon ; much hemp and every woman in the country employed on it. Many neat well built farm-’ houfes on fmall properties, and all the country very populous. View the chateau of the Due Aguillon, which, being in the town, is badly fituated, according to an 1 ural ideas ; but a town is ever an accompanyment of a chateau in France! as it was foimerly in moft parts of Europe; it feems to have refulted from a feudal arrangement, that the Grand Seigneur might keep his Haves the nearer to his call, as a man builds his ftables near his houfe. This edifice is a confiderable one bu.lt by the prefent Duke; begun about twenty years ago, when he was ex, led here during eight years. And, thanks to that banilhment, the building went on nobly; the body of the houfe done, and the detached wings almoft fin idled. But as ,0011 as the fentence was reverfed, the Duke went to Paris and has not been here fince, confequently all now Hands Hill. It is thus that banilhment alone will force the French nobility to execute what the Englilh do or pleaful e refide upon and adorn their eftates. There is one magnificent cir- cumftance, namely, an elegant and fpacious theatre; it fills one of the wings 1 he orcheftra is for twenty-four muficians, the number kept, fed, and paid 1w le Duke when here. Tins elegant and agreeable luxury, which falls within’ the compaso a very large fortune, is known in every country in Europe excent , vmh 'l ! P ° rS ° f gr£at Cfta£eS he, ' e P re f erri >i g horfes and dogs vely much before any entertainment a theatre can yield. To Tonnance. 2 1 miles 1 he 24th. Many new and good country feats of gentlemen, well built, and fee ofi with gardens, plantations, &c. Thefe are the efifefits of the wealth of oil, eaux i e fe people, like other Frenchmen, eat little meat; in the town of Leyrac five oxen only are killed in a year; whereas an Engliih town with the £me Population would confume two or three oxen a week. A noble view to- wards Bourdeaux for many leagues, the river appearing in four or five places Reach Langon, and drink of its excellent white wine.— 32 miles. P i he 25th. Pafs through Barfac, famous alfo for its wines. They are now pougmng with oxen between the rows of the vines, the operation which lave the wav 6 1 At r ° rfe " hoein S corn - Great population, and country feats all way. At Caftres the country changes to an uninterefting fiat. Arrrive at Bouideaux, through a continued village. miles. The 26th. Much as I had read and heard of the commerce, wealth and a ° m cence 01 tl ' LS ut y> the y 8' reat b 7 hirpailed my expedations. Paris did not nfw ■er BOURDEAUX. 60 anfwer at all, tor it is not to be compared to London ; but we mu ft not name Liverpool in competition with Bourdeaux. The grand feature here, of which I had heard rnoff, anlwers the leaff; I mean the quay, which is re- fpedtable only for length, and its quantity of bufinefs, neither of which, to the eye of a ff ranger, is of much conlequence, if devoid of beauty. The low of houfes is regular, but without either magnificence or beauty. It is a dirty, floping, muddy fhore; parts without pavement, incumbered with filth and Hones; barges lie here for loading and unloading the fhips, which tannot approach to what fhould be a quay. Heie is all the dut and dilagree- able circumffances of trade, without the order, arrangement, and magnificence of a quay. Barcelona is unique in this refpedt. When I prefumed to find fault with the buildings on the river, it muff not be fuppofed that I include the whole; the crefcent which is in the fame line is better. Th place royale , with the ffatue of Louis XV. in the middle, is a fine opening, and the buildings which form it regular and handfome. But the quarter of the chapeau rouge is truly magnificent, confiding of noble houfes, built, like the reft of the city, of white hewn Hone. It joins the chateau trompette, which occupies near naif a mile of the Hiore. This fort is bought of the king, by a company of fpecu- lators, who are now pulling it down with an intention of building a fine fquare and many new flreets, to the amount of 1800 houfes. I have feen a defign of the fquare and the Hreets, and it would, if executed, be one of the moH fplendid additions to a city that is to be feen in Europe. This gieat work Hands Hill at prefent through a fear of refumptions. The theatre, buih about ten or twelve years ago, is by far the moH magnificent in France. I lave feen nothing that approaches it. The building is infulated ; and fills up a fpace of 306 feet by 165, one end being the principal front, containing a portico the whole length of it, of twelve very large Corinthian columns. The entrance rom this portico is by a noble vefiibule, which leads not only to the different parts o the theatre, but alfo to an elegant oval concert-room and faloons for walking and refrefhments. The theatre itfelf is of a vaff fize; in fhape the fegment o an oval. The effablifhment of adtors, adtreffes, fingers, dancers, orcheffra, &c. fpeaks the wealth and luxury of the place. I have been allured, that from thirty to fifty louis a night have been paid to a favourite adtrefs from Paris. Larnve, the firff tragic adtor of that capital, is now here, at 500 liv. (21I. 12s. 6d.) a night, with two benefits. Dauberval, the dancer, and his wife (the Mademoi- felle Theodore of London) are retained as principal ballet-maffer and firff female dancer, at a falary of 28,000 liv. (1225L). Pieces are performed every night, Sundays not excepted, as every where in France. 1 he mode of living that takes place here among merchants is highly luxurious. Their houfes ana effablilhments are on expenfive feales. Great entertainments, and many ferved BOURDEAUX. 6 1 on plate : high play is a much worfe thing ; — and the fcandalous chronicle lpeaks of merchants keeping the dancing and -tinging girls of the theatre at falaries which ought to import no good to their credit. This theatre, which does fo much honour to the pleafures of Bourdeaux, was raifed at the expence of the town, and coft 2yo,oool. The new tide corn mill, eredted by a company, is very well worth viewing. A large canal is digged and formed in mafonry of hewn tione, the walls four feet thick, leading under the building for the tide coming in, to turn the water wheels. It is then conducted in other equally well formed canals to a relervoir ; and when the tide returns it gives motion to the wheels again. Three of thefe canals pafs under the building for contain- ing 24 pairs of tiones. Every part of the work is on a fcale of folidity and duration, admirably executed. The eftimate of the expence is 8,000.000 liv. (35°, oo ol.) • but I know not how to credit fuch a fum. How far the eredtion of fteam engines to do the lame bufinefs would have been found a cheaper me- thod, I fhall not enquire j but I Ihould apprehend that the common water mills, on the Garonne, which Hart without fuch enormous expences for their power, mull in the common courfe of events ruin this company. The new houles, that are building in all quarters of the town, mark, too clearly to be mifunder- Eood, the profperity of the place. The fkirts are every where compofed of new tireets; with tiill newer ones marked out, and partly built. Thefe houfes are in general fmall, or on a middling fcale, for inferior tradefmen. They are all of white tione, and add, as they are finished, much to the beauty of the city. I enquired into the date of thefe new ftreets, and found that four or five years weie in general the period: that is to fay, tincO the peace; and from the colour ol the tione of thofe tireets next in age, it is plain that the fpirit of building was at a tiop during the war. Since the peace they have gone on with great adlivity. What a la tire on the government of the two kingdoms, to permit in one the prejudices of manufacturers and merchants, and in the other the inti- dious policy of an ambitious court, to hurry the two nations into wars that check beneficial works, and fpread ruin where private exertion was bulled in deeds of profperiiy ! The rent of houfes and lodgings rifes every day; they complain that the expences of living have increafed in ten years full 30 per cent. — There can hardly De a clearer proof of an advance in profperity. 1 h<~ commercial treaty with England being a fubjeCt too interetiing not to demand attention, we made the neceflary enquiries. — 'Here it is confidered as a wile meafure, that tends equally to the benefit of both countries. We went twice to fee Larrive perform his two capital parts of the Black Prince in Monf. du Belloy’s Piere le Cruel, and PhiloCtete, which gave me a very high idea of the French theatre. The inns at this city are excellent; the hotel d Angieterre and the Prince of Atiurias; at the latter we found every ac- commodation 6 2 BARBESIEU X. V ERTEUL, commodation to be wifhed, but with an incontinence that cannot be too much condemned : we had very elegant apartments, and were ferved on plate, yet the neceflary-houfe the fame temple of abomination that is to be met in a dirty village. The 28th. Leave Bourdeaux; — crofs the river by a ferry, which employs twenty-nine men and fifteen boats, and lets at 18,000 liv. (787I.) a year. The view of the Garonne is very fine, appearing twice as broad as the Thames at London ; and the number of large fliips lying in it, makes it, I fuppofe, the richefi water view that France has to boaft. Hence to the Dordonne, a noble river, though much inferior to the Garonne ; the ferry lets at 6000 liv. Reach Cavignac. 20 miles. The 29th. To Barbefieux, fituated in a beautiful country, finely diverfified and wooded; the marquifate of which, with the chateau, belongs to the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, whom we met here ; he inherits this eftate from the fa- mous Louvois, the minifier of Louis XIV. In thefe thirty-feven miles of Country, lying between the great rivers Garonne, Dordonne, and Charente, and ■ consequently in one of the bell; parts of France for markets, the quantity of .wafte land is furprifing ; it is indeed the predominant feature. Much of thefe waftes belonged to the prince de Soubife, who would riot fell any part of them. Thus it is whenever you Fumble on a Grand Seigneur, even one who was worth millions, you are fare to find his property a defert. The Duke ot Bouillon’s and this Prince’s are two of the greateft properties in France; and all the figns I have yet feen of their greatnefs, are waftes, lands s , deferts, fern, ling — Go to their refidence, wherever it may be, and you would probably find them in the midft of a foreft, very well peopled with deer, wild boars, and wolves. Oh! if I were the legislator of France for a day, I would make fuch great lords fkip ! * We flipped with the Duke de la Rochefoucauld; the provincial affembly of Saintonge is foon to meet, and this nobleman, being the p reft dent, is waiting for their aftembling. The 30th. Through a chalk country, well wooded, though, without inclo- fures, to Angouleme; the approach to that town is fine ; the country around be- ing beautiful with the fine river Charente, here navigable, flowing through it. 25 miles. The 3 1 ft. Quitting Angouleme, pafs through a country almoft covered with vines, and acrofs a noble wood belonging to the Duchefs d’Anville, mother of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, to Verteul, a chateau of the fame Lady, built ha J 459> where we found every thing that travellers could wdfh in a hofpitable * I can allure the reader that thefe fentiments were thofe of the moment; the events that have taken place almoft induced me to ftrike many fuch paftages out, but it is fairer to all parties to leave them. manfion. P O I T I E R S. c HATEA'URAULT. 6, manfion . The Emperor Charles V. was entertained here by Anne de Polio-nac widow of Francis II. Count de la Rochefoucauld, and that Prince, faid aloud,' n avoir jamais ete en maifon qui fentit mieax fa grande vertu honnetete & feig- neurie que celle la.— It is excellently kept; in thorough repair, fully furnifhed, and all in order, which merits praife, confi dering that the family rarely are here f °i moie than a iew days in a year, having many other and more confiderable feats in different parts of the kingdom. If this juft attention to the interefts of pofleiity were more general, we fhould not fee the melancholy fpedtacle of ruined chateaus in fo many parts of France. In the gallery is a range of portraits from the. tenth century ; by one of which it appears, that this eftate came by a Mademoifelle la Rochefoucauld, in 1470. The park, woods, and river Cha- rcnte hem aie fine: the lall abounds greatly in carp, tench and perch. It is at any time eafy to get from 50 to 100 brace of R(h that weigh from three to iolb. each : we had a brace 01 carp for fupper, the fweetefl, without exception, I ever tailed. If I pitched my tent in France, I fhould choofe it to be by a river that gave fuch fhh. Nothing provokes one fo much in a country refidence as a lake, a liver, 01 the iea within view of the windows-,.. and a dinner every day without fifh, which is fo common in England. 27 miles. September iff. Pafs Caudec, Ruffec, Maifons-Blanches, and Chaunay. At the firfh of thefe places, view a very fine Hour-mill built by the late Count de Broglio, brother of the Marechal de Broglio, one of the ableft and mod; ac- tive officeis in the French fervice.. In his private capacity, his • undertakings were 01 a national kind; this mill, an iron forge, and the project of a naviga- tion, proved,, that he had a difpofition for every exertion that could, according to the prevalent ideas of the times, benefit his country; that is to fay, in every way except the one in which it would have. been effective — practical agriculture. This day s journey has been, with fome exceptions, through a poor, dull, and difagreeable country. 35 miles. The 2d. I oitou, from what I fee of it, is an unimproved, poor, and ugly countiy. It feems. to want communication, demand, and activity of all kinds; nor does.it, on an average, yield the half of what it might. The lower part of the province is much richer and better. Arrive at Poitiers, which is one of the woi ft built towns I have feen in France ; very large and irregular, and contain- ing fcarcely any thing worthy oi notice, except the cathedral, which is well built, and very well kept. 1 he finefL thing by far in the -town is the prome- naoe, whicn is tiie moll extend. ve I have feen; it occupies a confiderable fpace of giound, with gravelled walks, &c. excellently kept; 12 miles. Ihe 3d. A white chalky country to Chateau rauit, open, and thinly peopled, though not without country- feats. That town lias fome animation, by reafon of 6 \ LES ORMES. TOURS. of its navigable river, which falls into the Loire. There is a confiderable cutlery manufacture: we were no fooner arrived, than our apartment was fall of the wives and daughters of manufacturers, each with her box of knives, fciflars, toys, &c. and with fo much civil folicitude to have fomething bought, that had we wanted nothing it would have been impoffible to let fo much urgency prove vain. It is remarkable, as the fabrics made here are cheap, that there is fcarcely any divifion of labour in this manufacture ; it is in the hands of diftinCt and unconnected workmen, who go through every branch on their own account, and without affiftance, except from their families. 25 miles. The 4th. Pafs a better country, with many chateaus, to Les Ormes, where we ftopt to fee the feat built by the late Count de Voyer d’Argenfon. This chateau is a large handfome edifice of ftone, with two very confiderable wings for offices and ftrangers’ apartments : the entrance is into a neat veftibule, at the end of which is the faloon, a circular marble room, extremely elegant and well furniffied : in the drawing-room are paintings of the four I H rench vic- tories of the war of 1744’. in every apartment there is a fiirong difpofition to Engliffi furniture and modes. This pleafing refidence belongs at prefent to the Count d’Argenfon. The late Count who built it formed with the prefent Duke of Grafton, in England, the fcheme of a very agreeable party. The Duke was to go over with his horfes and pack of fox-hounds, and live here for fome months, with a number of friends. It originated in the propofal to hunt French wolves with Engliffi fox-dogs. Nothing could be better planned tnan the fcheme, for Les Ormes is large enough to have contained a numerous party; but the Count’s death deftroyed the plan. This is a fort of intercourfe between the nobility of two kingdoms, which I am furprifed does not take place fometimes; it would vary the common fcenes of life very agreeably, and be productive of fome of the advantages of travelling in the moil eligible way. 23 miles. The 5th. Through a dead flat and unpleafant country, but on the fineft road I have fcen in France — nor does it feem poflible that any ffiould be finer; not arifing from great exertions, as in Languedoc, but from being laid Hat with admirable materials. Chateaus are fcattered every where in tnis part of Touraine; but farm houfes and cottages thin, till you come in fight of the Loire, the banks of which feem one continued village. 1 he vale, through which that river flows., may be three miles over ; a dead level of burnt ruflet meadow. The entrance of Touts is truly magnificent, by a new flreet of large houfes, built of hewn white ftone, with regular fronts. This fine ftreet, which is wide, and with foot pavements on each fide, is cut in a ftfait line through the TOURS. 6s the whole city to the new bridge, of fifteen flat arches, each of feventy-five feet fpan.” It is altogether a noble exertion for the decoration of a provincial town. Some houfes remain yet to be built, the fronts of which are done; home reverend fathers are fatisfied with their old habitations, and do not choofe the expence of filling up the elegant defign of the Tours projectors; they ought, however, to be unroofted if they will not comply, for fronts without homes behind them have a ridiculous appearance. From the tower of the cathedral there is an extenfive view of the adjacent country ; but the Loire, for fo confiderable a river, and for being boafted as the moft beautiful in Eu- rope, exhibits luch a breadth of fhoals and fands as to be almofl fubverfive of beauty. In the chapel of the old palace of Louis XI. Les Pleflis les Tours, are three pictures which deferve the traveller’s notice; a holy family, St. Catharine, and the daughter of Herod ; they feem to be of the befl age of Italian art! There is a very fine promenade here ; long and admirably lhaded by four rows of noble and lofty elms, which for fhelter againft a burning fun can have no Superior; parallel with it is another on the rampart of die old walls, which looks down on the adjacent gardens ; but thefe walks, of which the inhabit- ants have long boafted, are at prefent objedts of melancholy ; the corporation has offered the tiees to file, and I was allured they would be cut down the en- fuing winter. — One would not wonder at an Englilh corporation facrificing the ladies’ walk for plenty of turtle, venifon, and madeira ; but that a French one fhould have fo little gallantry, is inexcufable. I lie 9th . The Count de la Rochefoucauld having a feverifh complaint when he arrived here, which prevented our proceeding on the journey, it be- came the fecond day a confirmed fever ; the befl phyfician of the place was called in, whofe conduCt I liked much, for he had recourfe to very little phyfick, but much aneniion to keep his apartment cool and airy; and feemed to have great confidence in leaving nature to throw off the malady that opprefled her. Who is it that fays there is a great difference between a good phyfician and a bad one; yet very little between a good one and none at all ? Among other excurfions, I took a ride on the banks of the Loire towards Saumur, and found the country the fame as near Tours ; but the chateaus not to numeious or good. Wheie the chalk hills advance perpendicularly towards the river, they prefent a moft fingular fpedtacle of uncommon habitations ; for a gi'-at numbei of houfes are cut out of the white rock, fronted with mafonry, and holes cut above for chimnies, fo that you fometimes know not where the houfe is from which you fee the fmoke iffuing. Thefe cavern-houfes are in fome places in tiies one above another. Some with little fcraps of gardens have a ptetty eftedt. In general, the proprietors occupy them; but many are let at 10, 12, and 1 5 hv. a year. 1 he people I talked with feemed well fatisfied wifR K their 66 CHANTELOUP. their habitations, as good and comfortable : a proof of the drynefs of the cli- mate. In England the rheumatifm would be the chief inhabitant. Walked to the Benedictine convent of Marmoutier, of which the Cardinal de Rohan, at prefent here, is abbot. _ The i oth. Nature, or theTours doCtor, having recovered the count, we let for- ward on our journey. The road to Chanteloup is made on an embankment, that fecures a large level tradt from floods. The country more uninteiefting than I could have thought it poflible in the vicinity of a great river. — View Chanteloup, the magnificent feat of the late Duke de Choifeul. It is utuaied on a riling ground, at fome difianee from the Loire, which in winter, or after gieat floods, is a fine objedt, but at prefent is fcarcely feen. The ground-floor in front confifts of feven rooms : the dining-room of about thirty by twenty, and the drawing-room thirty by thirty-three : the library is feven ty- two by twen- ty, fitted up by the prefent pofleflfor, the Duke de Penthievre, with veiy beautiful tapeftry from the Gobelins.’ In the pleafure-ground, on a hill commanding a very extenfive profpeCt, is a Chinefe pagoda, 1 20 feet high, built by the duke, in commemoration of the perfons who vifited him in his exile. On the walls of the firft room in it their names are engraven on marble tablets. The number and rank of the perfons do honour to the duke and to themfelves. The idea was a happy one. The forefl you look down on from this building is very extenfive ; they fay eleven leagues acrofs : ridings are cut pointing to the pagoda 5 and when the duke was alive, thefe glades had the mifchievous anima- tion of a vaft hunt, fupported fo liberally as to ruin the mafter oi it, and tiansfcr- red the property of this noble eftate and refidence from his family to the laft hands I fhould wifli to fee it in— a prince of the blood. Great lords love too much an environ of forefl:, boars, and huntfinen, inftead of marking their refi- dence by the accompanyment of neat and well cultivated farms, clean cottages, and happy peafants. In fuch a method of fhewing their magnificence, leanng forefts, gilding domes, or bidding afpiring columns rife, might be wanted ; but they would have, inftead of them, erections of comfort, eftabhlhments of eafe, and plantations oi f felicity: and their harveft, inftead of the flelh of boars, wou e in the voice of chean^l gratitude— they would fee pubuc profpency flounfn on i s bell bafis of private hapttjoefs.— As a farmer, there is one feature which lhews the Dukede Choifeul had fome' werk; he built a noble cow-home; a platfoim ea along the middle, between twC of rangers, w f fta ls HeTTned' and another apartment, not fo {aTg' e ’ for ot l y s ’ f nd 0r C ‘ P c 1 20 very fine Swifs cows, and vifited t,' lem Wlth ^ “ com P a ”y e ' W J’ . r were kept conftantly tied up. To this / add , the £ have feen in France : and I thought I few . 11 ‘p 1 the pag ° . probably Jitter laid out and ploughed than common in COUn ry ’ ‘ " jVorted B L O I S. C HAMBOR 0 . Crj imported feme ploughmen. — This has merit in it ; but it was all the merit of banifhment. Chanteloup would neither have been built, nor decorated, nor furnifhed, if the duke had not been exiled. It was the lame with the D uke d’Aguillon. Thefe minibers would have abominated the country, in- fcead of rearing fuch edifices, or forming Inch ebablifhments, if they had not both been fent from Verfailles. View the manufacture of heel at Amboife, eftabliihed by the Duke de Choifeul. Vineyards the chief feature of agricul- ture. 37 miles. The i ith. To Blois, an old town, prettily fituated on the Loire, with a good hone bridge of eleven arches. We viewed the cable, for the hihorical monu- ment it affords that has rendered it fo famous. They fhew the room where the council ahem bled, and the chimney in it before which the Duke of Guife was handing when the king’s page came to demand his prefence in the royal clofet : the door he was entering when habbed : the tapehry he was in the add of turn- ing afide : the tower where his brother the cardinal buffered; with a hole in the floor into the dungeon of Louis XI. of which the guide tells many horrible hones, in the fame tone, from having told them fo often, in which the fellow in Wehminher Abbey gives his monotonous hihory of the tombs. The beh cir- cumhance attending the view of the fpots, or the w'alls within which great, daring, or important adtions have been performed, is the imprellion they make on the mind, or rather on the heart of the fpedlator, for it is an emotion of feel- ing, rather than an effort of reflediion. The murders, or political executions perpetrated in this cable, though not umnterehing, were inflidled on, and caufed by men who command neither our love, nor our veneration . The character of the period, and of the men that figured in it, were alike difguhing. Bigotry and ambition, equally dark, infidious, and bloody, allow no feelings of regret. Quit the Loire, and pafs to Chambord. The quantity of vines is great; they have them very flourifhing on a hat poor blowing fand. How well fatished would my friend Le Blanc be if his pooreh fands at Cavenham gave him i oo dozen of good wine per acre per annum ! See at one coup d'ceil 2000 acres of them. View the royal chateau of Chambord, built by that magnificent prince Francis I. and inhabited by the late Marechal de Saxe. I had heard much of this cable, and it more than anfwered my expectation. It gives a great idea of the fplendour of that prince. Comparing the centuries, and the revenues of Louis XIV. and Francis I. I prefer Chambord inhnitely to Verfailles. The apartments are large, numerous, and well contrived. I admired the bone bair-cafe in the centre of the houfe, which, being in a double fpiral line, con- tains two dihinct bair-cafes, one above another, by which means people are going up and down at the fame time, without feeing each other. The four apartments in the attic, with arched bone roofs, were in no mean tabe. One of K 3 thefe fiS CHAM- BO RD. thefc Count Saxe turned into a neat well contrived theatre. We were fhewn the apartment which that great foldier occupied, and the room in which he died. Whether in his bed or not is yet a problem for anecdote hunters to folve. A report not uncommon in France was, that he was run through the heart in a duel with the Prince of Conti, who came to Chambord for that pur- pofe; and great care w T as taken to conceal it from the king (Louis XV.), who had fuch a friendftfip for the marechal, that he would certainly have driven the prince out of the kingdom. There are feveral apartments modernized, either for the marechal or for the governors that have refided here lince. In one there * is a fine pi&ure of Louis XIV. on horfeback. Near the caftle are the barracks for the regiment of 1500 horfe, formed by Marechal de Saxe, and which Louis XV. gave him, by appointing them to garrifon Chambord while their colonel made it his refidence. He lived here in great fplendour, and highly refpe&ed by his fovereign, and the whole kingdom. — The fituation of the caftle is bad ; it is low, and without the leaft profped: that is interefting; indeed the whole country is fo fiat that a high ground is hardly to be found in it. From the battle- ments we faw the environs, of which the park or foreft forms three-fourths ; it contains within a wall about 20,000 arpents, and abounds with all forts of game to a degree of profufion. Great tracks of this park are wafte or under heath, &c. or at leaft a very imperfect cultivation : I could not help thinking, that if the King of France ever formed the idea of eftabliftung one compleat and perfect farm under the turnip culture of England, here is the place for it. Let him affign the chateau for the refidence of the director and all his attendants; and the barracks, which are now applied to no ufe whatever, for ftalls for cattle, and the profits of the wood would be fufficient to ftock and fupport the whole undertaking. What comparifon between the utility of fuch an eftablifhment, and that of a much greater expence applied here at prefent for fupporting a wretched haras (ftud), which has not a tendency but to mifchief! I may recommend fuch agricultural efta'blifhments, but they never were made in any country, and never will be, till mankind are governed on principles abfolutely contrary to thofe which prevail at prefent — until fomething more be thought re- quifite for a national hufbandry than academies and memoirs. 35 miles. The 1 2th. In two miles from the park wall regain the high road on the Loire. In difcourfe with a vigneron, we were informed that it froze this morn- ing hard enough to damage the vines ; and I may obferve, that for four or five days paft the weather has been conftantly clear, with a bright fun, and fo cold a north-eaft wind as to referable much our cold clear weather in England in April ; we have all our great coats on the whole day. Dine at Clarey, and view the monument of that able but bloody tyrant Louis XL in white marble; he is reprefented in a kneeling pofture, praying forgivenels, I fuppofe, which doubtlefs ■FONTAINBLEAU. M. D U H A M E L: 69 •doubtlefs Was promifed him by his prieds for his bafeneffes and his murders. •Reach Orleans. -30 miles. The 13th. Here my companions, wanting to return as foon as poffible to Paris, took the diredt road thither; but, having travelled it before, I pre- ferred that by Petivier in the way to Fontainbleau. One motive for my taking this road was its palling by Denainvilliers, the feat of the late celebrated Monf. du Hamel, where he made thofe experiments in agriculture which he has recited in many of his works. At Petivier I was jud by it and walked thither for the plealure of viewing grounds I had read of fo often, confidering them with a fort of claffic reverence. His homme d' affaire, who conducted the farm, being dead, I could not get many particulars to be depended upon. Monf. Fougeroux, the prefen t polfeflbr, was not at home, or I ffiould doubt- lefs have had all the information I wilhed. I examined the foil, a principal point in all experiments, when conclulions are to be drawn from them ; and I took alfo notes of the common hufbandry. Learning from the la- bourer who attended me that the drill-ploughs, &c. were yet in being, on a loft in one of the offices, I viewed them with pleafure, and found them, as well as I can remember, very accurately reprefented in the plates which their ingenious author has given. I was glad to find them laid up in a place out of common traffic, where they may remain fafe till fome other farming traveller, as enthufiadic as myfelf, may view the venerable re- mains of a ufeful genius. Here is a dove and bath for drying wheat, which he has deicribed alfo. In an inclofure behind the houfe is a plantation of various curious exotic trees, finely grown, alfo feveral rows of affi, elm, and poplar along the roads, near the chateau, all planted by Monf. du Hamel. It gave me dill greater pleafure to find that Denainvilliers is not an incondderable edate. The lands ex ten fi ve ; the chateau refpedtable ; with offices, gardens, &,c. that prove it the reddence of a man of fortune; from which it appears, that this indefatigable author, however he might have failed in fome of his purfuits, met with that reward from his court which did it credit to bedow ; and that he was not, like others, left in obfcurity to the Ample rewards which ingenuity can confer on itfelf. Four miles before Mai (herbs a fine plantation of a row of trees on each dde the road begins, formed by Monf. de Mai (herbs, and is a driking indance of attention to the decorating of an open country. More than two miles of them are mulberries. They join his other noble plantations at Maldierbs, which contain a great variety of the mod curious trees that have been introduced in France. 36 miles. The 14th. After paffing three miles through the fored of Fontainbleau, ar- rive at that town, and view the royal palace, which has been fo repeatedly added to by feveral kings, that the (hare of Francis I. its original founder, is not » eafily LI AKCOU R T. i eafily afcertained. He does not appear to fucli advantage as at Chambord. This has been a favourite with the Bourbons, from there having been io many Nim- rods of that family. Of the apartments which are fhewn here, the king’s, the queen’s, moniieur’s, and madame s, are the chief. Gilding feems the prevalent decoration: but in the queen’s cabinet it is well and elegantly employed. The painting of that delicious little room is exquifite ; and nothing can exceed the extremity of ornament that is here with taRe bellowed. The tapefhies of Beauvais and the Gobelins are feen in this palace to great advantage. I liked to fee the gallery of Francis I. prelerved in its ancient Hate, even to the andirons in the chimney, which are thole that ferved that monarch. The gardens are no- thing; and the grand canal, as it is called, not to be compared with that at Chantilly'. In the pond that joins the palace are carp as large and as tame as the Prince of Condes. The landlord of the inn at Fontainbleau thinks that royal palaces fhould not be feen for nothing; he made me pay io liv. foi a din- ner, which would have coft me not more than half the money at the Rai and garter at Richmond. Reach Meulan. —34 miles. The 1 5th. Crofs, for a confiderable diflance, the royal oak forell of Senar. About Montgeron, all open fields, which produce corn and paitridges to eat it, for the number is enormous. There is on an average a covey of biids on eveiy two acres, befides favourite fpots, where they abound much more. At St. George the Seine is a much more beautiful river than the Loire. Enter Paris once more, with the fame obfervation I made before, that there is not one- tenth of the motion on the roads around it that there is around London. To the hotel de la Rochefoucauld. — — 20 miles. The 1 6th. Accompanied the Count de la Rochefoucauld to Liancourt. - 38 miles. I went thither on a vifit for three or four days ; but the wnole family contributed fo generally to render the place in every refpedl agreeable, that I Raid more than three weeks. At about half a mile from the chateau is a range of hill that was chiefly a neglected waRe : the Duke of Lian- court has lately converted this into a plantation, with winding walks, benches, and covered feats, in the Englifh Ryle of gardening. The fixa- tion is very fortunate. Thele ornamented paths follow the edge of the de- clivity to the extent of three or four miles. The views they command are every where pleating, and in fome places great. Nearer to the chateau the Duchefs of Liancourt has built a menagerie and dairy in a pleafing taRe, The cabinet and ante-room are very pretty ; the faloon elegant, and the dairy entirely conRiudted of marble. At a village near Liancourt, the duke has eRablifhed a manufac- ture of linen and Ruffs mixed with thread and cotton, which promifes to be^of Confiderable utility; there are 25 looms employed, and preparations making mr more. LIANCOURT. 7 * more. As the fpi lining for thefe looms is alfo eftablifhed, it gives employment to great numbers of hands who were idle, for they have no fort of manufacture in the country though it is populous. Such efforts merit great praife. Con- nected with this is the execution of an excellent plan of the duke’s for eftablifh- ing habits of induftry in the rifing generation. The daughters of the poor people are received into an inftitution to be educated to ufeful induftry : they are in- ftruCted in their religion, taught to write and read, and to fpin cotton : are kept till marriageable, and then a regulated proportion of their earnings given them as a marriage portion. There is another eftablifhment of which I am not fo good a judge; it is for training the orphans of foldiers to be foldiers themfelves. The Duke of Liancourt has raifed fome confiderable buildings for their accommoda- tion well adapted to the purpofe. The whole is under the fuperin tendance of a worthy and intelligent officer, Monf. le Roux, captain of dragoons, and Croix de St. Louis, who examines every thing himlelf. There are at prefent 1 20 boys, all dreffed in uniform. — My ideas have all taken a turn which I am too old to change : I ffioula have been better pleafed to fee 120 lads educated to the plough, in habits of culture fuperior to the prefent ; but certainly the eftablifhment is humane, and the conduCt of it excellent. The ideas I had formed, before I came to France, of a country reft- dence in that kingdom, I found at Liancourt to be far from correCL I expeCted to find it a mere transfer of Paris to the country, and that all the burthenfome forms of a city were preferved, without its pleafures ; but I was deceived : the mode of living, and the purfuits, approach much nearer to the habits of a great nobleman’s houfe in England, than would com- monly be conceived. A breakfaft of tea for thofe who chofe to repair to it ; riding, fporting, planting, gardening, till dinner, and that not till half after two o’clock, inftead of their old fafhioned hour of twelve ; mufic, chefs, and the other common amufements of a rendezvous -room, with an excellent library of feven or eight thoufand volumes, were well calculated to make the time pafs agreeably; and to prove that there is a great approximation in the modes of living at prefent in the different countries of Europe. Amufements, in truth, ought to be numerous within doors ; for, in fuch a climate, none are to be de- pended on without: the rain that has fallen here is hardly credible. I have, for five-and- twenty years paft, remarked in England, that I never was prevented by rain from taking a walk every day without going out while it actually rains ; it may fall heavily for many hours ; but a per fon who watches an opportunity gets a walk or a ride. Since I have been at Liancourt, we have had three days in fucceffion of fuch inceftantly heavy rain, that I could not go an hundred yards from the houfe to the duke’s pavilion, without danger of being quite wet. For ten days more rain fell here, I am confident,, had there been a gauge to meafure it, than 72 LIANCOURT. than ever fell in England in thirty. The prefent fafhion in France, of palling fome time in the country, is new; at this time of the year, and for many weeks paft, Paris is, comparatively fpeaking, empty. Every body who has a coun- try-feat is at it ; and fuch as have none vifit others who have. This re- markable revolution in the French manners is certainly one of the befl cufloms they have taken from England ; and its introdudion was effedted the eafier, be- ing affifted by the magic of Rouffeau’s writings. Mankind are much indebted £o that l'plendid genius, who, when living, was hunted from country to country, to feek an afylum, with as much venom as if he had been a mad dog ; thanks to the vile fpirit of bigotry, which has not yet received its death’s wound. Women of the firfl fafhion in France are now afhamed of not nurfmg their own children ; and flays are univerfally profcribed from the bodies of the poor infants, which were for fo many ages tortured in them, as they are flill in Spain. The country refidence may not have effeds equally obvious ; but they will be no lets hire in the end, and in all refpeds beneficial to every clafs in the hate. Thi Duke of Liancourt being prefident of the provincial afiembly of the eledion of Clermont, and pairing feveral days there in bufinefs, afked me to dine with the afiembly, as he faid there were to be fome confiderable farmers prefent. Thefe afiemblies were to me interehing to fee. I accepted the invi- tation with pleafure. Three confiderable farmers, renters, not proprietors of land, were members, and prefent. I watched their carriage narrowly, to fee their behaviour in the prefence of a great lord of the firh rank, confiderable property, and high in royal favour; and it was with pleafure that I found them behaving with becoming eafe and freedom, and though modeh, and with- out any thing like flippancy, yet without any obfequioufnefs offenfive to Eng- lish ideas. They flarted their opinions freely, and adhered to them with be- coming confidence. A more fingular fpedacle, was to fee two ladies prefent at a dinner of this fort, with five or fix and twenty gentlemen ; fuch a thing could not happen in England. To fay that the French manners, in this refpedl, are better than our own, is the affertion of an obvious truth. If the ladies be not prefent at meetings where the converfation has the greateffc probability of turning on fubjedls of more importance than the frivolous to- pics of common difcourfe, the fex raufl either remain on the one hand in ig- norance, or, on the other, be fdled with the foppery of education, learned, afledled, and forbidding. The converfation of men, not engaged in trifling purfuits, is the befl fchool for the education of a woman. The political converfation of every company I have feen has turned much more on the affairs ol Holland than on thole of France. The preparations going on for a war with England are in the mouths of all the world; but the finances of France are in fuch a flate of derangement, that the people bell informed affert a war to be impolhlbe ; the Marquis of Yerac, the late French ambaffador at the a war ERMENONVILLE. ROUSSEAU. 73 2 war impoffible; the Marquis of Verac, the late French ambaflador at the Hague, who was feat thither, as the Englifh politicians affert, exprefsly to bring about a revolution in the government, has been at Liancourt three days. It may eauly be fuppofed, that he is cautious in what he fays in fuch a mixed com- pany ; but it is plain enough, that he is well perfuaded that that revolution, change, or leflening the Stadtholder’s power; that plan, in a word, whatever it was, for which he negotiated in Holland, had for fome time been matured and ready for execution, almoR without a poffibility of failure, had the Count de Ver- gennes confented, and not fpun out the buf nefs by refinement on refinement, to make himfelf the more necefiary to the French cabinet ; and it unites with the idea of fome fenfible Dutchmen, with whom I have converted on the fubjedt. During my flay at Liancourt, my friend Lazowfki accompanied me on a little excurfion of two days to Ermenonville, the celebrated feat of the Marquis de Gi- rardon. We palled by Chantilly to Morefountain, the country-feat of Monf. de Morefountain, prevofl des merchands of Paris ; the place has been mentioned as decorated in the Englith Ryle. It confiRs of two fcenes ; one a garden of wind- ing walks, and ornamented with a profufion of temples, benches, grottos, columns, ruins, and I know not what : I hope the French who have not been in England do not confider this as the Englifh tafte. It is in Fad as remote from it as the molt regular Ryle of the laR age. The water view is fine. There L a gaiety and cheaifulneis in it that contraR well with the brown and unplea- fing hills that furround it, and which partake of the waRe character of the worR part of the furrounding country. Much has been done here; and it wants but few addition^ to be as perfed as the ground admits. Reach Ermenonville, through another part of the Prince of Conde’s foreR, which joins the ornamented grounds of the Marquis Girardon. This place’ alter the refidence and death of the perfected but immortal RouReau, whofe tomb every one knows is here, became fo famous as to bereforted to very gene- rally. It has been defcribed, and plates publifiied of the chief views ; to enter into a particular defcription- would therefore be tirefome; I ihall only make one or two obfervations, which I do not recoiled; have been touched on by others. It confiRs of three diRind water fcenes ; or of two lakes and a river. We were hrR ihewn that which is fo famous for the fmall ifle of poplars, in which repofes all that was mortal of that extraordinary and inimitable writer. This fcene is as well imagined, and as well executed as could be wiflied. The water is be- tween forty and fifty acres; hills rife from it on both fides, and it is fufficiently Holed in by tall wood at both ends, to render it fequeRered. The remains of departed genius Ramp a melancholy idea, from which decoration would depart too much, and accordingly there is little. We viewed the fcene in a Rill even- ij ;g. me declining fun threw a lengthened fimde on the lake, and filence k feemed LIANCOURT. 74 feemed to repofe on its unruffled bofom ; as fome poet fays, I forget who. The worthies to whom the temple of philofophers is dedicated, and whofe names are marked on the columns, are Newton, Lucem . — DescaPvTEs, Nil in rebus inane . — Voltaire, Ridiculum . — Rousseau, Natnram . — And on another un- finished column, Quis hoc perjicietd The other lake is larger; it nearly fills the bottom of the vale, around which are fome rough, rocky, wild, and barren fand hills ; either broken or fpread with heath ; in fome places wooded, and in others fcattered thinly with junipers. The charader of the feene is that of wild and undecorated nature, in which the hand of art was meant to be concealed as much as was confident with eafe of accefs. The lafl feene is that of a river, which is made to wind through a lawn, receding from the houfe, and broken by wood : the ground is not fortunate ; it is too dead a flat, and no where viewed to much advantage. From Ermenonville we went, the morning after, to Braffeufe, the feat of Madame du Pont, After of the Duchefs of Liancourt. What was my furprife at finding this Vifcountefs a great farmer! A French lady, young enough to enjoy all the pleafures of Paris, living in the country, and minding her farm, was an unlooked for fpedacle. She has probably more lucerne than any other perfon in Europe* — 250 arpents. She gave me, in a moft unaffeded and agree- able manner, intelligence about her lucerne and dairy ; but of that more elfewhere. Returned to Liancourt by Pont, where there is a handfome bridge, of three arches,, the conflrudion uncommon, each pier confiding of four pillars, with a towing- path under one of the arches for the barge-horfes, the river being navigable. Amongft the morning amufements I partook at Liancourt was la chajj'e . In deer fhooting, the fportfmen place themfelves at diftances around a wood, then beat it, and feldom more than one in a company gets a fhot; it is more tedious than is eafily conceived: like angling, inceffant expedation, and perpetual difap- pointment. Partridge and hare fhooting are almoft as different from that of Eng- land. We took this diverfion in the fine vale of Catnoir, five or fix mixes from Liancourt ; arranging ourfelves in a file at about thirty yards from perfon to per-^ fon, and each with a fervant and a loaded gun, ready to prefent when his mailer fires : thus we marched acrofs and acrofs the vale, treading up the game. F our or five brace of hares, and twenty brace of partridges were the fpoils of the day. I like this mode of fhooting but little better than waiting for deer. The beft circumftance to me of exercife in company (it was not fo once) is the feftivity of the dinner at the clofe of the day. To enjoy this, it muff not be puffed to great fatigue. Good fpirits, after violent exercife, are always the affedation of filly young folks (I remember being that fort of fool myfelf when I was young), but with fomething more than moderate, the exhilaration of body is in unifon with the flow of temper, and agreeable company is then delicious. On fuch days as thefe LIANCOURT*’ ■PARIS. 75 thefe we were too late for the regular dinner, and had one by ourfelves, with no other drefling than the refrefhment of clean linen ; and thefe were not the repafls when the duchefs’s champaigne had the word flavour. A man is a poor crea- ture who does not drink a little too much on filch occafions : mais prenez-y - garde: repeat it often ; and you may make it a mere drinking party, the luflre of the pleafure fades, and you become what was an Englifh fox-hunter. One day while we were thus dining a l' Anglais, and drinking the plough, the chace, and I know not what, the Duchefs of Liancourt and fome of her ladies came in Iport to fee us. It was a moment for them to have betrayed ill-nature in the contempt of manners not French, which they might have endeavoured to conceal under a laugh : — but nothing of this ; it was a good humoured curioflty ; a natural inclination to fee others pleafed and in fpirits. I/s ont ete de grands chajfeurs aujourd * hut , faid one. Oh! i/s s applaudijfent de /ears exploits . Do they drink the gun? faid another. Leurs maitrejjes certainement, added a third. y aime a les voir en gaiete ; il y a que/que chofe d' aimable dans tout ceci. To note fuch trifles may feem fuperfluous to many : but what is life when trifles are withdrawn? They mark the temper of a nation better than objects of impor- tance. In the moments of council, victory, flight, or death, mankind, I flip- pofe, are nearly the fame. Trifles difcriminate better, and the number is infi- nite that gives me an opinion of the good temper of the French. I am fond neither of a man nor a recital that can appear only on flilts, and drefied in holiday geeis. It is every-day feelings that decide the colour of our lives ; and he who values them the mofl; plays the befl for the flake of happinefs. But it is time to quit Liancourt, which I do with regret. Take leave of the good old Du- chefs d Efliflac, whofe hofpitality and kindnefs ought ever to be remembered. • 51 miles. The 9th, 10th, and 1 ith. Return by Beauvais and Pontoife, and enter Paris for the fourth time, confirmed in the idea that the roads immediately leading to that capital are deferts, comparatively fpeaking, with thofe of London. By what means can the connection be carried on with the country ? The French mud be the mofl flationary people upon earth, when in a place they mufl refl without a thought of going to another; or the Engihh mufl be the mofl refl- leis ; anci find more pleafure in moving from one place to another, than in refl- ing to enjoy life in either. If the French nobility went only to their country e^ts when exiled thither by the court, the roads could not be more folitary . 25 miles. The 1 2th. My intention was to take lodgings ; but on arriving at the hotel Co a Rocnefcucauld, I found that my hofpitable duchefs was the fame perfon at tne capital as in tne country ; fhe had ordered an apartment to be ready for me. It grows fo late in the feafon, that I /hall make ‘no other flay here than what will be neceifary for viewing public buildings. This will unite well L 2 enough PARIS. 76 enough with delivering fome letters I brought to a few men of fcience ; and it will leave me the evenings for the theatres, of which there are many in Paris. In throwing on paper a rapid coup d' ceil, of what I fee of a city, fo well known in England, I fhall be apt to delineate my own ideas and feelings, perhaps more than the objects themfelves ; and be it remembered, that I profefs to dedicate this carelefs itinerary to trifles, much more than to objects that are of real confequence. From the tower of the cathedral, the view of Paris is complete. It is a vaft city, even to the eye that has feen London from St. Paul’s ; a circular form gives an advantage to Paris ; but a much greater is the atmolphere. It is now fo clear, that one would fuppofe it the height of fummer: the clouds of coal- fmoke, that envelope London, always prevent a diflind: view of that capital, but I take it to be one-third at leaf; larger than Paris. The buildings of the parlia- ment -houfe are disfigured by a gilt and taudry gate, and a French roof. The hotel des Monoies is a fine building; and the fa£ade of the Louvre one of the moll elegant in the world, becaule they have (to the eye) no roofs; in proportion as a roof is feen, a building fuffers. I do not recoiled one edifice of diflinguifhed beauty (unlefs with domes) in which the roof is not fo flat as to be hidden, or nearly 1b. What eyes then mull the French architeds have had, to have loaded fo many buildings with coverings of a height deflrudive of all beauty? Put fuch a roof as we fee on the parliament- houfe or on the Thuil- leries, upon the facade of the Louvre, and where would its beauty be? — At night to the opera, which I thought a good theatre, till they told me it was built in fix weeks; and then it became good for nothing in my eyes, for I fup- pofe it will be tumbling down in fix years. Durability is one of the effentials of building : what pleafure would a beautiful front of painted pafleboard give ? The Alcefle of Gluck was performed; that part by Mademoifelle St. Huberti, their firfl finger, an excellent adrefs. As to fcenes, dreffes, decorations, dancing, &c. this theatre is much fuperior to that in the Haymarket. The 13th. Acrofs Paris to the rue des blancs Manteaux, to Monf. Brouf- fonet, fecretary of the Society of Agriculture; he is in Burgundy. Called on Mr. Cook from London, who is at Paris with his drill-plough, waiting for wea- ther to fhew its performance to the Duke of Orleans : this is a French idea, im- proving France by drilling. A man fhould learn to walk before he learns to dance. There is agility in cutting capers, and it may be done with grace ; but where is the neceflity to cut them at all? There has been much rain to-day; and it is almofl: incredible to a perfon ufed to London, how dirty the ftreets of Paris are, and how horribly inconvenient and dangerous walking is without a foot-pavement. We had a large party at dinner, with politicians among them, and fome intereffing converfation on the prefent hate of France. The feeling of every body feems to be that the archbifhop will not be able to do any PARIS. 77 thing towards exonerating the ftate from the burthen of its prefent fituation ; tome think that he has not the inclination ; others that he has not the courage • others that he has not the ability. By feme he is thought to be attentive only to his own intereft ; and by others, that the finances are too much deranged to be within the power of any fyftem to recover, fhort of the liates-general of the kingdom ; and tnat it is impoilible for fuch an afiembly to meet without a revo- lution in the government enfuing. All feem to think that fomething extraor- dinary will happen ; and a oankruptcy is an idea not at all uncommon. But who is there that will have the courage to make it ? • The i^tn. i o the benedidline abbey of St. Germain, to fee pillars of African marble, &c. It is the riched abbey in France: the abbot has 300,000 liv. a year (13,1 25I.) I lofe my patience at feeing fuch revenues thus bellowed • con- fident with the fpirit of the tenth century, but not with that of the eighteenth. What a noble farm would a fourth of this income edablilh ! what° turnips, what cabbages, what potatoes, what clover, what fheep, what wool 1 Are not thefe things better than a fat ecclefiadic ? If an adive Englifh farmer were mounted behind this abbot, I think he would do more good to France with half toe income tnan half the abbots of the kingdom with the whole of theirs. Pals the Badile; another pleafant objed to make agreeable emotions vibrate in a m aii s boiom. I fearcn for good farmers, and run my head at every turn againlt monks and date prifons.— To the arfenal, to wait on Monf. Lavoifier, the celebrated chemift, whofe theory of the non-exidence of phlogidon has made as much node m the chemical world as that of Stahl, which edablidied its exidence. Dr. Priedley had given me a letter of introduction. I men- tioned in the courfe of convention his laboratory, and he appointed Tuefday. By the Boulevards, to the Place Louis XV. which is not properly a fquare, but a very noble entrance to a great city. The fapades of the two buildings ereded are highly findhed. The union of the Place Louis XV. with the champs * ees> ^ gai d^ns of the Thuilleries and the Seine is open, airy, elegant, and fuperb • and is the mod agreeable and bed built part of Paris • here one can be clean and breathe freely. But by far the fined thing I have yet feen at Ians 1S the Halle aux bleds y or corn market: it is, a vad rotunda; the roof entirely of wood, upon a new principle of carpentry, to defcribe which would demand plates and long explanations ; the gallery is 1 qo yards round, confe- quently the diameter is as many feet : it is as light as if fufpended by the fairies. In the grand area, wheat, peafe, beans, lentils, are dored and fold. In the fur- roundmg divifipns, flour on wooden dands. You pafs by dad-cafes doubly wine ing within each other to fpacious apartments for rye, barley, oats, &c. le wnene is fo well planned, and fo admirably executed, that I know of no pubhc building that exceeds it either in France or England. And if an appro- priation 7 g PARIS. priation of the parts to the conveniencies wanted, and an adaptation of every cir * cumftance to the end required, in union with that elegance which is confident with ufe, and that magnificence which refults from liability and duration, be the criteria of public edifices, I know nothing that equals it:— it has but one fault, and that is fituation ; it fhould have been upon the banks of the river, for the convenience of unloading barges without land carriage. In the evening, to the Comedie Italienne ; the edifice fine ; and the whole quarter regular and new built, a private fpeculation of the duke de Choifeul, whofe family has a box entailed for ever.-L’Aimant jaloux. Here is a young finger MademoifeJle Renard, with fo fweet a voice, that if fhe fung Italian, and had been taught in Italy, would have made a delicious performer. To the tomb of Cardinal de Pvichlieu, which is a noble production of genius : by far the fined: ftatue I have feen. Nothing can be imagined moie ea y and maceful than the attitude of the cardinal, nor can nature be more expreflive than the figure of weeping fcience. Dine with my friend at the Palais Royal at a coffee- houfe ; well dreffed people; every thing clean, good and wed ferved : but here, as everywhere elfe, you pay a good price for good things ; we ouo-ht never to forget that a low price for bad things is not cheapnefs. In the evening to FEcole des Peres, at the Comedie Frangaife , a crying larmoyant thing. This theatre, the principal one at Paris, is a fine building, with a magm cent portico. After the circular theatres of France, how can any one relilh oui 1 contrived oblong holes of London ? The 1 6th. To Monf. Lavoifier, by appointment. Madame Lavoifier, a livelv, fenfible, fcientific lady, had prepared a dejeune Anglois- of tea and coffee; but her converfation on Mr. Kir wan’s Effay on Phlogifton, which fhe is t ran Hat- ing from the Englifh, and on other fubjedts, which a woman of undemanding, who works with her hufband in his laboratory, knows how to adorn, was the beft repaft. That apartment, the operations of which have been rendered 10 m- terefting to the philofophical world, I had pleafure in viewing. In the apparatus for aerial experiments, nothing makes fo great a figure as the machine for burning inflammable and vital air, to make, or depofit water ; it is a fplendid mac line. Three veffels are held in fufpenfion with indexes for marking the immediate variations of their weights ; two, that are as large as half hoglheads, contain tne one inflammable, the other the vital air, and a tube of communication panes to the third, where the two airs unite and burn ; by contrivances, too complex to defcribe without plates, the lofs of weight of the two airs, as indicated by their refpedive balances, equal at every moment to the gam in the third veffel nom tne formation or depofition of the water, it not being yet afcertamed whether the water be actually made or depofited. If accurate (of which I mufc confers I nave little conception), it is a noble machine. Monf. Lavoifier, when tne tru uie PARIS. 79 of it was commended, faid. Mais oiii monjieur , & memo par un artifte Fran pis / with an accent of voice that admitted their general inferiority to ours. It is well known that we have a condderable exportation of mathematical and other curious inftruments to every part of Europe, and to France amongd the re if . Ncr is this new, for the apparatus with which the French academicians me fared a degree in the polar circle was made by Mr. George Graham *. Another engine Monf. Lavoifier fhewed us was an eledrical apparatus inclofed in a balloon, for trying eledrical experiments in any fort of air. His pond of quickfilver is conii- derable, containing 2501b. and his water apparatus very great, but his furnaces did not feem fo well calculated for the higher degrees of heat as fome others I have feen. I was glad to find this gentleman fplendidly lodged, and with every appearance of a man of confiderable fortune. This ever gives one pleafure : the employments of a State can never be in better hands than of men who thus apply the fuperfluity of their wealth. From the ufe that is generally made of money, one would think it the affiffance of ail others of the lead confequence in effed- ing any bufinefs truly ufeful to mankind, many of the great difcoveries that have enlarged the horizon of feience having been in this refped the refill t of means feemingly inadequate to the end : the energic exertions of ardent minds, burding from obfcurity, and breaking the bands inflided by poverty, per- haps by didrefs. To the hotel des in valids , the major of which edablifhment had the goodnefs to fhew the whole of it. In the evening to Monf. Lo- mond, a very ingenious and inventive mechanic, who has made an improve- ment of the jenny for fpinning cotton. Common machines are faid to make too hard a thread for certain fabrics, but this forms it loofe and fpongy. In eledricity he has made a remarkable difcovery : you write two or three words on a paper ; he takes it with him into a room, and turns a machine inclofed in a cylindrical cafe, at the top of which is an eledrometer, a fmall fine pith ball ; a wire conmeds with a fimilar cylinder and eledrometer in a didant apartment ; and his wife, by remarking the correfponding motions of the ball, writes down the words they indicate : from which it appears that he has formed an alphabet of motions. As the length of the wire makes no difference in theelfed, a cor- refpondence might be carried on at any didance : within and without a befieged town, for indance ; or for a purpofe much more worthy, and a thoufmd times more harmlefs, between two lovers prohibited or prevented from any better connedion. Whatever the ufe may be, the invention is beautiful. Monf,. Lomond has many other curious machines, all the entire work of his own hands : mechanical invention feems to be in him a natural propenffty. In the evening to the Co me die Franpife. Mola did the Bourru Bienfaifant , and it is not eafy for ading to be carried to greater perfedion. The 17th. To Monf. 1 ’Abbe Meilier, aftronomer royal, and of the Academy. * WhitehurfFs Formation of the Earth, ad edit, p. 6, of 8o PARIS. of Sciences. View the exhibition, at the Louvre, of the Academy’s paintings*. For one hiftory piece in our exhibitions at London here are ten; abundantly more than to balance the difference between an annual and biennial exhi- bition. Dined to-day with a party, whofe converfation was entirely po- litical. 'Monf. de Calonne’s Requete au Roi is come over, and all the world are reading and difputing on it. It feems, however, generally agreed that, without exonerating himfelf from the charge of the agiotage, he has thrown no inconfi- derable load on the fhoulders of the archbifhop of Toulouze, the prefent premier, who will be puzzled to get rid of the attack. But both thefe ministers were condemned on all hands in the lump ; as being abfolutely unequal to the diffi- culties of fo arduous a period. One opinion pervaded the whole company, that they are on the eve of fome great revolution in the government : that every thing points to it : the confufion in the finances great ; with a deficit impoffible to provide for without the flates -general of the kingdom, yet no ideas formed of what would be the confequence of their meeting : no minifter exiffing, or to be looked to in or out of power, with fuch decifive talents as to promife any other remedy than palliative ones : a prince on the throne, with excellent dif- pofitions, but without the refources of a mind that could govern in fuch a mo- ment without minifters : a court buried in pleafure and diffipation ; and add- ing to the diftrefs, inftead of endeavouring to be placed in a more independent fituation : a great ferment amongft all ranks of men, who are eager for fome change, without knowing what to look to, or to hope for : and a ftrong leaven of liberty, increafing every hour knee the American revolution ; altogether form a combination of circumftancps that promife ere long to ferment into motion, if fome mafter hand, of very fuperior talents, and inflexible courage, be not found at the helm to guide events, inftead of being driven by them. It is very remark- able, that fuch converfation never occurs, but a bankruptcy is a topic : the curious quefeion on which is, would a bankruptcy occafon a civil war , and a total overthrow cf the government f The anfwers that I have received to this queftion appear to be juft : fuch a meafure, conduced by a man of abilities, vi- gour, and firmnefs, would certainly not occafion either one or the other. But the fame meafure, attempted by a man of a different character, might pcffibly do both. All agree, that the ffates of the kingdom cannot affemble without more liberty being the confequence ; but I meet with fo few men who have anv juft ideas ot freedom, that I queftion much the fpecies of this new liberty that is to arife. They know not how to value the privileges of the people : as to the nobility and the clergy, if a revolution added any thing to their fcale, I think it would do more mifehief than good *. * 1° tranfc ibing thefe papers for the prefs, I fmile at fome remarks and circumftances which events have faice placed in a fingular pofition ; but! alter none of thefe paffages ; they explain what were the opinions in France, before the revolution, on topics of importance; and the events which have fince taken place render them the more interefting. June, 1790. The Paris. 8x The 1 8th. To the Gobelins, which is undoubtedly the firft manufacture of tapeftry in the woild, and iuch an one as could be fupported by a crowned head only. In the evening to that incomparable comedy La Metromanie , of Pyron, and well aded. The more I fee of it, the more I like the French theatre; and have no doubt in preferring it far to our own. Writers, adors, buildings, fcenes, decorations, mufic, dancing, take the whole in a mafs, and it is unrivalled by London. We have certainly a few brilliants of the fir ft wa- ter; but thxow all in the fcales, and that of England kicks the beam. I write this paflage with a lighter heart than I fhould do were it giving the palm to the French plough. The 1 9tn. Fo Chaienton, near Paris, to fee lEcole Veterinah'e , and the faim of the Royal Society of Agriculture. IVTonf. Chabert, the diredeur-gene- ral, received us with the moft attentive politenefs. Mon f. Flandrein, his affift- ant, and fon-in-law, I had had the pleafure of knowing in Suffolk. They Ihewed the wnole veterinary eftablifhment, and it does honour to the government of France. It was formed in 1766 : in 1783 a farm was annexed to it, and four othei profeflorfhips eftablifhed; two for rural oeconomy, one for anatomy, and another for chemiftry.— I was informed that Monf. d’Aubenton, who is at the head of this farm with a falary of 6000 liv. a year, reads ledums of rural cecono- my, particularly on fheep, and that a flock was for that purpofe kept in exhibi- tion. There is a fpacious and convenient apartment for diffeding horfes and other animals ; a large cabinet, where the moft interefting parts of all do- meftic animals aie prefeived in fpints 1 and alio of fuch parts of the bodies that mark the vifible effed of diftempers. This is very rich. This, with a fimilar one near Lyons, is kept up (exclufive of the addition of 1783), at the model ate expence, as appears by the writings of M. Necker, of about 60,000 liv. (2600I.) Whence, as in many other inftances, it appears that the moft ufe- ful things coft the leaft. There are at prefent about one hundred eleves from different parts of the kingdom, as well as from every country in Europe, except England ; a ftrange exception, confidering how grofsly ignorant our farriers are ; and that the whole expence of fupporting a young man here does not exceed forty louis a year ; nor more than four years • neceffary for his Complete in- ftrudion. As to the farm, it is under the condud of a great naturalift, high in royal academies of fcience, and whole name is celebrated through Europe for merit in fuperior branches of knowledge. It would argue in me a want of judgment in human nature, to exped good pradice from fuch men. They would probably think it beneath their purfuits and fituation in life to be good ploughmen, turnip-hoers, and fhepherds ; I fhould therefore betray my own ignorance of life, if I were to exprels any furprize at finding this farm in a fitua- tion that — I had rather forget than defcribe. In the evening, to a field much M more PARIS. $2 more fuccefsfully cultivated, Mademoifelle St. Huberti, in the Penelope of Picini. The 20th. To the Ecole Milk air e, eftablifhed by Louis XV . for the educa- tion of 140 youths, the fons of the nobility; fuch eftablifhments are equally ridiculous and unjuft. To educate the fon of a man who cannot afford the edu- cation himfelf, is a grofs injuftice, if you do not fecure a fituation in life anfwer- able to that education. If you do fecure fuch a fituation, you deffroy the refult of the education, becaufe nothing but merit ought to give that fecurity. Ir you educate the children of men, who are well able to give the education themielves, you tax the people who cannot afford to educate their children, in order to eafe thofe who can well afford the burthen ; and, in fuch inffitutions, this is fure to be the cafe. At night to /’ Ambigu Comique , a pretty little theatre, with plenty of rubbifh on it. Coffee-houfes on the boulevards, mufic, noife, and jilles without end; every thing but fcavengers and lamps. The mud is a foot deep ; and there are parts of the boulevards without a fingle light. The 2 iff. Monf. de Brouffonet being returned from Burgundy, I had the pleafure of palling a couple of hours at his lodgings very agreeably. He is a man of uncommon activity, and poffeffed of a great variety of ufeful knowledge in every branch of natural hiflory ; and he fpeaks Englifh perfectly well. It is very rare that a gentleman is feen better qualified for a poff than Monf. de Brouffonet for that which he occupies, of fecretary to a Royal Society. The 2 2d. To the bridge of Neuile, faid to be the fineff in France. It is by far the moft beautiful one I have any where feen. It confifts of five vaft arches ; flat,, from the Florentine model ; and all of equal fpan ; a mode of building incompa-* r.ably more elegant, and more flriking than our fyftem of different fized arches. To the machine at Marly; which ceafes to make the leaft imprefiion. Madame du Barre’s refidence, Lufienne, is on the hill juft above this machine ; fire has built a pavilion on the brow of the declivity, for commanding the profpedt, fitted up and decorated with much elegance. There is a table formed of Seve porce- lain, exquifitely done. I forget how many thoufand louis d 01s it coif. i he French, to whom I fpoke of Lufienne, exclaimed againft miftreffes- and extra- vagance,. with more violence than reafon in my opinion. Who, in common fenfe, would deny a king the amufement of a miftrefs, provided he did not make a bufinefs of his play-thing ? Mais Frederic le Grand avoit-il une maitrejfe ,. Ini fafoit-il batir des pavilions, et les meub.loit-il de tables de porcelains :? Nor but he had that which was fifty times worfe : a king had^ better make love to a hand- fome woman, than to one of his neighbour’s provinces. The king of Pruflia’s miftrefs colt an hundred millions fterhng, and the lives of 500,000 men; and before the reign of that miftrefs is over, may yet coft as much more. The greateft: genius and talents are lighter than a feather, weighed philofophically,,, if rapine, war, and conqueft: be the effects of them. To VERSAILLES, S 3 To St. Germain’s, the terrace of which is very fine. Monf. de Broufionet met me here, and we dined with Monf. Breton, at the Marechal due de Noailles, who has a good collection of curious plants. Here is the fineR fophora japo- nic a I have feen. io miles. The 23d. To Trianon, to view the Queen’s Jardin Anglois. I had a letter to Monf. Richard, which procured admittance. It contains about 100 acres, dif- pofed in the tafte of what we read of in books of Chinefe gardening, whence it is fuppofed the Englifh Ryle was taken. There is more of Sir William Chambers here than of Mr. Brown — more effort than nature — and more expence than tafte. It is not eafy to conceive any thing that art can introduce in a gar- den that is not here ; woods, rocks, lawns, lakes, rivers, iflands, cafcades, grottos, walks, temples, and even villages. There are parts of the defign very pretty, and well executed. The only fault is too much crouding ; which has led to another, that of cutting the lawn by too many gravel walks, an error to be feen in almoR every garden I have met with in France. But the glory of La Petite Trianon is the exotic trees and fhrubs. The world has been fuccefsfully rifled to decorate it. Here are curious and beautiful ones to pleafe the eye of ignorance ; and to exercile the memory of fcience. Of the buildings, the temple of love is truly elegant. Again to Verfailles. In viewing the King’s apartment, which he had not left a quarter of an hour, with thofe flight traits of diforder that fhew- ed he lived in it, it was amufing to fee the blackguard figures that were walking uncontrouled about the palace, and even in his bed-chamber ; men whofe rags betrayed them to be in the laR Rage of poverty, and I was the only perfon that Rared and wondered how they got thither. It is impoflible not to like this carelefs indifierence and freedom from fufpicion. One loves the maRer of the houfe, who would not be hurt or offended at feeing his apartment thus occupied, if he returned luddenly ; for if there were danger of this, the in- trufion would be prevented. This is certainly a feature of that good temper which appears to me fo vifible every where in France. I defired to fee the Queen’s apartments, but I could not. Is her majeRy in it ? No. Why then not fee it as well as the King’s ? Ma foi y Monf c cfl un autre chofe. Ramble through the gardens, and by the grand canal, with abfolute aRonifhment at the exaggera- tions of writers and travellers. There is magnificence in the quarter of the orangerie, but no beauty any where ; there are fome Ratues good enough to be wifhed under cover. The extent and breadth of the canal are nothing; to the eye; and it is not in fuch good repair as a farmer’s horfe-pond. The me- nagerie is well enough, but nothing great. Let thofe who defire that the build- ings and eRablifhments of Louis XIV . fhould continue the imprefiion made by M 2 the PARIS. 84 the writings of Voltaire, go to the canal of Languedoc, and by no means to Verfailles. Return to Paris. 14 miles. The 24th. With Monf. de Brouffonet to the King’s cabinet of natural hif- tory and the botanical garden, which is in beautiful order. Its riches are well known, and the politenefs of Monf. Thouin, which is that of a mod; amiable difpodtion, renders this garden the fcene of other rational pleafures befides thofe of botany. Dine at the Invalides, with Monf. Parmentier, the celebrated author of many (Economical works, particularly on the bout 1 anger ie of France. This gentleman, to a confiderable mafs of ufeful knowledge, adds a great deal of that fire and vivacity for which his nation has been diftinguifhed, but which I have not recognized fo often as I expected. The 25th. This great city appears to be in manyrefpe&s the mod: ineligible and inconvenient for the refidence of a perfon of fmall fortune of any that I have feen ; and by far inferior to London. The dreets are very narrow, and many of them crouded, nine-tenths dirty, and all without foot-pavements. Walking, which in London is fo pleafant and fo clean, that ladies do it every day, is here a toil and fatigue to a man, and an impoffibility to a well dreded woman. The coaches are numerous, and, what is much worfe, there is an infinity of one-horfe cabriolets, which are driven by young men of fafhion and their imitators, alike fools, with fuch rapidity as to be real nuifances, and render the dreets exceedingly dangerous, without an inceffant caution. I faw a poor child run over and probably killed, and have been myfelf many times blackened with the mud of the kennels. This beggarly practice, of driving a one-horfe booby hutch about the dreets of a great capital, flows either from poverty or a wretched and defpicable ceconomy ; nor is it poflble to fpeak of it with too much feverity. If young noblemen at London were to drive their chaifes in dreets without foot- ways, as their brethren do at Paris, they would fpeedily and judly get very well threfhed, or rolled in the kennel. This circum- dance renders Paris an ineligible refidence for perfons, particularly families that cannot afford to keep a coach ; a convenience which is as dear as at Lon- don. Th z fiacres, hackney-coaches, are much worfe than at that city; and chairs there are none, for they would be driven down in the dreets. To this cir- # eumdance alfo it mud be afcribed, that all perfons of fmall or moderate fortune are forced to drefs in black, with black dockings ; the dufky hue of this in com- pany is not fo difagreeable a circumdance as being too great a didindtion ; too clear a line drawn in company between a man that has a good fortune, and another that has not. With the pride, arrogance, and ill temper of Englifh wealth this could not be borne ; but the prevailing good humour of the French eafes all fuch untoward circumdances. Lodgings are not half fo good as at London, yet confderably dearer. If you do not hire a whole fuit of rooms at S O I S S O N S. n ST. G O B I N. an hotel, you muft probably mount three, four, or five pair of flairs, and in ge- neral have nothing but a bed-chamber. After the horrid fatigue of the ftreets, fuch an elevation is a dele&able circumftance. You muft fearch with trouble before you will be lodged in a private family, as gentlemen ufually are at Lon- don, and pay a higher price. Servants wages are about the fame as at that city. It is to be regretted that Paris fhould have thefe difad vantages, for in other re- fpedts I take it to be a moft eligible refidence for fuch as prefer a great city.. The fociety for a man of letters, or who has any fcientific purfuit, cannot be ex- ceeded. The intercourfe between fuch men and the great, which, if it be not upon an equal footing, ought never to exift at all, is refpedable.. Perfons of the higheft rank pay an attention to fcience and literature, and emulate the character they confer. I fhould pity the man who expeded, without other advantages of a very different nature, to be well received in a brilliant circle at London, be- caufe he was a fellow of the Royal Society. But this would not be the cafe with a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris ; he is fare of a good recep- tion eveiy wheie. Perhaps this contrail; depends in a great meafure on the difference of the governments of the two countries. Politics are too much at- tended to in England to allow a due refped to be paid to any thing elfe ; and fhould the French eftablilh a fieer government, academicians will not be held in fuch efiimation, when rivalled in the public efieem by the orators who hold forth liberty and property in a free parliament. The 28th. Quit Paris, and take the road to Flanders. Monf. de Brouflonet was fo obliging as to accompany me to Dugny, to view the farm of Monf. Crette de Palluel, a very intelligent cultivator. Take the road to Senlis : at Dammertin, I met by accident a French gentleman, a Monf. du Pre du St.. Cotin- Plearing me converting with a farmer on agriculture, he introduced himfelf as an amateur, gave me an account of feveral experiments he had made on his efiate in Champagne, and promifed a more particular detail; in which he was as good as his word. 22 miles. The 29th. 1 ais Nanteul, where the Prince of Conde has a chateau, to Villeo-Coteiets, in the midft of immenie forefis belonging to the Duke of Or- leans. The crop of this country, therefore, is princes of the blood; that is to fay, hares, pheafants, deer, boars ! 26 miles. The 30th. Soiffons feems a poor town, without manufactures, and chiefly fupported by a corn- trade, which goes hence by water to Paris and Rouen.— 25 miles. 1 he 3 1 ft. Coucy is beautifully fituated on a hill, with a fine vale winding befide it. At St. Gobin, which is in the midft of great woods, I viewed the, fabric of plate-glafs the greateft in the world. I was in high luck, arriving about naif an hour before they began to run glaffes for die day. Paf$ La Fere. Reach 16 CANAL OF PICARDY. Reach St. Quin tin, where are confiderable manufactures that employed me all the afternoon. From St. Gobin, are the moft beautiful flate roofs I have any where feen. 30 miles. November i. Near Belle Angloife I turned afide half a league to view the canal of Picardy, of which I had heard much. In palling from St. Quintin to Cambray the country rifes, fo that it was neceffary to carry it in a tunnel un- der ground for a confiderable depth, even under many vales as well as hills. In one of thefe vallies there is an opening for vifiting it by an arched hair-cafe, on which I defcended 134 heps to the canal, and, as this valley is much below the adjacent and other hills, the great depth at which it is digged may be con- ceived. Over the door of the delcent, is the following infcription : — L ann. j y 8 1 .■ 'Monf. le Comte d' Agay etant intendant de cette province, NTonJ. Lau- rent de Lionni etant dire ft eur de 1 'ancien & nouveau canal de Picardie , & Monf. de Champrofe infpedleur , Jofeph II . Lmpereur Roi des Romaines , a parcouru en batteau le canal fous terrain depuis cet endroit jufques au putt , No. 20, le 28, & a temoigne fa fatisfadlion d' avoir vu cet ouvrage en ces termes : “ Je fuisfier d etre homme , quandje vois quun de mes femblables a ofe imaginer & executer un ouvrage aujji vafle et aufi bar die. Cette idea me leve lame.” — Thefe three Mehieurs lead the dance here in a very French hyle. The great Jofeph follows humbly in their train ; and as to poor Louis XVI. at whole expence the whole was done, thefe gentlemen certainly thought that no name lefs than that of an emperor ought to be annexed to theirs. When infcriptions are fixed to public works, no names ought to be permitted but thofe of the king, whofe merit patronizes, and of the engineer or artifl whofe genius executes the work. As to a mob of intendants, directors, and infpeCtors, let them be forgotten. The canal at this place is ten French feet wide and twelve high, hewn entirely out of the chalk rock, imbedded, in which are many flints — no mafonry. There is only a frnall part finifhedof ten toifes long for a pattern, twenty feet broad and twenty high. Five thoufand toifes are already done in the manner of that part which I viewed ; and the whole dihance underground, when the tunnel will be complete, is 7020 toifes (each fix feet) or about nine miles. It has already coh 1,200,000 liv. (52,500b) and there want 2,500,000 liv. (109,375b) to complete it; fo that the total ehimate is near four millions. It is executed by fhafts. At prefent there are not above five or fix inches of water in it. This great work has flood flill en- tirely fince the adminiflration of the Archbifhop of Toulouze. When we fee fuch works .Hand hill for want of money, we fhall reafonably be inclined to afk. What are the fervices that continue fupplied ? and to conclude, that amongh kings, and minihers, and nations, oeconomy is the fi-rh virtue : — without it, genius is a meteor; victory a found; and all courtly fplendour a public robbery. LISLE, -DUNKIRK. At Cambray, view the manufacture. Thefe frontier towns of Flanders are built in the old dyle, but the dreets broad, handfome, well paved, and lighted. I need not obferve, that all are fortified, and that every dep in this country has been ren- dered famous or infamous according to the feelings of the fpeCtator, by many of the bloodied: wars that have difgraced and exhauded chridendom. At the hotel de Bourbon I was well lodged, fed, and attended : an excellent inn. — 22 miles. The 2d. Pafs Bouchaine to Valenciennes, another old town, which, like the red: of the Flemifh ones, manifeds more the wealth of former than of prefent times. 18 miles. The 3d, to Grchees j and the 4th to Lide, which is furrounded by more windmills for fqueezing out the oil of colefeed, than are probably to be feen any where elle in the world. Pafs fewer drawbridges and works of fortification here than at Calais ; the great drength of this place is in its mines and other fouteraines. In the evening to the play. The cry here for a war with England amazed me. Every one I talked with faid r it was beyond a doubt the Englifh had called the Prudian army into Holland ; and that the motives in F ranee for a war were numerous and manifed. It is eafy enough to difeover, that the origin 01 all this violence is the commercial treaty, which is execrated here, as the mod fatal droke to their manufactures they ever experienced^ Thefe people have the true monopolizing ideas ; they would involve four-and- twenty millions of people in the certain miferies of a war, rather than fee the intered of thofe who confume fabrics, preferred to the intered of thofe who. make them. The advantages reaped by four-and- twenty millions of confumers are luppofed to be lighter than a feather, compared with the inconveniences fudained by half a million of manufacturers. Meet many fmall carts in the town, drawn each, by a dog : I was told by the owner of one, what appears to me incredible, that his dog would draw 700 lb. half a league. The wheels of thefe carts are very high, relative to the. height of the dog, fo that his ched is a good deal below the axle. The 6th. In leaving Lifle, the reparation of a bridge made me take a road: on tne banks of the canal, clofe under the works of the citadel. They appear to be very numerous, and the fituation exceedingly advantageous, on a gently riling ground, furrounded by low watry meadows, which may with eafe be drowned.. Pafs Darmentiers, a large paved town.. Sleep at Mont CaffeL 30 miles.. The yth. Cafi'el is on the fiimmit of the only hill in Flanders. They are now repairing the bafon at Dunkirk, fo famous in hidory for an imperioufnefs in England, which die mud have paid dearly for,. Dunkirk, Gibraltar, and the datue of Louis XIV . in the Place de Vidtoire , I place in the fame political clafs of national arrogance. Many men are now at work on this bafon, and, when finifhed, it will not contain more than twenty or twenty-five frigates ; and appears to an unlearned eye, a ridiculous objeCt for the jealoufy of a great nation, unlefs it profeded to be jealous of privateers. — I made enquiries concern- ing $3 RETURN TO ENGLAND. ing the import of wool from England, and was allured that it was a very trifling objeCL I may here obferve, that when I left the town, my little cloak-bag was examined as fcrupuloufly, as if I had juft left England with a cargo of prohibited goods, and again at a fort two miles off. Dunkirk being a free port, the cudom- houfe is at the gates. What are we to think of our woollen manufacturers in England, when fuing for their wool-bill, of infamou s memory, they brought one Thomas Wilkinfon from Dunkirk quay, to the bar of the Englifh Houfe of Lords to j wear , that wool paffes from Dunkirk without entry, duty, or any thing being required, at double cuftom-houfes, for a check on each other, where they examine even a cloak-bag? On fucli evidence, did our legiflature, in the true fhop-keeping fpirit, pafs an ad of fines, pains, and penalties againft all the wool- growers of England. Walk to Rofiendal near the town, where Monf. le Brim has an improvement on the Dunes, which he very obligingly fhewed me. Be- tween the town and that place is a great number of neat little houfes, built each with its garden, and one or two fields enclofed of mod wretched blowing dune fand, naturally as white as fnow, but improved by indufiry. The magic of property turns fand to gold. 18 miles. The 8th. Leave Dunkirk, where the Concierge a good inn, as indeed I have found all in Flanders. Pafs Gravelline, which, to my unlearned eyes, feems the thronged place I have yet feen, at lead the works above ground are more numerous than at any other. Ditches, ramparts, and drawbridges with- out end. This is a part of the art military I like : it implies defence. If Gengifchan or Tamerlane had met with fuch places as Gravelline or Life in their way, where would their conqueds and extirpations of the human race have been ? Reach Calais. And here ends a journey which has given me a great deal of pleafure, and more information than I thould have ex- pected in a kingdom not fo well cultivated as our own. It has been the fird of my foreign travels ; and has with me confirmed the idea, that to know our own country well, we mud fee fomething of others. Nations figure by comparifon ; and thofe ought to be edeemed the benefactors of the human race, who have mod edablifhed public profperity on the bafis of private happi- nefs. To afcertain how far this has been the cafe with the French, has been one material objeCt of my tour. It is an enquiry of great and complex range ; but a fingle excurfion is too little to trud to. I mud come again and again be- fore I venture conclufions. 25 miles. Wait at Defi'eins three days for a wind (the Duke and Duchefs of Glouceder are in the fame inn and fituation) and for a pacquet. A captain behaved fhab- bily : deceived me, and was hired by a family that vrould admit nobody but themfelves : — I did not afk what nation this family was of. — Dover-— London — Bradfield y — and have more pleafure in giving my little girl a French doll, than in viewing Verfaiiles. P 1788. LEAVE- ENGLAND, S T. OMERS. 89 THE long journey I had lad year taken in France ‘fuggeded a variety of lefledtions on the agriculture, and on the fources and progrefs of national pro- fpeiitv in that kingdom ; in Ipite of rnyfelf, thefe ideas fermented in my mind ; and while I was drawing conclufions relative to the political date of that great country, in every circumdance connected with its hulhandry, I found, at each moment of my reflection, the importance of making as regular a furvey of the : whole as was poflible for a traveller to effect. Thus indigated, I determined to attempt fuddling what I had fortunately enough begun. July 30. Left Bradfieid; and arrived at Calais. 1 61 miles. August 3* Fhe next day I took the road to St. Omers. Pals the bridge Sans Pared , which ferves a double purpole, palling two dreams at once ; but it has been praiied beyond its merit, and cod more than it was worth. St. Omers contains little aeferving notice ; and, if I could direct the legiflatures of England and Ii eland, ihould contain dill lefs : — why are catholics to emigrate in oidei to be ill educated abroad, indead of being allowed inditutions that would educate them well at home ? The country is feen to advantage from St. Ber- tin’s deeple. 25 miles. i ne yth. The canal of St. Omers is carried up a hill by a feries of fluices. To Aiie, and Lilliers, and Bethune, towns well known in military dory.— 23 miles. The 8th. The country changes, now a champaign; from Bethune to Arras an admirable gravel road. At the lad town there is nothing but the great and rich aboey or Var, and this they would not fhew me — it was not the right day— or fome frivolous excufe. The cathedral is nothing. — 1 74. miles. The 9th. Market-day; coming out of the town I met at lead an hundred ades, fome loaded with a bag, others a fack, but all apparently with a trifling burthen, and fwarms of men and women. This is called a market, being .plentifully fupplied; but a great proportion of all the labour of a country is iciie in the midd or harved, to fupply a town which in England would be fed by + I -o tne people : whenever this fwarm of triflers buz in a market, I take a minute and vicious divilion of the foil for granted. Here my only compa- nion de voyage , the Englidi mare that carries me, difclofes by her eye a fecret not tne mod agreeable, that die is going rapidly blind. She is moon-eyed; but our fool of a Bury farrier affured me I was fafe for above a twelvemonth'. It mud be confefled this is one of thofe agreeable dtuations which not many will believe a man would put himfelf into. Ala Joy ! this is a piece of my good Iuck; — the journey at bed is but a drudgery, that others are paid for per- forming on a good horfe, and I pay rnyfelf for doing it on a blind one ; — I diall feel this inconvenience perhaps at the expense of my neck.- 20 miles J h e 1 °tli. To Amiens. Mr. Fox dept here lad night, "and it ‘was ariidf- !p A M I E N 'S. R OUEN, in- to hear the converfation at the table d’hdte 5 they wondered that To great a man fhould not travel in a greater ftyle : I aiked what was his ftyle . Mon- iieur and Madame were in an Englilh poft-chaife, and the fille and valet dc chambre in a cabriolet, with a French courier to have horfes ready What would they have ? but a ftyle both of comfort and amufement ? A plague on a blind mare!— But I have worked through life; and he talks. The i ith. By Poix to A u male; enter Normandy. 25 miles. . The 1 2th. thence to NeWchatel, by far the fined: country fince Calais. Pafs many villas of Rouen merchants. ■ 40 miles. The 1 ^th. They are right to have country villas — to get out of this gieat ue ly ftinldng, clofe, and ill built town, which is full of nothing but dirt and indvftry What a pidture of new buildings does a flourifhing and manufadturmg town in England exhibit ! The choir of the cathedral is furrounded by a moll magnificent railing of folid brafs. They Ihew the monument of Roho , the firft Duke of Normandy, andofhisfon; of William Longfword ; alio thole o Richard Coeur de Lion ; his brother Henry ; the Duke of Bedford, regent of France; of their own King Henry V.; of the Cardinal d’Amboife mimfter of Louis XII. The altar-piece is an adoration of the fliepherds, by 1 hihp 01 Champagne. Rouen is dearer than Paris, and therefore it is neceflary for the pockets of the people that their bellies Ihould be wholefomeiy pinched. . At the table d’hote, at the hotel fomme du fin we fat down, fixteen, to the following m- der a foup, about 3 lb. of bouilli, one fowl, one duck, a final fricaflee of chicken, a rote of veal, of about alb. and two other fmall plates with a iallad : the price , r f. and 2 of. more for a pint of wine; at an ordinary of 2od. a head in England there would be a piece of meat which would, literally {peaking, outweigh this whole dinner ! The ducks were fwept clean fo quickly, that I moved from table without half a dinner. Such tables d’ holes are among the cheap things of France . Of all [ombres and trifles meetings a F rench table d'hote is foremoft ; for eight mi- nutes a dead file nee, and as to the politenefs of addrefling a converfation to a foreigner, he will look for it in vain. Not a Angle word has any where been faid to me unlefs to anfwer fome queftion : Rouen not Angular in this. The parliament-houfe here is (hut up, and its members exiled a month paft to their country feats, becaufe they would not regifter the edieft for a new land-tax. I enquired much into the com- mon fentiments of the people, and found that the King perfonally from having been here, is more popular than the parliament, to whom they attribute the gene- ral dearnefs of every thing. Called on Monf. d’Ambournay, the author o a treatife on ufmg madder green inftead of dried, and had the pleafure of a long converfation with him on various farming topics, interefting to my enquiries. The 14th. ToBarentin, through abundance of apple and pear-trees, and a country better than the hulbandry; to Yveot richer, but mxferable manage- ment, — zi miles. rp. fefAVRE DE GRACE, V The 15th. Country the fame to Bolbecj their inclofures remind me of Ireland, the fence is a high broad parapet bank, very well planted with hedges and oak and beech trees. All the way from Rouen there is a fcattering of coun- try feats, which l am glad to fee ; farm-houfes and cottages every where, and the cotton manufacture in all. Continues the fame to Harfleur. To Havre de Grace, the approach drongly marks a very flourifhing place : the hills are almod covered with little new built villas, and many more are building ; fome are fo clofe as to form almod dreets, and confiderable additions are alfo making to the town. 30 miles. The 1 6th. Enquiries are not neceffary to find out the profperity of this town ; it is nothing equivocal : fuller of motion, life, and activity, than any place I have been at in France. A houfe here, which in 1779 let without any fine on a leafe of fix years for 240 liv. per annum, was lately let for three years at 600 liv. which twelve years pad was to be had at 24 liv. The harbour's mouth is narrow and formed by a mole, but it enlarges into two oblong bafons of greater breadth ; thefe are full of fhips, to the number of fome hundreds, and the quays around are thronged with bufinefs, all hurry, buttle, and animation. They fay a fifty gun fhip can enter, but I fuppofe without her guns. What is better, they have merchant-men of five and fix hundred tons : the date of the harbour has however given them much alarm and perplexity ; if nothing had been done to improve it, the mouth would have been filled up with fand, an increafing evil ; to remedy which, many engineers have been confulted. The want of a back water to wafh it out is fo great, that they are now, at the King's •xpence, forming a mod noble and magnificent work, a vad bafon, walled off from the ocean, or rather an inclofure of it by folid mafonry, 700 yards long, five yards broad, and 10 or 12 feet above the furface of the lea at high watery and for 400 yards more it confids of two exterior walls, each three yards broad, and filled up feven yards wide between them with earth j by means of this new and enormous bafon, they will have an artificial back-water, capable, they cal- culate, of fweeping out the harbour’s mouth clean from all obdruCtions. It is a work that does honour to the kingdom. The view of the Seine from this mole is driking ; it is five miles broad, with high lands for its oppofite fhore ; and the chalk cliffs and promontories, that recede to make way for rolling its vad tri- bute to the ocean, bold and noble. Wait on Monf. l’Abbe Dicquemarre, the celebrated naturalid, where I had alfo the pleafure of meeting Mademoifelle le Maffon le Golft, author of fome agreeable performances ; among others, Entretien fur le Havre, 1781, when the number of fouls was edimatedat 25,000. The next day Monf, le Reifeicourt, captain of the corps royale du Genie, to whom alfo I had letters, introduced me ta Meifrs. Hombergs, who are ranked amongd the mod confiderable mer- N 2 chants 9 a HONFLEUR. PAYS D’AUGE. chants of France. I dined with them at one of their country-houfes, meeting a numerous company and fplendid entertainment. Thefe gentlemen have wives and daughters, coufins and friends, cheerful, pleating, and well informed. I did not like the idea of quitting them fo foon, for they feemed to have a fociety that would have made a longer refidence agreeable enough. It is no bad preju- dice Purely to like people that like England ; mod of them have been there. — . Nous avons affurement en France de belles , dl agre able s et de bonnes chofes y mats on trou've line telle energie dans njotre nation - . The 1 8th. By the paflage- packet, a decked veflel, to Honfleur, feven and a half miles, which we made with a ftrong north wind in an hour, the river be- ing rougher than I thought a river could be. Honfleur is a fmall town, full of Induftry, and a bafon full of fhips, with fome Guinea-men as large as at Havre. At Pont au de Mer, wait on Monf. Martin, director of the manufacture royale of leather. I faw eight or ten Englhhmen that are employed here (there are 40 in all), and converfed with one from Yorkshire, who told me he had been deceived into coming ; for though they are well paid, yet they find things very dear, inftead of very cheap, as they had been given to underhand. — 20 miles. The 19th. To Pont l’Eveque, towards which town the country is richer, that is, has more pafturage ; the whole has lingular features, compofed of orchard inclofures, with hedges fo thick and excellent, though compofed of willow, with but a fprinkling of thorns, that one can fcarcely fee through them : cha- teaus are fcattered, and fome good, yet the road is villainous. Pont l’Eveque is fttuated in the Pays d’Auge, celebrated for the great fertility of its pad: u res. To Lifieux, through the fame rich diftridt, fences admirably planted, and the coun- try thickly inclofed and wooded. — At the hotel d’Angleterre, an excellent inn, new, clean, and well furnifhed ; and I was well ferved and well fed. — 26 miles. The 20th. To Caen ; the road paifes on the brow of a hill, that commands the rich valley of Corbon, hill in the Pays d’Auge, the mod fertile of the whole, all is under fine Poidtu bullocks, which would figure in the counties of Leicefter or Northampton. 28 miles. The 2 1 ft. The Marquis de Guerchy, whom I had had the pleafure of feeing in Suffolk, being colonel of the regiment of Artois, quartered here,. I waited on him ; he introduced me to his lady, and remarked, that as it was the fair of Guibray, and himfelf going thither, I could not do better than accompany him, ft nee it was the fecond fair in France. I readily agreed : in our way, we called at Bon, and dined with the Marquis of Turgot, elder brother of the juftly cele- brated comptroller-general : this gentleman is author of fome memoirs on plant- ing, publifhed in the Trimeftres of the Royal Society of Paris ; he fhewed and explained to us all his plantations, but chiefly prides himfelf on the exotics • and I was. forry to And in proportion not to their promifed utility, hut merely to- GUIBR AY, ■CAEN, ' 93 to their rarity. I have not found this uncommon in France ; and it is far from being fo in England. I wifhed every moment for a long walk to change the converfation from trees to hufbandry, and made many efforts, but all in vain. In the evening to the fair play-houfe — Richard Occur de Lion ; and I could not but remark an uncommon number of pretty women. Is there no antiqua- rian that deduces Englifh beauty from the mixture of Norman blood ? or who thinks, with Major Jardine, that nothing improves fo much as eroding ? to read his agreeable book of travels, one would think none wanted, and yet to look at his daughters, and hear their mufic, it would be impoffible to doubt his fyflem. Supped at the Marquis d’Ecougal’s, at his chateau a la Frenaye* If thefe French marquiffes cannot fhew me good crops of corn and tur- nips, here is a noble one of fomething elfe — of beautiful and elegant daugh- ters, the charming copies of an agreeable mother : the whole family I pro- nounced at the fird: fight amiable : they are chearful, plead ng, interefting : I I want to know them better, but it is the fate of a traveller to meet op- portunities of pleafure, and merely fee to quit them. After fupper, while the company were at cards, the marquis converged on topics in ter e ding to my en- quiries. — 22 f miles. The 2 2d. At this fail* of Guibray, merchandize is fold, they fay, to the amount of fix millions (262,500!.) but at that of Beaucaire to ten : I found the quantity of Englifh goods confiderable, hard and queen’s ware ; cloths and cottons. A dozen of common plain plates, 3 liv. and 4 liv. for a French imi- tation, but much worfe • I afked the man (a Frenchman) if the treaty of com- merce would not be very injurious with fuch a difference" — C'efi pr.ecifeme?it le con~ traire Monf — quelque mauvaife quefoit cette imitation , on n a encore rien fait d' aufji bien en France ; lannee prochaine on fera mieux — nous perfeciionnerons et en fin nous l' emp or ter on s fur vous . — I believe he is a very good politician, and that,, without competition, it is not poffible to perfect any fabric.. A dozen with blue or green edges, Engliih, 5 liv. 5 f Return to Caen ; dine with the Mar- quis of Guerchy, lieutenant-colonel, major, &c. of the regiment, and their wives prefent a large and agreeable company. View the Abbey of Benedic- tines, founded by William the Conqueror. It is a fplendid building, fubflan- tial, maffy., and magnificent, with very large apartments, and flone flair-cafes worthy of a palace. Sup with Monf. du Mefni, captain of the corps de Genie . , to whom I had letters ; he had introduced.me to the engineer employed on the new port, which will bring fhips of three or four hundred tons to Caen, a noble work, and among thole which do honour to France. The 23d. Monf. de Guerchy and the Abbee de , accompanied me to view Harcourt, the feat of the Duke d’Harcourt, governor of Normandy, and of the Dauphin ; I had heard it called the finefl Englifh garden in France, but Ermenonville will not allow that claiirr, though not near its equal as a refidence. Found. f4 B A Y E U X.—C HERBOURG, Found at lafl ahorfe to try in order to profecute my journey a little lefs like Don Quixotte, but it would by no means do; an uneafy humbling beaft, at a price that would have bought a good one j fo my blind friend and I muft jog on ftiil further. 30 miles. The 24th. To Bayeux } the cathedral has three towers, one of which is very light, elegant, and highly ornamented. The 25th. In the road to Carentan, pafs an arm of the fea at IfTigny, which is fordable. At Carentan I found myfelf fo ill, from accumulated colds I fup- pofe, that I was ferioufly afraid of being laid up— not a bone without its aches ; and a horrid dead leaden weight all over me. I went early to bed, waihed down a dofe of antimonial powders, which proved fudorific enough to let me profecute my journey. 23 miles. The 26th. ToVolognes; thence to Cherbourg, a thick woodland, much like Suffex. The Marquis de Guerchy had defired me to call on Monf. Dou- merc, a great improver at Pierbutte near Cherbourg, which I did ; but he was then at Paris : however his bailiff, Monf. Baillio, with great civility fhewed me the lands, and explained every thing. 30 miles. The 27th. Cherbourg. I had letters to the Duke de Beuvron, who commands here ; to the Count de Chavagnac, and M. de Meufnier, of the Academy of Sciences, and tranflator of Cook’s Voyages; the count is in the countiy. So much had I heard of the famous works ereding to form a harbour here, that I was eager to view them without the lofs of a moment : the duke favoured me with an order for that purpofe 5 I therefore took a boat, and rowed acrois the ar- tificial harbour formed by the celebrated cones. As it is poflible that this iti- nerary may be read by perfons that have not either time 01 inclination to leek other books for an account of thefe works, I will in a few words iketch the intention and execution. The French poflefs no port foi fhips of war fiom Dunkirk to Breft, and the former is capable of receiving frigates only. This de- ficiency has been fatal to them more than once in their wars with England, 'whole more favourable coafl affords not only tne Fhames, but the noble harbour of Portfmouth. To remedy the want, they planned a mole acrofs the open bay of Cherbourg ; but to mclofe a fpace fufficient to proted a fleet of the line, would demand fo extended a wall, and fo expofed to heavy feas, that the ex- pence would be far too great to be thought of ; and at the fame time the fuc- cefs too dubious to be ventured. The idea 01 a regular mole was theiefoie given up, and a partial one, on a new plan, adopted ; this was to erect in tne fea, in a line where a mole is wanted, infulated columns of timber and mafonry, of fo vaft a fize, as to refill the violence of the ocean, and to break its weaves fuffi- ciently to permit a bank being formed between column and column. Thefe have been called cones from their form. They are 140 feet diameter at the bafe ; 60 diameter at the top, and 60 feet vertical height, being, when funk CHERBOURG, 9i in the Tea, 30 to 34 feet, immerfed at the low water of high tides. Thefe enor- mous broad-bottomed tubs being confirudted of oak, with every attention to firength and folidity, when finifhed for launching, were loaded with Rone jufi Efficient for linking, and in that Rate each cone weighed 1000 tons (of 2000 lb.) To float them, fixty empty calks, each of ten pipes, were attached around by cords, and in this Rate of buoyancy the enormous machine was floated to its deRined fpot, towed by numberlefs veffels, and before innumerable fpe&ators. At a fignal, the cords are cut in a moment, and the pile finks : it is then filled infiantly with Rone from veffels ready attending, and capped with mafonry. The contents of each filled to within four feet of the furface only, 2500 cubical toifes of Rone*. A vaR number of veffels are then employed to forma bank of Rone from cone to cone, vifible at low water in neap tides. Eighteen cones, by one account, but 33 by another, would complete the work, leaving only two en- trances, commanded by two very fine new-built forts, Roy ale and d' Artois, thoroughly well provided, it is faid, (for they do not fhew them,) with an appara- tus for heating canon balls. The number of cones will depend on the difiances at which they are placed. I found eight finifhed, and the fkeleton frames of two more in the dock-yard; but all is Ropped by the Archbifhop of Toulouze, in favour of the ceconomical plans at prelent in fpeculation. Four of them, the lafi funk, being mofi expofed, are now repairing, having been found too weak to refiR the fury of the Rorms, and the heavy wefierly feas. The lafi cone is much the mofi damaged, and, in proportion as they advance, they will be Rill more and more expofed, which gives rife to the opinion of many fkilful en- gineers, that the whole fcheme will prove fruitlefs, unlefs fuch an expence is befiowed on the remaining cones as would be fufficient to exhauR the revenues of a kingdom. The eight already eredted have for fome years given a new appear- ance to Cherbourg; new houfes, and even Rreets, and fuch a face of adlivity and animation, that the Rop to the works was received with blank countenances. They fay, that, quarry-men included, 3000 were employed. The effedt of the eight cones already eredted, and the bank of Rone formed between them, has been to give perfedt fecurity to a confiderable portion of the intended harbour. Two 40 gun lhips have lain at anchor within them thefe eighteen months pafi, by way of experiment, and though fuch Rorms have happened in that time as have put all to fevere trials, and, as I mentioned before, confiderably damaged three of the cones, yet thefe lhips have not received the fmallefi agitation; hence it is a harbour for a fmall fleet without doing more. Should they ever proceed with the refi of the cones, they muR be built much Rronger, perhaps larger, and far greater precautions taken in giving them firmnefs and folidity : it is alfo a * The toife flx feet. quefiion> :9 6 CHERBOUR G,— C O T E N T 1 N. question, whether they muft not be funk much nearer to each other ; at all events; the proportional expence will he nearly doubled ; but for wars with England, the importance of having a fecure harbour, fb critically fituated, they conSider as equal alnipft to any expenCe ; at leaft this importance has its full weight in the eyes of the people of Cherbourg. I remarked, in rowing acrofs the harbour, that while the fea without the artificial bar was fo rough, that it would have been unpleafant for a boat, within it was quite fmooth. I mounted two of the cones, one of which has this infcription : — Louts X VI. — Stir ce premiere cone echoue le 6 Juin 17 84, a % m Vimmerjion de celui de deft, le 23 Juin 1786. — On the whole, the undertaking is a prodigious one, and does no trifling credit to the Spirit of enterprize of the prefent age in France. The fervice of the marine is a favourite ; whether juStly or not, is another quefcion 5 and this harbour thews, that when this great people undertake any capital works, that are really favourites, they find inventive genius to plan, and engineers of capital talents to execute whatever is devifed* in a manner that does honour to their kingdom. The Duke de Beuvron had aSked me to dinner, but 1 found that if I accepted his invitation, it would then take me the next day to view the glafs manufacture ; I preferred therefore bufi- nefs to pleafure, and taking with me a letter from that nobleman to fecure a fight of it, I rode thither in the afternoon ; it is about three miles from Cher- bourg. Monf. de Puye, the director, explained every thing to me in the molt obliging manner. Cherbourg is not a place for a refidence longer than necef- fary ; I was here fleeced more infamoufly than at any other town in France; the two beft inns were full ; I was obliged to go to the barque , a vile hole, little better than a hog-lty ; where, for a miferable dirty wretched chamber, two fuppers compofed chiefly of a plate of apples and fome butter and cheefe, with fome trifle befides too bad to eat, and one miferable dinner, they brought me in a bill of 31 liv. (il. 7s. id.) they not only charged the room 3 liv. anight, but even the very liable for my horfe, after enormous items for oats, hay, and Straw. This is a fpecies of profligacy which debafes the national character. Calling, as I returned, on Monf. Baillo, I Chewed him the bill, at which he exclaimed for imposition, and faid the man and woman were going to leave off their trade ; and .no wonder, if they had made a practice of fleecing others in that manner. Let no one go to Cherbourg without making a bargain for every thing he has, even to the Straw and liable ; pepper, fait, and table-cloth. 10 miles. , The 28 th, return to Carentan ; and the 29th, pafs through a rich and thickly in- clofed country, to Coutances, capital of thediftriCt called the Cotentin. They build in this country the beft mud houfes and barns I ever faw, excellent habitations, even of three Stories, and all of mud, with considerable barns and other offices. The earth (the beft for the purpofe is a rich brown loam) is well kneaded \vith Straw; and being Spread about four inches thick on the ground, is cut in fquares of C O M B O U R G.- — R E N N £ S. 97 t>f nine inches, and thefe are taken with a Ihovel and tolTed to the man on the wall who builds it ; and the wall built, as in Ireland, in layers, each three feet high, that it may dry before they advance. The thicknefs about two feet. They make them project about an inch, which they cut off layer by layer perfectly fmooth. If they had the Englifh way of white-wafhing, they would look as well as our lath and plaider, and are much more durable. In good homes the doors and windows are in done work. 20 miles. The 30th. A fine fea view of the Ifles of Chaufee, at five leagues didant; and afterwards Jerfey, clear at about forty miles, with that of the town of Grand- val on a high peninfula : entering the town, every idea of beauty is loft ; a clofe, nafty, ugly, ill built hole: market day, and myriads of triflers, common at a French market. The bay of Cancalle, all along to the right, and St. Michael’s rock riling out of the fea, conically, with a caftle on the top, a mod; lingular and pidturefque objedL- 30 miles. The 31ft. At Pont Orlin, enter Bretagne ; there deems here a more'minute divifion of farms than before. There is a long dreet in the epifcopal town of Doll, without a glafs window; a horrid appearance. My entry into Bretagne gives me an idea of its being a miferable province.— 22 miles. September 1 ft . To Combourg, the country has a favage afped ; hulbandfy not much further advanced, at lead: in ikill, than among the Hurons, which appears incredible amidd inclofures; the people almod as wild as their country, and their town of Combourg one of the mod brutal filthy places that can be feen ; mud houfes, no windows, and a pavement fo broken, as to impede all paffengers, but eafe none — yet here is a chateau, and inhabited ; who is this Monf. de Chateaubriant, the owner, that has nerves ftrung for a refidence amidll fuch filth and poverty ? Below this hideous heap of wretchednefs is a fine lake, furrounded by well wooded inclofures. Coming out of Hede, there is a beautiful lake be- longing to Monf. de Blaffac, intendant of Poi&iers, with a fine accompany- ment of wood. A very little cleaning would make here a delicious fcenery. There is a chateau, with four rows of trees, and nothing elfe to be feen from the windows in the true French dyle. Forbid it, tade, that this Ihould be the houfe of the owner of that beautiful water; and yet this Monf. de Blaffac has made at Poicdiers the fined; promenade in France! But that tade which draws a drait line, and that which traces a waving one, are founded on feelings and ideas as feparate and didindt as painting and mufic — as poetry or fculpture. The lake abounds with filh, pike to 361b. carp to 241b. perch 4’lb. and tench 51b. To Rennes the fame drange wild mixture of defert and cultivation, half favage, half human. 31 miles. The 2d. Rennes is well built, and has two good fquares ; that particularly of Louis XV. where is his datue. The parliament being in exile, the houfe Q is is not to be feen. The Benedictines garden, called the Tabour , is worth view- ing. But the object at Rennes moil remarkable at prefent is a camp, with a marOial of France (de Stamville,) and four regiments of infantry, and two of dragoons, dole to the gates. The diicon. tents ot the people have been doubled, fir if on account of the high price of bread, ancLiecondly for the banifhment of the parliament. The former caufe. is natural enough;. but why the people ihouldc love their parliament was what I could not. underhand, fince the members, as well as of the Rates,, are all noble, and the diftindfion between the npbleJJ'e and roturiers no where ftronger, more offenfive, or more abominable than in Bie- tagne. They allured me, however, that the populace have been blown up to? violence by every art of deception, and even by money diflrihuted for, that pur- pofe. The commotions role to fuch a height before the camp was eifabhihed, that. the troops here were utterly unable to keep the peace.. Monf. . A rgentaife,* to whom I had brought letters, had the goodnefs, during the four days I was here, to fhew and explain every thing to be feen.. I. find Rennes very cheap; and it appears the more fo to me juft come, from Normandy, where. - every thing is extravagantly dear. . , The table d’hote, at. th q grand maifon , is well ferved; they give two courfes, containing plenty of good things* and a very ample regular defiert : the flipper one good courfe, with a large joint of mut- ton, and another good defiert ; each meal* , with the common wine, 40 f. and for 2.0 more you have very good wine, inftead.of the ordinary fort; 3 of. for the horfe : thus, with good wine, it is no more than 6 liv. 10 J. a. day, or 5s. iod. Yet a camp of which they. complain has raifed prices enormoufiy. The 5th.. Tu Mantauban.. The poor people feem poor indeed ; the chil- dren terribly ragged, if poflihle. worfe clad than if with no cloaths at. all; as to . ihoes and dockings they are luxuries,.. A* beautiful girl of fix or feven years, playing with a flick, and fmiling under fuch a bundle of rags as made my heart, ache to fee her: ; they did not. beg, and when Fgave them any thing, feemed more furprized than obliged. . One. third of what I have feen of this province feems uncultivated, and nearly all of it in mifery. . What. have kings, and mi- nifters, ' and parliaments, and Rates, , to anfwer for, feeing millions of hands ? that wouid .be. indufirious, yet idle and iiarving, through the execrable maxims-; of defpotifm, or the equally deteflable prejudices of a feudal nobility ?. Sleep at ; at the liorul'.or, at Montauban, an abominable hole.—— — 20 miles. . The 6 th... The fame in doled country to Brooms; butnear that town im- proves to the eye, from being more hilly. At the little town of Lamballe, there, are above fifty families, of noblefie that .live in winter, who refide o.n their eftates > in the dimmer,. There is probably as much foppery and nonfenfe in their circles, and for what I know as much happinefs, as in thole of Paris. Both would be better employed in cultivating their, lands,,, and. Tendering the poor induftriems. . 3 q miles. . The: BAS BRETAGN E.— M ORLAlX. 9$ I hey th. Upon leaving Lamballe, the country immediately changes. The Mar- quis d Urvoy, whom I met at Rennes, and who has a good eftate at St. Brieux, gave me a letter for his agent, who anfwered my queflions.— 12 \ mi e I he 8th. T o Guingamp, a .f ombre inclofed country. Pafs Chateaulandrih, -ana enter Bas Bretagne, One recognizes at once another people, meeting num- bei^ who have not more French than "pe ne fat pas ce que vous elites, or '"fe n ' fit end nen. Enter Guingamp by gateways, towers, and battlement's, apparently or the oldefh military architecture; every part denoting antiquity, and in the heft prelei vation. The poor people s habitations are not io good ; they are miferable heaps of dirt; no glafs, and fcarcely any light ; but they have earth chimnies, I was in my firfl deep at Belleille, when the aubergifee came to my bedlide, un- cirew a curtain, that I expected to cover me with fpiders, to tell me that I had une jmnent Angloife fuper be, and that a feigneur wifhed to buy it of me: I gave -him half a dozen bowers of French eloquence for his impertinence, when he thought proper to leave me and his fpiders at peace. There was a great chajj'e a Tern bled. Fnele Bas Bretagne feigneurs are capital hunters, it feems, who fix on a blind mare for an objeCt of admiration. A-propos to the breeds of horfes in P ranee ; this mare cofl me twenty-three guineas when horfes were dear in Eng- land, and had been fold for fixteen when they were rather cheaper; her figure may therefore be fuelled; yet fhe was much admired, and often in this journey; and as to Bretagne, Ihe rarely met a rival. That province, and it is the fame in parts of Normandy, is infefted in every (table with a pack of garran poney itallions, fuficient to perpetuate the miferable breed that is every where feen. This villainous bole, that calls itfelf the grand maifon , is the belt inn at a poll town on the great road to Breft, at which marfhals of France, dukes,, peers* countefles, and fo forth, muff now and then, by the accidents to which long journies are fubjeCt, have found themfelves. What are we to think of a coun- try that has made, in the eighteenth century, no better provifion for its tra- vellers !- 30 miles. The 9th. Morlaix is the moft fingular port I have feen. It has but one feature, a vale juft wide enough for a fine canal with two quays, and two rows of houfes; behind them the mountain rifes fteep, and woody on one fide; on the other gardens, rocks, and wood ; the efFeCt romantic and beautiful. Trade now very dull, but flourifhed much in the war. 20 miles. The 10th. Fair day at Landervifier, which gave me an opportunity of feeing numbers of Bas Bretons collected, as well as their cattle. The men drefs in great trowfer-like breeches, many with naked legs, and moft with wooden fhoes, ftrong marked features like the Welch, with countenances a mixture of half energy, half lazinefs; their perfons Rout, broad, and fquare. The women fur- rowed without age by labour, to the utter extinction of all foftnefs of fex. The O 2 eye SCO B R E S T. If O R I E N T. eye difcovers them at firft glance to be a people abfolutely diftindt from the French. Wonderful that they Ihould be found fo, with diftindt language, manners, drefs, &c. after having been fettled here 1 300 years. 35 miles. The 1 1 th. I had refpedtable letters, and to refpedtable people at Breft, in order to fee the dock-yard, but they were vain ; Monl. le Chevalier de Tredairne particularly applied for me earneftly to the commandant, but the order, contrary to its being ftiewn either to Frenchmen or foreigners, was too ftridt to be re- laxed without an exprefs diredion from the minifter of the marine; given very rarely, and to which, when it does come, they pay but an unwilling obedience. Monf. Tredairne, however, informed me, that Lord Pembroke law it not long fince by means of fuch an order : and he remarked himfelf, knowing that I could not fail doing the fame, that it was ftrange to fhew the port to an Englifti general and governor of Portfmouth, yet deny it to a farmer.. He however allured me, that the Duke of Chartres- went away but the other day without being permitted to fee it. G retry- s mufic at the theatre,, which, though not large, is neat and even elegant, was not calculated to put me in good humour ; it was Panurge . — Breft is a well built town, with many regular and handfome ftreets, and the quay where many men. of war are laid up, and other fhipping, has much of that life and motion which animates a- fea-port: The 1 2 th. Return.to Landernau, where, at the Due de cOtzri res , which is the beft and cleaned; inn in the bifhopric, as I was a going to dinner, the landlord told me, there was a Monjieur un homme cojnme il ' faut, and the dinner would be better if we united > de tout mon ceenr,. He proved a Bas Breton noble, with his fword and a little miferable but nimble nag.. This feigneur was ignorant that the Duke de Chartres, the. other day at Breft, was not the duke that was in Monf. d’Qrviliier’s fleet. Take the road. to Nantes. 25 miles. The 1 3th. The country to Chateaulin more mountainous; one-third wafte; All this region far inferior to Leon and Praguer ; no exertions, nor any marks of intelligence, yet all near to the great navigation and market of Breft water, and the* foil good.. Quimper, though a bifhopric, has nothing worth feeing but its promenades, which are among the fineft in France. 25 miles. The 1 4th . Leaving Quimper, therefeem to be more cultivated features ; but this only, for amoment ; waftes — waftes — waftes. — Reach Quimperlay. — 27 miles. The. 1.5th* The lame fombre country to 1 - Orient, but with a mixture of cultivation and much wood. 1 found l’Orient fo full- of fools, gaping to fee a man of war launched,, that I could. get no bed for myfelf, nor ftablc lor my horie at the epee royale. At the cbeval blanc , a. poor hole, I got my horfe crammed among twenty others, like, herrings in, a barrel', but could Have no bed. The Duke de Br iliac, with a fuite of oflicers, had no better fuccefs. If the governor of Paris could not, without trouble, get a bed at. I’ Orient, no wonder Arthur Young L’ORIENT, •MUSILIAC. id Young found obstacles. I went directly to deliver my letters, found Monf. Befne, a merchant, at home ; he received me with a frank civility better than a million of compliments ; and the moment he understood my Situation, offered me a bed in his houfe, which I accepted. The Tourville, of 84 guns, was to be launched at three o’clock, but put off till the next day, much to the joy of the aubergiftes, &c. who were well pleafed to fee fuch a Swarm of Strangers kept another day. I wifhed the Ship in their throats, for I thought only of my poor mare being fqueezed a night among the Bretagne garrans ; Sixpence, however, to the garcon, had effects marvelloufly to her eafe. The town is mo- dern, and regularly built, the Streets diverge in rays from the gate, and are eroded by others at right angles, broad, handfomely built, and well paved ; with manyhoufes that make a good figure. But what makes l’Orient more known, is, being the appropriated port for the commerce of India, containing all the Shipping and magazines of the company. The latter are truly great, and fpeak the royal munificence from which they arofe. They are of feveral Stories, and all vaulted in Stone, in a fplendid Style, and of vaft extent. But they want, at leaSt at prefent, like fo many other magnificent establishments in France, the vigour and vivacity of an adtive commerce. The buflnefs tranfadling here feems trifling. Three 84 gun Ships, the Tourville, fEole, and Jean Bart, with a 32 gun frigate, are upon the Stocks. They affured me, that the Tourville has been only nine months building : the feene is alive, and fifteen large men of war being laid up here in ordinary, with fome Indiamen and a few traders, render the port a pleaflng fpedtacle. There is a beautiful round tower, 100 feet high, of white itone, with a railed gallery at top ; the proportions light and agree- able ; it is for looking out and making Signals. My hofpitable merchant I find a plain unaffedted charadter, with fome whimfical originalities, that make him more interesting ; he has an agreeable daughter, who entertains we with Sing- ing to her harp. T he next morning the Tourville quitted her Slocks, to the mufle of the regiments, and the Shouts of thoufands colledted to. fee it. Leave l’Orient. Arrive at Hennebon. j\ miles.. The^ 17th. To Auray, the eighteen pooreft miles I have yet feen in Bre- tagne. Good houfes of Slone and Slate, without glals. Auray has a little port, and fome Sloops, v/hich always give an air of life to a town. To Vannes, the country varied, but landes the more permanent feature. Vannes is not an in- conflderable town, but its greatefl beauty is its port and promenade. The 1 8th. To Mufiliac. Belleifle with the Smaller ones, d’Hedic and d’lJonat, are in Sight. Mufiliac, if it can boaSt of nothing elle, may at leaft vaunt its cheapnefs. I had for dinner two good flat ASh, a difh of oyflers, Soup, a Sine duck roafted j with an ample deffert of grapes, pears, walnuts, bifeuits, liqueur, and a pint of good. Beurdeauxw ine : my mare, beiides hay, had three - fourths >ro,2 A UVE R. G N A *€. fourths of a peck of corn, and the whole 56/ 2/ to the idle and two to the gar- con, in all is. 6d. Pafs landes — landes — landes — to la Roche Bernard. The view of the river Villain e is beautiful from the boldnefs of the fhores 3 there are no infipid fiats 3 the river is two-thirds of the width of the river Thames at W ed- minder, and would be equal to any thing in the world if the fhores were woody, but they are the favage wades of this country. 33 miles. The 19th. Turned. afide to Auvcrgnac, the feat of the Count de la Bourdo- naye, to whom I had a letter from the Duchefs d’Anville, as a perfon able to give me every fpecies of intelligence relative to Bretagne, having for five-and- .twenty years been fil'd; fyndic of the noblede. A fortuitous jumble of rocks .and deeps could fcarcely form a worfe road than thefe .five miles : could I put as .much faith in two bits of wood laid over each other,, as the good folks of the country do, I fhould have eroded myfelf, but my blind friend, with the mod incredible fure-footednefs, carried me fafe over fuch places, that if I had not been in the conflant habit of the faddle, I fhould have fhuddered at, though guided by eyes keen as Eclipfe’s 3 for I fuppofe a fine racer, on whofe velocity lb many fools have been ready to lofe their money, mud have good eyes, as well as good legs . Such a . road, leading to feveral villages, and one of the firft noblemen of the province, .fhews what the date of fociety mud be 3 — no communication — ; no neighbourhood — no temptation to the expences which dow from fociety 3 a mere fecludon .to fave money in order to lpend it in towns. The count received me with great politeneis 3 I explained to him my plan and motives for travelling in France, which he was pleafed very warmly to approve, expreding his furprife that I fhould attempt fo large an undertaking, as fuch a furvey of France, uni up- ported by my government 3 I told him he knew very little of our government, if he Jfuppofed they would give a {hilling to any agricultural projeCt or projector; that whether the minider were whig or tory made no difference, the party of jhe plough never yet had one on its dde 3 and that England has had many Colberts, but not one Sully. This led to much intereding converlation on' the ba- lance of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and on the means of en- couraging them 3 and, in reply to his enquiries, I made him underdand their re- lations in England, and how our hufbandry fburifhed in fpite of our miniders, merely by the protection which civil liberty gives to property : and confequently that it was in a poor duration, comparatively with what it would have been in, had it received the fame attention as manufactures and commerce. I told M. de la Bourdonaye that his province of Bretagne feemed to me to have nothing in it but privileges and poverty 3 he fmiled, and gave me fome explanations that are important 3 but no nobleman can ever probe this evil as it ought to be done, re- fill ting as it does from the privileges going to themfelves, and the poverty to the people. He fhewed me his plantations, which are very fine and well thriven. NAN X, E & i ©3 and fhelter him thoroughly on every fide, even from the S. W. fo near to the fea 5 from his walks we fee BelleiHe and its neighbours, and a little ifle or rock belonging, to him, which he fays the King of England took from him after Sir Edward Hawke’s victory, but that his majefty was kind enough to leave him his ifland after one night’s poffeflion 20 miles. The 20th. Take my leave of Monfieur and Madame de la Bourdonaye, to who fe politenefs as well as friendly attentions I am much obliged. Towards Nazaire there is a fine view of the mouth of the Loire, from the riling grounds, but the headlands that form the embouchure are low, which takes off from that greatnefs- of the effedt which highlands give to the mouth of the Shannon. The fwelling bofom of the Atlantic boundlefs to the right- Savanal is poverty itfelf. 33 miles. The 2 1 ft. Come to an improvement in the midft of thefe de-Herts, four good houfes of ftone and flate, and a few acres run to wretched grafs, which have been tilled, but all favage, and become almoft as rough as die reft. I was after- wards informed that this improvement, as it is called, was wrought by Englifh- men, at the expence of a gentleman they ruined as well as themfelves. — I demanded how it had been done ? Pare and burn, and fow wheat, then rye, and then oats. Thus it is for. ever and ever ! the fame follies, the fame blundering, the fame ignorance y and then all the fools in the country faid, as they do now, that thefe waftes are good for nothing. To my amazement find the incredible circumftance, that they reach within three miles of the. great commercial city of Nantes ! This is a problem and a lefton to work at, but not at prefent. Arrive — go to the theatre, new built of line white ftone, having a magnificent portico of eight elegant Corinthian pillars in front, and four others, to feparate the portico from a grand veftibule. Within all is- gold and painting, and a coup d' 'ceil at entering, that ftruck me forcibly. It is, I believe, twice as large as Drury-Lane, and five times as magnificent.. It. was Sunday, and therefore full . Mon Dieu ! cried I to myfelf, do all the waftes, the deferts, the heath, ling, furz, broom, and bog, that I have "paffed for 300 miles, lead to this fpectacle ?- What a miracle, that all this fplendour and wealth of the cities in France fhould be fo unconnected with the country ! There are no gentle tranfitions from eafe to comfort, from comfort to wealth : . you pafs at once from beggary to profulion, ’ — from mifery in mud cabins to Mademoifelle St. Hubert] in fplendid fpectacles at 500 liv. a night (2 1 1 . 17s. 6d.) The country dcferted, or if a gentleman iitv it,, you find him in lome wretched. hole, to fave that money which is lavifhed with profulion in the luxuries of a capital. — —20 miles. The 2 2d. Deliver. my letters. As much as. agriculture is the chief objedf of, my. journey, it is neceffary to acquire inch intelligence of the ftate of commerce, , as : can he. belt done from merchants, for. abundance of. ufeful information is to be. NANTES. :ac>4 be gained, without putting any quefHons that a man would be cautious of anfwer- ing, and even without putting any quefiions at all. Monf. Riedy was very polite, and fatisfiea many of my enquiries 5 I dined once with him, and was pleafed to find the conversation take an important turn on the relative fituations of France and England in trade, particularly in the Weft-Indies. I had a letter alio to Monf. Epivent, ccnjilier in the parliament of Rennes, whofe brother, Monf. Epivent de la Villelboifnet, is a very confiderable merchant here. It was not poffible for any perfon to be more obliging than thefe two gentlemen ; ; their attentions to me were marked and friendly, and rendered a few days refidence here equally inftru&ive and agreeable. The town has that fign of profperity of new buildings, which never deceives. The quarter of the comedie is magnifi- cent, all the flreets at right angles and of white Rone. I am in doubt whether the hotel de Jdefirt IV.. is not the imeft inn in Europe . 13 efiein s at Calais is largei , but neither built, fitted up, nor furnifiied like this, which is new. It coR 400,000!. liv, (17,5001. furnifhed, and is let at 14,000 liv. perann. (612I. 10s.) with no rent for the firR year. It contains 60 beds for mafters, and 25 Ralls for horfes. Some of the apartments of two rooms, very neat, are 6 liv. a day ; one good 5 liv. but for merchants 5 liv. per diem for dinner, fupper, wine, and chamber, and 35 /. for his horfe. It is, without comparifon, the firR inn I have feen in France, and very cheap. It is in a fmall fquare dole to the theatre, as convenient for pleafore or trade as the votaries of either can wilh. . The theatre coR 450,000 liv. and lets to the comedians at 17,000 liv. a year; it holds, when full, to the value of 1 20 louis d’or. The land the inn Rands on was bought at 9 liv. afoot: in fome parts of the city it fells as high as 15 liv. This value of the ground induces them to build fo hign as to be deRrudive of beauty. The quay has nothing remarkable ; the river is choaked with iflands, but at the furtheR part next to the fea is a large range of houfes iegulaily fronted. An inRitution common in the great commercial towns of France, but particularly llouriRiing in Nantes, is a chambre de ledture , or what we Riould call a book-club, that does not divide its books, but forms a library. There are three rooms, one for reading, another for converiation, ana the third is the libiaiy ; good fires in winter are provided, \and wax candles. Mefirs. Epivent had the gpodnefs to attend me on a water expedition, to view the eRablilhment of Mi. Wilkinfon, for boring cannon, in an illand in the Loire below Nantes. Until that well known Englhh manufadurer arrived, the French knew nothing of the art of caRing cannon folid, and then boring them. Mr. Wilkinfon s machineiy, for boring four cannons, is now at work, moved by tide wheels ; but they have ereded a Ream engine, with a new apparatus for boring feven more ; M. de la Motte, who has the diredion of the whole, Riewed us alio a model of this engine, about fix feet long, five high, and four or five broad; whicn ne worked ANCENI S. A NJOU. lor us, by making a Email fire under the boiler that is not bigger than a large tea-kettle; one of the bed machines for a travelling philofopher that I have feen. Nantes is as enfiammee in the caufe of liberty, as any town in France can be; tne converfations I witnefied here prove how great a change is effe&ed in the minds of the French, nor do I believe it will be pofiible for the prefent govern- ment to laid half a century longer, unlefs the cleared: and mod: decided talents be at the helm. The American revolution has laid the foundation of another in France, if government do not take care of itfelf*. Upon the 23d one of the twelve prifoners from the Badile arrived here — he was the mod: violent of them all— and his imprifonment has been far enough from filencing him The 25th. It was not without regret that I quitted a fociety both intelli- gent and agreeable, nor fhould I feel comfortably if I did not hope to fee Meffrs. Epivents again; I have little chance of being at Nantes, but if they come a fecond time to England, I have a promife of feeing them at Bradfield. The \ younger of thefe gentlemen fpent a fortnight with Lord Shelburne at Bowood, which he remembers with much pleafure ; Colonel Barre and Dr. Priedley were tnere at the fame time. To Ancenis is all inclofed: for feven miles many feats.— 224- miles. The 26th. To the feene of the vintage I had not before been witnefs to fo much advantage as here; lad autumn the heavy rains made it a melancholy bu- finefs. At prefent, all is life and activity. The country all thickly and well inclofed. Glorious view of the Loire from a village, the lad of Bretagne, wheie is a. great barrier acrofs the road and cudom-houfes, to fearch every thing coming thence. The Loire here takes the appearance of a lake large enough to be intereding. There is on both fides an accompanyment of wood, which is not univerfal on this river. The addition of towns, deeples, wind- mills, and a great range of lovely country, covered with vines; the character gay as well as noble. Enter Anjou. Pafs St. George. For ten miles quit the Loire and meet it again at Angers. Letters from Monf. de Brouffonet; but he is unable to inform me in what part of Anjou was the refidence of the Mar- quis oe iourbilly; to find out that nobleman’s farm, where he made thofe ad- mii able improvements, which he deferibes in the Me moire fur les defrichemens , was Inch an objebt to me, that I was determined to go to the place, let the dif- tance out of my way be what it might. 30 miles. The ^7 tn. Among my letters, one to Monf. de la Livoniere, perpetual fe- cretary of the Society of Agriculture here. 1 found he was at his country-feat, two leagues off at Mignianne. On my arrival, he was fitting down to dinner It wanted no great fpirit of prophecy to foretel this; but latter events have fhewn that I ve ‘y Ae mark when I talked of fifty years. was P with Io6 MIGNIANNE. LA FLECFIE. with his family ; not being paff twelve, I thought to have efcaped this awkward- nebs; but both he himfelef and Madame prevented all embarraflment by very unaffectedly defiring me to partake with them 5 and making not the lead de- rangement either in table or looks, placed me at once at my eafe, to an indif- ferent dinner, garnifhed with fo much chearfulnefs, that I found it a repad more to my tade than the mod fplendid tables could afford. An Englffh family in the country, fimilar in fituation, taken unawares in the fame way, would receive you with an unquiet hofpitality, and an anxious politenefs; and after waiting for a hurry-fcurry derangement of cloth, table, plates, iideboard, pot, and fpit, would give you perhaps fo good a dinner, that none ot the famdy, between anxiety and fatigue, could fupply one word of converfation, and you would depart under cordial wilhes that you might never return. This folly, to com- mon in England, is never met with in France: the French are quiet in tneu houfes, and do things without effort.— Monf. Livoniere converfed with me much on the plan of my travels, which he commenaed greatly, but tnoug it it very extraordinary that neither government, noi the Academy of Sciences, nor the Academy of Agriculture, Ihould at lead: be at the expence of my journey. This idea is purely French; they have no notion of private people going out of their way for the public good, without being paid by the public; nor could he well comprehend me, when I told him that every thing is well done in E n g la ™» except what is done with public money. I was greatly concerned to find that he could give no intelligence concerning the refidence of the late Marquis ce Tourbilly, as it would be a provoking circumftance to pafs through all the province without finding his houfe, and afterward hear perhaps that I had been ignorantly within a few miles of it. In the evening return to Angers .—20 miles. The 28th. To La Fleche. The chateau of Duretal, belonging to the Duchefs d’Eftiflac, is boldly fituated above the little town of that name, and on the banks of a beautiful river, the Hopes to which that hang to the fouth are covered with vines. The country chearful, dry, and pleafant for refidence. I enquired here of feveral gentlemen for the refidence of the Marquis de Tour- billy, but all in vain. The 30 miles to La Fleche the road is a noble one, of gravel, fmooth, and kept in admirable order. La Fleche is a neat, clean, little town, not ill built, on the navigable river that flows to Duretal; but the trade is inconfiderable. My hrff bufmefs here, as every where elfe in Anjou, was to enquire for the refidence of the Marquis de Tourbilly. I repeated my en- quiries till I found that there was a place not far from La Fleche, called Tom- billy, but not what I wanted, as there was no Monf.. de Tourbilly there, but a Marquis de Galway, who inherited Tourbilly from his ^father. This perplexed me more and more; and I renewed my enquiries with fo much eager- ncfs, that feveral people, I believe, thought me half mad. At lafl I met with TOURBILLY, 107 an ancient lady who folved my difficulty ; ffie informed me, that Tourbilly, about twelve miles from La Fleche, was the place I was in fearch of: that it belonged to the marquis of that name, who had written fome books ffie be- lieved; that he died twenty years ago infolvent; that the father of the prefen t Marquis de Galway bought the eftate. This was fufficient for my purpofe ; I determined to take a guide the next morning, and, as I could not vifit the mar- quis, at lead: fee the remains of his improvements. The news, however, that he died infolvent, hurt me very much ; it was a bad commentary on his book, and I forefaw, that whoever I ffiould find at Tourbilly, would be full of ridicule on a hufbandry that proved the lofs of the effete on which it was praCtifed. 30 miles. The 29th. This morning I executed my projeCt ; my guide was a countryman with a good pair of legs, who condudled me acrofs a range of fuch ling wades as the marquis fpeaks of in his memoir. They appear boundlefs here; and I was told that I could travel many — many days, and fee nothing elfe : what fields of improvement to make, not to lofe effetes ! At lad: we arrived at Tourbilly, a poor village, of a few fcattered houfes, in a vale between two ridng grounds, which are yet heath and w~ade ; the chateau in the midd, with plantations of fine poplars leading to it. I cannot eadly exprefs the anxious inquidtive curiodty I felt to examine every fcrap of the effete ; no hedge or tree, no buffi but what was interefting to me; I had read the trandation of the marquis’s hidory of his improvements in Mr. Mill’s hufbandry, and thought it the mod: intereding morfel I had met with, long before I procured the original Memoire fur les defri - c Id emeus ; and determined, that if ever I ffiould go to France, to view improve- ments the recital of which had given me fuch pleafure. I had neither letter nor introduction to the prefent owner, the Marquis de Galway. I therefore dated to him the plain faCt, that I had read Monf. de Tourbilly’s book with fo much pleafure, that I widied much to view the improvements defcribed in it; he anfwered medireCtly in good Engliffi, received me with fuch cordiality of polite- nefs, and fuch expreffions of regard for the purport of my travels, that he put me perfectly in humour with myfelf, and consequently with all around me. He ordered breakfad a I’Aiiglois ; gave orders for a man to attend us in our walk, who I dedred might be the olded labourer to be found of the late Marquis de Tourbilly’s. I was pleafed to hear that one was alive who had worked with him from the beginning of his improvement. At breakfad Monf. de Galway intro- duced me to his brother, who alfo fpoke Englifh, and regretted that he could not qo the fame to Madame de Galway, who was confined to her chamber: he then gave me an account of his father’s acquiring the edate and chateau of Tour- billy. His great-grand-father came to Bretagne with King James II. when he ded from the Engliffi throne; fome of the fame family are dill living in the P 2 county io8 TOURBILLY, county of Cork, particularly at Lotta. His father was famous in that province for his fkill in agriculture ; and, as a reward for an improvement he had wrought on the landesy the Hates of the province gave him a wafte tradl in the ifland of Belleifle, which at prefen t belongs to his fon. Hearing that the Marquis de Tourbilly was totally mined, and his eftates in Anjou to be fold by the cre- ditors, he viewed them, and finding the land very improveable, made the pur- chafe, giving about 15,000 louis d’ors^ for Tourbilly, a price which made the acquifition highly advantageous, notwithftanding his having bought fome law- fuits with the eftate. It is about 3000 arpents, nearly contiguous, the feigneury of two parishes, with the haute jujiice , &c. a handfome, large, and convenient chateau, offices very compleat, and many plantations, the work of the celebrated man concerning whom my enquiries were directed. I was almoft breathlefs on the ouefiion of fo great an improver being ruined! “ You are unhappy that a man fhould be ruined by an art you love fo much.” Precifely fo. But he eafed me in a moment, by adding, that if the marquis had done nothing but farm and improve, he had never been ruined. One day, as he was boring to find marl, his ill Bars difcovered a vein of earth, perfectly white, which on trial did not effervefce with acids. It ftruck him as an acquifition for porcelain — he fhevyed it to a manufacturer — it was pronounced excellent : the marquis’s imagination took fire, and he thought of converting the poor village of Tour- billy into a town, by a fabric of china — he went to work on his own account — raifed buildings — and got together all that was neceftary, except fkill and capital. — In fine, he made good porcelain, was cheated by his agents, and peo- ple, and at laft ruined. A foap manufactory, which he eflablifhed alfo, as well as fome law-fuits relative to other eftates, had their fhare in caufing his misfor- tunes : his creditors feized the eftate, but permitted him to adminifter it till his death, when it was fold. The only part of the tale that leflened my regret was, that, though married, he left no family; fo that his afhes will lleep in peace, without his memory being reviled by an indigent pofterity. His an- ceftors acquired the eftate by marriage in the fourteenth century. His agri- cultural improvements, Monf. Galway obferved, certainly did not hurt him ; they were not well done, nor well fupported by himfelf, but they rendered the eftate more valuable; and he never heard that they had brought him into any difficulties. I cannot but obferve here, that there feems a fatality to attend country gentlemen whenever they attempt trade or manufactures. In England I never knew a man . of landed property, with the education and habits of landed proprietors, attempt either, but they were infallibly ruined; or, if not ruined, confiderably hurt by them. Whether it be that the ideas and principles of trade have fomething in them repugnant to the fentiments which ought to flow from education — or whether the habitual inattention of country gentlemen to TOURBILLY, 109 to fmall gains and favings, which are the foul of trade, render their fuccefs im- poflible; from whatever it may arife, the fad: is, not one in a million fucceeds. Agriculture, in the improvement of their ebates, is the only proper and legiti- mate fphere of their indubry > and though ignorance renders this fometimes danges ous, yet they can with fafety attempt no other. The old labourer, whofe name is Piion (as piopitious I hope to farming as to wit}, being arrived, we fallied forth to tread what to me was a fort of claffic ground. I fhall dwell but little on the particulars : they make a much better figure in the Memoire fur les defrtcbemens than at Tourbilly; the meadows, even near the chateau, are yet very rough; the general features are rough: but the alleys of poplars, of which he fpeaks in the memoirs, are nobly grown indeed, and do credit to his memory; they are 60 or 70 feet high, and in girt a foot : the willows are equal. Why were they not oak ? to have tranfmitted to the farming travellers of another century the pleafure I feel in viewing the more perifiiable poplars of the prefent time the caufeways near the cable mufl have been arduous works. The mulberries are in a bate of negledt ; Monf. Galway’s father not being fond of that culture, debroyed many, but fome hundreds remain, and I was told that the poor people had made as far as 251b. offilk, but none attempted at prefent. The meadows had been drained and improved near the chateau to the amount of 50 or 60 arpents, they are now rufhy, but yet valuable in fuch a country. Near them is a wood of bourdeaux pines, fown .35 years ago, and now worth five or fix liv. each. I walked into the boggy bit that produced the great cabbages he men- tioned, it joins a large and mob improveable bottom. Piron informed me that* the marquis pared and burnt about 100 arpents in all, and folded 2^0 ilieep. On our leturn to the chateau, Monf. de Galway, finding what an enthu- fiab I was in agriculture, fearched among his papers to find a manufcript of the Marquis de 1 ourbilly’s, written with his own hand, which he had the goodnefs to make me a prefent of, and which I fhall keepamongb my curiofities in agri- culture. The polite reception I had met from Monf. Galway, and the friendly attention he had given to my views, entering into the fpirit of my purfuit, and wi filing to promote it, would have induced me very chearfully to have accepted his invitation of remaining fome days with him; had I not been apprehenfive that the moment of Madame Galway’s being imbed, would render fuch an un- looked for vifit inconvenient. I took my leave therefore in the evening, and returned to La Fleche by a different road.- 25 miles. The 30th. A quantity of moors to Le Mans ; they affured me at Guerces, that they are here 60 leagues in circumference, with no great interruptions. At Le Mans I was unlucky in Monf. Tournai, fecretary to the Society of Agricul- ture, being abfent. 28 miles. ^October i. Towards Alenpon, the country a contrab to what I paffed )6iteicLy; good land, web incxofed, well built, and tolerably cultivated, with marling. 1 IO ELBEU F, ■ROUEN. marling. A noble road of dark coloured done, apparently ferruginous, that binds well. Near Beaumont vineyards in light on the hills, and thefe are the lad in thus travelling northwards ; the whole country finely watered by rivers and dreams, yet no irrigation. 30 miles. The 2d. Four miles to Nouant, of rich herbage, under bullocks. — 28 miles. The 3d. From Gace towards Bernay. Pafs the Marechal Due de Brog- lio’s chateau at Broglio, which is furrounded by fuch a multiplicity of dipt hedges, double, treble, and quadruple, that he mud half maintain the poor of the little town by clipping. 25 miles. The 4th. Leave Bernay; where, and at other places in this country, are many mud walls, made of rich red loam, thatched at tap, and well planted with fruit trees : a hint very well worth copying in England, where brick and done are dear. Come to one of the riched countries in France, or indeed in Europe. There are few finer views than the fird of Elbeuf, from the eminence above it, which is high; the town at your feet in the bottom; on one fide the Seine pre- fents a noble reach, broken by wooded iflands, and an immenfe amphitheatre of hill, covered with a prodigious wood, furrounding the whole. The 5th. To Rouen, where I found the hotel royal , a contrad to that dirty, impertinent, cheating hole the pomme de pin . In the evening to the theatre, which is not fo large I think as that of Nantes, but not comparable in elegance or decoration ; it is Jombre and dirty. Gretry’s Caravanne de Caire , the mufic of which, though too much chorus and noife, has fome tender and pleafing paf- fages. I like it better than any other piece I have heard of that celebrated com- pofer. The next morning w 7 aited on Monf.' Scanegatty, profejjeur de phyjiqne dans la Societe Roy ale d' Agriculture ; he received me with politenefs. He has a confiderable room furnidted with mathematical and philol'ophical indruments and models. He explained fome of the latter to me that are of his own inven- tion, particularly one of a furnace for calcining gypfum, which is brought here in large quantities from Montmartre. Waited on Medrs. Midy, Rodecand Co. the mod confiderable wool merchants in France, who were fo kind as to fhew me a great variety of wools, from mod of the European countries, and permitted me to take fpecimens. The next morning I went to Darnetal, where Monf. Curmer drewed me his manufacture. Return to Rouen, and dined with Monf. Fortier, direB.eur general des fermes, to whom I had brought a letter from the Due de la Rochefoucauld. The converfation turned, among other fubjeCts, on the want of* new dreets at Rouen, on comparifon with Havre, Nantes, and Bour- deaux; at the latter places it was remarked, that a merchant makes a fortune in ten or fifteen years, and builds; but at Rouen, it is a commerce of (Economy, in which a man does not grow rich fo foon, and therefore unable with prudence to make the fame exertions. Every perfon at table agreed in another point which was difeufied, that the wine provinces are the poored in all F ranee : I urged the produce LOUVIERS. VERNON. hi produce being greater per arpent by far than of other lands; they infilled how- ever on the faCt as generally known and admitted. In the evening at the theatre, Madame du Frefne entertained me greatly ; fhe is an excellent aCtrefs, never over- does her parts, and makes one feel by feeling herfelf. The more I fee of the French theatre, the more I am forced to acknowledge the fuperiority to our own, in the number of good performers, and in the fewnefs of bad ones ; and in the quantity of dancers, fingers, and perfons on whom the bufinefs of the theatre depends, all eflablifhed on a great fcale. I remark, in the fentiments that are applauded, the fame generous feelings in the audience in France, that have many times in England put me in good humour with my countrymen. We are too apt to hate the French; for myfelf I fee many reafons to be pleafed with them; attri- buting faults very much to their government; perhaps in our own, our rough- nefs and want of good temper are to be traced to the fame origin. The 8 th. My plan had for fome time been to go direCtly to England, on leaving Rouen, for the pod-offices had been cruelly uncertain. I had received no letters for fome time from my family, though I had written repeatedly to urge it ; they pafled to a perfon at Paris who was to forward them ; but fome careleffnefs, or other caufe, impeded all, at a time that others, directed to the towns I palled, came regularly; I had fears that fome of my family were ill, and that they would not write bad news to me in a fituation where knowing the word could have no influence in changing it for better. But the defire I had to accept the invitation to La Roche Guyon, of the Duchefs d’Anville and the Due de la Rochefoucauld, prolonged my journey, and I fet forward on this fur- ther excurfion. A truly noble view from the road above Rouen ; the city at one end of the vale, with the river flowing to it perfectly chequered with ifles of wood. The other divides into two great channels, between which the vale is all fpread with iflands, fome arable, fome meadow, and much wood on all. Pafs Pont l’Arch to Louviers. I had letters for the celebrated manufac- turer Monf. Decretot, who received me with a kindnefs that ought to have fome better epithet than polite; he ffiewed me his fabric, unquedionably the frdr woollen one in the world, if fuccefs, beauty of fabric, and an inexhaudible in- vention to fupply with tade all the cravings of fancy, can give the merit of fuch fuperiority. Perfection goes no further than the Vigonia cloths of Monf. De- cretot, at iio liv. (4I. 16s. 3d.) the aulne. He ffiewed me his cotton-mills alfo, under the direction of twaa Englishmen. Near Louviers is a manufacture of copper-plates for the bottoms of the King’s dffips; a colony of Englishmen, I dipped with Monf. Decretot, paffing a very pleafant evening in the company of fome agreeable ladies. 17 miles. The 9th. By Gaillon to Vernon; the vale flat rich arable. Among the notes I had long ago taken of objects to fee in France, was the plantation of mulberries. I 12 LA ROCHE GUYON. mulberries, and. the filk eftablifhment of the Marechal de Belleifle, at Bifiy, near Vernon; the attempts repeatedly made by the fociety for the encourage- ment of arts, at London, to introduce filk into England, had made the limilar undertakings in the north of France more interefcing. I accordingly made all the enquiries that were necefiary for difcovering the fuccefs of this meritorious attempt. Bifiy is a fine place, purchafed on the death of the Due de Belleifle by the Due de Penthievre, who has but one amufement, which is that of varying his refidence at the numerous feats he pofiefies in many parts of the kingdom. There is fomething rational in this tafte ; I fhould like myfelf to have a fcore of farms from the vale of Valencia to the Highlands of Scot- land, and to vifit and diredt their cultivation by turns. From Vernon, crofs the Seine, and mount the chalk hills again ; after which to La Roche Guyon, the mofi: fingular place I have feen. Madame d’Anville and the Due de la Rochefoucauld received me in a manner that would have made me pleafed with the place had it been in the midfi: of a bog. It gave me pleafure to find alfo the Duchefs de la Rochefoucauld here, with whom I had palled fo much agreeable time at Bagnere de Luchon, a thoroughly good woman, with that fimplicity of character, which is too often banilhed by pride of family or foppery of rank. The Abbe Rochon, the celebrated aftronomer, of the Academy of Sciences, with fome other company, which, with the domellics and trappings of a grand feig- neur, gave La Roche Guyon exadtly the refemblance of the refidence of a great lord in England. Europe is now fo much afiimilated, that if one go to a houfe where the fortune is i 5 or 20,000!. a-year, we lhall find in the mode of living much more refemblance than a young traveller will ever be prepared to look for.- 2 3 miles. The 10th. This Is one of the moll fingular places I have been at. The chalk rock has been cut perpendicularly, to make room for the chateau. The kitchen, which is a large one, vaft vaults, and extenfive cellars (which, by the way, are magnificently filled), with various other offices, are all cut out of the rock, with merely fronts of brick; the houfe is large, containing thirty-eight apartments , The prefent duchefs has added a handfome faloon of forty -eight feet long, and well proportioned, with four fine tablets of the Gobelin tapeftry, alfo a library well filled. Here I was ifhewn the ink-hand that belonged to the famous Louvois, the miniher of Louis XIV. known to be the identical one from which he figned the revocation of the edidt of Nantes, and. I fuppofe alfo the order to Turenne to burn the Palatinate. This Marquis de Louvois was grandfather to the two Duchefles d’Anville and d’Eftifiac, who inherited all his ehate, as well as their own family fortune of the houfe of La Roche- foucauld, from which family I conceive, and not from Louvois, they inhe- rited their difpofitions. From the principal apartment, there is a balcony that " leads ROUEN. leads to the walks which Terpentine up the mountain. Like moil French feats, there is a town, and a great potager to remove, before it would be confonant with Englilh ideas. Billy, the Due de Penthievre’s, is juft the fame j before the chateau there is a gently falling vale with a little ftream through it, that admits of the greateft improvements in refpedt to lawn and water, but in full front of the houfe they have placed a great kitchen-garden, with walls enough for a fortrefs. The .houfes of the poor people here, as on the Loire in Touraine, are burrowed into the chalk rock, and have a fingular appearance: here are two Rreets of them, one above another ; they are aflerted by fome to be whole- fome, warm in winter, and cool in fummer; but others thought they were bad for the health of the inhabitants. The Due de la Rochefoucauld had the kind- nefs to order his Reward to give me all the information I wanted relative to the agriculture of the country, and to fpeak to fuch perfons as were neceffary on points that he was in doubt about. At an Englifh nobleman’s houfe, there would have been three or four farmers afked to meet me, who would have dined with the fa- mily amongft ladies of the firR rank. I do not exaggerate, when I lay, that I have had this at lead: an hundred times in the firft houfes of our illands. It is, how-, ever, a thing that, in the prefent Rate of manners in France, would not be met with from Calais to Bayonne, except by chance in the houfe of fome great lord that had been much in England*, and then not unlefs it were afked for. The nobility in France have no more idea of pradtifing agriculture, and making it an objedt of converfation, except on the mere theory, as they would fpeak of a loom or a bowfprit, than of any other objedt the moR remote from their habits and purfuits. I do not fo much blame them for this negledt, as I do that herd of vilionary and abfurd writers on agriculture, who, from their chambers in cities, have, with an impertinence almoR incredible, deluged France with nonfenfe and theory, enough to difguR and ruin the whole nobility of the kingdom. The 1 2th. Part with regret from a fociety I had every reafon to be pleafed with. 35 miles. The 1 3th. The 20 miles to Rouen, the fame features. FirR view of Rouen Ridden and Rriking ; but the road doubling, in order to turn more gently down the hill, prefents from an elbow the fineR view of a town I have ever feen ; the whole city, with all its churches and convents, and its cathedral proudly riling in the midR, fills the vale. The river prefents one reach, eroded by the bridge, and then dividing into two fine channels, forms a large ifland covered with wood ; the reR of the vale full of verdure and cultivation, of gardens and habitations, finilh the feene, in perfedt unifon with the great city that forms the capital feature. Wait on Monf. d’Ambournay, fecretary of the Society of Agriculture, who was * I once knew it at the Due de Liancourt’s, Q. abfent 3 14 DIEPPE. RETURN TO ENGLAND. abfent when I was here before ; we had an interefting converfation on agricul- ture, and on the means of encouraging it. I found from this very ingenious gentleman, that his plan of ufing madder green, which many years ago made fo much noife in the agricultural world, is not pradtifed at prefent any where ; but he continues to think it perfe&ly practicable. In the evening to the play, where Madame Cretal, from Paris, adted Nina-, and it proved the richeft treat I have received from the French theatre. She performed it with an inimitable ex- preffion, with a tendernefs, a naivete , and an elegance withal, that mattered every feeling of the heart, againft which the piece was written: her exprettion is as delicious, as her countenance is beautiful ; in her adting, nothing over- charged, but all kept within the fimplicity of nature. The houfe was crouded, garlands of flowers and laurel were thrown on the ftage, and fhe was crowned by the other adtors, but modeftly removed them from her head, as often as they were placed there.- — 20 miles. The 1 4th. Take the road to Dieppe. Meadows in the vale well watered, and hay now making. Sleep at Tote. — 17I miles. The 15th. To Dieppe. I was lucky enough to find the paffage-boat ready to fail; go on board with my faithful fure- footed blind friend. I fhall pro- bably never ride her again, but all my feelings prevent my felling her in France. Without eyes fhe has carried me in fafety above 1 500 miles ; and for the reft of her life fhe fhall have no other matter than myfelf ; could I afford it, this fhould be her laft labour : fome ploughing, however, on my farm, fhe will perform for me, I dare fay, chearfully. Landing at the neat, new-built town of Brighthelmftone, offers a much greater contraft to Dieppe, which is old and dirty, than Dover does to Calais and in the cattle inn I feemed for a while to be in fairy land; but I paid for the enchantment. The next day to Lord Sheffield’s, a houfe I never go to, but to re- ceive equal pleafure and inftrudtion. I longed to mike one for a flioi t time in the evening library circle, but I took it ftrangely into my head, from one or two ex- preffions, merely accidental, in the converfation, coming after my want of letters to France, that I had certainly loft a child in my abfence; and I hurried to London next morning, where I had the pleafure of finding my alarm a falfe one ; letters enow had been written, but all failed. To Bradfield.-— 202 miles.. LEAVE ENGLAND. ”5 1789. IN my two preceding journies, the whole weftern half of France had been croffed in various directions ; and the information I had received, in making them, had made me as much a matter of the general hufbandry, the foil, management and productions, as could be expeCted, without penetrating in every corner, and redd- ing long in various ttations 3 a method of furveying fuch a kingdom as France, that would demand feveral lives inftead of years. The eattern part of the kingdom re- mained unexamined. The great mafs of country, formed by the triangle, whofe three points are Paris, Strafbourg and Moulins, and the mountainous region S. E. of the latt town, prefented in the map an ample fpace, which it would be neceflary to pals before I could have fuch an idea of the kingdom as I wittied to acquire ; I determined to make this third effort, in order to accomplifh a defign which appeared more and more important, the more I reflected on it ; and lefs likely to be executed by thofe whofe powers are better adapted to the undertaking than mine. The meeting of the States General of France alfo, who were now affembled, made it the r 'more neceflary to lofe no time ; for, in all human probability, that affembly will be the epoch of a new conflitution, which will have new etteCts, and, for what I know, attended with a new agriculture ; and to have the regal fun in fuch, a kingdom, both rife and fet without the terri- tory being known, mutt of neceflity be regretted by every man folicitous for real political knowledge. The events of a century and half, including the bril- liant reign of Louis XIV. will for ever render the fources of the French power interefling to mankind, and particularly that its ttate may be known previoufly to the eflablifhment of an improved government, as the comparifon of the effeCls of the old and new lyftem will be n$$| a little curious in future. June 2. To London. At night. La Generojita d’ Ale '(fandro, by Tarchi, in which Signor Marchefl exerted his powers, and fung a duet, that made me for fome moments forget ail the fheep and pigs of Bradfield. I was, however, much better entertained after it, by flipping at my friend Dr. Burney’s, and meet- ing Mifs Burney 3 how feldom is it that we can meet two characters at once in whom great celebrity deduCts nothing from private amiablenefs ? How many dazzling ones that we have no deflre to live with ! give me fuch as to great ta- lents add the qualities that make us with to Jhut up doors with them. The 3d. Nothing buzzing in my ears but the fete given latt night by the Spanifh ambaffador. The beft fete of the prefent period is that which ten mil- lions of people are giving to themfelves, T- he feaft of reafon and the flow of foul. OL 2 The PARIS. 116 The animated feelings of bofoms beating with gratitude for the efcape of one com- mon calamity, and the thrilling hope of the continuance of common bleffings. Meet at Mr. Songa’s the Count de Berchtold, who has much good fenfe and many important views : — Why does not the Emperor call him to his own coun- try, and make him a minifter ? The world will never be well governed till princes know their fubjedts. The 4th f To Dover in the machine, with two merchants from Stockholm, a German and a Swede; we fhall be companions to Paris. I am more likely to learn fomething ufeful from the converfation of a Swede and a German, than from the chance medley Englifhmen of a ftage-coach. -72 miles. The 5th. Palfage to Calais; 14 hours for refledtion in a vehicle that does not allow one power to reflect.— —21 miles. The 6th. A Frenchman and his wife, and a French teacher from Ireland, full of foppery and affectation, which her own nation did not give her, were our company, with a young good-natured raw countryman of hers, at whom the played off many airs and graces. The man and his wife contrived to produce a pack of cards, to banifh, they faid, I'enuye of the journey ; but they contrived alfo to fleece the young fellow of five louis. This is the firft French diligence I have been in, and fhall be the laft ; they are deteftable. Sleep at Abbeville.— 78 miles. Thefe men and women, girls and boys, think themfelves (except the Swede) very chearful becaufe very noify ; they have {tunned me with finging ; my ears have been fo tormented with French airs, that I would almoft as foon have rode the journey blindfold on an afs. This is what the French call good fpirits ; no truly chearful emotion in their bofoms ; filent or finging ; but for conver- fation they had none. I lofe all patience in fuch company. Heaven fend me a blind mare rather than another diligence ! We were all this night, as well as all the day, on the road, and reached Paris at nine in the morning. 102 miles. The 8 th. To my friend Lazowfld, to know where were the lodgings I had written him to hire me, but my good Duchefs d’Eftiffac would not allow him to execute my commiflion. I found an apartment in her hotel prepared for me. Paris is at prefent in fuch a ferment about the States General, now holding at Verfailles, that converfation is abfolutely abforbed by them. Not a word of any thing elfe talked of. Every thing is confidered, and juftly fo, as important in fuch a crifis of the fate of four-and- twenty millions of people. It is now a ferr- ous contention whether the reprefentatives are to be called the Commons or the Tiers Etaty they call themfelves ffeadily the former, while the court and the great lords rejedt the term with a fpecies of apprehenfion, as if it involved a meaning not ealily to be fathomed. But this point is of little confequence com- pared with another* that has kept the flates for fome time in inactivity, the veri- fication, PARIS. !I7 fication of their power feparately or in common. The nobility and the clergy demand the former, but the Commons Readily refufe it ; the reafon why a circumfiance, apparently of no great confequence, is thus tenacioufly regarded, is, that it may decide their fitting for the future in feparate houfes or in one. Thofe who are warm for the interefl of the people declare that it will be im- poffible to reform fome of the grofieR abufes in the Rate, if the nobility, by fitting in a feparate chamber, fhall have a negative on the wifhes of the people : and that to give fuch a veto to the clergy would be Rill more prepoRerous ; if there- fore, by the verification of their powers in one chamber, they fhall once come together, the papular party hope that there will remain no power afterwards to feparate. The nobility and clergy forefee the fame refult, and will not therefore agree to it. In this dilemma it is curious to remark the feelings of the moment. It is not my bufinefs to write memoirs of what paffes, but I am intent to catch, as well as I can, the opinions of the day moR prevalent. While I remain at Paris, I fhall fee people of all defcriptions, from the coffee-houfe politicians to the leaders in the Rates ; and the chief objedt of fuch rapid notes as I throw on paper, will be to catch the ideas of the moment ; to compare them afterwards with the adtual events that fliall happen, will afford amufement at leafi. The moR pro- minent feature that appears at prefent is, that an idea of common interefi and common danger does not feem to unite thofe, who, if not united, may find them- felves too weak to oppofe the danger that mufi arife from the people being fen- lible of a Rrength the refult of their w^eaknefs. The king, court, nobility, clergy, army, and parliament, are nearly in the fame fituation. All thefe con- fider, with equal dread, the ideas of liberty, now afloat; except the firR, who, for reafons obvious to thofe who know his character, troubles himfelf little, even with circumRances that concern his power the moR intimately. Among the refi, the feeling of danger is common, and they would unite, were there a head to render it eafy, in order to do without the Rates at all. That the com- mons themfelves look for fome fuch hoRile union as more than probable, appears from an idea which gains ground, that they will find it neceffary, fhould the other two orders continue to unite with them in one chamber, to declare themfelves boldly the reprefentatives of the kingdom at large, calling on the nobility and clergy to take their places — and to enter upon deliberations of bufinefs with- out them, fiiould they refufe it. All converfation at prefent is on this topic, but opinions are more divided than I fhould have expected. There feem to be many who hate the clergy fo cordially, that rather than permit them to form a difiindt chamber, they would venture on a new fyfiem, dangerous as it might prove. The 9th. The bufinefs going forward at prefent in the pamphlet fhops of Paris is incredible. I went to the Palais Royal to lee what new things were pub— lifhed, and to procure a catalogue of all. Every hour produces fomething new. Thirteen 1x8 PARIS. Thirteen came out to-day, fixteen yefterday, and ninety-two laft week. We think fometimes that Debrett’s or Stockdale’s (hops at London are crouded, but they are mere deferts, compared to Defein’s, and fome others here, in which one can fcarcely fqueeze from the door to the counter. The price of print- ing two years ago was from 27 liv. to 30 liv. per ftieet, but now it is from 60 liv. to 80 liv. This fpirit of reading political tra&s, they fay, fpreads into the pro- vinces, fo that all the preffes of France are equally employed. Nineteen- twentieths of thefe productions are in favour of liberty, and commonly violent again!! the clergy and nobility } I have to-day befpoken many of this defcription, that have reputation ; but enquiring for fuch as had appeared on the other fide of the queftion, to my aftoni!hment I find there are but two or three that have merit enough to be known. Is it not wonderful, that while the prefs teems with the moft levelling and even feditious principles, which put in execution would over- turn the monarchy, nothing in reply appears, and not the lea!! ftep is taken by the court to reftrain this extreme licentioufnefs of publication ? It is eafy to conceive the fpirit that muft thus be raifed among the people. But the coffee- houfes in the Palais Royal prefent yet more fingular and aftonifhing fpeClacles ; they are not only crouded within, but other expectant crouds are at the doors and windows, liftening a gorge deployed to certain orators, who from chairs or tables harangue each his little audience : the eagernefs with which they are heard, and the thunder of applaufe they receive for every fentiment of more than common hardinefs or violence againff the prefent government, cannot eafily be imagined. I am all amazement at the miniffry permitting fuch nefts and hot- beds of fedition and revolt, which diffeminate among!! the people, every hour, principles that by and by muft be oppofed with vigour, and therefore it feems little ftiort of madnefs to allow the propagation at prefent. The 10th. Every thing confpires to render the prefent period in France critical : the want of bread is terrible : accounts arrive every moment from the provinces of riots and difturbances, and calling in the military, to pre- ferve the peace of the markets. The prices reported are the fame as I found at Abbeville and Amiens 5/i (2fd.) a pound for white bread, and 3 \f. to 4 ./, for the common fort, eaten by the poor : thefe rates are beyond their facul- ties, and occafion great mifery. At Meudon, the police, that is to fay the intendant, ordered that no wheat fhould be fold in the market without the perfon taking at the fame time an equal quantity of barley. What a ftupid and ridiculous regulation, to lay obftacles on the fupply, in order to be better fupplied ; and to !hew the people the fears and apprehenfions of government, creating thereby an alarm, and railing the price at the very moment they with to fink it ! I have had !ome converfation on this topic with well informed per- fons, who have affured me, that the price is, as ufual, much higher than the proportion PARIS. 119 proportion of the crop demanded, and there would have been no real, fcarcity if Mr. Necker would have let the corn-trade alone ; but his edicts of redaction, which have been mere comments on his book on the legifiation of corn, have operated more to raife the price than all other caufes together. It appears plain to me, that the violent friends of the commons are not difpleafed at the high price of corn, which feconds their views greatly, and makes any appeal to the common feeling of the people more eafy, and much more to their purpofe than if the price were low. Three days pad, the chamber of the clergy contrived a cunning proportion ; it was to fend a deputation to the commons, propofing to name a commiffion from the three orders to take into confideration the mifery of the people, and to deliberate on the means of lowering the price of bread. This would have led to the deliberation by order, and not by heads, confequently mud; be rejected, but unpopularly fo from the lituation of the people: the commons were equally dextrous ; in their reply, they prayed and conjured the clergy to join them in the common hall of the dates to deliberate, which was no fooner reported at Paris than the clergy became doubly an objeCt of hatred; and it became a quedion with the politicians of the Caffe de Foy , whether it were not lawful for the commons to decree the application of the edates of the clergy towards ealing the didrefs of the people. The 1 ith. I have been in much company all day, and cannot but remark, that there feem to be no fettled ideas of the bed means of forming a new con- ditution. Yederday the Abbe Syeyes made a motion in the houfe of commons, to declare boldly to the privileged orders, that if they will not join the commons, the latter will proceed in the national budnefs without them ; and the houfe de- creed it, with a fmall amendment. This caufes much converfation on what will be the confequence of fuch a proceeding ; and, on the contrary, on what may flow from the nobility and clergy continuing deadily to refufe to join the com- mons, and fhould they fo proceed, to proted againd all they decree, and appeal to the king to diflolve the dates, and recal them in fuch a form as may be practicable for bufinefs. In thefe mod intereding difcudions, I find a general ignorance of the principles of government ; a drange and unaccountable appeal, on one fide, to ideal and vifionary rights of nature ; and, on the other, no fettled plan that lhall give fecurity to the people for being in future in a much better fituation than hitherto ; a fecurity abfoTutely necefiary. But the nobility, with the principles of great lords that I converfe with, are mod difgudingly te- nacious of all old rights, however hard they may bear on the people ; they will not hear of giving way ip the lead to the l'pirit of liberty beyond the point of paying equal land.-taxes, which they hold to be all that can with reafon be de- manded. The popular party, on the other hand, feem to confider all liberty as depending on the. privileged clafies being lod, and outvoted in the order of the commons,, 120 PARIS. commons, at leaft for making the new conftitution j and when I urge the great probability, that £houid they once unite, there will remain no power of ever feparating them ; and that in fuch cafe, they will have a very queftionable con- Ritution, perhaps a very bad one ; I am always told, that the firft objeCt mull be for the people to get the power of doing good ; and that it is no argument againll fuch a conduct to urge that an ill ufe may be made of it. But among fuch me% the common idea is, that any thing tending towards a feparate order, like our houfe of lords, is ahfolutely inconfiflent with liberty; all which feema per- fectly wild and unfounded. The 1 2th. To the royal fociety of agriculture, which meets at the hotel de ville , and of which being an ajfocie , I voted, and received a jetton , which is a fmall medal given to the members, every time they attend, in order to in- duce them to mind the bufinefs of their inftitution ; it is the fame at all royal academies, &c. and amounts, in a year, to a coniiderable and ill-judged ex- pence; for what good is to be expeCted from men who would go merely to receive their jetton ? Whatever the motive may be, it feems well attended : near thirty were prefent; among them Parmentier, vice-prefident, Cadet de Vaux, Fourcroy, Tillet, Defmarets, Broulfonet, fecretary, and Crete de Palieul, at whole farm I was two years ago, and who is the only practical farmer in the fociety. The fecretary reads the titles of the papers prefented, and gives fome little account of them ; but they are not read unlefs particularly interefting ; then memoirs are read by the members, or reports of references ; and when they difcufs or debate, there is no order, but all fpeak together as in a warm private converla- tion. The Abbe Raynal has given them 1200 liv. (52I. 10s.) for a premium on fome important fubjeCt ; and my opinion was alked what it fhould be given for. Give it, I replied, in fome way for the introduction of turnips. But that they conceive to be an objeCt of impofiible attainment ; they have done fo much, and the government fo much more, and all in vain, that they confider it as a hope- lefs objeCt. I did not tell them that all hitherto done has been abfolute folly ; and that the right way to begin, was to undo every thing done. I am never pre- fent at any focieties of agriculture, either in France or England, but I am much in doubt with myfelf whether, -when belt conducted, they do molt good or mif- chief ; that is, whether the benefits a national agriculture may by great chance owe to them, are not more than counterbalanced by the harm they effeCt, by turn- ing the public attention to frivolous objeCts, inltead of important ones, or drelf- ing important ones in fuch a garb as to make them trifles ? The only fociety that could be really ufeful would be that which, in the culture of a large farm, fhould exhibit a perfect example of good hulbandry, for the ufe of fuch as would re- fort to it ; confequently one that fhould confift lolely of practical men ; and then query whether many good cooks would not fpoil a good dilh. The The ideas of the public on the great bufinefs going on at Verfailles change daily and even hourly. It now feems the opinion, that the commons, in their late violent vote, have gone too far ; and that the union of the nobility, clergy, army, parliament, and King, will be by far too powerful for them • fuch an union is faid to be in agitation ; and that the Count d’Artois, the Queen, and the party ufually known by her name, are taking deps to efTed it, againd the moment when the proceedings of the commons fhall make it necef- fary to ad with unity and vigour. The abolition of the parliaments is a- topic of common converfation among the popular leaders, as a dep effentially neceffary ; becaufe, while they exid, they are tribunals to which the court can have refort; fhould they be inclined to take any dep againd the exidence of the dates : thofe bodies are alarmed, and fee with deep regret, that their refufal to regider the royal edids has created a power in the nation not only hodile, but dangerous to their exidence. It is now very well known and underdood on all hands, that fhould the King get rid of the dates, and govern on any tolerable principles, his edids would be enregidered by all the parliaments. In the dilemma and apprehenfion of the moment, the people look very much to the Due d’Orleans, a$ to a head; but with palpable and general ideas of didrud and want of confi- dence ; they regret his charader, and lament that they cannot depend on him in any fevere and difficult trial : they conceive him to be without deadinefs, and that his greated apprehenfion is to be exiled from the pleafures of Paris, and tell of many littleneffes he pradifed before, to be recalled from banifhment. They are, however, fo totally without a head, that they are contented to look to him as one ; and are highly pleafed with what is every moment reported, that he is determined to go at the head of a party of the nobility, and verify their powers in common with the commons. All agree, that had he firmnefs, in addition to his vad revenue of feven millions a year (306,250k) and four more ( 1 75, oool.) in reverfion, after the death of his father-in-law, the Due de Pen- thievre, he might, at the head of the popular caufe, do any thing. The 1 3 th. In the morning to the King’s library, which I had not feen when before at Paris; it is a vad apartment, and, as all the world knows, nobly filled. Every thing is provided to accommodate thofe who wifh to read or tranferibe-^ of whom there were fixty or feventy prefent. Along the middle of the rooms are glafs cafes, containing models of the indruments of many trades preferved for the benefit of poderity, being made on the mod exaft fcale of propor* tion; among others the potter’s, founder’s; brickmaker’s, chymid’s, & c. &c. and lately added a very large one of the Englifh garden, mod miferably imagined * but with all this not a plough, or an iota of agriculture; yet a farm might be much eafier reprefented than the garden they have attempted, and with infinitely more ufe, I have no doubt but there may arifemany cafes, in which the pre- & fervation vs* FAR! S. fervatton of mftruments, unaltered, may be of confiderable utility ; I think Jiee clearly, that fuch a ufe would refult in agriculture, and, if fo, why not m other arts > Thefe cafes of models, however, have fo much the air of children s play- houfes, that I would not anfwer for my little girl, if I had her here, not crying for them. At the Duchefs d’Anville’s, where meet the Archbifhop of Aix, Bilhop of Bfois, Prince de Laon, and Due and Duchefs de la Rochefoucauld, the three lad of my old Bagnere de Luchon acquaintance. Lord and Lady; Camelford, Lord byre, ccc. &c. _ t , c . , All this day I hear nothing but anxiety of expectation for what the enfis in the ftates will produce. The embarraffinent of the moment is extreme. Every one agrees that there is no miniftry : the Queen is clofely conne&ng herfe f with the- otrtv of the princes, with the Count d’Artois at their head ; who are all fo adverfe to Monf. Necker, that every thing is in eonfufion: but the King, w o is nerfonaliy the honefteft man in the world, has but one wifli, which is to do rio-ht • yet beino- without thofe decifive parts that enable a man to forefee' difficulties and to avoid- them, finds himfelf in a moment of iuch extreme pei-- nlexity that he knows not what council to take refuge m : it is faid that MonL Necker is- alarmed for his power, and anecdote reports- things to his difadvan- tao-e which probably are not true of his trimming— and attempting to connect himfelf with the Abbd de Vermont, reader to the Queen, who has g-reat influence in all affairs in which he- chufes to interfere ; this is hardly credible, as that party are known to be exceedingly adverfe to Monf. Necker ; and it is even faid, that, as the Count d’ Artois, Madame de Pohgnac, , and a few others were, but two days ago, walking in* the pnvate garden of \ erlailles, they met Madame- Necker, and defeended even to hiding her:, lfhali this be true, it is plain enough that this minifler muff fpeedily retire. All who adhere to the antient conftitution, or rather government, confider him a* their mortal enemy they affert, and truly, that he came in under cireumffances that, would have enabled him to da-every thing he pleafed— he had King and kingdom at command but that the errors he was guilty of, for want of fome. lei tied pam, have been the caufe of all the dilemmas experienced fince.. They accuie him heavily of affembling the notables, as afelfeftep that did nothing but mifchief: and affert that his letting the King go to the ftates -general, before their pov/ei 3 were verified, and the neeeflary fteps taken to keep the orders feparate, after eivin-" double the reprefentation to the tiers to that of the other two orders, was madnefs ; and that he ought to have appointed, commiffaries to have received the verification before admittance-. They aecufe; him further of: having done all this through an exceffive- and infufferable vanity,, which gave hitn the idea of guiding the deliberation of the ftates by his knowledge; and reputation! Jt is exprefsly afferted, however, hy M.- Necker ’s moft intimate friends,, that PARI 123 he has acRed with good faith, and that he has been in principle a friend to the regal power, as well as to an amelioration of the condition of the people. The word: thing I know of him is his fpeech to the Rates on their afiembling, — a great opportunity, but loft, — no leading or mafterly views, — no decifion on circumftances in which the people ought to be re- lieved, and new principles of government adopted; — it is the fpeech you would expedt from a banker’s clerk of fome ability. Concerning it there is an anecdote worth inferring; he knew his voice would not enable him to go through the whole of it, in fo large a room, and to fo numerous an aflembly ; and therefore he had fpoken to Monf. de Brouffonet, of the Academy of Sciences, and fecretary to the Royal Society of Agriculture, to be in readinefs to read it for him. He had been prefent at an annual general meeting of that fociety, when Monf. de Brouffonet had read a difcourfe with a powerful piercing voice, that was heard diftindbly to the greateft diftance. This gentleman attended him feveral rimes to take his inftru&ions, and to be fure of underftanding the interlineations that were made, even after the fpeech was finifhed. M. de Brouffonet was with him the evening before the affembly of the Rates, at nine o’clock : and next day, when he came to read it in public, he found Rill more corrections and altera- tions, which Monf. Necker had made after quitting him; they were chiefly in Ryle, and fhewed how very folicitous he was in regard to the form and deco- ration of his matter : the ideas in my opinion wanted this attention more than the Ryle. Monf. de Broulfonet himfelf told me this little anecdote. This morning in the Rates three curees of Poitou have joined themfelves to the com- mons, for the verification of their powers, and were received with a kind of inadnefs of applaufe ; and this evening at Paris nothing elfe is talked of. The nobles have been all day in debate, without coming to any conclufion, and have adjourned to Monday. The 14th. To the King’s garden, where Monf. Thouin had the goodnefs to ftiew me fome fmall experiments he has made on plants that promife greatly for the farmer, particularly the lathyrus biennis *, and the melilotus fyberica which now make an immenfe figure for forage ; both are biennial ; but will laft three or four years if not feeded ; the Achilla a fyberica and an ajlragalus appear good ; he has promifed me leeds. The Chineie hemp has perfected its feeds, which it had not done before in France. The more I fee of Monf. Thouin the better I like him ; he is one of the moR amiable men I know. To the repofitory of the royal machines, which Monf. Vandermond fhewed and explained to me, with great readinefs and politenefs. What Rruck me moR was Monf. Vaucuflon’s machine for making a chain, which I was told Mr. Watt of * I fince cultivated thefe plants in fmall quantities, and believe them to be a very important object. R 2 Birmingham si4 PARIS. Birmingham admired very much, at which, my attendants Teemed not difpleafed. Another for making the cogs indented in iron wheels. There is a chaff cut- ter, from an Englifh original ; and a model of the nonfenfical plough to go without horfes ; thefe are the only ones in agriculture. Many of very inge- nious contrivance for winding filk, &c. In the evening to the theatre Fran- cis, the Siege of Calais, by Monf. de Belloy, not a good, but a popular per- formance. It is now decided by the popular leaders, that they will move to-morrow to declare all taxes illegal not raifed by authority of the dates general, and to grant them for a term only, either for two years, or for the duration of the prefent feflion of the dates. This plan is highly approved at Paris by all friends of li- berty ^ and it is certainly a rational mode of proceeding, founded on juft prin- ciples, and will involve the court in a great dilemma. The i rth. This has been a rich day, and fuch an one as ten years ago none could believe would ever arrive in France ; a very important debate being expe&ed on what, in our houfe of commons, would be termed the date of the nation, my friend Monf. Lazowfki and myfelf were at Verfailies by eight in the morn- ing. We went immediately to the hall of the dates to fecure good feats in the gallery ; we found fame deputies already there, and a pretty numerous audience colic died. The room is too large; none but Stentorian lungs, or the fined cleared voices can be heard; however the very fize of the apartment, which admits 2000 people, gave a dignity to the feene. It was indeed an intereding one. The fpe&acle of the reprefen tatives of twenty-five millions of people, jud emerging from the evils of 200 years of arbitrary power, and riling to the bleffin^s of a freer conftitution, affembled with open doors under the eye of the publict was framed to call into animated feelings every latent fpark,. every emotion of a liberal bofom. To hanifh whatever ideas might intrude of their being a people too often hoftile to my own country, — and to dwell with pleafure on the glorious idea of happinefs to a great nation— of felicity to millions yet un- born . Monf. F Abbe Syeyes opened the debate. He is one. of the mod zealous ' fticklers for the popular caufe;, carries his ideas not to a- regulation of the pre— fent government, which he. thinks too bad to be regulated at all, but wifhes to fee it abfolutely overturned,, being in faft a violent republican: this is the character he commonly bears, and in his pamphlets he feems pretty much, to juftify fuch an idea. He fpeaks ungracefully,, and uneloquently, but: logically, or rather, reads, fo, for he read his fpeech, which was prepared. His motion was to declare the. affembly the representatives known and veri- fied of the. French nation, admitting the right of all ah fent deputies, (the nobility and clergy) to be received among them on the. verification of their powers, Monf. . de Miraheau. fpoke. without notes, for near an hour, with a, - ' warmth. PARIS. warmth, animation, and eloquence, that entitles him to the reputation of an un- doubted orator. He oppofed the words known and 'verified , in the proportion of Abbe Syeyes, with great force of reafoning ; and propofed, in lieu, that they ihould declare themfelves limply Reprefentatives du peuple Francois: that no 'veto Ihould exifl againfl: their refolves in any other affiembly : that all taxes are illegal, but fhould be granted during the prelent fellion of the Hates, and no longer : that the debt of the king Ihould become the debt of the nation, and be fecured on funds accordingly. Monf. de Mirabeau was well heard, and his propolition much applauded. Monf. de Mounier, a deputy from Dauphine, of great reputation, and who has publilhed fome pamphlets, very well approved by the public, moved a different refolution, to declare themfelves the legiti- mate reprefentatives of the majority of the nation: that they Ihould vote by head and not by order : and that they Ihould never acknowledge any right in the reprefentatives of the clergy or nobility to deliberate feparately. Monf. Rabaud St. Etienne, a proteftant from Languedoc, alfo an author, who has written on the prefent affairs* and a man of confiderable talents, made like wife his propofition, which was to declare themfelves the reprefentatives of the people of France y to declare all taxes null y to regrant them during the fitting ©f the Hates y to verify and confolidate the debt y and to vote a loan. All which were well approved except the loan, which was not at all to the feeling of the" affiembly This gentleman fpeaks clearly and with precifion, and only paffiages of his fpeech from notes. Monf. Bernarve, a very young man, from Grenoble,., fpoke without notes- with great warmth and animation. Some of his periods were fo well rounded, and fo eloquently delivered, that he met with much ap- plaufe, feveral members crying — bravo l In regard to their general method of proceeding, there are two circumHances in which they are very deficient : the fpedtators in the galleries are allowed to > interfere in the debates by clapping their hands, and by other noify expreffions of approbation this is grofsly indecent ; it is alfo dangerous y for, if they be permitted to exprefs approbation, they are,, by parity of reafon, allowed expreffions of diffent; and they may hifs as well as clap y which, it is faid,. they have fometimes done: — this would be, to over-rule the debate, and in- fluence the deliberations. Another circumHance, is the want of order among . themfelves y more than once to-day there were an hundred members on their, legs at a time, and Monf. Bail lie abfolutely without power to keep order. This arifes very much from complex.motions being admitted y to move a decla-»- ration relative to their title, to their powers, to taxes, to a loan, &c. &c. all in one propofition, appears to Englifh ears prepoHerous, and certainly is fo. Spe-* cific motions, founded on Angle and Ample propofitions, can alone produce or- 1 der in debate 5 for it is endlefs to have Ave hundred members declaring their reafon^ PARIS. reafons of alien t to one part of a complex proportion, and their diffent to an- other part. A debating all'tmbly fhould not proceed to any bufinefs whatever till they have fettled the rules and orders of their proceedings, which can only be done by taking thofe of other experienced affemblies, confirming them as they find ufeful, and altering fuch as require to be adapted to different circum- ftances. The rules and orders of debate in the houfe of commons of England, as I afterwards took the liberty of mentioning to Monf. Rabaud St. Etienne, might have been taken at once from Mr. Hatiel’s book, and would have faved them at lead a fourth of their time. They adjourned for dinner. Dined our- felves with the Due de Liancourt, at his apartments in the palace, meeting twenty deputies. — I fat by M. Rabaud St. Etienne, and had much converfation with him ; they all fpeak with equal confidence on the fall of defpotifm. They fore- fee, that attempts very adverfe to the fpirit of liberty will be made, but the fpirit of the people is too much excited at prefent to be crufhed any more. Finding that the quedion of to-day's debate cannot be decided to-day, and that in all probability it will be unfinifhed even to-morrow, as the number that will fpeak on it is very great, return in the evening to Paris. The 1 6th. To Dugny, ten miles from Paris, again with Monf. de Brouffo- net, to wait on Monf. Crete de Palieul, the only practical farmer in the Society of Agriculture. M. Brouffonet, than whom no man can be more eager for the honour and improvement of agriculture, was defirous that I fhould witnefs the practice and improvements of a gentleman who dands fo high in the lid of good French farmers. Called fird on the brother of Monf. Crete who at prefent has the pojie, and confequently 140 horfes 5 walked over his farm, and the crops he fhewed me of wheat and oats were on the whole very fine, and fome of them fuperior ; but I mud confefs I fhould have been better pleafed with them if he had not had his dables fo well filled with a view different from that of the farm. And to look for a courfe of crops in France is vain; he lows white corn twice, thrice, and even four times in fucceflion. At dinner, &c. had much converfation with the two brothers, and with tome other neighbour- ing cultivators prefent, on this point, in which I recommended either turnips or cabbages, according to the foil, for breaking their rotations of white corn. But every one of them, except Monf. de Brouffonet, was againd me ; they de- manded, Can we fow wheat after turnips and cabbages ? On a fmall portion you may and with great fuccefs ; but the time of confirming the greater part of the crop renders it impoffible. That is fujficient , if we cannot fow wheat after them , they camiot be good in France. This idea is every where nearly the fame in that kingdom. I then faid, that they might have half their land under wheat, and yet be good farmers; thus — 1. Beans; — 2. Wheat; — 3. Tares;-— 4, Wheat; — 5 . Clover ; — 6 . Wheat ; — this they approved better of, but thought 1 v - their PARIS. 127 their* own couffes more profitable. But the moll in tere fling circumflance of their farms is the chicory ( chicorium intybus ). I had the fatisfadfion to find, that Monf. Crete de Palieul had as great an opinion of it as ever; that his bro- ther had adopted it ; that it was very flourishing on both their farms, and on thofe of their neighbours alfo : I never fee this plant but I congratulate myfelf on having travelled for fomething more than to write in my clofet ; and that the introduction of it in England would alone, if no other refuk had flowed from one man’s exiflence, have been enough to Shew that he did not live in vain. Of this excellent plant, and Monf. Crete’s experiments on it, more elfe- where. The 17th. Conversation turns on the motion of l’Abbe Syeyes being accepted,, though that of the Count de Mirabeau better relifhed. But bis character is a dead weight upon him ; there is a fufpicion that he has received 100,000 liv. from- the Queen ; a blind, improbable report > for his conduCt would in every proba- bility be very different had any fuch tranfaCtion taken place : but when a man’s life has not paffsd free from grofs errors, to ufe the mildeft language, fufpicions are ever ready to fix on him, even when he is as free from what ought at the- moment to give the imputation, as the moft immaculate of their pa- triots. This report brings out others from their lurking holes ; that he publifhed, at her in (ligation, the anecdotes of the court of Berlin ; and that, the King of Prufiia, knowing the caufes of that publication, circulated the- memoirs of Madame de la Motte all over Germany.. Such are the eternal tales, fufpicions, and improbabilities for which Paris has always been fo famous. One clearly, however, gathers from the complexion of Gonver- fation, even on the mod ridiculous topics, provided of a public nature, how far, and for what reafon, confidence is lodged in certain men. In every com- pany, of every rank, you hear of the Count de Mirabeau’s talents ; that he is one of the firff pens of France, and the firfl orator ; and yet that he could not carrv from confidence fix votes on any queftion in the ftates. His writings,, how- ever, fpread in Paris and the provinces : he publifhed a. journal of the dates,, written for a few days with fuch force, and fiich feverity, that it was iilenced.. by an exprefs edi£t of government. This is attributed to Monf. Necker, who was treated in it with lb little ceremony, that his vanity was wounded to the quick. The number of fubfcribers to the journal was fuch, that I have heard, the profit to Monf. Mirabeau calculated at 80,000 liv~ (35,00k) a year.. Since its ihppreflion, he publishes once or twice a week a fmall pamphlet, to anfwer the famepurpole of giving an account of the debates, or rather obferva— , tions on them, entitled,. 1,2, 3, &c. Lcttre de Comte de Mirabeau a fes Commet— tans , which, though violent, larcaftic, and fevere, the court has not thought proper to flop,, refpedting,. I fuppofe, its title. It is a weak and mile table, con- , dubtj. V A R I ‘S. iiaS du£t, to fmgle out any particular publication for prohibition, while the prefs crroans with innumerable productions, whofe tendency is abfolutely to overturn the prefent government; to permit fuch pamphlets to be circulated all over the kino-dom, even by the polls and diligences in the hands of government, is a blindnefs and folly, from which there are no effedts that may not be expedted. In the evening to the comic opera; Italian mufic, Italian words, and Italian performers ; and the applaufe fo inceftant and rapturous, that the ears of the French mull be changing apace. What would Jean Jacques have faid, could he have been a witnefs to fuch a fpedtacle at Paris ! The 1 8th. Yefterday the commons decreed themfelves, in confequence of the Abbe Syeyes’s intended motion, the title of AfJ'emblee Nationale ; and alfo, confidering themfelws then in activity, the illegality of all taxes ; but granted them during the feftion, declaring that they would, without delay, deliberate on the confolidating of the debt; and on the relief of the miferyof the people. Thefe Heps give great fpirits to the violent partizans of a new conftitution, but amongft more fober minds, I fee evidently an apprehenfion, that it will prove a precipitate meafure. It is a violent Hep, which may be taken hold of by the court, and converted very much to the people’s difadvantage. Thereafoning of Monf. de Mirabeau againft it was forcible and juft — Si je voulois employer contre les autres motions les armes dont on fe fert pour attaquer la mienne , ne pourrois-je pas dire a mon tour : de quelque maniere que vous-vous qualtfiez , que vous foyez les reprefentans connus & verifies de la nation , les reprefentans de 25 millions d’bommes* les reprefentans de la major it e du peuple , dujjiez-vous mime vous appeller V AJjem- blee Nationale 9 les etats generaux, empecherez-vous les clajfes privilegiees de continuer des ajfemblees que fa majefU a reconnues ? Les empecherez-vous de prendre des de- liber at iones ? Les empecherez-vous de pretendre au veto ? Empecherez-vous le Roi de les re-cevoir ? De les reconnoitre , de leur continuer les memes Litres quil leur a donnes jufqua prefent ? Enfin , empecherez-vous la nation dl appeller le clerge , le clerge , la noble fe, la noblejje ? To the Royal Society of Agriculture, where I gave my vote with the reft, who werje unanimous for electing General Wafhington an honorary member ; this was a propofal of Monf. de Brouflonet, in confequence of my having affured him, that the general was an excellent farmer, and had correfponded with me on the fubjedt. Abbe Commerel was prefent ; he gave a pamphlet on a ndw project, the choux a fauche , and a paper of the feed. The 19th. Accompanied Monf. de Brouffonet to dine with Monf. de Par- mentier, at the hotel des invalids. A prefident of the parliament, a Monf. Mailly, brother-in-law to the chancellor, was there ; Abbe Commerel, &c. &c. I remarked two years ago, that Monf. Parmentier is one of the beft of men, and beyond all queftion underftands every circumftance of the boulangerie better than any P* ARTS. 129 any other writer, as his productions clearly manifeffi. After dinner, to the plains of Sablon, to fee the fociety’s potatoes and preparation for turnips, of which I (hall only fay that I with my brethren to hick to their fcientific farm- ing, and leave the practical to thofe who underhand it. What a fad thing for philofophical hufbandmen that God Almighty created fuch a thing as couch ( triticum repens.) The 20th. News ! — News ! — Every one hares at what every one might have expeCted. A meffage from the King to the preii dents of the three orders, that he (hould meet them on Monday ; and, under pretence of preparing the hall for the fcance royale , the French guards were placed with bayonets to prevent any of the deputies entering the room- The circumhances of doing this ill-judged aCt of violence have been as ill-advifed as the aCt itfelf. Monf. Bailly received no other notice of it than by a letter from the Marquis de Breze, and the depu- ties met at the door of the hall, without knowing that it was (hut. Thus the feeds of difguff were fown wantonly in the manner of doing a thing, which in itfelf was equally impalatable and uncon ftitutional. The refolution taken on the fpot was a noble and firm one ; it was to affemble inflantly at the Jeu de paume , and there the whole affembly took a folemn oath never to be diffolved but by their own confent, and to confider themfelves, and a Cl as the National Affembly, let them be wherever violence or fortune might drive them; and their expectations were fo little favourable, that exp relies were fen-t off to Nantes, intimating that the National Affembly might poffibly find it neceffary to take refuge in fome diffant city. This meffage, and placing guards at the hall of the dates, are the refult of long and repeated councils, held in the King’s prefence at Marly, where he has been (hut up for fome days, feeing nobody ; and no perfon admitted, even to the officers of the court, without jealoufy and circumfpeClion. The King’s brothers have no feat in the council, but the Count d’ Artois inceffantly attends the refolutions, conveys them to the Queen, and has long conferences with her. When this news arrived at Paris, the Palais Royal was in a frame, the coffee-houfes, pamphlet- ffiops, corridores, and gardens were crouded, — alarm and apprehenfion fat in every eye, — the reports that were cir- culated eagerly, tending to (hew the violent intentions of the court, as if it were bent on the utter extirpation of the French nation, except the party of the Queen, are perfectly incredible for their grofs abfurdity : yet nothing was fo glaringly ridiculous, but the mob fwallowed it with undifcriminating faith. It was, however, curious to remark, among people of another defcription (for I was in feveral parties after the news arrived), that the balance of opinions was clearly that the National Affembly, as it called itfelf, had gone too far — had been too precipitate — and too violent — had taken ffeps that the mafs of the people would not/upport. From which we may conclude, that if the court, having S * feen PARIS, X30 feen. the tendency of their late proceedings, fhall purfue a firm and politic plan, the popular caufe will have little to boaft. The 2 1 fir. It is impofiible to have any other employment at fo critical a mo- ment, than going from houfe to houfe demanding news ; and remarking the opinions and ideas moil current. The prefent moment is, of all others, perhaps that which is moft pregnant with the future deftiny of France. The ftep the commons have taken of declaring themfelves the National Affembly, independent of the other orders, and of the King himfelf, precluding a diffolution, is in fad: an afiumption of all the authority in the kingdom. They have at one ftroke converted themfelves into the long parliament of Charles I, It needs not the afiiflance of much penetration to fee that if fuch a pretenfion and declaration be not done away. King, Lords, and Clergy are deprived of their fhare-s in the legifiature of France. So bold, and apparently defperate a ftep, equally deftruc- tive to the royal authority, the parliaments, and the army, and to every intereft in the realm, can never be allowed. If it be not oppofed, all other powers will lie in ruins around that of the commons. With what anxious expedation muff one therefore wait to fee if the crown will exert itfelf firmly on the occafion, with fuch an attention to an improved fyftem of liberty, as is abfolutely necef- fary to the moment! All things confidered, that is, the charaders of thofe who are in poffeffion of power, no well digefted fyftem and fteady execution are to be looked for. In the evening to the play ; Madame Rocquere performed the Queen in Hamlet ; it may eafily be fuppofed how that play of Shakefpeare is cut in pieces. It has however effeCt by her admirable adting. The 2 2d. To Verfailles at fix in the morning, to be ready for the feance royals. Breakfafting with the Due de Liancourt, we found that the King had put off going to the ftates till to-morrow morning. A committee 01 council was held laft night, which fat till midnight, at which were prefent Monfieur and the Count d’Artois for the firft time : an event confidered as extraordinary, and attributed to the influence of the Queen. The Count d’Artois, the deter- mined enemy of Monf. Necker’s plans, oppofed his fyftem, and prevailed to have the feance put off to give time for a council in the King’s prefence to-day. From the chateau we went to find out the deputies ; reports were various where they were affembling. To the Re co lets, where they had been, but finding it incommodious, they went to the church of St. Louis, whither we followed them, and were in time to fee M. Bailly take the chair, and read the King’s letter, putting off the feance till to-morrow. The fpedtacle of this meeting was fingular, — the crowd that attended in and around the church was great — and the anxiety and fufpenfe in every eye, with the variety of expreffion that flowed from different views and different characters, gave to the countenances of all the world an impreftion I had never witneffed before. The only bufinels .of PARIS. * 3 * of importance tranfa&ed, but which laded till three o’clock, was receiving the oaths and the fignatures of fome deputies, wffio had not taken them at the Jeu de paume ; and the union of three bifhops and 150 of the deputies of the clergy, who came to verify their powers, and were received by fuch applaufe, with inch clapping and touting from all prefent, that the church refounded. Apparently the inhabitants of Verfailles, which having a population of 6o,oco people can afford a pretty numerous mob, are to the lad perfon in the intereft of the com- mons; remarkable, as this town is abfolutely fed by the palace; and if the caufe of the court be not popular here, it is eafy to fuppofe what it mud be in all the red of the kingdom. Dine with the Due de Liancourt, in the pa- lace, a large party of nobility and deputies of the commons, the Due d’Orleans amongd them; the Bifhop of Rodez, Abbe Syeyes, and Monf. Rabaud St. Etienne. This was one of the mod driking indances of the impreffion made on men of different ranks by great events. In the dreets, and in the church of St. Louis, fuch anxiety was in every face, that the importance of the moment was written in the phydognomy; and all the common forms and falutations of habitual civility iodin attention: but amongd a clafs fo much higher as thofe I dined with, I was druck with the difference. There were not, in thirty per- fons, five in whole countenances you could guefs that any extraordinary event was going forward : more of the convention was indifferent than I ihould have expeded. Had it all been fo, there would have been no room for wonder; but obfervations were made of the greated freedom, and fo received as to mark that there was not the lead impropriety in making them. In fuch a cafe, would not one have expeded more energy of feeling and expreffion, and more attention in convention to the crifis that mud in its nature fill every bofom? Yet they ate, and drank, and fat, and walked, loitered, and fmirked and fmiled, and chatted with that eafy indifference, that made me dare at their infipidity. Perhaps there is a certain nonchalance that is natural to people of fafhion from long habit, and which marks them from the vulgar, who have a thoufand afperities in the expreffion of their feelings, that cannot be found on the poliihed furface of thofe whofe manners arefmoothed by fociety, not worn by attrition. Such an obfer- vation would therefore in all common cafes be unjud; but I confefs the prefent moment, which is beyond all quedion the mod critical that France has feen from the foundation of the monarchy, fince the council was affembled that mud finally determine the King’s condud, was fuch as might have accounted for a behaviour totally different. The prefence of the Due d’Orleans might do a little, but not much; his manner might do more; for it was not without fome dilgud, that I obferved him feveral times playing off that finall fort of wit, and fiippant readinefs to titter, which, I fuppofe, is a part of his character, or it would not have appeared to-day. From his manner, he feemed not at all dif- S 2 pleafed. PARI S. 132 pleated. The Abbe Syeyes has a remarkable phyfiognomy, a quick rolling eye ; penetrating the ideas of other people, but to cautioufly referved as to guard his own. There is as much character in his air and manner as there is vacuity of it in the countenance of Monf. Rabaud St. Etienne, whofe phyfiognomy, how- ever, is far from doing him juflice, for he has undoubted talents. It teems agreed, that if in the council the Count d’ Artois carries his point, Monf. .Nec- ker, the Count de Montmorin, and Monf. de St. Pried: will refign ; in which cafe Monf. Necker’s return to power, and in triumph, will inevitably happen. Such-a turn, however, muff depend on events. Evening. — The plan of the Count d’ Artois accepted; the King will declare it in his fpeech to-morrow. Monf. Neeker demanded to retign, but was refufed by the King. All is now anxiety to know what. the plan is. The 23d. The important day is over: in the morning Verfailles feemed filled with troops : the ftreets, about ten o’clock,, were lined with the French guards, and fome Swifs- regiments, &c. : the hall of the Rates was furrounded, and centinels fixed in all the pafiages, and at the doors; and none but deputies admitted. This military preparation was ill judged, for it feemed admitting the impropriety and unpopularity of the intended meafure, and the expectation, perhaps fear, of popular commotions. They pronounced, before the King left the chateau, that his plan was adverfe to the people, from the military parade with which it was ufhered in. The contrary, however, proved to be the fad..; ..the propolitions are known to all the world : the plan was a good one; much was granted to the people in great and efi'ential points ; and as it was granted before they had provided for thofe public neceffities of finance, which occafioned the flates being called together; and confequently left them at full power in future to procure for the people all that opportunity might prefent, they apparently ought to accept them, provided fome fecurity be given for the future meetiqgs of the Rates, without which all the reft would be inlecure; but as a little nego- tiation may eafily fecure this, I apprehend the deputies will accept them condi- tionally: the ufe of fold iers, and fome imprudencies in the manner of forcing the King’s lyftem, relative to the interior conftitution, and alfembling of the -deputies, as well as the ill-blood which had had time to brood for three days paft in their minds, prevented the commons from receiving the King with any expre (lions of applaule; the .clergy, and fome of the nobility, cried vive le Rot! but treble the number of mouths being filent, took -off all effed. It feems - they had previoully determined to fubmit not to violence: when the King was igone, and the clergy and nobility retired, the Marquis de Breze waiting a moment to fee if they meant to obey the King’s exprefs orders, to retire alio to another chamber prepared for them, and perceiving that no one moved, addrelfed - them , — MeJJieurss vous connoijjkz les -intentions du .Roi . A dead filence enfued; PARIS. *33 and then it was that fuperior talents bore the fway, that overpowers in critical moments all other confederations. The eyes of the whole affembly were turned on the Count de Mirabeau, who inflan tly replied to the Marquis de Breze — Oui, Monjieur , nous avons entendre les intentions qu on a fuggerees au Roi, & vo us nui ne faurtez etrejon organe aupres des etats ge’neraux , vous qui navez ici ni place , ni voix , ni droit de parler , vous n etes pas fait pour nous rapeller fon difcours. Cependant pour \ eviter toute equivoque , & tout delai , je vous declare que fi Von vous a charge de nous faire fortir d'ici, vous devez demander des ordres pour employer la force, car nous ne quit ter ons nos places que par la puijjance de la baionette . — On which there was a general, cry of — Tel eft le vceu de V AfembleL They then immediately palled a confirmation of their preceding arrets; and, on the motion of the Count de Mirabeau, a declaration that their perfons, indivi-' dualiy.and collectively, were facred ; and that all who made any attempts againfl them fetould be deemed infamous traitors to their country. The 24th. The ferment at Paris is beyond conception; 10,000 people have been all this day in the Palais Royal ; a full detail of yederday’s proceedings was brought this morning, and read by many apparent leaders of little parties, with comments to the people. To my furprife, the King’s proportions are re- ceived with univerfal difgufl. He faid nothing explicit on the periodical meet- ing of the dates ; he declared all the old feudal rights to be retained as pro- perty. Thefe, and the change in the balance of representation in the provincial aiTemblies, are the articles that give the greated offence. But, indead of looking to, or hoping for further conceffions on thefe points, in order to make them more conformant to the general wifhes, the people feem, with a fort of phrenzy, T° rejeCl all idea of compromife, and* to indd. on the necedity of the orders uniting, that full power may confequently redde in the commons, to effeCl what they call the regeneration of the kingdom; a favourite term, to which they affix no precife idea, but add the indefinite explanation of the general reform of all abufes. They are alfo full of fufpicions at M. Necker’s offering to redgn, to which circumdance they feem to look more than to much more effen- tial points. It is plain to me, from many, conversions and harangues I have been witnefs to, that the condant meetings at the Palais Royal, which are car- ded to a degree of licentioufnefs and fury of liberty, that is fcarcely credible, united with the innumerable inflammatory publications that have been hourly appearing fince the aflembly of the dates, have fo heated the people's expecta- tions, and given them the idea of fuch total changes, that nothing the King or court could do/ would now fatisfy them; confequently it would be idlenefs itfelf to make conceffions that are not. deadily adhered to, not only to be obferved by the King, but to be enforced on the people, and good order at the fame time redored. But the dumbling- block to this and every plan that can be devifed. 134 PARIS. as the people know and declare in every corner, is the fituation of the finances, which cannot poffibly be restored but by liberal grants of the Rates on the one hand, or by a bankruptcy on the other. It is well known, that this point has been warmly debated in the council : Monf. Necker has proved to them, that a bankruptcy is inevitable, if they break with the Rates before the finances are reftored ; and the dread and terror of taking fuch a Rep, which no minifier would at prefent dare to venture on, has been the great difficulty that oppofed itfelf to the projects of the Queen and the Count d’ Artois. The meafure they have taken is a middle one, from which they hope to gain a party among the people, and render the deputies unpopular enough to get rid of them : an expectation, however, in which they will infallibly be mifiaken. If, on the fide of the people it be urged, that the vices of the old government make a new fyfiem necefiary, and that it can only be by the firmeR meafures that the people can be put in pofieffion of the bleffings of a free government; it is to be replied, on the other hand, that the perfonal character of the King is a juR foun- dation for relying that no meafures of aCtual violence can be ferioufly feared : that the Rate of the finances, under any poffible regimen, whether of faith or bankruptcy, mufi fecure their exifience, at leaf for time fufficient to fecure by negotiation, what may be hazarded by violence; that by driving things to ex- tremities, they riique an union between ail the other orders of the Rate, with the parliaments, army, and a great body even of the people, who mufi difap- prove of all extremities ; and when to this is added the poffibility of involving the kingdom in a civil war, now fo familiarly talked of, that it is upon the lips of all the world, we mufi confefs, that the commons, if they Readily refufe what is now held out to them, put immenfe and certain benefits to the chance of for- tune, to that hazard which may make poRerity curie, infiead or blefs, their me- mories as real patriots, who had nothing in view but the happinels of their country. Such an incefiant buz of politics has been in my ears for fome days paR, that I went to-night to the Italian opera, for relaxation. Nothing could be better calculated for that efieCt, than the piece performed, La Villanella Ra- pita , by Bianchi, a delicious compoiition. Can it be believed, that this people, who fo lately valued nothing at an opera but the dances, and could hear no- thing but a fquall — now attend with feeling to Italian melodics, applaud with tafie and rapture, and this without the meretricious aid of a fingle dance! The mufic of this piece is charming, elegantly playful, airy, and pleafing, with a duet, between Signora Mandini and Vdgagnoni, of the firR lufire. The former is a mofi fafcinating finger — her voice nothing, but her grace, expreffion, foul, all fining to exquifite feniibility. The 25th. The criticifms that are made on Monf. Necker’s conduct, even by his friends, if above the level of the people, are fevere. It is politively af- ferted. PARIS. *35 ferted, that Abbe Syeyes, Meffrs. Mounier, Chapellier, Bernave, Target, Tou- rette, Rabaud, and other leaders, were almoR on their knees to him, to in lift peremptorily -on his refignation being accepted, as they were well convinced that his retreat would throw the Queen's party into infinitely greater difficulties and embarraffment than any other circumRance. But his vanity prevailed over all their efforts, to liften to the iniidious perfuafions of the Queen, who fpoke to him in the ftyle of afking it as a requeR, that he would keep the crown on the King’s head; at the fame time that he yielded to do it, contrary to the intereft of the friends of liberty, he feemed fo pleated with the huzzas of the mob of Verfailles, that it did much mifchief. The miniRers never go to and from the King’s apartment on foot, acrofs the court, which Monf. Necker took this op- portunity of doing, though he himfelf had not done it in quiet times, in order to court the flattery of being called the father of the people, and moving with an immenfe and ffi, outing multitude at his heels. Nearly at the time that the Queen, in an audience al mod; private, fpoke as above to M. Necker, fhe received the deputation from the nobility, with the Dauphin in her hand, whom fhe pre- fented to them, claiming of their honour, the protection of her Ion’s rights; clearly implying, that if the Rep the King had taken was not Readily purfued, the monarchy would be loR, and the nobility funk. While M, Necker ’s mob was heard through every apartment of the chateau, the King paffed in his coach to Marly, through a dead and mournful filence — and that juR after hav- ing given to his people, and the caufe of liberty, more perhaps than ever any monarch had done before. Of fuch materials are all mobs made — fo impof- fible is it to fatisfy in moments like thefe, when the heated imagination dreffes every vifionary project of the brain in the bewitching colours of liberty. I feel great anxiety to know what will be the refult of the deliberations of the commons, after their RrR proteRs are over, againR the military violence which was fo unjuRffiably and injudicioufly ufed. Had the King’s propofition come after the fupplies were granted, and on any inferior queRion, it would be quite another affair ; but to offer this before one fhilling is granted, or a Rep taken, makes all the difference imaginable. Evening.-— The conduct of the court is inexplicable, and without a plan; while the late Rep was taken, to fecure the orders fitting feparate, a great body of the clergy had been permitted to go to the commons, and the Due d’Orleans, at the head of forty-feyen of the nobility, has done the fame : and, what is equally a proof of the unReadinefs of the court, the commons are in the common hall of the Rates, contrary to the ex- prefs command of the King. The fa ft is, the feance royale was repugnant to fhe perfonal feelings of the King, and he was brought to it by the council, with much difficulty; and when it afterwards became neceffary, as it did every hour, to give new and e Re dive orders to fupport the fyRem then laid down, it was requifite P ARIS. 136 requiftte to have a new battle for every point ; and thus the fcheme was only opened, and not perfifted in this is the report, and apparently authentic : it is eafy to fee, that that ftep had better, on a thoufand reafons, not have been taken at all, for all vigour and effect of government will be loft, and the people be more aftuming than ever. Yefterday, at Verfailles, the mob was violent— they infulted, and even attacked all the clergy and nobility that are known to be ftre- nuous for preferving the feparation of orders. T. he Bifhop of Beauvais had a ftone on his head, that almoft ftruck him down*. The Archbilhop of Paris had all his windows broken, and forced to move his lodgings 5 and the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld hilled and hooted. The confufion is fo great, that the court have only the troops to depend on ; and it is now faid confidently, that if an order be given to the French guards to fire on the people, they will refufe obedience: this aftonifhes all, except thofe who know how they have been dif- gufted by the treatment, condudt, and manoeuvres of the Due de Chatelet, their colonel : fo wretchedly have the affairs of the court, in every particular, been managed; fo miferable its choice of the men in offices, even iuch as are the moft intimately conne&ed with its fafety, and even exiftence. What a lefion to princes, how they allow intriguing courtiers, women, and fools, to interfere, or affume the power that can be lodged, with fafety, only in the hands of ability and experience ! It is aiferted exprefsly, that thefe mobs have been excited and inftigated by the leaders of the commons, and fome of them paid by the Due d’ Orleans. The diftradtion of the miniftry is extreme. — At night to the theatre Francois ; the Earl of Effex, and the Maifon de Moliere. The 26th. Every hour that paftes feems to give the people frefh fpirit : the meetings at the Palais Royal are more numerous, more violent, and. more af- fured; and in the affembly of electors, at Paris, for fending a deputation to the National Affembly, the language that was talked, by all ranks of people, was nothing lefs than a revolution in the government, and the eftablifhment of a free conftitution : what they mean by a free conftitution, is eafily underftood a republic ; for the dodtrine of the times runs every day more and more to that point; yet they profefs, that the kingdom ought to be a monarchy too; or, at leaft, that there ought to be a king. In the ftreets one is ftunned by the hawkers of feditious pamphlets, and deferiptions of pretended events, that all tend to keep the people equally ignorant and alarmed. 1 he fupinenefs, and even ftupidity of the court, is without example: the moment demands the greateft decifion — and yefterday, wmle it was actually a queftion, whether * If they had treated him more feverely, he would not have been an objedt of much p.ty. At a meeting of the Society of Agriculture in the country, where common farmfers were admitted to dine with people of the firft rank, this proud fool made difficulties of fitting down in fuch company. he PARIS. 137 he fhould be a Doge of Venice, or a King of France, the King went a hunting! The fpe&acle of the Palais- Royal prefented this night, till eleven o’clock, and, as we afterwards heard, almoft till morning, is curious. The croud was pro- digious, and fire-works of all forts were played off, and all the building was illuminated : thefe were faid to be rejoicings on account of the Due d’ Orleans and the nobility joining the commons ; but united with the exceffive freedom, and even licentioufnefs of the orators, who .harangue the people ; with the general movement which before was threatening, all this buttle and noife, which will not leave them a moment tranquil, has a prodigious effeCt in pre- paring them for whatever purpofes the leaders of the commons fhail have in view ; confequently they are grofsly and diametrically oppofite to the interetts of the court ; — but all thefe are blind and infatuated. It is now underflood by every body, that the King’s offers, in the feance roydle , are out of the queflion. The moment the commons found a relaxation, even in the trifling point of af- fembling in the great hall, they difregarded all the refl, and confidered the whole as null, and not to be taken notice of, unlefs enforced in a manner of which there were no figns. They lay it down for a maxim, that they have a right to a great deal more than what the King touched on, but that they will accept of nothing as the conceffion of power : they will aflume and fecure all to them- felves, as matters of right. Many perfons I talk with, feem to think there is nothing extraordinary in this, — but it appears, that fuch pretenfions are equally dangerous and inadmiflibie, and lead direCtly to a civil war, which would be the height of madnefs and folly, when public liberty might certainly be fe- cured, without any fuch extremity. If the commons are to aflume every thing as their right, what power is there in the Irate, fliort of arms, to prevent them from affuming what is not their right ? They inftigate the people to the mofl extenlive expectations, and if they be not gratified, all mufl be confufion ; and even the King himfelf, eafy and lethargic as he is, and indifferent to power, will by and by be ferioufly alarmed, and ready to liften to ineafures, to which he will not at prefent give a moment’s attention. All this feems to point ftrongly to great confufion, and even civil commotions j and to make it apparent, that to have accepted the King’s offers, and made them the founda- tion of future negociation, would have been the wifeft conduCt — and with that idea I fhail leave Paris. I he 27th. 1 he whole bufinefs now feems over, and the revolution complete. The King has been frightened by the mobs into overturning his own act of the feance royale , by writing to the prefidents of the Orders of the nobility and clergy, requiring them to join the commons, — in direCt contradiction to what he had or- dained before. It was reprefented to him, that the want of bread was fo great in every part of the kingdom, that there was no extremity to which the people might T not g P A R 1 S. not be driven : that they were nearly ftarving, and confequently ready to Men to any fuggeftions, and on the quinine for all forts of mifchief : that Paris and Veifiailles would inevitably be burnt ; and, in a woid, that all lorts of mifery and confufion would follow his adherence to the fyftem announced in th e feance i" ovale. His apprehenfions got the better of the party, who had for fome days o-uided him ; and he was thus induced to take this ftep, which is of fucn im- portance, that he will never more know where to ftop, or what to refufe ; or ra- ther he will find, that in the future arrangement of the kingdom, his iituation will be very nearly that of Charles I. afpeftator, without power, of the effective refolutions of a long parliament. The joy this ftep occafioned was infinite; the whole affembly, uniting with the people, hurried to the chateau. Five le Rot might have been heard at Marly: the King and Queen appeared in the balcony, and were received with the loudeft fhouts of applaufe; the leaders, who governed thefe motions, knew the value of the conceflion much better than, thole who made it. I have to-day had convention with many perfons on this bufinefs ; and, to my amazement, there is an idea, and even among many of the nobility, that this union of the orders is only for the verification of their powers, and for making the conjlitution , which is a new term they have adopted ; and which they ufe as if a conffitution were a pudding to be made by a receipt^ In vain I have afked, where is the power that can feparate them hereafter, it the com- mons infill; on remaining together, which may be fuppofed, as fuch an ai range- ment will leave all the power in their hands ? And in vain I appeal to the evidence of the pamphlets written by the leaders of that affembly, in which they hold the Engliffi conftitution cheap, becaufe the people have not power enough, on account of that of the Crown and the Houfe of Lords. The event now appears fo clear, as not to be difficult to predidt: all real power will be henceforward in the commons ; having fo much inflamed the people in the exer- cife of it, they will find themfelves unable to ufe it temperately ; the court can- not fit to have their hands tied behind them; the clergy, nobility, parliaments, and army, will, when they find themfelves in danger of annihilation, unite in their mutual defence; but as fuch an union wall demand time, they wid nnd the people armed, and a bloody civil war muff be the refult. I have more than once declared this as my opinion, but do not find that others unite in it*. At all events, however, the tide now runs fo ffrongly in favour of the people, and * I may remark at prefent, long after this was written, that, although I was totally miftaken m my predidion, yet, on a revifion, 1 think I had a reafonable ground for it, and that the common c .oune o events would have produced fuch a civil war, to which every thing tended, from the moment the com- mons rejeaed tire King’s proportions of th efeance royale , which I now think, more than ever, t «t tney ought, with qualifications, to have accepted. The events that followed were as little to be thoug of as of myfelf being made King of France. the PARIS. the condud of the court feetns to be fo weak, divided, and blind, that little can happen that will not clearly be dated from the prefent moment. Vigour and abili- ties would have turned every thing on the fide of the court ; for the great mafs of nobility in the kingdom, the higher clergy, the parliaments, and the army, were with the crown ; but this defertion of the condud, that was neceflary to fecure its power, at a moment fo critical, mull lead to all forts of pretenfions. At night the fire-works, and illuminations, and mob, and noife, at the Palais Royal increafed; the expence mult be enormous ; and yet nobody knows with certainty whence it arifes : fhops there are, however, that for 1 2 fins , give as many fquibs and ferpents as would cofi: five livres. There is no doubt of its being the Due d’Oiieans’ money: the people are thus kept in a continual fer- ment, are for ever aflembled, and ready to be in the laffc degree of commotion whenever called on by the men they have confidence in. Lately a company of Swifs would have crufhed all this : a regiment would do it now if led with firm- nefs ; but, let it lafb a fortnight longer, and an army will be requifite. — At the play, Mademoifelle Conta, in the Mifanthrope of Moliere, charmed me. She is truly a great adrefs; eafe, grace, perfon, beauty, wit, and foul. Mola did the mifanthrope, admirably. I will not take leave of the theatre Francois without once more giving it the preference to all I have ever feen. I Ihall leave Paris truly rejoiced that the reprefentatives of the people have it un- doubtedly in their power fo to improve the conflitution of their country, as to ren- der all great abufes in future, if not impofiible, at leaf; exceedingly difficult, and confequently will eftablifh to all ufeful purpofes an undoubted political liberty ; and, if they effed this, it cannnot be doubted but that they will have a thoufand opportunities to fecure to their fellow-fubjeds the invaluable blefiing of civil liberty alfo. The fiate of the finances is fuch, that the government may eafily be kept virtually dependent on the hates, and their periodical exifience abfo- lutely fecured. Such benefits will confer happinefs on 25 millions of people; a noble and animating idea, that ought to fill the mind of every citizen of the world, whatever be his country, religion, orpurfuit. I will not allow myfelf to believe for a moment, that the reprefentatives of the people can ever fo far forget their duty to the French nation, to humanity, and their own fame, as to fuffer any inordinate and impradicable views, — any vifionary or theoretic fyfiems, — any frivolous ideas of fpeculative perfedion ; much lefs any ambitious private views, to impede their progrefs, or turn afide their exertions, from that fecurity which is in their hands, to place on the chance and hazard of public commotion and civil war, the invaluable bleflings which are certainly in their power. I will not conceive it poffible, that men, who have eternal fame within their gralp, will place the rich inheritance on the caft of a die, and, lofing the venture, be damned among the word and moil profligate adventurers that ever difgraced T 2 humanity. G U I G N E S. N A N G I S; 1 40 humanity. The Due de Liancourt having madean immenfe colledlion of pamph- lets, buying every thing that has a relation to the prefent period; and, among the reft, the cahiers of all the diftridls and towns of France of the three or- ders ; it was a great objedt with me to read thefe, as I was fure of finding in them a reprefentation of the grievances of the three orders, and an explanation of the improvements wifhed for in the government and adminiftration ; thefe cahiers being inftrudtions given to their deputies, I have now gone through them all, with a pen in hand, to make extracts, and fhall therefore leave Paris to-morrow. The 28th. Having provided myfelf a light French cabriolet for one horfe, or gig Anglois, and a horfe, I left Paris, taking leave or my excellent friend, Monf. Lazo wiki, whofe anxiety for the fate of his country made me rc- fpedt his character as much as I had reafon to love it for tne thourand atten- tions I was in the daily habit of receiving from him. My kind protedtrefs, the Duchefs d’Eftiftac, had the goodnefs to make me promife, that I would return again to her hofpitable hotel, when I had finilhed the journey I was about to undertake. Of the place I dined at on my road to Nangis, I forget the name, but it is a poft-houle on the left, at a fmall diftance out of the road. It afforded me a bad room, bare walls, cold raw weather, and no fire; for, when lighted, it fmoked too much to be borne; — I was thoroughly out of humour : I had pafted fome time at Paris amidft the fire, energy, and animation of a great revolution. And for thofe moments not filled by political events, I had enjoyed the refources of liberal and inftrudting converfation ; the amufe- ments of the firft theatre in the world, and tne fafeinating accents of IVIandini, had by turns folaced and charmed the fleeting moments : the change to inns, and thofe French inns; the ignorance in all perfons of thofe events that were now paffine, and which fo intimately concerned them; the deteftable circum- ftance of having no newfpapers, with a prefs much freer than the Englilh, alto- gether formed fuch a contraft, that my heart funk withhiepreflion. At Guignes, an itinerant dancing-mailer was fiddling to fome children of tradefmen ; to relieve my fadnefs, I became a fpe&ator of their innocent pleafures, and, with great magnificence, I gave four 1 2 f. pieces for a cake for the children, which made them dance with frefh animation ; but my hoft, the poftmafter, who is a furly pickpocket, thought that if I was fo rich, he ought alfo to receive the benefit, and made me pay 9I1V. 10 f. for a miferable tough chicken, a cutlet, a fallad, and a bottle of forry wine. Such a dirty, pilfering difpofition, did not tend to bring me into better humour.- 30 miles. The 29th. To Nangis, the chateau of which belongs to the Marquis de Guerchy, who laft year at Caen had kindly made me promife to fpend a few days here. A houfe almoft full of company, and fome of them agreeable, v/ith the N A N G I S. 141 the eagernefs of Monf. de Guerchy for farming, and the amiable naivete of the marchionefs, whether in life, politics, or a farm, were well calculated to bring me into tune again. But I found myfelf in a circle of politicians, with whom I could agree in hardly any other particular, except the general one of cordially wishing that France might edablifh an indedruCtible fydem of liberty but for the means of doing it, we were far as the poles afunder. The chaplain of Monf. de Guerchy’s regiment, who has a cure here, and whom I had known at Caen, Monf. l’Abbe de — — , wjls particularly drenuous for what is called the regenera- tion of the kingdom, by which it is impoffible, from the explanation, to under- hand any thing more than a theoretic perfection of government ; quedionable in its origin, hazardous in its progrefs, and vifionary in its end ; but always pre- fenting itfelf under a mo ft fufpicious appearance to me, becaufe all its advocates, from the pamphlets of the leaders in the National A trembly, to the gentlemen who make its panegyric at pretent, affeCt to hold the conditution of Eng- land cheap in refpeCt of liberty : and as that is unquedionably, and by their own admiflion the bed the world ever faw, they profefs to appeal from practice to theory, which, in the arrangement of a quedion of fcience, might be admit- ted, though with caution ; but, in edablidiing the complex intered of a great kingdom, in fecuring freedom to 25 millions of people, feems to me the very acme of imprudence, the very quinteflence of infinity. My argument was an appeal to the Englifli conditution ; take it at once, which is the budnefs of a fingle vote ; by your pofleflion of a real and equal reprefentation of the people, you have freed it from its only great objection ; in the remaining circumdances, ~ which are but of fmall importance, improve it — but improve it cautioudy ; for furely that ought to be touched with caution, which has given, from the mo- ment of its edabliihment, felicity to a great nation ; which has given greatnefs to a people dedgned by nature to be little ; and, from being the humble copiers of every neighbour, has rendered them, in a dngle century, rivals of the mod ' fuccefsful nations in thofe decorative arts that embellifh human life ; and the maders of the world in all thofe that contribute to its convenience. I was commended for my attachment to what I thought was liberty ; but anfwered, that the King of France mud have no veto on the will of the nation ; and that the army mud be in the hands of the provinces, with an hundred ideas equally impracticable and prepoderous. Yet thefe are the fentiments which the court has done all in its power to fpread through the kingdom ; for will poderity believe, that while the prefs has fwarmed with inflammatory productions, that tend to prove the bleflings of theoretical confudon, and fpeculative licentiouf- nefs, not one writer of talents has been employed to refute and confound the fafliionable doCtrines, nor the lead care taken to difleminate works of another complexion ? By the way, when the court found that the dates could not be aflembled 142 N A N G I S. affembled on the old plan, and that great innovations muft accordingly he made, they ought to have taken the conflitution of England for their model ; in the mode of afiembling, they fhould have thrown the clergy and nobles into one chamber, with a throne for the King, when prefent. The commons fhould have affembled in another, and each chamber, as in England, fhould have verified its powers to itfelf only. And when the King held a feance royale , the commons fhould have been fent for to the bar of the lords, where feats fhould have been provided ; and the King, in the edidt that conftituted the flates, fhould have copied from England enough of the rules and orders of proceeding to pre- vent thofe preliminary difcuflions, which in France loft two months, and gave time for heated imaginations to work upon the people too much. By taking fuch fteps, fecurity would have been had, that if changes or events unforefeen arofe, they would at leaft be met with in no fuch dangerous channel as another form and order of arrangement would permit. 1 5 miles. The 30th. My friend’s chateau is a confiderable one, and much better built than was common in England in the fame period, 200 years ago; I believe, however, that this fuperiority was univerfal in France, in all the arts. They were, I apprehend, in the reign of Henry IV. far beyond us in towns, houfes, ftreets, roads, and, in fhort, in every thing. We have fince, thanks to liberty, con- trived to turn the tables on them. Like all the chateaus I have feen in France, it hands clofe to the town, indeed joining the end of it; but the b&ck front, by means of fome very judicious plantations, has entirely theairof the country, with- out the fight of any buildings. There the prefent marquis has formed an Englifh lawn, with fome agreeable winding walks of gravel, and other decorations, to fkirt it. In this lawn they are making hay ; and I have had the marquis, Monf. l’Abbe, and fome others on the hack to fhew them how to make and tread it : fuch hot politicians! — it is well they did not fet the hack on fire. Nangis is near enough to Paris for the people to be politicians ; the perruquier that dreffed me this morning tells me, that every body is determined to pay no taxes, fhould the National Ahembly fo ordain. — But the foldiers will have fomethmg to fay. No, Sir, never: — be aflured as we are, that the French foldiers will never fire on the people : but, if they fhould, it is better to be fhot than harved. He gave me a frightful account of the mifery of the people; whole families in the utmoh dihrefs ; thofe that work have a pay inflifficient to feed them — -and many that find it difficult to get work at all. I enquired of Monk de Guerchy con- cerning this, and found it true. By order of the magiftrates no perfon is allowed to buy more than two bulhels of wheat at a market, to prevent mono- polizing. It is clear to common fenfe, that all fuch regulations have a diredt tendency to increafe the evil, but it is in vain to reafon with people whofe ideas are immoveably fixed. Being here on a market-day, I attended, and faw the wheat wheat fold out under this regulation, with a party of dragoons drawn up before the market-crofs to prevent violence. The people quarrel with the bakers alferting the prices they demand for bread are beyond the proportion of wheat] and proceeding from words to fcuffling, raife a riot, and then run away with bread and wheat for nothing : this has happened at Nangis, and many other markets ; the conference was, that neither farmers nor bakers would fupply them till they were in danger of ibarving, and prices under fuch circumftances mud; necelfarily rife enormoufly, which aggravated the mifchief, till troops became really neceflary to give fecurity to thofe who fupplied the markets. I have been fifting Madame de Guerchy on the expences of living; our friend Monf. L’Abbe joined the conversation, and I colled from it,°that to live in a chateau like this, with fix men-fervants, five maids, eight horfes, a garden, and a regular table, with company, but never to go to Paris, might be done for 1000 louis a year. It would in England coft 2000 ; the mode of living (not the price of things) is therefore cent, per cent, different.— . There are gentlemen (noblelfe) who live in this country on 6 or 8000 liv. (262I. to 350I.), that keep two men, two maids, three horfes, and a cabriolet; there are the fame in England, but they are fools. Among the neighbours who vilited Nangis was Monf. Trudaine de Montigny, with his new and pretty wife, to return the firfb vifit of ceremony : he has a line chateau at Montigny, and an elbate of 4000 louis a year. This lady was Mademoifelle de Cour Breton] niece to Madame Calonne ; fhe was to have been married to the foil of Monf. Lamoignon, but much againlb her inclinations ; finding that common refufals had no avil, fhe determined on a very uncommon one, which was to go to church, in obedience to her father’s orders, but to give a folemn no inftead of a yea. Sue was afterwards at Dijon, and never fiirred but fhe was received with huzzas and acclamations by the people for refufing to be allied with la Cour Pleniere; and her firmnefs was every where fpoken of much to her advantage. Monf. la Luzerne, nephew to the French ambafiador at London, was there] and who informed me, that he had learned to box of Mendoza. No one can fay that he has travelled without making acquisitions. Has the Due d Orleans alfo learned to box ? The news from Paris is bad : the commotions m create greatly : and fuch an alarm has fpread, that the Queen has called the Marechal de Broglio to the King’s clofet ; he has had feveral conferences : the report is, that an army will be collected under him. It may be now neceffary ; but v/oeful management to have made it fo. Jul y 2. To Meaux. Monf. de Guerchy was fo kind as to accompany me to Columiers ; I had a letter to Monf. Anvee Dumee. Pafs Roloy to Maupertius, through a ^country chearfully diverfified by woods, and fcattered with villages] and Angle farms fpread every where as about Nangis, Maupertius feems to have been 144 M E A U X. been the creation of the Marquis de Montefquioeu, who has here a very fine chateau of his own building ; an extenfive Bnglifh garden, made by the Count d’Artois’ gardener, with the town, has all been of his own forming. ^ I viewed the garden with pleafure ; a proper advantage has been taken of a gooci command ofaftream, and many fine fprings which rife in the grounds ; they are well conducted, and the whole executed with tafte. In the kitchen-garden, which is on the flope of a hill, one of thefe fprings has been applied to excellent ufe : it is made to wind in many doubles through the whole on a paved bed, forming- numerous bafons for watering the garden, and might, with little trouble, be conducted alternately to every bed as in Spain. This is a hint or real utility to all thofe who form gardens on the fides of hills ; for watering with pots and nails is a miferable, as well as expenfive fuccedaneum to this infinitely more effedive method. There is but one fault in this garden, which is its being placed near the houfe, where there fhould be nothing but lawn and fcattered P-e- when viewed from the chateau. The road might be hidden by a judi- cious ufe of planting. The road to Columiers is admirably formed of broken flone, like gravel, by the Marquis of Montefquioeu, partly at his own expenfe. Before I finifh with this nobleman, let me obierve, that he is efieemed by fome the fecond family in France, and by others, w T ho admit his pretenfions, even the firft • he claims from the houfe of Armagnac, which was undoubtedly ft cm Charlemagne : the prefen t King of France, when he figned fome paper relative to this family, that feemed to admit the claim, or refer to it, remarked, that it was declaring one of his fubjeds to be a better gentleman than himfelf. But the houfe of Montmorenci, oi which family are the Dukes 01 Luxembourg and Laval 'and the Prince of Robec, is generally admitted to be the firft. Monl. de Monte ” uioeu is a deputy in the ftates, one of \k&quarante'm the P tench academy, havin- written feveral pieces: he is alfo chief minifter to Monfieur, the King’s brother an office that is worth 100,000 liv. a year ( 4 D 75 1 -) Dine Wlth MonL and Madame Dumee ; conversion here, as in every other town of the country, feemS more occupied on the dearnefs of wheat than on any other circumftance ; vefterdav was market-day, and a riot enfued of the populace, in fpite of the troops that were drawn up as ufual to proted the corn : it riles to 46 liv. ( 2I. 3d. ) the feptier, or half-quarter,— and fome is fold yet higher. To Meaux.— 32 miles. *The 3d. Meaux was by no means in my dired road; bat its diftnd. Brie is fo highly celebrated for fertility, that it' was an objed not to omit. . I was provided with letters for M. Bernier, a confiderable farmer, at Chaucaumn, near Meaux- and for M. Gibcrt, of Neuf Moutier, a confiderable cultivator, whoft father and himfelf had between them made a fortune by agriculture ' The former gentleman was not at home; by the latter I was received with great hoipitalhy ; and I found in him the ftrongeft defire to give mc ^u. T H I E R Y. M A R E U I L. i 45 formation I wished. Monf. Gibert has built a very handfome and commodious houfe, with farming-offices, on the moil ample and folid fcale. I was pleafed to find his wealth, which is not inconfiderable, to have arifen wholly from the plough. He did not forget to let me know, that he was noble, and exempted from all tailles ; and that ne had the honours of the chace, his father having purchafed tiie charge of Secretaire du Rot: but he very wifely lives en fermier . His wife made ready the table for dinner, and his bailiff, with the female domeflic, who has the charge of the dairy, &c. both dined with us. This is in a true farming %le ; it has many conveniencies, and looks like a plan of living, which does not promife, like the foppifh modes of little gentlemen, to run through a for- tune, fiom falfe fhame and filly pretenfions. I can find no other fault with his f}fiem than having built a houfe enormoully beyond his plan of living, which can have no other effect that tempting fome fucceffor, lefs prudent than him- felf, into expences that might diffipate all his and his father’s favings. In Eng- land that would certainly be the cafe; the danger, however, is not equal Tn The 4th. To Chateau Thiery, following the co.urfe of the Marne. The country is pleafantly varied, and hilly enough to be rendered a confiant pidure, were it incloled. Thiery is beautifully fituated on the fame river. I arrived there five o clock, and wilhed, in a period fo interefiing to France, and indeed to all Europe, to fee a newfpaper. I afked for a coffee-hoiife, not one in the town. Here are two parifhes, and fome thoufands of inhabitants, and not a newfpaper to be feen by a traveller, even in a moment when all ought to be anxiety.— What ftupidity, poverty, and want of circulation ! This people lardly defei ve to be free ; and fliould there be the leafl attempt with vigour to keep them otherwife, it can hardly fail of fucceeding. To thofe who have been ufed to travel amidfi: the energic and rapid circulation of wealth, ani- mation, and intelligence of England, it is not pofiible to deferibe, in words adequate to one s feelings, the dulnefs and fliupidity of France. I have been to-aay on one of their greatefi: roads, within thirty miles of Paris, yet I have not icen one diligence, and met but a fingle gentleman’s carriage, nor any thin o- on the road that looked like a gentleman. 30 miles. The cth. ■ To Mareuil. The Marne, about 25 rods broad, flows in an arable vale to the right. The country hilly, and parts of it pleafant; from one eleva- tion there is a noble view of the river. Mareuil is the refidence of Monf. Le Blanc, of whole hufbandry and improvements, particularly in fheep of Spain and cows of Switzerland, Monf. de Broufibnet had fpoken very advantageoufly! This was the gentleman alfo on whom I depended for information relative to the famous vineyards of Epernay, that produce the fine -Champagne. What therefore was my difappointment, when his fervants informed me that he was - U nine 14 6 EPERN A Y. R HEIMS. nine leagues off on bufinefs ? Is Madame Le Blanc at home ? No,, fhe is at Dormans. My complaining ejaculations were interrupted by the approach of a verv pretty young lady, whom I found to be Mademoifelle Le Blanc. Her mama •would return to dinner , her papa at night ; and, iflwified to fee him, I had better /lav. When perfuafion takes fo pleafing a form, it is not eafy to refill it. There is a manner of doing every thing that either leaves it abfolutely indifferent or that interefts. The unaffefted good humour and fimplicity of Mademoifelle Le Blanc entertained me till the return of her mama, and made me fay to myfelf, you ■will make a good farmers wife. Madame Le Blanc, when fhe returned con- firmed the native hofpitality of her daughter; allured me, that her hulband would be at home early in the morning, as fhe mull difpatch a meflenger to him on other bufinefs. In the evening we flipped with Monf. B. in the fame village who married Madame Le Blanc’s niece ; we pafs Mareuil, through it, has the appearance of a fmall hamlet of inconfiderable farmers, with the houfes of their labourers ; and the fentiment that would arife in moft bofoms, would be that of pidturing the banilhment of being condemned to live in it. Who would think that there Ihould be two gentlemen’s families in it ; and that in one I Ihould find Mademoifelle Le Blanc finging to her fyltrum, and in the other Madame B. young and handfome, performing on an excellent Eng- lilh piano forte i Compared notes of the expences of living in Champagne and Suffolk —agreed, that 100 louis d’or a year in Champagne, were as good an income as 1 80 in England. On his return, Monf. Le Blanc in the molt oblig- ing manner, fatisfied all my enquiries, and gave me letters for the moft celebrated W1 q?he 7th. To Epernay, famous for its wines. I had letters for Monf. i'are- tilaine, one of the moft confiderable merchants, who was fo obliging as to enter with two other gentlemen, into a minute difquilition of the produce and profit of the fine vineyards. The hotel de Rohan here is a very good inn, where I folaced myfelf with a bottle of excellent vin moujjeux for 40 f and drank profperity to true liberty in France. 12 miles. _ The 8th. To Ay, a village not far out of the road to Rheims, very famous for its wines. I had a letter for Monf. Lafnier, who has 60,000 bottles in his cellar but unfortunately he was not at home. Monf. Dorfe has from 30 to . 0,000. All through this country the crop promifes miferably, not on ac- count of the great froft, but the cold weather of laft week. To Rheims, through a foreft of five miles, on the crown of the hill, which feparates the narrow vale of Epernay from the great plain of Rheims. I ne firft view of that city from this hill, juft before the defcent, at the diftance of about four miles, is magnificent. The cathedral makes a great figure, and t e Church of St. Remy terminates the town proudly. Many times I have hah SILLER Y. C HALO NS. 147 luch a view of towns in France, but when you enter them, all is a clutter of narrow, crooked, dark, and dirty lanes. At Rheims it is very different : the flreets are almofl all broad, flrait, and well built, equal in that relpeCt to any I have feen ; and the inn, the hotel de Moulinet , is lb large and well-ferved as not to check the emotions raifed by agreeable objects, by giving an impulfe to contrary vibrations in the bofom of the traveller, which at inns in France is too often the cafe. At dinner they gave me a bottle allb of excellent wine. I fuppofe fixed air is good for the rheumatifm ; I had fome writhes of it before I entered Champagne, but the vin moujjeux has abfolutely baniffied it. I had letters for Monf. Cadot L’aine, a conliderable manufacturer, and the poffeiTor of a large vineyard, which he cultivates himfelf ; he was therefore a double fund to me. Fie received me very politely, anfwered my enquiries, and fhewed me his fabric. — The cathedral is large, but does not ftrike me like that of Amiens, yet ornamented, and many painted windows. They mewed me the fpot where the kings are crowned. You enter and quit Rheims through fuperb and elegant iron gates : in fuch public decorations, promenades, &c. French towns are much beyond Englifh ones. Stopped at Sillery, to view the wine prefs of the Marquis de Sillery ; he is the greateft wine-farmer in all Cham- pagne, having in his own hands 1S0 arpents. Till I got to Sillery, I knew not that it belonged to the hufband of Madame de Genlis - y but I determined, on hearing that it did, to prefume to introduce myfelf to the marquis, fhould he be at home : I did not like to pafs the door of Madame de Genlis without feeing her : her writings are too celebrated. La Petite Loge , where I flept, is bad enough indeed, but luch a reflection would have made it ten times worie : the abfence, however, of both Monf. and Madame quieted both my wilhes and anxi- eties. Fie is in the Rates. 28 miles. The 9th. To Chalons, through a poor country and poor crops. M. de BrQuf- fonet had given me a letter to Monf. Sabbatier, fecretary to the Academy of Sciences, but he was abfent. A regiment palling to Paris, an officer at the inn addrefled me in Englifh. — He had learned, he faid, in America, damme !-— He had taken Lord Cornwallis, damme ! Marechal Broglio was appointed to command an army of 50,000 men near Paris — it was neceflary — the tiers etdt were running mad — and wanted fome wholefome correction they want to eflabliffi a republic — abfurd ! Pray, Sir, what did you fight for in America ? To eflabliffi a republic. What was fo good for the Americans, is it fo bad for the French ? Aye, damme ! that is the way the Englifh want to be revenged. It is, to be fure, no bad opportunity. Can the Englifh follow a better example ? He then made many enquiries about what we thought and laid upon it in Eng- land : and I may remark, that almofl every perfon I meet with has the fame idea — The Englifh mujl be very well contented at our conjujmi. They feel pretty pointedly what they deferve.— 1 2 f miles. U 2 The OV E, M A R - L E ~ T O U R. 14B The 1 oth. To O ve. Pafs Coiirtiffeau, a fmall village, with a great church ; and though a good ftream is here, not an idea of irrigation. Roofs of houfes almoft flat, with projecting eaves, refembling thofe from Pau to Bayonne. At St. Menehoud a dreadful tempefc, after a burning day, with fuch a fall of rain, that I could hardly get to Mon f. l’Abbe Michel, to whom I had a letter. When I found him, the inceffant flaShes of lightning would allow me no con- vention; for all the females of the houfe came into the room for the Abbe’s protection I fuppofe, fo I took leave. The vin de Champagne , which is 40 f at Rheims, is 3 liv. at Chalons and here, and execrably bad ; fo there is an end of my phyfic for the rheumatifm. 25 miles. The nth. Pafs Iflets, a town (or rather collection of dirt and dung) of new features, that feem to mark, with the faces of the people, a country not French. 2 5 miles. The 1 2th. Walking up a long hill, to eafe my mare, I was joined by a poor woman, who complained of the times, and that it was a fad country ; on my demanding her reafons, the faid her hufoand had but a morfel of land, one cow, and a poor little horfe, yet he had a franchar (421b.) of wheat, and three chickens, to pay as a quit-rent to one Seigneur ; and four franchar of oats, one chicken and i f to pay to another, beflde very heavy tailles and other taxes. She had feven children, and the cow’s milk helped to make the foup. But why, inftead of a horfe, do not you keep another cow? Oh, her hufband could not carry his produce fo well without a horfe ; and afles are little ufed in the country. It was faid, at prefen t, that fomething was to be done by fome great folks for fuch poor ones , but foe did not know who nor how , but God fend us better , car les tallies & les droits nous ecrafent . — This woman, at no great diftance, might have been taken for fixty or feven ty, her figure was fo bent, and her face fo furrowed and hardened by labour, — but She faid She was only twenty- eight. An Englishman, ‘who has not travelled, cannot imagine the figure made by Infinitely the greater part of the countrywomen in France; it fpeaks, at the firft fight, hard and fevere labour : I am inclined to think, that they work harder than the men, and this, united with the more miferable labour of bringing a new race of Slaves into the world, deftroys abfolutely all fymmetry of perfon and every feminine appearance. To what are we to attribute this difference in the manners of the lower people in the two kingdoms ? To Go- vernment. — 23 miles. The 1 3th. Leave Mar-le-Tour at four in the morning: the village herdfman was founding his horn ; and it was droll to fee every door vomiting out its hogs or Sheep, and fome a few goats, the flock colle&ing as it advances. Very poor Sheep, and the pigs with mathematical backs, large fegments of finall circles.. They muff have abundance of commons here, but, if I may judge by the report of the animals carcafes, dreadfully overflocked. To Metz, one of the fliongeit places in France ; pafs three draw-bridges, but the command of* water muff give afhength equal to its works. The common garrifon is 10,000 men, but there are fewer at prefent. Waited on M. de Payen, fecretary of the Academy of Sciences ; he afked my plan, which I explained; he appointed me at four in the afternoon at the academy, as there would be a feance held ; and he promifed to introduce me to fome perfons who could anfwer my enquiries. I attended accordingly, when I found the academy affembled at one of their weekly meetings. Monf. Payen introduced me to the members, and, before they proceeded to their bufmefs, they had the goodnefs to fit in council on my enquiries, and to refolve many of them. In the Almanack de T rois Eveches , 1780, this academy is faid to have been inftituted particularly for agriculture ; I turned to the lift of their honorary members to fee what attention they had paid to the men who, in the prefent age, have advanced that art. I found an Englishman, Dom Cowley, of London. Who is Dom Cowley ? — Dined at the table d’hote [ with feven officers, out of whofe mouths, at this important moment, in which converfation is as free as the prefs, not one word iffiued for which I would give a ftraw, nor a fubjetf: touched on of more importance, than a coat, or a puppy dog. At tables de hotes of officers, you have a voluble garniture of bawdry or nonfenfe ; at thofe of merchants, a mournful and ftupid filence. Take the mafs of mankind, and you have more good fenfe in half an hour in England than m half a year in France. — Government! Again: — all — all — is government. 15 miles. The 14th. They have a cabinet literaire at Metz, fomething like that I defcnbed at Nantes, but not on fo great a plan; and they admit any perfon to read or go in and out for a day, on paying 4/ To this I eagerly reforted, and the news from Pans, both in the public prints, and by the information of a gentleman, I found to be interefting. Verfailles and Paris are furrounded by troops : 35,000 men are affembled, and 20,000 more on the road, large trains of artillery collected, and all the preparations of war. The affembling of fuch a number of troops has added to the fcarcity of bread ; and the magazines that have been made for their fupport are not eafily by the people diftineuifhed from thofe they fufped; of being collected by monopolies. This has aggravated their evils almoh to madnefs ; fo that the confufion and tumult of the capital are ex- treme. A gentleman of an excellent underftanding, and apparently of confide- ration, from the attention paid him, with whom I had fome converfation on the fubjedt, lamented, in the moffi pathetic terms, the fituatio'n of his country; he considers a civil war as impoffible to be avoided. There is not, he added, a doubt but the court, finding it impoffible to bring the National Affembly to terms, will get rid of them; a bankruptcy at the fame moment is inevitable; the union of luch confufion mufl be a civil war ; and it is now only by torrents of i j° NANCY. of blood that we have any hope of cftabli thing a freer conftitution : yet it muft be eftablifhed ; for the old government is rivetted to abufes that are infupportaole. He agreed with me entirely, that the propofitions of the fiance royale, though certainly not Efficiently fatisfadory, yet, were the ground for a negotiation, that would have fecured by degrees all even that the fword can give us, let it be asfiuc- cefsfulas it will. The purfi — the power of the purfie is every thing ; Jkilfully managed, with fo necefjitous a government as ours, it would , one after another, have gamed all we wished. As to a war, ‘Heaven knows the event ; and if we have fuccefs, fuccefs it fell' may ruin us ; France may have a Cromwell in its bofom, as well as England. Metz is, without exception, the cheapeft town I have been in. The table d'hdte is 36/ a head, plenty of good wine included. We were ten, and had two courles and a deffert of ten diflies each, and thofe courfes plentiful. The fupper is the fame ; I had mine, of a pint of wine and a large plate of chaudies, in my chamber, for 10/. a horfe, hay, and corn 25/. an not ing or the apartment; my expence was therefore 71/ a day, or 2s. 1 1 {d. ; and with the table d’hote for fupper, would have been but 97/. or 4s. ojd.— In addition, much civility and good attendance. It is at the Faifan. Why are the cheapeft inns in France the beft ?-The country to Pont-a-Mouffon is all of bold features.- The river Mofelle, which is confiderable, runs in the vale, and toe hil s on each fide are high. Not far from Metz there are the remains of an ancient aquedud for conducing the waters of a fprmg acrofs the Mofelle : there are many arches left on this fide, with the houfes of poor people built between tnem. At Pont-a-Mouffon Monf. Pichon, the fub-delegue of the intendant, to whom had letters, received me politely, fatisfied my enquiries, which he was well aole to do from his office, and conducted me to lee whatever was worth viewing rn the town It does not contain much ; the ecole mihtatre, for the fons of the poor nobility, alfo the couvent de Premontre, which has a very fine library 107 feet long and 25 broad. I was introduced to the abbot as a perfon who had fome knowledge in agriculture.- 17 miles. . , , The 1 cth. I went to Nancy, with great expedation, having heard it rep^ - fented as the prettieft town in France. I think, on the whole, it is not unae- ferving the charader in point of building, diredion, and breadth of ftreets - Bourdeaux is far more magnificent; Bayonne and Nantes are inorelively; but there is more equality m Nancy ; it is almoft all good , an p he buildings are numerous. The place royale, and the adjoining area are fuperb. Letters from Paris ! all confufion ! the mm.ftry removed : Monf. Necker ordered to quit the kingdom without noife. The effed on the people of Nancy was confiderable.— I was with Monf. Willemet when his letteis ar- rived, and for fome time his houfe was full of enquirers ; all agreed that it was fatal news, and that it would occafion great commotions. What i mil be the re- NANCY. * 5 * fult at Nancy ? The anfwer was in effect the fame from all I put this queftion to : We are a provincial town, we muft wait to fee what is done at Paris ; but every thing is to be feared from the people, becaufe bread is fo dear, they are half fiarved, and are confequently ready for commotion. This is the general feel- ing j they are as nearly concerned as Paris ; but they dare not ftir ; they dare not even have an opinion of their own till they know what Paris thinks ; fo that if a ftarving populace were not in queftion, no one would dream of mov- ing. This confirms what I have often heard remarked, that the deficit would not have produced the revolution but in concurrence with the price of bread. Does not this fhew the infinite confequence of great cities to the liberty of mankind ? Without Paris, I queftion whether the prefent revolution, which is rapidly working in France, could pofiibly have had an origin. It is not in the villages of Syria or Diarbekir that the Grand Signor meets with a murmur againft his will ; it is at Conftantinople that he is obliged to manage and mix caution even with defpotifm. Mr. Willemet, who is demonftrator of botany, fhewed me the botanical garden, but it is in a condition that fpeaks the want of better funds. He introduced me to Monf. Durival, who has written on the vine, and gave me one of his treatifes, and alfo two of his own on botanical fubjeCts. He alfo conducted me to Monf. 1 ’Abbe Grandpere, a gentleman curious in gardening, who, as foon as he knew that I was an Englifhman, whimfically took it into his head to introduce me to a lady, my countrywoman, who hired, he faid, the greateft part of his houfe. I remonftrated againft the impropriety of this, but all in vain ; the Abbe had never travelled, and thought that if he were at the diftance of England from France (the French are not commonly good geographers) he fhould be very glad to fee a Frenchman ; and that, by parity of reafoning, this lady muft be the fame to meet a countryman llie never faw or heard of. Away he went, and would not reft till I was conducted into her apartment. It was the Dowager Lady Douglas ; ftie was unaffected, and good enough not to be offended at fuch a ftrange intrufion.— She had been here but a few days ; had two fine daughters with her, and a beautiful Kamchatka dog ; fhe was much troubled with the intelligence her friends in the town had juft given her, lince fhe would, in all probability, be forced to move again, as the news of Monf. Necker’s removal, and the new miniftry being appointed, would certainly occafion fuch dreadful tumults, that a foreign family would probably find it equally dangerous and difagreeable. 18 miles. The 1 6th. All the houfes at Nancy have tin eave troughs and pipes, which render walking in the ftreets much more eafy and agreeable ; it is alfo an additional confumption, which is politically ufeful. Both this place and Luneville are lighted in the Englifh manner, inftead of the lamps being ftrung acrofs the ftreets as in other French towns. Before I quit Nancy, let me caution the un- NANCY. 152 wary traveller, if he is not a great lord, with plenty of money that he does not know what to do with, againft the hotel d' Angleterre ; a bad dinner 3 liv. and for the room as much more. A pint of wine, and a plate of chaudie 20 f. which at Metz was 1 of. and in addition, I liked fo little my treatment, that I changed my quarters to the hotel de Halle , where, at the table d’hote, I had the company of fome agreeable officers, two good courfes, and a deffert for 36 f, with a bottle of wine. The chamber 20 f. ; for building, however, the hotel d’ Angleterre is much fuperior, and is the firfl: inn. In the evening to Lune- ville. The country about Nancy is pleafmg. 17 miles. The 17th. Luneville being the refidence of Monf. Lazowfld, the father of my much efteemed friend, who was advertifed of my journey, I waited on him in the morning ; he received me with not politenefs only, but hofpitality — with a hofpitality I began to think was not to be found on this fde of the kingdom. — From Mareuil hither, I had really been fo unaccuflomed to receive any attentions of that fort, that it awakened me to a train of new feelings agreeably enough. — An apartment was ready for me, which I was preffied to occupy, defired to dine, and expe&ed to flay fome days : he introduced me to his wife and family, particu- larly to M. l’Abbe Lazowfki, who, with the moft obliging alacrity, undertook the office of fhewing me whatever was worth feeing. — We examined, in a walk before dinner, the eftabliffiment of the orphans ; well regulated and conducted. Luneville wants fuch eftablifhments, for it has no manufadory, and therefore is very poor; I was allured not lefs than half the population of the place, or 10,000 perfons are poor. Luneville is cheap. A cook’s wages two, three, or four louis ; a maid’s, that drefles hair, three or four louis ; a common houfemaid, one louis ; a common footman, or a houfe lad, three louis. Rent of a good houfe fixteen or feventeen louis. Lodgings of four or five rooms, fome of them fmall, nine louis. After dinner, wait on M. Vaux dit Pompone, an intimate acquaintance of my friend ; here mingled hofpitality and politenefs alfo received me ; and fo much was I prefled to dine with him to-morrow, that I fhould certainly ftay, were it merely for the pleafiire of more converfation with a very fenfible and cultivated man, who, though advanced in years, has the talents and good humour to render his company univerfally agreeable : but I was obliged to refufe it, having been out of order all day. Yeflierday’s heat was followed, after fome lightning, by a cold night, and I laid, without knowing it, with the windows open, and caught cold, I fuppofe, from the information of my bones. I am acquainted with {hangers as eafily and quickly as any body, a habit that much travelling can fcarcely fail to give, but to be ill among them would be enuyante , demand too much attention, and encroach on their humanity. This induced me to refufe the obliging wiflies of both the Meflrs. Lazowfki’s, Monf. Pompone, and alfo of a pretty and agreeable American lady, I met at the houie of the latter. Her hiflory L U N E V I L L E. S AVER N. r $$ Iiidory Is lingular, and yet very natural. She was Mifs Blake, of New -York ; what carried her to Dominica I know not ; but the fun did not fpoil her com- plexion: a French officer, Monf. Tibalie, on taking the iiland, made her his captive, and in turn became hers, fell in love, and married her; brought his prize to France, and fettled her in his native town of Luneville. The regi- ment, of which he is major, being quartered in a didant province, fhe com- plained of feeing her hulband not more than for fix months in two years. She, has been four years at Luneville; and having the fociety of three children, is reconciled to a fcene of life new to her. Monf. Pompone, who, die allured me, is one of the bed men in the world, has parties every day at his houfe, not more to his own fatisfadtion than to her comfort. — This gentleman is another indance, as well as the major, of attachment to the place of nativity ; he was born at Luneville ; attended King Staniflaus in fome refpedtable office, near his perfon ; has lived much at Paris, and with the great, and had fird miniders of date for his intimate friends ; but the love of th znatale folum brought him back to Luneville, where he has lived beloved and refpedted for many years, fur*, rounded by an elegant collection of books, amongd which the poets are not forgotten, having himfelf no inconfiderable talents in transfufing agreeable fen- timents into plealing verfes. He has fome couplets of his own compofitioii, under the portraits of his friends, which are pretty and eafy. It would have given me much pleafure to have fpent fome days at Luneville; an opening was made for me in two houfes, where I fihould have met with a friendly and agree- able reception : but the misfortunes of travelling are fometimes the accidents that crofs the moments prepared for enjoyment ; and at others, the fydem of a journey inconfident with the plans of dedined pleafure. The 1 8th. To Flaming, through an unintereding country. 28 miles* The 19th. To Savern, in Alface : the country to Phalfbourg, a fmall forti- fied town, on the frontiers, is much the fame in appearance as hitherto. The wo- men in Alface wear draw hats, as large as thofe worn in England ; they {bel- ter the face, and fhould fecure fome pretty country girls, but I have feen none yet. Coming out of Phalfbourg, there are fome hovels miferable enough, yet have chimnies and windows, but the inhabitants in the lowed poverty. From that town to Savern all a mountain of oak timber, the defeent deep, and the road winding. In Savern, I found myfelf to all appearance truly in Ger- many; for two days pad much tendency to a change, but here not one perfon in an hundred has a word of French; the rooms are warmed by doves; the kitchen-hearth is three or four feet high, and various other trifles fhew, that you are among another people. Looking at a map of France, and reading hidories of Louis XIV. never threw his conqued or feizure of Alface into the fame light, which travelling into it did : to crofs a great range of mountains; to X enter I5+ STRASBOURG. enter a level plain, inhabited by a people totally diftindt and difieiem fiom France, with manners, language, ideas, prejudices, and habits all different, made an impreffion of the injuftice and ambition of fuch a conduct, much more forcible than ever reading had done: fo much more powerful are things than words. 22 miles. c . . , The 20th. To Strafbourg, through one of the richeft fcenes of foil and cultivation to be met with in France, and exceeded by Flanders only. I arrived at Strafbourg at a critical moment, which I thought would have broken my neck ; a detachment of horfe, with their trumpets on one fide, a party of infantry, with their drums beating on the other, and a great mob hallooing, frightened my French mare; and I could fcarcely keep her from trampling on Meffrs. the tiers Hat. On arriving at the inn, hear the interefling news of the revolt of Paris.— The Gardes Frangoifes joining the people; the little de- pendence on the red of the troops ; the taking of the Baftile ; and the in- flit ution of the milice bourgeoife ; in a word, of the abfolute overthrow o t e old government. Every thing being now decided, and the kingdom m the hands of the affembly, they have the power to make a new conftitution, fuch as they think proper ; and it will be a great fpedacle for the world to view, m this enlightened age, the reprefentatives of twenty-five millions of peopie. fitting on the conftru&ion of a new and better order and fabric of liberty, than Europe has yet offered. It will now be feen, whether they will copy tne con? ftitution of England, freed from its faults, or attempt, from theory, to frame fomething abfolutely fpeculative : in the former cafe, they will prove a bleffing to their country ; in the latter, they will probably involve it in mextricabie confufions and civil wars, perhaps not in the prefent period, but certainly at fome future one. I hear not of their removing from Verfailies ; if they nay there under the controul of an armed mob, they mufl make a government that will pleafe the mob ; but they will, I fuppofe, be wife enough to move to fome central town. Tours, Blois, or Orleans, where their deliberations may be free. But the Parifian fpirit of commotion fpreads quickly ; it is acre; the troops, that were near breaking my neck, are employed to keep an eye on the people who fhew figns of an intended revolt. They have broken the windows of fome magiflrates that are no favourites; and a great mob cf them is at this moment affembled, demanding clamouroufly to have meat at 5/ a pound., 1 hey have a cry among them that will conduit them to good lengths ,— Point dim- pot & vivent les Hats .— Waited on Monf. Herman, profefior of natural hifloiy in the Univerfity here, to whom I had letters : he replied to fome of my quef- tions, and introduced me for others to Monf. Zimmer, who having been m fome degree a practitioner, had undemanding enough of the lubjed to affor me fome information that was valuable. View the public buildings, and crofs STRASBOURG. the Rhine paffing for feme little diftance into Germany, but no new features to mark a change; Allace is Germany, and the change great on defending the mountains. The exterior of the cathedral is line, and the tower Angu- larly light and beautiful; it is well known to be one of the higheft in Europe ; commands a noble and rich plain, through which the Rhine, from the number of its illands, has the appearance of a chain of lakes rather than of a river.— Monument of Marechal Saxe, &c. &c. I am puzzled about going to Carlfrhue, the refidence of the Margrave of Baden : it was my intention formerly to do it, if ever I were within an hundred miles ; for there are fome features in the reputation of that fovereign, which made me wilh to be there. He fixed Mr. Taylor, of Bifrons in Kent, whofe hulbandry I deferibe in my Eaftern Tour, on a large farm; and the ceconomijles in their writings, or rather Phyfiocratical rubbifh, fpeak much of an experiment he made, which, however erroneous their principles might be, marked much merit in the prince. Monf. Herman tells me alfo, that he has fent a perfon into Spain to purchafe rams for the improvement of wool. I wilh he had fixed on fomebody likely to underhand a good ram, which a profef- for of botany is not likely to do too well. This botanih is the only perfon Monf. Herman knows at Carlfrhue, and therefore can give me no letter thither, and how I can go, unknown to all the world, to the refidence of a fovereign prince, (foi Mi. i ayloi has left him) is a difficulty apparently infurmoun table.——— 22f miles. I he 2 1 ft. I have fpent fome time tins morning at the cabinet liter awe , reading the gazettes and journals that give an account of the tranfadtions at Paris : and I have had feme converfation with feveral fenfible and intelligent men on the pieient levolution. 1 he fpirit of revolt is gone forth into various parts or the kingdom ; the price of bread has prepared the populace every wneie foi all forts of violence; at Lyons there have been commotions as furious as at i aiis, and tne fame at a great many other places : Dauphine is in arms : and Bietagne in ablolute rebellion. I lie idea is, that the people will, from hunger, be driven to revolt; and when once they find any other means of fub- fiffence than that of honeft labour, every thing will be to be feared. Of fuch confequence it is to a country, and indeed to every country, to have a good police of coin ; a police that fhall, by fecuring a high price to the farmer, encourage his culture enough to fecure the people at the fame time from famine. Aly anxiety about Carlfrhue is at an end ; the Margrave is at Spaw ; I fhall not therefore think of going. Night — I have been witnefs to a feene curious to a foreigner; but dreadful to Frenchmen that are confiderate. Faffing through the fquare of tne hotel de ville, tne mob were breaking the windows with fiones, notwithhanding an officer and a detachment of horfe were in the fquare. X 2 Perceiving , s 6 STRASBOURG. Perceiving that their numbers not only increafed, but that they grew bolder and bolder every moment, I thought it worth flaying to fee what it would end in, and clambered on to the roof of a row of low flails oppofite to the building, againfl which their malice was directed. Here I beheld the whole commo- dtouily. Finding that the troops would not attack them, except in words and menaces, they grew more violent, and furioufly attempted to beat the doors in pieces with iron crows ; placing ladders to the windows. In about a quarter of an hour, which gave time for the affembled magiflrates to elcaoe by a back door, they burfl all open, and entered like a torrent with an univerfal fhout of the fpedators. From that minute a fhower of cafements, fafhes, fhutters, chairs, tables, fophas, books, papers, pictures, &c. lained in- ceffantly from all the windows of the houfe, which is feventy or eighty feet long, and which was then fucceeded by tiles, fkirting boards, banniflers, frame- work, and every part of the building that force could detach. The troops, both horfe and foot, were quiet fpedators. They were at firfl too few to inter- pofe, and, when they became more numerous, the mifchief was too far advanced to admit of any other conduct than guarding every avenue around, permitting none to go to the fcene of aCtion, but letting every one that pleafed retire with his plunder ; guards being at the fame time placed at the doors of the churches, and all public buildings. I was for two hours a fpeClator at different places of the fcene, fecure myfelf from the falling furniture, but near enough to fee a fine youth crufhed to death by fomething, as he was handing plunder to a woman, I fuppofe his mother, from the horror that was pidtured in her countenance. I remarked feveral common foldiers, with their white cockades, among the plunderers, and infli gating the mob even in fight of the officers of the detachment. There were amongfl them people fo decently dreffed, that I regarded them with no fmall fur- p r jf e : they deftroyed all the public archives ; the flreets for fome way around ffrewed with papers; this has been a wanton mifchief; for it will be the ruin of many families unconnected with the magiflrates. The 22d. To Schelefladt. At S traffic urg, and the country! paffed, the- lower ranks of women wear their hair in a toupee in front,, and behind braided into a circular plait, three inches thick, and moil curioufly contrived to con- vince one that they rarely pafs a comb through it. I could not but picture them as tile nidus of living colonies., that never approached me (they are not burthened with too much beauty), but I fcratched my head from fen fat ions of imaginary itching. The moment you are out of a great town ail in this coun- try is German; the inns have one common large room,, many tables and cloths ready fpread, where every company dines ; gentryat fome, and the poor at others. Ccokery alfo German: fchnitz .is adiffi of bacon and fried pears; has the ap- pearance SCHELESTADT. *57 pearance of an infamous mefs ; but I was furprized, on tailing, to find it better than paffable. At ScheleHadt I had the pleafure of finding the Count de la Rochefoucauld, whofe regiment (of Champagne), of which he is fecond major, is quartered here. No attentions could be kinder than what I received from him 5 they were the renewal of the numerous ones I was in the habit of experi- encing from his family^ and he introduced me to a good farmer, from whom X had the intelligence I wanted. 25 miles. The 23d. An agreeable quiet day, with the Count de la Rochefoucauld : dine with the officers of the regiment, the Count de Loumene, the colonel, nephew to the Cardinal de Loumene, prefent. Sup at my friend’s lodgings ; an officer of infantry, a Dutch gentleman, who has been much in the EaH-Jndies, and fpeaks Englifh. This has been a refrefhing day ; the fociety of well informed people, liberal, polite, and communicative, has been a contrafl to the fombre flupidityof tables d’hotes. The 24th. To Ifenheim, by Colmar. The country is in general a dead level, with the Voge mountains very near to the right f thofe of Suabia to the left ; and there is another range very diflant, that appears in the opening to the fbuth. The news at the table d’hote at Colmar curious, that the Queen had a plot, nearly on the point of execution, to blow up the National Affembly by a mine, and to march the army inflantly to maffacre all Paris. A French officer prefent prefumed but to doubt of the truth of it, and was immediately over-powered with numbers of tongues. A deputy had written the news ; they had feen the letter, and not a hefitation could be admitted : I flrenuoufly contended, that it was folly and nonfenfe, a mere invention to render perfons odious who, for what I knew, might deferve to be fo, but certainly not by fuch means ; if the angel Gabriel had defcended and taken a chair at table to convince them, it would not have fhaken their faith. Thus it is in revolutions, one rafeal writes, and an hundred thoufand fools believe. 25 miles. The 25th. From Ifenheim, the country changes from the dead flat, to pleafant views and inequalities, improving all the way to Befort, but neither fcattered houfes nor inclofures. Great riots at Befort : — lafl night a body of mob and peafants demanded of the magillrates the arms in the magazine, *o the amount of three or four thoufand Hands ; being refufed, they grew riotous, and threatened to fet fire to the town, on which the gates were fhut ; and to- day the regiment of Bourgogne arrived for their protection. Monf. Necker palled here to-day in his way from Bade to Paris, efcorted by 50 bourgeois horfemen, and through the town by the mufic of all the troops. But the moll brilliant period' of his life is part ; from the moment of his reinflatement in power to the aflembling of the Hates, the fate of France, and of the Bourbons, was then in his hands 5 and whatever may be the refult of the prefen £ B E F O R T. lr 5 'S prefent confufibns they will, by pofterity, be attributed to bis conduct, fince he bad unqueftionably the power of afiembling the Rates in whatever form he pleafed : he might have had two chambers, three, or one ; he might have given what would unavoidably have melted into the conftitution of England ; all was in his hands ; he had the greateft opportunity of political architecture that ever was in the power of man : the great legiflators of antiquity never pofieffed fuch a moment: in my opinion he miffed it completely, and threw that to the chance of the winds and waves, to which he might have given impulfe, direc- tion, and life. I had letters to Monf. de Bellonde, commijfaire de Guerre ; I found him alone : he afked me to fup, faying he fhould have fome perfons to meet me who could give me information. On my returning, he introduced me to Madame de Bellonde, and a circle of a dozen ladies, with three or four young officers, leaving the room himfelf to attend Madame, the princefs of fomething, who was on her flight to Switzerland. I wiflied the whole com- pany very cordially at a great diflance, for I faw, atone glance, what fort of in- formation I fhould have. There was a little coterie in one corner liflening to an officer’s detail of leaving Paris. This gentleman informed us, that the Count d’ Artois, and all the princes of the blood, except Monfieur, and the Duke d’Orleans, the whole connection of Polignac, the Marechal de Broglio, and an infinite number of the fir ft nobility had fled the kingdom, and were daily fol- lowed by others ; and laftly, that the King, Queen, and royal family, were in a fituation at Verfailles really dangerous and alarming, without any dependence on the troops near them, and, in faCt, more like prifoners than free. Here is, therefore, a revolution effected by a fort of magic ; ail powers in the realm are deftroyed but that of the commons ; and it now will remain to fee what fort of architects they are at rebuilding an edifice in the place of that which has been thus marvelloufly tumbled in ruins. Supper being announced, the company quitted the room, and as I did not pufh myfelf forward, I remained at the rear till I was very whimfically alone; I was a little ftruck at the turn of the mo- ment, and did not advance when I found myfelf in fuch an extraordinary fitua- tion, in order to fee whether it would arrive at the point it did. I then, fmiling, took my hat, and walked fairly out of the houfe. I was, however, overtaken below ; but I talked of bufinefs — or pleafure — or of fomething, or nothing — and hurried to the inn. I fhould not have related this, if it had not been at a moment that carried with it its apology : the anxiety and diftraCtion of the time muff fill the head, and occupy the attention of a gentleman ; — and, as to ladies, what can French ladies think of a man who travels for the plough? 25 miles. The 26th. For twenty miles to Life fur Daube, the country nearly as before ; but after that, to Baume les Dames, it is all mountainous and rocky, much lisle. *S9 much wood, and many pleafmg fcenes of the river flowing beneath. The whole country is in the greatefl agitation ; at one of the little towns I paf- fed, I was questioned for not having a cockade of the tiers etat. They faid it was ordained by the tiers , and, if I were not a Seigneur, I ought to obey. But fuppofe I. am a Seigneur , what then , my friends ? — What then ? they replied Iternly, why, be hanged ; for that moil likely is what you deferve. It was plain this was no moment for joking, the boys and girls began to gather, whofe alfembling has every where been the preliminaries of mifchief; and, if I had not declared myfelf an Englifhman, and ignorant of the ordinance, I had not efcaped very w r elL I immediately bought a cockade, but the huliey pinned it into my hat fo loofely, that before 1 got to Lille it blew into the river, and I was again in the fame danger. Myaffertion of being Englifh would not do. I was a Seigneur, perhaps in difguife, and without doubt a great rogue. At this moment a pried; came into the dxeet with a letter in his hand : the people immediately colle&ed around him, and he then read aloud a detail from Befort, giving an account of M. Necker’s palling, with fome general features of news from Paris, and adurances that the condition of the people would be improved. When he had dnilhed, he exhorted them to abftain from all violence ; and allured them, they mud; not indulge themfelves with any ideas of impodtions being abolilhed ; which he touched on as if he knew that they had gotten fuch notions. When he retired, they again furrounded me, who had attended to the letter like others; were very menacing in their manner ; and exprelfed many fufpicions : I did not like my lituation at all, efpecially on hearing one of them fay that I ought to be Secured till fomebody would give an account of me. I was on the heps of the inn, and begged they would permit me a few words ; I allured them, that I was an Engliih traveller, and to prove it, I dedred to ex- plain to them a circumhance in Engliih taxation, which would be a fatisfacilory comment on what Monf. 1’Abbe had told them, to the purport of which I couid not agree. He had alter ted, that the impodtions mult and w T ould be paid as heretofore : that the impodtions mud be paid was certain, but not as hereto- xore, as they might be paid as they were in England. “ Gentlemen, we have a t great number of taxes in England, which you know nothing of in France; but tne tiers etat , the poor do not pay them ; they are laid on the rich ; every window in a man’s houfe pays ; but if he has no more than dx windows, he pays nothing; a Seigneur, with a great efcate, pays the vingtiemes and tailles g but the little. proprietor of a garden pays nothing ; the rich for their hordes, their voitures, their fer van ts, and even for liberty to kill their own partridges, but the poor farmer nothing of all this : and what is more, we have in England a tax paid by the rich for the relief of the poor; hence the adertion of Monf. i’Abbe, that becaufe taxes exilted before they mult exilt again, did not at all prove that they i6o besancon. they muft be levied in tlie fame manner; our Englifh method feemed much better.” There was not a word of this difcourfe, they did not approve of; they feemed to think that I might be an honeft fellow, which I confirmed, by crying vive le tiers, fans impoftions, when they gave me a bit of a huzza, and I had no more interruption from them. My miferable French was pretty much on a par with their patois. I got, however, another cockade, which I took care to have fo failened as to lofe it no more. I do not like travelling in fucn an unquiet and fermenting moment ; one is not fecure for an hour beforehand. — — 35 miles. _ The 27th. To Befancon ; the country mountain, rock, and wood, above the river i fome fcenes are fine. I had not arrived an hour before I faw a peafant pafs the inn on horfeback, followed by an officer of the garde burgeoife , of which there are 1 200 here, and 200 under arms, and his party-coloured detach- ment, and thefe by fome infantry and cavalry. I afked why the militia took the pas of the King’s troops ? For a ‘very good reafon , they replied, the troops would be attacked and knocked on the head , but the populace will not ref ft the. militia. This peafant, who is a rich proprietor, applied for a guard to protect his houfe, in a village, where there is much plundering and burning. The mifchiefs which have been perpetrated in the country, towards the mountains and Vefoul, are numerous and fhocking. Many chateaus have been burnt, others plundered, the feigneurs hunted down like wild beafts, their wives and daughters ravifhed, their papers and titles burnt, and all their property deftroyed : and thefe abominations not inflicted on marked perfons, who were odious for their former conduct or principles, but an indifcriminating blind rage for the love of plunder . Robbers, galley- Haves, and villains of all denominations, have collected and infiigated the peafants to commit all forts of outrages. Some gentlemen at the table d’hote in- formed me, that letters were received from the Maconois, the Lyonois, Auveigne, Dauphine, &c. and that fimilar commotions and mifchiefs were perpetrat- ing every where ; and that it was expeded they would pervade the whole king- dom. The backwardnefs of France is beyond credibility in every thing that pertains to intelligence. From Strafbourg hither, I have not been able to fee a newfpaper. Here I afked for the Cabinet Liter aire ? None. The gazettes ? At the cofifee-houfe. Very eafily replied ; but not fo eafily found. Nothing but the Gazette de France y for which, at this period, a man of common fenle would not give one fol To four other coffee-houfes ; at fome no paper at all, not even the Mercurey at the Caffe Militaire , the Courier de /’ Europe a fortnight old j and well dreffed people are now talking of the news of two or three weeks paff, and plainly by their difcourfe know nothing of what is palT- j no -. The whole town of Befan£on has not been able to afford me a fight or the Journal de Paris , nor of any paper that gives a detail of the tranfadions of BESANCON. 1 6 1 the Bates; yet it is the capital of a province, large as half a dozen Etwlidt counties^ and containing 25,000 fouls— and, drange to, fay! the port comin- in but tnree times a week. At this eventful moment, with no licence, nor even the lead; reftraint on die prefs, not one paper jedablifhed at Paris for circu- lation m tne provinces, with the neceffary heps taken by afficbe , or placard , to inform tne people in. all the towns of its edablifhment. For what the country knows to the contrary, their deputies are in the Baftile, indead of the Badile eing lazed; io the mob plunder, burn, and dedray, in complete ignorance: and yet, with all thefe ihades of darknefs, this univerfal mafs of ignorance, there are men every day in the Hates, who are puffing themfelves off for the first nation in Europe! the greatest people in the universe! as if the political juntos, or literary circles of a capital con Hi tu ted a people; inftead of tne univerfal illumination of knowledge, acting by rapid intelligence on minds prepared by habitual energy of reafoning to receive, combine, and comprehend it. That this dreadful ignorance of the mafs of the people, of the events that moft intimately concern them, arifes from the old government, no one can douot, it is however curious to remark, that if the nobility of other provinces are minted luce thofe of Tranche Compte, of which there is little reafon to doubt that whole order of men undergo a profcription, and fuffer like ftieep, without making the leaft effort to refill the attack. This appears marvellous, with a body that have an army of 150,000 men in their hands; for though a part of thofe troops would certainly diiobey their leaders, yet let it be remembered, that out of the 40,000, or poffibly 100,000 nobleffe of France, they might, if they had in telligence and union amongft themfelves, fill half the ranks of more than hah the regiments of the kingdom, with men who have fellow-feelings and fellow-fuffermgs with themfelves; but no meetings, no aflbciations among them; no union with military men; no taking of refuge in the ranks of regi! ments to defend or avenge their caufej fortunately for France, they fall without a e ’ an< ^ d * e w ‘ dlout a blow. That univerfal circulation of intelligence u- r“ E " gland tranfmits the leaft vibration of feeling or alarm, with ele&ric e r nn 1 it ^ J . rom one enc * °^* kingdom to another, and which unites in bands 01 connection men of fimilar intereds and fituations, has no exigence in France thus it may be laid, perhaps with truth, that the fall of the King, court, lords* nobles, army, church, and parliaments, proceeds from a want of intelligence . em ?.\ U1 , 1^ circulated, confequently from the very effects of that thraldom m w ic they held the people : it is therefore a retribution rather than a pu- mihment. 1 8 miles. v Tne 28th. At the table d hote lad: night a perfon gave an account of beino- ltopped at Sahns for want of a paflport, and differing the greated inconveniences ; ound it neceffary, therefore, to demand one for myfelf, and went accordingly Y t0 i6i DOLE. to the Bureau, but I went in vain : this was an air veritablement d’un commis. -Thefe paffports are new things from new men, in new power, and ihew that they do not bear their new honours too meekly. Thus it is impoffible for me, without running my head againfl a wall, to vifit the Salins, or Arbois, where I have a letter from M. de Brouffonet, but I muft take my chance and get to Dijon as fall as I can, where the prefident de Virly knows me, having fpent fome days at Bradfield, unlefs indeed being a prefident and a nobleman, he has been knocked on the head by the tiers it at . At night to the play; miferable perfor- mers; the theatre, which has not been built many years, is heavy; the arch that parts'the ftage from the houfe is. like the entrance of a cavern, and the line of the amphitheatre, that of a wounded eel; I do not like the air and manners of the people here. The mufic, and bawling, and fqueaking of I’Epreuve Villa - geoife of Gretry, which is wretched, had no power to put me in better humour. I will not take leave of this place, to which I never defire to come again, with- out faying that they have a fine promenade; and that Monf. Arthaud, the ar- penteur, to whom I applied for information without any letter of recommenda- tion, was liberal and polite, and anfwered my enquiries fatisfa&orily. The 29th. To Orechamp the country is bold and rocky, with fine woods, and yet it is not agreeable ; it is like many men that have eflimable points in their characters, and yet we cannot love them. Poorly cultivated too. Coming out of St. Vetc, a pretty riant landlkip of the river doubling through the vale, enli- vened by a village and fome fcattered houfes : the moil pleating view I have feen in Franche Compte. 23 miles. The 30th/ The mayor of Dole is made of as good fluff as the notary of Be- fancon ; ' he would give no paffport ; but as he accompanied his refufal with neither airs nor graces, I let him pafs. To avoid the centinels, I went round the town. The country to Auxonne is chearful. Crofs the Soane at Auxonne; it is a fine river, through a region of flat meadow of beautiful verdure; com- mons for great herds of cattle; vaftly flooded, and the hay-cocks under water. To Dijon is a fine country, but wants wood. My paffport demanded at the gate: and as I had none, two bourgeois mufqueteers conducted me to the hotel de Ville, where I was queilioned, but finding that I was known at Dijon, they let me go to my inn. Out of luck: Monf. de Virly, on whom I moll depended for Dijon, is at Bourbon le Bains, and Monf. de Morveau, the celebrated chy- xnift, who I expected would have had letters for me, had none, and though he re- ceived me very politely, when I was forced to announce myfelf as his brother in the Royal Society of London, yet I felt very awkwardly ; however, he delired to fee me again next morning. They tell me here, that the intendant is fled; and that the Prince of Conde, who is Governor of Burgundy, is in Germany: they pofitively afl'ert, and with very little ceremony, that they would both be hanged. DIJON. 163 hanged, if they were to come hither at prefent; fuch ideas do not mark too much authority in the Mice burgeoife y as they have been inflituted to flop and prevent hanging and plundering. They are too weak, however, to keep the peace: the licence and fpirit of depredation, of which I heard fo much in crof- fing Franche Compte, has taken place, but not equally in Burgundy. In this inn, la V ille de Lyon , there is at prefent a gentleman, unfortunately a feigneur, his wife, family, three fervants, an infant but a few months old, who efcaped from their flaming chateau half naked in the night; all their property loll ex- cept the land itlelf; and this family valued and efleemed by the neighbours, with many virtues to command the love of the poor, and no oppreflions to pro- voke their enmity. Such abominable adtions mull bring the greater deteflation to the caufe from being unneceffary; the kingdom might have been fettled in a real fyflem of liberty, without the regeneration of fire and fword, plunder, and bloodfhed. Three hundred bourgeois mount guard every day at Dijon, armed, but not paid at the expence of the town : they have alfo fix pieces of cannon. The noblefle of the place, as the only means of fafety, have joined them--fo that there are croix de St. Louis in the ranks. The palais des etdts here, is a large and fplendid building, but not flriking proportionably to the mafs and expence. The arms of the Prince of Conde are predominant; and the great falon is called the Salle a manger de Prince . A Dijon artifl has painted the battle of Seniff, and the Grande Conde thrown from his horfe, and a cieling, both well executed. Tomb of the Duke of Bourgogne, 1404. A pidture by Rubens at the Chartreufe. They talk of the houfe of Monf. de Montigny, but not fhewn, his filler being in it. Dijon, on the whole, is a handfome town; the flreets, though old built, are wide, and very well paved, with the addition, un- common in France, of trottoirs. 28 miles. The 31 fl. Waited on Monf. de Morveau, who has, mofl fortunately for me, leceived, this morning, from Monf. de Virly, a recommendation of me, with four letters from Monf. de Brouffonet; but Monf. Vaudrey, of this place, to whom one of them is addreffed, is abfent. We had fome conven- tion on the interefling topic to all philofophers, phlogiflon ; Monf. de Morveau contends vehemently for its non-exiflence ; treats Dr. Prieflley’s lafl publication as wide of the queflion ; and declared, that he confiders the controverfy as much decided as the queflion of liberty is in France. He fhewed me part of the arti- cle air in the New Encyclopaedia by him, to be publifhed foon; in which work, e thinks he has, beyond controverfy, eflablifhed the truth of the dodtrine of t. e French chymifls of its non-exiflence. Monf. de Morveau requefled me to call on him in the evening to introduce me to a learned and agreeable lady ; and engaged me to dine with him to-morrow. On leaving him, I went to learch coffee-houfes; but will it be credited, that I could find but one in this capital Y 2 of 164 DIJON. of Burgundy, where I could read the newfpapers ? — At a poor little one in the fquare, I read a paper, after waiting an hour to get it. The people I have found every where defirous of reading newfpapers ; but it is rare that they can gratify themfelves : and the general ignorance of what is pafting may be colleded from this, that I found nobody at Dijon had heard of the riot at the town-houfe of Strasbourg ; I defcribed it to a gentleman, and a party collected around me to hear it; not one of them had heard a fyllable of it, yet it is nine days fince it happened; had it been nineteen, I queftion whether they would but juft have re- ceived the intelligence; hut, though they are flow in knowing what has really happened, they are very quick in hearing what is impoffible to happen. The report at prefent, to which all poflible ciedit is given, is, that the Queen has been convided of a plot to poifon the King and Monlieui, and give the ie- gency to the Count d’ Artois; to fet fire to Paris, and blow up the Palais Royal by a mine !— Why do not the feveral parties in the fcates caufe papers to be printed, that fhall tranftnit their own fentiments and opinions only, in order that no man in the nation, arranged under the fame ftandard of reafoning, may want the fads that are neceftary to govern his arguments, and the conclufions that great talents have drawn from thofe fads ? The King has been advifed to take feveral fteps of authority againft the ftates, but none of his minifters have ad- vifed the eftablifhment of journals, and their fpeedy circulation, that fhouid un- deceive the people in thofe points his enemies have mifreprefented. When nu- merous papers are published in oppofition to each other, the people take pains to lift into and examine the truth; and that inquifitivenefs alone the veiy ad of Searching, enlightens them; they become informed, and it is no longer eafy to deceive them. At the table d’hote three only, myfeif, and two noblemen, driven from their eftates, as I conjedure by their conversation, but they did not hint at any thing like their houfes being burnt. Their defer iption of the icate of that part of the province they come from, in the road from Langres to Gray, is terrible; the number of chateaus burnt not confiderable, but three in five plundered/ and the pofTeffors driven out of the country, and glad to fave their lives. One of thefe gentlemen is a very fenfible well informed man; he consi- ders all rank, and all the rights annexed to rank, as deftroyed in fad in Fiance;, and that the leaders of the National Aflembly having no property, or very little themfelves, are determined to attack that alfo, and attempt an equal divinon.- The expedation is gotten among many of the people; but whether it take place or not, he confiders France as abfohitely ruined . That, I replied, was going tc° far, for the deftrudion of rank did not imply ruin. “ I call nothing rum, ne replied, “ but a general and confirmed civil war, or difmemberment of the King- dom; in my opinion, both are inevitable; not perhaps this year, or the next, or, the year after that, but whatever government is built on the foundation now c / D I J O N. laying in France, cannot fland any rude fhocks; an unfuccefsful or a fuccefsful war will equally deftroy it.”— He fpoke with great knowledge of hiftorical events, and diew his political conclufions with much acumen. I have met with very few fuch men at tables d’hotes. It may be believed, I did not for- get M. de Morveau’s appointment. He was as good as his word; Madame Picaiuet is as agreeable m converfation as fhe is learned in the clofet; a very pleafing unaffected woman ; fhe has tranflated Scheele from the German, and a part of Mr. Kirwan from the Englifh ; a treafure to M. de Morveau, for fhe is able and willing to converfe with him on chymical Subjects, and on any others that tend either to inftruCt or pleafe. I accompanied them in their evening V promenade. She told me, that her brother, Monf. de Poule, was a great far- mer, who had fown large quantities of fainfoin, which he ufed for fattening, oxen; fhe was forry he was engaged fo clofely in the municipal bufinefs at pre- fen t, that he could not attend me to his farm. August i. Dined with Monf. de Morveau by appointment; Monf. Pro- felleur Chaufee, and Monf. Picardet of the party. It was a rich day to me; the great and juft reputation of Monf. de Morveau, for being not only the firft chy- mifl of France, but one of the greateft that Europe has to boaft, was alone fuf- hcient to render his company interesting; but to find fuch a man void of affec- tation; free from thofe airs of Superiority which are Sometimes found in cele- brated characters, and that referve which oftener throws a veil over their talents, as well as conceals their deficiencies for which it is intended — was very pleafino-. Monf de Morveau is a lively, converfable, eloquent man, who, in any flation of life, would be Sought as an agreeable companion. Even in this eventful mo- ment of revolution, the converfation turned almoft entirely on chymical Subjects. I urged him, as I have done Dr. PrieStley more than once, and Monf La Voi- der alfo, to turn his enquiries a little to the application of his Science to agricul- ture; that there was a fine field for experiments in that line, which could Scarcely fitil of making difeoyeries ; to which he affented ; but added, that he had no time foi fuch enquiries : it is clear, Srom his converfation, that his views are entirely occupied by the non-exifience of phlogifion, except a little on the means of eita~ bliflnng aiio emoicing the new nomenclature. While, we were at dinner a proof of tne New Encyclopaedia was brought him, the chymical part of which work is pointed ai Dijon, ror the convenience of IMonf. de Morveau. I took the liberty of telling him, that a man who can devifie the experiments which Shall be mod con- clufive m ascertaining the queflions of a Science, and^ has- talents to draw all the ufeful conclufions from them, Should be entirely employed in experiments, and their regilter ; and if I were King or minister of France, I would make that, em- ployment fo profitable to him, that he fhould do nothing elfe.. He laughed, and diked me, if. I were inch an advocate for working, and fuch an enemy to 166 DIJON. writing, what I thought of my friend Dr. Prieftlcy ? And he then explained to the two other gentlemen that great philofopher s attention to metaphyfics, and polemic divinity. If an hundred had been at table, the fentiment would have been the fame in every bofom. Monf. M. fpoke, however, with great regard for the experimental talents of the Do&or, as indeed who in Europe does not ? I after- wards reflected on Monf. de Morveau’s not having time to make experiments that fhould apply chymidry to agriculture, yet having plenty of it for writing in fo voluminous a work as Pankouck’s. I lay it down as a maxim, that no man can eftablifh or fupport a reputation in any branch of experimental philo- fophy, fuch as fhall really defcend to pofterity, otherwife than by experiment; and that commonly the more a man works, and the lefs he writes the better, at leaf! the more valuable will be his reputation. The profit of writing has ruined that of many (thofe who know Mon. de Morveau will be very fure I am far enough from having him in my eye; his fituation in life puts it out of the ques- tion )°; that compreffion of materials, which is luminous; that brevity which appropriates fa&s to their deftined points, are alike inconfident with the prin- ciples that govern all compilations; there are able and refpedable men now in every country for compiling; experimenters of genius fhould range themfelves in another clafs. If I were a fovereign, and capable conlequently of rewarding merit, the moment I heard of a man of real genius engaged in fuch a woi , would give him double the bookfeller s price to let it alone, and to emp oy felf in paths that did not admit a rival at every door. There are who will think that this opinion comes oddly from one who has publifhed fo many books as 1 have; but I hope it will be admitted, to come naturally at lead; from one who is writing a work from which he does not expedl to make one penny, who, therefore, has Wronger motives to brevity than temptations to prolixity.. I he view of this great chymift’s laboratory will lhew that he is not idle: it con- fifts of two large rooms, admirably furnifhed indeed. There are fix or leven different furnaces (of which Macquer’s is the mod; powerful), and fuch a va- riety and extent of apparatus, as I have feen no where elfe, with a furniture o fpecimens from the three kingdoms, as looks truly like bufinefs. There are little writing defks, with pens and paper, fcattered every where, and m his 1- brary alfo, which is convenient. He has a large courfe of eudiometrica expe- riments going on at prefent, particularly with Fontana’s and Volta s eudiome- ters. He feems to think, that eudiometrical trials are to be depended on : keeps his nitrous air in quart bottles, flopped with common corks, but reverfed ; an that the air is always the fame, if made from the fame materials. A very fimp e and elegant method of afcertaining the proportion of vital air he explained to us, by making the experiment ; putting a morfel of phofphorus into a glals re- tort, confined by water or mercury, and inflaming it, by holding a bougie under D I J O N. B E A U N E. t $ 7 it. The diminution of air marks the quantity that was vital on the antiphlo- gidic doClrme. After one extinction, it will bod, but not enflame. He has a pan of fcales made at Paris, which, when loaded with ^ooo grains, will turn with the twentieth part of one grain; an air pump, with glafs barrels, but one of them broken and repaired; the Count de Buffon’s fydem of burning lens; an abfoiber; a refpiiator, with vital air in a jar on one fide, and lime-water in ano- ther; and abundance of new and mod ingenious inventions for facilitating en- quiries in the new philofophy of air. Thefe are fo various, and at the fame^time fo well contrived to anfwer the purpofe intended, that this Ipecies of invention leems to be one very great and edential part of Mon f. de Morveau ’s merit; I wifh he would follow Dr. Priedley’s idea of publijhing his tools , it would add not inconliderably to his great and well earned reputation, and at the lame time piomote the enquiries he engages in amongd all other experimenters. M. de Morveau had the goodnefs to accompany me in the afternoon to the Academy of Sciences: they have a very handfome falon, ornamented with the buds of Dijon worthies ; of fuch eminent men as this city has produced, Bofluet Fevret — De BroiTes — De Crebillon — Pyron — Bonhier — Rameau — and ladly. Buffo n ; and fome future traveller will doubtlefs fee here, that of a man inferior to none of thefe, Monf. de Morveau, by whom I had now the honour of being conducted. In the evening we repaired again to Madame Picardet, and accom- panied her promenade : I was pleafed, in converfation on the prefent didur- bances of b ranee, to hear Monf. de Morveau remark, that the outrages com- mitted by the peafants arofe from their defects of lumkres . In Dijon it had been publicly recommended to the curees to enlighten them fomewhat politi- cally in their fermons, but all in vain, not one would go out of the ufual rou- tine of his preaching. — ® [uere, Would not one newfpaper enlighten them more tnan a fcore of prieds ? I afked Monf. de Morveau, how far it was true that the chateaus had been plundered and burnt by the peafants alone; or whether by thofe troops of brigands , reported to be formidable? He aflured me, that he has made dnCt enquiries to afeertain this matter, and is of opinion, that all the violences in this province, that have come to his knowledge, have been com- mitted by the peafants only; much has been reported of brigands , but nothing proved. At Befancon I heard of 800 ; but how could a troop of 800 banditti march through a country, and leave their exidence the lead quedionable? as ridiculous as Mr. Bayes’s army incog, i The 2d. To Beaune; a range of hills to the right under vines, and a flat plain to the left, all open, and too naked. At the little inflgniflcant town of Tmys, forty men mount guard every day, and a large corps at Beaune. I am provided with a paflport from the Mayor of Dijon, and a flaming cockade of die tiers e'tdty and therefore hope to avoid difficulties; though the reports of the nets of the peafants are fo formidable, that it feems impoffible to travel in fafety. i6S MOKTCENIS.' ■A U TUN. Stop at Nuys for intelligence concerning the vineyards of this country, fo fa- mous in France, and indeed in all Europe ; and examine the Clos de Voujaud , of 100 jourhaux, walled in, and belonging to a convent of Bernardine Monks. — When are we to find thefe fellows chufing badly*? The fpots they appropriate fhew what a righteous attention they give to things of the fpirit. 22 miles. The 3d. Going out of Chagnie, where 1 quitted the great Lyons road, pafs by the canal of Chaulais, which goes on very poorly ; it is a truly ufeful under- taking, and therefore left undone ; had it been for boring cannon, or coppering men of war, it would have been finifhed long ago. To Montcenis a difagree- able country; lingular in its features. If is the feat of one of Monk Weelkain - Jongs eftablifhments for cafting and boring cannon : I have already defcribed one near Nantes. The French fay, that this adtive Englifhman is brother-in- law of Dr. Prieftley, and therefore a friend of mankind; and that he taught them to bore cannon, in order to give liberty to America. The eftablifhment is very confiderable ; there are from 500 to 600 men employed, befides colliers; five fleam engines are eredted for giving the blafts, and for boring; and a new one building. I converfed with an Englifhman who works in the glafs-houfe, in the cryftal branch; there were once many, but only two are left at prefent : he complained of the country, faying there was nothing good in it but wine and brandy; of which things I queftion not but he makes a fufficient ufe. 25 miles. The 4th. By a miferable country moft of the way, and through hideous roads to Autun. The firft feven or eight miles the agriculture quite contemp- tible. From thence to Autun all, or nearly all, inclofed, and the firft fo for manv miles. From the hill before Autun an immenfe view down on that town, and the flat country of the Bourbonnois for a great extent.' — View at Autun the temple of Janus — the walls — the cathedral — the abbey. The reports here of brigands , and burning and plundering, are as numerous as before ; and when it was known in the inn that I came from Burgundy and Franche Compte, I had eight or ten people introducing themfelves, in order to aik for news. The ru- mour of brigands here increafed to 1600 flrong. They were much furprifed to And, that I gave no credit to the exiflence of brigands , as I was well perfuaded, that all the outrages that had been committed, were the work of the peafants only, for the fake of plundering. This they had no conception of, and quoted a lift of chateaus burnt by them; but on analyfmg thefe reports, they plainly appeared to be ill founded. 20 miles. The 5th. The extreme heat of yefterday made me feverifh; and this morn- ing I waked with a fore throat. I was inclined to wafte a day here for the iecurity of my health ; but we are all fools in trifling with the things moft * Sold fxnce by the Aflembly for 1,140,600 livres, or 500I. fieri. per journal. valuable BOURBON LANCY. 169 valuable to us* Lofs of time, and vain expence, are always in the head of a man who travels as much en phtlofophe as I am forced to do. To Maifon de Bour- gogne, I thought myfelf in a new world ; the road is not only excellent, of gravel, hut tiie country is inclofed and wooded. There are many gentle inequalities, and feveral ponds that add to the beauty of the country. The weather, fincc the commencement of AuguA, has been clear, bright, and burning • too’hot to be perfectly agreeable in the middle of the day, but no flies, and therefore I do no L legal a the heat. This circumAance may, I think, be Axed on as the teA. In Langueacc, &c. thefe heats, as I have experienced, are attended by myriads, and confequently they are tormenting. One had need be fick at this Maifon de Bourgogne y a healthy Aomach would not be eafily Ailed ; yet it is the po A- houfe. In the evening to Lufy, another miferable poft-houfe. Note, through all Burgundy the women wear flapped men’s hats, w'hich have not nearly fo good an effed: as the Araw ones of Alface. 22 miles. The oth. To efcape the heat, out at tour in the morning, to Bourbon Lancy, through the fame country inclofed, but wretchedly cultivated, and all amaz- ingly improveable. If I had a large trad in this country, I think I fliould not be long in making a fortune ; climate, prices, roads, inclofures, and every ad- vantage, except government. All from Autun to the Loire is a noble Aeld for improvement, not by expenfive operations of manuring and draining, but merely by fubAituting crops adapted to the foil. When I fee fuch a country thus ma- naged, and m the hands of Aarving metayers , inAead of fat farmers, I know not how to pity the feigneurs, great as their prefen t fufferings are. I met one of them to whom I opened my mind he pretended to talk of agriculture, Andinn I at- tended to it; and aflured me, that he had Abb6 Roziere’s corps complete and he beneved, from his accounts, that this country would not do for any thino- but him, whether he or Abbe Roziere knew the right end of a plough ? He aflured me, that the Abbe was un homme de grand merit e , beaucoup d’ agricult eur Crois the Loire by a ferry; it is here the fame naAy feene of fhingle, as in Tou- lame. Enter the Bourbonnois ; the fame inclofed country, and a beautiful gravel 10a . * , c t C ^' Javanne k Rot, Monf. Joly, the aubergijie , informed me of three do- mains (* arms) to be fold, adjoining almoA to his houfe, which is new and well built. I was for appropriating his inn at once in my imagination for a farm- houle and was working on turnips and clover, when he told me, that if I womd walk behind his Aable, I might fee, at a fmall diAance, two of the loines ; he faid the price would be about 50 or 60,000 liv. (2,625b), and would a together make a noble farm. If I were twenty years younger, I fliould think aioimy o, uch a Ipecuiation ; but there again is the folly and deflciency of life • twemy years ago, iuch a thing would, for want of experience, have been mv 27 miles n ° W 1 haVC the eX P erienCe ’ 1 am 100 old for undertaking— J. Z The MOULIN S. 170 AA The 7 th. Moulin* appears to be but a poor ill built town. I went to the Belle Image, but found it fo bad, that I left it, and went to the Lyon 70r, which fs worfe. This capital of the Bourbonno.s and on the great noft 'road to Italy, has not an inn equal to the little village of Chavanne. To read the paper s, I went to the coffee-houfe of Madame Bourgeau, the belt in the town, where I found near twenty tables fet for company, but, as to a newfpaper I might have as well have demanded an elephant. Here is a fea- ture of national baAwardnefs, ignorance, ftupidity, and poverty ! In the capi- tal of a great province, thefeatofanintendant, at a moment like the prefent, with a National Affembly voting a revolution, and not a newfpaper to infoim the people whether Fayette, Mirabeau, or Louis XVI. were on the thione. Com- panies a P t a coffee-houfe, numerous enough to fill twenty tables and cunofi y Lt adive enough to command one paper. What impudence and folly 1-Folly n the cuftomers of fuch a houfe not to infiil on half a dozen papers, and all the journals of the affembly , and impudence of the woman not to provide them 1 Could fuch a people as this ever have made a revolution, or become flee . Never, in a thoufand centuries : The enlightened mob of Pans, am.dft hun- dreds of papers and publications, have done the whole. I demanded why they had no papers? They are too dear-, but (he made me pay 24 / for one difh of coffee, with milk, and a piece of butter about the fize of a walnut. is a great pity there is not a camp of brigands in your coffee-ioom, Madame Bourgeau. — Among the many letters for which I am indebted to Mon touf- fonet, few have proved more valuable than one Iliad for Monf. 1 Abbe de Barm, principal of the college of Moulins, who entered with intelligence and animation into the objed of my journey, and took every ftep that was pofiible to get me well informed. He carried me to Monf. le Count de Gnmau, lieutenant general of the Balliage, and diredor of the Society of Agriculture at Moulins, who kept us at dinner. He appears to be a man of confiderable fortune, 01 information, and knowledge, agreeable and polite. He difcourfed with me on the ftate of the Bourbomiois ; and allured me, that eftates were rather given away than fold : that the metayers were fo miferably poor, it was impoflible for them to cultivate well. I flatted feme obfervations on the modes which ought to be purfued j but all convention of that fort is time loft in France. After dinner is very prettily fituated, commanding a view of the vale of the Ail . ters from Paris, which contain nothing but accounts truly alarming, of le ■violences committed all over the kingdom, and particularly at and m the neigh- bourhood of the capital.. M. Necker’s return, which it was expeded w u d have calmed every thing, has no effed at all ; and it is particularly no in the National Affembly, that there is a violent party evidently bent on liv- ing things to extremity : men who, from the violence and conflids of th . - ment, find themfelves In a poiition, and of an importance that refults merely from public confufion, will take effe&ual care to prevent the fettlement, order, and peace, which, if eftabliffied, would be a mortal blow to their confequence : they mount by the ftorm, and would fink in a calm. Among other perfons to whom Monf. 1 ’ Abbe Barut introduced me, was the Marquis de Goutte, chef d'ef cadre of the French fleet, who was taken by Admiral Bofcawen at Louifbourg, in 1758, and carried to England, where he learned Engliffi, of which he yet re- tains fomething. I had mentioned to Monf. I’ Abbe Barut, that I had a com- miflion from a perfon of fortune in England, to look out for a good purchafe in France ; and knowing that the marquis would fell one of his eftates, he men- tioned it to him. Monf. de Goutte gave me fuch a defcription of it, that I thought, though my time was fhort, that it would be very well worth beftowing one day to view it, as it was no' more than eight miles from Moulins, and, pro- pofing to take me to it the next day in his coach, I readily confented. At the time appointed, I attended the marquis, with M. 1 ’Abbe Barut, to his chateau of Riaux, which is in the midft of the eftate he would fell on fuch terms, that I never was more tempted to fpeculate : I have very little doubt but that the perfon who gave me a commiflion to look out for a purchafe, is long fince fickened of the fcheme, which was that of a refidence for pleafure, by the diflurbances that have broken out here : fo that I ffiould clearly have the refufal of it myfelf. It would be upon the whole a mpre beneficial purchafe than I had any conception of, and confirms Monf. de Grimau’s aflertion, that eflates here are rather given away than fold. The chateau is large and very well built, containing two good rooms, either of which would hold a company of thirty people, with three fmaller ones on the ground floor ; on the fecond ten bedchambers, and over them good garrets, fome of which are well fitted up ; all forts of offices fubftantially eredted, and on a plan proportioned to a large family, including barns new built, for holding half the corn of the eflate in the ftraw, and granaries to contain it when threlhed. Alfo a wine prefs and ample cellaring, for keeping the produce of the vineyards in the mod: plentiful years. The fituation is on the fide of an agreeable riling, with views not ex- tenfive, but pleafing, and all the country round of the fame features I have defcribed, being one of the fineft: provinces in France. Adjoining the chateau is a field of five or fix arpents, well walled in, about half of which is in culture as a garden, and thoroughly planted with all forts of fruits. There are twelve ponds, through which a fmall fiream runs, fufficient to turn two mills, that let at ioooliv. ( 4 ^ 1 . 1 5s.) a-year. The ponds fupply the proprietor’s table amply with fine carp, tench, perch, and eels ; and yield befides a regular revenue of 1 000 liv. 'There are 20 arpents of vines that yield excellent white and red wine, with - jufes for the vignerons ; woods more than fufficient to Fupply the chateau Z 2 with i 7 2 M o U L I N S. with fuel ; and laftly, nine domains or farms let to metayers , tenants at will, at half produce, producing, in cafh, 10,500 liv. (459I. 7 s * ^d.) confequentiy the grofs produce, farms, mills, and fifh, is 12,500 liv. The quantity of land, I conjecture from viewing it, as well as from notes taken, may be above 3000 arpents or acres, lying all contiguous and near the chateau. The outgoings for thofe taxes paid by the landlord ; repairs, garde de cbaJJ'e , game-keeper (for here are all the feigneural rights, haute jujlice , &c.), fteward, expences on wine, &c. amount to about 4400 liv. (192I. 10s.) It yields therefore net fomething more than 8000 liv. (350I.) a year. The price afked is 300,000 liv. (13,125k) ; but for this price is given the furniture complete of the chateau, all the timber, amounting, by valuation of oak only, to 40,000 liv. (1750I.) and all the cattle on the eftate, viz. 1000 fheep, 60 cows, 72 oxen,. 9 mares, and many hogs. Knowing, as I did, that I could, on the fecurity of this eftate, borrow the whole of the purchafe-money, I withftood no trifling temptation when I refilled it. The fineft climate in France, perhaps in Europe ; a beautiful and healthy country; excellent roads; a navigation to Paris; wine, game, fifti, and every thing that ever appears on a table, except the produce of the tropics ; a good houfe, a fine garden, ready markets for every fort of pro- duce; and, above all the reft, 3000 acres of inclofed land, capable in a very little time of being, without expence, quadrupled in its produce, altogether formed a picture fufficient to tempt a man who had been five-and-twenty years in the conftant practice of the hufbandry adapted to this foil. But the ftate of government — the poftibiiity that the leaders of the Paris democracy might in their wifdom abolifh property as well as rank ; and that in buying an eftate I might be purchafing my fhare in a civil war — deterred me from en- gaging at prefent, and induced me to requeft only that the marquis would give me the refufal of it, before he fold it to any body elfe. When I have to treat with a perfon for a purchafe, I fhall wifh to deal with fuch an one as the Marquis de Goutte. He has a phyfiognoiny that pleafts me ; the eafe • and politenefs of his nation is mixed with great probity and honour ; and is not rendered lefs amiable by an appearance of dignity that flows from an an- cient and refpedtable family. To me he feems a man in whom, one might, in any tranfadlion, place implicit confidence., I could have fpent a month m the Bourbonnois, looking at eftates to be fold ;. adjoining to that of M. de Goutte s is another of 270,000 liv. purchafe, Ballain ; Monk. P Abbe Barut having made an appointment with the proprietor, carried me in the afternoon to fee the chateau and a part of the lands; all the country is the fame foil, and in the fame management. It confifts of eight farms, flocked with cattle and fheep by the landlord; and here too the ponds yield a regular revenue.^ ^ In- come at prefent 10,000 liv. (437^- 1 os*) a year; price 260,000 liv. (1 G 375 ^') ar ^ C ' 10,000 MOULINS. 173 10,000 liv. for wood — twenty-five years purchafe. Alfo near St. Poncin another of 400,000 liv. (17,500!.), the woods of which, 450 acres, produce 5000 liv. a year ; 80 acres of vines, the wines fo good as to be fent to Paris ; good land for wheat, and much fown ; a modern chateau, avec toutes les aifances , &c. And I heard of many others. I conjecture that one of the fineft contiguous efiates in Europe might at prefent be laid together in the Bourbonnois. And I am further informed, that there are at prefent 6000 efiates to be fold in France ; if things go on as they do at prefent, it will not be a quefiion of buy- ing efiates, but kingdoms, and France itfelf will be under the hammer. I love a fyfiem of policy that infpires fiich confidence as to give a value to land, and that renders men fo comfortable on their efiates as to make the fale of them the lafi of their ideas. Return to Moulins. 30 miles. The 10th. Took my leave of Moulins, where, efiates and farming have driven even Maria and the poplar from my head, and left me no room for the tombeau de Montmorenci ; having paid extravagantly for the mud wails, cobweb tapeftry, and unfavoury fcents of the Lyon d'Or , I turned my mare towards Chateauneuf, on the road to Auvergne. The accompanyment of die river makes the country pleafant. I found the inn full, bufy, and buftling; Monfeigneur, the bifhop, coming to the fete of St. Laurence, patron of the parifh here. A ik- ing for the commodity I was defired to walk into the garden . This has hap- pened twice or thrice to me in France; I did not before find out that they were fuch good cultivators in this country ; I am not well made for difpenfmg this fort of fertility; but my lord the bifhop and thirty fat priefis will, after a din- ner that has employed all the cooks of the vicinity, doubtlefs contribute am- ply to the amelioration of the lettuces and onions of Monf. le Maitre de la Pofie. To St. Poncin. 30 miles r ! The 1 1 th. Early to Riom, in Auvergne. Near that town the country is interefting; a fine wooded vale to the left, every where bounded by moun- tains ; and thole nearer to the right of an interefting outline. Riom, part of which is pretty enough, is all volcanic ; it is built of lava from the quarries of Volvic, which are highly curious to a naturalift. The level plain, which I pafted in going to Clermont, is the commencement of the famous Limagne of Auvergne, afterted to be the moft fertile of all France ; but that is an error, I have feen richer land in both Flanders and Normandy. This plain is as level as a ftill lake; the mountains are all volcanic, and confequently interefting. I afs a icene of very fine irrigation, that will ftrike a farming eye, to Mont Fer- rand, and aiter that to Clermont. Riom, Ferrand, and Clermont, are all built, or rather perched, on the tops of rocks. Clermont is in the mid.il of a moft curious country, all volcanic ; and is built and paved with lava : much of it forms one of the worft built, dirtieft, and moft {linking places I have met with.. »74 SOYA. CLERMONT. with. There are many ftreets that can, forblacknefs, dirt, and ill Rents, only be reprefented by narrow channels cut in a night dunghill. The contention of naufeous favours, with which the air is impregnated, when briOc mountain gales do not ventilate thefe excrementitious lanes, made me envy the nerves ot the good people, who, for what I know, may be happy in them. It is the fair, the town full, and the tables d’hotes crouded. 25 miles. The 1 2th. Clermont is partly free from the reproach I threw on Moulins and Befancon, for there is a J'alle a leBure at a Monf. Bovares, a bookfeller, where I found feveral newfpapers and journals ; but at the coftee-houfe, I enquired for them in vain they tell me alfo, that the people here are o-reat politicians, and attend the arrival of the courier with impattence. The confequence is, there have been no riots; the moil ignorant will always be the readiest for mifchief. The great news juft arrived from Paris, of the utter abolition of tythes, feudal rights, game, warrens, pidgeons, &c. have been re- ceived with the greateft joy by the mats of the people, and by all not immedi- ately interefted ; and fome even of the latter approve highly of the declaration : but* I have had much converfation with two or three very fenfible perfons, who complain bitterly of the grofs injuftice and cruelty of any fuch declarations of what will be done, but is not effedted and regulated at the moment of declar- ing Monf. l’Abbe Arbrd, to whom Monf. de Brouffonet’s letter introduced me' had the voodnefs not only to give me all the information relative to the curious country around Clermont, which, particularly as a natuialift, attracted his enquiries, but alfo introduced me to Monf. Chabrol, as a gentleman who has attended much to agriculture, and who anfwered my enquiries in that line with great readinefs. . , . . . The 1 ath At Roya, near Clermont, a village in the volcanic mountains, whrh are to curious, and of late years fo celebrated, are fome fprings, reported bv philofophical travellers to be the fineft and moft abundant in France; to view thefe objeds, and more ftill, a very fine irrigation, laid alio to be prac- tifed there, I engaged a guide. Report, when it fpeaks of things of which the reporter is ignorant, is fure to magnify ; the irrigation is nothing more thm a mountain fide converted by water to fome tolerable meadow, but done coa’-H" and not well underftood. That in the vale, between Riom and Ferrand, far exceeds it. The fprings are curious and powerful : they gulh, or rather burft from the rock in four or five ftreams, each powerful enough to turn a mill, into a cave a little below the village. About half a league higher there are many others 5 they are indeed fo numerous, that lcarcely a projection of the rocks or hills is without them. At the village, I found that my gm e, inftead of knowing the country perfeftly, was in reality ignorant ; tnere- fore took a woman to conduit me to the fprings higher up the mountain; OH CLERMONT. on my return, fhe was arrefled by a foldier of the garde bourgeoife (for even this wretched village is not without its national militia) for having, without permiffion, become the guide of a Granger. She was conducted to a heap of Ilones, they call the chateau. They told me they had nothing to do with me ; but as to the woman, fhe fhould be taught more prudence for the futur as the poor devil was in jeopardy on my account, I determined at once accompany them for the chance of getting her cleared, by attefting her inno cence. We were followed by a mob of all the village, with the woman’, children crying bitterly, for fear their mother fhould be imprifoned. At the caflle, we waited fome time, and were then fhewn into another apartment, where the town committee was affembled; the accufation was heard; and it was wifely remarked by all, that, in fuch dangerous times as thefe, when all the world knew that fb great and powerful a perfon as the Queen was confpiring againfl France in the moft alarming manner, for a woman to become the con^- dubtor of a flranger — and of a flranger who had been making fo many fufpicious enquiries as I had, was a high offence. It was immediately agreed, that fhe ought to be imprifoned. I allured them fhe was perfectly innocent ; for it was impoffible that any guilty motive fhould be her inducement ; finding me curious to fee the fprings, as I had viewed the lower ones, and wanted a guide for feeing thole higher in the mountain, fhe offered herfelf : and could have no other than the in- duflrious view of getting a few Jols for her poor family. They then turned their enquiries againfl me, that if I wanted to fee fprings only, what induced me to afk a multitude of questions concerning the price, value, and produbl of the lands ? What had fuclr enquiries to do with fprings and volcanoes ? I told them, that cultivating fome land in England, rendered fuch things interefling to me per- fonally : and laflly, that if they would fend to Clermont, they might know, from feveral refpeblable perfons, the truth of all 1 alferted ; and therefore I hoped, as it was the woman’s firfl indifcretion, for I could not call it offence,, they would difmifs her. This was refufed at firfl, but affented to at lafl, on my declaring, that if they imprifoned her, they fhould do the fame by me, and an- fwer it as they could. They confented to let her go, with a reprimand, and I. departed ; not marvelling, for I have done with that, at their ignorance, in ima- gining that the Queen fhould confpire fo dangeroufly againfl their rocks and mountains, I found my guide in the midfl of the mob, who had been very buly in putting as many queflions about me, as I had done about their crops. There were two opinions ; one party thought I was a commijjaire , come to afcertain ■. the damage done by the hail : the other, that I was an agent of the Queen is, who intended to blow the town up with a mine, and fend all that efcaped to the gallies. The care that mufi have been taken to render the character of that princefs detefled among the people, is incredible.; and there feem every where to I? 6 I Z O I R E. to be no abfurdities too grofs, nor circumftances too impoflible for their faith; In the evening to the theatre, the Qptwuje well adled. Before I leave Clermont, I mull remark, that I dined, or tupped, five times at the tabie d note, Vviih Com twenty to thirty merchants and tradelmen, officers, &c. ; and it is not .eafy for me .to exprefs the intignificance, — the inanity of the converfation. Scaicely any politics, at a moment when every bofom ought to beat with none out political fenfations. The ignorance- or the ftupidity of thefe people mull be abfolutely incredible; not a week paffes without their country abounding with events that are analyzed and debated by the carpenters and blackfmiths of England. The abolition of tythes, the deftruaion of the gabelle , game made property, and feudal rights deftroyed, are French topics, that are translated into Engliffi within lix days after they happen, and their confequences, combinations, refuits, and modifications, become the difquifition and entertainment of the grocers, chandlers, drapers, and fhoemakers of all the towns of England ; yet tne fame people in France do not think them worth their converfation, except in private. Why ? becaufe converfation in private wants little knowledge ; but in public it demands more; and therefore I fuppofe, for I confefs there are a thoufand dim- culties attending the folution, they are filent. But how many people, and how many fubjedts, on which volubility is proportioned to ignorance ? Account for the fabt as you pleafe, but with me it admits no doubt. The 14th. To Izoire, the country all interefting, from the number of conic mountains that rife in every quarter ; fome are crowned with towns -on others are Roman caftles, and the knowledge that the whole is the work ol fubterranean fire, though in ages far too remote for any record to announce, keeps the attention perpetually alive. Monf. de 1 ’ Arbre had given me a set- ter to Monf. Bres, dodtor of phyfic, at Izoire : I found him, with all the townfmen, colleded at the hotel de mile , to hear a newfpaper read. He con- dudted me to the upper end of the room, and feated me by himfelf : the fubjedt of the paper was the fupprefiion of the religious houfes, and the commutation of tythes. I obferved that the auditors, among whom were fome of the lower clafs, were very attentive ; and the wffiole company feemed well pleafed with whatever concerned the tythes and the monks. Monf. Bres, who is a ienfible and intelligent gentleman, walked with me to his farm, about half a league from the town, on a foil of fuperior richnefs ; like all other farms, this is in the hands of a metayer. Supped at his houfe afterwards, in an agreeable company, with much animated political converfation. We difcuffed the news of the day; they were inclined to approve of it very warmly ; but I contended, that the National Affembly did not proceed on any regular well digefted lyltem : that they feemed to have a rage for pulling down, but no tafte for lebuilding . fiat if they proceeded much further on fuch a plan, deftroying every thing, but J r efbablifhing BRIOU D F I X. I77 edablifhing nothing, they would at lad bring the kingdom into ilich confufion, that they would even themfelves be without power to reftore it to peace and order > and that fuch a fituation would, in its nature, be on the brink of the precipice of bankruptcy and civil war. — I ventured further, to declare it as my idea, that without an upper houfe, they never could have either a good or a durable conftitution. We had a difference of opinion on thefe points • but I was glad to find, that there could be a fair difcuffion,— and that, in a company of fix or feven gentlemen, two would venture to agree with a fyflem fo un- fashionable as mine. 17 miles. The 1 5th. The country continues interefting to Brioud. On the tops of the mountains of Auvergne are many old cables, and towns, and villages. Pafs the river, by a bridge of one great arch, to the village of Lampdes. At that place, on Monf. Grey fie r de Talairat, avocat and Jubdelegue , to whom I had a letter ; and who was fo obliging as to arifvver, with attention, all my enquiries into the agriculture of the neighbourhood. He enquired much after lord Brif- tol ; and was not the worfe pleafed with me, when he heard that I came from the fame province in England. We drank his Lordlhip’s health, in the flrono- white wine, kept four years in the fun, which lord Briltol had much com- mended. 18 miles. Tne 1 6 til. Early in the morning, to avoid the heat, which has rather in- commoded me, to Fix. Crofs the river by a ford, near the fpot where a bridge is budding, and mount gradually into a country, which continues interesting to a naturalist, from its volcanic origin; for all has been either overturned, or formed by lire. Pafs Chomet ; and, defending, remark a heap of bafaltic columns by the road, to the right • they are fmall, but regular fexagons. Pou- laget appears in the plain to the left. Stopped at St. George, where I pro- em ed mules, and a guide, to fee the bafaltic columns at Chilliac, which, however, are hardly Striking enough to reward the trouble. At Fix, I faw a fie^d of fine clover ; a light that I have not been regaled with, I think, fince Alface. I defired to know to whom it belonged ? to Monf, Codier* dodtor of medicine. I went to his houfe to make enquiries, which he was obliging enough to gratify, and indulged me in a walk over the principal part ot his farm. He gave me a bottle of excellent v/n blanc moujjeux , made in Auvergne. I enquired of him the means of going to the mine of antimony, four leagues from hence ; but he laid the country was fo enrage in that part, and had lately been fo mifehievous, that he advifed me by all means to give up the projedt. This country, from climate, as well as pines, mud be very hkh.„ I have been for three days pad melted with heat ; but to-day, though the fuiv is bright, the heat has been quite moderate, like an EngiiSh dimmer's day, and 1 am allured that they never have it hotter ; but complain of the winter's ^ a cold s? g POLIGNAC. cold being very fevere, — and that the fnow in the laft was fixteen inches deep on the level. The interefting circumftance of the whole is the volcanic origin : all buildings and walls are of lava : the roads are mended with lava, pozzolana, and bafaltes ; and the face of the country every where exhibits the origin in fubterranean fire. The fertility, however, is not apparent, without reflexion. The crops are not extraordinary, and many bad ; but then the height is to be confidered. In no other country that I have feen are fuch great mountains as theft, cultivated fo high , here corn is feen every where, even to their tops, at heights where it is ufual to find rock, wood, or ling (erica -vulgaris j - 4.2 miles. _ . The 1 7th The whole range of the fifteen miles to Le my en Velay, is wonderfully interefting. Nature, in the production of this country, fuch as we fee it at prefent, muft have proceeded by means not common elfewhere. It is all in its form tempeftuous as the billowy ocean. Mountain rifes beyond mountain, with endlefs variety; not dark and dreary, likethofe of equal height in other countries, but fpread with cultivation (feeble indeed) to the very tops. Some vales funk among them, of beautiful verdure, pleafe the eye. Towards Le Puy the feenery is ftill more ftriking, from the addition of fome of the moft lingular rocks any where to be feen. The caftle of Polignac, from which the duke takes his title, is built on a bold and enormous one , it is almoft of a •cubical form, and towers perpendicularly above the town, which furrounds it at its foot. The family of Polignac claim an origin of great antiquity ; they have pretenfions that go back, I forget whether to Heftor or Achilles, but I never found any one in converfation inclined to allow them more than beino- in the firft daft of French families, which they undoubtedly are. Per- haps there is no where to be met with a caftle more formed to give a local pride of family than this of Polignac : the man hardly exifts that would not feel a certain vanity, at having given his own name, from remote antiquity, to fo •lingular and fo commanding a rock , but if, with the name, it belonged to me! I would fcarcely fell it for a province. The building is of Inch antiquity, and the fituation fo romantic, that all the feudal ages pals in review in one’s ima- gination, by a fort of magic influence; you recognize it for the refjdence of a lordly baron, who, in an age more diftant and more refpedtable, though pei- haps equally barbarous, was the patriot defender of his country againft the in- vafion and tyranny of Rome. In every age, fince the horrible combuftions of nature which produced it, fuch a fpot would be chofen for fecunty and defence. To have given one’s name to a caftle, without any lofty pre-eminence or Angu- larity of nature, in the midft, for inftance, of a rich plain, is not equally flatter- ing to our feelings : all antiquity of family is derived from ages of great barbarifm, when civil commotions and wars fwept away and. confounded the inhabitants of P u Y.-— T HUYT 1 79 fuch fituations. The Bretons of the plains of England were driven to Bre- tagne; but the fame people, in the mountains of Wales, duck fecure, and re- main there to this day. About a gun -foot from Polignac is another rock, not fo large, but equally remarkable; and in the town of Le Puy, another com- manding one rifes to a vad height; with another more fingular for its tower- like form— on the top of which St. Michael’s church is built. Gypfum and lime-done abound; and the whole country is volcanic; the very meadows are on lava : every thing, in a word, is either the product of fire, or has been dis- turbed or tofifed about by it. At Le Puy, fair day, and a table d’hote, with ignorance, as ufual. Many cofiee-houfes, and even confiderable ones, but not a lingle newfpaper to be found in any. 1 5 miles. The 1 8th. Leaving Puy, the hill which the road mounts on the way to Coderous, for four or five miles, commands a view of the town far more pic- turefque than that of Clermont. The mountain, covered with its conical town, crowned by a vaft rock, with thofe of St. Michael and of Polignac, form a mod fingular fcene. The road is a noble one, formed of lava and pozzolana. The adjacent declivities have a flrong difpofition to run into bafaltic penta- gons and fexagons; the dones put up in the road, by way of pods, are parts of bafaltic columns. The inn at Pradelles, kept by three fiders, Pichots, is one of the word I have met with in France. Contraction, poverty, dirt, and dark- nefs . 20 miles , The 19th. To Thuytz; pine woods abound; there are faw-mills, and with ratchet wheels to bring the tree to the faw, without the condant attention of a man, as in the Pyrenees; a great improvement. Pals by a new and beautiful road, along the fide of immenfe mountains of granite; chefnut trees fpread in every quarter, and cover with luxuriance of vegetation rocks apparently fo naked, that earth feems a dranger. This beautiful tree is known to delight in volcanic foils and fituations : many are very large; I meafured one fifteen feet in circumference, at five from the ground; and many are nine to ten feet, and fifty to fixty high. At Maine the fine road ends, and then a rocky, almod na- tural one for fome miles; but for half a mile before Thuytz recover the new one ao-ain, which is here equal to the fined to be feen, formed of volcanic materials, forty feet broad, without the lead done, a firm and naturally level cemented fur- face. They tell me that 1800 toifes of it, or about 2 1 miles, cod 180,000 liv. (8250I.) It conducts, according to cudom, to a miferable inn, but with a laro-e dable ; and in every refpedt Monfieur Grenadier excels the Demoifelies Pichots. Here mulberries fird appear, and with them dies; for this is the fird day I have been incommoded. At Thuytz I had an objedt which I fuppofed would demand a whole day 1 it is within four nours lice 01 me Ivioh.- u^nc dc hi coup au Cold d'Aifa, of which M. Faujas de St. Fond has given a plate, in his A a 2 Rcfe arches iSo T H U Y T Z. Refearches fur les volcanoes eteints , that fhews it to be a remarkable object: I began to make enquiries, and arrangements for having a mule and a guide to go thither the next morning ; the man and his wife attended me at dinner, and did not feem, from the difficulties they raifed at every moment, to approve my plan : having afked them home queffions about the price of provisions, and other things, I fuppofe they regarded me with fufpicious eyes, and thought that I had no good intentions. I defired, however, to have the mule — fome difficulties were made * — d muff have two mules — Very well, get me two. Then returning, a man was not to be had ; with frefh expreffions of furprife, that I fhould be eager to fee mountains'that did not concern me. After railing frefh difficulties to every thing I faid, they at laft plainly told me, that I Should neither have mule nor man; and this with an air that evidently made the cafe hopelefs. About an hour after, I received a polite meffage from the Marquis Deblou, feigneur of the pariffi, who hearing that an inquilitive Englilhman was at the inn, enquiring after volcanoes, propofed the pleafure of taking a walk with me. I accepted, the offer with alacrity, and going diredtly towards his houfe met him on the road. I explained to him my motives and my difficulties; he faid, the people had gotten fome abfurd fufpicions of me from my queflions, and that the pre- sent time was fo dangerous and critical to all travellers, that he would advife me by no means to think of any fuch excurfions from the great road, unlefs I found much readinefs in the people to conduct me : that at any other moment than the prefent, he fhould be happy to do it himfelf, but that at prefent it was impoffible for any perfon to be too cautious. There was no refitting this reafoning, and and yet to lofe the moft curious volcanic remains in the country, for the crater of the mountain is as diftind: in the print of Monf. de St. Fond, as if the lava were now running from it, was a mortifying circumflance. The marquis then fhewed me his garden and his chateau, amidft the mountains; behind it is that of Gravene, which is an extinguifhed volcano likewife, but the crater not dif- cernible without difficulty. In converfation with him and another gentleman, on agriculture, particularly the produce of mulberries, they mentioned a fmall piece of land that produced, by filk only, 120 liv. (5I. $ s.) a year, and being contiguous to the road we walked to it. Appearing very fmall for fuch a pro- duce, I ftepped it to afeertain the contents, and minuted them in my pocket- book. Soon after, growing dark, I took my leave of the gentlemen, and re- tired to my inn. What I had done had more witneffes than I dreamt of; for at eleven o’clock at night, a full hour after I had been afleep, the commander of a file of twenty milice bourgeoife , with their mufquets, or fwords, or fi- bres, or pikes, entered my chamber, furrounded my bed, and demanded my paffport. A dialogue enfued, too long to minute; I was forced firff to give them my paffport, and, that not fatisfying them, my papers.- They told me VILLENEUVE DE BERG. lSr that I was undoubtedly a confpirator with the Queen, the Count d’Artois, and the Count d’Entragues (who has property here), who had employed me as an arpenteur , to meafure their fields, in order to double their taxes. My papers being in Englifh faved me. They had taken it into their heads that I was not an Englihman — only a pretended one; for they fpeak fuch a jargon them- felves, that their ears were not good enough to difcover by my language that I was an undoubted foreigner. Their finding no maps, or plans, nor any thing that they could convert by fiuppofition to a cadajlre of their parifih, had its Caem, as I could fee by their manner, for they converfed entirely in Patois. Perceiving, however, that they were not fatisfied, and talked much of the Count d Entragues, I opened a bundle or letters that were fealed — thefe, gentlemen, are my letters of recommendation to various cities of France and Italy, open which you pleafe, and you will find, for they are written in French, that I am an honed Englishman, and not the rogue you take me for. On this they held a ire lb confultation and debate, which ended in my favour; they refufed to open the letters, prepared to leave me, faying, that my numerous queflions about lands, and meafuring a field, while I pretended to come after volcanoes, had raifed great fufpicions, which they obferved were natural at a time when it was known to a certainty that the Qjueen, the Count d’Artois, and the Count d’En- tragues were in a confpiracy againfi: the Vivarais. And thus, to my entire fatif- faction, they wifhed me good night, and left me to the bugs, which Tvarmed, in the bed like flies in a honey-pot. I had a narrow efcape — it would have been a delicate Situation to have been kept prifoner probably in fome common goal, or, if not, guarded at my own expence, while they fent a courier to Paris for orders. 20 miles. The 20th. The fame impofing mountainous features continue to Viileneuve Qe ^ er S* _ The ro ^d, for half a mile, leads under an immenfe mafs of bafaltic lava, run into configurations of various forms, and refcing on regular columns; tins vafl; lange bulges in the centre into a fort of promontory. The height, form, and figures, and the decifive volcanic character the whole mafs has taken, render it a raofl interefting fpedtacle to tile learned and unlearned eye. Juft before Aubenas, miflaking the road, which is not half finifhed, I had to turn ; it was on the flope of the declivity, and. very rare that any wall or defence is jiound againfi; the precipices. My French mare has an ill talent of backing too finely when fhe begins: unfortunately fhe exercifed it at a moment of imminent danger, and backed the chaife, me, and herfelf down the precipice; by great good duck, there was at the fpot a fort of Shelf of rock, that made the imme- diate fall not more than five feec diredt. I leaped out of the chaife in the mo- ment, and fell unhurt : the chaife was overthrown and the mare on her fide, entangled in the harnefs, which kept the carriage from tumbling down a preci- pice. t % 2 V1LLENEUVE DE BERG. pice of fixty feet. Fortunately fhe lay quietly, for had die ftruggled both muff have fallen. I called fome lime-burners to my affiftance, who were with great difficulty brought to fubmit to directions, and not each purfue his own idea to the certain precipitation of both mare and chaife. We extricated her unhurt, fecured the chaife, and then, with dill greater difficulty, regained the road with both. This was by far the narrowed efcape I have had. A bleffed country for a broken limb — confinement for dx weeks or two months at the Cheval Blanc , at Aubenas, an inn that would have been purgatory itfelf to one of my hogs : alone — without relation, friend, or fervant, and not one perfon in fixty that fpeaks French. — Thanks to the good providence that preferved me ! What a fituation J diudder at the reflection more than I did falling into the jaws of the preci- pice. Before I got from the place there were feven men about me, I gave them a 3 liv. piece to drink, which for fome time they refufed to accept, thinking, with unaffected modefly, that it was too much. At Aubenas repaired the har- nefs, and, leaving that place, viewed the filk mills, which are confiderable. Reach Villeneuve de Berg. I was immediately hunted out by tne miltce bom - geoife. Where is your certificate ? Here again the old objection that my fea- tures and perfon were not defcribed. — Tour papers t The importance of the cafe, they faid, was great: and they looked as big as if a marfhal s batton Was in hand. They tormented me with an hundred qucftions; and then pro- nounced that I was a fufpicious looking perfon. They could not conceive why a Suffolk farmer could travel into the Vivarais. Never had they heard of any perfon travelling for agriculture! They would take my paffport to the hotel de on enquiring, to find that he was at Montilimart; and, waiting on him, perceived that a man of diftinguifhed merit was handfomely lodged, with every thing about him that indicated an eafy fortune. He received me with the frank politenefs inherent in his character; introduced me, on the fpot, to a Monf. I’ Abbe Berenger, who refided near his country-feat, and was, he faid, an excellent cultivator; and like wife to another gentleman, whofe tafte had taken the fime good diredion. In the evening Monf. Faujas took me to call on a female friend, who was engaged in the fame enquiries, Madame Cheinet, whofe hufband is a member of the National Afiembly; if he have the good luck to find at Verfailles fome other lady as agreeable as her he has left at Mon- tilimart, his million will not be a barren one; and he may perhaps be better employed than in voting regenerations. This lady accompanied us in a walk fo/ viewing the environs of Montilimart; and it gave me no fmall pleafure to find, that Ihe was an excellent farmerefs, pradifes confiderably, and had the goodnefs to anfwer many of my enquiries, particularly in the culture of filk. I W as fo charmed with the naivete of charade r, and pleafing converfation of this very agreeable lady, that a longer ftay here would have been delicious but the plough ! ' . f The 23d. By appointment, accompanied Monf. Faujas to his country-leaf and farm at l’Oriol, fifteen miles north of Montilimart, where he is building a good houfe. I was pleafed to find his farm amount to 280 fepteres of land: I 6 r lhould MONTILIMART, fhould have liked it better, had it not been in the hands of a metayer. Monf. Faujas pleafes me much ; the livelinefs, vivacity, phlogijlon of his character, do not run into pertnefs, foppery, or affectation ; he adheres Readily to a fubjeCl ; and fhew.s, that to clear up any dubious point, by the attrition of different ideas in converfation, gives him pleafure ; not through a vain fluency of colloquial powers, but for better undemanding a fubjeCl. Monf. Abbe Berenger, and and another gentleman, palled the next day at Monf. Faujas’ : we walked to the Abbe’s farm. He is of the good order of beings, and pleafes me much ; cure of the parifh, and prefident of the permanent council. He is at prefent warm on a project of re-uniting the proteflants to the church ; fpoke, with great pleafure, of having perfuaded them, on occafion of the general thankfgiving for the efla- blifhment of liberty, to return thanks to God, and fing the Te Deum in the catholic church, in common as brethren, which, from confidence in his cha- racter, they did. He is firmly perfuaded, that, by both parties giving way a little, and ioftening or retrenching reciprocally fomewhat in points that aredif- agreeable, they may be brought together. The idea is fo liberal, that I queftion it for the multitude, who are never governed by reafon, but by trifles and ce- remonies, — and who are ufually attached to their religion, in proportion to the abfurdities it abounds with. I have not the leafl doubt but the mob in England would be much more fcandalized at parting with the creed of St. Athanafius, than the whole bench of bifhops, whole illumination would perhaps refleCl cor- rectly that of the throne. Monf. l’Abbe Berenger has prepared a memorial, which is ready to be prefented to the National AfTembly, propofing and explain- ing this ideal union of the two religions ; and he had the plan of adding a claufe, propofing that the clergy fhould have permifiion to marry. He was convinced, that it would be for the intere.fi of morals, and much for that of the nation, that the clergy Ihould not be an infulated body, but holding by the fame interefis and conne&ions as other people. He remarked, that the life of a cure , and efpe- cially in the country, is melancholy ; and, knowing my paffion, obferved, that a man could never be fo good a farmer, on any poffeffion he might have, ex- cluded from being fucceeded by his children. He fhewed me his memoir, and I was pleafed to find that there is at prefent great harmony between the two religions, which mull be afcribed certainly to fuch good cures. The number of proteflants is very confiderable in this neighbourhood. I flrenuoufly con- tended for the infertion of the claufe refpe&ing marriage ; allured him, that at fuch a moment as this, it would do all who were concerned in this memorial the greatefl credit ; and that they ought to confider it as a demand of the rights of. humanity, violently, injurioufly, and, relative to the nation, impoliticaliy with-held. Yefierday, in going with Monf. Faujas, we palled a congregation of proteflants - aflembled, Druid-like, under five or fix fpreading oaks, to offer F b their i G R A N G E. A V I G N O N. their thankfgiving to the great Parent of their happinefs and hope . 1 In fuch a. climate as this, is it not a worthier temple, built by the great hand they re- vere, than one of brick and mortar ? — This was one 01 the 1 icheh days I have enjoyed in France ; w r e had a long and truly farming oinner ; diank a 1 Anglois fuccefs to the plough? and had fo much agricultural converfation, that I wifhed for my farming friends in Suffolk to partake of my fatisfadtion* If Monf. Faujas de St. Fond come to England, as he gives me hopes, I lhall introduce him to them with pleafure. In the evening return to Montilimart, 3 0 m ^ es * The 2 5th. To Chateau Rochemaur, acrofs the Rhone. It is fituated on a bafaltic rock, nearly perpendicular, with every columnal proof of its volcanic origin. See Monf. Faujas’ RechercbeL In the afternoon to Piere Latte, through.a country fferil, uninterefling, and far inferior to the environs of Mon- tilimart. 22 miles. The 26th. To Orange, the country not much better; a range of mountains to the left 1 fee nothing of the Rhone. At that town there are lemains of a. large Roman building, feventy or eighty feet high, called a circus, of a tuum- phal arch, which, though a good deal decayed,, manirefts, in its remains, no ordinary decoration, and a pavement in the houfe of a poor perfon,. whieK is very perfedt and beautiful, but much inferior to that of Nifmes. . I ue vent a r e bize has blown flrongly for feveral days, with a clear iky, tempeiing the heats, which- are fometimes fultry and oppreffive; it may, for what I know, bo wholefome to French conflitutions, but it is dreadful to mine ; I found nayw A very indifferent, and, as if I were going to be ill, a new and unufual fenfation over, my whole body: never dreaming of the wind, I knew not wdiat to attii- bute it to, but my complaint coming at the lame time, puts it out ot doubt ; befides,, inftindt now, much more than reafon, makes me guard as much as X can againft it.. At four or five in the morning it is fo cold that no traveller ventures out. It is more penetratingly drying than I had any conception 01 ; other winds flop the cutaneous perfpiration ; but this piercing through the body feems, by its fenfation, to dry up all the interior humidity.* 20 miles-. _ The 27th.. To Avignon.- — Whether it were becaufe I had read much of this town in the hiftory of the middle ages,, or becaufe it. had been the rehdence o the Popes,, or more probably from the ffiil more intereiling memoir^ v/ ic Petrarch has left concerning it, in poems that will la A as long as Italian e e- ganceand human feelings fhall exift, I know not— but I approached the p ace with a fort of intereff, attention, and expedancy, that few towns have kindled.. Lauras tomb is* in the church of the Cordeliers ; it is nothing but a hone in the ' pavement, with a figure engraven on it partly effaced, furrounded. byan in op- tion in Gothic letters, and- another in the wall adjoining, with the armoria of the family of Sade.. How incredible is the power of great talents, when AVIGNON. t8j employed in delineating pafllons common to the human race ! How many mil- lions of women, fair as Laura, have been beloved as tenderly— but, wanting a Petrarch to illuftrate the paffion, have lived and died in oblivion ! whiift his lines, not written to die, con dud then lands under the impulfe of feelings, which genius only can excite, to mingle in idea their melancholy fighs with thofe of the poet who confecrated thele remains to immortality! — There is a monument of the brave Crillon in the fame church 5 and I faw other churches and pictures — but Petrarch and Laura are predominant at Avignon 19 miles. The 28th. Wait upon Pere Brouillony, provincial vifitor, who, with great politenefs, procured me the information I wifhed, by introducing me to fome gentlemen converfant in agriculture. From the rock of the legate’s palace, there is one of the fineft views of the windings of the Rhone that is to be feen : it forms two conliderable iflands, which, with the reft of the plain, richly watered, cultivated, and covered with mulberries, olives, and fruit-trees, hath an interefting boundary in the mountains of Provence, Dauphine and Languedoc. — The circular road fine. I was ftruck with the refemblance between the women here and in England. It did not at once occur in what it confifted ; but it is their caps j they drefs their heads quite different from the French women. A better particularity, is there being no wooden fhoes here, nor, as I have fee n, in Provence *. I have often complained of the ftupid ignorance I met with at tables dhotes. Here, if poffible, it has been worfe than common. The politenefs of the French is proverbial, but it never could arife from the manners of the claffes that frequent thefe tables. Not one time in forty will a foreigner, as fuch, receive the leaft mark of attention. The only political idea here is, that if the Englifh fhould attack France, they have a million of men in arms to receive them ; and their ignorance feems to know no diftindtion between men in arms in their towns and villages, or in adfion without the kingdom. They con- ceive, as Sterne obferves, much better than they combine : I put fome queftions to them, but in vain : I afked, if the union of a rufty firelock and a bourgeois made a loldier ? — I afked them in which of their wars they had wanted men ? I demanded, whether they had ever felt any other want than that of money ? And vvhetlier the converfion of a million of men into the bearers of mufquets would make money more plentiful ? I afked if perfonal fervice were not a tax ? And whether paying the tax of the fervice of a million of men increased their * We were, like you, ftruck with the refemblance of the women at Avignon to thofe of England, but not for the reafon you give ; it appeared to us to originate from their complexions being naturally Co much better than that of the other French women, more than their head -drefs, which* differs as much from ours as it does from the French. Ntfe by a female friend. I> b 2 faculties VAUCLUSE. iSS faculties of paying other and more ufeful taxes ? I begged them to inform me, if the regeneration of the kingdom, which had put arms in the hands of a million of mob, had rendered indudry more productive, internal peace more fe~ cure, confidence more enlarged, or credit more liable ? And ladly, I affured them, that fhould the Engliih attack them at prefent, they would probably make the weaked figure they had done from the foundation of their monarchy : but, gentlemen, the Engliih, in fpite of the example you fet them in the American war, will difdain fuch a conduCt ; they regret the conditution you are forming, becaufe they think it a bad one — but whatever you may edabliih, you will have no interruption, but many good willies from your neighbour. It was all in vain ; they were well perfuaded their government was the bell in the world ; that it was a monarchy, and no republic, for which I contended ; and that the Engliih thought fo too, becaufe they would unquellionably abolilh their boufe of lords, in the enjoyment of which accurate idea I left them. — In the evening to Lille, a town which has loll its name in the world, in the more fplendid fame of Vauclufe. There can hardly be met with a richer, or better culti- vated traCl of fixteen miles ; the irrigation is fuperb. Lille is moll agreeably fituated. On coming to the verge of it I found fine plantations of elms, with delicious dreams, bubbling over pebbles on either fide; well drelfed people weie enjoying the evening at a fpot, which I had conceived to be only a mountainous village. It was a fort of fairy fceno to me. Now, thought I, how aetedaole to leave all this fine wood and water, and enter a nady, beggarly, walled, hot, {linking town, one of the contrads mod offenfive to my feelings ? ^ What an agreeable furprife, to find the inn without the town, in the midd of the fcenery I had admired ! and more fo, as it was cheap, and the accommodations good. I walked on the banks of this cladic dream for an hour, with the moon gazing- on the waters, that will run for ever in mellifluous poetry : retired to dip on the mod exquilite trout and craw filh in the world. jTo-monow to the famed origin. 1 6 miles. The 29th. I am delighted with the environs of Lille ; beautiful roads, well planted, furround and pafs off in different directions, as il fiom a capital town,, umbrageous enough to form promenades againd a hot fun, and the river is divided into fo many dreams, and conducted with fo much attention, that it has a delicious effeCt, efpecially to an eye that recognifes alb the feitiiity of irrigation. To the fountain of Vauclufe, which is judly laid to be as celebrated almod as that of Helicon. Crofling a plain, which is not fo beautiful as one’s, idea of Tempe ; the mountain prefents an almod perpendicular rock, at the foot of which is an immenfe and very fine cavern, hall filled with a pool of dag- nant, but clear water ; this is the famous fountain ; at other feafons it fills the whole cavern, and boils over ii>a vad dream among rocks 5 its bed now marked V A U C L U S E. ORGO N. 189 by vegetation. At prefent the water gullies out 200 yards lower down, from beneath mafles of rock, and in a very fmall diflance forms a conliderable river, which almoA immediately receives deviations by art for mills and irrigation. On the fummit of a rock above the village, but much below the mountain, is a rum, called, by the poor people here, the chateau of Petrarch — who tell you it was inhabited by Monf. Petrarch and Madame Laura. The fcene is fublime ; but what renders it truly interefling to our feelings, is the celebrity which great talents have given it. The power of rocks, and water, and mountains, even in their boldeft features, to arreft attention, and fill the bofom with fenfations that banifli the infipid feelings of common life — holds not of inanimate nature. To give energy to fuch fenfations, it muff receive animation from the creative touch of a vivid fancy: defcribed by the poet, or connected with the refidence, ac- tions, purfuits,, or paflions of great geniuffes ; it lives, as it were, perfonified by talents, and commands the intereft that breathes around whatever is conle- crated by fame. To Orgon. Quit the Pope’s territory, by eroding the Du- rance; there view the fkeleton of the navigation of Boifgelin, the work of the Archbifhop ot Aix, a noble project, and, where nnifhed, perfectly well exe- cuted ; a hill is pierced by it for a quarter of a mile, a work that rivals the gieatefl fimilar exertions. • It has, however, flood flill- many years for want of money. The vent de bize gone, and the heat increafed, the wind now S. W. my health better to a moment, which proves how pernicious that wind is, even in AugufL 20 miles. The 30th. I forgot to obferve that, for a few days pad, I have been peflered with all the mob of the country fhooting : one would think that every ruffy gun in Provence is at work, killing all forts of birds ; the fhot has fallen five 01 fix times in my chaife and about my ears. The National Afi'embly haVe declared that every man has a right to kill game on his own land; and advancing this maxim fo abfurd as a declaration, though fo wife as a law, without any- ftatute or provifion to fecure the right of the game to the poflefTor of the foil, according to the tenor of the vote, have, as I am every where informed, filled all the fields of France with fportfmen to a great detriment. The fame effects have flowed from declarations of right relative to tythes, taxes, feudal rights, &c. In the declarations, conditions and compenfations are talked of;- but an unruly, ungovernable multitude feize the benefit of the abolition, and laugh at the obligations or recompenfe. Out by day break for Salon, in order to view the Crau, one of the moft lingular dilindfs in b ranee for its foil, or rather want of foil, being apparently a region of fea flints, yet feeding great herds of flieep : View the improvement of Monfieur -Pafquali, who is doing great things, but roughly : I wifhed to fee and converfe with him, but unfortunately he was' abfent from Salon.. At night to St. Canat.— 4.6 miles. The TOUR D’AIGUES. 193 -The 31ft. To Aix. Many houfes without glafs windows. The women With men’s hats, and no wooden fhoes. At Aix waited on Monf. Gibelin, celebrated for his tranflations of the works of Dr. Prieftley, and of the Philofophical Tran fad ions. He received me with that eafy and agreeable politenefs natural to his character. He took every method in his power to procure me the information I wanted, and engaged to go with me the next day to Tour D’Aigues to wait on the baron of that name, prefident of the parliament of Aix, to whom alfo I had letters ; and whofe eflays, in the Trimeftres of the Paris Society of Agriculture, are among the moft valuable on rural ceconomics in that work. 12 miles. September ill. Tour d’Aigues is twenty miles north of Aix, on the other fide of the Durance, which we crofted at a ferry. The country about the cha- teau is bold and hilly, and fwells in four or five miles into rocky mountains. The prefident received me in a very friendly manner, with a fimplicity of manners that gives a dignity to his character, void of affectation ; he is very fond of agri- culture and planting. The afternoon was paffed in viewing his home-farm, and ,his noble woods, which are uncommon in this naked province. The chateau of Tour d’Aigues, before much of it was accidentally confumed by fire, muff have been one of the moft confiderable in France ■, but at prefent a melancholy ipec- tacle is left. The baron is an enormous fufferer by the revolution ; a great extent of country, which belonged in abfolute right to his anceftors, was for- merly granted for quit rents, cens, and other feudal payments, fo that there is no xomparifon between the lands retained and thofe thus granted by his family. The lofs of the droits honorijiques is much more than has been apparent, as it is an utter lofs of all influence ; it was natural to look for fome plain and dimple mode of compenfation ; but the declaration of the National Aflem- blv allows none ; and it. is feelingly known in this chateau, that the folid payments which the Aftembly have declared to be rachetable are every hour falling to nothing, without a fhadow of recompenfe. The people are in arms, and at this moment very unquiet. The fituation of the nobility in this country is pitiable they are under apprehenfions that nothing will be left them, but Amply fuch houfes as the mob allows to fland unburnt ; that the metayers will retain their farms without paying the landlord his half of the produce $ and that, in cafe of fuch a refufal, there is actually neither law nor autho- rity in the country to prevent it. Here is, however, in this houfe, a large and an agreeable fociety, and cheerful to a 'miracle, confldering the times, and what fuch a great baron is loflng, who has inherited from his anceftors im- menfe pofleflions, now frittering to nothing by the revolution. This chateau, fplendid even in ruins, the venerable woods, park, and all the enflgns of family and command, with the fortune, and even the lives of the owners at the mercy MARSEILLES. 191 mercy of an armed rabble. What a fpe&acle ! The baron has a very fine and well filled library, and one part of it totally with books and trads on agri- culture, in all the languages of Europe. His colledion of thefe is nearly as numerous as my own. 20 miles. The 2d. Monf. Le Prefident dedicated this day for an excuriion to his mountain-farm, five miles off, where he has a great range, and one of the fined: lakes in Provence, two thoufand toifes round, and forty feet deep. Diredly from it rifes a fine mountain, confiding of a mafs of fhell agglutinated into done ; it is a pity this hill is not planted, as the water wants the immediate ac- companyment of wood. Carp rife to 251b. and eels to 1 2lb. (Note, there are carp in the lake Bourgeat, in Savoy, of 6olb.) A neighbouring gentleman, Monf Jouvent, well acquainted with the agriculture of this country, accompanied us, and fpent the red of the day at the cadle. I had much valuable information from the Baron de Tour d’Aigues, this gentleman, and from Monf. fAbbe" de • , I forget his name. In the evening I had fome converfation one houfe-keeping with one or the ladies, and found, among other articles, that the wages of a gardener, are 300 ILV. (13I. 2s. 6d.);, a common manservant,. 130 liv. (/ 1. ) ; a bourgeois cook, 7 5 to 00 liv . (90 liv. are 3!* 18s. 9d. ) ; a houfe- maid, 60 to 70 liv. (3I. is. 3d.) Rent of a good houfe for a Bourgeois 700 or 800 liv. (35I.) 10 miles. The 3d. look my leave of Monf. Tour d’Aigues’ hofpitable chateau, and- returned with Monf. Gibelin to Aix. 20 miles. The 4th. I he country to Marfeilles is all mountainous, but much cul- tivated with vines, and olives ; it is,, however, naked and unintereding • and much of the road is left in a fcandalous condition, for one of the greated in b ranee, not wide, enough, at places, for two carriages to pafs with con- venience. What a deceiving painter is the imagination ! 1 had read I know not what lying exaggerations of the bajiides. about Marfeilles, being counted not by hundreds, but by thoufands, with anecdotes of Louis XI VI- adding one to the number by a citadel. — I have feen other towns in France, wheie they are more numerous; and- the environs of Montpellier, without external commerce,, are as highly decorated as-.thofe of Marfeilles ; , yet Mon t— pciuei is not lingular. The view of Marfeilles, in the approach, is notdriking. It is well built in the new quarter, but, like all others, in the old, clofe, ill buih, and dirty ; the population, if we may judge from the throng in the dreets, is very great.; I have met with none- that exceeds it in this refpedt. I went in .the evening to the theatre, which, is new, but. not linking/ and not in any refped: to be named, with that of Bourdeaux, or even Nantes; nor is the ge- neral magnificence of the town at all equal to Bourdeaux; the new buildings- iU ^Dvithei fo ex ten five,. nor fo good— -the number of drips in the port not to be . coin pared 9 MARSEILLES. 192 compared, and the port itfelf is a horfe-pond, compared with the Garonne.— 20 miles. The 5 th. Marfeill.es is abfolutely exempt from the reproaches I have fo often caft on others for want of newfpapers. I breakfafled at the Cafe d' Acajou amidfl many. Deliver my letters, and receive information concerning com- merce 3 but I am difappointed of one I expected for Monf. 1 ’ Abbe Raynal, the celebrated author. At the table d’hote, the Count de Mirabeau, both here and at Aix, a topic of converfation 3 I expected to have found him more po- pular, from the extravagancies committed in his favour in Provence and at Marfeilles 3 they con fide r him merely as a politician of great abilities, whofe principles are favourable to theirs : as to his private character, they think they have nothing to do with it 3 and alter t, that they had much rather trull to a rogue of abilities, than put any confidence in an honell man of no talents 3 not, however, meaning to allert, that Monf. de Mirabeau deferved any fuch appel- lation. They fay he has an ellate in Provence. I obferved, that I was glad to hear he had property 3 for, in fuch revolutions, it was a neceffary hold on a man, that he will not drive every thing to confufion, in order to poflefs a con- fequence and importance which cannot attend him in peaceable and quiet times. But to be at Marfeilles without feeing Abbe Raynal, one of the undoubted precurfors of the prefent revolution in France, would be mortifying. Plaving no time to wait longer for letters, I took the refolution to introduce myfelf. He was at the houfe of his friend Monf. Bertrand. I told the Abbe my fituation : and with that eafe and politenefs which flows from a man’s knowledge of the world, he replied, that he was always happy to be of ufe to any gentleman of rny nation 3 and, turning to his friend, laid, here alfo is one, Sir, who loves the Englilh, and underllands their language. In converting on agriculture, which ] had mentioned as the objeCl of my journey, they both expreiTed their furprife "to find, by accounts apparently authentic, that we imported great quantities of wheat, inftead of exporting, as we formerly did; and defined to know, if this were really the cafe, to what it was to be afcribed : and recurring, at the fame time, to the Mercure de France for a flatement of the export and import of corn, they read it as a quotation from Mr. Arthur Young. This gave me the opportunity or faying, that I was the perfon, and it proved a lucky introduction 3 for it was not poffible to be received with more politenefs, or with more offers of fervice and afliflance. I explained, that the change had taken place in confequence of a vaft increafeof population, a caufe flill increafing more rapidly than ever. We had an interefling converfation on the agriculture of France, and on the prefent fituation of affairs, which they both think going on badly 3 are conr yinced of the neceffity of an upper houfe in the legiflature, and dread nothing more than a mere democratical government, which they deem a fpecies of republic. MARSEILLES. , w republic ridicubus for fuch a kingdom as France. I laid that 1 had often refleded with amazement, that Monf. Necker did not aAemble the Itates m fuch a form, and under fuch regulations, as would have naturally led to adopt the condition of England, free from the few faults which time has difcovjred in it. On which Monf. Bertrand gave me a pamphlet he had publifhed, addreffed to his friend Abbe Raynal, propofing feveral circumflances in the Engliih conftitution to be adopted in that of France. Monf. YAbb 6 Raynal remarked, that the American revolution had brought the French one in its train : I obferved, that if the refult in France fliould be liberty, that re- volution had proved a blefiVig to the world, but much more lo to England than to America. This they both thought fuch a paradox, that I explained it by remarking, that I believed the profperity which England had enjoyed lince the peace, not only much exceeded that of any other fimilar period, but alfo that of any other country, in any period lince the eftablifhment ot the European monarchies : a fa a platform on two boats ; the coach drove on and off without our moving. Why have we not fuch ferries in England ? All a rich level country till we come near the mountain of Turin, and pafs the chateau of Moncaglia, the. prefent refidence of the Count d Artois.. Reach, Turin; drive to the hotel royal y all full. To the hotel d’ Angleierre ; all taken, for the Prince of Conde. To the bonne femme , where a good landlady received me.. I was in time for the table d’hote, at which were, feveral French refu- gees, whofe accounts of affairs in. France are dreadful. Thefe were driven. from, their chateaus, fome of which were in flames ; it. gave me an opportunity of enquiring by whom fuch enormities were committed ; by the peafants, or wandering brigands l they faid, by peafants-, undoubtedly ; but- that the great, and indifputable. origin of moil of thefe: villainies, was the fettled plan and. con- duct of ionic leaders in. the National Affembly, in union with, and by the money of, one other pe?f on oj great rank, who would deferve the eternal execra- tions and reproaches of all true Frenchmen and every honefl. man :. that wheat the aflembly had rejected the propoial of the Count de Mirabeau* to add refs the King to eflablifh the milice bourgeoife, couriers were foon after fent to all quar- ters of the. kingdom, to give an univerfal alarm of great troops of brigands being on the actual march, plundering and burning every where, at the infligation of ariflocrats, I T U R I N. ariftocrats, and calling on the people to arm immediately in their own defence : that by intelligence afterwards received from different parts of the kingdom it was found, that thefe couriers muit have been diipatched from Puns at the fame time*. Forged orders of the King in Council were likewife lent, diredt- ing the people to burn the chateaus of the ariflocratical paity ; and thus, as it were by magic, all France was armed at the fame moment, and the peafants inftigated to commit the enormities which have fince diigraced the kingdom. — — 22 miles. The 26th. This being the firft Italian city of renown for beauty that I have feen, I have been all eyes to-day. Some travellers nave reprefented it as the prettied; town in Europe, and the Strada di Po the fineft ftieet. 1 hurried to it with eager nefs. I was ; in 'the middle of it, afking for it. Shiejia, quejia ! replied an officer, holding up his hands, as if to point out an object 01 gieat beauty which I did not fee, and in truth I faw it not. It is ftiait and broad, and nearly regular. Two rows of brick barns, might be fo equally. The houfes are of an ugly obfulcated brick ; a few have ftucco, and that old and dirty: the fcaffold holes in the, walls of all the reft are left unfilled 5 fome of them are enlarged by time, and feveral courfes of bricks between thole holes, not pointed, which has as bad an effedt ; the windows are narrow and poor ; fome with iron balconies— fome without ; the arcades, for there is a row on each fide of the ftreet, would alone be deftrudtive of beauty : the aiches are piaif- tered, which patches the line with white : and through them are exhibited nothing but poor fliops that incumber their fpans with all forts of lumber; the lamps are fifty or fixty yards afunder. In a word, there are fifty ftreets at London to which this cannot be compared. If thofe who have tra- velled in Italy think this ftreet fine, what am I to meet with in othei towns? . — The Strada della Dora Groff a is by far a finer ftieet tnan that of the i o, but the houfes are greatly too high. I here is a beautiful arcade entrance to the herb-market, which feems to have furniflied the idea of that at the new build- ings of Somerfet-houfe. The ftreets are al mo ft all quite tegular, and at light angles. I expedted that this circumftance would have been attended with much more beauty than it is. It gives too great a famenefs ; the conuant re- turn of the fame angles tires the eye ; and I am convinced, that a city would be much more ftriking, and more admired, that had varied lines inftead of uniform ones. Circles, femi-circles, crefcents, femi-elipfes, fquaies,, femi- f qua res, and compounds, compofed of thefe, mixed with the common oblongs, would give a greater air of grandeur and magnificence. The molt fplendid objedt I have feen at Turin is the ftair-cafe and falcon in the chateau con- * Afterwards at Paris this fa£t was confirmed to me. tiguous tiguous to the royal palace. There is nothing at Verfailles, except the gal- lery, to be compared with it. The front of this edifice is fine, and the whole does honour to Juvara. This morning I fhould have delivered my letters, but am unlucky. The March efe de Palavicino, prefident of the Agrarian Society, and Signore BitTatti, the fecretary of it, are both in the country. Signore Ca- priata, th q prefident enfecond , I met with, but he is no practical farmer; he has been obliging enough, however, to promife me an introduction to fome perfons who are converfant with agriculture. Meeting with thefe difappointments, I began to fear I might want the intelligence that was necelfary to my defi»n 5 and be in that ineligible fituation ol feeing only the outlides of houfes, and knowing nothing of the perfons within. With time thus on my hands, I enquired for a bookleller, and was directed to Signore Briolo, who prints the memoirs ox all the learned bodies here; among others, thofe of the Agrarian Society, which X bought, and afterwards turning over, found that I made a pretty confpicuous figure in one written by the Cavaliere di Capra, colonel of the legiment of Tortona, on the fize of farms. He is a bitter enemy to large ones; not content with ftridures on Piedmont, he preffes England into his fer- \ice, and finds it neceffary to refute me, as I appear in the tranflation of Monf. Freville, from which he quotes paffages which I never wrote. I wiflied to allure the author that it was the French tranflator, and not the Englifh farmer that he had refuted. I laughed very heartily with Signore Caprjata at this ad- venture of the memoirs. In the evening to the opera ; the theatre is a fine one, though not the principal ; the houfe nearly full, yet all the world is in the countrv. The 27th. The Cavaliere Capra having feen Signore Capriata, I this morning received a vifit.from him ; I was glad of an opportunity to remark to him that he had quoted paffages erroneoufly from my Political Arithmetic. Pie laid, he was forry he fhould mifunderfland me ; and beginning at once to declaim a gain ft great farms, I begged to remark, that my opinion was exaCtly the fame at prefent as it had always been, that the fize of farms fhould be left abfolutely free. He was violent againft great ones in Piedmont, which he faid ruined and depopu- lated the country, as I fhould find when I came among the rice-grounds in my way to Milan, Signore Capra was polite, tendered me every .fervice in his power, and expreffed the utmoft readinefs to affift my enquiries. Signore Briolo, as foon as he underftood who I was, fhewed me every attention in his power; and that I might have the benefit of converfing with fuch perfons as he thought moft fuit- abie to my enquiries, he made known my arrival to Signore Fontana, a g radical chemift and deputy fecretary to the Agrarian Society ; to Signore Gio". Piet. Ma- riadana, profeffor of botany in the uniyerfity ; to Signore il Dot tore Buniva, his affiftant, who travelled in France and England as a natural! ft. From thefe E e gentlemen 210 TURIN. gentlemen I had this morning a vilit, and an interefting converfation on the prefent agricultural flate of Italy. To Signore Briolo I was alfo indebted for an. introduction to Signore Giobert, academician, and of the Agrarian Society, who has gained a prize by a memoir on the quality of earths and manures. Viewed the King’s palace, not fo fplendid as to raife difagreeable emotions in the bread of a philofophical fpedator ; and no marks of provinces having been oppreffed to raife it. Of the pictures, which are numerous, thofe which pleafed me bed, are a virgin, child, and St. John, by Lorenzo Sabattini ; Apollo flaying Marfias, by Guido ; a Venus, by Carlo Cignani ; a fick woman, by Gerard Dow ; a vir- gin and child after Raphael, by Saflfa Ferrata. Vandyke fhines greatly in this collection j there are the children of Charles I. finely done ; a man and woman fitting ; but above all. Prince Tomarafo di Carignano on horieback, which foi life and force of expreflion is admirable. In the evening to the opera, and be- ing Sunday the houfe was full. The Lafca Fiera ; there is a pretty duet, be- tween Contini and Gafpara, in the firft ad. The 28th. Walked to Moncaglia early in the morning. The palace is boldly fituated on a hill, the Windfor of Piedmont: — commands noble views of the Po, and a rich fcene of culture. After dinner, on horfe-back to Superga, the burying place of the royal family ; where the bodies of thele princes repofe more magnificently than the Bourbons at St. Denis. The view from the tower is, I fuppofe, the fineft farmers profped in Europe. You look down on much the greater part of Piedmont as on a map, and the eye takes in Milan at eighty miles diftance j the whole, with fuch an horizon of mountains, as is no wheie elfe to be found, — for the enormous maffes of fnow, which the Alps prefent, are eafier conceived than defcribed. The 29th. Signore Briolo was this morning my condudor to Gruliafcho, to view the farm, by appointment of Signore Bracco, to whom Signore Capriata had lpoken for that purpofe 3 we walked by the nobly planted road that leads to Suza, and I was glad to find, that my I urin bookfeller was a farmer, though a la meta , and anl'wered thofe ufeful enquiries, which I have long found abundantly convenient, always to have ready arranged in my head, and adapted to the people into whofe hands chance may throw me. Vv e dined together at the village, in a villainous hole, much better adapted to offend t ~ fenfes than to gratify them. Our repaA finifhed, we (allied forth to find Signoic Bracco; he fhewed us feveral watered meadows, and explained ail the pai titu- lars ; after which, coming to the houfe, lo ! infiead of a farmer or metaya as I expeCted, I found a large houfe, in a ftyle fuperior to any farm one, ana mat he was a bailiff to a Signore, I do not know whom, jeweller to the King and court; an awkward explanation of this came on, and then I found this perfon knew of my^ coming two days before: — to mend the matter, after making us wait iomc time T U I; I N. 211 he (hewed him felt. I was prefled to enter : — whether it were, that a hot walk, or a bad dinner had fretted me, or, in fine, that I did not like the jeweller’s phyiio- gnorny, I know not, but I begged to be excufed, and perfifted in my refufal, A rich citizen at his country villa is to me a formidable animal. — Had he Paid he was a farmer, and would converfe on the fubjedt, or any thing of that tendency, it had been other wife ; but I departed brufqument , with a character, I believe, molto felvaggio. In the evening, fome beautiful paffages in the Pajiorclla Nobile brought me into better temper. The 30th. The intendant Biffatti returned to Turin, and I had the plea- fure of a vifit from him ; he carried me to the univerfity, and fome other places which I had not feen before ; Signore Capra a-lfo, and Dr. Buniva, favoured me with their company. The knight, I find, is as complete a croaker as could ever iffue from the fchool of Dr. Price himfelf. Piedmont furnifhes an inftance, which if I had touched upon to Signora Capra, he would have preffed it into his lervice on the queftion of farms. But there are not many circumftances more curious in politics than the contrafl between great and final 1 dominions. Here is a court fufficiently fplendid ; a palace well kept ; an army (not equally well kept) of 30,000 men ; fortifications many, and among the firfl in the worLd, and a power of receiving with hofpitality and fplendour the princes of the blood of France; all this is done with thirty millions of Prench money : if the comparifon had been made in the late king’s reign, the circumftances would have been ftronger. The King of France had fix hun- dred millions ; that is to fay, twenty times as much : he could, therefore, with equal proportions, have twenty iuch palaces, or more exactly an hundred, as there are five in Piedmont ; twenty fuch courts, and an army of 600,000 men. But, inftead of this, the difference between the palaces of the two Kings and their courts, their parade and their vanity, is not in the ratio of one-fourth of their revenue; and as to the army of the King of Sardinia (proportions preferved) it is fix times more powerful than that of the King of France: but the contraft goes further ; for, while the debts of this country are inconfiderable, thole of P ranee are fo great, that the deficit alone is more than five times the whole re- venue of Sardinia. October ift. The political ftate of Piedmont at prefent depends almoft en- tirely on the perfonal character of the King, who is efteemed an eafy good natured man, too much impoled on by a fet of people without merit. The confequence of which is, that talents and all forts of abilities, inftead of being in the polls for which they are qualified, are found only in retirement. I am told, that he often takes bank-notes in his pocket-book, and at night, if he have not given them away, expreffes unealinefs ; yet this is with an empty treafury and an incomplete ill-paid army. This conduct is remarkably different from that of E e 2 the 212 V E R C E 1 L. M I L A N. the princes his Majefty’s predeceflors, who, as all the world knows, wefe good ceconomifls, and kept themfelves fo well prepared, that they were able to turn opportunities to their notable advantage, which mull have pafled barren of events under a different fyflem of government. The King’s motives, however, are excellent, and no faults are found with his government that do not flow from that fort of goodnefs of heart which better befits a private Ration than a throne. Similar errors are not expedted from the prince of Piedmont, who is reprefented as a man of good undemanding, with, however, rather too great a tindlure of religion. Nothing can be more regular and decent than the con- duct of all the court ; no licentious pleafures are here countenanced ; and very little that looks like diflipation. How the Count d’Artois pafles his time is not eafy to conceive; for a prince who was dying with ennui in the midfl of Ver- failles, for want of pleafures that had not loft their luftre, one would fuppofe that of all the courts in Europe there was fcarcely one to be found lefs adapted than this to his feelings, whatever it might be to his convenience. The 2d. To Verceil, by a vetturino ; I find but one agreeable circumftance in this way of travelling, which is going as flow and flopping as often as you pleafe : I walked mofl of the way, and generally out- walked the coach, except when there was any little defcent. A gentleman, a proprietor and cultivator of rice near Verceil, fupped with us, who was communicative. 45 miles. The 30th. To Novara, much rice; fome yet uncut; they are threfhing it every where, and we meet gleaners loaded with it : a nafty country, as ill to the eye as to the health : there hang the limbs of a robber in the trees, in unifon with the fombre and pefliferous afpedt of a flat woody region. Crofs the Tefino, deep, clear, and rapid. This river parts the dominions of th® King of Sardinia from thofe of the Emperor. At Buftalora crofs the naviglio grande , the greatefl canal for irrigation that was ever made. Sleep at Ma- genta. 30 miles. The 4th, Sunday. Reach Milan in the forenoon. This great city ftands in the midfl of a dead level country, fo thickly planted that you fee nothing of it till you are in the flreets. To the Albergo del Pozzo , in time to wait on the Abbate Amoretti, fecretary of the Patriotic Society, to whom I had letters from Monf. de Brouflonet and Signore Songa of London : I found the Abbate ad- mirably well lodged, in the palazzo of the Marquis de Cufani : this, faid I to my- felf, looks well, to And a man of letters in a fplendid apartment, and not poked, like a piece of lumber, into a garret: it is a good feature in the Italian nooi- lity. I entered his apartment, which is a cube of about thirty feet, from a great faloon of forty or fifty. He received me with eafy and agreeable polite- nefs which imprefles one at firfl fight in his favour. Soon after he returned my viiit. MILAN. ai 3 vifit* I find him an agreeable, well-informed, and interefiing character. Waited alfo on the Abbate Oriani, aftronomer royal, who expreffed every wifh to be of ufe to me. At night to the opera ; a mo.fl noble theatre ; the largeft as well as handfomeft I have feen ; the fcenes and decorations beautiful. Though it is Sunday, I look with amazement at the houfe, for it is three parts full, even while much of the world are in the country : — how [can fuch a town as Milan do this ? Here are fix rows of boxes, thirty-fix in a row ; the three belt rows let at 40 louis d’or a box. This is marvellous for an inland town, without commerce or great manufactures. It is the plough alone that can do it. I am delighted with the accommodation of the pit ; one fits on broad eafy fophas, with a good {pace to fiir one’s legs in : young perfons may bear being truffed and pinioned on a row of narrow benches, but lam old and lazy, and, if I do not fit at my eafe, would not care to fit there at all. 10 miles. The 5th. In the morning, deliver letters to Signore Bignami and Vaffalli, and theMefi. Zappas, gentlemen in commerce, from whom I might receive informa- tion relative to the exports. See. of the Milanefe. At noon, to the Society of Agri- culture (called the Patriotic Society), which fortunately for me, who am a mem- ber, had a meeting to-day : the Marchefe di Vifconti in the chair, with ten or a dozen members prefent, to all of whom Signore Amoretti introduced me. I never expeCt much from focieties of this fort ; but this of Milan was to-day employed on a button and a pair of feiffors : it feems they want at this city to make the finer forts of hardware, in order to rival thofe of England, and lefien the import, which, in fpite of every obftacle, is very great : the idea originates with the government, and is worthy of its little ideas ; a true peddling fpirit at prefent throughout Europe. An artiff in the town had made a button and half a pair of feiffors, one half English, and the other half of his own manufacture, for which he claimed and had a reward. Similar are the employments of focieties every where ! In England, bulled abou$ rhubarb, fi Ik, and drill-ploughs: — at Paris, about fleas and butterflies ; — and at Milan, about buttons and feiffors ! I hope I (hall find the GeorgoJM , at Florence, employed on a top-knot. I looked about to fee a practical farmer enter the room, but looked in vain. A goodly company of i Marchefi, i Conti, i Cavalieri, i Abbati, but not one clofe clipped wig, or a dirty pair of breeches, to give au- thority to their proceedings. We met, in what was the Jefuit’s College, in the Brera, a noble building, containing many apartments equally fplendid and con- venient. The Marchefe Vifconti afked me to his country-feat; and the Cava- liere Caftiglioni, who has travelled in America with the views of a natural hif- torian, and who intends to print the journal of his voyage, hopes to meet me foon at his brother the count’s. Pvlilan has been reprefented as very dear, and may be fo when no thought is taken to fave expence, ordering what you want, and leaving the bill to the hoft; but as fuch methods do not agree with pu-rfe. MILAN. 2 14 purfe, I pay, by agreement, for my room, dinner and fup.per ferved in it, as there are few tables d’hotcs in Italy, 6 liv. of Milan a-day, or an ecu, equal to 4S0 Englifh. The pit, at the opera, is 2 liv. 5/ and coffee for breakfaft jf. in all about 5s. 8d. a-day ; but, feeing buildings, &c. adds fomething. lam very well ferved for this, except in foups, which are deteftable, for I hate macaroni and abominate pafte. I have read to much ot the hoirois of Italian inns, that I am very agreeably furprized to find them in the great towns, Turin and Milan for inftance, as good as in France ; yet I am not at the heft here, — for I underftand the alberghi recile and imperial? are the firft ; and I was not at the heft at Turin. But village ones between the great towns are bad enough. In France, one is rarely waited on at inns by men ; in Italy hitherto never by wo- men ,* I like the French cuftom beft. Ferret among the bookfellers, and find more tradts, in Italian, upon agriculture than I expedted. At night to the opera ; the pit is fo commodious and agreeable, that it is a good lounge ; the fophas and chairs are numbered ; they give you a ticket, which marks your feat ; but the performers are poor. It was the Imprefario in Augujla , by that beautiful compofer, Cimaroia ; there is a quintetto in it, than which nothing could be more pleafing, or repeated with more applaufe. The 6th. Signore Amoretti, whofe attentions and affiduity are fuch as I ftrall not foon forget, this morning introduced me to Signore Beecken, a coun- fellor in the court of his Imperial Majefty ; and then we went together into the country, fix or feven miles, to a farm in the road to Pavia, belonging to the Marquis Vifconti, to fee the method of making the Lodefan cheefe ; attended the whole operation, which is fo totally different liom what we ufe in England, that fkill in making may have a great effedt in rendering this produdt of Lom- bardy fo fupenor to all others. I he cheefe, and tne enqunies, took up tne whole day ; fo that it was five in the evening before we got back to Milan, where they dined with me at the pozzo ; an itinerant band of mufic giving a ferenade under the windows, to the illujlrijjimi , eccellentiffimi, nobili Signori Ingleft. This day has paffed after my own heart, a long morning of activity, and then a dinner, without one word of conversation but on agriculture. Signoie Beecken is a fenfible well informed German, who underitands the importance of the plough ; and Abbate Amoretti’ s converfation is that of a man who adds the powers of inftrudtion, to the graces that enliven company. The yth. Attended the Marquis de Vifconti, and bignoie Amoretti to Moz- zate, the country-feat of the Count de Caftiglione, about fixteen miles north of Milan. Stop very near the city to view the Chartreufe , which, fmee the empe- ror feized the revenues, and turned the monks out, has been convei ted into a powder magazine. View, in paffing, the fine church of Ro, and the Marquis of Litta’s villa at Leinate, in which the gardens are confpicuous. The Italian taite was MILAN. 215 was the undoubted origin of what we fee in France ; but decoration is carried much higher. Marble bafons, with fine flatues, too good for the fituation : jets d’eau , temples, colonades, and buildings, without end, almoft connected with the houfe ; latticed, and clipped bowers and walks ; miles of clipped hedges — ter- races and gravel walks, never well kept, with abundance of orange-trees, are the features ; and they are all in profufion. The expence enormous, both to form and to keep. There is a pinery, and not more than five or fix others in the whole duchy of Milan. Reach Mozzate. The countefs appeared what we call a genteel good fort of woman, with nothing of that fpecies of foppery and affedlation that forms the fine lady. The moment I faw the Count de Caftig- lione, I was prejudiced in his favour; his phyfiognomy is pleating; and the in- flantaneous eafy affability, mixed with great quicknefs and vivacity, tells one in a moment, that time would not be loff in his company. I was not deceived. He entered prefently on the objedt of my travels; and I was highly pleafed to find, that he was a practical farmer. After dinner, we made an excurfion to a confiderable plantation he has executed with great judgment and fpirit. The count fhewed me a part of his farm alfo,< — but this is not equally fuccefsful. In the evening, while the reft of the company were at cards, he fatisfied my numerous enquiries concerning the hufbandry, &c. of the neighbourhood, in a manner that left me little to wifh. After breakfaft, the next morning I returned to Milan. The feature which ftruck me moft in this vifit to an Italian nobleman, at his country- feat, is the great fimilarity of living, and of manners in different countries. There are few circumflances in the table, attendance, houfe, and mode of living, that vary from a man of fimilar rank and fortune in England or France. Only French cu horns, however, predominate. I fuppofe one muft go for new man- ners to the 1 urks and Tartars ; for Spain itfelf, among people of rank, has them not to give : and this circumflance throws travellers, who regifier their re- marks, into a fituation that fhould meet with the candour of readers : thofe who record faithfully, muff note things that are common, and fuch are not formed to gratify cunolity. Thofe who deal much in adventures, fo contrary to our own manners as to excite furprife, muft be of queflionable authority; for the fimi- larity of European manners, among people of rank or large fortune, can hardly be doubted : and the difference among their inferiors is, in many cafes, more apparent than real. I am much pleafed with this family : the countefs is a good woman, for fhe loves her children, her.hufband, and the country. Her hufband has life, animation, quicknefs of conception, and that attention to agriculture, which made me wifh him for a neighbour. In our return, flop at Defio, the villa of the Marquis of Cufmo, which is in a ilyle that pleafes me. Tj|e houfe is not upon too great a fcale, and therefore £ nhhed and furnifhed ; the MILA N. 116 the rooms are more elegant than fplendid — and more comfortable than fhewy. There is one apartment, in encauflic painting, faid to be the firfl executed in Italy. The fecond floor contains thirteen bed-chambers, with each a Imall lervant’s-room, and light clofet : and they have all fuch a comfortable, clean, Englifh air ; and are fo neat, without any finery, that, had the floors been deal, inflead of brick, I fliould have thought myfelf in my own country. I have read travels that would make us believe, that a. clean houfe is not to be met with in Italy ; if that were once true, things are abundantly changed. I like this villa much better than the mailer does, for he is rarely here for a fort- night at a time, and that not often. The gardens are fplendid in their kind ; lattice-frames of lemons twenty feet high, with elpaliers of oranges, both full hung with fruit, have, to northern eyes, an uncommon effect ; but they are all covered with glafs in the winter. Here is a pinery alfo. Dine in the village on trout, frefh from the lake of Como, at 3 liv. the pound, of 28 ounces. In the evening returning to Milan, after an excurfion inflrudlive in my principal object, and equally agreeable in the little circumftances that have power fuffi- cient either to gild or fhade every object : Pafs the houfe of the Marchefa di Fagnani, who lias been much in England, and celebrated here for being the lady with whom our inimitable Sterne had the rencontre at Milan, which he has defcribed fo agreeably. 32 miles. The 9th. This day was appointed for vifiting a few objects at Milan, for which Signore Beecken had the goodnefs to defire to be my cicerone ; his cha- riot was ready after breakfafl, and we went from fight to fight till five o’clock. Buildings and pictures have been fo often and fo well defcribed, that for modern travellers nothing is left, if they expatiate, but to talk of themfelves as much as of the objects. I fhall note, in a few words, the things that fir uck me moil. I had read fo much of the cathedral, and came to it with fuck expectation, that its effedt was nothing. There are comparative meafurements given of it with St. Paul’s and St. Peter’s, that feem to rank it in the fame clafs for magni- tude : to the eye it is a child’ play-thing compared to St. Paul’s. Of the innu- merable flatues, that of St. Laurence flayed is the fined:. The architecture of the church of St. Fedele, by Pellegrino, is pleafing ; it contains fix columns of granite 5 and there are other fine ones alfo in that of St. Alefandro. But I found Padre Pini, profefTor of natural hiflory, a better objedt than his church ; he has made a great and valuable collection of foffils, and has taken the means necefifary for felf-infl ruction, much travel, and much experiment. At St. Celfo, there are two flatues of Adam and Eve, by Lorenzi, that cannot be too much admired j and a Madonna, by Fontana. Plere alfo are pictures by the two Pro- cacinis, that will detain your fleps. The great hofpital is a vafl building, once the palace of the Sforzas, Dukes of Milan, and given by DukeFrancis for this uie. MILAN- ■LOD I , 217 I t has a net revenue of a million of livres, and lias at prefent above one thoufand three hundred patients. At the Abbey of St. Ambrofe, built in the ninth cen- ‘“mc rr - h haS r ° Und arches » anterior to gothic ones, they (hewed us a MS. of Luitprandus, dated 721, and another of Lothaire, before Charle- magne. If they contained the regifter of their ploughs, they would have been mterefting ; but what to me are the records of gifts to convents for laving louls that wanted probably too much cleaning for all the fcrubbin*- bruflies of the monks to brighten ? Unqueftionably the moft famous produc- tion of human genius at Milan is the laft flipper of Lionardo de Vinci, which Ihould be ft udied by artifts who under (land its merit, as it is not a pidure for thofe who, with unlearned eyes, have only their feelings to dired them. View the Ambrolian library, ' The 10th The climate of Italy. I believe, is generally in extremes; it has 1 Tn i a iuit, fuch fecondary objects muft give way. The great fault here, as every where elfe, is being carried to too many things, Nothing ftrikes more at Ve. rona than the works of an architect, whofe name is little known in England, San. Michael Michieli ; they are of difijnguifhed merit, and mult pleafe every eye. The chapel of the Pellegrini family, in the Bernardine church, and the rotunda of St. Georgia , are beautiful edifices. There is fomething fingular in the Palazzo Bevilaqua, an idea which might have been copied with more fuccefs, than many others that have been repeated often. The Palazzo di Con- iiglio is fimple and elegant, and prefents one of the molt pleafing examples of an arcade, for a ftreet or fquye. The theatre is large, but nothing after Milan. My expences at Brefcia, and at Verona are, dinner 3 pauls, fupper 2, chamber 2 ; which, at 5b. Englilh, are 2s, nd. a-day ; and as I have rooms not at all bad, good beds, and am as well ferved at the meals as I require, it is remark- ably cheap. The 24th. The country to Vicenza is all fiat, and moftly of a fingular face.; rows of elm and maple pollards, with vines trained up, and from tree to tree ; between the rows arable. This fyftem is not difagreeable till it grows tedious to the eye.-— —-32 miles. The 25th. Wait on Count Tiene, to whom I had a recommendation; he opened the letter, but found it was to another Count Tiene, who lived in the country, near Vicenza ; reading in it, however, lome exprefiions of commen- dation, which friends are apt to ufe in fuch letters, he, with great eafe and politenefs, as he returned me the paper, offered me any afiiltance in his power: Yours, Sir, is an errand that ought to recommend you to all mankind ; and if you find the lead difficulties with others, I beg you will return to this houfe,” which is one of the Palazzi di Palladio. I waited then on the Abbate Pierro- pan, profeffor of phyfics and mathematics. Pie had the direction, for fome years, of the economical garden, given by the hate for experiments in agricul- ture, now in the hands of the Agrarian Academy : he received me with great politenefs ; and not only exprefied every wifli to affifl me, but entered imme- diately on the bufinefs, by propofing a walk to call on the Count de Boning, prefident of that academy, in our way to the garden. I have a poor opinion of all thefe eftablilhments on a fmall fcale; in any hands, they are not calculated to do much ; and in hands not truly practical, they are calculated to do nothing. The Count de Boning, finding that I wifhed to converfe with fome real common farmers, appointed the afternoon for going into the country, about three miles, to a farm of his, where I fhould find an intelligent perfon : he then took his leave for the prefent, — and Signore Pierropan and myfelf proceeded to the villa of the Count de Tiene; as he was abfent for an hour only, we employed that time in VICENZA. in walking a little further, to view the celebrated rotunda of Palladio, belonging to Count Capra, one of the three greateft works of that great genius they pof- fefs at Vicenza. It is of a beautiful mean, between decoration and Simplicity ; the distribution Seems a new and original thought, much more adapted, how- ever, to Italy than to England ; for, in the fpaceof one hundred Vicentine feet, we might, relatively to our climate and manners, have a houfe far exceeding it. I am concerned to fee fo delicious a morfel fuffered to go much to decay; the plainer on the brick columns is wearing off, and other negled vifible. The beauty of the environs of Vicenza exceeds any thing I have feen in Italy, viewed from the hill on which thefe houfes, and the church Santa Maria del Monte, are fituated; the city in the rich plain, and the hills fpread with white buildings, crowned by the Alps, are fine. The Count de Tiene, with the affiSt- ance of another nobleman, of more experience, who happened to be prefen t, gave me fome information, relative to the part of the Vicentine in which their eftates are fituated. Quitting him, I begged the Abbate Pierropan to favour me with his company at dinner, by which means I had the benefit of his converfation fo much longer on the favourite topic. The Abbate de Traico, vice-prefident of the academy, joined us. After dinner, according to appoint- ment, to the Count de Boning, whofe coach was ready, and carried us to the farm. Fortunately the farmer, a fenfible and intelligent man, was ready to an - Ever all fuch enquiries as I put to him. At night, returned to the city, after a rich day, that pays for the trouble of travelling. The 26th. My friendly Abbate, continuing his obliging offices, had the good- nefs to accompany me this morning to a very famous woollen fabric, at prefent undei the diiedtion of an Englishman ; and to a magazine of earthen-ware, in imi- tation of Mr. Wedgwood. It is furely a triumph of the arts in England, to fee in Italy Etrufcan forms copied from Englifh models. It is a better imitation than many I have feen in France. View the Olympic theatre of Palladio, which pleafes all the world; nothing can be more beautiful than the form, or more elegant than the colonade that furrounds it. Of all his works here, I like the Palazzo Barbarana leaSI. I am Sorry to fee, that moft of Palladio’s edifices are of bricks Stuccoed, except the Palazzo Ragione, which is of durable Stone ; and that there is hardly one of them which is not out of repair. The roof of the Palazzo di Ragione, which muit offend every eye, is not of Palladio; only the caSe of arcades that Surround the building, which is one vaSt room of two hundied feet by eighty, uled ior the courts of juitice, and alfo as a common jaken by the mob, and dreadfully garniffied. A pretty ufe to which to apply an edifice of Palladio. Tne brick columns of this great architect are of the fineSt woik I ever Saw; and fome of the ftucco but now failing, after two hundred years. At Verona and Vicenza, there are very tew new JaouSes, and no Sign's, G g that PADUA. that I could fee, of the wealth and profperity of the prefent age. There are exceptions, but they are few. A filk merchant here has built a good houfe ; and Signore Cordelina, an advocate at Venice, a large and handfome one, that coft 100,000 ducats, without being finifhed: he made his fortune by pleaaing. The 27th. To Padua. The country, which has been called a garden by travellers, not at all better cultivated than before, but deeper and richer. i he fame flat, lined into rows of pollards and vines in the fame manner; very little irrigation, except fome rice. Waited on Signore Arduino, experimenter in agriculture, on a farm, or rather a garden, of twelve acres, given by the tote. I had heard much of this oeconomical garden, and of the great number of rue- ful experiments made in it ; fo much, indeed, that it weighed ccnflderabiy with me in the arrangement of my journey; Venice was no objeCt ; and I coulcjnot, if I took Padua, have time for the Pontine marihes and Rome, which, by the direCt road, I could have reached from Milan ; but an experi- mental farm, the firft I was allured in Europe, and which had thrown light on various important enquiries, was an objeCt which I ought, as a farming traveller, to prefer to any city, and I determined accoidingly. Signoie Arduino received me politely, and appointed to-morrow for that gratification. At night to the opera, the Due Baroni , of Cimarofa, whole mufic to me has always fomething original and pleafing; but though the parts were not ill pei formed, and the orcheftra powerful, yet the houfe being almofl: empty,— and t&cue m it wearino- fuch a fiiabby appearance, and all the muficians fo dirty and undreLed, that I felt here, what I have often done before, that half the charms of a tneatre depend on the audience -—one mull be in good humour— — a certain exhilaration nuift be fpringing in the bofom j willingnefs to enjoy mufl be expanded into enjoyment, by the fympathy of furrounding objects. Pleafure is caught from eyes that fparkle with the expectation of being pleafed. Empty boxes, and a dirty pit, with a theatre but half lighted, made the mufic, with all its gaiety, J'ombre ■ I left Gulielmi s FajloreUa nobile , for the filence of my chambei . - 21 miles. , . The 28 th. In the morning, viewing buildings, of which fome are v/ortn the trouble: then to deliver letters, but I was not fortunate in finding Mv-flieuis the profefiprs at home : Signore Arduino was fo by appointment, and {hewed me the experimental farm, as it ought to be called, for he is pio.efior of practical agriculture in this celebrated univerfity. I will enter into no detail of what I faw here. I made my bow to the profeffor ^ and only thought, that his experiments were hardly worth giving up the capital or the wotld. A I my refolution, this (hall be the laft oeconomical garden that I will ever go near. Among the buildings I viewed to-day, I was much ftruck with the church Santa luftina: though built in no perfect fiy-le, it has, on entering, an dice, J 0 unufualiy .VERONA; *27 imufually impofing. It is clean, and well kept; the pavement a very fine one, *of marble — and the magnitude being confiderable, forms, on the whole, a fplen- did coup d’ ceil. That of St. Anthony is little, on companion, and made lefs by multiplied diviiions and numerous decorations. Numbers were on their knees before the fainted fhrine, to which millions have reforted. Here mingled faith, folly, and enthufiafm, have fought confolation, and found more than they me- rited. The Palazzo di Confglio, which we ffiould call the town-hall, is one of the greatefl: — if not the greatefl: room in Europe. It is three hundred feet long, and one hundred broad; it does not want the excrementitious garniture of that of Vicenza. The 29th. Waited, by appointment, on Signore Carbury, profeiTor of chy- mifhy; a lively pleafng man, with whom 1 wiihed to converfe a little on the application of his fcience to agriculture; but that was not eafy. Politics came acrofs him, in which I happened to mention the extraordinary prosperity of England fnce the American war; and he took the clue, and conduded it through fuch a labyrinth of admirals, generals, red hot balls, and floating bat- teries : — Rodney, Elliot, Necker, and Catherine, with Lord knows what be- fdes, that I thought he meant to make a tour as great as Mr. Wraxal’s. He however gave me a note to the celebrated afronomer, Signore Toaldo, to whom I wanted an introdudion, and whofe obfervatory I viewed. He allured me, that he continues firmly of the lame opinion, of which he has always been, relative to the influence of the moon on our feafons, and the importance of attending to the lunar period of eighteen years. I begged the titles of his memoirs, as I had yet procured only his Meteorologia appUcata all Agricoltura ; he faid, the others were difficult to find, but he would give me them. For this generous offer, I expreffed my warmeff thanks, and readily accepted it. On defcending into his library, he prefented me with the fupplement to what I had; and alfo his trad, Della Vera Influenza , &c. After fome other converfation, he told me, the price was 8 //re, and the fupplement, 30 foldi. I was at a lofs to know what he meant, by telling me the price of his book ; for, to offer him money, would, I feared, affront him. After fome minutes, he again reminded me, that the price was 9 f lire : on which I took out my purfe. The Vera Influenza, he faid, was only 6 lire ; but being fcarce, he mull; have eight for it, which, with 30 f. for the other, made gi liv. I paid him, and took my leave. There was not the lead: reafon to exped Signore Toaldo to make me, an utter firanger, a prefent of a farthing; but his manner made me fmile. I had left a letter yefferday at the houfe of the Abbate Fortis, well known in England by his travels in Dal- matia ; to-day I received a vifit from him. He has that livelinefs and vivacity which diftinguifh his nation ; was polite in his offers of fervice, and entered into converfation concerning the vines of his country. He travelled, many years G g 2 ago, VENICE, ago, with Lord Briftol and Profefifor Symonds ; and I was glad to find, that he jfpoke as handfomely of them both, as I have heard them both mention him. This is the third evening I have fpent by myfelf at Padua, with five letters to it ; I do not even hint any reproach in this ; they are wife, and I do truly com- mend their good fenfe : I condemn nobody but myfelf, who have, for fifteen or twenty years paft, whenever a foreigner brings me a letter, which fome hun- dreds have done — given him an Engliffi welcome, for as many days as he would favour me with his company, and fought no other pleafure but to make my houfe agreeable. Why I make this minute at Padua, I know not ; for it has not been peculiar to that place, but to feven-eighths of all I have been at in Italy. I have miftaken the matter through life abundantly — and find that fo- reigners underftand this point incomparably better than we do. I am, how- ever, afraid that I fhall not learn enough of them to adopt their cuftoms, but continue thofe of our own nation. The 30th. I had been fo fick of vetturini , that I was glad to find there was a covered pafiage boat that goes regularly to Venice; I did not expert much from it, and therefore was not difappointed to find a jumble of all forts of people; ex- cept thofe of fortune. * There were churchmen, two or three officers, and fome others, better dreffed than I ffiould have looked for, for in Italy people are obliged to be (Economical. At Dolo, the half way place, I formed, for dinner, a little party, of two Abbati, an officer, and a pretty Venetian girl, who was lively and fenfible. We. dined by ourfelves, wdth great good humour. After leaving Fufma, there is from the banks of the canal (I walked much of the journey), at the difiance of four miles, a beautiful view of the city. On entering the Adriatic, a party of us quitted the bark, and, to fave time, hired a large boat,, which conveyed us to this equally celebrated and lingular place ; it was nearly dark when we entered the grand canaL My attention was alive, all expectancy : there was light enough to fhew the objects around me to be among the moffi interefiing 1 had ever feen, and they ftruck me more than the firft entrance of any other place I had been at. To Signore Petrillo’s inn.. My companions,, before the gondola came to the fieps, told me, that as foon as Petrillo found me to be a Signore Inglefi, there, would be three torches lighted to receive me : — it was jufi fo I was not too much flattered at thefe three torches, which ftruck. me at once as three pick-pockets. I was condo died to an. apartment that looked, upon the grand canal,, fo neat, and every thing in it fo clean and good, that I. almoft thought myfelf in. England. To the opera.. A Venetian audience, a Paduan, Milanefe, Turinefe> &,c. exactly fimilar for dancing.. What with the ftupid length of the ballets, the importance given to- them, and the almoft ex- ’cluftve applaufe they demand, the Italian opera is become much more a fe.hool of VENICE, 229 of dancing than of mufic. I cannot forgive this, for of forty dances, and four hundred paflages, there are not four worth a farthing. It is didorted motion, and exaggerated agility; if a dancer place his head in the pofition his heels fhould be in, without touching the ground ; if he can light on his toes, after twirling himfelf in the air ; if he can extend his legs, fo as to make the breadth of his figure greater than the length ; or contract them to his body, fo as to feem to have no legs at all ; he is fure to receive fuch applaufe, fo many bravos, and bra- viffimos, as the mod: exquifite airs that ever were compofed would fail to attradh The ballariney or female dancers, have the fame fury of motion, the fame energy of diftortion, the fame temped: of agility. Dances of fuch exquifite elegance, as to allure attention, by voluptuous eafe, rather than drike it by painful exer- tion, are more difficult, and demand greater talents : in this fuperior walk, the Italians, where I have been, are deficient. 24 miles. The 31ft. My fird bufinefs was to agree with a gondolier, who is to attend me for 6 paoli a day. This fpecies of boat, as all the world knows, is one of the mod: agreeable things to be found at Venice; at a trifling expence, it equals the convenience of a coach and a pair of horfes in any other city. I rowed out to deliver letters. Venice is empty at prefen t, almod every body being in the country; but I met with Signore Giovanne Arduino, fuperintendant of agricul- ture throughout the Venetian dominions, who has a confiderable reputation, for the attention he has given to this objedt, and for fome publications on it. It may be fuppofed, from his refidence in this city, that he is not himfelf a practical hufbandman. Spent a few hours among palaces, churches, and paintings. Every where in Italy, the number of thefe is too great to dwell on. I fliall only note,, that the pidture which made the greated imprefiion on me, was the family of Darius at the feet of Alexander, by Paul Veronefe. The expreffion of the moment is admirably caught ; the. dory well told; the grouping fkilful; the colouring mellow and brilliant; the whole nature; all is alive; the figures fpeak; you hear the words on their lips; a calm dignity is admirably mixed with the emotions of the moment. Here was a fubjedt worthy of employing a genius* It is in the Palazzo Pifani. Titian’s prefen tation in the temple, in the Scuola della Carita, pleafed me greatly. His bewitching pencil has given fuch life and lufire to fome figures in this piece, that the eye is not foon fatis- fied with viewing it.. The Doge’s palace contains fuch a profufion of noble works by Tiziano, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronefe, Bafiano, and Palma, as to form a fchool for artids to dudy in. Cochin, in his Voyage d'Italie y has given the particulars, with criticifms that have lefs offended the Italians, than mod: other works of a fimilar kind. The brazen horfes-, given to Nero by Tiridates, car- ried to Conftantinople by Condan tine, and brought thence by the Venetians, when they took that city, are admirable : pity they are not nearer to the eye. The J 3 0 VENICE. The mouths of the lions, not lefs celebrated than Venice itfelf, are ftill W exift- cnee ; I hope regarded with deteflation by every man that views them. ineie is but one accufation that ought to enter them ; the voice of the people againfl the government of th t-Jlafe. In the evening at the theatre (a tragedy) I was agreeably ^appointed, to find that the Italians have fomething befides harlequin and punchinello. November i . The cheapnefs of Italy is remarkable, and puzzles me not a little to account for; yet it is a point of too much importance to be neglected. I have, at Petrillo’s, a clean good room, that looks on the grand canal, and to the Rialto, which, by the way, is a line arch, but an ugly bridge; an excellent bed, with neat furniture, very rare in Italian inns, for the bedhead is ufaally four forms, like truflels, fet together; fine fheets, which I have not met with before in this country ; and my dinner and dapper provided at the old price or 8 paoli a-day, or 3s. 4 d. including the chamber. I am very well ferved at din- ner with many and good diilies, and lome of them folids ; two bottles of wine, neither good nor bad, but certainly cheap ; for though they fee I drink fcarcely half of it in my negus at fupper, yet a bottle is brought every night. 1 have been allured, by two or three perfons, that the price at Venice, a la mercantile > is only 4 to 6 paoli ; but I fuppofe they ferve a foreigner better. io thefe 8 paoli , I add 6 more fora gondola — breakfafi: 10 foldi ; if I go to the opeia, it adds 3 paoli ; — thus, for ys. 3d. a-day, a man lives at Venice, keeps his fervant, his coach, and goes every night to a public entertainment. To dine well at a London cofree-heufe, with a pint of bad port, and a very poor deflert, colls as much as the whole day here. There is no queftion but a man may live better at Venice for tool, a year, than at London for 500I. ; and yet the diffeience of the price of the common necefiaries of life, fuch as bread, meat, cec. is trifling. Several caufes contribute to this effect at Venice; its fituation on the Adiiatic, at the very extremity of civilized Europe, in the vicinity of many poor coun- tries ; the ufe of gondolas, inllead of horfes, is an article perhaps of equal im- portance. But the manners of the inhabitants, the modes of living, and the very moderate incomes of the mafs of the people, have perhaps more weignt than either of thofe caufes. Luxury here takes a turn much more towards en- joyment, than confumption ; the fobriety of the people aoes muen, the naruie of their food more; paltes, macaroni, and vegetables are muen eafier piovided than beef and mutton. Cookery, as in France, enables them to fpread a table for half the expence of an Englilh one. If cheapnefs of living, fpedtacles, and pretty women, are a man’s objects in fixing his refidence, let him live at \ e- nice: for myfelf, I think I would not be an inhabitant to be Doge, with the power of the Grand Turk. Brick and Hone, and fky and water, and not a field or a bulli even for fancy to pluck a rofe from ! My heart cannot expand in fuch a place : VENICE. 431 a place : an admirable monument of human indudry, but not a theatre for the feelings of a farmer! — Give me the fields, and let others take the tide of human life, at Charing-crofs and Fleet-ditch Called again on Signore Arduino ; con- verfe on the date of agriculture in Italy, and the caufes which have contributed to accelerate or retard it; and from him to a confers at or io at the Ofpalletto. Dr. Burney, in his pleating and elegant tour, has given an account of them. The 2d. A tour among Chiefe , Scuole , e Palazzi; but there is fuch an abun- dance of buildings and collections to which books fend one, that much time is always loft. The only traveller’s guide, that v/ould be worth a farthing, would be a little book that gave a catalogue of the beft articles to be feen in every town, in the order of merit. So that if a man in pairing have but one hour, he ufes it in feeing the bed object the place contains ; if he have three days, he takes the bed the three days will give him ; and if he day three months he may fill it with the like gradation ; and what is of equal confequence, he may dop when he pleafes and fee no more; confident, as far as he has extended his view* that he has feen the objects that will pay him bed for his attention. There is no fuch book, and fo much the worfe for travellers. In the library of St. Mark among the antiques, are Com mod ns, Augudus, and Adrian ; and more particularly to be noted, a fallen gladiator: a fmgular and whimdcal Leda, by Cocenius. In the Palazzo Barbarigo, the Venus . and the Magdalen of Titian, are beautiful, though they have lod much of their glowing warmth by time. Two Rem- brandts in the Palazzo Farfetti. A Holy Family, by Andrea del Sarto. Ti- tian’s portrait, by himfelf. I finifhed by going up St. Mark’s tower, which is high enough to command a didinft view of all the iflands on which Venice is built, and a great range of coad and mountains. The country feems every- where a wood. Nothing rivals the view of the city and the dies. It is the mod beautiful, and by far the mod lingular that I have feen. The breadth of the Giudecca canal, fpread with fhips and boats, and walled by many noble buildings, with the ifles didindt from Venice, of which the eye takes in four- and- twenty, form, upon the whole, a coup P ceil, that exceeds probably every thing the world has to exhibit. The city, in general, has fome beautiful fea- tures, but does not equal the idea I had formed of it, from the pictures of Cana- letti. A poor old gothic houfe makes a line figure on canvafs. The irregula- rity of front is greater perhaps than in any other city of equal importance; no where preferved for three houfes together. You have a palace of three mag- nificent dories, and near it a hovel of one. Hence, there is net that fpecies of magnificence which refults from uniformity; or from an uninterrupted fuccef- '* See Mr. BoCvvell’s agreeable Life of -Dr. John foil. iiOil V E N I C E, fion of confiderable edifices. As to dreets, properly fo called, there is nothing fimilar to them in the world; twelve feet is a broad one ; i meafured the breadth of many that were only four and five. The greater part of the canals, which are here properly the dreets, are fo narrow, as to take off much from the beauty of the buildings that are upon them. St Mark’s place has been called the fined: fquare in Europe, which is a fine exaggeration. It appears large, becaufe every other fpace is lmall. The buildings, however, that furround it are fome of them fine; but they are more intereding than beautiful. This fpot is the im- mediate feat and heart of one of the mod celebrated republics that has exided. St. Mark’s church, the Doge’s palace, the library, the Doge himfelf, the no- bles, the famous cafinos, the coffee-houfes : thus, St. Mark’s fquare is the feat of government, of politics, and of intrigue. What Venice offers of power and pleafure, may be fought here ; and you can ufe your legs commodioufly no where elfe. Venice fhines in churches, palaces, and one fine fquare; and the beauty of the large canals is great. What fire wants are good common houfes, that mark the wealth and eaie of the people; inftead of which, the major part are gothic, that feem aimed as old as the republic. Of modern houfes there are few — and of new ones fewer; a fure proof that the date is not flourifhing. Take it, however, on the whole, and it is a mod noble city ; certainly the mod fingular to be met wdth in the world. The canal of the Giudecca, and the grand canal, are unrivalled in beauty and magnificence. Four great architects have contri- buted their talents for the fine buildings to be met with here ; — Palladio, St. Micheli, Sanfovino, and Scamozzi. The church of St. Georgio Maggiore, by the firfi, is of a noble fimplicity; and that of St. Maria della Saluta, by St. Micheli, has parts of admirable beauty; he feems always happy in his domes ; and the portal of this church is truly elegant. If a genius were to arife at prefent at Venice, as great as Palladio, how would he find employment? The tade of build- ing churches is over : the rich nobles have other ways of fpending their incomes. Great edifices are ufually raifed by newly acquired fortunes ; there are now either none, or too inconfiderable to decorate the city. In England, all animated vi- gour of exertion is among individuals, who aim much more at comfort within, than magnificence without; and for want of public fpirit and police, a new city has arifen at London, built of baked mud and allies, rather than bricks ; without fymmetry, or beauty, or duration; but didinguifned by its cleannefs, conveni- ence, and arrangement. At a prova , or rehearfal of a new opera, II Burbero benefico , by Martini of Vienna, much to my entertainment. The 3d. To the arfenal, in which there is very little indeed worth the trouble of viewing; travellers have given drange exaggerations of it; the num- ber of fifips, frigates, and gallies is inconfiderable ; and i came out of this fa- mous arfenal, with a much meaner opinion of the Venetian naval force, than I had VENICE. 2 33 had entered it. Yet they fay there are 3000 men condantly employed : if there are half the number, what are they about ? The armoury is well arranged, clean, and in good order. The famous bucentaur is a heavy, ill built, ugly gilded monder, with none of that light airy elegance which a decorated yacht has. A thing made for pleafure only, fliould have at lead: an agreeable phyliognomy. I know nothing of the ceremony fo good as Shendone’s danza, comparing the vanity of the Doge’s fplendour on that day, with the real enjoyment which a hermit on her fhore has of his ducal cara fpofa. The fhips in this arfenal, even of eighty-eight guns, are built under cover; and this is not fo great an expence as might be thought ; the buildings are only two thick brick walls, with a very light roof : but the expence is probably much more than faved in the duration of the fhip. I mounted by the fcaffolds, and entered one of eighty- eight guns, that -has been twenty-five years building, and is not above four- fifths finifhed at prefent. At the opera. — The fex of Venice are undoubtedly of a diftinguifhed beauty; their complexions are delicate, and, for want of rouge, the French think them pale; but it is not perfon, nor complexion, nor features, that are the chaiaCteiidic ; it is expreflion, and phyliognomy; you recognize great fweetnefs of difpofition, without that infipidity which is fometimes met with it ; charms that carry a magic with them, formed for fen Ability more than admiration ; to make hearts feel much more than tongues fpeak. They mud: be generally beautifu-l here, or they would be hideous from their drefs : the common one, at prefent, is a long cloth cloak, and a man’s cocked hat. The round hat in England is rendered feminine by feathers and ribbons ; but here, when the petticoats are concealed, you look again at a figure before you recognize the fex. The head-dredes I faw at Milan, Lodi, &c. diew the tade and fancy of this people. It is indeed their region ; their productions in all the fine and elegant arts have fhewn a fertility, a facility of invention, that fur- pafl'es every other nation ; and if a reafon be fought, for the want of energy of- character with which the modern Italians have been reproached (perhaps unjudly) we may pofiibly find it in this exquifite tade— perhaps inconfident in the fame characters with thofe rougher and more rugged feelings, that refuit from ten lion, not laxity, of fibre. An exquifite fenfibility has given them the empire of painting, fculpture, architecture, poetry, and mufic ; whether or not to this it may be imputed that their beautiful country has been left under the dominion of Germans, Frenchmen, and Spaniards, is a quedion not difficult to decide. The 4th. I am in double luck ; two perfons, to whom I had letters, are re tinned from the country. I waited upon one of them who received me in a very friendly manner, and entered into a converfation with me intereding, be- caufe on fabjeCts of importance. I explained to him the obieCl of my travels • H h and V £ N I C E. 234 and told him, that I redded a few days in great cities, for the advantage of converfation on thofe topics of political ceconomy, which concerned the ge- neral welfare of all nations. He told me very frankly that he was no farmer, and therefore for the practical part of my enquiries could not fay much : that as to the other objedts, which were without doubt important, he would give me any information in his power. I faid, that I wifhed for none on points which the nature of the government made improper to afk about ; and if inadvertently I fliould demand any thing of that complexion, he tvouid have the goodnefs to pardon and pafs it by. He interrupted me hadily, “ foreigners are drangely apt to entertain falfe ideas of this republic ; and to think that the fame principles- govern it at prefent as are fuppofed to have been its guidance fame centuries pad. In all probability half of what you have heard about it is erroneous ; you may converfe as freely at Venice as at London ; and the date is wife enough (for in l'uch cafes it is really very moderate and tender) to concern itfelf not at all with what does not tend diredtly to injure or didurb the eflablifhed order of things. You have heard much of fpies, and executions, and dr-ownings, &c. but, believe me, there is not one circumdance at Venice that is not changed,, and greatly too, even in twenty years.” Encouraged by this declaration, I ventured to put enquiries on population, revenues, taxes, liberty, &c. and on the government as influencing thefe } and it gave me no flight fatisfadtion t® find that he was the man he had been reprefented ; — able, keen, and intelligent • who had feen much of the world, and underflood thofe topics perfectly . He was fo obliging as to afk me to fpend what time I could with him — faid, that for fome days he fhould be condantly at home ; and whenever it fluted me to come, he defired me to do it without ceremony. I was not equally fortunate with the other perfon ; who feemed fo little difpofed to enter into converfation on any fubjedt but trifles, that I prefently faw he was not a man for me to be much the wifer for : in all political topics it was eafy to fuppofe motives for filence ; but relatively to points of agriculture, or rather the produce of edates, &c. perhaps his ignorance was the real caufe of his referve. In regard to ci- cifbeifm , he was ready enough to chat ; he faid that foreigners were very illi- beral in fuppofing that the cudom was a mere cloak for vice and licentioufnefs ; on the contrary, he contended, that, at Paris, a city he knew well, there is jufl as much freedom of manners as at Venice. He faid as much for the cudom as it will bear ‘ mollifying the features of the pradfice, but not removing them. We may however hope, that the ladies do not merit the fcandal with which foreigners have loaded them ; and that the beauty of fome. of them is joined with what Petrarch thought it fo great an enemy to : Due gran nemiche infieme erano aggiunte Bellezza ed onefl V ■ ■ ■ At- VENICE. 2JS At night to a new tragedy of Fayel, a tranflation from the French; well acted by Signore and Signora Belloni. It is a ctrcumftance of criticifm, amazing to my ears, that the Italian language fhould have been reprefen ted as wanting force and vigour, and proper only for effeminate fubjeds. It teems, on the contrary, as powerfully expreffive of lofty and vigorous fentiments, of the terrible and the fublime, as it is admirable in breathing the fofteff notes of love and pity ; it has even powers of harfh and rugged expreffion. There is nothin o- more ftriking in the manners of different nations, than in the idea of fhame annexed to certain neceffities -of nature. In England a man makes water (if I may uie fucn an expreffion) with a degree of privacy, and a woman never in fight of our lex. In France and Italy there is no fuch feeling, *fo that Sterne’s Madame Rambouiilet was no exaggeration . In Otahite, to eat in company is fhameful and indecent; but there is no immodefty in performing the rites of love before as many ipectators as chance may affemble. There is between the front row of chairs in the pit and the orcheffra, in the Venetian theatre, a fpace of five 01 lix feet without floor : a well drelied man, fitting almoft under a row of ladies in the fide boxes, flepped into this place, and made water with as much indif- ference as if he had been in the ftreet ; and nobody regarded him with any degree of wonder but myfelf. It is, however, a beaffly trick : fhame may be ideal, but not cleanlinefs ; for the want of.it is a folid and undoubted evil. For a city of not more than 150,000 people, Venice is wonderfully provided with theatres ; theie aie feven ; and all of them are laid to be full in the carnival. The cheapnefs of admiffion, except at the ferious opera, undoubtedly does much to fill them. The 5th. Another tour among palaces, and churches, and pictures; one fees too many at once to have clear ideas. Called again on , and had anothei converiation with him better than a fcore of fine pictures. Fie made an obfervation on the goodnefs of the difpofition of the common people at Venice, which deferves, in candour, to be noted : that there are feveral circumftances which would have coiffiderable effed in multiplying crimes, were the people diipofed to commit them : iff, the city is abfolutely open, no walls, no gates, nor any way of preventing the efcape of criminals by night, as well as by day:— 2u, that the manner in which it is built, the narrownefs and Jabyrinth-diredion oi theffieets, with canals everywhere, offer great opportunities of concealment, as well as efcape : 3d, the government never reclaims of any foreign power a ci iminal that hies : 4th, there is no police whatever ; and it is an error to fup- - pole that the fyftem of efpionage (much exaggerated) is fo di reded as to anfwer the purpofe : 5th, for want of more commerce and manufactures, there are great numbers of idle loungers, who muff find it difficult to live : 6th, and laffly, the government very feldom hangs, and it is exceedingly rare otherwife to puniih.* Fiom this union of circumffances it would be natural to fuppofe, FI h 2 that VENICE. 236 that rogues of all kinds would abound ; yet that the contrary is the fad ; and he allured me, he does not believe there is a city in Europe, of equal population, where there are fewer crimes, or attempts againd the life, property, or peace of others : that he walks the dreets at all hours in the night, and never with any fort of arms. The conclulion in favour of his countrymen is very fair ; at the fame time I mult remark, that thefe very circumltances, which he produces to Ihew that crimes ought to abound, might, perhaps, with as much truth, be quoted as realons for their not being found. From the want of punifhment and police may probably be drawn an important conclulion, that mankind are always belt when not too much governed ; that a great deal may fafely be left to themfelves, to their own management, and to their own feelings ; that law and regulation, necelfary as they may be in fome cafes, are apt to be carried much too far ; that frequent punilhments rather harden than deter olfenders ; and that a maze of laws, for the prefervation of the peace, with a l'warm of magiftrates to protect it, hath much dronger tendency to break than to fecure it. It is fair to conned this circumdance of comparative freedom from crimes, with feven theatres for only 150,000 people; and the admiffion fo cheap, that the lowed of the people frequent them ; more, perhaps, in favour of thea- trical representations than all that Roufleau’s brilliant genius could fay againd them. At night to another theatre, that of the tragi-comedy, where a young adrefs, apparently not twenty, Supported the principal Serious part with fuch judnefs of adion, without exaggeration ; and fpoke this charming language, with fuch a clear articulation and expredion, as, for her age, was amazing. The 6th. Another vilit to iflands and manufadures, &c. The 7th. My lad day at Venice; I made, therefore, a gleaning of fome fights I had before negleded ; and called once more on my friend , alluring him truly, that it would give me pleafure to fee him in England, or to be of any Service to him there. The Cornere di Bologna, a covered barge, the only conveyance, fets off to-night at eleven o’clock. I have taken my place, paid my money, and delivered my baggage ; and as the quay from which the barge departs is conveniently near the opera-houfe, and il Burbero di buon Cnore aded for the fird night, I took my leave of Signore Petrillo s excellent inn, which deferves every commendation, and went to the opera. I found it equal to what the prova had indicated ; it is an inimitable performance; not only abounding with many very pleating airs, but the whole piece is agreeable, and does honour to the genius and tade of Signore Martini. Swift, in one of his letters to Stella, after dining with lords 'Oxford and Bolingbroke, and going in the evening to fome Scrub, lays, he hates to be a prince and a icoundrel the fame day. I had to-night all this feeling with a vengeance. From the repre- sentation of a pleating and elegant performance, the mu tic of which was well adapted VENICE. adapted to firing one’s feelings to a certain pitch, in clear unifon with the pleafure that fparkled in fo many eyes, and founded from fo many hands — I Hepped at once, in full contrail, into the bark Detto Corriere di Bologna ; a cabin about ten feet fquare, round which fat in filence, and the darknefs vifible of a wretched lamp, a company, whofe rolling eyes examined, without one word of reception, each paffenger that entered. The wind howled, and the rain beat in at the hole left for entering. My feelings, that thrilled during the evening, were diffipated in a moment, and the gloom of my bofom was foon in unifon with that of the fcene. Of this voyage from Venice to Bologna, all the powers of language would fail me to give the idea I would with to imprefs. The time I palled in it I rank among the moll dilagreeable days I ever experienced, and by a thoufand degrees the worft fince I left England ; yet I had no choice : the roads are fo infamoully bad, or rather fo impracticable, that there are no vetturini ; even thole whofe fortune admits polling make this paflage by water; and when I found that Monf. de la Lande, fecretary to the French ambalfador at Turin, had made the fame journey, in the fame conveyance, and yet in his book fays not a word againlt the accommodation, how was I to have divined, that it could prove fo execrable ? A little more thought, however, would have told me that it was too cheap to be good, the price, for the whole voyage of 1 25 miles, is only 30 paoli ( r ys. 6d.) for which you are boarded. After a day’s fpitting of a dozen people, in ten feet fquare (enough to make a dog lick), mattrelfes are fpread on the ground, and you reft on them as you can, packed almoft like herrings in a barrel; they .are then rolled up and tumbled under a bulk, without the leaft attention which fide is given you the night after ; add to this the odours of various forts, ealy to imagine. At dinner, the cabin is the kitchen, and th q padrone the cook, he takes fnuff, wipes his nofe with his lingers, and the knife with his handker- chief), while he prepares the victuals, which he handles before you, till you are lick of the idea ol eating. But, on changing the bark to one whofe cabin was too fmall to admit any cookery, he brought his fteaks and laufages, rolled up in a paper, and that in his flag of abomination (as Smollet calls a continental handkeicnief), which -he Ipread on his knees as he lat, opening the prealy t reafu re, for thole to eat out ot his lap with their fingers, whole Itomachs could bs_ai inch a repaid. Vv ill an Engulh reader believe that there were perlons pre- terit who lu Dm it ted, without a murmur, to finch a voyage, and who were beyond the common mercantile crews one meets with in a vet turn f fome well drefled, with an appearance and converfition that betrayed nothin? mean. I draw c one lu lions, operating llrongly againlt the private and do- me ft ic comloits ol life, from Inch public vehicles : this is the only one for tiioie who pals to and from Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, and Naples, and VENICE. £ 3 $ and of courfe mud be exceedingly frequented ; and there are no voitures by land to rival it. If thefe people were clean, decent, and comfortable at home, is it credible that they would fubmit to fuch a mode of travelling ? The con- trad would (hack them as it would .Englifhmen, who would move heaven and earth to eftablifh a better conveyance, at a higher price. The people who travel thus form the great mafs of a nation, if we except the poor; it is of little confequence how the Cornari and the Morofini live; they live probably like great lords in other countries ; but the public and national profperity is intimately connected with the comforts and accommodations of the lower claffes, which appear in Italy to be, on comparifon with England, miferably inferior. Their excellencies, the arijlocrats of Venice, do not travel thus; and as to the people, whether they go on their heads, or in the mud, is all one to the fpirit of their government. For my-felf, I walked much of the journey, and efpecially on the banks of the- Po, for the better view of that great river, now rendered immenfe by the late dreadful floods, which have deluged fo much of the country. Along the banks, which are high dykes, railed many feet again ft its depredations, there are matted huts at every hundred or two hundred yards, with men Rationed, called guardia di Po, ready to afkmble with their tools, at a moment’s warning, in cafe of a bread • they have fires all night. Soldiers alfo make the rounds, night and day, to wc that the men are at their ftations, — and to give afliftance if wanted. There is a known and curious piece of roguery, againft which much of this caution is bent ; the mifchief of a breach is fo great, that when the danger becomes very imminent, the farmers, in the nicht, crols the river in boats, in order to bore holes in the banks, to enable the water the eafier to make a breach, that by giving it a diwdlion contrary to that of their own lands, they may render themfelves fecure. For this reafon, the guards permit no navigation, except by privileged barks, like the carrier i, firing at all others that are feen on the river. It is now an immenfe body of water, twice, and in fome places perhaps even thrice as broad as the Thames at London. As to the free of the country, from the Lagunes to Ferrara, it is every where nearly the fame as what 1 have fo often deferibed ; whether grafs or arable, laid out into rows of pollards, with vines trained to them, atwarious difiances, but always near enough to give the whole the ap- pearance of a wood, when viewed from the leafi difiance. It does not feem to w % ant people; towns and villages being numerous ; and there are all the figns of a con fid enable navigation ; every village being a port, with abundance of barges, barbs, boats, &c. Coffee- houfes remarkably abound in the Venetian domi- nions; at all towns, and even villages, where we pafied, they are to be found, fortunately for me, as they were my refource, to make amends foi the d.rty fin o-er s, and beaftly handkerchief of our Signore Padrone. Before I entirely 0 finifh VENICE. *39 iinifli with Venice, I ihall infert a few circumftances, with which I was fa- voured by an Italian, who refided fome time in that city, and had abilities that would not allow me to doubt of his capacity, in forming a true eftimate of any political circumitance, to which he diredted his attention. His account of the principal nobility of the republic is fuch as would explain much more than I have feen or heard in their dominions. He fays, “ the education ofthe (treat is the difgrace 01 \ enice. Men of the fir ft families are not only io-norant to a degree thameful in fo enlightened an age, but they are educated in a bad ton • wit, nil manners, from ideas that are buffered to be inftilied by dependents' which do not quit them through life ; fixing, from early habit, the taffe for bad company ; while a pernicious indulgence exempts them from all leamino- : t rat this is lo general, and is 1 o extenfive in its influence, that, had the interior organization of this government been lefs admirable, it would, from this very came, have mouldered to nothing long ago : that the pride, of which they are accufed, is afcribable equally to bad company, and to ignorance ; the fir ft foves them vague and improper ideas of their own importance, and the fecond infpires them with referve, to conceal their want, of that knowledge which others/ and Specially foreigners, poffefs : that the. ill effects of this bad education wiH be feen more and more , the governments of Europe being at prefent infinitely more enlightened than m times part; andimproved confiderably even in the laft twenty year !lu TherC f ’.° f ' n “ e ® lf y> a druggie among all nations, emulous to make the giea.eft progreis in ufeful knowledge, and to apply all knowledge to the moft uleful purpoles ; in fuch a period, therefore (he added), any people who are fta- tionary, and more particularly any government that is fo, will be Outftripped in the great courfe by their competitors, and perhaps trampled on, like the mo- narchy of trance, by thofe m whom light hath taken the place of ignorance" ity that the ncheft plood in European veins fhould at prefent experience fuch Here are about forty families, unqueftionably the moft ancient in Europe All other countries except Venice, have been conquered, or over-run, or fo deployed, that the oldeft families may be. dated comparatively from only mo- dern periods; he who looks back to a well defined anceftry, from the tenth and eleventh centuries, and who can thus trace his lineage feven or eight hundred years is m every country refpeffed for antiquity, of this Handing are the fami- lies of Bourbon, dHfte, Montmorency, Courtenaye, &c. which are commonly .fteemcu tne firft in Europe, but they are not efteemed fo at Venice. Some of ne Roman families, which, from the ravages of the Huns, took tffelter i n >ne mcs of Venice, and which were then confiderable enough to be entrufted with tne government of their country, yet remain, and are unqueftionably the moft ancient in Europe. De la Lande, from Frefdrotti, confines the eleftors of VENICE. a 40 of the firft Doge to twelve—- Badoer, Con tar ini , Morofmi , 'Tiepolo , Michiel, Sa- m do y Gradenigo , Falter, Dandolo, Barozzi , and Polano, which is of late extindt. In the next clafs he places Zuftiniani, Cornaro , Bragadin , and J 3 indicare le vere teorie delle Jiime dei terrem , from which I inferted an extract in the. Annals of Agriculture, — alfo a journal of Agriculture, publilhed at Perugia, where he refided feven years ; but as it did not fucceed for more tnan three, he dropped it. It is remarkable how many writers on this fubjedt there are at prefent at Florence: the two Fabbronis, Laftri, Zucchino, Targioni, Paoletti, whom I am to vifit in the country, attended by Signore Amoretti ; * I fixed him in my neighbourhood in Suffolk. , they FLORENCE. 2p they fay he is the mod practical of all, having refided condantly on his farm. I fpent an hour very agreeably, contemplating one datue to-day, namely, Bandinelli s copy of the Laocoon, which is a production that does honour to modern ages ; I did not want this copy to remind me of another mod; celebrated one, and of the many very agreeable and indruCtive hours I have' fpent with its noble owner the Earl of Orford. The 2 1 it. Signore Tartini had engaged the Abbate Amoretti, and myfelf, to go this day to his country-feat, but it rained inceffantly. The climate of Italy is fuch as will not make many men in love with it ; on my confcience, I think that of England infinitely preferable.— If there were not great powers of evapo- ration, it would be uninhabitable. It has rained, more or lefs, for five weeks pad: y and more, I fhould conceive, has fallen, than in England in a year. In the evening to the converfazione of Signore Fabbroni, where I met Signore Pella, director of the gallery ; Signore Gaietano Rinaldi, director of the pods ; another gentleman, adminidrator of the Grand Duke’s domains, I forget his name ; the Abbate Amoretti, &c.— It gave me pleafure to find, that the com- pany did not ademble in order to converfe on the trivial nonfenfe of common topics, like fo many coteries in all countries. They very readily joined in the difeuffions I had with Signore Fabbroni; and Signora Fabbroni herfelf, who has an excellent underdanding, did the fame. By the way, this lady is young, handfome, and Well made: if Titian were alive, he might form from her a Venus not inferior to thofe he has immortalized on his canvafs ; for it is evi- dent, that his originals were real, and not ideal beauty. Signora Fabbroni is here, but where is Titian to be found ? The 2 2d* In the forenoon to th e. converfazione of the fenator Marchefe Ginori, where were adembled fome of the letterati , &c. of Florence ; the Cavaliere Fontana, fo well known in England for his eudiometrical experiments, Zuechino, Ladri, Amoretti, the Marchefe Pacci, who has a reputation here for his know- ledge of rural affairs, Signore Pella, &c. The converfazioni are commonly in an evening, but the Marchefe Ginori’s is regularly once a week in a morning; this nobleman received me very politely: indeed he is famous for his attention to every objeCl that is really of importance ; converfes rationally on agriculture, and has himfelf, many years ago, edablilhed, in the neighbourhood of Florence* one of the mod confiderable manufactories of porcelain that is to be found in Italy. Dine with his Majedy s envoy extraordinary. Lord Hervey* with a great party of Englifh ; among whom were Lord and Lady Elcho, and Mr. and Mifs Charteris, Lord Hume, Mr, and Mrs. Beckford, Mr. Digby, Mr. Temped, Dr. Cleghorn, profedor ofhidory at St. Andrew’s, who travels with Lord Hume, with ten or a dozen others. I had the honour of being known to Lord and Lady Hervey in Suffolk, fo they were not new faces to me ; of the others, I K k 2 had FLORE NCE. 252 had never feen any thing : the company was too numerous for a converfation, from which much was to be gained. I fat by the fellow of an Englifli college ; and my heels had more converfation with his fword than I had with its owner : when a man begins every fentence with a cardinal, a prince, or a celebrated beauty, I generally find myfelf in too good company ; but Mifs Charteris, who feems a natural character, and was at her eafe, confoled me on the other fide. At this dinner (which, by the way, was a fplendid one), I was, according to a cuftom that rarely fails, the word; drefled man in the company ; but I was clean, and as quietly in repofe on that head, as if I had been either fine or elegant. The time was, when this fingle circumftance would have made me out of countenance, and uneafy. Thank my ftars, I have buried that folly. I have but a poor opinion of Quin, for declaring that he could not afford to go plain : he was rich enough, in wit, to have worn his breeches on his head, if he had pleafed ; but a man like myfelf, without the talent of converfation, before he has well arranged his feelings, finds relief in a good coat or a diamond ring. Lord Hervey, in the mod; friendly manner, deiired I would make his table my own, while I was at Florence, — that I diould always find a cover, at three o’clock, for dinners are not the cuftom here , and you will very rarely find me from home . This explains the Florentine mode of living ; at Milan, great dinners are perpetual, here the nobility never give them. I have no idea of a fociety worth a farthing, where it is not the cuftom to dine with one another. Their converfaziom are good ideas, when there are no cards,-— but much inferioi to what one has at a dinner for a feleCt party. In England, without this, there would be no converfation; and the French cuftom, of rifing immediately after it, which is that alfo of Italy, deftroys, relatively to this objefit, the bed: hour in the whole day. The 23d. To the gallery, where the horrible tale of Niobe and her chil- dren is told fo terribly well in ftone, as to raile in the IpeCIutor s bofom all the powers of the pathetic. The action of the miferable isiothet, Shielding the lad: of her children againft the murdering fhafts of Apollo, is inimitable ; and the figure of that youngeft of the children, perfection. The two figures, which ftrike me mod:, are the fon who has gathered his drapery on his leit arm, and the companion, a daughter, in the oppofite corner. The exprefiion of his fice is in the higheft perfection, and the attitude, and whole figure, though much repaired, incomparable. The daughter has gathered her drapery in one hand, behind her, to accelerate her flight ; die moves againft the wind, and nothing can be finer than the pofition and motion of the body, appearing through the drapery. There are others of the group alfo, of the greateft force and fire of attitude . and I am happy not to be a critic inftruCled enough to find, as Monf. de la Lande fays, that the greateft part of the figures are bad. They certainly are FLORENCE. 253 are not equal ; they are the work of Scopas, a Greek fculptor. Dine with Lord Elcho, at Meggot’s hotel ; Lord Hume, Mr. Temped, Mr. Tyrrhit, as well as Lord Elcho’s family and Dr. Cleghorn, prefent : fome agreeable con- vention ; the young perfons have engaged in fport to walk on foot to Rome ; right — I like that. If the Italians be curious in novelty of character, the pafling Englifh are well framed to give it. The 24th. In tire morning, with Abbate Amoretti, and Signore Zucchino to the porcelain manufacture of the Marchefe Ginori, four miles to the north of Florence. It is faid to be in a flouridling date, and the appearance of things anfwers the defcription. It is a good fabric, and many of the forms and the defigns are elegant. They work cads of all the antique datues and bronzes, fome of which are well executed. Their plates are a zechin each (9s.) and a complete fervice, for twelve covers, 107 xe chins. To the Marchefe Martelli’s villa j a very handfome refldence. This nobleman is a friend of Signore Zucchino, and, underdanding our intention, of making it a farming day as well as a manu- facturing one, ordered a dinner to be prepared, and his faCtor to attend for giving information, apologizing for his own abfence, on account of a previous engage- ment. We found a very handfome repad ; too much for the occaflon : — and we drank — alia Inglefe , success to the plough! in excellent wine. The fadtor then conducted us over the farm : he is an intelligent man, and anfwered my numerous enquiries, apparently with confiderable knowledge of the fubjeCt. Returned at night to Florence. The 25th. Early in the morning, with Signore Amoretti, to Villa Magna, feven miles to the fouth of Florence, to Signore Paoletti; this gentleman, cure of that parifh, had been mentioned to me as the mod practical writer on agri- culture, in this part of Italy, having redded always in the country, and with the reputation of being an excellent farmer. We found him at home, and pafled a very indruCtive day, viewing his farm, and receiving much information. But I mud note, that to this expreflion, farm , mud not be annexed the Englifh idea; for Signore Paoletti’s condds of three poderi, that is, of three houfes, each with a farmer and his family, alia 7 neta , who cultivate the ground, and have half the produce. It is unneceflary to obferve, that whenever this is the cafe, the common hufbandry, good or bad, mud be purfued. It will furprife my Englifh readers to And, that the mod practical writer at Florence, of great re- putation, and very defervedly l'o, has no other than a metayer farm. But let it not be thought the lead reflection on Signore Paoletti, fince he claffes, in this relpeCt, with his fovereign, whole farms are in the fame regimen. Signore Paoletti s maples for vines appeared to be trained with much more attention than common in Tufcany, and his olives were in good order. This day has given me a fpecimen of the winter climate of Italy ; I never felt fuch a cold pierc- ing 254 FLORENCE. ing wind in England. Some fnow fell; and I could fcarcely keep myfelf from freezing, by walking four or five miles an hour. All water, not in motion from its current or the wind, was ice ; and the ificles, from the dripping fprings in the hills, were two feet long. In England, when a fierce N. E. wind blows in a fharp frofi, we have fuch weather ; but, for the month of November, I be- lieve fuch a day has not been felt in England fince its creation. The provifion of the Florentines againfi: fuch weather is truly ridiculous : they have not chimnies in more than half the rooms of common houfes ; and thole they do not ufe ; not becaufe they are not cold, for they go ihivering about, with chattering teeth, with an idea of warmth, from a few wood alhes or embers in an earthen pan ; and another contrivance for their feet to refc upon. Wood is very dear, therefore this miferable fuccedaneum is for oeconomy. Thank God for the coal fires of England, with a climate lefs fevers by half than that of Italy ! I would have all nations love their country ; but there are few more worthy of fuch affection than our blessed isle, from which no one will ever travel, but to return with feelings frelh firung for pleafure, and a capacity renovated by a thoufand comparifons for the enjoyment of it. The 26th. To the Palazzo Pitti. I have often read about ideal grace in painting, which I never well comprehended, till I faw the Madonna della Sedia of Raphael. I do not think either of the two figures, but particularly the child, is ftri&ly in nature ; yet there is fomething that goes apparently beyond it in their exprefiion ; and as pafiion and emotion are out of the queftion, it i# to be refolved into ideal grace. The air of the virgin’s head, and the language of the infant’s eyes, are not eafily transfused by copyifts. A group of four men at a table, by Rubens, which, for force and vigour of the exprefiion of nature, is admirable. A portrait of Paul IIL by Titian, and of a Medicis, by Raphael. A virgin, Jefus, and St. John, by Rubens, in which the exprefiion of the children is hardly credible. A Magdalen, and portrait of a woman in a fcarlet habit, by Titian. A copy of Corregio’s holy family, at Parma, by Barrocio’ Cataline, a copy of Salvator Rofa, by Nicolo Caflalve ; and laft, not leaft, a marine view, by Salvator. — But to enumerate fuch a vaft profufion of fine pieces, in fo many fplendid apartments, is impoflible; for few fovereigns have a finer palace, or better furniihed. Tables inlaid, and curiofities, both here and at the gallery, abound, that deferve examination, to mark the perfection to which thefe arts have been carried, in a country where you do not find, in common life, a door to open without wounding your knuckles, or a window that fhuts, well enough to exclude the Appenine fiiows. The gardens of this palace contain ground that Brown would have made delicious, and many fine things that itineraries, guides, and travels dwell amply on* The 27th. To the palace Poggio Imperiale, a country-feat of the Grand Duke’s, only a mile from Florence, which is an excellent houfe, of good and well FLORENCE. 2 5 $ well proportioned rooms, neatly fitted up and furnifiied, with an air of comfort without magnificence, except in the article beds, which are below par. There is a fine vefiibule and faloon, that, in hot weather, muft be very pleafant; but our party were frozen through all the houfe. Lord Hervey’s rooms are warm, from carpets and good fires ; but thofe are the only ones I have feen here. We have a fine clear blue fky and a bright fun, with a fharp froft and a cutting N. E. wind, that brings all the fnow of the Alps, of Hungary, Poland, Ruffia, and the frozen ocean to one’s fenfation. You have a fun that excites perfpira- ti°n, you move faft ; and a wind that drives ice and fnow to your vitals. And tins is Italy, ceiebiated by io many ha fly writers for its delicious climate! To-day, on returning home, we met many carts loaded with ice, which I found, upon meafure, to be four inches thick ; and we are here between la- titude 43, and 44. The green peafe in December and January, in Spain, fhew plainly the fuperiority of that climate, which is in the fame latitude. The magnitude and fubfiantial folidity with which the Palazzo Ricardi was built, by a merchant of the Florentine republic, is aftonifhing; we have, in the north of Europe (now the mofi commercial part of the globe), no idea of merchants being able to raife fuch edifices as thefe. The Palazzo Pitti was another infiance ; but as it ruined its mafter, it defcrves not to be mentioned in this view ; and there are at Florence many others, with fuch a profufion of churches, that they mark out the fame marvellous influx of wealth, anfing from trade. To a mind that has the leafi turn after philofophical en- quiry, reading modern hifiory is generally the mofi tormenting employment that a man can have ; one is plagued with the actions of a deteftable let of men, called conquerors, heroes, and great generals; and we wade through pages loaded with military details ; but when you want to know the progreis of agriculture, of commerce, and induftry, their effedt in different ages and na- tions on each other — the wealth that refulted — the divifion of that wealth . its employment — and the manners it produced-— all is a blank. Voltaire fet an example, but how has it been followed ? Here is a cieling of a noble faloon, painted by Luca Giordano, reprefenting the progrefs of human life. The in- vention and poetry of this piece are great, and the execution fuch as muff pi cafe every one. The library is rich ; I was particularly firuck with one of the rooms that contains the books, having a gallery for the convenience of reaching tnem, without any difagreeable effect to the eye. In England we have many apartments, the beauty of which is ruined by thefe galleries; this is thirty-fix feet by twenty-four, within the cafes, well lighted by one moderate window; and is fo pieafing a room, that it I were to build a library, I would imitate it exadily. After vifiting the gallery, and the Palazzo Pitti, we are naturally nice and faftidi- ous, yet in the Palazzo Ricardi are fome paintings that may be viewed with plea fare. In the evening to the converfazione of Signcre Fabbroni; the a’ffem- blv FLORENCE. 2.56 bly merits the name ; for fome of the bed indrudted people at Florence meet there, and difcufs topics of importance. Signore Fabbroni is not only an ceconomijle , but a friend to the Tufcan mode of letting farms alia met a, which he thinks is the bed for the peafants ; his abilities are great j but fadts are too dubborn for him. The 29th. Churches, palaces, &c. In the afternoon to St. Firenze, to hear an oratorio. At night to a concert, given by a rich Jew on his wedding : a fhloo'n the violin, by Nardinh Crouds — candles — ice — fruits — heat — and — fo forth. The 30th. To Signore Fabbroni, who is fecond in command under il Cava- liere Fontana, in the whole mufeum of the Grand Duke ; he (hewed me, and our party, the cabinets of natural hidory, anatomy, machines, pneumatics, magnetifm, optics, &c. which are ranked among the fined; colledtions in the world ; and, for arrangement, or rather exhibition, exceed all of them ; but note, no chamber for agriculture 5 no colledtion of machines, relative to that fir ft of arts ; no mechanics, of great talents or abilities, employed in improving, eafing, and fimplifying the common tools ufed by the hufbandman, or inventing new ones, to add to his forces, and to leflen the expence of his efforts ! Is not this an objedt as important as magnetifm, optics, or adronomy ? Or ra- ther, is it not fo infinitely fuperior, as to leave a comparifon abfurd ? Where am I to travel, to find agricultural eftablifhments, on a fcale that (hall not move contempt ? If I find none fuch in the dominions of a prince reputed the wifed in Europe, where am I to go for them ? Our Annual Regider gave fuch an account, a few years pad, of the new regula- tions of the Grand Duke, in relation to burials, that I have been anxious to know the truth, by fuch enquiries, on all hands, as would give me not the letter of the law only, but the practice of it. The fact, in the above-mentioned publication, was exaggerated. The bodies of all who die in a day are carried in the night, on a bier, in a linen covering (and not tumbled naked into a common cart), to the church, but without any lights or finging ; there they receive benedidlion ; thence they are moved to a houfe, prepared on purpofe, where the bodies are laid, covered, on a marble platform, and a voiture , made for that ufe, removes them to the ce- metery, at a didance from the city, where they are buried, without didindtion, very deep, not more than two in a grave, but no coffins ufed. All perfons, of whatever rank, are bound to fubmit to this law, except the Archbifhop, and women of religious orders. This is the regulation and the practice; and I (hall freely fay, that I condemn it, as an outrage on the common feelings of man- kind ; chiefly, becaufe it is an unneceffary outrage, from which no ufe what- ever flows. To prohibit lights, finging, procefiions, and mummery of that fort, was rational; but are not individuals to drels and incafe the dead bodies, in FLORENCE. 257 in whatever manner they pleafe ? Why are they not permitted to fend them, if they ch ufe, piivately into the country, to fome other burying place, where they may left with fatheis, mothers, and other connections ? Prejudices, bearing on this point, may be, if you pleafe, ridiculous ; but gratifying them, though certainly of no benefit to the dead, is, however, a confolation to the living, at a moment when confolation is moft wanted, in the hour of grief and mife'ry. Why is the impaffioned and dill loving hufband, or the tender and feeling bofom of the father, to be denied the laft rites to the corpfe of a wife or a daughter, efpeciady when fucn rites are neither injurious nor inconvenient to fociety ? 1 he regulations of the Grand Duke are, in part, entirely rational, — and that part not in the leaf inconfid ent with the confolation to be derived from a relax- ation in fome other points. But, in the name of common fenfe, why admit ex- ceptions ? Why is the Archbifhop to have this favour ? Why the religious ? This is abfolutely dedrudtive. of the principle on which the whole is founded ; for it admits the force of thofe prejudices I have touched on, and deem exemp- tion from their tie as a favour ! It is declaring fuch feelings to be follies too abfurd to be indulged,, and, in the fame breath, aligning the indulgence, as the reward of rank and purity ! If the exemption be a privilege fo valuable, as to be a favour proper for the fird ecclefiadic, and for the religious of the fex only,— you confefs the obfervance to be direCtly, in fuch proportion, a burthen, and the common feelings of mankind are fandioned, even in the moment of their outrage. Nothing could pardon fuch an edid, but its being abfoluteW free from all exemptions, and its containing an exprefs declaration and ordi- nance to be executed, with rigour, on the bodies of the Prince himfelf and every individual of his family. ’ December 1 . To the fhop of the brothers Pifani, fculptors, where, for half an hour, I was foolhh enough to with myfelf rich, that I might have bought Niobe, the gladiator, Diana, Venus, and fome other caffs from the an- tique flat ues. I threw away a few paols, inflead of three or four hundred zec f tns \ Before 1 quit Florence, I mud obferve, that befides the buildings ana various objects I have mentioned, there are numberlefs, which I have not leen at all -—the famous bridge Ponte della Santa Trinita deferves, how- ever, a word ; it is the origin of that at Neuille and others in France ut much more beautiful • being indeed the firft in the world. The circum- 1 ance that drikes one at Florence, is the antiquity of the principal buildings • every thing one fees confiderable, is of three or four hundred years danding • of new buddings, there are next to none; all here remind one of the MedicF: t leie is lardly a flreet that has not lome monument, fome decoration, that ears the damp of that fplendid and magnificent family. How commerce could ennca it Sufficiently, to leave fuch prodigious remains, is a quedion not a little B * curious : i 5 B FLORENCE. curious ; for I may venture, without apprehenfion, to afiert, that all the col- lected magnificence of the Houfe of Bourbon, governing for eight hundred years twenty millions of people, is trivial, when compared with what the Medicis family have left, for the admiration of fucceeding ages— fovereigns only of the little mountainous region of Tulcany, and with not more titan one million of fubjedts. And if we pafs on to Spain, or England, or Germany, the fame afionifhing contrail will llrike us. Would Mr. Hope, of Amfterdam, faid to be the greatell merchant in the world, be able, in this age, to form eftablilh- ments, to be compared with th<$fe of the Medicis ? We have merchants^ in London, that make twenty, and even thirty thoufand pounds a year profit, but you will find them in brick cottages, for our modern London houfes are no bet- ter, compared with the palaces of Florence and Venice, eiedted in the age oi their commerce; the paintings, in the pofieflion of our merchants, a few daubed portraits ; their llatues, earthen-ware figures on chimny-pieces ; their libraries — their cabinets, — how contemptible the idea of a companion ! It is a remarkable fad:, that with this prodigious commerce and manufactures, Flo- rence was neither fo large nor fo populous as at prefent. This is inexplica e, and demands enquiries from the hijiorical traveller a very ufeful path to be trodden by a man of abilities, who Ihould travel for the fake of comparing the things he fees with thofe he reads of. Trade, in that age, mull, from t e ew- nefs of hands, have been a fort of monopoly, yielding immenfe profits. From the modern Hate of Florence, without one new houfe that rivals, in any degree, thofe of the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, it might be thought, that with their commerce, the Florentines loll every fort of income ; yet there is no doubt, that the revenue from land is, at this moment, greater than it was in t e mo flourifhing age of the republic. The revenue of Tufcany is now more equally fpent. The government of the Grand Dukes I take to have been far bettei t lan the republican, for it was not a republic equally formed from all parts of the territory, but a city governing the country, and consequently impoven ing the whole, to enrich itfelf, which is one of the word; ipecies of government to be found in the world. When Italy was decorated with fine buildings, the rich nobles muft have fpent their incomes in raiding them : at prefent, thofe of F o- rence have other methods of applying their fortunes ; not in palaces, not in the fine arts, not in dinners ; — the account I received was, that their incomes aie, for the greateft part, confumed by keeping .great crowds of domefiics ; many of them married, with their families, as in Spain. The Marchefe Ricardi as forty, each of which hath a family of his own, fome of them under fervants, but all maintained by him. His table is very magnificent, and ferved with all forts of delicacies, yet never any company at it, except the family, tutors, and chaplains. The houfe of Ranuzzi hath a greater fortune, and alfo a greater r number FLORENCE. 259 number of domeftics, in the fame Rile. No dinners, as in England; no {up- pers, as in France ; no parties ; no expenfive equipages ; little comfort ; but a great train of idle lounging penfioners, taken from ufeful labour, and kept from productive induftry ; one of the worfl ways of fpending their fortunes, relatively to the public good, that could have been adopted. How inferior to the encou- ragement of the fine or the ufeful arts ! O V The manner in which our little party has palled their time has been ^agree- able enough, and wonderfully cheap : we have been very well ferved by a trai — tear , with plenty of good things, well drefled, at 4 paols a head for dinner, and a flight repaft at night ; fugar, rum, and lemons for punch, which both French and Italians like very well, added a trifle more. Thefe articles, and the apart- ment, with wood, which is dear, and the weather, as I noted, very cold, made my whole expence, exclufive of amufements, 3s. 6d. a day Englifh, which furely is marvelloufly cheap ; for we had generally eight or ten things for dinner, and fuch a deffert as the feafon would allow, with good wine, the bed: I have drunk in Italy. The Abbate Amoretti, who, fortunately for me, arrived at Florence the fame day as myfelf, was lodged with a friend, a canon, who being obliged to be abfent in the country moil of the time, the Abbate, to fave the fervants the trouble of providing for him only, joined our party, and lived with us for fame days, adding to our common bank no flight capital in good fenfe, information, and agreeablenefs. Madame de Bouille’s eafyand unaffected character, and the good humour of the Baron, united with Mr. Stewart, and his young friend, to make a mixture of nations — of ideas — of purfuits — and of tempers, which contributed to render converfation diverfified, and the topics more in contrail, better treated, and more interesting ; but never one idea, or one Syllable, that caft even a momentary Shade acrofs that flow of eafe and good humour, which gives to every fociety its beft relifh. There was not one. in the party which any of us wished out of it ; and we were too much pleafed with one another to want any addition. Had I not been turning my face towards my family, and the old friends I left in England, I Should have quitted our little fociety with more pain. Half a dozen people have rarely been brought together, by fuch mere accident, that have better turned the little nothings of life to account (if I may venture to ufe the expreffion), by their beft cement, — good humour. The 2d. The day of departure muff needs give fome anxiety to thofe who cannot throw their fmall evils on fervants. Renew my connedion with that odious Italian race, the vetturini . — 1 had agreed for a compagnon de voyage ; but was alone, which I liked much better. To Step at once from an agreeable fociety, into an Italian votture, is a kind of malady which does not agree with mv nerves. The bed people appear but blanks at fuch a moment: the mind having gotten a particular impulfe, one cannot fo foon give it another. The inn PI'ETRA MALA. 260 at Mafchere, where 1 found no fire, but in partnerfhip with fome Germans, did not tend much to revive chearfulnefs, fo I clofed myfelf in that which Sancho wifely fays, covers a man all over like a cloak. 18 miles. The 3d. Dine at Pietra Mala, and, while the dinner was preparing, I walked to the volcano, as it is called. It is a very lingular fpedtacle, on the flope of a mountain, without any hole or apparent crevice, or any thing that tends to- wards a crater ; the fire burns among fome flones, as if they were its fuel ; the flame fills the fpace of a cube of about two feet, befides which there are ten or twelve fmaller and inconfiderable flames. Thefe I extinguished in the manner Monf. de la Lande mentions, by rubbing hard with a flick among the fmall flones : the flame catches again in a few moments, but in a manner that con- vinces me the whole is merely a vent to a current of inflammable air, which Signore Amoretti informed me has been lately afferted by fome perfon who has tried experiments on it. The flame revives with fmall explofions, exactly like thofe of inflammable air fired from a fmall phial ; and when I returned to the inn, the landlord had a bottle of it, which he burns at pleafure, to Shew his guefts. The caufe of this phenomenon has been fought in almoft every thing but the real fadt. I am furprifed the fire is not applied to fome ufe. It would boil a confiderable copper conftantly, without the expence of a farthing. If I had it at Bradfield, I would burn brick or lime, and boil or bake potatoes for bullocks and hogs at the fame time. Why not build a houfe on the fpot ? and let the kitchen-chimney furround the flame ? there would be no danger in living in fuch a houfe, certainly as long as the flame continued to burn. It is true the idea of a mine of inflammable air, juft under a houfe, would fometimes, per- haps, alarm one’s female vifitors ; they would be afraid of a magazine of vital air uniting with it, and at one explofion blowing up the ceconomical edifice. On the whole, the idea is rather too volcanic for Bradfield : Italy has things better worth importing than burning mountains. The King of Poland’s brother, the primate, flopping at Pietra Mala a day for illnefs (the 25th or 26th No- vember), the weather was fo fevere that it froze his Cyprus wine ; milk was as hard as done, and burft all the veffels that contained it. On whatever account Englifhmen may travel to Tufcany, let not a warm winter be among their in- ducements. — Sleep at that hideous hole Loiano , which would be too bad for hogs accuftomed to a clean ftye. 26 miles. The 4th. The paflage of the Appenines has been a cold and comfortlefs jour- ney to me, and would have been much worfe, if I had not taken refuge in walk- ing. The hills are almoft covered with fnow : and the road, in many defcents, a fheet of ice. At the St. Marco, at Bologna, they brought me, according to cuftom, the book to write my name for the commandant, and there I fee Lady Erne and fua figlia , and Mr. Hervey , October 1 4. Had my ftars been lucky enough BOLOGNA. a6i enough to have given me more of the fociety of that cultivated family, during my flay in Italy, it would have fmoothed fome of my difficulties. I miffed Lord Briflol at Nice, and again at Padua. He has travelled, and lived in Italy, till he knows it as well as Derry y and, unfortunately for the fociety of Suffolk, ten times better than Ickworth. Call on Mr. Taylor, and find, to my great concern, two of his children very ill. Abbate Amoretti, who left Florence a few days ago, is here to my comfort, and we fhall continue together till we come to Parma. This is indeed fortunate, for one can hardly wifh for a better fellow-traveller. 20 miles. The 5th. Vifit the Inflitute, which has acquired a greater reputation than it merits. Whoever has read any thing about modern Italy, knows what it con- . tains. I never view mufeums of natural hiflory, and cabinets of machines for experimental philofophy, but with a fpecies of difguff. I hate expence, and time thrown away for vanity and lhew more than utility. A well arranged laboratory, clean, and every thing in order, in a holy-day drefs, is deteflable ; but I found a combination of many pleafures in the diforderly dirty laboratories of Meffrs. de Morveau and la Voider. There is a face of bufmefs « there is evidently work going forwards ; and if fo, there is ufe. Why move here, and at Florence, through rooms well garnifhed with pneumatical inflruments that are never ufed ? Why are not experiments going forward ? If the profeffors have not time or inclination for thofe experiments, which it is their duty to make, let others, who are willing, convert fuch machines to ufe. Plalf thefe imple- ments grow good for nothing from reft ; and, before they are ufed, demand to be new arranged. You lhew me abundance of tools, but fay not a word of the difcoveries that have been made by them. A prince, who is at the ex- pence of making fuch great colledions of machines, fhould always order a leries of experiments to be carrying on by their means. If I were Grand Duke of Tufcany, I fhould fay, “ You, Mr. Fontana, have invented an eudiometer ; I defire that you will carry on a feries of trials, to afcertain every circurnflance which changes the refult, in the qualities of airs, that can be afcerta'ined by the nitrous tell ; and if you have other enquiries, which you think more important, employ fome perfon upon whom you can depend.” — And io Mr. John Fabbroni, “ You have made five trials on the weight of geoponic foils, taken hydroflatically ; make five hundred more, and let the fpecimens be chofen in conjunction with the profefior of agriculture. You have explained how to ana- lyze foils — analyze the fame fpecimens.” When men have opened to themfelves careers which they do not purfue, it is uiually for want of the means of profe- cuting them ; but in the mufeum of a prince , in fuch cabinets as at Florence or Bologna, there are no difficulties of this fort, — and they would be better em- ployed than in their prefent ftate, painted and patched, like an opera girl, for the idle BOLOGNA. 262 idel to ftare at. What would a Watfon, a Milner, or a Prieftley fay, upon a propofal to have their laboratories brufhed out clean and fpruce ? I believe they would kick out the operator who came on fuch an errand. In like manner, I hate a library well gilt, exactly arranged, and not a book out of its place ; I am apt to think the owner better pleafed with the reputation of his books, than with reading them. Here is a chamber for machines applicable to mechanics ; and the country is full of carts, with wheels two feet high, with large axles; what experiments have been made in this chamber to inform the people on a point of fuch confequence to the condudt of almoft every art ? I have, however, a greater quarrel than this with the Inftitute. There is an apartment of the art of war and fortification. Is there one of the machines of agriculture, and of fuch of its procefles as can be reprefented in minature ? — No : nor here, nor any where elfe have I feen fuch an exhibition : yet in the King’s library at Paris, the art of English gardening is reprefented in wax-work, and makes a play- thing pretty enough for a child to cry for. The attention paid to war, and the negledt of agriculture in this Inftitute, gives me a poor opinion of it. Bologna may produce great men, but fire will not be indebted for them to this eftablifh- ment. View fome churches and palaces, which I did not fee when here before. In the church of St. Dominico, a daughter of the Innocents, by Guido, which will command attention, how little inclined foever you may be to give it. The mother, and the dead child, in the fore-ground, are truly pathetic, and the whole piece finely executed. The number of highly decorated churches at Bologna is furprifing. They count, I think, above an hundred ; and all the towns, and many villages in Italy, offer the fame fpedtacle; the fums of money inverted in this manner in the 15th and 16th centuries, and fome even in the 17th, are truly amazing; the palaces were built at the fame time, and at this period all the rert of Europe was in a ftate of barbarifm : national wealth muff: have been immenfe, to have fpared luch an enormous fuperfluity. This idea recurs every where in Italy, and wants explanation from modern hiftorians. The Italian republics had all the trade of Europe; but what was Europe in that age? England and Holland have had it in this age without any fuch effedts; with us architecture takes quite a different turn ; it is the diffufion of comfort in the houfes of private people ; not concentrated magnificence in public works. But there does not appear, from the fize and number of the towns in Italy, built in the fame ages, to have been any want of this — private houfes were nu- merous, and well eredted. . A difference in manners, introducing new and un- heard-of luxuries, has probably been the caufe of the change. In fuch a diary as this, one can only touch on a fubjedt — but the hiftorians fhould dwell on them, rather than on battles and fieges. The 6th. Left Bologna, with Abbate Amoretti, in a vettura , but the day io fine and frofty, that we walked three-fourths of the way to Modena. Pal's Anfolazcn, M © D E N A. R E G G I O. 263 Anfolazen, the /eat of the Marchefe Abbergatti, who, after having pa/Ted his grand climacteric, has juft married a ballarina y of feventeen. The country to Modena is the fame as the flat part of the Bolognefe ; it is all a dead level plain, inclofed by neatly wrought hedges againft the road, with a view of diftinguifti- ing properties. I thought, on entering the Modenefe dominions, acrofs the river, that I oblerved rather a decline in neatnefs and good management. View the city ; the ftreets are of a good breadth, and moft of the houfes with good fronts, with a clean painted or well walhed face — the effedt pleafing. In the evening to the theatre, which is of the oddeft form I have feen. We had a hodge-podge of a comedy, in which the following paflage excited fuch an im- moderate laugh, that it is worth inferting, if only to fhew the tafte of the audi- ence, and the reputation of the ballarine ; “ Era un cava/lo si hello , si fvelto , st agile y di bel petto y gambe benfatte y groppa groJJ'a , che fe fojfe jiato una can alia y converebbe dire che I'anima della prima ballerina del teatro era trafmigrata in quella” Another piece of miferable wit was received with as much applaufe as the moft fterling : — Arlecch. (t Chi e quel re che ha la piii gran corona del mondo f Brighel. te ^uello che ha la tejla piii pic cola” 24 miles. The 7 th. 1 o the ducal palace, which is a magnificent building, and con- tains a conflderable collection of pidtures, yet a melancholy remnant of what were once here. The library, celebrated for its contents, is fplendid; we were /hewn the curious MS. of which there is an account in De la Lande. The Bible made for the D’Efte family is beautifully executed, begun in 1457, and finiflied in 1463, and coft 1 875 xechins . In the afternoon, accompanied the Ab- bate Amoretti, to Signore Belentani; and in the evening, to Signore Venturi, profeflor of phyficks in the univerfity, with whom we fpent a very agreeable and inftru&ive evening. We debated on the propriety of applying fome poli- tical principles to the prefent ftate of Italy; and I found, that the profeflor had not only confidered the Subjects of political importance, but feemed pleafed to converfe upon them. The 8 th. Early in the morning to Reggio. This line of country appears to be one of the bell; in Lombardy; there is a neatnefs in the houfes, which are every where fcattered thickly, that extends even to the homefteads and hedges, to a degree that one does not always find, even in the beft parts of England; but the trees that flupport the vines being large, the whole has now, without leaves, the air of a foreft. In fummer it muft be an abfolute wood. The road is a noble one. Six miles from Modena, we pafl'ed the Secchia, or rather the vale ruined by that river, near an unfinished bridge, with a long and noble caufeway leading to it, on each fide, which does honour to the duke and ftates of Modena. It being a fejla (the immaculate conception), we met the country people going to mats ; the married women had all muifs, which are here wedding prefents. Another thing I obferved, for the firft time, were children ftanding PARMA. 264 {landing ready in the road, or running out of the houfes, to offer, «s we were walking, affes to ride : they have them always faddled and bridled, and the fixed price is 1 fol per mile. This fhews attention and induflry, and is, therefore, commendable. A countryman, who had walked with us for fome diftance, re- plied to them, that we were not Signori d'ajini . In the afternoon to Parma. The country the fame ; but not with that air of neatnefs that is between Reggio and Modena; not fo well inclofed, nor fo well planted; and though very popu- lous, not fo well built, nor the houfes fo clean and neat. Pafs the Eufa, a poor miferable brook, now three yards wide, but a bridge for it a quarter of a mile long, and a fine vale, all deflroyed by its ravages; this is the boundary of the two duchies. 30 miles. The 9th. At the academy is the famous pidlure of the holy family and St. Jerome, by Correggio, a maffer more inimitable perhaps than Raphael himfelf. To my unlearned eyes, there is in this painting fuch a fuffufion of grace, and fuch a blaze of beauty, as flrike me blind (to ufe another’s expreffion) to all defeats which learned eyes have found in it. I have admired this piece often in Italy in good copies, by no ordinary mailers, but none come near the origi- nal. The head of the Magdalen is reckoned the chief d’ceuvre of Correggio. The celebrated cupola of the Duomo is fo high, fo much damaged, and my eyes fo indifferent, that I leave it for thofe who have better. At St. Sepolcro, St. Jofeph gathering palms, &c. by the fame great hand. There are works by him alfo in the church of St. John, but not equally beautiful, and a copy of his famous Notte. At the academy is a fine adoration, by Mazzola. The great theatre here is the largefl in the world. In the afternoon to the citadel; but its governor. Count Rezzonico, to whom I had a letter, is abfent from Parma. Then to the celebrated reale typograjia of Signore Bodoni, who fhewed me many works of lingular beauty. The types, I think, exceed thofe of Didot at Paris, who often crowds the letters clofe, as if to fave paper. The Daphne and Chloe, and the Amynta, are beautifully executed; I bought the latter, as a fpecimen of this celebrated prefs, which really does honour to Italy. Signore Bodoni had the title of the printer to the King of Spain, but never received any falary or even gratification, as 1 learned in Parma from another quarter ; where I was alfo informed, that the falary he has from the Duke is only 150 zechms» His merit is great and diflinguifhed, and his exertions are uncommon. He has 30,000 matrices of type. I was not a little pleafed to find, that he has met with the belt fort of patron, in Mr. Edwards, the bookfeller, at Lon- don, who has made a contract with him for an impreflion of two hundred and fifty of four Greek poets, four L^tin, and four Italian ones — Pindar, Sophocles, Homer, and Theocritus; Horace, Virgil, Lucretius, and Plautus; Dante, Petrarca, Arioflo, and Taffo. In fearching bookfellers fliops for printed PAR M A. 26 5 printed agriculture, I became poffefled of a book which I confider as a real curiofity — Diario di Colorno per T anno 1789, preceded by a lermon, on this text, Ut feduftores ct veraces; Corinth, cap. vi. ver. 8. The diary is a catalogue of faints, with the chief circumftances of their lives, their merits, 6cc. This book, which is put together in the fpirit of the tenth century, is (marvelloufly be it fpoken !) the production of the Duke of Parma’s pen. The lovereign, for whofe education a conflellation of French talents was collected — with what effeCt, let this production witnefs. Inftead of profanely turning friars out of their convents this prince has peopled his palace with monks: and the holy office of inquifition is found at Parma, infiead of an academy of agriculture. 1 he duchefs has her amuiements, as well as her hufband : doubtlefs they are more agreeable, and more in unifon with the character and practice of this age. The memoirs of the court of Parma, both during the reigns of Don Philip and the prefent duke, whenever they are publifhed, for written- 1 fhould fuppofe they mull be, will make a romance as interefting as any that fiction has pro- duced. If I lived under a government that had the power of fleecing me, to Support the extravagancies of a prince, in the name of common feelings, let it be to fill a palace with miftrefles, rather than with monks. For half a million of French livres, the river Parma might be made navigable from the Po; it has been more than once mentioned; but the prefent duke has other and more holy employments for money: Don Philip’s were not fo direCtly aimed at the gates of Paradile. Fne 10th. In the morning, walked with Signore Amoretti to Vicomero, feven miles north of Parma towards the Po, the feat of the Count de Schaflie- natti. For half the way, we had a fine clear frofly fun-fhine, which (hewed us the conflant fog that hangs over the Po; but a flight breeze from the north rifing, it drove this fog over us, and changed the day at once. It rarely quits the Po, except in the heat of the day in fine weather in fummer, fo that when you are to the fouth of it, with a clear view of the Appenines, you fee nothing of the Alps: and when to the north of it, with a fine view of the latter, you fee nothing of the Appenines. Commonly it does not l'pread more than half a mile on each fide wider than the river, but varies, by wind, as it did to-day. I he country, for four miles, is mofily meadow, and much of it watered ; but then becomes arable. Entered the houfe of a metayer , to fee the method of living, but found nobody ; the whole family, with fix or eight women and children, their neighbours, were in the liable, fitting on forms fronting each other in two lines, on a fpace paved and clean, in the middle of the room, be- tween two rows of oxen and cows : it was rnofl aifagreeably hot on entering. They flay there till they go to bed, fometimes till midnight. This practice is univerfal in Lombardy. Dine with the Count de Schaffienatti, who lives en- M m tirely z66 PIACENZA. tirely in the country, with his wife. He (hewed me his farm, and I examined his dairy, where cheefes are made nearly in the fame way, and with the fame implements as in the Lodefan ; thefe cheefes may therefore, with as much pro- priety, be called Parmefan, as thofe that come from Lodi. My friend, the Abbate Amoretti, having other engagements in this country, I here took leave of him with regret. 14 miles. The 1 ith. Having agreed with a vetturino to take me to Turin, and he not being able to procure another paflenger, I went alone to Firenzola. It is fine fun-fhine weather, decifively warmer than ever felt in England at this feafon: a (harp froft, without affe&ing the extremities as with us, where cold fingers and toes may be darted among the nuifances of our climate. I walked molt of the way. The face of the country is the fame as before, but vines decreafe af- ter Borgo St. Donnino. An inequality in the furface of the country begins alfo to appear, and every where a fcattering of oak-timber, which is a new feature. 20 miles. The 12th. Early in the morning to Piacenza, that I might have time to view that city, which, however, contains little worthy of attention. The country changed a good deal to-day. It is like the flat rich parts of Eflex and Suffolk. Houfes are thinner, and the general face inferior. The inequalities which began yeflerday increafe. — The two equeftrian rtatues of Alexander and Rannutio Farnefe, are finely exp re {five of life; the motion of the horfes, parti- cularly that of Alexander’s, is admirable; and the whole performance fpirited and alive. They are by John of Bologna, or Moca his eleve. Sleep at Cartel St. Giovanne. 26 miles. The 1 3th. Crofs a brook, two miles dirtant, and enter the King of Sardinia’s territory, where the fculls of two robbers, who, about two months ago, robbed the courier of Rome, are immediately feen : this is an agreeable object, that rtrikes us at our entrance into any part of the Piedmontefe dominions; the inha- bitants having in this refpedt an ill reputation throughout all Italy, much to the difgrace of the government. The country, to Tortona, is all hill and dale; and being cultivated, with an intermixture of vines, and much inclofed, with many buildings on the hills, the features are fo agreeable, that it may be ranked among the moft pleafing I have feen in Italy. Within three miles of V ogher?-, all is white with fnow, the firft I have feen in the plain; but as we approach the mountains, (hall quit it no more till the Alps are eroded. Dine at V oghera, in a room in which the chimney does not fmoke ; which ought to be noted, as it is the only one free from it fince I left Bologna. At this freezing feafon, to have a door conrtantly open to aid the chimney in its office; one fide burnt by the blaze of a faggot, and the other frozen by a door that opens into the yard, are among the agreinens of a wdnter journey in lat. 45. After Voghera, tne ASTI. TURIN. 267 hills trend more to the fouth. The fun fetting here is a fmgular objed: to an eye ufed only to plains. The Alps not being vifible, it feems to fit long before it reaches the plane of the horizon. Pals the citadel of Tortona on a hill, one of the ftrongeft places in the pofleffion of the King of Sardinia.- 33 miles. The 14th. Ford the Scrivia ; it is as ravaging a ftream as the Trebbia, fub- jed to dreadful floods, after even two days rain ; efpecially if a Scirocco wind melts the fnow on the Appenines : fuch accidents have often kept travellers four, five, and even fix days at miferable inns. I felt myfelf lighter for the having palled it; for there were not fewer than fix or feven rivers, which could have thus flopped me. This is the lafl. The weather continues fharp and frofly, very cold, the ice five inches thick, and the fnow deep. Dine at Alexandria, joined there by a gentleman who has taken the other feat in the vet turn to Turin. Juft on the outfide of that town, there is an uncommon covered bridge. I he citadel feems furrounded with many works. Sleep at Fellifham, a vile dirty hole, with paper windows, common in this country, and not uncommon even in Alexandria itlelf. 18 miles. The 15th. The country, to Afti and Villanova, all hilly, and fome of it plealing. Coming out of Afti, where we dined, the country for fome miles is beautiful. My vetturmo has been travelling, in company with another, with- out my knowing any thing of the mafter till to-day; but we joined at dinner; and I found him a very fenfible agreeable Frenchman, apparently a man of fafhion, who knows every body. Flis converfation, both at dinner, and in the evening, was no inconliderable relief to the dullnefs of fuch a frozen journey. His name Nicolay.- 22 miles. The 1 6th. To Turin, by Moncallier; much of the country dull and dif- agreeable; hills without landfcape ; and vales without the fertility of Lombardy. — My companion, who is in office as an architect to the King, as well as I could gather from the hints he dropped, lived nine years in Sardinia. The account he gives of that ifland, contains fome circumftances worth noting. What keeps it in its prefent unimproved fituation, is chiefly the extent of eftates, the abfence ot fome very great proprietors, and the inattention of all. The Duke of Affinara has 300,000 liv. a-year, or 15,0001. fterling. The Duke of St. Piera 160,000. The Marchefe di Pafcha, very great. Many of them live in Spain. The Conte de Girah, a grandee of Spain, has an eftate of two days journey, reaching from Poula to Oliuftre. The peafants ure a miferable fet, that live in poor cabins, without other chimnies than a hole in the roof to let the fmoke out. The in- iernperia is frequent and pernicious every where in fummer; yet there are very great mountains. Cattle have nothing to eat in winter, but brouzing on ftirubs, &c. There are no wolves. The oil fo bad as not to be eatable. Some M m 2 wme s>68 TURIN. wine almoft as good as Malaga, and not unlike it. No filk. The great export is wheat, which has been known to yield forty for one ; but feven or eight for one is the common produce. Bread, i f. the pound ; beef, 2 f; mutton, 2 ~J\ There are millions of wild ducks ; fuch numbers, that perfons fond of fhooting have gone thither merely for the incredible fport they afford. The 17th. Waited on our ambaffador, the Honourable Mr. Trevor, who was not at home ; but I had an invitation to dinner foon after, which I accepted readily, and paffed a very pleafant day. Mr. Trevor’s dtuation is not compa- tible with his being a practical farmer ; but he is a man of deep fenfe, and much obfervation; all fuch are political farmers, from conviction of the im- portance of the fubjeCt. He converfes well on it ; Mr. Trevor mentioned fome Piedmontefe nobles, to whom he would have introduced me, if my day had been long enough ; but he would not admit an excufe refpeCting the Portugueze ambaffador, of whom he fpeaks as a perfon remarkably well informed ; and who loves agriculture greatly. In the evening, accompanied Mrs. Trevor to the great opera-houfe; arehearfal oi i' Olympiad e, new-let by a young compofer, Fredericij Marchele fung. The 1 8 th. I am not a little obliged to Mr. Trevor for introducing me to one of the bed informed men I have any where met with, Don Roderigo de Souza Continho, the Portugueze minider at the court of Turin, with whom I dined to-day he had invited to meet me the Medico Bonvicino, l’Abbatte Vafco, author of feveral political pieces of merit, and Signore Bellardi, a botanid of conliderable reputation, whom I had known before at Turin. What the young and beautiful Madame de Souza thinks of an Englilh farmer, may be ealily gueffed ; for not one word was fpoken in an inced'ant converfation, but on agriculture, or thole political principles which tend to cherilh or redrain it. To a woman of falhion in England this would not appear extraordinary, for die nowand then meets with it * but to a young Piedmontefe, unaccudomed to fuch converfations, it mud have appeared odd, uninviting, andunpolite. M. de Souza lent to the late Prince of Brazil, one of the bed and mod judicious offer- ings that any ambaffador ever made to his fovereign ; Portugal he reprefents as a country capable of vad improvements by irrigation, but almod an entire dranger to the practice ; therefore, with a view of introducing a knowledge of its importance, he ordered a model, in different woods, to be cor.hruCted of a river ; the method of taking water from it ; and the conducting of it by various channels over the adjoining or didant lands, with all the machinery ufed for regulating and meafuring the water. It was made on fuch a dale, that the model was an exhibition of the art, fo far as it could be reprefen ted. in the didri- bution of water. It was an admirable thought, and might have proved of the greateft importance to his country. This machine is at Lilbon - f and, I take it for TURIN. 269 for granted, is there confidered (if Lifbon be like other courts) as a toy for children to look at, inftead of a fchool for the inftrudtion of a people. I was pleafed to find the Portugueze minifter among the moft intimate acquaintances of Mr. Trevor ; the friendship of men of parts and knowledge, does them reci- procal honour : I am forry to quit Turin, juft as I am known to two men who would be fufficient to render any town agreeable ; nor Should I be forry if Don Roderigo was a farmer near me in Suffolk, inftead of being an ambafiador at Turin, for which he is doubtlefs much obliged to me. The 1 9th. The King has fent a meflage to the Academy of Sciences, recom- mending them to pay attention to whatever concerns dying. The minifter is faid to be a man of abilities, from which expreftion, in this age, we are to un- derstand, a perfon who is, or feems to be active for the encouragement of ma- nufactures and commerce, but never one who has juft ideas on the importance of agriculture in preference to all other objects. To multiply mulberries in Piedmont, and cattle and Sheep in Savoy — to do Something with the fertile waftes and peftiferous marfhes of Sardinia, would give a minifter reputation among the few real politicians only in any country : but dying, and buttons and fciSTars, and commerce, are calculated to pleafe the many, and confequently to give reputation to thofe who build on fuch foundations. Dine with Mr. Trevor, and continue to find in him an equal ability and inclination to anfwer fuch of my enquiries as I took the liberty of troubling him with. In the even- ing he introduced me to Count Granari, the fecretary of ftate for home affairs, that is the prime minifter, under an idea that he had an intention of introducing SpaniSh Sheep : lie was ambafiador in Spain, and feems, from his convention, well informed concerning the Spanifh flocks. This minifter was called home to fill his prefent important fituation, to the fatisfa&ion of the people, who have very generally a good opinion of his ability and prudence. To-morrow I leave Turin: I have agreed with a veitunno for carrying me to Lyons acrofs Mont Cenis, in a chariot, and allowed him to take another perfon ; this perfon he has found; and it is Mr. Grundy, a confl.derab.le merchant of Birmingham, who is on his return from Naples. The 20th. Leave Turin ; dine at St. Anthony, like hogs ; and ‘Smoked all the dinner like hams. Sleep at Suza, a better inn. 3 2 miles. The 2 1 ft. The Shorteft day in the year, for one of the expeditions that de- mand the longeft, the pafiage of Mont Cenis, about which fo much has been written. To thofe who, from reading, are full of expectation of fome thing very Sublime, it is almoft as great a delufion as to be met with in the regions of romance : if travellers are to be believed, the defcent, rammajjant on the fnow, is made with the velocity of a flafh of lightning; I was not fortunate enough to * See Milan. meet CROSS THE ALPS. 270 meet with any thing fo wonderful. At the grande croix we feated ourfeives in machines of four dicks, dignified with the name of traineau : a mule draws it, and a condu&or, who walks between the machine ‘and the animal, ferves chiefly to kick the fnow into the face of the rider. When arrived at the pre- cipice, which leads down to Lanebourg, the mule is difmified, and the ram- mafjing begins. The weight of two perfons, the guide feating himfelf in the front, and direding it with his heels in the fnow, ■ is fuflicient to give it motion. For mod of the way he is content to follow very humbly the path of the mules, but now and then erodes to efcape a double, and in fuch fpots the motion is rapid enough, for a few feconds, to be agreeable ; they might very eafily diorten the line one half, and by that method gratify the Englifli with the velo- city they admire fo much. As it is at prefent, a good Englifli horfe would trot as fad as we ramniafj'ed . The exaggerations we have read of this bufinefs have arifen, perhaps, from travellers pafling in dimmer, and relying on the deferip- tions of the muleteers. A journey on fnow is commonly produdive of laugh- able incidents; the road of the traineau is not wider than the machine, and we were always meeting mules, &c. It was fometimes, and with reafon, a quef- tion wdio fliould turn out ; for the fnow being ten feet deep, the mules had fagacity to confider a moment before they buried themfelves. A young Savoyard female, riding her mule, experienced a complete reverfal ; for, attempt- ing to pals my traineau , her bead was a little redive, and tumbling, difmounted his rider: the girl’s head pitched in the fnow, and funk deep enough to fix her beauties in the pofition of a forked pod ; and the wicked muleteers, indead of afliding her, laughed too heartily to move : if it had been one of the ballerina, the attitude would not have been didrefling to her. Thefe laughable adven- tures, with the gilding of a bright fun, made the day pals pleafantly; and we Were in good humour enough to fwallow with chearfulnefs, a dinner at Lane- bourg, that, had we been in England, we fliould have configned very readily to the dog-kennel. 20 miles. The 2 2d. The whole day we were among the high Alps. The villages are apparently poor, the houfes ill built, and the people with few comforts about them, except plenty of pine wood, the foreds of which harbour wolves and bears. Dine at Modane, and fleep at St. Michel. — — 25 miles. The 23d. Pafs St. Jean Maurienne, where there is a bifhop, and near that place we faw what is much better than a bifhop, the prettied, and indeed the only pretty woman we faw in Savoy ; on enquiry, found it was Madame de la Code, wife of a farmer of tobacco ; I fliould have been better pleafed if die had belonged to the plough. — The mountains now relax their terrific features : they recede enough, to offer to the willing induflry of the poor inhabitants fomething like a valley; but the jealous torrent feizes it with the hand of defpotifm, and. CHAMBER Y. 271 like his brother tyrants, reigns but to deftroy. On fome dopes vines : mulber- ries begin to appear ; villages increafe ; but ttill continue rather fhapelefs heaps of inhabited ftones than ranges of houfes ; yet in thefe homely cots, beneath the fnow-clad hills, where natural light comes with tardy beams, and art feems more fedulous to exclude than admit it, peace and content, the companions of honefty, may refide ; and certainly would, were the penury of nature the only evil felt ; but the hand of defpotifm may be more heavy. In feveral places the view is pidturefque and plealing : inclofures feem hung againft the mountain hides, as a pidture is fufpended to the wall of a room. The people are in general exceedingly ugly and dwarfifh. Dine at La Chambre ; fad fare. Sleep at Aguebelle. * 30 miles. The 24th. The country to-day, that is, to Chambery, improves greatly » the mountains, though high, recede; the vail ies are wide, and the dopes more cultivated ; and towards the capital of Savoy, are many country houfes which enliven the fcene. Above iVlal Taverne is Chateauneuf, the houfe of the countefs of that name. I was lorry to fee, at the vilage, a carcan, or feigneu- ral ftandard, eredted, to which a chain and heavy iron collar are fattened, as a mark of the lordly arrogance of the nobility, and the davery of the people. I aiked why it was not burned, with the horror it merited ? The quettion did not excite the furprize I expedted, and which it would have done before the French revolution. This led to a converfation, by which I learned, that in the haut Savoy, there are no feigneurs, and the people are generally at their eafe; pof- fefling little properties, and the land in fpite of nature, almoft as valuable as in the lower country, where the people are poor, and ill at their eafe. I demanded why ? Becaufe there are feigneurs every where. What a vice is it, and even a curfe, that the gentry, inftead of being the cherilhers and benefadtors of their poor neighbours, fhould thus, by the abomination of feudal rights, prove mere tyrants ? Will nothing but revolutions, which caufe their chateaux to be burnt, induce them to give to reafon and humanity, wliat will be extorted by violence and commotion ? We had arranged our journey, to arrive early at Chambery, for an opportunity to fee what is moft interefting in a place that has but little. It is the winter refidence of almott all the nobility of Savoy. The beft ettate in the duchy is not more than 60,000 Piedrnontefe livres a year (3000I.), but for 20,000 liv. they live en gr and Jeigtieur here. If a country gentleman have 1 co louis dor a year, he will be fure to fpend three months in a town; the conse- quence of which mutt be, nine uncomfortable ones in the country, in order to make a beggarly figure the other three in town. Thefe idle people are this Chrittmas difappointed, by the court having refuted admittance to the ufual company of French comedians the government fears, importing among the rough mountaineers the prefent fpirit of French liberty. Is this weaknefs or policy X a7 ' a c H A M B E R Y, policy ? But Chambery had objects to me more iritereftirig. I was eager to view Charmettes, the road, the houie of Madame de Vv aiens, the vineyard, the warden, every thing, in a word, that haci been defcnbed by the inimitable pe nc ll of Roulicau. There was iomethmg fo delicioufly amiable in her charadter, in fpite of her frailties — her conftarit gaiety and good humour— her tendernefs and humanity — her farming ijpeculations — but, aoove all other cncumftances, tne love of Rouffeau, have written Her name among it the few whofe memoirs are connected with us, by tics mote eafiiy felt than defcnbed. The houfe is fitu- ated about a mile from Chambery, fronting the rocky road which leads to that city, and the wood or chei.iuts in the valley. It is fmali, and much of the fame fize as we fhould fuppoie, in England, would be found on a farm of one hundred acres, without the leaft luxury or pretention % and the garden, for fhrubs and flowers, is confined, as well as unafluming. The fcenery is pieafmg, being fo near a city, and yet, as he oblerves, quite lequeftered. It could not but inte- reft me, and I viewed it with a degree of emotion ; even in the leaflets melan- choly of December it pleafed. I wandered about fome hills, which were af- fu redly the walks he has fo agreeably defcribed. I returned to Chambery, with my heart full of Madame de Warens. We had with us a young phy- tic ian, a Monlieur Bernard, of Modanne en Maurienne, an agreeable man, connected with people at Chambery - y I was iorry to find, that he knew nothing more of the matter, than that Madame de Warens was certainly dead. With fome trouble I procured the following certificate : Extract from the Mortuary Regijter oj the Parijh Church of St. Peter de Lemcns. « xho 30th of July, 1762, was buried, in the burying ground of Lemens, Dame Louila Frances Eleonor de ia Tour, widow of the Seignor Baron de Wa- rens, native of Vevay, in the canton of Berne, in Switzerland, who died yefter- d w at ten in the evening, like a good Chriftian, and fortified with hei laft facia-? ments, aged about iixty- three years. She abjured the Proteftant religion about thirty-fix years pad ; iince which time lhe lived in our religion. She fimQied her days in the fuburb of Nefin, where '(he had lived for about eight years, in the houfe of M. Crepine. She lived hereto! ore at the Redtus, about four years, in the houfe of the Marquis d’Alinge. She palled the reft of her life, tince her abjuration, m this city. (Signed) ' Ga ime, rector of Lemens.” n the underwritten, preient redtor of the laid Lemens, ceitiry, that I have extraded this from the mortuary regifter of the parilh church of the faid place, without any addition or diminution whatfoever j and, having collated it, have found it conformable to the original. In witnefs of all which, I have figne the prefent at Chambery, the 24th of December, 1789. t> (Signed) A. Sachod, redtor of Lemens. The 23 miles. VERPILIERE. i7J rke 25th. Leit Chambery much d i Satisfied, for want of knowing more of it. Roufleau gives a good character * of the people, and I wifhcd to know them better. It was the world day I have known, for months part, a cold thaw, of fnow and rain ; and yet in this dreary feafon, when nature fo rarely has a fmile on her countenance, the environs were charming. All hill and dale, tolled about with fo much wildnefs, that the features are bold enough for thekreou- larity of a forefl fcene ; and yet withal, foftened and melted* down by cukure and habitation, to be eminently beautiful. The country inclofed to the fir ft town in France, Pont Beauvoilin, where we dined and flept. The palfa^e of Echelles, cut in the rock by the fovereign of the country, is a noble and ftupen- dous work. Arrive at Pont Beauvoilin, once more entering this noble kingdom, and meeting with the cockades of liberty, and thofe arms in the hands of the people, which, it is to be wifhed, may be ufed only for their own and Europe’s peace. 24 miles. 1 The 26th. Dine at Tour du Pin, and deep at Verpiliere. This is the moil advantageous entrance into France, in refpedt of beauty of country. From Spain, England, Flanders, Germany, or Italy by way of Antibes, all are inferior to tins. It is really beautiful, and well planted, has many inclofures and mulber- ries, with fame vines. There is hardly a bad feature, except the houfes ; which, in (lead of being well built, and white as in Italy, are ugly thatched mud cabins, without chimnies, the fmoke bluing at a hole in the roof, or at the windows. . Glafs feems unknow - and there is an air of poverty and mifery about them quite dbfonant to the general afpedl of the country. Pafs Bounmyn a large town. Reach Verpiliere. This day’s journey is a fine variation of hill and daie, well planted witn chateaux , and farms and cottages fpread about it. A mild lovely day of fun-fhine threw no flight gilding over the whole. For ten or twelve days paft, they have had, on this fide of the Alps, fine open warm weather, with fun-fhine ; but on the Alps themfelves, and in the vale of Lombardy, on the other fide, we were frozen and buried in fnow. At Pont Beauvoifin and Bourvoyn, oar paffports were demanded by the mthce bourgeotfe , but no where elfe : they af- fure us, that the country is perfectly quiet every where, and have no guards mount- ed in the villages— nor any fufpicicns of fugitives, as in the fummer. Not far from Verpiliere, pafs tne burnt chateau of M. de Veau, in a fine fituation, with a noble wood behind it. Mr. Grundy was here in Augufl, and it had then but lately been laid in afhes ; and a peafant was hanging on one of the trees of the avenue by the road, one among many who were feized by the milice bourgeoife for this atrocious aft.- 27 miles. J furVeft Chambery ke ^ ™ ^ ^ h douc2ur de la vle dans un commerce agreable & Nn The 274 LYONS. The 27th. The country changes at once; from one of the fine ft in Fiance, it becomes almoft flat and fombre . Arrive at Lyons, and there, for the laft time, lee the Alps; on the quay there is a very fine view of Mont Blanc, which I had not feen before ; leaving Italy, and Savoy, and the Alps, probably never to return, has fomething of a melancholy fenfation. For all thofe circumftances which render that claffical country illuftrious— the feat of great men— the theatre of the moft diftingufthed adieus— the exclufive field in which the elegant and agreeable arts have loved to range— what country can be compared with Italy ? to pleafe the eye, to charm the ear, to gratify the enquiries of a laud a ole curio fity, whither would you travel ? In every bofom whatever, ta y is me fecond country in the world-of all others, the fureft proof that it is the firft To the theatre ; a mufical thing, which called all Italy by contraft to my ears ! What fluff is French mufic ! the diftortions of embodied difonanee. 1 he- theatre is not equal to that of Nantes ; and very much inferior to that of The 28th. I had letters to Monf. Goudard, a considerable filk meichan., and, waiting on him yefterday, lie appointed me to breakfaft with him this morn- ing. I tried hard to procure fome information relative to toe manufaftmes Oi Lyons , but in vain ; every thing was felon and furvant. To Monf. Abbe Rozier, author of the voluminous diitionary of agriculture, in quarto. vi ited. him as a man very much extolled, and not with an idea of receiving information in the plain practical line, which is the objeft of my enquiries, from me com- piler of a didionary. When Monf. Rozier lived at Beziers, he occupied a coniiderable farm ; but, on becoming the inhabitant of a city, he placed this motto over his door —Laudato ingentia rura , exiguum cohto, which is but a bad apology for no farm at alL I made one or two efforts towards a little pratfi-.. cal converfation ; but he flew off from that centre in fuch eccentric radii of fcience, that the vanity of the attempt was obvious in a moment, A pny- iician prefen t, remarked to me, that if I wanted to know common practices and produdts, I Ihould apply to common farmers, indicating by his air and manner,, that fuch things were beneath the dignity of fcience. Monf. i Abbe Rozier is,, however, a man of confiderable knowledge, though no farmer; m thofe purfuits, which he has cultivated with inclination, he is juftly celebrated and he men s every eulogium, for having fet on foot the Journal de Pbyfique, which, take it for all and all, is by far the beft journal that is to be found m Europe. His houfe is beautifully fituated, commanding a noble profpe#; his library is furnulied wi a good books ; and every appearance about him points out an eafy fortune. Waited, then on Monf. de Froffard, a proteftant minifter, who with great readinefs and liberality, gave me much valuable information; and, for my further mftru ion on points with which he was not equally acquainted, introduced me LYONS. 275 Roland la Platsrie, infpeCtor of the Lyons fabrics. This gentleman had notes upon many fiibjeCts, which afforded an interefring converfation ; and, as he com- municated freely, I had the pleafure to find, that I fhould not quit Lyons without a good portion of the knowledge I fought. This gentleman, fomewhat advanced in life, has a young and beautiful wife- — the lady to whom he add relied his letters, written in Italy, and which have been published in five or fix volumes. Monf. Frofiard defiring Monf. de la Platerie to dine with him, to meet me, we had a great deal of converfation on agriculture, manufactures, and commerce ; and differed but little in our opinions, except on the treaty of commerce between England and France, which that gentleman condemned, as I thought, unjuflly ; and we debated the point. Pie warmly contended, that filk ought to have been included as a benefit to France; I urged, that the offgr was made to the French miniflry, and refufed ; and I ventured to fay, that had it been accepted, the advantage would have been on the fide of England, inflead of France, fuppofing, according to the vulgar ideas, that the benefit and the balance of trade are the fame things. I begged him to give me a reafon for believing that France would buy the filk of Piedmont and of China, and work it up to underfell England ; while England buys the French cotton, and works it into fabrics that underfell thofe of France, even under an accumulation of charges and duties ? We difcuffed thefe, and fimilar fubjeCts, with that fort of attention and candour that render them in- tereffing to perfons who love a liberal converfation upon important points. — Among the objects at Lyons, that are worthy of a ftranger’s curiofity, is the point of junction of the two great rivers, the Soanne and the Rhone; Lyons would doubtlefs be much better fituated, if it were really at the junction ; but there is an unoccupied fpace fuflicient to contain a city half as large as Lyons itfelf. This fpace is a modern embankment, that coil fix millions, and ruined the undertakers. I prefer even Nantes to Lyons. When a city is built at the junction of two great rivers, the imagination is apt to fuppofe, that thofe rivers form a part of the magnificence of the fcenery. Without broad, clean, and well built quays, what are rivers to a city but a facility to carry coals or tar-barrels ? What, in point of beauty, has London to do with the Thames, except at the terrace of the Adelphi, and the new buildings of Somerfet-place, any more than with Fleet-ditch, buried as it is, a common fhore ? I know nothing in which our expectations are fb horribly difappointed as in cities, fo very few are built with any general idea of beauty or decoration ! The 29th. Early in the morning, with Monf. Froffard, to view a large farm near Lyons. Monf. Frofiard is a ffeady advocate for the new conflitution efla- blifhing in France. At the fame time, all thofe I have converfed with in the city, reprefent the Rate of the manufacture as melancnoly to the laft degree. T wenty thoufand people are fed by charity, and confequently very ill fed ; and N n 2 the T A R A R, ■NEVERS, 276 the mafs of diflrefs, in all kinds, among the lower claffes, is greater than ever was known — or than any thing of which they had an idea. The chief caufe of the evil felt here, is the ffagnation of trade, occafioned by the emigrations of the rich from the kingdom, and the general want of confidence in merchants and manufacturers; whence, of courfe, bankruptcies are common. At a mo- ment when they are little able to bear additional burthens, they raife by volun- tary contributions, for the poor, immenfe fums ; fo that including the reve- venues of the hofpitals, and other charitable foundations, there are not paid, at prefent, fcr the ufe of the poor, Ids than 40,000 louis d’or a year. My fellow traveller, Mr. Grundy, being defirous to get foon to Paris, perfuaded me to travel with him in a poft-chaife, a mode of travelling which I detefl, but the feafon urged me to it ; and a fiill ftronger motive, was the having of more time to pafs in that city, for the fake of obferving the extraordinary date of things — of a King, Queen, and Dauphin of France, adtual prifoners ; I therefore accepted his propofal, and w r e fet off after dinner to-day. In about ten miles come to the mountains. The country dreary ; no inclofures, no mulberries, no vines, much walte, and nothing that indicates the vicinity of fuch a city. At Arnas, ileep at a comfortable inn. 17 miles. The 30th. Continue early in the morning to Tarar ; the mountain of which name is more formidable in reputation than in reality. To St. Syphorien the fame features. The buildings increafe, both in number and goodnefs, on ap- proaching the Seine, which we croffed at Roane ; it is here a good river, and is navigable many miles higher, and confequently at a vail: diflance from the fea* There are many flat bottomed barges on it, of a confiderabe fize. 50 miles. The 3 iff. Another clear, fine, fun-fhine day; rarely do we fee any thing like it at this feafon in England. After Droiturier, the woods of the Bourbon- ncis commence. At St. Gerund le Puy the country improves, enlivened by white houfes and chateaux , and all continues fine to Moulins. Sought here my old friend, Monf. L’Abbe Barut, and had another interview with Monf. le Mar- quis Degouttes, concerning the fale of his chateau and effate of Riaux ; I de- fired Chill to have the refufal of it, which he promifed me, and will, I have no doubt, keep his word. Never have I been fo tempted on any occafion, as with the with of poffeffing this agreeable fituation, in one of the fineft parts of France, and in the fineft climate of Europe. God grant, that, fhould he be pleafed to protradt my life, I may not, in a fad old age, repent at not clofing of once with an offer to which prudence calls, and prejudice only forbids ! Heaven fend me cafe and tranquillity, for the clofe of life, be it palled either in Suffolk, or the Bourbonnois ! 38 miles. January i, T790. Nevers makes a fine appearance, riling proudly from the Loire ; but, on the firft entrance/ it is like a thoufand other places. Towns, thus PARIS. ^77 thus feen, refemble a groupe of women, huddled clofe together : you fee their nodding plumes and fparkling gems, till you fancy that ornament is the herald of beauty ; but, on a nearer infpedlion, the faces are too often but common clay. From the hill that defcends to Pougues, is an extenfive view to the north ; and after Pouilly a fmefcenery, with the Loire doubling through it. 75 miles. The 2d. At Briare, the canal is an objedt that announces the happy effedts of induRry. There we quit the Loire. The country all the way diverfifedj much of it dry, and very pleafant, with rivers, hills, and woods, but almoR every where a poor foil. Pafs many chateaux , fome of which are very good. Sleep at Nemours, where we met wdth an inn-keeper, who exceeded, in knavery, all we had met with, either in France or Italy : for fupper, we a had foupe maigre , a partridge and a chicken roafted, a plate of celery, a fmall cauliflower, two bottles of poor ran du Pays , and a delfert of two bifcuits and four apples : here is the bill: — Potage r liv. 10 f — Perdrix, 2 liv. lof. Poulet, 2 liv. — Ceieri, 1 liv. yf. — Choufleur, 2 liv. — Pain et deffert, 2 liv.- — Feu & aparte- ment, 6 liv. — Total, 19 liv. 8/1 Again R fo impudent an extortion we remon- Rrated feverely, but in. vain. We then inf Red on his figning the bill, which, after many evafions, he did, a Petoile ; Foulliare. But having been carried to the inn, not as the Rar, but the ecu de France , we fufpe&ed fome deceit ; and. going out to examine the premifes, we found the fign to be really the ecu, and learned, on enquiry, that his own name was Roux , inRead of Foulliare : he was not prepared for this detection, or for the execration we poured on fuch an infa- mous condudt ; but he ran away in an inRant, and hid himfelf till we were gone. In juRice to the world, however, fuch a fellow ought to be marked out -60 miles. The 3d. Through the foreR of Fontainbleau, to Melun and Paris. The' f xty pojies from Lyons to Paris, making three hundred Englifh miles, coR us, including 3 louis for the hire of the poR-chaife (an old French cabriolet of two wheels) and the charges at the inns, See. 15I, Englifh ; that is to fay, is. per Englifh mile, or 6d. per head. At Paris, I went to my old quarter, the hotel de La Rochefoucauld ; for at Lyons I had received a letter from the duke de Liancourt, who defired me to make his houfe my home, juR as in the time of his mother, my much lamented friend, the duchefs d’E Riffic, who died while I was in Italy. I found my friend Lazowfki well, and we were d gorge deploy ee, to converfe on the amazing feenes that have taken place in France f nee I left Paris' 46 miles. The 4th. After breakfaR, walk in the gardes of the Thuilleries, where there is the moR extraordinary fight that either French or Englifh eyes could ever be- hold at Paris. The King, walking with fix grenadiers of the milic e hour geoife, with an officer or two of his houfehold, and a page. The doors of the garden s are P A R I S, 2.7S are kept (hut in refpect to kirn, in order to exclude every body but deputies, or thole who have admifiion- tickets. When he entered the palace, the doors of the gardens were thrown' open for all without diffinCtion, though the Queen was if ill walking with a lady of her court. She alfo was attended fo clofely by the gardes bonrgeoifes , that the could not fpeak, but in a low voice, without being heard by them. A mob followed her, talking very loud, and paying no other apparent refpedt than that of taking off their hats wherever the palled, which was indeed more than I expected. Her majeffy does not ap- pear to be in health; the teems to be much affedted, and thews it in her face ; but the King is as plump as eale can render him. Ey his orders, there is a little garden railed off, for the Dauphin to amufe himfelf in, and a fmall room is built in it to retire to in cafe of rain ; here he was at work with his little hoe and rake, but not without a guard of two grenadiers. Pie is a very pretty good-natured looking boy, of five or fix years old, with an agreeable countenance ; wherever he goes, all hats are taken off to him, which I was glad to obferve. All the family being kept thus clofe prifoners (for fuch they are in effedt) afford, at firff view, a fhocking fpedtacle ; and is really fo, if the add were not effedtually neceffary to effedt the revolution ; this I conceive to be impoffible ; but if it were neceflary, no one can blame the people for taking every meafure poffible to fecure that liberty they had feized in the violence of a revolution. At fuch a moment, nothing is to be condemned but what endan- gers the national freedom. I muft, however, freely own, that I have my doubts whether this treatment of the royal family can be jufdly effeemed any fecurity to liberty ; or, on the contrary, whether it were not a very dangerous Hep, that expofes to hazard whatever had been gained. I have fpoken with feveral perfons to-day, and have Hated objections to the prefen t fyHem, flronger even than they appear to me, in order to learn their fentiments ; and it is evident, they are at the prefen t moment under an apprehenfion of an attempt towards a counter revolution. The danger of it very much, if not abfolutely, refults from the violence which has been ufed towards the royal family. The National Affem- bly was, before that period, anf\verable only for the permanent conflitutional laws palled for the future : Hnce that moment, it is equally anfwerable for the whole condudt of the government of the Hate, executive as well as legiflative. This critical Htuation has made, a conHant fpirit of exertion neceffary amongff the Paris militia. The great objed: of M. La Fayette, and the other military leaders, is to improve their difcipline, and to bring them into fuch a form as to allow a rational dependence on them, in cafe of their being wanted in the field ; but fuch is the fpirit of freedom, that, even in the military, there is fo little fubor- dination, that a man is an officer to-day, and in the ranks to-morrow ; a mode of proceeding, that makes it the more difficult to bring them to' the point their leaders PARIS. -79 leaders fee neceffary. Eight thoufand men in Paris may be called the /landing army, paid every day i$f. a man; in which number is included the corps of the French guards from Verfailles, that deferted to the peoples they have alfo eight hundred horfe, at an expence each of 1500 liv. (62I. 15s. 6d.) a-year, and the officers have double the pay of thofe in the army. The 5th. Yefterday’s addrefs of the National Affembly to the King has done them credit with every body. I have heard it mentioned, by people of very different opinions, but all concur in commending it. It was upon the queffion of naming the annual fum which fhould be granted for the civil lift. They determined to fend a deputation to his Majefly, requeuing him to name the fum himfelf, and praying him to confult lefs his fpirit of oeconomy, than a fenfe of that dignity, which ought to environ the throne with a becoming fplen- , dour. Dine with the Duke de Liancourt, at his apartments in the Thuilleries,. which, on the removal from Verfailles, were affigned to him as grand maker of the wardrobe; he gives a great dinner, twice a- week, to the deputies, at* which from twenty to forty are ufually prefent. Half an hour after three was the hour appointed, but we waited, with fome of the deputies that had left the Affembly, till feven, before the duke and the reff of the company came. There is in the Affembly at prefent a writer of character, the author of a very able book, which led me to expedc fome thing much above mediocrity in him; but he is made of fo many pretty littleneffes, that I flared at him with, amaze- ment. His voice is that of a feminine whifper, as if his nerves would net per- , mit fuch a boifterous exertion as that of fpeaking loud enough to be heard; when he "breathes out his ideas, he does it with eyes half clofed; waves his head in circles, as if his fentiments were to be received as oracles; and has fo much relaxation and pretention to eafe and delicacy of manner, with no perfona! ap- pearance to fecond thele prettineffes, that I wondered by what artificial means fuch a mafs of heterogeneous parts became compounded. How ffrange that we fhould read an author’s book with great pleafure; that we fhould fay, this man has no fluff in him;, all is of confequence; here is a character unconta- minated with that rubbijh which we fee in fp many other men — and after this, to meet the garb of fo much littlenefs ! The 6th, 7th, and 8th. The Duke of Liancourt having an intention of tak- ing a farm in his own hands, to be conducted on improved principles, after the Englifh manner, he defired me to accompany him, and my friend Lazowfki, to Liancourt, to give my opinion of the lands, and of the beff means towards exe- cuting the project, which I very readily complied with. I was here witnefs to a icene which made me fmile : at no great diffance from the chateau of Liancourt, is a piece of wafle land, clofe to the road, and belonging to the duke. I faw fpme men very bufy at work upon it, hedging it in, in l'mall divilions ; levelling, and PARIS. and digging, and beRowing much labour for fo poor a fpot. I afked the Rew- ard if he thought that land worth fuch an expence ? He replied, that the poor people in the town, upon the revolution taking place, declared that the poor were the nation ; that the wafle belonged to the nation; and, proceeding from theory to practice, took poffeflion, without any further authority, and began to cultivate; the duke not viewing their induRry with any difpleafure, would offer no opposi- tion to it. This circumftance ffews the univerfal Spirit that is gone forth; and proves, that were it puffed a little farther, it might prove a ferious matter for all the property in the kingdom. In this cafe, however, I cannot but commend it; for if there be one public nuifance greater than another, it is a man preferving the poffeffion of wafle land, which he will neither cultivate himfelf, nor let others cultivate. The miferable people die for want of bread, in the fight of waftes that would feed thoufands. I think them wife, and rational, and philofophical, in feizing fuch tracks.: and I heartily with there was a law in England for mak- ing this addon of the French peafants a legal one with us. 72 miles. The 9th. At breakfafl this morning in the Thuilleries. Monf. Defmarets, of the Academy of Sciences, brought a Memoir e, pre/entee par la Societe Royals dd Agriculture , a /’ Ajfemblee Nat ion ale, on the means of improving the agri- culture of France ; in which, among other things, they recommend great at- tention to bees, to panification, and to the obfletrick art. On the eflabliffment of a free and patriotic government, to which the national agriculture might look for new and halcyon days, thefe were objeds doubtlefs of the firff importance. There are fome parts of the memoir that really merit attention. Called on my fell ow traveller, Monf. Nicolay, and find him a confiderable perfon; a great hotel; many Servants ; his father a marechal of France, and himfflf firfl prefi- dent of a chamber in the parliament of Paris, having been eleded deputy, by the nobility of that city, for the Rates general, but declined accepting it ; he has de fired I would dine with him on Sunday, when he promifes to have Monf. Decretot, the celebrated manufacturer and deputy of Louviers. At the Na- tional ARembly — The Count de Mirabeau, Speaking upon the queRion of the members of the chamber of vacation, in the parliament of Rennes, was truly eloquent — ardent, lively, energetic, and impetuous. At night to the affembly of the Duchefs d’Anville ; the Marquis and Madame Condorcet there, &c. not a word but politics. The 10th. The chief leaders in the National Affembly, are. Target, Cha- pellier, Mirabeau, Bernave, Volney the traveller, and, till the attack upon the property of the clergy, l’Abbe Syeyes ; but he has been 1b much difguRed by that Rep, that he is not near fo forward as before. The violent democrats, who have the reputation of being fo much republican in principle, that they do not admit any political neceffity for having even the name of a king, are called the enrages. PARIS. 2 % I enrages. They have a meeting at the Jacobins, called the revolution club, which alfembles every night, in the very room in which the famous league was formed, in the reign of Henry III. ; and they are fo numerous, that all material bnfinefs is there decided, before it is difculfed by the National Alfembly. I called this morning on feveral perfons, all of whom are great democrats ; and mentioning this circumflance to them, as one which favoured too much of a Paris junto governing the kingdom, an idea, which mud;, in the long run, be unpopular and hazardous; I was anfwered, that the predominancy which Paris affirmed, at prefent, was abfolutely necelfary, for the fafety of the whole nation ; for if nothing were done, but by procuring a previous common confent, all great opportunities would be loll, and the National Alfembly left con flan tly expofed to the danger of a counter-revolution. They, however, admitted, that it did create great jealoufies, and no where more than at Verfailles, where fome plots (they added) are, without doubt, hatching at this moment, which have the King’s perfon for their objedt : riots are frequent there, under pretence of the price of bread; and fuch movements are certainly very dangerous, for they cannot exiil fo near Paris, without the ariflocratical party of the old govern- ment endeavouring to take advantage of them, and to turn them to a very dif- ferent end, from what was, perhaps, originally intended. I remarked, in all thefe conventions, that the belief of plots, among the difgufled party, for fet- ting the King at liberty, is general ; they feem almofl perfuaded, that the revo- lution will not be abfolutely finifhed before fome fuch attempts are made; and it is curious to obferve, that the general voice is, that if an attempt were to be made, in fuch a manner as to have the leafl appearance of fuccefs, it would undoubtedly cofl the King his life; and fo changed is the national charadier, not only in point of affedtion for the perfon of their prince, but alfo in that foftneis and humanity, for which it has been fo much admired, that the fuppofition is made without horror or compundlion. In a word, the prefent devotion to li- berty is a fort of rage; it abforbs every other paffion, and permits no other ob- ject to remain in view than what promifes to confirm it. — Dine with a large party, at the Duke de la Rochefoucauld’s ; ladies and gentlemen, and all equally politicians ; but I may remark another elfedt of this revolution, by no means unnatural, which is, that of leffening, or rather reducing to nothing, the enor- mous influence of the fex : they mixed themfelves before in every thing, in order to govern every thing : I think I fee an end to it very clearly. The men in this kingdom were puppets, moved by their wires, who, inflead of giving the ton, in queflions of national debate, mufl now receive it, and muff be content to move it in the political lphere of fome celebrated leader — that is to fay, they are, in fadt, linking into what nature intended them for ; they will become more amiable, and the nation better governed. Oo The PARIS. 282 The 1 ith. The riots at Verfailles are faid to be ferious ; a plot is talked of, for eight hundred men to march, armed, to Paris, at the indigation of fome- body, to join fomebody; the intention, to murder La Fayette, Bailly, and Necker; and very wild and improbable reports are propagated every moment. They have been fufficient to induce Monk La Fayette to Flue, yederday, an order concerning the mode of afiembling the militia, in cafe of any ludden alarm. Two pieces of cannon, and eight hundred men, mount guard at the Thuille- ries every day. See fome royalids this morning, who affert, that the public opinion in the kingdom is changing apace ; that pity for the King, and difguit at fome proceedings of the Adembly, have lately done much : they fay, that any attempt at prefent to refcue the King would be ablurd, for his prefent fitua- tion is doing more for him than force could effed, at this moment, as the gene- ral feelings of the nation are in his favour. They have no fcruple in declaring, that a well concerted vigorous effort would place him at the head of a powerful army, which could not fail of being joined by a great, difguded, and injured body. I remarked, that every honed man mud hope no fuch event would take place ; for if a counter-revolution fhould be effeded, it would eflablifh a def- potifm, much heavier than ever France experienced. This they would not al- low ; on the contrary, they believed, that no government could, in future, be fecure, that did not grant to the people more extenfive rights and privileges than they poffeffed under the old one. Dine with my brother traveller, the Count de Nicolay; among the company, as the count had promifed me, was Monf. Decretot, the celebrated manufadurer of Louviers, from whom I learned the magnitude of the didreffes at prefent in Normandy. The cotton mills which he had fhewn me, lad year, at Louviers, have flood dill nine months ; and fo many fpinning jennies have been deflroyed by the people, under the idea that fuch machines were contrary to their intereds, that the trade is in a deplorable fituation. In the evening, accompanied Monf. Lazowfki to the Italian opera. La Berbiera di Seviglia , by Paiefello, which is one of the mod agreeable compofitions of that truly great mader. Mandini and Raffanelli ex- cellent, and Baletti a fweet voice. There is no fuch comic opera to be feen in Italy, as this of Paris, and the houfe is always full : this will work as great a revolution in French mufic, as ever can be wrought in French government- What will they think, by and by, of Lully and Rameau? And what a triumph for the manes of Jean Jaques ! The 1 2th. To the National Affembly: — a debate on the condud of the chamber of vacation in the parliament of Rennes, continued. Monf. FAbbe Maury, a zealous royalid, made a long and eloquent fpeech, which he delivered with great fluency and precidon, and without any notes, in defence of the par- liament : he replied to what had been urged by the Count de Mirabeau, on a former PARIS. former day, and fpoke Arongly on his unjuAifiable call on the people of Bre- tagne, to a redoubtable denombrement. He faid, that it would better become the members of fuch an affembly, to count their own principles and duties, and the fruits of their attention, to the privileges of the fubjedt, than to call for a denombrement , that would fill a province with fire and bloodflied. He was in- terrupted by the noife and confufion of the afiembly, and of the audience, fix feveral times ; but it had no eftedt on him ; he waited calmly till it fubfided, and then proceeded, as if no interruption had been given. The fpeech was a very able one, and much reliflied by the royalifis ; but the enrages condemned it, as good for nothing. No other perlon fpoke without notes ; the Count de Cler- mont read a fpeech that had fome brilliant pafiages, but by no means an anfwer to 1’ Abbe Maury, as indeed it would have been wonderful if it were, being pre- pared before he heard the Abbe’s oration. It can hardly be conceived how fiat this mode of debate renders the tranfadions of the Afiembly. Who would be in the gallery of the Englifh Houfe of Commons, if Air. Pitt were to bring a written fpeech, to be delivered on a fubjed on which Mr. Fox was to fpeak before him ? And in proportion to its being uninterefting to the hearer is another evil, that of lengthening their fittings, fince there are ten perfons who will read their opinions, to one that is able to deliver an impromptu. The want of order, and every kind of confufion, prevails now almofl as much as when the Afiembly fat at Verfailles. The interruptions given are frequent and long; and fpeakers, who have no right by the rules to fpeak, will attempt it. The Count de Mira- beau prefled to deliver his opinion after the Abbe Maury ; the prefident put it to the vote, whether he fliould be allowed to fpeak a fecond time, and the whole houfe role up to negative it; fo that the fir A orator of the Afiembly has not the influence even to be heard to explain — we have no conception of fuch rules; and yet their great number mufi make this neceflary. I forgot to obferve, that there is a gallery at each end of the faloon, which is open to all the world; and fide ones for admiflion of the friends of the members by tickets : the audience in thefe galleries are very noify : they clap, when any thing pleafes them, and they have been known to hits ; an indecorum which is utterly defirudtive of freedom of debate. I left the houfe before the whole was finiihed, and repaired to the Duke of Liancourt’s apartments in the Thuilleries, to dine with his cufiomary party of deputies; Mefid Chapellier and Demeufniers were there, who had both been pre- fidents, and are Aill members of confiderable diflindtion; M. Volney, the cele- brated traveller, alfo was prefent; the Prince de Poix, the Count de Montmo- renci, &c. On our waiting for the Duke of Liancourt, who did not arrive till half after feven, with the greateA part of the company, the converfation almoA entirely turned upon a Arong fufpicion entertained of the Englifli having made a remittance for the purpofe of embroiling matters in the kingdom. The Count O o 2 de PARI S. 284 de Thiard, cordon blue , who commands in Bretagne, limply Rated the fad, that fome regiments at BreR had been regular in their condud, and as much to be de- pended on as any in the fervice ; but that, of a fudden, money had found its way among the men in confiderable fums, and from that time their behaviour was changed. One of the deputies demanding at what period, he was anfwered * ; oa which he immediately obferved, that it followed the remittance of 1,100,000 liv. (48,1251.) from England, that had occalioned fo much conjedure and conver- fation. This remittance which had been particularly enquired into, was fomyf- terious and obfcure, that the naked fad: only could be difcovered ; but every perfon prefent alferted the truth of it. Other gentlemen united the two fads, and were ready to fuppofe them conneded. I remarked, that if England had really interfered, which appeared to me incredible, it was to be prefumed, that it would have been either in the line of her fuppofed intereR, or in that of the King's fuppofed inclination ; that thefe happened to be exadly the fame, and if money were remitted from that kingdom, moR afiuredly it would be to fupport the fall- ing intereR of the crown, and by no means to detach from it any force what- ever; in fuch a cafe, remittance from England might go to Metz, for keeping troops to their duty, but would never be fent to BreR to corrupt them, the idea of which was grofsly abfurd. All feemed inclined to admit the juRnefs of this remark, but they adhered to the two fads, in whatever manner they might, or might not, be conneded. At this dinner, according to cuRom, moR of the deputies, efpecially the younger ones, were dreffed au polijjbn , many of them without powder in their hair, and fome in boots ; not above four or five were neatly dreffed. How times are changed ! When they had nothing better to at- tend to, the fafliionable Parifians were corrednefs itfelf, in all that pertained to the toilette , and were, therefore, thought a frivolous people; but now they have fomething of more importance than drefs to occupy them ; and the light airy charader that was ufually given them, will have no foundation in truth. Every thing in this world depends on government. The 13th. A great commotion among the populace late laR night, which is faid to have arifen on two accounts — one to get at the Baron de Befneval, who is in prifon, in order to hang him ; the other to demand bread at 2 f. the pound. They eat it at prefent at the rate of twenty-two millions a- year cheaper than the red of the kingdom, and yet they demand a further redudion. However* the current difcourfe is, that Favras, an adventurer alfo in prifon, muR be hanged to fatisfy the people ; for as to Befneval, the Swifs cantons have remonfirated fo firmly, that they will not dare to execute him. Early in the morning, the guards were doubled, and eight thoufand horfe and foot are now patrolling the Rreets. The report of plots, to carry off the King, is in the mouth of every * It was a late tranfadion. one; PARIS. 285 one; and it is faid, thefe movements of the people, as well as thofe at Verfailles, are not what they appear to be, mere mobs, but inftigated by the ariftocrats ; and if permitted to rife to fuch a height as to entangle the Paris militia, will prove the part only of a confpiracy againff the new government. That they have rea- fon to be alert is undoubted; for though there ffiould actually be no plots in exigence, yet there is fo great a temptation to them, and fuch a probability of their being formed, that fupinenefs would probably create them. I have met with the lieutenant-colonel of a regiment of horfe, who is come from his quar- ters, and who afferts, that his whole regiment, officers and men, are now at the King s devotion, and would march wherever he called, and would execute what- ever he ordered, not contrary to their ancient feelings ; but that they would not have been inclined to be fo obedient before he was brought to Paris ; and from the converfation he has had with the officers of other regiments, he believes that the fame fpirit pervades their corps alfo. If any ferious plans have been laid for a counter-revolution, or for carrying off the King, and their execution has been, or ffiall be prevented, pofferity will be much more likely to have in- formation of it than this age. Certainly the eyes of all the fovereigns, and of all the great nobility in Europe, are on the French revolution; they look with amazement, and even with terror, upon a fituation which may poffibly be here- after their own cafe; and they muff expeCt, with anxiety, that fome attempts will be made to reverfe an example, that will not want copies, whenever the period is favourable to make them. Dine at the Palais Royal, with a feleCt party; politicians they muff b,e, if they are Frenchmen. The queffion was dif- cuffed, Are the plots and confpiracies of which we hear fo much at prefent, real, or are they invented by the leaders of the revolution, to keep up the fpirits of tne militia, in order to enable themfelves to fecure the government on its new foundation irreverlibly ? The 14th. Plots! plots! — the Marquis La Fayette, laff night, took two hundred prifoners in the Champs Elyfees , out of eleven hundred that were col- lected. . They had powder and ball, but no mufquets. Who? and what are they ? is the queffion ; but an anfwer is not fo eafily to be had. Brigands, ac- cording to fome accounts, that have collected in Paris for no good purpofe ; people from Verfailles by others; Germans by a third: but every one would make you believe, they are an appendix to a plot laid for a counter-revolution. Reports are fo various and contradictory, that no dependence is to be placed on tnem; nor credit given to one-tenth of what is afferted. It is lingular, and has been much commented on, that La Fayette would not truft his {landing troops, as they may be called, that is the eight thoufand regularly paid, and of whom tne French guards form a confiderable portion, but he took, for the expedition, the bcurgeoife only ; which has elated the latter as much as it has difguffed the former. 2.86 PARIS. former. The moment feems big with events ; there is an anxiety, an expecta- tion, an uncertainty, and fufpenfe that is vifible in every eye one meets ; and even the bed: informed people, and the lead: liable to be led away by popular reports, are not a little alarmed at the apprehenfion of feme unknown attempt that may be made to refcue the King, and overturn the National Affembly. Many perfons. are of opinion, that it would not be difficult to take the King, Queen, and Dauphin away, without endangering them, for which attempt the Thuil- leries is particularly well fituated, provided a body of troops, of fufficient force, were in readinefs to receive them. In fuch a cafe, there would be a civil war, which, perhaps, would end in defpotifm, whatever party came off victorious ; confequently fuch an attempt, or plan, could not originate in any bofom from true patriotifm. If I have a fair opportunity to pafs much of my time in good company at Paris, I have alfo no fmali trouble in turning over books, MSS. and papers, which I cannot fee in England : this employs many hours a day, with what I borrow from the night, in making notes. I have procured alfo fome public records, the copying of which demands time. He who wiffies to give a good account of fuch a kingdom as France, muff be indefatigable in the fearch of materials for let him colledt with all the care poffible, yet when he comes to fit down coolly to the examination and arrangement, will find, that much has been put into his hands, of no real confequence, and more, poffibly, that is abfolutely ulelefs. The i 5 th. To the Palais Royal, to view the pictures of the Duke of Orleans, which I had tried once or twice before to do in vain. The colle&ion is known to he very rich, in pieces of the Dutch and Flemifh mailers ; fome finifhed with all the exquifite attention which that fchool gave to minute expreffion. But it is a genre little interehing, when the wmrks of the great Italian artifts are at hand : of thefe the collection is one of the firll in the world : Raphael, Hanibal Carracci, Titian, Bominichino, Correggio, and Paul Veronefe. The firll picture in the colleflion, and one of the finefl that ever came from the eafel, is that of the three Maries, and the dead ChriiT, by H. Carracci ; the powers of expreffion cannot go further. There is the St. John of Raphael, the fame picture as thole of Florence and Bologna ; and an inimitable Virgin and Child, by the fame great mailer. A Venus bathing, and a Magdalen, by Titian. Lucretia, by Andrea del Sarto. Leda, by Paul Veronefe, and alfo by Tintoretto. Mars and Venus, and feveral others, by Paul Veronefe. The naked figure of a woman, by Bonieu, a French painter, now living, a pleafing piece. Some noble pidlures, by Pouffin and Le Seur. The apartments mull difappoint every one : — I did not fee one good rocm, and all inferior to the rank and immenfe fortune of the pof- fefi.br, certainly the firll fubject in Europe. Dine at the Duke of Liancourt s : among the company was Monfi de Bougainville, the celebrated circumnavitor, agreeable O PARIS. 287 agreeable as well as fenfible ; the Count de Caftellane, and the Count de Mont- morenci, two young legiflators, as enrages as if their names were only Bernave or Rabeau. In fome allulions to the conftitution of England, I found they hold it very cheap, in regard to political liberty. The ideas of the moment, relative to plots and confpiracies, were difcufled, but they feemed very generally to agree, that, however the conftitution might, by fuch means, be delayed, it was now abfolutely impoflible to prevent its taking place. At night to the national circus, as it is called, at the Palais Royal, a building in the gardens, or area of that palace, the moft whimfical and expenfive folly that is eafily to be imagined : it is a large ball room, funk half its height under ground } and, as if this circumftance were not fufficiently adapted to make it damp enough, a garden is planted on the roof, and a river is made to flow around it, which, with the addition of fome fpirting jets d’eau , have undoubtedly made it a delicious place, for a winters entertainment. The expence of this gew-gaw building, the project of fome of the Duke of Orleans’ friends, I fuppofe, and executed at his expence, would have eftablifhed an Englifh farm, with all its principles, buildings, live flock, tools, and crops, on a fcale that would have done honour to the firft fovereign of Europe ; for it would have converted five thoufand ar- pents of defert into a garden. As to the refult of the mode that has been pur- fued, of inverting fuch a capital, I know no epithet equal to its merits. It is meant to be a concert, ball, coffee, and billiard room, with fhops, &c. defigned to be fomething in the ftyle of the amufements of our Pantheon. There were muflc and flnging to night, but the room being almoft empty, it was, on the whole, equally cold and fombre . The 1 6th. The idea of plots and confpiracies has come to fuch a height as greatly to alarm the leaders of the revolution.. The difguft that fpreads every day at their tranfartions, arifes more from the King’s fituation than from any other circumftance. They cannot, after the fcenes that have palled, venture to fet him at liberty before the conftitution is finished : and they dread, at the fame time, a change working in his favour in the minds of the people : in this dilem- ma, a plan is laid for perfuading his Majefty to go fuddenly to the National Aflembly, ana, in a fpeech, to declare himfelf perfectly fatisfied with their proceedings, and to confider himfelf as at the head of the revolution, in terms fa couched as to take away all idea or pretence of his being in. a ftate of confine- ment or coercion. This is at prefent a favourite plan ; the only difficulty will be, to perfuade the King to take a ftep that will apparently preclude him from- whatever turn or advantage the general feeling of the provinces may work in his favour • for, after fuch a meafure, he will have reafon to expert that his friends will fecond the views of the democratical party, from an abfolute defpair of any other principles becoming efficient. It is thought probable, that this fcheme PARIS. 28S will be brought about ; and Ihould it be accomplished, it will do more to eafe their apprehenfions of any attempts than any other plan. I have been among the book- fellers, with a catalogue in hand to colled: publications, which, unfortunately for my purfe, I find I mud have on various topics, that concern the prefent Rate of France. — Thefe are now every day fo numerous, especially on the fubjedts of com- merce, colonies, finances, taxation, deficit , &c. not to fpeak of the fubjedt immedi- ately of the revolution itfelf, that it demands many hours every day to leffen the number to be bought, by reading pen in hand. The colledtion the Duke of Liancourt has made from the very commencement of the revolution, at the firffc meeting of the notables, is prodigious, and has cod many hundred louis d’or. It is uncommonly complete, and will hereafter be of the greatefl value, to con- fult on abundance of curious quedions. The 17th. The plan I mentioned yederday, that was propofed to the King, was urged in vain: his Majedy received the proportion in luch a manner as does not leave any great hope of the fcheme being executed ; but the Marquis La Fayette is fo drenuous for its being brought about, that it will not yet be aban- doned ; but propofed again at a more favourable moment. The royalifls, who know of this plan (for the public have it not), are delighted at the chance of its failing. The refufal is attributed to the Queen. Another circumdance, which gives great difquiet at prefent to the leaders of the revolution, is the account daily received from all parts of the kingdom, of the didrefs, and even darving condition of manufacturers, artifts, and failors, which grows more and more ferious, and mult make the idea of an attempt to overturn the revolution fo much the more alarming and dangerous. The only branch of indultry in the kingdom, that remains flourilhing, is the trade to the fugar-colonies ; and the fcheme of emancipating the negroes, or at lead of putting an end to im- porting them, which they borrowed from England, has thrown Nantes, Havre, Marfeilles, Bourdeaux, and all other places connected fecondarily with that commerce, into the utmod agitation. The Count dc Mirabeau fays publiclv, that he is fure of carrying the vote to put an end to negro Slavery— it is very much the converlation at prefent, and principally arnongd the leaders, who fay, that as the revoluion was founded on philofophy, and lupported by metaphylics, fuch a plan cannot but be congenial. But Surely trade depends on pradtice much more than on theory ; and the planters and merchants, who come to Paris to oppofe the fcheme, are better prepared to Ihew the importance of their com- merce, than to reafon philofophically on the demerits of flavery. Many publi- cations have appeared on the fubjedt — fome defer ving attention. The 1 8th. At the Duke of Liancourt’s dinner, to-day, meet the Marquis de Calaux, the author of the mechanifm of focieties ; notwithdanding all the warmth, and even fire of argument, and vivacity of manner and compoiition for which PARIS. *$9 which his writings are remarkable, he is perfectly mild and placid in converfation, with little of that effervefcence one would look for from his books. There was a remarkable affertion made to-day, at table, by the Count de Marguerite, before near thirty deputies ; fpeaking of the determination on the Toulon bufinefs, he faid, it was openly fupported by deputies, under the avowal that more infurrec- tions were neceffary. I looked round the table, expecting fome decifive anfwer to be given to this, and was amazed to find that no one replied a word. Monf. Volney, the traveller, after a paufe of fome moments, declared, that he thought the people of Toulon had aCted right, and were juftifiable in what they had done. The hiftory of this Toulon bufinefs is known to all the world. This Count de Marguerite has a tete dure and a fteady conduCt — it may be believed that he is not an enrage . At dinner, M. Blin, deputy from Nantes, mentioning the conduct of the revolution club at the Jacobins, faid, we have given you a good prefident ; and then afked the count why he did not come among them ? He anfwered, Je me trouve heureux en verite de n avoir jamais ete dlaucune fociete politique particuliere ; je penfe que mes fondtions font publiques, et qu elles peuvent aifement Je remplir fans ajjociations particulieres. He got no reply here.- — At night, Monf. Deere tot, and Monf. Blin, carried me to the revolution club at the Jacobins ; the room where they affemble, is that in which the famous league was figned, as it has been obferved above. There Were above one hundred deputies prefent, with a prefident in the chair ; I was handed to him, and announced as the author of the Arithmetique Politique ; the prefident ftand- ing up, repeated my name to the company, and demanded if there were any objections - None ; and this is all the ceremony, not merely of an introduc- tion, but an election : for I was told, that now I was empowered to be prefent when I pleafed, being a foreigner. Ten or a dozen other elections were made. In this club, the bufinefs that is to be brought into the National AfTembly is regularly debated; the motions are read, that are intended to be made there, and rejected or corrected and approved. When thefe have been fully agreed to, the whole party are engaged to fupport them. Plans of conduCt are there determined; proper perfons nominated for being of committees, and prefidents of the AfTembly named. And I may add, that fuch is the majority of numbers, that whatever paffes in this club, is almoft fure to pafs in the AfTembly. In the evening at the Duchefs d’Anville’s, in whofe houfe I never failed of fpending my time agreeably. One of the moft amufing circumftances of travelling into other countries, is the opportunity of remarking the difference of cuftoms amongft different nations in the common occurrences of life. In the art of living, the French have generally been efteemed by the reft of Europe, to have made the greateft proficiency, and their manners have been accordingly more imitated, and their cuftoms more adopted than thofe of any other nation. Of their P p cookery, PARIS. fl9© cookery, there is but one opinion ; for every man in Europe, that can afford a great table, either keeps a French cook, or one inftru&ed in the fame manner. That it is far beyond our own, I have no doubt in averting. W e have about half a dozen real Englifh difhes, that exceed any thing, in my opinion, to be met with in France; by Englifh difhes I mean, a turbot and lobfter fauce — ham and chicken — turtle — a haunch of venifon — a turkey and oyfters — and after thefe there is an end of an Englifh table. It is an idle prejudice, to clafs roaft beef among them ; for there is not better beef in the world than at Paris. Large handfome pieces were almoft conflantly on the confiderable tables I have dined at. The variety given by their cooks, to the fame thing, is aftoni filing ; they drefs an hundred difhes in an hundred different ways, and mod: of them excellent ; and all forts of vegetables have a favourinefs and flavour, from rich fauces, that are abfolutely wanted to our greens boiled in water. This variety is not ftriking, in the comparifon of a great table in France with another in England ; but it is manifefl, in an inflant, between the tables of a French and Englifh family of fmall fortune. The Englilh dinner, of a joint of meat and a pudding, as it is called, or pot luck , with a neighbour, is bad luck in England; the fame fortune in France gives, by means of cookery only, at lead: four difhes. to one among us, and fpreads a fmall table incomparably better . A regular def- fert with us is expedfed, at a confiderable table only, or at a moderate one, when a formal entertainment is given; in France it is as elTential to the fmalleft dinner as to the larged: ; if it confifl of a bunch of dried grapes only, or an apple, it will be as regularly ferved as the foup. I have met with perfons in England, who imagine the fobriety of a French table carried to fuch a length, that one or two glades of wine are all that a man can get at dinner : this is an error : your fervant mixes the wine and water in what proportion you pleafe ; and large bowls of clean glades are fet before the mafter of the houfe, and fome friends of the family, at different parts of the table, for ferving the richer and rarer forts of yvines, which are drunk in this manner freely enough. The whole nation are fcrupuloufly neat in refufing to drink out of glafles ufed by other people. At the houfe of a carpenter or blackfmith, a tumbler is fet to every cover. This refults from the common beverage being wine and water ; but if at a large table, as in England, there were porter, beer, cyder, and perry, it would be impOi- fible for three or four tumblers or goblets to fland by every plate ; ana equally fo for the fervants to keep fuch a number feparate and didinff. In tame-linen, they are, I think, cleaner and wifer than the Englifh : that the change may be inceflant, it is every where coarfe. The idea of dining without a napkin feems ridiculous to a Frenchman, but in England we dine at the tables or people of tolerable fortune, without them. A journeyman carpenter in France has bis napkin as regularly as his fork; and at an inn, the yf/A always lays andean one PARIS. 29 s to every cover that is fpread in the kitchen, for the lowed order of pededrian travellers. The expence of linen in England is enormous, from its finenefs ; furely a great change of that which is coarfe, would be much more ra- tional. In point of cleanlinefs, I 'think the merit of the two nations is divided; the French are cleaner in their perfons, and the Englifh in their homes ; I fpeak of the mafs of the people, and not of individuals of confiderable fortune. A bidet in France is as univerfally in every apartment, as a bafon to wafli your hands, which is a trait of perfonal cleanlinefs I wifli more common in England ; on the other hand their neceflary houfes are temples of abomination ; and the prac- tice of fpitting about a room, which is amongd the highed as well as the lowed ranks, is de tellable; I have feen a gentleman fpit fo near the cl oaths of a ducheis, that I have dared at his unconcern. In every thing that concerns the dables, the Englifh far exceed the French ; horfes, grooms, harnefs, and change of equipage ; in the provinces you fee cabriolets of the lad century ; an Eng- lifhman, however fmall his fortune may be, will not be feen in a carriage of the fafhion of forty years pad ; if he cannot have another, he will walk on foot. It is not true that there are no complete equipages at Paris, I have feen many; the carriage, horfes, harnefs, and attendance, without fault or ble- mifli ; — but the number is certainly very much inferior to what are feen at London. Englifh horfes, grooms, and carriages, have been of late years largely imported. In all the articles of fitting up and furnifhing houfes, in- cluding thofe of all ranks in the edimate, the Englifh have made advances far beyond their neighbours. Mahogany is fcarce in France, but the ufe of it is profufe in England. Some of the hotels in Paris are immenfe in fize, from a cir- cumdance which would give me a good opinion of the people, if nothing elfe did, which is the great mixture of families. When the elded fon marries, he brings his wife home to the houfe of his father, where there is an apartment provided for them ; and if a daughter do not wed an elded fon, hei hufband is alfo received into the family, in the fame way, which makes a joyous number at every table. This cannot "altogether be attributed to (economical motives, though they certainly influence in many cafes, becaufe it is found in families poflefling the fird properties in the kingdom. It does with French manners and^ cudoms, but in England it is fure to fail, and equally fo amongd all ranks ot people: may we not conjecture, with a great probability Oi truth, that tm na- tion in which it fucceeds is therefore better tempered ? Nothing but good humour can render fuch a jumble of families agreeable, or even toleiable. In drefs they have given the ton to all Europe for more than a centuiy ; but tins is not among any but the highed rank an objeCt of fuch expence as in England, where the mafs of mankind wear much better things (to ule the language or common converfation) than in France : this druck me more amongd ladies P p 2 who, PARIS. 292 who, on an average of all ranks, do not drefs at one half of the expence of Englifh women. Volatility and changeablenefs are attributed to the French as national charaderifticks, — but in the cafe of drefs with the grofteft exagge- ration. Fafhions change with ten times more rapidity in England, in form, colour, and affemblage ; the vicifiitudes of every part of drefs are phantaftic with us: I fee little of this in France ; and to inftance the mode of drefling the gen- tlemen’s hair, while it has been varied five times at London, it has remained the fame at Paris. Nothing contributes more to make them a happy people, than the chearful pliancy of difpofition with which they adapt themfelves to the circumftancesof life : this they poflefs much more than the high and volatile fpirits which have been attributed to them ; one excellent confequence is, a greater ex- emption from the extravagance of living beyond their fortunes, than is met with in England. In the higheft ranks of life, there are inftances in all countries ; but where one gentleman of fmall property, in the provinces of France, runs out his fortune, there are ten fuch in England that do it. In the blended idea I had formed of the French character from reading, lam aifappointed as to three cir- cumftances, which I expected to find predominant. * On comparifon with the Englilh, I looked for great talkativenefs, volatile fpirits, and univerfal polite- nefs. I think, on the contrary, that they are not fo talkative as the English; have not equally good fpirits, and are not a jot more polite: nor do I fpeak of certain clafiesof people, but of the general mafs. I think them, however, in- comparably better tempered 5 and I propofe it as a queftion, whether good temper be not more reafonably expected under an arbitrary, than under a free government ? The 19th. My laft day in Paris, and, therefore, employed in waiting on my friends, to take leave ; amongft whom, the Duke de Liancourt holds the firft: place } a nobleman, to whofe- uninterrupted, polite, and friendly offices I owe the agreeable and happy hours which I have pafled at Paris, and whofe kind- nefs continued fo much, to the laft, as to require a promife, that if I fhould return to France, his houfe, either in town or country, fhould be my home. I fhall not omit obferving, that his condud in the revolution has been dired and manly from the very beginning ; his rank, family, fortune, and fituation at court, all united to make him one of the firft fubjeds in the kingdom ; and upon the public affairs being fufficiently embroiled, to make afiemblies of the nobility necefifary, his determined refolution to render himfelf mafter of the great queftions which were then in debate, was feconded by that attention and applica- tion which were requifite in a period, when none but men of bufinefs could be of importance in the ftate. From the firft aflembling of the States General, he refolved to take the party of freedom ; and would have joined the tiers at firft, if' the orders of his conftituents had not prevented it y he defired them, however, either RETURN TO BRADFIELD, 2g3 either to confent to that ftep or to eledt another reprefen tative ; and, at the fame time, with equal liberality, he declared, that if ever the duty he owed his coun- try became incompatible with his office at court, he would refign it ; an a <3 that was not only unneceftary, but would have been abfurd, after the King himfelf had become a party in the revolution. By efpoufing the popular caufe, he adted conformably to the principles of all his anceftors, who in the civil wars and confufions of the preceding centuries, uniformly oppofed the arbitary pro- ceedings of the court. The decifive fteps which this nobleman took at Ver- failles, in advifing the King, &c. &c. are known to all the world. He is, un- doubtedly, to be efteemed one of thofe who have had a principal /hare in the revolution, but he has been invariably guided by conftitutional motives ; for it is certain, that he has been as much averfe from unneceffiary violence and fan- guinary meafures, as thofe who were the moft attached to the ancient govern- ment. With my excellent friend Lazow/ki, I fpent my laft evening ; he endea- vouring to perfuade me to refide upon a farm in France, and I enticing him to quit French buttle for Englifh tranquility. The 20th — 25th. By the diligence to London, where I arrived the 25th; though in the moft commodious feat, yet languishing for a horfe, which, after all, affords the beft means of travelling. Patting from the firft company of Paris to the rabble which one lometimes meets in diligences is contrail: Sufficient,— - but the idea of returning to England, to my family, and friends, made all things appear fmooth. 272 miles. The 30th. To Bradfield ; and here terminate, I hope, my travels. After having furveyed the agriculture and political refources of England and Ireland, to do the fame with France, was certainly a great objedt, the importance of which animated me to the attempt : and however pleafing it may be to hope for the ability of giving a better account of the agriculture of France than has ever been laid before the public, yet the greateft fatisfadtion I feel, at prefent, is the profpedt of remaining, for the future, on a farm, in that calm and undifturbed retirement, which is fuitable to my fortune, and which, I truft, will beagree- ble to my difpotttion,- 72 miles. PART PART SECOND. CHAP. I. Of the Extent of France . T H E circumftances which are mo ft apt to command the attention of man- kind, for giving importance to a country, are really valuable no fartner than as they contribute to the eafe and profperity of the inhabitants. Thus the extent of a kingdom is of no other confequence than affording nourifhment fot a people too numerous to be reafonably apprehenfive of foreign conqueft. When a territory is much more confiderable than for this purpofe, it tends to infpire ambitious projeds in the minds of the men that govern, which have proved, perhaps, more difaftrous than the deficiency of power that endangers the na- tional defence. France, under Lewis XIV . was a remarkable inftance of this fad. The fituation to which the ambition of that prince had reduced her immenfe terri- tory, was hardly preferable to that of Holland, in 1 672, whofe misloi tunes ilowed from the fame origin. Of the two extremes, F ranee has undoubtedly more to ap- prehend from the ambition of her own rulers, than from that of any neighbour. Authorities vary confiderably in deferibing the extent of this fine kingdom. The Marechal de Vauban makes it 30,000 leagues, or 140,940,000 arpents; Voltaire 1 30,000,000 arpents. — The accuracy of round numbers is always to be doubted. Templeman gives it an extent of 1 38,837 fquare geographic miles, of fixty to a degree; a meafurement, which renders his tables abfolutely ufelefs for any purpofe, but that of comparing one country with another, a degree being fixty- nine miles and an half, which makes it 1 1 9,220,8744^-*- acres* Paudon reduces his meafure to French arpents, and makes the number 107,690,000. The En- cyclopaedia, article France, afligns 100,000,000 of arpents as the contents; and obferves, that, by Caffini’s maps, the amount is 125,000,000. A late author* calculates it at 105,000,000 :_and another -fat 135,600,000. None of thefe ac- counts feem fufficiently accurate for the purpofe of giving a corred idea. 1 he authority on which I am inclined moft to rely is that of M. Necker|, who * L’Impot Abonne. 4*0. 1789. t Apologie fur l’edift de Nantes. t Oeuvres. 4to. p. 326. calculates EXTENT. 2 9$ calculates it (without Corfica) at 26,951 leagues fquare, of 22824 toifes ; this, X find, amounts to 156,024,213 arpents of Paris, or 131*722,295 Englifh acres. Pautdon, by covering his map with fhot to every indenture of outline, with the greateft care,found the kingdom to contain 1 03,02 1 , 840 arpents,each of 1 00 perch, at 22 feet the perch, or 1 344I toifes fquare to the arpent; indead of which the arpent of Paris contains but 900 toifes : — this meafurement makes 81,687,016 Englifh acres*. — Notwithdanding the credit ufually given to this writer for his accu- racy, I mud: here reject his authority in favour of that of M. Necker. Paucdon’s calculation, which gives 81,687,01 6 Englifh acres to France, affigns by the fame rule to England 24,476,315+; yet Templeman s furvey, at 6o°miles to a degree, and therefore confefledly below the truth, makes it 3 1,648,000, which, at 69I to a degiee, are 42,463*264-1-!; a greater difference than is found between them in edimating the furface of France, which, by Paudton, is made 81,687,016 Englifh acres, with a general admiffion of about a million more; and by Templeman, 88,855,680; or at 69!, is 119,220,874444. It is in vain to attempt reconciling thefe contrary accounts. I fhall therefore adopt, with the author of the Credit Nationale % , the edimation of M. Necker, which fuppofes 156,024,1 13 arpents of Paris, or 131,722,295 Englifh acres. F or a commparifon of the French and Englifh dominions, I mud for the latter adopt Temp leman’s meafurement, who gives to .England, 49,450 fquare miles. Scotland, 27,794 Ireland, 27,457 F ranee, 1 3^,837 fquare miles. 104,701 Calculated at 60 to a degree ; but at 69! thefe numbers become. England, Scotland, Ireland, Sq. miles. Acres. 66,348 - 42,463,264 37,292 - 23,867,016 36,840 - 23,577,630 140,480 89,907,910 Sq. miles. Acres. France, 186,282 - 119,220,874, i fence it appears, that F ranee, according to thefe proportions, contains 29,3 1 2,964 acres more than the three Britifh kingdoms; and it is to be noted, that as the extent of France is taken from the more modern and correct authorities, whence M. Necker deduced his meafurement at 131,722,295 Englifh acres, which is I nave made this reduction, by valuing, with Pau&on, the French arpent at i,ooco, and the Englifh 0,7929. t That is 30,869,360 arpents royale, of 22 feet to the perch. x Monf. Jorre. 870. 1789. He calculates on 27,000 leagues, at 22S2 toifes, 5786 arpents of i ans in a league; or in I ranee 156,225,720 arpents. P. 95, confequently E X T E N T. -S O I L. confequently much more exaCt than that of Templeman; fo it is equally fair to fuppofe, that the latter is as much below the fad: in the contents of our iflands, as he was in thofe of France. Corrected by this rule, the areas will be England*, 46,91 5,933 f acres. Scotland, 26,369,695 Ireland, 26,049,961 France, 131,722,295 acres. 99 > 335 > 5 8 9 Thefe numbers, I am upon the whole inclined to believe, are as near to the truth as may reafonably be expected from calculations, when the data are not abfo- lutely correct. CHAP. II. Of the Soil , and Face of the Country. T HE modern French geographers, in a branch of that fcience, to which they have properly given the epithet phyfical , have divided the kingdom into what they call bafins ; that is to fay, into feveral great plains, through which flow the principal rivers, and which are formed of feveral ridges of mountains, either original, as they term it, of granite, or fecondary of calcareous and other materials. Of thefe bafins the chief are, 1 . Of the Loire and all the the rivers that fall into it. 2. Of the Seine and its branches, 3. Of the Garonne. 4. Of the Rhone and Soane. There are likewife fome fmaller ones, but of much lefs ac- count. The reader who wifhes to confult the detail of thefe, may turn to the Journal Fhyfique , tom. 30. for a memoir by M. la Metherie. In refpeCt to the geoponic divifion of the foils of the kingdom, the rich cal- careous plain of the north- eaftern quarter firft calls for our attention. I croffed this in feveral directions, and from the obfervations I made, the following are the limits I would affign to it. On the coafl it may be faid to extend from Dunkirk to Carentan in Normandy, for the northern promontory of that pro- vince, which projects into the fea at Cherbourg, 6cc. is of a different foil. In M. la Metherie’s map is marked a ridge of granite mountains in this promon- tory ; I fhould remark, that I faw nothing in that country which deferves the * It may be remarked, that Dr. Grew calculated the real contents of England and Wales at 46,080,000 acres. PhilofophlcalTranfatiions , No. 330, p.266. Which feems a confirmation that we are not far from the truth. | Equal to 73,306 fquare miles. name S O I L. name- of a- mountain, any more than at Alei^on; merely hills, and thofe not confiderable ones. I may terminate the rich track at Carentan, as thence to Coutances the land is chiefly poor and Honey, and holds, with many variations, quite to Breft. In the line a little to the S. of the coaft, before Caen, is feen the firfh confiderable change of foil from Calais; it there becomes a red ft one brajh ; this rich trad: is here, therefore, narrow. On re-entering Normandy on the fide of Alen?on, from Anjou and Maine, I firlt met with the rich loams on a calcareous bottom at Beaumont; at Alempon there is a noble foil, which I then loft no more in advancing northwards. In another line I entered this rich diflrid about ten miles to the fouth of Tours. The hills on the Loire, though all calcareous than I noticed, are not all rich, though on fome the foil is deep and good. Diredly to the fouth of Orleans begins the miferable Sologne, which, though on a calcareous bottom of marl, is too poor to be included in the prefent diftrid. From Orleans to Paris, and alfo Fontainbleau, no ex- ceptions are to be made, but in the fmall fpace of poor fand Hone in the royal forefl: of the latter town. In a fourth direction this diftrid is entered, but not fo deciflvely as in the preceding cafes, a few miles to the fouth of Nemours. At Croifiere the firft chalk is vifible to the traveller. Advancing to the N. E. very good land is found near Nangis, and then bearing N. I entered the fertile plain of Brie. Some of the vales through which the Marne flows are rich, and what 1 faw calcareous ; but the hills are poor. The plain of Rheims may be clafled in the prefent diftrid, but at Soiflons and thence due N. all is excellent. Thefe limits inclofe one of the fineft territories that I fuppofe is to be found in Europe. From Dunkirk to Nemours is not lefs than one hundred and eighty miles in a right line. From Soiffons to Carentan is another right line of about two hundred miles. From Eu, on the Norman coaft, to Chartres is one hundred miles ; and though the breadth of this rich -diftrid: at Caen, Bayeux, &c. is not confiderable, yet the whole will be found to contain not a trifling proportion of the whole kingdom. This noble territory includes the deep, level, and fertile plain of Flanders, and part of Artois, than which a richer foil can hardly be de~ fired to repay the induftry of mankind; two, three, and even four feet deep of moift and putrid, but friable and mellow loam, more inclining to clay than fend, on a calcareous bottom, and from its marine origin (for there can be little doubt but that the whole plain of Flanders and Holland has been covered by the fea, long fi,nce our globe has taken its prefent appearance), abounding with particles that add to the common fertility, refulting from fuch compounds found in other fituations. The putridity of the humus in Flanders and its pofition, being a dead level, are the principal circumflances that diftinguifh it from the better foils of the reft of this fertile part of Europe. Every fiep of the way from the very gate of Paris to near Soiffons, and thence to Cambray, with but little va- Q^q nation SOIL. 298 riation of fome inferior hill$ of fmall extent, is a fandy loam of an admirable texture, and commonly of coniiderable depth. About Meaux it is to be ranked among the fineft in the world ; they call it blcuuncTUcau ; it tends much towards an impalpable powder, which betrays few figns.of fand, even when, to the eye, it has the appearance of a fandy loam. It is of an admirable textuie and friabi- lity. Monf. Gibert informed me, that it is of the depth of eighteen feet where - his well is digged, and under it a ftratum of white marl, found under the wnole country, at different depths. This marl has the appearance of a confoliaated pafte. The line through Picardy is inferior, yet, for the moft part, excellent. But all the arable part of Normandy, which is within thefe limits, is of tne fame rich friable fandy loam, to a great depth ; that from Bernay to Elbceuf can fcarcely be exceeded; four to five feet deep of a reddifh brown loam on a chalk bottom, and without a ftone. As to the paflures of the fame province, we have, I believe, nothing either in England or Ireland equal to them; I hoid the vale of Limerick to be inferior. The famous Pays de Beauce, which I cioifed between Arpajon and Orleans, refembles the vales of Meaux and Senlis; it is not, how- ever, in general, fo deep as the former. The limits I have traced are thofe of great fertility ; but the calcareous diftridt, and even of chalk, is much more extenfive. To the E. it reaches acrofs Champagne ; a ftrong change, not hav- ing occurred to me till about St. Menehould. From Metz to Nancy all is calcareous, but not chalk. Lime-ftone land I found plentifully in the fouthern parts of Alface; and from Befort acrofs Franche Compte to Dole, all the ftones I tried, and many from quarries, were calcareous. Immenfe diftiidts in Dau- phine and Provence, &c. &c. are the fame; I lhall therefore only obfeive, that I remarked the chalk country to extend E. to about St. Menehould, and S. to Nemours and Montargis* in one line. In another, that all of the Angoumois which I faw is the fame; much in Poitou, and through Touraine to the Loiie. Had I penetrated more to the W. I fhould probably have found the chalk of Angoumois, and that of the Loire to be connected uninterruptedly. Moft of the courfe of the Loire is, I believe, chalk, and the whole of it calcareous. Hence it appears, that the chalk country of France is of very coniiderable ex- tent; not lefs than two hundred miles E. and W . and about as much, but more irregularly, N. and S. and comprifes, by far, the richeft and moil fertile provinces of the kingdom. The next coniiderable diilridt, for fertility, is that which I may call, without impropriety, the plain of the Garonne. Failing to the S. from Limofin, it is entered about Creifienfac, with the province of Quercy, ana improves ail the way to Montauban andTouloufe, where it is one of the fineft levels of teitile * I believe much further : and there is the more reafon to think fo, becaufe Mr. Townihend found, that in another road it reached to Auxere, where he loft it. '‘journey through Spain, vol. 1 . p* 4^* foil SOIL. 2 99 foil that can any where be feen. It continues, but not equally fruitful, to the foot of the Pyrenees, by St. Gaudents, &c. very even to the eye, when viewed from the promenade at Montauban, which commands one of the riched, as well as magnificent profpefts, to be met with in France. This plain I found, however, to be much indented and irregular ; for to the W. of Auch, and all beyond it to Bayonne, is too inferior to be admitted; and to the E. Mirepoix, Pamiers, and Carcaffonne are among the hills, and all the way from Agen to Bourdeaux, though the river flows through one of the richeffc vallies that is to be feen in the world, yet the breadth appeared to be every where inconfiderable. Through all this plain, wherever the foil is found excellent, it confifls ufually of a deep mellow friable fandy loam, with moidure fufficient for the production of any thing ; much of it is calcareous. White lime-ftone and white chalky loams are found about Cahors, &c. and white loams more tenacious near Montauban. At Tonance, on the Garonne, they are red, and apparently as good at ten feet deep as on the furface. In travelling from Narbonne to Beziers, Pezenas, Montpellier, and Nimes, every one I converfed with reprefented that vale as the mod fruitful in France. Olives and mulberries, as well as vines, render it very productive; but in point of foil (the only circumdance I confider at prefent), much the greater part of it is in- ferior to all I have named. The Bas Poitou, as I was informed by a perfon who refides in it, is of a fertility that deferves to be claffed with the richeft foils of France, extending iB leagues by 12, or 216 fquare leagues, which, at 5,786 ar- pents per league, are 249,776 arpents. 100,000 arpents of rich marfhes have been drained there*. Being alfo informed at Nantes, that there was a very rich track to the S. of the Loire, in the quarter of Bourgneuf andMacheoul, I have extended the region of good land to that river, as feen in the annexed map. The narrow plain of Alface, the whole fertile part of which hardly exceeds the furface of 1 000 fquare miles, mud be claffed among the riched foils of France. It refembles Flanders a good deal, though inferior to that fine province. It confids of a deep rich fandy loam, both moid and friable, equal to the large production of all forts of crops. A more celebrated di drift is the Limagne of Auvergne, a flat, and chiefly a calcareous vale, furrounded by great ranges of volcanic mountains. It is certainly one of the fined foils in the world. It com- mences at Riom ; the plain there is of a beautiful dead level of white calca- reous loam, the whole furface of which is a real marl, but fo mixed with humus as to be of prime fertility. The French naturalids, that have examined it, aflert the depth to be twenty feet of beds of earth, formed of the ruins of what they dyle the primative (granite) and volcanized mountains. At Ifloire, Dr. Bres fhewing me his farm, in an inferior part of the Limagne (for the bed of it * Des Canaux de Navig. Par M. de la Lande, p. 391. cLq 2 reaches soil.. 30© reaches no farther than from Riom to Vaires, which Is fcarcely more than twenty miles), made me obferve, that the river had, in all probability, formed the whole plain, as it was adding rapidly to His land, and had given him a depth very perceptible in a few years, having buried the gravelly fhingle of its bed, hy depofiting a rich furfece of fandy mud. The vale here, on the banks, is fe- ven or eight feet deep of rich brown fandy loam. On the contrary, there are philofophers who contend for the whole having been a lake. The mountains that furround this vale are various. The white argilaeeous Rone, in the hills between Riom and Clermont, is calcareous. The volcanic mountains are found to be better than the others, except in the cafe of tufa or cinders, which are fo burnt as to be good for nothing. The calcareous and clayey ones good, and the bafaltes decompofed and become clay excellent. Their bafe is commonly gra- nite. The calcareous fandy ftones, and the argilaeeous calcareous earths are heaped on them by the adion of volcanoes, according to the theory of the French philofophers. The fertility that refults from the volcanic origin of moun- tains, has been often remarked, and efpecially in the cafe of Etna ; the lame fad; appeared in many trads of country as I pafted from Le Puy to Montelimart, where many confiderable mountains are covered with beautiful chefnuts, and various articles of cultivation, which in diftrids not volcanic are wafte, or in a great meafure ufelefs. I have now noticed all the diftrids of France, which, to my knowledge, are of any remarkable fertility : they amount, as it will be fhown more particularly in another place, to above 28 millions of Englifh acres. Of the other provinces, Bretagne is generally gravel, or gravelly fand, com- monly deep, and on a gravelly bottom, of an inferior and barren nature, but in many places on fand ftone rock. I tried various fpecimens, but found none calcareous ; and having feen a fhip at Morlaix unloading lime-ftone from Nor- mandy, I may conclude, that the fact does not contradid the conclufion which I drew from the eye. All that I faw in the two provinces of Anjou and Maine are gravel, fand, or ftone — generally a loamy fand or gravel ; fome impeded fchiftus on a bottom of rock; and much that would in the weft of England be called a fione-brajh , and that would do excellently well for turnips ; they have the friability, but want the putrid moifture and fertile particles of the better loams. Immenfe tracks, in both thefe provinces, are wafte, under ling, fern, furze, &c. but the foil of thefe does not vary from the cultivated parts, and, with cultivation, would be equally good. Touraine is better ; it contains fome confiderable diftrids, efpecially to the fouth of the Loire, where you find good mixed fandy and gravelly loams on a calcareous bottom ; confiderable tracks in the northern part of the province are no better than Anjou and Maine ; and, like them, it is not without its heaths and waftes. Sologne is one of the pooreft SOIL. 3© i poore d and mod: unimproved provinces of the kingdom, and one of the mod lingular countries I have feen. It is/lat, confiding of a poor fand or gravel, every where on a clay or marl bottom, retentive of water to fuch a degree, that every ditch and hold was full of it : the improvement of fuch a country is fo obvioufly effected on the eafied principles, that it is a fatire on the French government, and on the individuals who are owners or occupiers of edates in this province, to fee it remain in fuch a miferable condition. Berry is much better, though both fandy and gravelly ; but good loams, and fome deep, are not wanted in fome didricts, as that of Chateaoroux, on quarries, and near Vatan on calcareous ones. La Marche and Limofin confid of friable fandy loams ; fome on granite, and others on a calcarous bottom. There are tracts in thefe provinces that are very fertile ; and I faw none that fhould be edeemed deril. Of the granite they didinguifh two forts ; one hard, and full of mica- ceous particles ; the grain rather coarfe, with but little quartz, hardening in the air in mafles, but becoming a powder when reduced to fmall pieces - 3 — this is ufed for building. The other fort is in horizontal drata, mixed with great quantities of fpar, ufed chiefly for mending roads, which it does in the mod in- comparable manner. I was aflured at Limoges, that, on the hard granite, there grow neither wheat, vines, nor chefnuts ; but upon the other kind, thofe plants thrive well : I remarked, that this granite and chefnuts appeared together on entering Limofin and that, in the road to Touloufe, there is about a league of hard granite without that tree. The rule, however, is not general ; for fo near as to the S. of Souilac, chefnuts are on a calcareous foil. — - Poitou conlids of two divifions, the upper and the lower ; the lad of which has the reputation of being a much richer country, efpecially the grafs lands on the coad. The foil of the upper divifion is generally a thin loam, on an imperfect quarry bottom — a fort of Jlone-braJh ; in fome trats calcareous : it mud be edeemed a poor foil, though admirably adapted to various articles of cultivation. I have already obferved, that all I faw of Angoumois is chalk, and much of it thin and poor. Thofe parts of Guienne and Gafcoign, not included in the rich vale of the Garonne, of which I have already fpoken, mud be considered in relpedt of foil as poor. The landcs (heaths of Bourdeaux, though neither unproductive, nor unimproveable, are in their prefen t date to be clafled amongd the word foils of France. I have been aflured, that they contain 200 leagues fquare ; and the roots of the Pyrenees are covered with immenfe wades, which demand much indudry to render profitable. Rouffillon is in general calcareous - 3 much of it flat and and very doney, as well as dry and barren : but the irrigated vales are of a mod exuberant fertility. The vad province of Languedoe, in productions one of the riched of the kingdom, does not rank high in the fcale of foil : it is by far too doney; — I take feven-eighths of it to be mountainous. I tra- SOIL. 501 I travelled near four hundred miles in it, without feeing any thing that deferved the name of an extenfive plain, that of the Garonne, already mentioned (part of which extends within the limits of Languedoc), alone excepted. The produc- tive vale, from Narbonne to Nimes, i§ generally but a few miles in breadth; and confiderable wades are feen in moil parts of it. Many of the moun- tains are productive, from irrigation, as I have obferved too in the volca- nic territory of the Vivarais. Some parts of the vale are however very rich ; and indeed there are few finer foils in France than what I faw near the canal, in going from Beziers to Carcafifonne. A rich mellow loam, tenacious, and yet friable ; in fome dates the particles adhere into clods ; in others they recede and melt with friability. Provence and Dauphine are mountainous countries, with the variation of fome lovely plains and vallies, which bear a very incon- fiderabie proportion to the whole. Of thefe two provinces, the former is cer- tainly the dried, in point of foil, in the kingdom. Rock and quarry-land, with fandy gravels, abound there; and the courfe of the Durance, which in fome countries would be a fine vale, is fo ruined by land and fhingic, that, in a mo- derate calculation, above 1 30,000 acres have been dedroyed, which would have been the fined foil in the country, if it had not been for that river. All I faw in both the provinces is calcareous ; and I was informed, that the greater part of the mountains of Province are fo. Thefe, towards Barcelonette, and in all the higher parts of the province, are covered with good grafs, that feeds a million of emigrating fheep, befides vad herds of cattle. With fuch a foil, and in luch a climate, a country mud not be thought unproductive becaufe mountainous. — The vales which I faw are in general fine : that of the Rhrone at Loriol, in Dauphine, is rich, — an admirable fandy clay, five or fix feet deep, on a bed of blue marl, with many dones in it. But more to the S. from Montelimart to Orange, this great river pafies through foils much inferior. The north plain of this pro- vince, as we go from Savoy to Lyons, confids much of a good deep red loam, on a gravel bottom. The county of Venaifin, or didriCt of Avignon, is one of the riched in the kingdom. Its admirable irrigation, is, of itfelf, fufficient to make it appear fo; but I found the foil to confid of rich deep loam, with white and calcareous clays. The whole coad of Provence is a poor dony foil, with exceptions of very fmall fpaces under happier circumdances. About Aix, the land is all calcareous, even the clays that are red and ferruginous. This province, however, contains one of the mod fingular didricts in the kingdom, namely, that of the Crau, which is a dony plain to the S. E. of Arles, not containing lels than 350 fquare miles, or 224,000 acres. It is abfolutely covered with round dones of all fizes, fome of which are as large as a man s head. The toil under them is not a fand, but appears to be a kind of cemented rubble of frag- ments of done, with a fmall mixture of loam. The naturalid who has deferibed SOIL. 3*53 this province, lays, they are of a calcareous nature, with nefther the grain nor texture of flint; in fome quartzofe molecules predominate — and others are metallic*. Vegetation is extremely thin, as I fliall mention more particularly when I treat of the paflurage of fheep in France. The Lyonois is mountainous, and what I faw of it is poor, ftony, and rough, with much waAe land. In pafling from Lyons to Moulins, it is, near Roanne, on the limits of the province, before the gravelly plain of the Loire commences, the fame which M. La Metherie calls the calcareous plain of Monthriflon. Auvergne, though chiefly mountainous, is not a poor province ; the foil, for a hilly country, is in general above mediocrity, and the higheA mountains feed valt herds of cattle, which are exported to a confiderable amount. Beflde a variety of volcanic foils, Auvergne is covered with granite and gravelly and fandy loams. The Bourbonnois and Nevernois, form one vaA plain, through which the Loire and the Allier pafs ; the predominant foil, in much the greater part, is gravel; I believe commonly on a calcareous bottom, but at confiderable depths ; Some tracks are fandy, which are better than the gravels ; and others are very good friable fandy loams. The whole, in its prefent cultivation, mu A be reckoned amongA the mo A unproductive provinces of the kingdom, but capable of as great improvement, by a different management, as any diAriCt in France. Burgundy is exceedingly diverflfied, as I found in eroding it from Franche Compte to the Bourbonnois by Dijon, I faw the beA of it ; that line is through fandy and gravelly loams; fome good vales, fome mountains, and fome poor granite foils. The fubdivifion of the province, called Breffe, is a miferable country, where the ponds alone, moAly on a white clay or a marl, amount, as it is afferted by an inhabitant''!'*, to flxty-fix fquare leagues of 2000 toifes, not much lefs than 250,000 acres. This is credible from the appearance of them in the map of Caflini. Franche Compte abounds with red ferruginous loams, fchiAus, gravel, with lime-Aone in the mountains very common ; and I fhould remark, that all the Aones I tried, fome of which were from quarries between Befort to Dole, ef- fervefeed with acids. From Belan^on to Orechamps the country is rocky, quite to the furface much lime-Aone ; a reddifli brown loam on rock ; with iron forges all over the country. The whole province is very improveable, Loraine is poor in foil ; from St. Menehould to the borders of Alface I faw fcarcely any other than Aony foils, of various denominations ; moA of them would in England be called Jlone-brajh y or the broken and triturated furface of imperfeCt quarries, mixed by time, foreA, and cultivation, with fome loam and * Hid. Nat. de la Povence. Svo. 3 tom. 1782. tom, 1, p.290. t Obfervations, experiences, & memoires fur L’Agriculture ; par M. Varenne de Fenille. 8vo.. 1789, p. 270, vegitable 3 ® 4 S o I L. V ACE OF THE COUNTRY. vegetable mould — much is calcareous. There are indeed diftridts of rich, and even deep friable fandy loams ; but the quantity is not confiderable enough to deferve attention in a general view. I have already remarked, that the predo- minant feature of Champagne is chalk ; in great tracks it is thin and poor; the fouthern part, as from Chalons to Troyes, &c. has, from its poverty, acquired the name of pouilleux , or louiy. The appropriating of fuch land to fainfoin is little known there. I have now made the tour of all the French provinces, and ihall in general obferve, that I think the kingdom is iupenor to England in the circumftance of foil. The proportion of poor land in England, to the total of the kingdom, is greater than the fimilar proportion in France ; nor have they any where fuch tracks of wretched blowing fand as are to be met with in Norfolk and Suffolk. Their heaths, moors, and waftes not mountainous, what they term lande , and which are fo frequent in Bretagne, Anjou, Maine, and Guienne, are infinitely better than our northern moors ; and the mountains of Scotland and Wales cannot be compared, in point of foil, with thofe of the Pyrenees, Auvergne, Dauphine, Provence, and Languedoc. Another advantage almoft ineftimable is, that their tenacious loams do not take the character of clays, which in fome parts of England are fo ftubborn and harfh, that the expence of culture is almoft equal to a moderate produce. Such clays as I have feen in Suffex, I never met with in France. The fmallnefs of the quantity of rank clay in that kingdom is indeed furprifing. Face of the Country . THE chief diftindtion that marks the faces of different countries, is that of being mountainous or level. In the language, as well as the ideas common in France, mountains are fpoken of, to which we fhould give no other appel- lation than that of hills : the tracks really mountainous in that kingdom are to be found in the S. only. It is four hundred miles S. of Calais before you meet with the mountains of Auvergne, which are united with thofe of Lan- guedoc, Dauphine, and Provence, but not with the Pyrenees, for I eroded the whole S. of France, from the Rhone to the ocean, either by plains or ranges of inconfiderable hills. The mountains of Voge, in Loraine, deferve, perhaps, that name, but yet are not to be ranked with the fuperior elevations I have no- ticed. The inequalities of all the reft of the kingdom are fufficient to render the profpedts interefting, and to give variety to the face of the country, but they deferve not to be called mountains. Some of the hilly and mountainous tracks of France receive a very confiderable beauty from the rich and luxuriant verdure of chefnuts. To thofe who have not viewed them, it is not eafy to believe how much FACE OF THE COUNTRY. 305 niiich they add to the beauty of the Limolin, the Vivarais, Auvergne, and other difhridts where they are common. There is no doubt that the Pyrenees are more ftriking than all the other mountains of France ; I have defcribed them to particulaily in the Journal, that I would only obferve in general here, that their verdure, their woods, their rocks, and their torrents have all the charac- ters of the fublime and beautiful. I faw nothing among the Alps that offered l'uch pleafing fcenes as thofe of the northern parts of Dauphine; which, how- ever, are lefs varied than thofe in the neighbourhood of Chambery fo abounding in landfcapes. According to every account, the courfe of the Ifer is a fcene of perpetual beauty. The Y ivaiais, and part of Velay, are mold romantic. Of the great rivers of France I prefer the Seine, which is every where an agreeable objeft. I fhould fuppofe the reputation of the Loire muft have ori- ginated from perfons who either had never feen it at all, or only below Anvers where in truth it merits every eloge. From that city to Nantes it is, probably’ one of the fineft rivers in the world, the breadth of the ftream, the Elands of woods, the boldnefs, culture, and richnefs of the coaft, all confpire, with the animation derived from the fwelling canvafs of adtive commerce, to render that hue eminently beautiful; but for the reft of its immenfe courfe, it exhibits’ a ftream offand; it rolls fhingle through vales inftead of water, and is an uglier objea than I could poflibly have conceived, unlefs I had actually feen it. The . aionne receives more beauty from the country through which it flows than it confers upon it ; the flat banks, fringed with willows, are deftrudtive of beautv 1 am not equally acquainted with the Rhone; where I faw it, from Montelf mart to Avignon, and again at Lyons, it does not intereft me like the Seine 1 he courfe of the Soane is marked by a noble track of meadows. In regard to the general beauty of a country, I prefer Limolin to every other pi o vince in France. The banks of the Loire below Angers, and thofe of the seine, for two hunred miles from its mouth, fuperior, undoubtedly, in point of nveis, the capital feature of the country; but the beauty of the Limofin does not depend on any particular feature, but the refult of many. Hill, dale; wood me ofures, ftreams, lakes, and icattered farms, are mingled into a tlioufmd de- K-ious landfcapes, which fet oft every where this province. Inclofures, which i n J ^ UC !* ornament to toe face of a country, would furnifh obfervations, but 1 muft treat of them exprefsly in a more important view. the provmces of the kingdom, not already named, none are of fuch Angular toes as to demand particular attention. The beauties of Normandy am to . ° n the Seme > and tla ofe of Guienne on the Garonne. Bretagne Marne, and Anjou have the appearance of deferts ; and though fome parte of Tourame are rich and pleating, yet moft of the province is deficient in beauty fertile territories of Flanders, Artois, and Alface are diftinguiflied by then- 1 utility* CLIMATE. -®6 FACE OF THE COUNTRY. utility. Picardy is uninterefting. Champagne in general, where I faw it, ugly, almoft as much fo as Poitou. Loraine, and Franche Compte, and Bourgogne are [ombre in the wooded diftrifts, and want chearfulnefs in the open ones. Berry and La Marche may be ranked in the fame clafs. Sologne merits its epithet, trifle. There are parts of the Angoumois that are gay, and confequently ^ It may be ufeful to thofe who fee no more of France than by once palling to Italy to remark, that if they would view the fined; parts oi the kingdom, they Ihould land at Dieppe and follow the Seine to Paris, then take the great road to Moulins, and thence quit it for Auvergne, and pals to Viviers, on the Rhone, and fo by Aix to Italy. By fuch a variation from the frequented road, the tia- veller might fuffer for want of good inns, but would be repaid by the fight of a much finer and more Angular country than the common road by Dijon offers, which palfes, in a great meafure, through the worft part of France. CHAP. III. Of the Climate of France. O F all the countries of Europe there is not, perhaps, one that proves the importance of climate, fo much as France. In the natural advantages of countries, it is as effential as foil itfelf ; and we can never attain to an idea tolera- bly correft, of the profperity and refources of a country, ifwe ao not know how clearly to afcertain the natural advantages or difadvantages of different ter- ritories, and to difcriminate them from the adventitious eftcfts of induftry and wealth. It Ihould be a principal objeft with thofe who travel for the acqui :- tion of knowledge, to remove the vulgar prejudices which are found in all countries among thofe who, not having travelled themfelves, have bunt their information on. infufiicient authoiities. # . France admits a divifion into three capital parts ; i, of vines 5 2, o maiz ; n, of olives — which plants will give the three diftridts of, I, tne nort cm, where vines are not planted; 2, the central, in which maiz is not planted; 1, the fouth, in which olives, mulberries, vines, and maiz are all fount. 1 line of feparation between vines and no vines, as I obferved myfelf, is at Coucy* ten miles to the N. of Soiflbns; at Clermont, in the Beauvoilois ; at Beaumont, in Maine; and Herbignac, near Guerande, in Bretagne. Now there is fome- thing very remarkable in this, that if you draw a ftrait line on the map f Guerande to Coucy, it palfes very near both Clermont and Beaumon^ie C L I M A T E. 307 form’d 1 of which is a little to the north of it, and the latter a little to the fouth. There are vines at Gaillon and La Roche Guyon, which is a little to the N. of this line; there are alfo fome near Beauvais, the mod; remote from it which I have feen ; but even this diftance is incondderable ; and the melancholy fpec- tacle of the vintage of 1787, which I faw there in the midft of inceflant rains, is a proof that they ought to have nothing to do with this branch of culture : and at Angers I was informed, that there are no vines, or next to none, between that place and Laval and Mayenne. Having made this remark on the vine climate of France, I wilhed to know how far the fad held true in Germany ; becaufe, if the circumftance arofe from a difference of climate, it ought, by parity of reafon, to be confirmed by vines in that country being found much farther north than in France. This happens precifely to be the cafe ; for I find, by a late author, that vines in Germany are found no farther north than lat. 52*. The meeting with thefe in that latitude is a lufficient proof of the fad in queftion, fince in France their limit is at 49 £. The line, therefore, which I have drawn as the boundary of vines in France, may be continued into Ger- many, and will probably be found to afcertain the vine-climate in that country, as well as in France. The line of feparation between maiz and no maiz is not lefs lingular $ it is firft feen on the weffern fide of the kingdom, in going from the Angoumois and entering Poitou, at Verac, near Ruftec. In eroding Lo- raine, I firft met with it between Nancy and Luneville. It is deferving of at- tention, that if a line is drawn from betwen Nancy and Luneville to Ruffec, that it will run nearly parallel with the other line that forms the feparation of vines ; but that line acrofs the kingdom, is not formed by maiz in fo unbroken a manner, as the other by vines ; for in the central journey, we found it no farther north than Douzenach, in the S. of the Limodnj a variation, however, that does not affed the general fad. In eroding from Alface to Auvergne, I was neareft to this line at Dijon, where is maiz. In eroding the Kourbonnois to Paris, there is an evident reafon why this plant fhould not be found, which is the poverty of the foil, and the unimproved hulbandry of all that country, being univerfally under fallow, and rye, which yields only three or four times the feed. Maiz demands richer land, or better management. — I faw a few pieces fo far north as near La Fleche, but they were fo mifer- ably bad, as evidently to prove that the plant was foreign to that climate. In order to give the reader a clearer idea of this, I have annexed a map, explaining, at one coup d’ceil, thefe zones or climates, which may be drawn from the pro- dudions of France. — The line of olives is pretty nearly in the fame diredion. In travelling fouth from Lyons, we fee them firft at Montelimart ; and, in going * De la Monarchic Prujienne, par M. le Compte de Mirabeaiu tom. n. p, 158. R r 2 from CLIMATE. 308 from Beziers to the Pyrenees, I loft them at Carcaflonne : now, the line on the map drawn from Montelimart to Carcaftonne, appears at once to be nearly pa- rallel with thofe of maiz and vines. Hence we may apparently determine, with fafety, that there is a confiderable difference between the climate of France in the eaftetn and weftern parts : that the eaftern fide of the kingdom is 2 \ degrees of latitude hotter than the weftern, or if not hotter, more favourable to vegetation. That thefe divifions are not accidental, but have been the refult of a great number of experiments, we may conclude from thefe articles of cul- ture, in general, gradually declining before you quite lofe them. On quitting the Angoumois, and entering Poitu, we find maiz dwindling to poor crops, before it ceafes to be cultivated : and in going from Nancy to Luneville, I noticed it in gardens, and then but in fmall pieces in the fields, before it became a confirmed culture. I made the fame remark with refpett to vines. It is very difficult to account for this fa nor dying with rapidity from town to town ; nor is it eafy for one or two men, 01 even three to effeCt it j many fhould be employed for that purpofe, an paid by govei nment ; for affuredly the objeCt is of great national impor- tance, particularly in the impofing of taxes ; a bufinefs in which all the legiflators that have yet arifen have gone fo blindly to work, that their efforts m every countiy, and in none more than in France, cannot but excite a con- tempt of their ignorance and deteftation of their injuftice. To expeCt that men will be thus appointed and employed, and, above all, well chofen for the bufi- mi W °k Id bC childil11 > governments are otherwife employed in every country. hue, therefore, from the public nothing is to be expected, the private efforts o individuals are furely not devoid of merit 5 who, amidft great difad vantages, undertake a work of unqueftionable utility. Districts of Rich Loam. us piovince has been, by fo many French writers, extolled for its good M ,| r °^ a ^ e cultivation, that I croffed it with my attention every where awake to 1 cover fuch merit. I have already obferved, in fpeaking of foils, that this is u ua y very good; the exceptions, where the under ftratum of chalk riles too near t e l'urface, as is the cafe about Berney, and more ftill at Flixcourt, are not 01 great extent, compared with the rich deep friable loams on a calca- reous bottom. The nature of the country demands that I fhould confider it as 3 18 P R O D U C E.— R E N T. — P RICE. as one from Calais to the woods of Chantilly, where a poor country begins ; and, though in the neighbourhood of Paris, it again becomes good, yet we fhould confider it feparately. From Calais to Bolougne and Montreuil the good land lets at 24 liv. the journal or arpent of Paris, and the inferior at 1 2 liv. ; the firft is il. 5s. per Englifh acre*, which is a higher rent than fimilar land would produce in England, if rent only were confidered ; but our heavy tythes and poor rates being added do occafion nearly an equality. Near Berney the foil, and with it the rent, declines, rifing from 8 to 1 2 liv. the arpent. It would be ufelefs to add always the proportion per Englifh acre ; I juft obferved, that 24 hv. per arpent equals 2 5s. per acre; 1 2 liv. are palpably the half, and 8 liv. two-thirds of that. It rifes to 24 liv. again at Ally-le-haut Clochers, where they reckon their wheat crops at 5! louis, when corn fells high, this is 20 bufhels per acre ; and fpring corn the fame, which, on fuch land, is a miferable produce. At Flixcourt the chalk rifes to the furface, and the rents are fo low as 2 liv. to 5 liv. which would be much under the value, if they knew what to do with it, yet the country is not without fainfoin. At Picquigny rent regains the 24 liv. but at Hebecourt and Breteuil not more than 1 5 or 16 liv. ; here they value wheat at 60 liv. the arpent, and fpring corn at 30 liv. Near Clermont the land is good and the rent high, and from thence to Creil by Liancourt is a vale of exceedingly rich loam. The rent from Calais to Clermont is pretty regular, the bell; land 24 liv. the middling 1 5 liv. and the chalks 4 liv. to 8 liv. The produce of the firft is about 24 bufhels per acre, and of the fpring corn 22. Landed property, upon an ave- rage, through Picardy pays 3 per cent. ; but if bought with judgment and attention 3I, and in fome cafes 4. On the other hand, I was told that fome eftates did not return more than 2f, but this is rare. They have in general in France a very falfe idea of the good hufbandry of this province: Monf. Turgot was not free from the error, when he named it in the fame breath with Flanders -f*. IJle of France . In the country about Arpajon rents vary from 15 to 24 liv. and fome capital arable lands are at 30 liv. ; but here we enter upon a new meafure of land, for the arpent of the Gatinois is 100 perch of 20 feet, or 40,000 feet, 24 liv. may be taken as the medium; in general in the Gatinois the good land is at 20 liv. and the ordinary at 10 liv.; at 20 liv. it is 1 6s. pd. per acre. The product or wheat is ftated at fix feptiers of Paris, of 240 lb. per arpent, which, if we attend to the French pound, is to the Englifh as 1,0000 to 0,9264, and all'o as to meafure equals twenty-three bufhels per acre, fpring corn thirty bufhels. Within two- leagues of Eftampes there is much fand, the rent of which is 3 liv. 10 f and * Wherever acre , quarter , bufhels gallon , &c» are named, Eng’ifh meafure is implied. + Lettre Jur Us Graines y p, 45, 4 liv. P R O D U C E.— R E N T.— P RICE. 3*9 4 liv. the arpent; this yields rye only; the good wheat land in the neighbour- iiood gives rent and produce as above noted. From hence through T r oury, to the foreft of Orleans, is part of the great plain called the Pays de Beauce , fo much celebrated in France for its good hufbandry: — it is, like all Picardy, fallowed for wheat, and confequently there is no good hufbandry ; but the foil is a rich loam on a white marl, and therefore, by fallow and dung, gives good wheat. I have three notes of the produce; — 1, five Paris feptiers per arpent ; 2, twenty- one mines, each 60 lb. ; 3, to the value of 100 liv. and fpring corn 50 liv. The firft is about 19! bufhels ; the fecond is 22 bufhels; the third is the fame nearly as the firft : they agree tolerably well, and unite with what I faw to calculate the wheat produce at twenty-one bufhels per acre. I faw no fpring corn of any tolerable appearance. The rent is from 1 5 to 1 8 liv. per arpent, or 1 5s. per acre. Price 500 liv. that let at 20 liv. per annum (20I. 1 8s. 9d.) On my return to Paris, I crofted another part of this rich trad, in going from Orleans to Fon- tainbleau. I gained information at Shiloar, Denainvilliers, Malfherbs, and La Chapel la Reine: the intelligence was pretty uniform. Rent of the good land 20 to 24 liv. ( 1 8s. 5d.) ; of the inferior 14 liv. (12s.) Price 350 to 600 liv. The notes of the produce of wheat are not equally uniform ; at Denainvilliers fix to eight facks, each 250 lb. this is thirty bufhels an acre; oats four to ten facks. At Malfherbs they allured me that wheat has been known, not uncom- monly, to yield twenty-five mines, each four boifeau, of 251b. this is about forty-three bufhels an acre ; but they admitted that fifteen mines were much more common. At La Chapel good crops, eighty to an hundred boifeau, each 1 5 ib. or twenty-three bufhels ; alfo, that an arpent of wheat is commonly of the value of 90 liv. and oats of 50 liv. Palling the vaft foreft of Fontainbleau, which of courfe affords nothing to the prefent purpofe, I renewed the inquiries at Meulan : the foil in that vicinity, and for fome extent of country, confifts of two kinds, which are diftinguilhed by their produdions, wheat and rye; — the wheat land lets at 18 liv. per arpent (15s. 2d.) and fells at 500 liv. (20I. 18s. 4d.) The rye foil lets at 6 liv. (5s. 2d.) and fells at 220 liv. ( 81 . 16s.) The arpent the fame meafure as hitherto, an hundred perch of twenty feet. The produd of wheat is fix feptiers (twenty-three bufhels) and of oats the fame, that is three double feptiers. A late writer ftates the common produce of ordinary land, in the environs of Paris, at two hundred gerbs or fheaves per arpent, yielding four feptiers*. Paffed Paris and its neighbourhood, by St. Denis to Liancourt. The rich vale which extends to Clermont, and which I mentioned before, fome of which is arable, lets fo high as 33 liv. the mine, or half an arpent of an hun- dred perch, of twenty-two feet, or 48,400 feet ; this is 46s. Englifh money and meafure: much, however, is at 25s. or 35s. the acre, and 18 liv. more com- * Correfpond.nce rure } par M. Bretonnicre. Tom, n. p, 86. mon ; 320 PRODUC E. — R E N T. — P RICE. mon ; poor hills 3 to 5 liv. The wheat produce of thefe fine lands was fiated to me at fixteen to eighteen quintals (hundred pounds), feventeen are equal to twenty-four one-half bufhels an acre; but I know not how to think it poflible that fuch a rent fhould be paid for lands which give no better produce, and yet the wretched appearance of the crops of fpring corn late in autumn would feem to juftify the calculation. Oats, they fay, produce on an average fourteen quin- tals, which is the crop from land of half the value in England. The price of good arable in general 800 to 1000 liv. equal to 3 il. 10s. an acre ; but the befi: is higher. Eftates pay 2f to 3 \ per cent, net; and confiderable purchafes, not be- ing fold with equal eafe, yield fomething more. This fertile vale pafies Cler- mont, in the way to Beauvais, for at Brane I found land letting at 30 liv. and at Beauvais gardens at 80 liv. the mine ; but there the chalk hills take up much of the country. From that place to Pontoife the features continue jufi: the fame : the hills fand ftone loams, that let at 8 liv. the arpent of an hundred perch, of twenty feet, equal to 6s. iod. the acre; but good loams at Marenne 16 to 20 liv. (20 liv. is 16s. pd.) and produce fix feptiers of wheat (twenty-three bufhels). At Commerle the foil is better; the hills let at 12 liv. and much good land up to 30 liv. (il. 5s. id.) where wheat alfo yields fix feptiers and oats eight. The price per arpent in this line is commonly 400 to 500 liv. (the latter 20I. 1 8s. pd.) ; but near Pontoife there are lands that rife to 800 liv. at 600 liv. it is 25I. 2s. 6d. Returning to Paris, I took the road to Soifions, where is a con- ninued line of noble fandy loams in this rich difti i<£t. From the capital to Dugny rents are-40 liv. for the Paris arpent, or 2I. is. yd. and fells at 1200 to 1300 liv. or 64I. 1 8s. iod. At Dugny it lets at 24 liv. equal to il. 5s. To Louvres and Dammertinit links to 20 liv. or il. 9 fd. and fells at 700 liv. (35I. 19s.) At the latter place the meafure changes to one hundred perch at twenty-two feet. Rents there 32 liv. or il. 2s. 4d. and the price 1000 liv. equal to 35I. Here wheat produces feven feptiers, which is 24 1 bufhels : not a good average crop for fuch a truly fertile foil, fallowed and receiving all the dung. They made a great boafl: of wheat rifing fometimes fo high as twelve feptiers, or forty-two bufhels : oats produce twelve facks. At Nanteuil rents are 20 liv. equal to 1 3s. 2d. The price 5 to 600 liv. or 19I. 4s. 3d. and the produd fix feptiers, or twenty-one bufhels. Oats eight feptiers. In the way to Villers Coterets rent finks to 1 5 liv. or 9s. lofd. and price to 300 liv. (iol, 3s. 8 d.) ; and wheat to five feptiers (iyl bufhels). At Soifions rent 1 5 liv. price 400 liv. and produd five feptiers. To Coucy, hill and vale, one with another, rent 1 2 liv. and price 3 50 liv. At St. Gobin rent 1 2 to 1 5 liv. Picardy . At La Fere re-enter Picardy, but do not here meet with the arpent of the pro- vince. The meafure eighty verge of twenty-two feet, 38,720 feet. Variations of PRODUC E. — R E N T.-P RICE. 32 t of meafure now occur at almod every town. At St. Quintin they reckon by the feptier of land being eighty verge of twenty-four feet, 46,080 feet; this fpace fells for 500 to 600 liv. or 20I. 1 f d. What throws great perplexity into thefe inqui- ries here, is the payment or the reckoning of rent by corn. Thus they pay here four or feven feptiers of wheat, each 6olb. and four of them making a lack, as rent for each feptier of land. Suppofe wheat, as at prefent, 20 liv. the fack, it is 5 liv. the feptier, and if fix are paid it is 30 liv. the feptier. In fome cafes, but not all, this rent frees the land for the three years courfe of, 1, fallow; 2, wheat; 3, fpring corn; in which cafe the 30 liv. become 10 liv. At La Belle Anoloife the rent is three feptiers of wheat per feptier of land. The produd twelve fep- tiers on bad land, and twenty on good. On a farm of eight hundred feptiers thirty-five horfes are kept; on another, of four hundred feptiers, there are twenty. This evidently makes the meafure about an arpent, as well as the price noted above, and agrees alfo with the produce ; hence the St. Quintin meafure continues here of 46,080 feet,— but the feptier of wheat cannotbe the quantity of feed for a feptier of land, which is uncommon. From hence to Cambray, the feptier of land produces, on an average, fix facks of wheat, worth now 22 liv. the fack. And the rent is five feptiers of both forts of corn ; this appears to be five feptiers of wheat, or at 5 1 or 27 f liv. and five of oats, which at 10 fols the Paris boifeau, the prefent price is 1 liv. 7 f the feptier, or for five 6 ^ v * 1 5 /* in all 34 Hv- five for three years, which is 1 1 liv. 8/ per annum • a rent very inadequate to the goodnefs of the foil and its product. Flanders . In the way from Cambray to Valenciennes, enter this celebrated province, which, among the French themfelves, has the reputation of being the bed cul- tivated in the kingdom. The difficulties, however, of gaining intelligence in- creafed every fiep, for not one farmer in twenty fpeaks French; and all the way to Valenciennes, the confufion of meafures, both of land and corn, makes t re utmod circumfpedion neceffary. The manco of land is fown with the manco of feed wheat, which weighs 80 lb. being one-third of a Paris feptier; the pre- lent price is 7 liv. 10/— and of a fack, 22 liv. 10/ If they fowas we do, which from their earlinefs, and the appearance of the young plant, I believe they do, this makes the manco two-thirds of an acre, which agrees very well with the meafure I took by my eye of a piece, which I was informed contained fix mancos of land, the rent, I was informed, was five to feven mancos of the corn produced, or the value per manco of land, fix will be 4801b. of wheat, or two facks 45 liv.; add 2 facks of oats at 5* liv. it is 56 liv. for three years! or 1 . llV * rcnt P er manco > which agrees well enough with the quality of the" foil, and other circumdances of the country; it is 23s. y\ d. per acre. For the bed land, the rent nfes to eight manco of produce, this makes il. 1 is. 6d. Between Bou- ^ * " chaine 322 P R O D U C E.~ R E N T.— P RICE. chaine and Valenciennes, end the open fields, which have travelled with me, more or lefs, all the way from Orleans. After Valenciennes, the country is inclofed; here alfo is a line of divifion in another refped. The farms in the open country are generally large ; but in the ricn deep low vale of Flanders, they are all fmall, and much in the hands of little proprietors. A fourth diftinc- tindion alfo is in the hulbandry; from Orleans, nearly to \ alenciennes, the courle is every where fimilar,*— i , fallow ; 2, wheat; 3 , fpring corn. But in Flanders the land is cropped every year. All thefe circumftances are fufficient to prove, that near Bauchaine is the agricultural divifion between French and Flemilh hulbandry; and it is to be noted, becaufe the fad is cunous, yielding much food to thofe political refledions, which arife in the mind on the contempla- tion of different governments, that Bouchaine ftands but a few miles on the Auftrian fide of the old frontier of the kingdom. Hence the line of divifion, formed by thefe four agricultural circumftances mentioned above, and being a real divifion between good and bad hulbandry, are found pretty exactly to agree with the ancient line of feparation of the two ftates of France and Flanders. The conauefts of the French, as every one knows, pu£hed their prefent dominion much further, but this does not obliterate the old divifions ; and it is moft curious to fee, that the merit of hulbandry forms, to this day, a boundary that anfwers not to the political limits of the prefent period, but to ancient ones, forming a line diftindly traced between the defpotilm of P ranee, which deprelfed agriculture, and the free government of the Burgundian provinces, which cherilhed and protected it. The diftindion certainly is not owing to foil, for there can hardly be a finer than much the greater part of the vaft and fertile plain, which reaches, with fcarcely any interruption, from Flanders nearly to Orleans, a deep mellow friable loam, on a chalk or marl bottom, capable ol being applied in all the principles of the Flemilh hulbandry, by lying under the unprofitable negled of open fields, and difgraced with the execrable fyftem of fallowing, never found with any degree of regularity, but to the bamlhment of adequate produd, profit, and improvement. Palling Valenciennes, the flax lands of St. Amand prefent themfelves : they fpeak of them, on the fpot, as being the moft celebrated in Europe,— and k the accounts I received at feveral towns juftified the report; but this fubjed being diftindly treated, I have only to obferve, that a quaitier of arable land, containing one hundred verge of twenty feet, or 40,000 feet, fells at 3350 liv. equal to 56I. 10s. 6d. and the rent is 36 liv. for the farm all round per quartier, or il. 9s. 9d. — Another account I received, made the average rent of farms 30 liv. or il. 6s. 3 id. and the price 1200 liv. (50I. 4s. 6d.) The produd of wheat twenty-five to thirty-lix rneafures per quartier, each 50 lb. Thirty fuch meafures are equal (as the pound here is nearly the fame as the English) to twenty-four bulhels. Not a r ' great PROtDUC E.— R E N T.~ P RICE. 323 great produce; but the land is better adapted to flax, than it is to wheat. At Orchies, repeating my enquiries, find, that land is meafured by the centier, a fquare of one hundred feet, four of which make a quartier, and four quartiers a bonier. This is therefore the fame meafiire as at St. Amand’s. Rent in com- mon 24 liv. the quartier, equal to il. is. but fome at 30 liv. or il. 5s. id. And the price of land 1200 liv. the quartier, equal to 50I. 6s. The meafure of wheat is the boifeau of 36 to 401b. four of which make a razier or coup ; they fow a boifeau of 401b. on a centier of land : — this, proportioned to English mea- fure, is 1531b. to the acre, or about 2 \ bufhels. They feed, therefore, nearly as we do. On fo fertile a foil, they probably would not fow fo much, but for the circumstance of all their crops Succeeding fome other, which will often necef- farily make their feafon late. In the vicinity of Lille, rents are 36 liv. the quar- tier, or il. 10s, 2-i-d. Some not more than 24 liv. (il. is. id.) The price 1200 liv. (50I. 6s.) To Bailleul, rent 24 liv. and price 3120 liv. the bonier, or 780 the quartier, or 32I. 13’s. 3d. To Montcafiel, foil and hulbandry both decline; the latter circumftance is remarkable. That excellent management I have admired fo much in this province on the richeSt foils, fhould not extend, with proper variations, to the poorer, feems to indicate, that the general fadt of the whole kingdom of France, extends, in fome meafure, even hither. Is the Same fact found in the Austrian Flanders ? — I Shall always confider myfelf as ignorant in husbandry, till I have well viewed thefe provinces. In this line, from Lille to Montcafiel, there is a great deal of land, which does not let for more than 1 2 to 1 5 liv. the quartier, or 1 1 s. 3 |d. — To Berg I was informed, that cuftom has Substituted a meafure under the fame denomination but one-fifth larger than what we have hitherto been guided by. Land fells at 900 liv. or 30I. 2s. 8 f d.-— rent 26 florins of 25^ or il. 7s. 7*-d. Here finished the notes of this journey ; and as, in the following, I did not pafs into Flanders, I Shall make one or two obfervations appropriated to that province. In the following notes, the rent and the price were both minuted. Price 1 3 50 liv. — Rent 36 liv. 1200 — 3 ° 1 200 • — 30 1 200 — . 3 6 780 — 24 573 ° — ! 5 6 This proportion is Scarcely 2 1 per cent. It is then to be confidered, that the landlord has his own taxes to pay out of this, when, if he Slates his account, he probably will not receive more than two percent, on his capital. This I attri- bute to the number of (mall properties, and the confequentpafiion of the people to become proprietors. They are induced to give more for land than it is worth, 324 PRODUC E. — R E N T.—P RICE. and thus raife the price of that of all the country. The whole province is full of rich manufacturing and commercial towns ; many perfons in thefe are always ready to invefl their favings in land, and to retire to the cultivation of it, cir- cumftances which ought neceflfarily to have the effeCt of raifing the price be- yond the proportion of the rent. In the minutes of produce, there does not appear fo great a fuperiority over other provinces, as the foil and excellent huf- bandry feem to imply; but it is to be remembered, that in other parts of the kingdom, a year’s fallow, two year’s rent, and all the dung of the farm go for wheat, which makes a moderate crop in Flanders yield more net profit to the farmer, than three larger crops in Picardy, or the Pays de Beauce, afford to the cultivators of thofe diflriCts. Wheat is not here the only dependence; flax and cole-feed excel it: and beans, carrots, turnips, and a variety of products, receive the farmer’s attention fufficiently to cover the whole country with cultivation every year : and where this is not the cafe, afluredly the products generally taken, and with them the net profit, will be much inferior. The fecond jour- ney began in the fame rich diftriCt, by pafling from Calais to St. Omers. Picardy. At Recoufle, the price of the poorefl land is 200 to 300 liv. the arpent of one hundred perch, of eighteen feet, or 12I. 19s. 9d. ; but the beft rifes to 1000 liv. or 5 1 1 . 19s. id. and fuch lets at 30 liv. — In general rents are 15 to 20 liv. equal to 1 8s . 2d. the price proportioned. A good crop of wheat, on good land, rifes to feven feptiers per arpent, and is to be confidered as extraordinary; common crops four one-half feptiers, or twenty-three bufhels. Beans yield eight fep- tiers, or forty-one bufhels ; and oats produce eight to ten. It is plain, that this vicinity, on the borders of Artois, partakes more of that province than the miferable fallowing of Picardy. Artois . To St. Omers, price 800 liv. in the vale, and 600 liv. on the hills; rents in the vale 15 to 18 liv. — and on the hills 12 liv. — Oats yield fixteen raziers, each i2olb. of wheat. Near Aire, the price of the belt land 1500 liv. ; rent 30 liv. and fome even to 36 liv. But much fold at 600 liv. and from that price to 1000 liv. Lilliers to Bethune, an Artois meafure of good wheat is worth 200 liv. but this is not general. To Doulens, price 600 liv. ; and rent 12 liv. — Here we re-enter Picardy. At Beauval, the price per journal is 700 liv. (25I. 19s.) Good wheat produces ten raziers of i8olb. (thirty-one bufhels.). In palling from Poix to Aumale, the chalk land fells at 240 liv. (12I. 19s. q.d.) Better lands 500 liv. (25I. 19s. 6d.) and the rent 16 liv. (16s. 7-l-d.). Normandy . PRODUC E— R E N T.— P RICE. Normandy. Near Aumale enter this province, where the meafure of land is the acre of an hundred and fixty perch, of twenty feet, or 64,000 feet. Arable here fells at 800 liv. (21I.); rent, 24IW. to 30 liv. (14s. io|d.) Wheat produces to the va- lue of 100 liv. to 120 liv. (2I. 12s. iod.) Oats, 60 liv. to 70 liv. (il. 12s. 3d.) In palling from Neufchatel to Rouen, price of good arable, 700 to 800 liv. ( 1 9 ^ • * 3 S * ^*) Open fields, 400 liv. (iol. 10s.) About Rouen, much at 40 liv. (il. is.) and price 1200 liv. (31I. 10s.) Eflates in Normandy, pay 3 per cent. From Rouen crofs the Pays de Caux to Havre. At Yvetot, price 1000 liv. (26I. 5 s.) and rent 35 to 40 liv. (19s. 7 *d.) At La Botte, rents rife from 30 to 50 liv. (il. is.) But at Havre, where I had opoportunities of being very well informed, I underflood that the whole Pays de Caux, on an average, 'let at 50 liv. (il. 4s. 3d.) that the taxes deduced 10 liv. (5s. 3d.) ; and that 'the net rent was, to the landlord, 40 liv. (il. is.) the, price 1200 liv. (31I. 10s.) confe- quently, making about 2 } per cent. The produce of wheat, upon thefe noble foils, it is not more than thirty to forty boifeau, of 5 olb. per acre (thirty is fixteen bufhel) and forty-five or fifty a large crop. Of Oats, they get fifty fuch boifeau. Shameful products ! This for the great mafs of the country, here and there are' to be found crops fomething better. I mull, upon this, obferve, that the whole Pays de Caux is a manufacturing country ; the properties ufually fmall ; and that iarming is but a fecondary purfuit to the cotton fabric, which fpreads over the whole of it. Wherever this is the cafe, we may take for granted, that land fells much above its value; for there is a competition to get it, that arifes from views diflinct from the produce which it is expected to yield. And we may alfo be equally affured that, in fuch cafes, the foil is badly cultivated, and pro- duces little, on companion with what mere farmers would make it do. There wants no inquiries into products in the Pays de Caux ; the appearance of mofl I faw was miferable, and fuch as proved the land to be in an execrable fyflem of management; yet was this the country to which feveral gentlemen at Paris referred me for examining the immenfe benefits to agriculture, from manufac- turers fpreading over a whole country, but of this queflion more in another place. will only obferve here, that wherever this effet takes place every poffible eiiort fhould be applied to convert the whole country to grafs, in which Hate even manufacturers can hardly hurt it; and let it always be kept in mind, that it is not the price, but the product of land, that a politician fhould regard. C roiling the Seine at Havre, and paffing from Honfleur to Pont au de Mer, rents are from 20 to 40 liv. (13s. ifd.) Enter here the rich paflurages, or grazing lands, of the Pays d’Auge, of which the valley of Corbon is the mofl famous, and elates with the fineft in the world; the bell here fell at.2000 to 3000 liv. of** I 3 S - 9 d 0 i l et atyoto 100 liv. (il.iys. 2 1 -d. ); the price of others, not equally good 326 PRODUCE.— HEN T.— ERIC E* good, 1200 liv. (26I. 5s.) and to 1500 liv. (32I. 1 6s. 3d.)) on the hill Tides thefg are feme at the fame price of 1 500 liv. and that let at 50 liv. (tl. is. 10 fd.) ; woods here fell at not more than 600 liv. ( 1 3I. 2s. 6d.). Examine a padure, that was fold at 3000 liv. (6 51 . 12s. 6d.), in the way from Lifieux to Caen. In the valley of Corbon, reckoned to contain the richeft pafturages of Nor- mandy, they have been fold fo high as 4000 liv. (87L 10s.), Which were rented at 200 liv. (4I. 7s. 6d.), thefe prices of the acre, meafured by the perch of twenty-two feet : fome confufion, however, is always found in reports, owing to their ufing alfo the perch of twenty-four feet, which gives 92,160 feet in an acre) if attention is not paid to this variety of the Norman acres, errors may be the confequence. Rent of the arable land, for fome miles from Lifieux, 30 liv. to 50 liv. (17s. 6d.). Caen to Falaife, rent 20 liv. to 40 liv. average 25 liv. (10s. 1 1 id.). To Argentan rent 33 liv. (153. 2d.) ) they fow five boifeau of wheat, each 401b. equal to 1 iolb. Englifh per acre, and they reap fifty fueh ( 1 8 bufhels) an acre. Edates pay four per cent, being now, 1788, at 24 years purchafe. Woods in general through Normandy yield 20 liv* but thefe, I believe, are meafured by the national, and not by the provincial meafure. About Ifigny the fait mar flies let at 100 liv. (2I. 3s. 9d.) ) arable 50 to 60 liv. ( 1 la 46. 3 f d . ) . And to Carentan the marlhes are 40 liv. the verge of 40 perch, of 24 feet (2I. i8s ; 4b.), fomefo high as 60 liv. (4I. 7s. 6d.) At that place rent 40 to 50 liv. (3I. 5s. 7 1 d . ) but much at 30 to 40 liv. (2I. ns. old.). If a farm in this vicinity coil io,oqo liv. it will commonly let at 400 liv. ) the price of arable 700 liv. (30I. 12s. 6d.). At Nonant come again to the common Norman acre, arable fells at 800 liv. (17I. 10s.). The rent of which is 40 liv* (17s. 6d.) ) but in general the price is 500 to 600 liv. ( 1 21. 7 £d.) ‘ padurage fells at 1200 to 1500 liv. (29I. 1 os. 7fd.)* Again entering this great province from Maine at Leffiniole wheat produces 20 to 40 boifeau of 6olb. (i6f bufhels.). In the vicinity of Bernay, there is fome of the fined: arable land to be feen in the world, which lets at the low rent of 50 liv. (il. is. iofd.). The produce of wheat on it 250 to 300 gerbs of fix per boifeau of 901b. (37 bufhels) ) but not fo high on an average. At Brionne, the rent of fine arable is 60 liv. (il. 6s. 3d.). And here alfo wheat has yielded fo high as 45 to 50 boifeau, which equals the Bernay crops. It is to be noted, that thefe rents are thofe of farms on an average of all their lands, fome of which are not equal to thofe noble foils, which hardly have an equal. Near Louviers, the rich arable vale lets at 50 liv. (il, is. iod.) to 80 liv. (il. 15s.). Palling the poor lands to Rouen, and by the chalk hills to Vernon f crofs the country to La Roche Guyon, where we come once more to thearpent de Paris ) good arable fells at 600 liv. (31I. 3s. 4d.) but in general, at 400 liv. the rent 20 liv. (il. 9 Id.) and edates pay in common 3 to 3 1 per cent. In the rich plain of Magny, the rent is 20 liv. and the product of wheat, on 3 2 7 PRODUC E. — R E N T.— P RICE. on the belt land, rifes, in a good year, to eight feptiers of 2401b. but in common fix (thirty-one bufhels) on good land. Return to Rouen, and again crofs the Pays de Caux to Dieppe, having my former intelligence confirmed in every par- ticular concerning the rent and price of land in that celebrated diftriCt. And as I here quit Normandy, l may, in general, obferve, on that noble territory, which is confiderable enough for a kingdom, rather than a province, that its character, for hufbandry, is very much miftaken in France : before I viewed Normandy, I heard it reprefented as a very finely cultivated province. Nothing too great can be faid of the rich paflurages which are applied in fattening bul- locks to the higheft advantage, except in the article of the breed of the fheep that are found amongfl the cattle. They ought to be large, and bearing long combing wool ; except this point, their herbages, as they call them, are very well managed, and no want of capital appearing among them. But as to arable land, I did not fee a well cultivated acre in the whole province. You every where find either a dead and ufelefs fallow, or elfe the fields fo negleCted, run out, and covered with weeds, that there can be no crop proportioned to the foil. A iiner foil, than this province in general pofiefles, can hardly be feen, and would yield a very different product fram what is found on it at prefent. The beft lands, fays Monf. Pau&on *, in Normandy, yield but a little above fix fold j the lefs good, or middling, but five, and the greatefl part only four fold. ijle of France . In my third journey, I entered ground new to me, in paffing from Paris to Guignes. About that place rents are 15 to 20 liv. the arpent de Paris (18s. 3d.). At Nangis, the befl arable is 15 liv. (15s. 8fd.); middling 12 liv. and the worfl 8 liv. Wheat produces, upon the befl, five feptiers, or twenty- five bufhels in a good year ; that of the middling land four feptiers ^ and of the worfl three. From Columiers to Meaux rent 20 liv. (il. 9fd). At that diftriCt, and Neufmoutier, they meafure by the perch, of twenty-two feet, or the arpent de la France. Rent 40 liv. (il. 8s.) for great traCls together, and for fmall ones 50 liv. and even to 60 liv. (2I. 2s.) : and I heard that fome pieces have reached 100 liv. (3I. 10s.) the highefl rent I have heard of in France for arable land ; the foil, however, is amongfl the finefl to be met with in the world. Such of thefe foils, as let commonly at 40 liv. fell fori5ori6oo liv. (54I.4S. n|d.). In regard to products, wheat, on the befl land, gives ten feptiers (35 bufhels), and fifteen are known ■f* (52* bufhels.) But the common produce is feven, tythe de- ducted (24I bufhels), much below what it ought to be on this land, which inEn g- * Metrologie. 4to. 1780. p. 610. The paflage is aftrong confirmation of my notes. 4 It is afferted, that on the farm ofPuifeux, near Meaux, M. Bernier, farmer, reaped twenty-two two -fifths feptiers, or above feventy bufhels. Rcchercbes fur la Heuille d’Engrais, t. 2. p. 5 * land, P R O D U C E.— R E N T. — P RICE. 32S land, 1 am confident, would not give lefs than 32 bufhels on an average, with« out any fallowing. I eft im ate the crops I viewed on the farm of Monf. Gibert at 36 bufhels an acre on an average. But as to the fpring corn all is, foil con- fidered, miferable. I faw none that would reach forty bufhels an acre 3 it ought, in a good courfe of crops, to produce eighty. — As here terminate my notes on this noble diftridt of rich loam, the fineft plain in Europe, Lombardy only ex- cepted, for all the level of Auftrian Flanders and Holland are parts of it, I fhall draw, into one view, the various minutes of rent, price, and product of wheat— it is ufelefs to name fpring corn, for it is every where really contemptible, ex- cept in Flanders, and there the quantity cultivated is not confiderable. Average*, — Rent, il. 3s. iod. Price, 291. 1 38. 3d. Product of wheat, 23 1 bufh. The average of twenty-fix articles, where both rent and price are noted, is> rent, il. is. 5d. price, 31I. 5s. Plain of the G&ronne. This diftridt, though of no fuch extent as the former, is one of the richeft; in the world. The foil is very fine, but not equal, I am inclined to think, to the deep loams of Bernay, Meaux, and Flanders. In climate, however, it far exceeds the northern territory. This is fo fuperior, that the products of every kind are much more exuberant, and more valuable, even on inferior foils j and the tracks which, in the north of France, would be under fheep -walk or wood, are here covered with vines, that yield as rich crops as the moft fertile fpots of the vales themfelves. As I treat of that branch of culture in a feparate chapter, no notice is taken of it in this ; a point eftential for the reader to have in his contemplation, as he examines the fums here minuted. ^uercy„ The meafure of land is the Caftonat, which contains 19,100 feet* In palling from Creiftenfac to Souillac, meadow lets at 30 liv. (2I. 12s. 6d.) j the price of arable 400 liv* (35I.) and the rent 10 liv. (17s. 6d.) Advancing to the Dordogne the cartonat changes its contents to 30,000 feet ; rent of arable here 10 liv. (11s. 3d.) and fome higher* At Pellecoy they reckon by the fefteree, which fells from 100 to 300 liv. but meadows in valleys up to 1200 liv. At Cauflade the rent of a cartonat is a quartier of wheat, of i5olb.j reckoning wheat at 20 liv. the feptierof 2401b. this is 12I liv. (13s. 9d.). ToMontauban, we heard of the arpent once more, though not the common meafure of the country. That of an hundred perch, of twenty-two feet, fells from 800 to 1000 liv. ( 3 il. 10s.) and the rent of fuch land is 35 to 40 liv. (il. 6s. 2fd.) At Pompinion, the price of ordinary land 400 liv. (141. 8s.) $ but of rich 800 liv. (28I. 16s.) From * The articles of 4I* 7s. 6d* and 8ol* 4s. 2d* not included. thence P R O D U C E. — R E N T.—P RICE. thence to Toloufe, I palled through the fined plain of wheat I have ever be- held, the fpace at many views very condderable, and promifing to the eye to produce full five quarters of Englifh per acre on an average. From Toloufe to Nohe, an arpent 400 liv. (14I. 18s.) At Ourooze meadows 600 liv. the journal; fome arable fo low as 100 liv. In returning from the Pyrenees northwards, I entered this rich didricd again between Fleuran and Leitour, and here met with a new meafure, the cuzan, which fells at 1000 to 1200 liv.— and there are that rife to 3000 liv. Near Leitour, the cuzan fells for 3200 liv. Towards Edafort, they meafure land by the lack, being the quantity fown with a fack of wheat of 1451b, good land to 600 liv. The vale from Edafort to Port de Leyrac, contains much admirable land. It fells at 3000 liv. the carteree. I was much perplexed to dis- cover the contents of the carteree, and efpecially as they are not regular in the quantity of feed, fowing in fome places two quartiers or facks, each of 145 lb. and in others only if : I am, however, from comparing the various circumftances with M. Paucdon’s meafure of Agen, in this immediate vicinity, inclined to cal- culate the carteree at 70,000 feet, at that meafure 3000 liv. is 72I. 5s, gd. Wheat produces 33 facks of 145 lb. on the bed land, and in a good year, (40 bufhels.) We were fhewn a field that had produced 48 facks (57! bufhels ). In this re- duction, I attend to the weight of the country, which is here no tpoid de ?narc, but potd de table. In the vicinity of Agen, the common price is 2000 liv. (48I. 4s. 2d.) The product of wheat is 30 facks (36 bufhels.) Hemp yields ten quintals on the fame carteree, at 40 liv. the quintal. Rye land, of which there is fome on the hills, fells at 1000 liv. (24I. 2s. id.) At Port St. Marie, common price 2000 liv. (48I. 4s. 2d.) At Aguillon the price of the beft land 4000 liv. (96I. 8s. 4d.) much at 3000 liv. (72I. 5s. qd.) Wheat here yields twenty for one of the feed. I was fhewn a fmall field, that was twice fold for 3000 liv. I ftepped it carefully, and made it 3600 fquare yards, which afcertains the price per Englifh acre to be (155I. 17s. 3 fd.) ; but it is clofe to the town, though never ufed for a garden. The fame piece has often produced in wheat twenty facks of 1251b. this is forty-nine bufhels. It is remarkable, that they fow but one-third of a fack on it, the produce being lixty for one. It is under a bufhel an acre Englifh. At Tonneins the price of a journal, which, by Mr. PauCton, is to the arpent as 0,9516 to 1,0000, is 1000 to 1200 liv. (80I. 4s. 2d.) To La Motte Landron, the very word land in the country bears the price of 400 liv. the journal (20I. 6d.). In one dage farther we are plagued with a new meafure, as it has been fo often in this didrift, it is here 150 perch of 15 feet, or 33,750 feet. The general rate is 1000 liv. (50I.) and much rifes to 1500 liv. (75I.) They fow this meafure with a fack of 140 lb. of wdieat, which is about 2| bufhels : the product from 16 to 20 facks (43 bufhels.) They plough one of thefe journals in a day with a pair of oxen. Advancing to- U u ward 33a PRODUC E. — RE N T. — P RICE. ward Langon, the poored land is 500 liv. (25I.) In general from 1000 to 1500 liv. (62I. 10s.) They fow a lack per journal, and reap twenty. At. Cadres the price of a journal, of thirty toifes by feven, is 300 liv. (56I. 15s. yfd.) And paffing Bourdeaux and the Garonne, in the way to Cubfac, we find the journal changed again; it is to the arpent of trance as 0,6218 is to 1,0000 ; the price of arable 500 liv. (27I. 17s. 2d.) Wheat produces eight facks of i8olb. each (31 bulhels.) They fow three-fourths of a fack. At Cavignac rich land fells at 1600 liv. (89I. 4s. nfd.) but they have alfo fome fo bad as to be worth no more than 100 liv. (5I. ns. 6 £ d . ) From hence we enter another didriCt, and it will not be improper to paufe for a moment, and review the intelligence re- ceived in this region of uncommon fertility ; premifing, however, that the principal feature of the whole is vines, which do not come into the prefent en- quiry, but add immenfely to the products, rendering the inferior foils almolt equal to the bed. Average,— Price, 51I. 10s. Produd, 37 bulhels*.. It is to be obferved, that the reafon why a money rent is fo feldom minuted, arifes from the land being generally at half produce, confequently no rent in money can be afcertained ; but this is not the foie reafon, it refults alio from, fmall properties being very numerous in the vicinity of the Garonne, to which circumdance we mud have recourfe for explaining fome of thefe prices. Land always fells beyond its value where there is much competition for fmall parcels of it, as we have found in other didrids, and the fad will often occur. From the price at which thefe lands fell, their prodigious fertility may be imagined. At Aguillon I was adured, that they have many fields that have produced what I calculated on the fpot to be equal to 9I. derling per acre in wheat, and 15I. in hemp, yielding no other crop but thofe valuable ones in the rotation, 1, hemp ; 2, wheat. If the average of the twelve minutes from Port de Leyrac to Cadres be taken, it amounts to 70I. an acre, for a line of between fifty and fixty miles. I am inclined to think that the riched ride and mod flourifhing country in France, for the eye of a traveller to command, as he keeps the great road, is that from Bourdeaux to Montauban and Toloufe. Parting from the noble city of Bourdeaux, equalled by very few in the world for commerce and beauty, the magnificent river Garonne, alive with inland trade ; one of the mod fertile vales in Europe ; the hills covered with the mod productive vineyards to be met with perhaps in the world ; the towns frequent and opulent ; the whole country an incedant village, and all gilt and invigorated by a genial fun. He who has not viewed this animated fcenery has not feen the fined thing in France. Flanders, with all its fertility of foil, has the foggy climate of the N. and yields a coup d' ceil every where fiat and fombre , nor are her productions, flax ex- cepted, of equal value. * Rejecting the articles of 155I, 17s, 3d, and 5I, ns. 6d. and alfo the produce of 57I bufhels. Plain P R O D U C E.~R E N T.— P RICE* Plain of Alface . I entered this rich plain at Wiltenheim, where the meafure of land is one hundred verge, at twenty-two feet; the price from 1500 to2oooliv. (61I. 5s.) Good wheat crops twelve facks of 1901b. (thirty-three bufhels). Poppies are much cultivated here as well as in Flanders and Artois ; they yield fix facks, at 30 liv. a fack ( 61 . 6s.) The wheat of the year through this country I fhould guefs, from its appearance, at three and a half quarters per acre, and the barley at five. From hence to Strafbourg is by one of the richefl and bed; culti- vated plains to be feen, crouded with crops in endlefs and quick fucceffion. Land not immediately contiguous to that city, defigned for gardens, but not planted, fells at 2000 liv. the arpent of 24,000 feet (13 81 . 5s. id.) Arable land in general, and it appears to be almoff all fo, 600 to 800 liv. (48I. 9s. 9fd.) ; on fuch land wheat yields four facks of 180 lb. (20 bufhels) which is inade- quate to the foil ; barley and beans fix facks. They fow 60 lb. of w ? heat (ioolb.), and half that quantity, by meafure, of beans. Effates here, as in all the rich diflriCts where the divifion of property is great, pay but little intereff for money, in general 2| to 3 per cent. About Benfelt the price of land rifes to 1200 liv. (58I. 6s. 8d.) and lets at 24 liv. on an average (il. 3s. 4d.), but this is farms through, one with another. Eftates pay no more than %\ per cent. At Schelefladt the average price of arable is 300 liv. (14I 11s. 8d.), but there are fome pieces that rife to 1000 liv. (48I. 12s. 2fd.) Wheat yields five facks of 1901b. (twenty-five bufhels) ; barley fix; beans fix to eight; and maiz five to fix. Upon the whole, this plain of Alface, though the foil is exceedingly fer- tile, and the cultivation very excellent, is not fo productive, with a much better climate, as Flanders, and not comparable to the Garonne ; it is,- however, proper to obferve, that I was not in the part of the province where hemp is a principal article of culture, for which it is famous ; there I fliould probably have found the lands more productive. On an average good land may be reck- oned at 50I. per acre. Plain of Limagne. Amidft the mountains of the province of Auvergne, which are moftly volcanic, there is a fmall but level plain, which fome of the French naturalifts think was once a lake, and fome, who feem to have more probability in their fuppofition, that it is the gift of the river Allier that runs through it, having wa fired from the great region of mountains, from which itfelf and its kindred ftreams flow, that rich mud or fediment of which this plain, to a confiderable depth, is formed. I was firewn fome places where the river feemed, even to the eye, to be in the aCt of railing its bed by depositions of mud, which in the memory of man has formed folid ground. It is not vconderful that a plain of this nature and origin fliould be of extraordinary fertility ; it was reprefented to me as by far the mod U u 2 fertile PRODUC E.— R E N T .— V RICE. m fertile diftrift in all France, and it will remain a queftion whether the idea be not a juft one. I entered this beautiful plain at Riom, from whence to Mont - ferrand arable fells from 1000 to 1200 liv. the fepteree of eight hundred toifes (64I. 3s. 4c!.) j fome lands are known to have been fold even for 4000 liv . ; and to Clermont the average of arable lands 800 liv. (46I. 13s. 4d.), much riling higher. Meadows near Clermont fell to 1500 liv. the arpent of dx hundred toifes (116I. 13s. 4d.) ; the medium of meadows is 1200 liv. (98I. 6s. 8d. ) ♦ the rent 50 liv. (3I. 17s. 9 1 d . ) and that of arable 30 to 40 liv. (2I. 14s. 7 f d. ) The produce of wheat from feven to ten times the feed, which, for the land, is no- thing at all ; but I met afterwards with fomething of an explanation, that the belt lands are too rich for that grain, giving little befide draw; for which rea- fon they fow rye on the bell foils, and wheat only on the word:: — barley gives fifteen feeds. From Vertaifon to Chauriet price 2400 liv. for eight hundred, toifes (140I. 12s.) At Izoire and its vicinity good arable 800 liv. the fepteree of eight cartonats, each one hundred and fifty toifes, 43,200 feet (31I. 2s. 4d.) ; bad arable 400 liv. (15I. ns. ifd.) ; watered gardens and hemp grounds 2000 liv. ( 79 1 - 5s. 9fd .) ; watered meadows 1200 liv. (46I. 13s. 5 §d. ) but thefe, if alfo planted with apples and well inclofed, will yield 2000 to 30ooliv. (97I. 12s. 3d.) The feptier of wheat is eight cartonats, each of 321b.; of thefe they fow fix of wheat (1731b.) and they gain forty-eight (23 bufhels) ; of rye they fow fix car- tonats alfo, and they gain fixty (29 bufhels) ; of barley they fow eight and get Hxty-four of the fame meafures ; of oats they fow eight, and the crop is eighty (which is about feventy-two of fuch meafures per acre, or more than thirty-fix bufhels) ; and in their tillage they keep eight working oxen to one hundred fep- terees of land. In this plain of Limagne, which, bv the way, never repofes in a fallow, we are to regard the price at which the land fells. Cultivation is fo ill underftood here, and I faw fuch execrable ploughing, that I am clear the produds of common crops are not by half, certainly by one-third, equal to what they ought to be, except in cafes of meadow, hemp grounds, gardens, or orchards, in all which the management is excellent, and the produce adequate to the foil and culture. The price of the land riles very high indeed ; the bed arable may be calculated on an average at about 60I. One circumdance de- mands particular attention, relative to the Limagne, which is its fituation be- ing cut off from all immediate connedion with the fea, any inland navigation, or any great city*, or even any confiderable manufadure, for the fabrics of Auvergne are of no account. It is a circumdance from which political con- clufions may be drawn, that agriculture is here able to fupport itfelf without * I have read of apples being fent from Auvergne to Paris for fale ; it may be fo, but the obfer- vatiop in the text is little affe&ed by it ; they muft be particular forts to fupply, at a high price, the demand of luxurious confumption. the P R O D U C E.— R E N T.— P RICE. 333 the aid of any of thole affiftants commonly fuppofed to be fo elfentially necef- fary to give a value to landed property. Upon thefe four principal diftriCts of the fertile plains of France, to dwell on general obfervations woyld be ufelefs; I lhall not, however, quit them without remarking the fimilanty which may be found between them, diftant and un- connected as they are with relation to each other. In the chapter of the general produce of France, it appears, that the propor- tion of thefe plains to each other, is as follows : — DiftriCt of the N. E. 57. The Garrone 24.- — Alface 2. — The Limagne is not equal to 1. — I mention them heie, not to draw an average of the whole, becaufe I do not conceive the data to be ample enough for that : but to caution the reader againft fuppoling, that a proportion of the plain of the Garonne, equal to twenty-four in this table, is of the value of 51I. 10s. per acre. My journey was fo much on the richeft part of that plain on the river, that the foil is, beyond queftion, fuperior to what it is on an av^iage, of io large an extent as the number twenty-four here marks.— The fame objection does not hold in relation to the north eaftern diflriCt, which is more equal: that may very generally be averaged at about 30I. an acre : and the better parts or the plain of the Garonne, at 31I. 10s. The good land in Al- face at 50I. and in the Limagne at 60I. And when it is confidered that thefe plains, including the Bas Poitou, amount to twenty-eight millions of acres ; that is, to a larger extent, by about a fifth, than is to be found in the kingdoms either of Scotland, Ireland, or Portugal — a faCt which mud necefiarily give us a very high idea of the natural fertility of this noble kingdom, as well as of the internal wealth that fupports iuch immenfe tracks of land, at fo vaffc a price. District of Heath. It is abfolutely necefiary to explain one circumftance to the reader, without whicn, he would form a very erroneous judgment from the following notes: - I he tide of heath is not unaptly given to the countries I now treat of. The quan- tity of aCtual wafte, producing heath or ling (erica vulgaris ), is immenfe ; and independent of this, the general afpeCt of the country prefents a widely threading gloomy view from vafl tracks of cultivated lands having been exhaufted and abandoned to fpontaneous growths. In fuch countries, the real average rent, or value, or produce, is not to be attained. Converfe with any perfon on the topics of agriculture, and you will always find him referring to the land actually profitable at the piefent time, of which there are every where tracks that never are abandoned, and which bear a value that has nothing in common with the country in general. Sometimes, with difficulty, I got precife ideas of the price, &c. of the waftes, but thefe notes I lhall give under the head of wafte land, a very 334 PRODUC E.— R E N T— P RICE. a very important article, and highly deferving the attention of fuch as wifli to cul- tivate the mod; profitable fields of French agriculture. Normandy, notwith- ftanding its general fertility, has a large diflridt contiguous to the weflern coafl, which, though much better than Bretagne, has more refemblance to it than to the richer parts which we have defcribed ; I therefore unite them here. This diftridt is entered before Vologne, in the road to Cherbourg. At Carentan, theie are fome rich paflures, but none afterwards, and a decilive change of foil. Rent 5 to 6 liv. (8s.) ; but good land to 1 5 liv. (il. is. iod.). Carentan to Pery, 5 to 10 liv. (10s. ii jd.). * Coutances to Granville 12 liv. (17s. 6d.). Bretagne . From thence, in the way to Doll, enter this province. The price of good land 500 or 600 liv. (19I. 12s. 9-id.) the journal of two Norman verge, or 46,080 feet. Bad land, but cultivated, price 300 liv. (iol. 18s. pd.) ; the good lets at 25 liv. (18s. 2{-d.) 3 proaua of wheat 20 boiieau of 721b. (20 bufhels.). From Hede to Rennes rent of middling land 10 liv. (7s. 4*d.) > but borne r if £s to 20 and 30 liv. (18s. 2|d.) ; fells at twenty- five years purchafe, and pays 3 per cent. At Rennes, and its vicinity, rents, near the town, 50 liv. (il. 16s. 5d.). At a diftance commonly about 12 liv. (8s. pd*) but fome to 30 liv. il. 2s. id.). Wafles, landesy to be had for ever at 10 f. Of wheat, they fow five boifeau of 4olb. ( 1 661 b. ) . Of buck-wheat, they fow one one-half boifeau, and gain thirty- two. At St. Brieux fpots near the town, of very rich land, fell at 2000 to 3000 liv. (pil* 1 os. 5d.) and let at 80 to 100 liv. (3k 5 s * 7 *^*)* beat, on fucii land produces up to 90 boifeau, of 401b. (50 bufhels). Price at a diflance from the town 300 liv. (iol. 18s.) 3 and lets at 12 liv. (8s. pd.). At Morlaix improved land lets at 20 to 30 liv. but the rough wafles are thrown into the bargain. At Brefl I was informed, that the bifhoprics of St. Pol de Leon and Traguer do not, on an average of cultivated land, let at more 'than 12 to 15 liv. (9s. 7^*) J bat they have good land that rifes to 20 and 24 liv. (1 5s. iod.). Three-fourths of all Bretagne wafle, and half of thofe bifhoprics, which are the richefl paits of the province. At Rofporden they have meadows, in their wafle country, that let at 24 liv. (17s. 6d.) and that fell at 600 or 700 liv. (24I. 13s. nd.) ; but large tracks cultivated, that would not yield more than from 100 to 1 50 liv. (4I. iis. id.). At Quimperl no rent per journal known; farms are taken in the lump, rough, wafle, and good land. In the neighbourhood of Mufilac the befl improved meadows fell at 1500 liv. (6 5I. 12s. 6d.) ; almofr incredible in a country where wafles are to be had at 10 j. capable of yielding fainfoin and other graffes. At Auvergnac wheat yields eight feptiwt of 2401b. (26 1 bufhels) ; but this is on good land, and a fine crop ; average five feptiers. Meadows fells at 1200 liv. (43I.15S); but arable not more than 400 liv. Eflates pay 5 percent.; and fome more. Of thirty-nine parts of Bretagne, twenty-four are wafle. Ar- PRODUC E. — R E N T.— P RICE. 335 rive at the great city of Nantes, near which rents are 60 liv. (2I. 3s. 9c!.) ; but at a didance 20 to 30 liv. (i 8s. 3d.) I cannot quit this immenfe province of Bretagne without remarking, that in mod: circumdances it wears a lingular afpedt. The products, which are not to be colleded fo much from thefe notes, as from a ge- neral idea formed from having viewed it, are contemptible ; and the tolerable rent which appears in fome of thefe minutes, with the immenfe value put upon fcraps of very good land, as at Brieux, and every where for good meadow, are all three equal proofs of the poor and miferable date in which agriculture is found throughout this province, St. Pol de Leon alone excepted, where are fome exer- tions that mark a better fpirit. But the circumdance of half a province being wade, and to be rented for ever at 10 f, a journal, of near live roods Englilh ; which is every where maritime, abounding with ports and commerce, and hav- ing in it the royal ports of Bred and l’Orient ; the great city of Nantes, and the very commercial one of St. Maloes ; containing in its bofom one of the greated linen manufactures in Europe ; enjoying privileges and freedom from taxation beyond any other province ; and yet, with all thefe palpable advantages, which ought to give the greated activity and vigour, according to received ideas, the whole forms a picture of mifery hardly to be equalled in the whole kingdom, in point of a contemptible culture. The trifle and wretched Sologne is, I think, fuperior. It is necedary that this faCt diould be in the reader’s con- templation, while he refieCts on the produce, rent, and price of land in Bre- tagne ; but the developement of the circumdances, that caufe fo extraordinary a fpeCtacle, will be treated of, when I attempt to explain the political principles that have governed agriculture in France. Anjou, There is not much didin&ion between this province and the preceding ; the quantity of heath and wades is immenfe, but it has not, in the line I travelled, fo fombre and negleded an appearance. In the neighbourhood of Angers and Mignianne, the meafures are the arpent of Anjou, which contains an hundred cords of twenty-five feet, or 62,500 feet. But the journal is more commonly ufed, which is eighty of thefe cords, or 50,000 feet. Of wheat, they low eight boifeau of 2 81 b. ( lyalb. per acre) ; and get forty-eight (iybudrels). At Duretal, rye land fells at 1 00 liv. the boifelee. From thence to Le Mans, there is fuch a mixture of heaths and wades to fo great an extent, that what I have to offer concerning it will come in more properly under the head of wade lands. I ought not to begin the detail of this didriCt without obferving, that as a confiderable ' part of it is within what may be called the roots of the Pyrenees, which confid of rough tra&s of mountains, interfedled^by rich and cultivated v allies, 3j6 P R O D U C E. — R E N T\— P RICE. vallies, the prices minuted will have, as in many other cafes, a reference more to the latter than to the former; the generic term, land, will always be applied to thofe fields in the contemplation of the perfon .that lpeaks ; as for wafte mountains it is, when let, thrown into the bargain. The prices may run ap- parently high, and yet the country, taken in general, not a tenth part cultivated. At the famous valley of Cam pan and near Bagnere they meafure by the journal of feven hundred Cannes, each canne eight pann of eight inches. Land in cul- ture fells on the hills at 300 or 400 liv. (30I. 12s. 6d.) ; in the country between Bagnere and Lourd the journal of arable fells at 240 liv. (21 1 .) Maiz here is worth 40 liv. the journal (3I. 10s.) Such land lets at 1 5 liv. (il. 6s. 3d.) ; and the foils that yields and lets at thofefums, fells at 300 liv. (26I. 5s.) paying 5 per cent. At Lefcu the arpent fells in the vale at 500 liv. From Pau, in Bearn, to Monen, an arpent that is fown with four meafures each of 364b. fells for from 300 to 400 liv. ; this may be calculated, without apprehenfion, about an Englilh acre (15I. 8s. 3d.) From Navareen to Sauveterre the fame meafure by feed continues ; wheat produces forty meafures, which, if my conjecture is right, equals twenty-four bufhels per acre ; in general twenty-feven (fixteen bufhels.). Maiz, from half a meafure of feed planted at two feet fquare, yields fixty meafures ; the price now, 1787, is 54/ to 5 5/ but in common varies from 18 f. to 30/ In the vale an arpent fells at 500 liv. (21I. 17s. 6d.) but near towns to 800 liv. (35I.) From St. Palais to Anfpan there are vail fern waftes, which the communities fell ; afterwards, when cultivated and fold by the proprietors, the price is about 300 liv. (26I. 5s.) Patting Bayonne I met, at St. Vincent’s in the Landes, fome difficulties in afcertaining what their arpent was. They fow four meafures of rye, each of 361b. and a pair of good oxen plough two arpents a day, which in this light fand, and with their double bread; plough in ridging, agreed well enough with the feed rye. At laft I was ffiewn a garden that contained juft an arpent ; on ftepping I found it 3366 fquare yards, whence it appears that their rye is fown exceedingly thick. Pine land, which is here very bad, fells at 60 liv. the arpent (3I. 16s. id.). It muft not be imagined from hence that the pine land of the Landes of Bourdeaux fells in this proportion in general. Vaft tracks are greatly preferable to thefe, and, if well planted, yield from 1 os. to 20s. per acre, and fell at iol. to 20I. an acre, but ufually 1 2I. or 13J. Cultivated land 120 liv. (7I. 12s. 2d.) Maiz yields thirty meafures per arpent, or forty-three meafures per acre. The produce of rye the fame, twenty-fix bufhels ; but this is a great crop. At Tartafs inclofed and cultivated land fells at 300 liv. (18L 18s. iod.) thebeft at 400 liv. but that is uncommon. At St, Severe 500 liv. (33I. 10s.) It is ever thus; when a country like this is in ge- neral wafte, and the cultivated fpots rich, , they fell them as they would do in diftri&s the whole of which are in culture. About Aire the arpent fown with 2401b, P R 0 D U C £.— R E N T.— P RICE. 3J7 S4olb. of wheat, that is, with two facks, each four meafures of lolh. fells at tooo liv. If they fow 1 5 olb. per acre, this is 27I. 1 6s. iod. To Plaifance at 600 hv. From all which prices of this diftri8oa liv. but one with another, not more than 400 liv. (iol. Rent 10 liv. and produce 30 1 i v . . c on feq u e n 1 1 y pays only 2|. per cent..; but it is to be recollected, that few will hire. land on inch elevated, fpots it is generally in the hands of the pro- prietors.. From hence reach Pradelles, where the meafures changes again-; iour cartonats- make a journal, and fell at 300 liv. but bad land down to 30 liv. ; fome near towns rifes to 1000 liv. . A man mows, and a pair of oxen ploughs a journal * * Mem. pour VHifl. Nat. de la Ffov. de la Languedoc. 4 to. 173 7. Pref. f Hi/L Nat. de la Prov.de. la Languedoc, Par M. Genfane. 8vo. iv. tom. 1777. Tom. ir.. a,dayr PRODUC E.— R E N T.— P RICE. 339 a day. At Villeneuve de Berg wheat yields four for one of the feed, in good years. The meafure fells for 400 liv. Dauphine. At Montilimart, the meafure is the fepteree, which they fow with a feptier of wheat of 1031b. fuppofing them to fow, as ufual in the fouth of France, their crop, which is eight for one, amounts to (23 § bufhels.) Good arable in the vale, that admits watering, fells at 400 liv. (27I. 19s. id.) Not watered 200 liv. (13I. 19s. 6d.) ; the word; 150 liv. (iol. 9s. yd.) Rent of good land in the vale, when let, 24 liv. (il. 13s. 3d.); of the middling 18 liv. and of the bad 10 liv.— Efiates pay 4 per cent. Provence . At Avignon, we meet with the fame difficulty in difcovering the meafure of land accurately as at Montilimart. I mull therefore take the feed for my guide here alfo. The falma of wheat weighs 4001b, but the pound is not the poid de marc; it is to that weight as 0,8375 IS t0 I >°°oo, or 4771b. Their meafure of land is. the falma alfo; but it is not to be afcertained by the fuppofition of feed. Arable land, near the city, fells at 1200 to 3000 liv. Wheat yields eight, ten, and twelve for one of the feed. Meadows are meafured by the eymena , which fpace yields a ton of hay. At Lille arable fells at 400 liv. the eymena , if planted with mulberries ; if without them 200 liv. and down to 120 liv. Pafs from hence, by the Crau to Aix, where they meafure by the carteree of 600 Cannes, — thecanne eight panns ; the pann nine inches and three lines, or 21,600 feet. Arable 600 liv. the carteree (47I. 5s.) Land pays 4 per cent. At Tour d’Aigues, their meafure is the fomaof 1400 Cannes, or 50,400 feet. Arable fells at 200 to 500 liv. average 400 liv. (13I. 6s. iod.) Of wheat, they fow eight pannaux of 321b. 3561b. on good land; but the pound here is the poid de table; thefe make, therefore, only 22olb. poid de marc. ( 1 671b.) On bad land, however, they fow but one-fourth of this quantity, which is a mod; extraordinary circumftance. A good product is eight for one; a bad one four for one; and the medium of the diftridt five (14 bufhels), which is a fad proof of miferable hufban'dry. If, how- ever, the wheat is put in with their hough inftead of the plough, in which way the ground is ilirred deeper and better, they get feven or eight for one (20 bufhels). The beft purchafes do not pay more than 4 per cent. At Marfeilles, the cele- brated Abbe Raynal allured me, that h'e had been informed by many agricultu- res, who well know France, that the wffiole kingdom does not produce more than 4I for one of the feed, on an average. And on my return from Italy, palling near Lyons, I was informed, that that province does not yield more than four for one ; and alfo, that the common price of arable land is half that of meadow. And as at this place I am in the neighbourhood of the fub-province of Brefie, * ’ X x 2 which 340 P R O D U C E. — R E N T.— P RICE. which is a part of the generality of Dijon, I fhall add here, from the informa- tion of the very ingenious Monf. Varenne de Fenille, that throughout that province, the meafure of land is the coupee of 6250 feet, which is fown with a coupee of wheat of 2 2lb. the average value of which, for many years, is 2 liv. but on an average of the lad ten years, at 4 5/ — the common product is five for one (i2f bufhels) ; but maiz yields at lead twelve for one. Before I take leave of this didrid of mountain, I fhould obferve, that by far the greater part of all thefe provinces bears no rent at all, and yields no other produce than what refults from pafturing cattle in the mountains during the fummer feafon, the amount of which is very trifling*. Perhaps feven-eights of Languedoc are mountainous ; half of Provence or more ; three-fourths of Auvergne ; and two- thirds of Dauphine. Thefe immenfe didrids of mountain, abound, it is true, with lovely vallies, but their breadth is ufually inconfiderable ; nor do the cul- tivated Hopes bear any proportion to the parts abfolutely wafte. Thefe vad tracks uninclofed, unappropriated, and generally common to the refpedive com- munities, have no other fixed price than what they fometimes are fold for to in- dividuals, which is noted under the head of wafte lands. The value is too fmall to be an objed of this inquiry. The feigneurs, who poflefs the fame rights, fell and fief them at a dill cheaper rate. The vicinity of fuch great tracks of moun- tains is a caufe for vale lands felling at a much higher price than they other- wife would. In France, hay and draw are almofl the only articles of the winter food of cattle and fheep. This miferable ceconomy gives a value to meadow- ground, which in a better fydem would probably fink full half : and for the time reafon arable lands are greatly raifed in their price. The more cattle the poflefibrs can keep on the mountains in fummer, fo much the more valuable are all cultivated lands. Average, — Rent, 17s. yd. Price, 21I. 7s. 7d. The average thus dated is that of land improved and cultivated, and chiefly vales, in this mountainous didrid. I may add alfo, that the rate per cent, paid by purchafes varies from two one-half to four, which are the extremes; the mean may be dated at three one-half, and perhaps three three-fourths. The produd of wheat and rye, proportioned to the feed, rifes from four for one, to ten for one, but the latter is in watered vales ; fuch advantages excepted, about four or five for one. Ladly, let me obferve, that on feleding Roufiillon, Languedoc, and Dauphine, articles which have both rent and price minuted, I find the average of them to be, rent il. 3d. price 22I. 4d. * The beft mountains in this refpeefi, that I heard of, are thofe that begin at Colmars, and at Bar- celonetta, which are covered with a good turf, and in fummer feed an immenfe number of cattle and fheep. District 34 * PRODUC E.— R E N T.—P RICE. District of Stony Soils. Loralne. At St. Menehoud, good arable fells for 250 to 300 liv. the journal of 21,384 feet (21I. 1 is. 4 d.) ; but fome is fo low as 10 liv. (15s.) To Braban the fame price : but near that place, whole farms through, the land of all forts included, 80 liv. ( 61 . 6s.) At Verdun good arable 300 to 500 liv. (31I. 10s.); butupon the hills fome fo low as 10 to 20 liv. (il. 2s. 9d.) At Mar-le-Tours arable 400 liv. (3 1 1 . 1 os.); and in the way to Metz, where the meafure changes to 22,575 feet, by one account, and to 480 perch, at eight feet two inches, by another; the latter is 31,680 feet, and they meafure wheat by the franchar of 42lb. The uncertainty of the meafure makes a good deal of intelligence which I received ufelefs. At Metz, where the meafure is 22,575 feet, on the belt land wheat yields 5 £ for one, viz. one quartier of feed, at 5 liv. 1 5/ yields 5! quartiers, or 3 1 liv. 12/; fome fo low as 3 f for one. Arable fells at 1 50 liv. (1 il. 4s.) Eftates produce neat 3 1 to 4 per cent, and fell for 24 years purchafe. At Pont a Moulfon another meafure 300 verge of 10 feet, the foot 10 inches, or 16,200 feet. I fhall enter the intelligence as I received it, but fome of the rates ap- pear extraordinary ; I am not, however, allowed to doubt, as my authority was the belt the country could afford. Bad arable land in the plain fells at 300 liv. this is (reducing both meafure and money, for here 3 1 liv. make but 24 liv. in France) 24I. 13s.; of a middling quality it fells at 500 liv. (40I. 12s. id.); fome at 1000 liv. (79I. 12s. 2d.) The bed wheat produces feven quartiers, at 1301b. but this is uncommon; the general produce is four fuch quartiers (23 bufhels). One perfon here informed me, that the bed: produce is ten quartiers, the middling feven, and the word: three ; but as this would make the average 40 bufhels, I rejed: the intelligence, and adhere to what I have noted above. I have been recommended to at lead: a dozen perfons in France connected nearly with agri- culture, who did not know and could not difcover the meafure of the place where they lived, if, unfortunately, the arpenteur was abfent, or non-refident in the town. Rents in the plain from 30 to 50 liv. (3b 3s. xod.). Eftates pay 3 to 3 \ per cent. At Nancy the arpent contains 19,360 feet, or 250 toifes of 10 perch. Arable land fells at 500 liv. (33I. 17s. 6d.) ; fome at 700 liv.; the word: at 250 liv. (16I. 8s. 9d.) Eftates fubjed: to feudal honorific rights pay 3 to 3 1 per cent. ; others not fubjed: five. At Luneville finding alfo fome diffi- culty in afcertaining the meafure of land, I ftepped a piece that was exaddy a journal, and found it to contain 1974 yards, or 15,620 French feet. Arable land near good villages fells at 300 liv. (24I. 17s. iod.) but more commonly at 124 liv. (iol. 7s. 3d.) A good produce of wheat is three razeau of i8olb. this the 342 P R O D U C E.~R E N T.—P RICE. the pound being to the poid de marc as 0,9309 is to 1,0000, equals 23 bufhels j a middling two razeau ( 1 5 f bufhels) ; the worft if (1 1 \ bufhels.) To Haming arable fells at 100 to 200 liv. the journal (12I. 8s. nd.), and lets at 10 liv, (8s. 9 d.) Alface. To Befort the bell land 600 liv. but in general arable 2 50 liv. he journal of Soo toifes (14I. 1 is. 4d.) They fow this meafure with four qua* r R of wheat, -each 421b. (2241b.) produce thirteen to fixteen quartiers (14! are -2 bufh.) The common price of the fack is 16 liv. or for 4, 64 liv. Barley half the value, 32 liv. — total produce, in three years, as the courfeis, — 1, fallow, — 2, wheat, 3, fpring corn, 96 liv.— Rent of fuch land 11 liv. (12s. 3d* )• Ide, the journal contains four quartiers, each ninety perch, at nine feet, or 29,1 60 feet. Land, in general, fells from 240 to 400 liv. (18I. 5s. 9 d.) I be produce of wheat, twelve to twenty quartiers, at 40 lb. (155 bufhels.) Franc be Ccmpte', The journal of Befan$on is 360 perch, at 9 f feet, or 33,507 feet. Very bad arable land is to be had for 50 liv. (2I. 1 is. iod.) ; but fome riles to 1500 liv. (77I. 1 5s.) and thefe prices are the extremes ; in common, 500 liv. (25I. 18s. 4d.) The produce of wheat is two to five meafures of 401b. (from 36 to 5olb.) on an ceuvre, the eight of a journal.— -at three, this is 20 bufhels. Lftates pay fcarcely 4 per cent. \ and in the mountains, on the frontiers of Switzeiland, only 2f . To Orechamps, in the flat rich vale, a journal fells at 700 liv, (36I. 5s. 8d.) All I faw of Franche Compte, is under a wretched culture -> fallows very general, yet the corn poor ; and where there are exceptions, which do not often occur, flill the management is without merit. The culture of maiz is a good feature, but it is neither flourifhing nor clean, and much mixed with hemp. Burgundy . About Longeau, the meafure is the journal of 360 perch, of nine feet, or -28,800 feet. The common price of land 600 liv. (34b I 9 S * 2< b) The meafure of wheat holds 321b. and a journal yields to 50 (4* bufhels) ; but this is an ex- traordinary crop, — thirty are more common (24 bufhels ) ; maiz yields foity meafures (32 bufhels), befides ten to twenty-five meafure of harricots : barley thirty-five meafure. In the neighbourhood of Dijon, where the journal is the fame as the arpent de Paris, arable fells for 200 liv. (iol. 7s. 9^*) to 6co liv. (31I. 3s. 3d.) And the half produce of wheat, which the landlord receives from the metayer , five meafures of 451b. (5 bufhels). The land yields, however, much more than 10 bufhels, for there are deductions for certain expences of cul- ture before he takes his half, as tythe, harveft, and threfhing. At Nuys the journal PRODUC E. — R E N T.— P RICE. 34-3 journal of arable fells at 300 to 400 liv. (1 81 . 3s. 6d.) It has been impoftible to avoid, in this diftrid, general errors flowing from the intelligence received, being much more in reference to good land, and fuch as has been long culti- vated and improved, than an average of the whole. In the chapter of univer- fal produce, which includes every fpecies of land, this diftrid does not clafs high ; it is, on the contrary, among the worft cultivated in the kingdom, after the diftrid of heath, Sologne, the Bourbonnois, and Nivernois, l know none worfe : much is wafte, and more under culture is negleded,, yet land in the rich flat vales, through which the rivers lead, is fertile enough to command great prices, and to yield large products, even with bad management. Immenfe tracks in Loraine are plagued with common rights, which are more general than in mod of the other provinces. Where thefe are found, hufbandry cannot flourifh. The good Duke of Loraine, the wife ft and moft benevolent fovereign of his age, Teems to have done nothing in this refped, and without it the province will continue what it is, one of the pooreft in France*. It is a bad ftgn, when you find, the pay of troops reckoned a great blefling. If you believe the people of thefe provinces, Loraine, without her garrifons, and Franche Compte without her forges, would both be defolate; a fure mark, that agriculture is ill underftood, and. overftocked. with ufelefs hands, or rather mouths. Average, — Price, 21I. 10s. 2d. — Produd, 18 bufhels- I calculating this average, I rejed merely local advantages of the vicinity of Befancon. I fhouldadd here, as before, that land, in this diftrid, fells at twenty- four years purchafe, and yields from to 5 per cent.;' — average 3I-. The average of the minutes, where both rent and price are noted, — rent, 1 1* 8s. 3d. price, 35I. 1 os. pd. District of Chalk. Sologne . Sologne has not a chalk foil ; but I faw in feveral places a very good clay marl, and as the province is nearly furrounded by a calcareous one, I think l am juf- tified in my arrangement of it, notwithftanding Monf. d’Autroche fays it has^ no calcareous ftones*. In palling from Orleans to La Ferte Lowendahl, this moft wretched of the French provinces is entered. Poverty and mifery pervade the whole; agriculture is at its lowed: ebb, and yet every where it is capable of being made rich and flourifhing.. Between thefe towns are twelve miles of a poor flat fandy gravel; for the flrft mile from Orleans improved;., but all the reft in a miferable ftate ; many negleded lands, covered wdth heath. It yields nothing, but rye, the crops are wretched, that being fown is a fatire upom * P a S e 2 4»- ths 344 PRODUC E. — R E N T.— P RICE. the kingdom. Rent of an arpent of France, 4 liv. (3s.) ; but wafte for fheep- Walk given into the bargain, which is of a much greater extent. Near La Ferte 4! liv. all here gained through the medium of metayers . To La Motte Beuvron 400 liv. for 1 50 mines of land, three mines making two arpents ; this is not quite 4 liv. but much rough ground for cattle and fheep thrown in.— Miferable rye and buck-wheat, the only crops : the farmers think the former pro- miiing this year, which I am clear will not produce two quarters the acre. To Nonan-le-Fuzelier, the fame country and hufbandry, and the rye this year no more than one-half to one quarter per acre. To La Loge, nearly the fame, and not one-tenth of it cultivated. They fow here a vernal rye, which is a true Spring corn, that will not fucceed if fown in autumn. It is committed to the ground in March or April, yet the crop is out only one week later than the com- mon rye ; the produce not quite fo large. Buck-wheat yields 8 to 1 2 feptiers per fepteree — the feptier holds 1 2olb. rye; this is ten bufhels upon the land that is fown with two. Rye yields three to one of the feed. At Salbris, newly broken up land yields 12 boifeau of rye, of 131b. per meafure of land, of which there are 1 2 in a fepteree, or 12 feptiers of 1 561b. ; and advancing, rye produces three feptiers the fepteree ; it is nearly an acre — the crop is therefore about one quarter per acre. Upon Sologne, in general, I lhould obferve, that a gentle- man of the province has calculated it to contain 250 leagues fquare, or a million of arpents * ; — and that the net rent of it, without the landlord furnifhing the cattle, is only 20/ to 25 f. per arpent one with another. Another writer fays, the worft lands in the province, fell at no liv. per arpent f de Paris (5I. 148.3d.); he means cultivated I prefume (for certainly the waftes bring no fuch price). I can believe this from the view I took of it ; and furely nothing can be a more fevere fatire on the agriculture of a country ! — Goverment and the gentry are equally to blame. I have feldom feen a country fo eafily capable of improve- ment, for the foil is fand or gravel, and under it is every where found clay, or clay marl. Saint onge . In returning northwards, re-enter the chalk diftridb in this province. At La Grawle the meafure is thirty-two carreaux, each eighteen feet fquare, or 10,368 feet; fells at 10 liv. (il. 12s. 4d.) being very bad, but better foils at 30 liv. (4I. 17s.) At Rignac the foil being ftrongand good, the Paris arpent, which is the common Saintonge meafure, fells for 600 liv. (31I. 3s. iod.) Wheat produces ten facks of 1501b. (32 bufhels) but this is an extraordinary crop, feven and a half much more common (24 bufhels). At Barbefieux they fow wheat two years in fucceflion ; the fir ft crop twelve to fifteen boifeau per iournal ; the fecond eight or nine : a fufficient proof of their barbarifm. * Memolre lur ^amelioration de la Sologne, par M. d’Autroche. 8vo. 1787. p. 4. 4 Credit National \ p. 114, Angoumois PRODUC E,— R E N T.— P RICE, 34 An goum ol s . The journal is to that of France, as 0,674 is to 1,000, which is fomething more than the arpent de Paris. At Petignac good land fells at 400 liv. (20I. 16s. 9d.) but had, by which they mean chalk foils, yields little or nothing, if others are bought with them. At Roulet the arpent is one and a half journal of 200 carreaux, each twelve feet, or 28,800 feet. Maiz here produces thirty to forty boifeau, which contains 451b. of wheat (38 bufhels). Wheat twenty- five boifeau the firfl crop (26 bufhels), but the fecond not above fixteen (17 bufhels); and all thefe crops are on the bed lands only; inferior ones pro- duce much lefs. At Angouleme wheat yields twelve boifeau the journal, the boifeau 78 to 921b. Strong land fells at 200 liv. (nl. 12s. 9d.) At Verteuil the journal is 200 carreaux, each 12 feet fquare, which is the fame as at Boulet; land fells at 300 liv. (il. tos.) being from 20 to 25 years purchafe } rent 12 liv. (14s.) They fow more than a boifeau of wheat, of 8olb. per jour- nal (90 is i2olb. per Englifh acre); produce five (10 bufhels). At Caudac wheat three facks per journal, the fack two boifeau, the boifeau 70 to 8olb. (11 bufhels) ; maiz 4^ facks (16 f bufhels). Upon Angoumois in general I may obferve, that the only poflible method of cultivating land well in fuch a province; would be by fainfoin and turnips being well underbood ; of the latter they have not an idea ; and the former though not abfolutely unknown, is yet fo very weakly and fparing cultivated, that there is not one acre where there ought to be a thoufand. When chalks are farmed upon the common routine of ma- nagement that pervades all France, no wonder we hear of fuch miferable crops* The province does not, on an average, produce one-fourth of what fimilar land in England yields. Poitou. At Ruffec they take their crops of wheat in fucceflion ; produce of the firb 5 12 to 16 boifeau of 8olb. ; of the fecond, fix to nine; and of the third three* At Coute Verac 12 boifeau per journal, on land that fells at 100 liv* For many miles to Poitiers, the country all appears as badly cultivated as it is fombre to the eye, being one of the mob dreary I have feen in France. The products run very low, if I may judge by the date of the bubbles, and from the fcattered hints, rather than information, I received, it does not yield the half of what a little better hufbandry would enable it to do. At Clain the meafure is the boife- lee of 16 chains fquare, each chain 10 feet, or 25,600 feet, which fpace yields 12 to 18 boifeau of 321b. of rye (13 bufhels). The fame meafure of land fells at LaTricherie at 60 to 90 liv. (41. 1 8s.) ^ at Chateaurault for 60 liv. (3!. 1 8s. 9d.) Rye produces 10 boifeau (8 bufhels). Advancing, the foil improves a little; it fells at 100 liv. (61. 1 is. 2d.) and produces 12 to 14 boifeau of rye. Y 7 Pourabie Touraine * At Beauvais loamy land fells at ioo liv. the arpent, but chalky foils at only half that fum. Wheat after fainfoin yields 80 boifeau, but after fallow only 20, I am fo much in doubt what the arpent is, and what the boifeau, that I give no reduction ; they told us the former was 100 chain of 12 feet. At Montbazon the arpent of 100 chain, each 25 feet fquare, or 62,500 feet, fells at 3 to 8 liv. the chain, or 300 to 800 liv. the arpent (14I. 16s. 7d.) Wheat yields 50 gerbs, each if boifeau. (16 bufhels) barley now cutting, and not two quarters per English acre. At Tours large purchafes pay 5 per cent, but fmall ones 3!. Amboife, an arpent of land 200 liv. To Blois the bed; land 300 liv. (1 51. 12s. 4d.) There are 12 boifelee in the arpent, fown with a boifeau of feed of iolb. (157ID.). Sologne, Re-enter this province, where it has no fuch miferable countenance as in the part we palled before. To Chambord the arpent 1600 toifes, the rent ot which is 24 liv. (14s.) but this is the bed; land only ; the general produce be- ing, vines excepted, very low. To Orleans pafs fome buck-wheat, that will not yield more than five or fix bufhels an acre 5 rent of lands 8 liv. (4s. 2d.). Champagne . To Chateau Thiery the vale arable lets at 12 liv. the arpent (8s. 2d.) but the hills are poor, and yield much lefs. All the products 1 fee are miferably poor, yet the foil is a good loam. Near Mareuil farms are let at the third franc,, paying the landlord by that divifion 20 to 24 liv. the arpent ( 1 6s.) Land fells at thirty years purc.hafe, and pays 5 pet cent. At Epernay edates in general pay 3 per cent. The chalky marl of the vale, for four miles before Rheims, has- not much wheat, but a great deal of rye, which is by far the cleaned corn I have feen this year in France, unlefs the poor have weeded the dabble for their cows. Price 200 to 250 liv.. the arpent of France (7I. i6s. yd.) In thecountiy between La Loge and Chalons there is much that has been iold at 30 liv. the arpent (il. is.) and fome even at 6 liv., (4s. 2d.) ; and many tracks let at 2 of. (8d.) ; and much is left wade to weeds, not being deemed worth fowing, that would yield fainfoin worth' three guineas an acre. To Ove, the miferably poor chalky foils fell at 48 liv. the journal (il-. 1 3s. 3d.) and foment 27 liv. ( 1 8s. 4d.) 5, nor can any thing be more wretched than the products.. With regard to the whole province I fhould note here, that the provincial adembly, in their return of the whole, dated, that Champagne contained four millions of arpents, the rental of which, was 20,000,000 liv,. and the grofs product 60,000,000 liv $ this makes the produce 15 liv.. (iqs.)t — and the rent 5 h v * (3 s * ^d.) 5 which valua- tions PRODUC E. — R E N T. — P RICE. 347 tions clearly fhew, that great waftes are fuppofed to yield little or nothing ; for the product of vines, and the lands on the rivers, is confiderable. Land fells in Champagne as it fells elfewhere, according to the interefl expected to be made by it ; the price, therefore, follows the culture ; the rent, where metayers are the tenants, depends abfolutely upon the produce ; while agriculture, therefore (vineyards excepted), is at fuch a low and miferable pitch, the landlord can rea- fonably expedt nothing more than the pittance he receives at prefent. But the improvements to be made in this country are immenfe, by means of artificial grafies, turnips, and fheep. But the fiupid ignorance of the landlords, and the pernicious prejudices they inherit for the army, in common with other French- men, remove all pity of their condition ; they receive the full meafure of their merit ; but the poverty of the peafantry truly deferves compafiion. Upon the whole, the poor chalk provinces mull be confidered as the word; cultivated in France j and no wonder; the proper management of this foil depends abfolutely on three things, turnips, grades and fheep, neither of which is known here any more than among the Hurons. This circumftance is decifive. Average, — Rent, 6s. pd. Price, 9I. is. 5d. Produdt, 13! bufhels. Land in thefe diftridts fells, at an average, at 25 years purchafe ; yields 4 per cent, interefton the capital invefted ; and the produce of wheat and rye is four for one of the feed. There are but two minutes that contain, in the fame ar- ticle, both rent and price. The average is 10s. 4d. rent, and 12I. 13s. 3d. price : it pays, therefore, about 4 per cent, by this account ; and it fhould be obferved, that the rent is not a net produce — for the landlord has his vingtiemes to pay out of it, * District of Gravel, Burgundy. At Autun is the feparation between the various dony foils of the red; of this province, the lands of which are high, and the plain gravelly through which the Loire runs. The meafure is the boifelee, the fpace which a boiieau of rye fows that contains 401b. ; at i6olb. per Englifh acre, the boifelee would be about 9600 French feet. As to rent, nothing can be difcovered accurately, without details, which few landlords would know how to give ; for grafs, wafie, and wood are thrown into the bargain to the farmer, and he divides rye and cattle with the landlord ; as to price, the only information I could get from a perfon who I fhould have thought qualified to anfwer many queries was, that an ellate which yields 500 boifeau of rye, with grafs, wafie, and wood proportioned to the practice of the country in general, would fell for 30,000 liv. At Luzy rye, in a good year, yields five or fix for one of the feed. The whole country Y y 2 from P R O D U C E.— R E N T. — P RICE. 34S from Autun to Bourbon Lancy is a granite, or gravel foil, and no produce to be feen but very miferable rye. Bourbonnois. At Chavanne they fow a boifeau of rye of 2olb. on a boifelee of land, the pro- duce in a good year five or fix for one. An eflate to be fold here, confiding of three farms, which yield, by metaying , 3000 liv. a year, and the price afked 80,000 liv. but to be had for 60,000 liv. confequently pays 5 per cent. At Mou- lins the arpent contains eight boifelees, each of 168 toiles fquare, or 48, 384 feet, and in the boifelee 6048 feet. Good arable fells at 150 to 200 liv. the arpent (si- 19s. iod.), but there is much fo bad as to be had for 12 liv. the arpent (7s. iod.) Ail purchafes pay 5 per cent. They fow i6olb. of rye per arpent (1401b.), and get four or five times the feed. In the neighbourhood an eflate of 10,000 liv. a year to be fold, the price afked 300,000 liv. but timber, &c. &c. given in reduce it to 250,000 liv.; it would pay 4 per cent, neat for the money, by the miferable produce of 3I or 4 liv. (2s. 6d.) per arpent for the landlord’s half, to gain which he is obliged, like all his neighbours, to provide the whole live flock of the farms ; take the price at 250,000 liv. (10,937k) and the annual rent at 10,000 liv. (437I.) at 2s. 6d. per Englifh acre, and there will be 3496 acres, at the price of 3I. 2s. 6d. per acre. This eflate yields annually 5381 boifeau of rye, at 2olb. (at 551b. Englifh the bufhel, this is 2150 bufhels, and at 3s. the buihel is 322I. 10s.) ; the produce is five for one of the feed. At La Palife rye produces four for one. The gravelly plain continues to Neuf- moutier. Nivernois. All I faw of this province refembles the Bourbonnois in foil, culture, and produce ; rye here, as there, is almoft the only crop ; but there are more varia- tions, for oats are fometimes taken after the rye, and there are diftridls that produce fome wheat. The gravelly plain of the Loire, which includes thefe two provinces, commences to the S. at Roanne, in the Lyonnois. I fhall in general obferve upon this gravelly diflridt, that it is one of the mofl improveable I have any where feen ; much might be done in it, by a hufbandry well adapted to fheep, for which fpecies of flock both the provinces are admirably calculated; and I fhould add, that it is hardly poflible to conceive any thing more delpicable than the breed of that animal which is found here ; rye-flraw, the winter pro- vifion, inftead of turnips, is fufficient to explain it. Nothing can hardly be poorer than the metayers of the Bourbonnois ; and the landlords feel the effedls of their poverty in a manner that one would think fufficient to open their eyes to their real fituation. They receive about 2s. 6d. an acre, on an average, not for the rent of the land only, but alfo for running the hazard of all the live flock, which PRODUC E.— R E N T.— P RICE. 349 which they provide for the eftate ; thus they have the principal part of the Rock and hazard of farming, without any of the profit of it y for the ignorance of the metayers is fuch, that it is in vain to expeCt any improvement from them. If in fuch a fituation gentlemen will not take their lands into their own hands, at leaf! enough to prove that the country might yield far other crops, they muft be as torpid as their metayers , and receive from their poverty the juft re- ward of prejudice and indolence. Average, — Price, 3I. 3s. 4d. I fhould fuppofe the rental, on an average of the whole diftriCt, might, from the metayers, be about (2s. 6d.) an acre, from which, however, fhould be de- ducted the intereft of the fums invefted in flocking the farm with cattle, llieep, horfes, and hogs, which is a confiderable deduction. On the other hand, timber, underwood, fome meadows, always kept in hand — vines, ponds, of which there are many y the rent of mills, &c. more than balance that deduction, and may probably raife the total receipt to {3s.) an acre, or fomething more. Eftates, in thofe provinces, pay about 41 per cent. ; and the produce of rye may be cal- culated at five for one. Di STRICT OF VARIOUS LoAMS. Berry . In pafling from the trifle Sologne into this province, the foil improves, and with it the products, but continue, however, very moderate, and far infe- rior to what they ought to be. A few leagues before Verfon, where the Count a Artois’s foreft ends, rye and buck-wheat yield 5! to fix feptiers on the fefteree of land, but barley lefs y this is five or fix for one. A farmer occu- pies fifty fefterees of land for 150 liv. rent. The boifeau of rye is 151b. and twelve make a feptier of iBolb. which quantity of feed makes the fefteree to be more than an acre ; five roods at leaft. Wheat and barley yield five or fix feptiers. Advancing toward Vatan, the foil improves much ; the produCl of wheat 3! feptiers of 2041b. the boifeau being ty\b. y and they fow a fep- tier of ail forts of corn per fefteree, on all forts of land. On good land, the metayers pay half the produce ; but on middling, the rent is a feptier per fefteree. This makes the rent equal only to the feed, and the landlord confequently gets nothing for the fallow year. They very amply merit fuch rents. Wheat, on the beft land, yields five or fix for one. At Vatan, I converted with a farmer, who, for thirty fefterees of arable, and fix of meadow, pays 600 liv. and eighteen feptiers of corn, each twelve boifeau, that now fells at 25/i He has. two oxen, fix horfes, eight cows, and 700 ftteep. His whole rent, therefore, is about 37I. which, for fuch a ftock, appears ridiculous : but it feems to be a feudal rent to PRODUC E.— R E N T.— P RICE. 3 50 to the feigneur, the property of the land being in the man. He fpoke of his whole farm being thirty-fix federees, paying no regard to woods and wades that fupport his live dock. At Argenton, wheat produces five or fix boifeau of 251b. per boifelee, eight of which make a federee ; oats and barley three boifeau. Advancing, find that they fow a boifeau of wheat, of 251b. per boilel^e of land. Upon the whole of this intelligence concerning Berry, I mud obferve, from the portions of feed, i8olb. 2041b. 20olb. we may, in a rough way, edimate that the arpent, journal, or federee, nearly equals the arpent of France, and that the relpedive products which amount to ii22lb. ioSolb. and 10961b. amount, on an average, to about two quarters per acre. M. du Pre de St. Maur fays, that ordinary land, terres mediocres , let in Berry at 1 $f. the ar- pent *. But all rents are rifen fince his time. La Marche . Near Boifmande, much fandy land, that produces rye only, and the crops exceedingly poor ; I faw much that will not yield more than a quarter per acre, yet the fand is good, but it is all fallowed. Produce eight boifeau, of 251b. per boifelee. At La Ville au Brun good fand yields five boifeau per boifelee, but on a general average not more than three. The feptier is eight boifeau, and the federee, or arpent, eight boifelee. From thefe proportions it fhould feem, that Berry meafure continues here. Limojin . In this province the federee is 625 toifes, or 21,500 feet; it is fown with four quartiers of 281b. or ii2lb. (2181b.) Rye produces four times the feed, but no trifling quantity is fown, that hardly yields more than the feed, by reafon of poverty and bad management. At Limoge I was informed, that the whole pro- vince, on an average, does not yield more than fix for one of the feed of all forts of grain ; this cannot be more than 4I of wheat T- The price of land is much increafed ; fells now at 53 y^ars purchafe, and yields 3 p^i cent.; common price 100 liv. (7I. 8s. 9d.) From Limoge to St. George the country is much better than La Marche ; there is fome wheat every where, and the crops are rather fupe- rior. Arable 100 liv. the federee, and at Douzenac 100 to 150 liv. (9I. 5s. nd.). In this didrift the price of land, on an average, is 7L 8s. pd. per acre. The produce is 14 bufhels ; the return for feed is five for one; and the intered paid by purchafes may be edimated at 4 per cent. * Effal fur Ies Monnoyes. t In the Cahier of the nobility of Limoge it is afi'erted, that the foil is the mod ungrateful in the kingdom, and gives at mod but three net for one, but this is an exaggeration. P. 4. General P R O D U C E. — R E N T.— P RICE, a 35 * General Recapitulation. Price . North Eaftern Diftridt, £.29 13 3 The Garonne, - 51 10 o Alface, Limagne, £- 5 ° 60 o o o o It would fill too much of thefe papers if I were to infert the reafons for fup- pofing the average of thefe, proportioned to the extent of each, to be 33I. perr at which I calculate it- acre. Diftridt of Heath, - £.19 18 4 Mountain, 21 7 7 Stone, - 21 10 2 Diftridt of Chalk, £.9 1 5: Gravel, 334 Various, 7 8 9 Average of the whole, proportioned to the extent of each, rejedting fradtions, 20L Rent,- - £.0 6 o 3 North Eafiern Difiridt, £-1 3 10 Heath, - - o 16 3 Mountain, - - o 17 7 Chalk, Gravel, 9 o This table is too incomplete to draw any average from it : the moft fatisfadlory way of afcertaining the rent, that is proportioned to the price minuted, is to have recourfe to thofe notes that contain, at the fame places, both rent and price j thefe are, on a medium. Rent. Price. I. s. a 1 . s. a. I 1 5 3 1 5 0 I 7 0 34 1 1 2 I 0 3 22 0 4 Rent. Price. 1. s. d. 1. s. d. - 1— 1 00 co 35 10 9 O hi O 12 13 3 - 0 2 6 326 3 1 * 1 3 s. per cent .. Loam, N. E. Difiridt, 1 1 531 5 o Stone, Heath, - 1 • 7 o 34 1 r 2 Chalk, Mountain, Average, — Rent, 18s. 3d. Price, 23I. 3s,. fed. This is 3I. 18s. per cent And from hence we may venture to afiign the rent fairly, proportioned to the above general average price of 20I. per acre, viz. 15s. yd. Monf. Papillon de la Tapy calculates that, on an average, lands that fell for 520 liv. perarpent, yield a produdl of 7 liv. \\f. * by which I fuppofe he means rent, this is if per cent. 5, I quote it only to fhew. what mere calculations are worth, that are founded on. fiippofitions. * Tableau Territorial de In France >. Folio. 1789 . P* 9 ’ Produce 352 PRODUC E. — R E N T.— P R I C E. Produce. Loam, N.E. 23 1 bufhels. Mountain, - 18 bufhels • Garonne, 37 Stony, - 18 - Alface, 26 Chalk, - 13* Average of Loam*, 2 5 Gravel, - 12 Heath, *9 Various, - H Average of the whole, proportioned to the extent of each, 18 bufhels. Quantity of Seed Sown, Flanders, Orchies, ib. *53 Anjou, Anger9, lb. lyz Normandy, Falaife, no Languedoc, Cauflan, 192 Guienne, Landroil, 160 Provence, Tour d’Aigues, 167 Cubfac, 169 Angoumois, Verteuil, 120 Alface, Strafbourg, 100 Orleanois, Blois, *57 Befort, 224 Bourbonnois, Moulins, 140 Auvergne, Bretagne, Izoire, Rennes, 1— t 1— i O'M ■ Limofin, Limoge, 218 Average, 16 1 lb. per Englifh acfe. Return for Seed. Diftridt of Loam, - 8 for i. Heath, - 6 Mountain, 5 Difbridt of Stone, Gravel, Various, 4 for i * 5 5 The average may probably be Rated at fix for one. It is hardly to be conceived by what miferable management they can contrive to get fuch a wretched pro- duce ; but as they are univerfal fallowifis, except on the richeft foils, we may confider it as an exact picture of the confequences that flow from this abfurd practice* The French writers deprefs the pfodudts of their kingdom even be- low this: Monf. Quefnay fays it is only five for one on good lands -f*; and Monf. 1 ’ Abbe Raynal four and a half on an average of all. Diftridt of Loam, N. E. Alface, Heath, Mountain, Inter ef per cent. 3 2 1 5 Diftridt of Sone, Chalk, Gravel, 3 * Average, 3I. Various, 4 4* 4 * In calculating this average, I affign thirty as the produce of the Garonne did rift, and then give it the proportion of its full extent. f Encyclopedia. Tom, 1. p. 189. Folio. And PRODUC E.— R E N T.— P RICE. j S3 And now, drawing the whole into one view, we may fay. That the average price of all the cultivated land in the kingdom is, per Eng- lifh acre, 20I. That the rent of fuch part as is let is 15s. yd. That the average produce of wheat and rye is 18 bufhels. That the feed yields return 6 for 1. That land pays per cent. 3 1 , Observations. I muff, in the firft place, caution the reader againrt fuppofing that thefe proportions are applicable to the whole territory of France ; vines, and waftes, and gardens, and fpots of extraordinary fertility are excluded ; and the price of 20I. per acre, and the rent of 15s. yd. are thofe of the cultivated lands com- monly found throughout the kingdom. No wafte, no fheep-walk, nor any tracks negledted, and not in profitable produce, are included. But whenever rent is mentioned, we mufl recoiled:, that much the greater part of the lands of France are not let at a money-rent, but at one-half or one-third produce, and that in thofe places, in the central and fouthern provinces, and in feveral of the northern ones, where rent occurs in the notes, it is probable that for one acre fo let, there are twenty at half produce. This will ferve in a good meafure to ex- plain the height of the rent here minuted, on comparifon with the hufbandry.— Such management in England would not afford any fuch rent ; but as the land- lord in France is obliged to flock his farms at his own expence, the greatnefs of this rent is more apparent than real ; for it mufl not only pay him for the ufe of his land, but alfo for that of the capital, which he is obliged, through the poverty of the farmers, to invefl upon it. Another circumrtance, which raifes rent beyond all comparifon with it in England, is the freedom From poor rates ; to which may be added, the very moderate demands made for tythes. By combining the preceding tables, there appears fome reafon to believe, that the perfons who, in different parts of the kingdom, gave me intelligence of the interefl per cent, accruing from land, had in contempla- tion rather the grofs receipt , than the net profit. The two accounts of rental and price give 3I. 18s. per cent, grofs receipt;— if the two vingtiemes, and e\.f. per livre, being the landlord’s tax, are deducted, there will remain about 3 § per cent. — from which there mufl be a further deduction for incidental Ioffes ; and for the interefl of the capital inverted in live flock ; which will certainly demand fome deduction. It fliould therefore feem, that 3, or 3I percent, abfolutely net, is as much as can be reckoned by this account ; whereas the diredt intel- ligence was 3§. Thefe little variations will for ever arife in fuch inquiries, Z z when P R O D U C E. — R E N T. — P RICE. 354 when founded, as they muR be, on the intelligence received from fuch a variety of perfons, who have different degrees of knowledge and accuracy. In order to judge the better of thefe particulars, fo interefting to the political arithmetician, it will be neceffary to contrail them with the fimilar circum- Rances of England ; by which method their merit or deficiency may be more clearly difcriminated. In refpedt to England, may be remarked, in the firfl place, a very lingular circumRance, which is the near approximation of the tw T o kingdoms, in the two articles of price and rent. The rent of cultivated land in England, exclufive of Iheep- walks, warrens, and walles, if it could be known accurately, would be probably found not much to exceed 15s. yd. per acre ; at leall I am inclined to think fo, for feveral reafons, too complex to give here. I have indeed none for fixing on that exa 5 i fum ; but I Ihould calculate it fome- where between 15s. and 16s. Now 15s. yd. at twenty-fix years purchafe, which I take to be the prefent average price of land in this kingdom (iy90 and 17*91)-, is 20I. 5s. 2d. The two kingdoms are, therefore, on a foot of equality in this refpedl. The interell paid by land 3* in France, is higher than in England, where it cannot be calculated at more than three, perhaps not more than 2|. If it be thought extraordinary, that land Ihould fell for as high a price in France as in England, there are not wanted circumRances to ex- plain the reafon. In the firR place, the net profit received from efiates is greater. There are no poor rates in that kingdom ; and tythes were much more moderately exadled, as it has been obferved above. Repairs, which form a confiderable deduction with us, are a very trifling one with them. But what operates as much, or perhaps more than thefe circumRances, is the number of fmall properties. I have touched feveral times on this point in the courfe of the notes, and its influence pervades every part of the kingdom ; all the favings which are made by the lower claffes in France, arc inveRed rn land; but this practice is fcarcely known in England, where Rich fiivings are ufually lent on bond or mortgage, or inveRed in the public funds. This caufes a competition for land in France, which, very fortunately for the profperity of our agriculture, does not obtain here. As to the next article, namely, the acreable produce of corn land, the differ- ence will be found very great indeed ; for in England, the average produce of wheat and rye (nineteen-twentieths the former) is twenty-four buffiels, which form a vaR fuperiority to eighteen, the produce of France ; amounting to- twelve for one of the feed, inRead of fix for one. But the luperiority is greater than is apparent in the proportion of thole two numbers ; for the corn of England, as far as refpc can ever be looked for ; becaufe common rights ufually give, to the lowed of the people, who have no property, a power of invading the properties of others ; and the omnipotence of the people (by which term, diould be underdood men with- out property) in a pure democracy will give more efficacy to their right of in- jury, than to any right of prefervation. Where the people have no rights over arable lands the common confent of proprietors and farmers might do much ; but how is fuch a confent to be looked lor? — We may alk ourfelves this quedion, as we well know that nothing among us, but legiflative authority, will force men to follow their own manifed intereds. The general ignorance of good agriculture is not, in this refped of courfes of crops, more obvious in the fields of the farmer, than in the French books of rural oeconomy. I could quote fome hundred writers who boad of the culture of the Pays de Beauce, and of Picardy ; yet thofe very didrids are totally void of all merit, being bound in the thraldom of regular fallows, and producing but one good crop in three years. Plain of Alsace. In this flat vale of rich land the fields are never fallowed ; the crops fubdi- tuted, and preparatory to wheat, &c. are potatoes, poppies for oil, pcafe, maiz,, vetches, clover, beans, hemp, tobacco, and cabbages. Obfervations . The rich plain of Alface refembles Flanders, but is inferior in foil and ma- nagement, yet both are excellent. The importance of getting two crops a year is better underdood in Flanders, or at lead more fpiritedly pradifed ; yet we are not to fuppofe them deficient in Alface ; but there is not an equal number of great towns to yield equal quantity of manure. The variety of crops in culture, however, is here a confiderable merit ; and ffiews a freedom from the filly and bigotted notion of the French (if I may ufe the expreifion) fo com- mon throughout the kingdom, of confidering every thing as inferior to wheat ; and of looking upon thofe rotations only as deferving of notice, in which it quickly recurs. It is remarkable that the good principles of management, in jefped to courfes of crops in Alface, have not the power to baniih, or even leflen, fallows an inch beyond the capital foils. It does not extend beyond Sa- vern one way, nor beyond Ifenheim another the foil declining, the manage- ment COURSES OF CROPS. 361 ment declines ; and you immediately find barren fallows on fand that would give the finefi crops of turnips. The fame remark is applicable to the rich diftriCt of the N. E. The methods of Flanders and Artois have no effeCt be- yond the deep fertile foils ; nor the principles of thofe methods, which are to the full as applicable to poor land as to that which is rich. They would de- mand turnips for the preparation on poor land, as much as beans or cabbages on the richer foils ; but though fuch principles are vigoroufly carried into ex- ecution on the latter, they are abfolutely unknown in the neighbourhood on the former. In this circumfiance, as I fhall fhew more at large in another chapter, confifis the material difference between English and French agriculture. The barren fands of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the poor flints of Buckinghamfhire, and the chalks of Hertford, are as well cultivated as the rich loams of Kent and Berkfhire. There is as much merit in the turnips upon fand, as in the beans upon clay. The fainfoin on chalk and flints lay claim to the fame merit as the wheat and hops of the deeper loams. Such fpe&acles are common in England, the fame principles governing the cultivation of counties abfolutely diftinCt in foils i but Rep out of Flanders or Artois into Picardy, or out of the Plain of Alface into Loraine or Franche Compte, and all principles, connections, combi- nation, and ideas are all broken ; you are in a new kingdom ; you pafs a line of feparation between common fenfe and folly. Here you are in a garden • crols a river, and it is the field of the fluggard : — on one foil the human mind feems aCtive and alive, on the other it is torpid and dead. It will, perhaps, be found that this fingular faCt depends on government ; but this is not the proper place for the inquiry. Plain of Limagne. Some pieces fallowed : Rubbles ploughed to put in another crop. No fallow ever known at Vertaifon Chauriet. Rye after hemp, and then dung for hemp again. Wheat after beans, and after rye alfo, and rye after wheat. Plant cab- bages direCtly after hemp : 1, barley ; 2, rye ; 3, hemp ; 4, rye. The reafon for fowing rye in this rich vale is fingular ; they affert that it is too fertile for wheat. Dr. Bres fiiewed me his belt land fown with rye, and his worft with wheat : this plant on the rich land runs fo much to ftraw, that the produce is Email . It is evident from thefe few traits , that they underfiand the right ma- nagement of their fertile plain very indifferently ; and that, in this material part of the farmer’s art, they are backward and uninformed. Plain oe the Garonne. In travelling fouthward from the Limofin, it is a remarkable circumfiance that fallows never ceafe till maiz is met with ; but that afterwards this plant becomes the preparation for wheat in the courfe, 1, maiz ; 2, wheat; and this 3 A hufoandry COURSES OF CROPS. hufbandry commences at no great diftance from Creiflenfac, in Quercy ; here begins alfo the culture of what they call gleyfe > which is a lathyrus , I believe fitifoliusy and alfo jarajh y the vicia lathyroides. Thefe plants are»fown both in September and the Spring, and affift in banilhing fallows. Turnips are there, found likewife, and more than in mod other parts of France; they are a fecond crop fown after wheat and rye. Not far from Cahors four other articles are found in common cultivation, viz. a vicia fativa varietas the cicer arietinum , the ervum lens, and the lupinus albus ; but maiz as a preparation is of much more confequence, and hemp of yet greater; by means of which articles, fallows on the rich land are unknown ; but upon the inferior ones they are found as every where elfe in France. The leading features of hufbandry in this rich plain of the Garonne, are fimi- lar to what I have already remarked in the preceding diftrids. Where the foil is of fuch capital fertility, as to demand nothing that bears the refemblance of improvement, crops the moft profitable are crouded in ; and the land is well cultivated, though with little merit in the cultivator : but where inferior foils demand fomething more of exertion, there is here, as in all other parts of France, an abfolute blank; a fallow is the immediate refource, and you ftep at once from good into execrable management. The turnip culture of Quercy is a lingular circumftance in French hufbandry; I was not there at a feafon that enables me to fpeak of the methods in which that plant, is cultivated, nor of the fuccefs ; but as we faw many fields uncropped, in preparation for it, I am willing to believe that they really have the culture ; and yet the universality of raves in France, called rabbet , rabbioules, &c. &c. another plant, and much inferior to the real turnip, do not leave me entirely free from fufpicion. I thought the queftion merited attention, and I procured a few feeds, which I fowed at Bradheld ; I had but two plants ; one was a turnip, but of a habit and iize very much inferior to our own ; the other was a rave, that is to fay, with, a carrot root (not at all like a tankard turnip), long, thin, poor, and, compared, with turnips, of no worth. They have many of them in culture near Caen, in Normandy, in the road to Bayeaux. It is plain the navets, cultivated in Breffe, are alfo the fame plant,. from the defcription of Monf. Varenne.de Fenille, who fays they are like turnips, a cela pres que fa forme ejl plus alongee The cul- ture of the lathyrus , of vetches, and of the varieties, of peafe, &c. in the fame province, are points of merit ; and the more, fo, as they are found in conliderable quantities on foils which, though rich, do not equal the exuberant fertility of the lower vales. The moil lingular circumftance in the preceding minutes, is ' the infinite importance of the culture of maiz. From Calais to Creiifenlac, in Quercy, you never once quit fallows ; but no fooner do you enter the climate * Obferv, fur /’ Jgrlcult, p. 42 .. of COURSES OF CROPS. $4 of maiz, than fallows are abandoned, except on the poored foils : this is very cu- rious. The line of maiz may be faid to be the divifion between the good huf- bandry of the S. and the bad hufbandry of the N. of the kingdom. Till you meet with maiz, very rich foils are fallowed, but never after ; perhaps it is the moil important plant that can be introduced into the agriculture of any country whofe climate will fuit it. It is a more fure crop than wheat ; its product, in the food of man, is fo conliderable, that the populoufnefs of a country is necef- iarily very different without, or with this article of culture ; it is, at the fame time, a rich meadow for a confiderable part of the fummer, the leaves being dripped regularly for oxen, affording a fucculent, and mod; fattening food, which accounts for the high order of all cattle in the fouth of France, in Spain, and in Italy, in fituations that feem to deny all common meadows. It is planted in fquares or rows fo far afunder, that all imaginable tillage may be given be* tween them ; and the ground thus cleaned and prepared at the will of the farmer, is an invaluable circumdance ; and finally, it is fucceeded by wheat. —"-Thus a country, whole foil and climate admit the courfe of, i, maiz ; 2, wheat; is under a cultivation that, perhaps, yields the mod food for man and bead, that is poffible to be drawn from the land ; for as to potatoes, it would be idle to confider them in the fame view as an article of human food, which ninety-nine hundiedths of the human fpecies will not touch. They have in provinces, where the people will live on them, a fimilar, though perhaps an inferior meiit. But maiz has the additional advantage of affording the bed food that is known for fattening oxen, hogs, and poultry, by grinding, or otherwife pre- paring the feed ; thus adbrding a meadow to feed your cattle in fummer, and grain to fatten them in winter. In fome of the minutes, mention is made of a practice which deferves attention, namely, that of fowing it broadcad, and thick for mowing to foil cattle. In the fouth of France, the climate permits this fo late, that fuch fowingis always for an after-crop — and never done except after the reaping of fome other produce. Such practices fhould convince us of the fuperiority of the fouthern climates ; and ought to indigate the farmers in our northerly ones to emulate thefe examples as clofely as poflible, by adopting the principle, though we have not the power to transfer the plant. I loughing our dubbles not after, but m harved, for turnips, and colefeed, ap- pi caches as nearly as our climate will admit. W e have had a variety of turnips, and cabbages, and other plants introduced. I wifh we had a turnip that would bear this late fowing better than the common one. I cannot quit this fubjed, without remarking, that a very fenfible French writer, fpeaking of the culture ot maiz in B re fie, and particularly of fowing the land every year in the courfe of, J, maiz ; 2, wheat; condemns it: — cesnjageme Jemble pernicieux* ; and in an- Obferv. Exper* et Mem. fur V Agricult, par M. Varenne (le F.enilk, Bvo, 1789. p, 24. 3 A 2 other 364 COURSES OF CROF S. other place recommends fallow. 1 am forry to fay, that this great point of the arrangement of crops is as little underftood by the enlightened world in France, as by the peafants themfelves 3 one can hardly give a more ftriking in- fiance than that of an ceconomifte , who fays, “ clover does fo much good to land, that you may take two or three fucceffive crops of oats, before fowing the land with wheat General Remarks. Throwing thefe feveral rich diflridts together, in union with one which X know by report only (the Bas Poitou), amounting in the whole to a territory almofl as large as England, we cannot but admit, that France is in pofieffion of a foil, and even of a huffiandry, that is to be ranked very high amongfl the befl in Europe. Flanders, part of Artois, the rich plain of Alface, the banks of the Garonne, and a conliderable part of Quercy, are cultivated more like gardens than farms. Perhaps they are too much like gardens, from the fmallnefs of properties ; but this is not the place to examine that queftion, which is curious enough to demand a more particular difeuffion. The rapid fucceffion of crops y the harvefl of one being but the fignai of fowing immediately for a fecond, can fcarcely be carried to greater perfection : and this in a point, perhaps of all others the mofl efifential to good hufbandry, when fuch crops are fo juflly diflri- buted, as we generally find them in thefe provinces ; cleaning and ameliorating ones being made the preparation for fuch as foul and exhaufl. Thefe are pro- vinces, which even an Engliffi farmer might vifit with advantage. Such praife,, however, cannot be given indiferiminately 3 for fallows difgrace, in fome rich diilriCts, the fineft foils imaginable : a country can hardly be worfe cultivated than Picarday, Normandy, and the Pays de Beauce 3 every acre of which pro- vinces would admit the exclufion of fallows, with as much propriety as Flanders , itfelf. In the Pays de Caux, where fallows are very much excluded, for want, of underflanding the right arrangement of crops, their noble foil is full of beg- gary and weeds.,. District of Heath. To detail all the barbarous rotations, which ignorance has fpread through Bretagne, Maine, and Anjou, would be tedious j the general feature of their management is to pare and burn the fields exhaufled, abandoned, and by time recovered, that a fucceffion of crops may bring it once more into the fame fituation.. Great quantities of buck- wheat are found every where. ' In St. Pol de Leon there is a better condudt 3 parfnips are found y but broom is, even there, an objedl of profit. Common courfe, i, broom, fown with oats 3 2, 3, 4, broom 3 it is cut the fourth year,, but fed all the four : 5, wheat 3 6, rye 3 7, * Encyclopedic, Tom. 5. p. 686. Folio, buck- C O U R S E S OF CROP S. 3^5T buck-wheat ; 8, oats, or broom. — This mod lingular culture of broom is for fuel ; the country has neither coals nor wood — and broom faggots fell fo well, that a good arpent is worth about 400 liv. or about 1 61 . 16s. an Englilhacre. But it is of a height andthicknefs of produce, in St. Pol de Leon, much exceeding any thing I have feen ; and they lay* that four years growth of broom improves the land. Observations.- The vad: province of Bretagne, which bears a near refemblance to Maine and Anjou, is perhaps as driking an indance as Europe affords of the immenfe impor- tance of the right arrangement of crops ; a great portion of all the three provinces is under cultivation, even a regular cultivation, however barbarous ; yet fo infamoully cropped > that almod the whole mud appear to a traveller an abfolute wade. It was to me. an adonilhing fpedacle, to fee fuch a wretched date of agriculture in a province like Bretagne, which I knew enjoyed feme of the mod valuable privileges in the kingdom ; which polfelfed one of the greated linen fabrics in Europe ; and which was dirrounded in every part by the fea, and abounded with -ports and commerce. But Flanders itfelf would, if cropped like Bretagne, be- come poor and contemptible. A great portion of the three provinces above- mentioned is adapted to fainfoin, and yet a fprig of it is not found.- Every acre that I faw was perfectly well adapted to turnips and clover, and confequently to the Norfolk hufbandry; but there is nothing except broom, furz, weeds, wade, and corn. Not an appearance of anything for the winter-fupport of cattle and dacep, except draw. Thefe provinces, are admirably calculated for dieep; but the number is too inconfiderable to be noticed. A change of the. rotation of crops is the only thing wanted to alter the face of thefe provinces. It would be an impropriety to fay, that government and feudal oppredions are the foie caufe; and that if thefe are not reverfed, nothing could be done ; for the rich proprietors and wealthy farmers, the number of whom is very cond- derable, as well as the nobility themfelves, have their edates and farms exadtly in the fame condition, cropped in the fame manner, and covered with the fame quantity of weeds and rubbifh. Conddering how well adapted the foil and climate are to fheep much the greater part of all the three provinces ought to be in fome fuch courle as this ; 1, turnips 5 2, barley; 3, clover; 4, wheat. Alfo, 1, turnips; 2, barley, or oats; 3, artidcial grades, for three years; 4, wheat* 5, winter tares, peafe, beans, or buck-wheat ; 6, wheat; with no other variation than taking the winter tares, peafe, and beans immediately on the lay, if the ground abounded with the red worm, and wheat following. By fuch courfes, thefe provinces would produce more than the double of what they do at pre fen t« Gascoign, r 366 COURSES OF CROPS# Gascoign. I muft, in the firft place, remark, that the lands in which the preceding courfes take place, are but a fmall part of this heath divifion, which is moftly either mountain, wafte, or lande ; and that the landes , or heaths, of Bourdeaux cover two hundred fquare leagues of territory 5 not abfolute wafte, but cropped with pines for refin only. And there are other vaft tracks that yield little befides fern, and other fpontaneous rubbifh. In the fmall diftridts that are under cultivation, hufbandry, as it appears from the preceding minutes, is infi- nitely better underftood than in the other great divifion of heath, Bretagne, &c. It is, on the contrary, in fome places pradtifed on very enlightened principles ; a circumftance that muft, if ever thofe waftes become cultivated, have very powerful effects in fpreading there that good fyftem already eftabliftied in the country. About St. Palais to Bayonne, many turnips in a fingular hufbandry. I ob- ferved feveral fields quite black, and demanding what it was, found it the afhes of burnt ftraw: I afterwards faw them ftrewing ftraw thickly over the land. They do this on a wheat ftubble, but do not think they leave ftubble enough, and therefore fpread much ftraw, fet fire to it, and it burns all weeds as well as itfelf, cleaning as well as manuring the land. As there are immenfe waftes through all the country covered with fern, I afked why they did not burn that, and keep their ftraw ? The reply was, that they preferred fern for making dung, cutting a great deal of it for litter. As foon as burnt they plough and harrow. They hoe and hand- weed, as I was told. After turnips low maiz, in this courfe, 1, maiz; 2, wheat and turnips; which is certainly de- ferving of commendation. St. Vincent. — They fow clover among maiz in Auguft; at the the end of April or the beginning of May the clover is cut once, yielding a fine crop, fome- times three feet in height ; it is then ploughed up, and maiz planted again ; after which fomething clfe. Another courfe is to fow rye ; after that millet ; and with this harricots , or kidney- beans. Dax to Tartas. — They have three crops in two years in this courfe ; 1, maiz ; 2, rye, and then millet. Clover, called farouche , is fown alone throughout the country, at the beginning of September ; mown for hay in fpring, and ploughed for maiz, in which cafe it is after rye, inftead of millet : nothing can be better hufbandry. To St. Severe good maiz ; much land ploughed ready for clover. All the men and women in the country now hoeing millet (Auguft iyth\ on three feet ridges, with three irregular rows on each ridge; clean as a garden. 1, Maiz, and in Auguft turnips fown among it; 2, fpring wheat fown in January or Fe- bruary, COURSES OF CROPS. 367 brua ry, which is nearly as good as autumnal ; 3, clover fown in September and mown, fine crops, in March or April ; 4, maiz planted again ; and fometimes flax fown among maiz in September and gathered in April : — no fallow. Ex- cellent! Thefe are rotations of a fuperior kind; all the reft in the diffridb are bad. General Obfer vat tons. What is equally applicable to all countries, that are, for the moft part, uncultivated, or at leaft in a very wafte or rough ftate, like much in Gaf- coign, Anjou, and Maine, but chiefly in Bretagne, is the proper ufe and application of paring and burning ; when fuch lands are in fome degree of culture, but not entirely reclaimed, this mode of hufbandry, properly ufed, is excellent; on the contrary, as applied here, it is a moft barbarous and mifchievous practice. The common method we have feen is to burn pe- riodically, and. to fow immediately wheat, rye, barley, or oats, as long as the land will yield a crop worth the reaping ; then to throw it afide, as if of no further value, and leave it to recover itfelf under a coat of weeds, broom, fern, furz, or any rubbifh that may come. Abominable courfes of crops, like thefe, have brought the pra&ice of paring and burning into moft unjuft difrepute in every country in Europe. But fuch a general condemnation is one inftance in a thoufand of that utter want of difcrimination which is fo pernicous in agricul- ture. Paring and burning, properly managed, that is, in a judicious courfe of crops, is one of the moft excellent methods of ameliorating land ; but it fhould always be made the preparation for grafs, and not immediately for corn ; and it is in this cafe, as in many others, that the man who would with to act on. found and fure principles, fhould bend his views to get grafs on his lands, not ill termed a layer in Norfolk and Suffolk. Let him infure graft, and he needs not be anxious for corn ; he has it when he pleafes. Paring and burning fhould always be given for a crop, that cattle may eat on the land, either rape, cab- bage, or turnip, as the great mafs of alkaline manure fhould have a mucilagi- nous one to adt upon., A crop of corn, barley or oats (the latter beft) follows, becaufe you cannot get grafs profitably in fuch a climate as Bretagne, Maine, or Anjou without corn. In Gafcoign, where it may fafely be fown in September, the neceftity of corn is not equal. With this firft lowing of corn, the grafs feeds moft fuitable to the foil fhould be fown ; they never fail in fuch a cafe. And having a fine, clean,, and uncontaminated produce of grafs, you may keep it as long as it is profitable, and anfwers your purpofe ; and after that you may break it up for corn, with a phyfical certainty of feeing none but crops large in pro- portion to the foil. And in the whole management of laying down, this rule ought never to be departed from, viz ..of not letting wheat, rye, barley, or oats follow COURSES OF CROPS. ■ 363 "follow one another, without a hoeing and ameliorating crop intervening. Let fuch principles govern the waAes of Bretagne, and animate the heaths of Maine and Anjou ; and the traveller will not then curfe them for f ombre , defolate, and negleded provinces, but hail the influence of happier days ! District of Mountain. To Perpignan from Spain, July 21ft, Rubbles ploughed up and fown with millet. No idea of a fallow, where water is at command, fubAituting clover, harricots, millet, and maiz ; but the lafl not in a large quantity. Their clover culture is very Angular they plough their Rubbles the beginning of AuguR, and clover feed is harrowed, or rather rubbed in by a piece of wood Axed to the plough. This clover produces much luxuriant and valuable food for fheep and lambs early in the fpring; after which it is watered, and produces by the end of May a full crop of hay. It is then ploughed up, and harricots, maiz, or millet, planted, either of which is off in time for putting in wheat — and after the wheat, another crop of harricot or millet is taken j two crops are therefore gained every year. But where they have no water, fallows are known, which prepare for wheat. The fallow, however, is made on good land to produce millet, harricots, or barley, for forage. In the whole vale from Narbonne to Nifmes, the principal objects are vines, olives, or mulberries ; but the vale land, wherever good, yields much wheat ; fome parts of it being a conAderable com country. Dauphine — Montelimart. — Immediately after the wheat harveA fome buck- wheat, which is now (AuguR 23d) in full bloffom ; this, on companion with England, is gaining a full month of us, which, at this feafon, gives two crops, inflead of one. With a judicious management, they might have as good turnips after wheat, as we get with almoR a year’s preparation. Monf. Faujas de St. Fond found all his farm in the fallow courfe ; but now there is none, by means of fainfoin and clover. Another moA Angular circumAance, which fhews what climate will do, is, that Monf. Faujas has potatoes eighteen inches high, planted on the ground which produced wheat this year. Obfervations. So far as my minutes were taken, fertile vales, however narrow or inconfl- derable in extent, may be fuppofed to partake nearly of the character of richer diArids. The principal range of mountains here croffed, is the volcanic coun- try of Auvergne, Velay, and Vivarais ; what cultivation I faw in them is very bad, and not to be commended, but for its being carried to fo great an height ; it climbs up into regions, where nothing but the greateA induAry, animated by property. COURSES OF CROPS. property, the moft powerful of mitigations, could poffibly lead it. But in the modes purfued by thefe proprietors, whofe poffeftions are very fmall, there is little that calls for our attention. They are, in general, unenlightened, and pra&ife the worft courfes, with as unremitted exertions as the belt. The prin- cipal, and perhaps the belt feature of thofe mountains, are the chefnuts, which are numerous, and yield a confiderable revenue to the proprietors. The moun- tains of Provence, which I faw both in the neighbourhood of Tour d’Aigues, and on the coalt of the Mediterranean, are in general a miferable walte, and afford no other exhibitions of culture, than fuch as had perhaps be better omitted^ to look for proper courfes of crops, in fuch cafes, would be abfurd. The moun- tains of Provence, towards the Alps, by Barcelonetta, &c. are covered, as mountains always ought to be, with herds of cattle, and flocks of fheep.-— The proper application of mountainous regions, is pafturage ; whatever cultiva- tion takes place, Ihould be abfolutely fubfervient to the endeavours, after raifing the greateft poffible quantity of winter food for cattle and fheep. Wheat, rye, or other crops, to feed the families of the farmers, are, on comparifon with this, of very trivial confequence. The courfes of crops Ihould therefore be not much more than an arrangement of turnips, cabbages, rape, potatoes ; with the cultivated grades, that give the larged products of hay — and with corn, but in fubfervience to the reft. Such a fyftem, however, will not be found on thefe mountains ; nor is it a wonder that the great objeft of cattle and fheep Ihould not be underftood in remote provinces, when they are fo grofsly neglected even near the capital, where all their products are fure of an immediate market. District of Stony Soils. This miferably cultivated diviflon of the kingdom, which prefents fo few piadtices in common hufbandry that delerve attention, offers nothing in the minutes that calls for notice, except the introduction of potatoes in fome of their courfes ; that root being much more cultivated in Loraine and Franche Comte, than in any other parts of the kingdom with which I am acquainted. The ge- neral arrangement of crops, throughout thefe provinces, being the common ro- tation of a third fallow, a third wheat or rye, and a third barley or oats, has relulted from the great quantity of open land therein fubjeCt to common rights ; it is, however, a difgrace to the cultivators, that they too often purfue the fame miferable routine in their inclofures. It would be ufelefs to dwell on fuch huf- bandry ; it is enough to clafs thefe provinces among the worft cultivated ones (vines excepted) that are to be found in the kingdom 5 and, confidering the ex- tent of the open fields, there is very little probability of their amelioration. 370 COURSES OF CROPS# District of Chalk. Through the province of Sologne, the general rotation is, I, fallow s 2, rye ; it is the moft wretched of all the French provinces, as more than once obferved. The foil is all a fand, or a fandy gravel, on a white marl bottom; m tome places quite chalky; and in others a clay marl but white ; and if we can fudge by the fize and growth of every fort of wood, it has fufficient principles of fertility for the produOion of any crop, well adapted to the nature of its fur- face. In every hole, and in every ditch there is ftagnant water , fo that in a dry fandy country one of the firft improvements would be a partial draining, which is an extraordinary circumftance. I have rarely feen a country more fufceptible of improvement of the moft obvious nature; nor any better adapted to the Nor- folk hulbandiy of i, turnips; 2, barley; 3 , clover; 4, wheat; rye has no bu- finefs here, if the land was marled and thrown into the turnip and clover ma- nagement; not the clover alone without turnip (which has been the common blunder of half the improvers, as they have called themfelves, m Europe), but by confi dering a good crop of turnips, fed on the land by fheep, as the paren o clover, without which that grafs is but a poor matrix for wheat, on any but rich foils. The mifery of this trifle Sologne, as the French writers call it; the po- verty of the farmers, the wafte ftate of every part of the country refult. in no inconfiderable degree, from the courfes of crops praftiled ; the leaft and moll ob- vious change of them would give a new face to this defolate province. It is hardly poffible to fuppofe worfe hulbandry than what is found, I may almolt fay through every acre of the other provinces, which form the reft of this ex- tenfive calcareous diftria. ' Where the land is good, they crop without mercy; and where it is bad, they have nothing but fallows and weeds, inftead of tur- nips and fainfoin. All the ideas that regulate the agriculture of thefe chalk provinces mull be abfolutely annihilated, before any cultivation can be intro- duced that can- make either individuals eafy, or the community profperousw It isaftrange fpeftacle to fee vineyards keptm the moft beautiful and gaiden- 1 e order, and all the arable- lands around them, nothing but filth and weeds ; and. cropped in courfes that either render them foul or fteriL A confioerable portion Q f thefe calcareous diftrhfts Ihould be thrown into fainfoin courfes; and the reft in rotations of cattle and corn :— one year producing food for cattle and lheep,, and the next food for. men or horfes.. District of Gravel,. To give any table of the courfes purfued in the two provinces ofthe Bour- bonnois and : Nevernois would he needlefs, fince. but one f eat “ r ^ oun throughout them 1 , fallow ; 2, rye; a fyftem to which they mull be ftrange y COURSES OF CROPS* 3ji partial ; for it is found in a country of which nine-tenths are inclofed, and at the command of farmers to fow what they pleafe. It is not produce and fuc^ cefs that fhould make them in love with fallows; for the farmers are as poor as their crops : the common produce is four times the feed, and they have often lefs ; and with all this ploughing and fallowing, which, according to fome vifmnaries, are eflential towards keeping land clean and in heart, the foil is in fuch a flate of degredation, that they adlually find it exhaufled by their ma- nagement, and to reflore it to fome degree of fertility, they leave it to weeds and broom for feven or eight years, in order to recruit the foil, which fallows can- not effedt. The world perhaps cannot afford a completer inflance of the futi- lity of the practice*. From what I obferved of the Bourbonnois, and I exa- mined it with particular attention, as I had no fmall temptation to become a farmer in it myfelf — the whole agriculture of it fhould be fubfervient to fheep ; and the courfe of crops fo arranged, as to keep, by means of turnips and durable cultivated grades, as large flocks as poffible. For corn, trull to turnips, graffes, and flieep : fuch tools mufl be badly handled indeed, if they will not make corn! — and very different corn from the beggarly rye at prefent in thefe provinces. District op various Loams. It is rather a lingular circumflance that turnips, or, if not turnips (for I was not there at the time to fee them), raves, with roots large enough to fatten very good oxen, fhould in thefe provinces be not at all uncommon ; and yet that the culture fhould hardly have any effects in improving tneir hunfbandry. the fadt deferves attention. I have been finding fault throughout Fiance with tneir want of turnips; and here they are; and yet am I not fatisfied ! So a Fiench- man would exclaim. But the cafe is a comment on the impoitance of deeply fludying this mofl interefling branch of hufbandry. It is not turnips that are fo much wanted as a good courfe of crops. A five-and-twentieth part of a farm fown with turnips, which are followed by wheat, may be pradtifed till doomfday. before a farm will be improved ; but let the turnips be eaten on the land by fheep ; fow barley and clover with it, and take the wheat on the clover ; and do this once on four acres; you will then do it on fourteen, and then on foi ty. But we may eafily imagine how well turnips are underilood in a country where the predominant courfe is fallowing for rye. The befl feature in their hufbandry does not come within the fcope of this chapter, viz. that of fattening oxen with * I have heard fome praftical formers in England aflert, that rye does not exhauft; or, at lead, much lefs than any other fort of white corn ; if this be true, the exhaufling of thefe provinces is by the operation of following; and the land recruiting, under weeds and broom, foe ms to (peak the fame language. 3 B 2 rye. COURSES OF CROPS, 37 * rye meal, and with the fmall quantity of turnips which they have. So far as they fupport cattle by arable crops, their merit is confiderable ; and is one ma- terial hep towards remedying the great deficiency of French hufibandry ; but in regard to the arrangement of their crops, they are as barbarous in their practice as their neighbours. General Remarks on the Conrfes of the Crops in France . The particular errors of the refpedtive diftridts, which fell within my know- ledge, having been already noted and commented on, there remain at prefent fome more general obfervations on fuch circumftances as are applicable to the whole kingdom. Whatever merit has been found depends on one of thefe two points, either upon an extraoardinary fertility of foil, as in the cafe of Flanders, Alface, and the Garonne, or on the culture of a plant particularly adapted to the fouthern and middle climates of the kingdom, that is maiz. But as this plant is not found on bad or even ordinary foils, the poorer ones, in the fame climates, are abandoned to nature, or to fallows. It is a moft lingular circumftance, that the worft foils in England are the beft cultivated, or at leaft as well cultivated as the moft fertile ; and that in France, none but capital ones are well managed. — When I come to explain the connexion between government and agriculture, jthis will be accounted for. The leading mifchief, in moft of the courfes of crops throughout France, is the too great eagernefs to have as much wheat or rye as poffible. A vaft population, and a fubfiftence which experience has proved pre- carious, have been probably the occafion of it : but the blindnefs of the conduct can, with enlightened perfons, admit of no doubt. The more wheat you fow, the more you do not reap ; and that land, which is kept by means of large ftocks of cattle and fheep in good heart, will yield more when fown but once in four years, than with fewer cattle it would do if fown every third year. In the arrangement of courfes, it is neceffary to throw all fuch views abfclutely out of the queftion : that conduit, in this refpeCt, which is fuitable to an individual, is proper for a nation. It rarely anfwers to a man to change his purpofe in the cultivation of his farm, on account of fome tranfitory expectation of a price ; he ought to fow bis ground with the plant beft adapted to his general views, and to the Rate of his land : and not fwerve from his purpofe on the fpeculat.on of any particular view ; and in like manner, it will always be for the national benefit, that the lands fhould be fown with whatever crop is moft fuitable to them, and whofe product will pay beft, when valued in money. A populous and rich country can never want bread to eat, but from the fault of iis govern- ment, attempting to regulate and encourage what can flourifh by abfolute free- dom only : the inhabitants of fuch a country will always comma-id wheat, becaufe they can afford to pay for it : and her own farmers will never fail of COURSES OF CROPS. 373 of railing that, or any other product, in any quantity demanded, provided they are not impeded by injudicious laws and reftridtions. In thefe prin- ciples, it is necellary to confider all products as equally beneficial, provided they may be equally converted into money. The quantity of rye, in every part of f ranee, even in the riche ft provinces, is probably one of the grofieft ab- furdities in the agriculture of Europe ; wheat is almoft every where ftained with.it, to ufe the farmer’s language. Yet throughout that whole kingdom, there is hardly any foil to be found bad enough to demand rye. All, generally fpeaking, is fufficiently good for wheat. In part of Sologne, near Chambord, there are. fome poor fands, that would not anfwer well for wheat ; but there being a rich marl under the whole, if improved and thrown into the turnip and clover hulbandrv, it would yield more wheat than it now does rye ; the fame obferva- tion is applicable to the pooreft lands of the Bourbonnois and Nevernois; after thefe, there are but very partial fpots that would not yield wheat. In confider- ing, with refpedt to the national interefts, the proper courfes of crops for France, two circumftances fhould be had in rememberance, which may not at firft be thought to bear upon the queftion ; it is the quantity of foreft neceftary in a country that either has not coal, or does not ufe it ; and the vaft tracks that are under vines. Thefe are fubjedts that demand notice under other heads, but here they fhould be mentioned to fhew, that while the quantity of arable land is thus prodigiously leflened, attention to banifh fallows, and introduce proper courfes of crops, becomes of the higheft importance. When we refledt, that from a fixth to a feventh of the kingdom is occupied by wood, and that the fpace covered by vines, is exceedingly great, at the fame time that the waftes are in fome provinces of enormous extent, it will appear amazing how fo numerous a people are fed, with a third or fourth of all their arable land incumbered, not cleaned, by barren fallows. There are pradtical farmers in England, who think fallowing neceftary; and there are no practices in the minutiae of the farmer’s bufinefs, but will in every age meet with thofe who ftrenuoufly fupport and defend them. There is no period without fome favourite fchemes, every one of which may, under certain circumftances, have merit ; but the politician has nothing to do with fuch queftions ; he muft either confider hufbandry in its great outlines, or he cannot confider it all ; he muft view the richeft and beft cultivated countries, and fee whether all the lands in fuch are not every year productive ; he muft enquire if fheep and cattle in great quantities are not eiTential in a thoufand refpedts j whether manure does not depend on them ; and whether corn does not depend on manure ; he will afk whether the converfion of the turnips of Norfolk, the beans of Kent, the cabbages and carrots of Flanders, the maiz of Guyenne, or the lucerne of Languedoc, into fallows, would in fuch provinces be efteemed national 374 COURSES OF CROPS, national improvements ? He will conclude, that as fheep and cattle cannot pof~ fjbly abound where fallow rotations are purfued, the firft and moft obvious im- provement is to make the fallows of a country fupport the additional cattle and theep wanted in it. He will draw this conclufion in the outline, becaufe he will fee the fadt eftablifhed and pra&ifed in the beft cultivated countries, let their foil be what it may. The particular modes of applying the general principle he may not underftand, but the leading principle is obvious to common fenfe. The practice, however, of diftridts, and even of individuals, fpeaks the fame language moft decifively. To compare this fpot with that is not the bufinefs; — but that country, that farm, will be moft improved and moft productive upon which the greateft' quantity of cattle and fheep is kept. This holds good of an acre, a held, a farm, a diftridt, a province, or a kingdom. 1 his point, of fuch infinite and national importance, depends abfolutely on the couries of crops. Reiterated and fatisfadlory experiment has proved, that two crops of white corn ought not to come together; inflances may poffibly be quoted to the conti at y, but to rea- fon on particular exceptions would be endlefs. If this rule be broken, it is ge- nerally at the expence of cattle and fheep, and of dung ; and whatever is pur- chafed at that expence is purchafed dearly*. Out of fuch a maxim, the right condudt rifes naturally : it fuppofes corn and cattle crops alternate; part of the arable, therefore, maintains cattle, and part yields corn. This will decide the nature of the crop ; for cattle and iheep muft be fupported in winter as well as in fummer ; the crops for each fealon muft, therefore, be pioportioned to each other, and the arrangement muft be fuch as preferves the land clean. It would be evidently ufelefs to take notice of the variety of cafes that may admit vaiia- tions, without militating againft the leading principles of fuch a deduction. Land may be fo rich as to want neither cattle or ftieep ; it may, like fome on the Garonne, produce hemp and wheat for ever ; it may be io near a great city, that purchafed manure may make other courfes more eligible; cei tain crops may be in fuch demand, as to make it delirable to cultivate them by way or fal- low, though not for cattle or Iheep, as colefeed for oil, tobacco, flax, and othei articles. Such exceptions, which in the nature of things muft be numerous, are, in no refpedt, contrary to the leading principle that ought to govern * It is not from theory or reafoning, or even from the view of the farms of others,, that thefe ideas are fa^gefted ; my own farm fupports me-in the opinion. The average rental of it is pretty exactly the average rental of England ; but if the kingdom in general were equally flocked, it would contain twenty -two millions more of flieep than it does at prefent, near one and a half million more of cattle, two hundred thoufand fewer horfes, and between two and three millions more of peop e. isis a ^ em which may be called national and political hufbandry. There are, doubtlefs, men who will aft .me if my crops are drilled ? if I horfe-hoe very well ? If my hedges are clipped ? Or my ridges high or low, broad or narrow ? Or, perhaps, whether my flieep have horns, or my gates painted ? it is in agriculture as it is in morals ; a virtue purchafed at the expence of a greater virtue, becomes a vice. COURSES O F C R O P S. 37 S throughout this inquiry. For the winter fupport of cattle and fheep, there are turnips, cabbages, potatoes, rape, carrots, parfnips, beans, vetches ; for the fummer fuftenance, cultivated grades of all kinds, which (hould neceflarily be adapted to the quality of the foil, and to laft in proportion to the poverty of it,, and to the nature of the grafs. Hence then fome courfes arrange themfelves that are applicable, perhaps, to all the foils of the world* r. Roots, cabbage, or pulfe* 2, Corn. 3, Grades.. 4, Corn.. And, 1, Roots, of cabbage*. 2, Com. 3,. Grades. 4, Pulfe or maiz,, hemp or flax# 5, „ Corn. And in thefe the chief diftindtion, relative to foil, will be the number of years in which, the grades are. left :. there are variations in particular cafes, but the number is inconfiderable. To enlarge upon and explain fuch cafes, to (hew in what manner they clean and improve ; and to point out what the variations ought to be for adapting the general principle to particular foils and dtuations, would, be a proper budnefs if I were writing a treatife of agriculture, but would be mif- placed in the rapid view which brevity obliges me to take as a traveller.. With thefe principles for our guide,, we may venture to aflert, that the generality of the courfes of crops in France, and all of them on indifferent foils, are abfolutely inconfiftent with the profit of individuals, and with national profperity. When Louis XIV. beggared his people, in order to place a grandfon of France on the throne of Spain, and to acquire. Flanders and Alface, &c. he would have rendered! his kingdom infinitely richer, more profperous, and more powerful, had he ba- nifhed the fallows from, half a dozen of his provinces, or introduced turnips in. fome others ; there is fcarcely a ftep he could have taken in fuch an improve- ment of his agriculture which would not have given him more fubjedts and more wealth than any of his conquered provinces ; every acre of which was purchafed at the expence of ten of his old acres rendered wafle or unproductive;, nor was one Fleming or German added to his fubjedts,, but at the expence of five Frenchmen. When the importance of attending to courses of crops is thus manifeff and (hiking, we. (hall know pretty well how to eftimate the merit of the forty foci- eties of agriculture that are in France, by the fubjedts about which they bufy themfelves.. CHAP. 37 * IRRIGATION. CHAP. VL Irrigation. 'M'ONE of the lead confequence in eroding from Calais to La Marche. La Ville au Brun to Baffle . — Meet with it fird. The quicker the water runs off, the greater the improvement. Flat lands are improved, but the rufhes not dedroyed. The bed: water is the coldeft — and immediately as it idues from the fpring. Seldom irrigate in winter : cut but once. It is plain the practice is but ill underdood here. Limosin to Limoges * — Every fpot of land in the mountains is watered that is poflible ; and with fuch attention, as marks how fenfible they are of the im- portance of this improvement. The water is conducted very high up the dopes of the hills ; and, in feveral indances, I was at a lofs to conjecture from whence it was brought. But in the low dat bottom it is badly done, with lines of rufhes along the carrier-trenches, and little attention paid to the conducting of the water away fpeedily enough. TJfarch .~~ Water with great care ; in fummer they prefer fpring water jud as it iffues from the earth ; but, in the beginning of the fpring, river water. Rousillon — Perpignan . Great exertions in watering in the vale lands, and perfectly well underdood. The riched arable, of the vale at Pia, fells, if not watered, at 600 liv. the minatre (20I. 9s. 6d. per acre), but the watered lands at iocoliv. (37I. 9s. iod. per acre). Near Perpignan, a confiderable aqueduCt i or it. From Perpignan to Villa Franche, great exertions. They prefer, in many places, clear water — and the nearer to the fpring the better. Languedoc.— ‘Through all this province it is much praCtifed, and with great fuccefs. Gange,-^ Coming out of this town, I was furprifed to dnd by far the greated exertion in irrigation I had yet feen in France \ a folid dank of timber and mafonry is formed acrofs a confiderabie river between two rocky mountains, to force the water into a very dne canal, in which it is, on an ave- rage, dx feet broad by dve deep, and half a mile long; built, rather than dug, on the fide of the mountain jud under the road, and walled in like a fhelf — a truly great work, equally well imagined and executed 1 — A wheel raifes a por- tion of the water from this canal thirty feet, by its hollow periphery. An aque- duCt, built that height. On two tire of arches, receives the water, and conducts it on arches built on the bridge, acrofs the river, to water the higher grounds ; while the canal below carries the larger part of the water to lower delds : — -an . undertaking IRRIGATION. 3T} undertaking which muft have coft eonfiderable fums, and thews the prodigious value of water in fuch a climate. St. Laurence — Lodeve . — Within a few miles of Gange, another fimilar irri- gation ; the water taken from the river in the fame manner, and lifted equally high by another wheel ; this is juft by the chateau of Madame la Marquife de Gange. For the whole way through thefe mountains the exertions in water- ing are prodigious; there is not an inch capable of being irrigated, over which water is not thrown, condu&edon the dopes of the mountains every where poftible. . Beg de Rieux.— Every where watered that is pradticable ; and the bed of a river laid fo dry, from its water being all taken for irrigations, that it is curious to view. Campan . — Lands, with water at command, fell at6ooliv. the journal(49l. 17s. 6d. per acre), ofyoo Cannes (about 1 9,600 feet), but not watered, from 300 to qooliv. Bagnere — Bigore . — Arable vale watered, and with great fuccefs. Gascoign — St. Vincents to Dax. — Several ftreams above waftes or bad lands, and no ufe made of them. To Tartas . — Several more. Beauvoifois . — Some watered meadows pretty well done, which is an extraordi- nary thing in this part of France. Normandy — Neufchatel. — Pradtiied for meadows, but not well. Falaife . — A vale of watered meadows that produce 100 liv. per acre, 22 feet to the perch (3I. 10s.) Bretagne — Belleijle. — Some fcraps attempted to be watered, the drft I have feen in this province, but ill done, and the water not carried off. Anjou — Tourbilly. — Irrigation abfolutely unknown in the country, though good opportunities are not wanted. Majne — Beaumont.— Fine ftreams through all the country, but no ufe made of them. Normandy — Bernay.— -Some near the town, cut for the fecond time, 061 . 3. Alsace — IJ'enhetm to Befort . — Firft appearance in Alface, and not well done. Bourbonnois — Mouhns . — Monf. Martin, the gardener of the royal nurfery, who is from Languedoc, waters his garden after the manner of that province. A Perlian wheel of buckets raifes the water from a "well twelve feet, the receiver being placed fo low as to have five or fix of the buckets emptying at a time, and very little water is loft; not the twentieth part, according to all appearance. A horfe turns the wheel. It raifes 200 poin^ons, each of 200 bottles, an hour. The water is conducted by fmall channels to all the beds that want it. Auvergn e — Riom. — F or two or three miles, a moft noble irrigation, in a part of the rich vale of Limagne. The carrier- trenches all crouded with double rows of willows. A fine fecond growth. Some land under corn that fhould be grafs. Clermont. At Royau, the volcanic mountain fides all watered ; but it is ‘coarfely done. 3C % Izoire . 37 a IRRIGATION. Izoire. Muck praCtifed ; tlieir gardens are planted in quick fuccefiion, by means of it : after hemp, cabbages immediately. The diftribution of the water, in thefe gardens, is very defective; they throw it from the trenches, on to the beds with bowls, inftead of flowing equally of itfelf. It probably arifes from this circumftance, that their gardens and hemp-grounds are not fo valuable as what they call vergers ; that is, watered meadows planted with apples, and other fruit-trees. Languedoc. — -From Riom to the Rhone, acrofs Auvergne, Velay, and Vivarais, all lands are, for the mod part, watered, that are capable of being fo. Dauphine — Montelimart . — Irrigation carried here to a conflderable perfec- tion. Clofe to the town, a feptier, which is one-half of an arpent of Paris, lets at 2 r louis d’or, or five the arpent, 1 20 liv. ( 61 . 2s. 6d. per acre). At a diftance 60 liv. with obligation to dung every fecond year, which is remarkable: 100 fepterees, that receive the wafhing of the city, lets at 5000 liv. befides 600 liv. for the winter feed of fheep. They are cut three or four times a-year.. In Dau- phine, the water of fprings is preferred to that of rivers, except of the Rhone, which is as good. And the reafon they afiign is, that the former never freezes, but river water does; and confequently improper to water with in winter. In fummer, turbid water damages the grafs. Provence, — Avignon .. — Irrigation is here carried on in great perfection, by means of the waters of the river Durance and the Crillon canal, made only for the purpofes of watering. The meadows are mown thrice a-year, producing from 30 quintals of hay, at 4 of. to 60/. the quintal, on each eymena of 21,600 feet (7 ton 14 cwt. per acre) at three cuts. Sell near the town fuch mea- dows to 1 000 liv. (761. 1 os. per acre) ; further from it, 800 liv. (61I. 5s. peracre). If the feafon is dry, they are watered every twelve days ; but in a moift time, once in three or four weeks. In fome cafes, they begin with turbid water, and finilh with what is clear to clean the crop. Never water their corn at all, burin extraordinary droughts. Lille . The road from Avignon hither paftes, for fome miles, through the dead level of the plain; the whole watered with great attention. The channels for conducing the ftreams, appear to be traced with much fkill, and the diftri- bution is to every crop at will. There are many vines from which it is excluded; but it feems to be very ill management, to plant vines on land that admits watering. It certainly would not be done, if the profit on that crop were not very great. Much of this land is under clover and lucerne, watered; but the fame, while in corn is not watered. And the efreCt of irrigation is fuch,, that the clover (which is fawn among wheat in autumn) is cut once for hay the fame year in which the wheat is reaped: thrice the following year; and then either ploughed up for corn, or left for meadow;, in which latter cafe, the chief ILR LIGATION. 379 chief grafs that comes is the avena elatior. The foil a white calcareous loam, till within four miles of Lille, and then a brown argillaceous earth, without (tones three or four feet deep, apparently of great fertility, with or without water. At Lille, watered meadows fell at 400 liv. the eymena, and are cut thrice ; but they complain of a want of water, which is extraordinary, for they feem to have the greateh command of it. It is raifed into gardens by many wheels with hollow felloes turned by the ftream, and conducted artfully into every bed. Vauclufe . — The fpring at this village, which will for ever be celebrated in the annals of love and poetry, ought not to be lefs fo in thofe of cultivation. The waters are ufed in irrigation within three or four hundred yards of the rock from which they burh, and with great efFedt. Orgon . — In going hither from Vauclufe, there is much irrigation. Near Ca- vaillon the land is, for that purpofe, dug, and fome even trenched. At Orgon the canal de Boifgelin, fo called from its patron, the Archbiihop of Aix, is a noble work, but unfinhhed ; it palfes here in a tunnel four hundred and forty yards through a mountain ; it is twenty feet broad, and eight deep ; has no water in it, as the work has hood hill for fome years, for want of money. The mountain it cuts is of chalk and marl ; a honey chalk, not at all like common lime-hone ; and a hony clay alfo, but calcareous, with a fine chalky marl, twenty or thirty feet deep. Pafs on the great road to Aix for about a league, all richly watered, and then quit it for Salon. Crofs the above-mentioned canal, but without water in the midh of an arid hony flat, that would pay admirably for irrigation ; but in the vale afterwards the canal de Boifgelin is hniflied ; finely executed in hone, and quite full ; and there are three others, fo that the quantity of water here conveyed is very confiderable. La Crau. — By this term is to be underhood the moh Angular hony defart that is to be met with in France, and perhaps in Europe. It is about five leagues every way, and contains, probably, from twenty to twenty-five fquare leagues : in twenty there are 136,780 Englifh acres. It is compofed entirely of fhingle, being fo uniform a nrafs of round hones, fome to the fize of a man's head, but of all fizes lefs, that that the newly thrown up fhingle of a fea flaore is hardly lefs free from foil. Beneath thefe furface hones is not fo much a fand as a kind of cemented rubble, a finall mixture of loam, with fragments of hone. Vegeta- tion is rare and miferable. Some of the abfinthium and lavender, fo low and poor, as hardly to be recognized ; and two or three miferable grades with the ccntaurea , calycitropa , and foljlitialis, were the principal plants I could find ; and I believe, on recollection, an eryngium. I (earched for the lolium perenne, but could not difcover a Angle halk, or any figns of it ; I conclude, therefore, that this plant was all fo eaten down, as not in this feafon (Auguh) to be vi- fible. After travelling fome miles on this extraordinary defert, I ahced my guides 3 C 2 if IRRIGATION. 3 *° if the reft of it were fimilar to what I had feen ; and they anfwered me, that it was all alike, both in refpedt of fails and plants. The only ufe to which the uncultivated part is applied, is that of winter feeding an immenfe number of fheep (to the amount of a million, as I was informed, but which I doubt) that are fummer-fed in the Provence Alps, towards Barcelonetta and Piedmont. If any think that a million are fed here, the number of acres mud be much larger than I have mentioned. The reafon why I arrange this dony region under the title irrigation, is on account of fome very noble undertakings to water it, which deferve more attention than any thing elfe to be met with in it. In advancing from Salon into the Crau, at about four miles, the road croffes the canal of Boilgelin. The old canal of Crappone, at the fame place, is feen dif- tributing water in various directions, for the amelioration of one of the moft arid tracks that is to be met with in the world. The canal de Crappone takes its waters from the Durance at La Roche, and carries it to the fouthern part of it at litres. This canal is forty miles long. That of Boifgelin receives it from the lame river at Malavort, and eroding the other divides into three branches ; one of which leads to lands in the neighbourhood of litres ; the fecond, to St. Saumas and Magnan, and this part of the Crau ; the third is a fmall one, that turns to the left towards Salon. In confequence of water being thus conducted to a region where it is fo much wanted ; fome very capital improvements have been wrought. Some large tracks of the Crau have been broken up, and planted with vines, olives, and mulberries, and converted into corn and meadow. Corn has not fucceeded ; but the meadows I viewed, are amongd the mod extraordi- nary fpeCtacles which the world can afford, in refpeCt to the amazing con trad between the foil in its natural, and in its watered date, covered richly and luxu- riantly with clover, chicory, rib grafs, and avena elatior. The mode in which the improvements were made, has been that of removing the dones for plough- ing ; thefe are laid in an irregular dovenly manner, by way of fences to the inclofures ; and particularly in one part, where a new improvement has taken place near the road. — Upon the fubjeCt of watering this mod fingular didriCt I * had converfations with fome gentlemen at Salon, who much quedion whether thefe improvement had anfwered, the expences having been very great. On this point, I fhall prefume to remark, that the great expence they put themfelves to in removing the dones with fo much care, does not feem to me to have been judicious. If I were to attempt the cultivation of any fuch track of ground, fo level as this is in its natural date, I would conduct water with the greated at- tention, but content myfelf with removing the larged dones only. I would fow the proper grafs feeds on the fhingle and water immediately ; and aim more at converting the foil to good padurage than to meadow. No ploughing and no other expence than grafs feeds and irrigation would be incurred. After fome IRRIGATION. 38i fome years watering, I fhould find the interfaces of the ftones filled with artifi- cial mould and then a very little labour would convert it to meadow. In filch attempts undertakers are too apt to aim at complete improvements, and are dif- fatisfied if they do not bring fuch waftes at once to the refemblance of fields that have been long under cultivation ; but to render fuch works profitable, enormous expences fhould be avoided ; and fomething left to time to effeCt, filently but furely, and without other expenditure than that of a little patience. It is at lead: worth the experiment. I am much miftaken if water and feeds would not make very valuable pafturage, without other exertions, and perhaps better than with tillage. Monf. de la Lande fpeaks of the Canal de Provence, which takes the waters of the Durance to Aix and Marfeilles, being 110,000 toifes long ; and of the irrigations, by it bringing in a million of livres a-year *. Hyeres . — Never water corn, or any arable crop, except lucerne; unlefs it be in the greatest droughts. Yet it is here perfectly well understood, and is the great fupport of all the low grounds and Hopes. They ufe it with great attention and fuccefs. They have a pretty contrivance for watering their gardens, out of a ditch feven or eight feet deep, never thinking of the miferable method ufed in England of carrying and fpreading with watering-pots : on the contrary, they fix a poft of five or fix feet high on the bank of the ditch, and a long pole ba- lanced for fwinging every way on the top of it, with a pail at one end, and a Hone for a balance at the other. A man, by dipping the pail, which he does inceffant- ly, and emptying it into a trench cut for receiving the water, fupplys a conftant Stream, which is conducted alternately to different beds, prepared in the fame manner as for common irrigation, — a contrivance highly deferving the attention of thofe who have perrennial ponds near their gardens. Obfervations . * From the foregoing notes it appears, that in fome parts of France, particu- larly in the fouthern provinces, this branch of rural ceconomy is very well un- derftood, and largely praCtifed ; but the moft capital exertions are very much confined ; I met with them only in Provence and the weftern mountainous parts of Languedoc. In the former, canals are cut, at the expence of the province, for conducting water many miles, in order to irrigate barren tracks of land : in England we have no idea of fuch a thing. The interefts of commerce will induce our legillature to cut through private properties, but never the interefts of cultivation. The works I obferved at Gange, in Languedoc, for throwing the water of a mountain ftream into a canal, and railing it by enormous wheels into aqueduCts built on arches, being much more limited in extent, and even confined to fingle properties, might more reafonably be looked for in the moun- * Des Canaux de Navigation, Folio. 1778. p. 175. 184. tainous IRRIGATION. 3*2 tainous diftrids of England and Wales. Such would anfwer greatly, and there- fore ought to be undertaken ; for I hardly need obferve, that watering in our northerly climate anfwers upon moft foils, as well as it does in the S. of Europe. The difference in value between cultivation, watered or not watered, is not greater there and here, except on arid and abfolutely barren lands, on which the difference arifing from climate is certainly enormous. Under a hot fun and in a dry climate like that of Provence, fandy or flony tracks, fuch as La Crau, yield, comparatively fpeaking, nothing ; but watered, they become clothed with the richeft verdure, and yield the fineft crops. In regarding, therefore, the latitude of a country as an index for afcertaining the degree of improvement effeded by irrigation, theory would deceive us greatly. Water gives many other things be~ fides humidity; it manures, confolidates, deepens the ftaple or furface mould, and guards againft cold ; effeds as obvious in a northern as in a fouthern climate. If I hold up the example of the fouthern provinces for England to copy, the French will not contend that they do not want it in their northern diftrids. In travelling from Calais to the Pyrenees, I met with this practice firft in La Marche, between La Ville au Brun and Baffie, having palled confiderably more than half the kingdom ; thence it holds, with little interruption, to the Pyre- nees, and the whole diftrid of thole mountains from Perpignan, where the pradice is in great perfedion, as it is through the chief part of Roullillon ; almofl to Bayonne all is watered ; but ftrange to fay, it is unknown (at lead; I faw no traces of it) in that part of Gafcoign near St. Vincents, Dax Tartas, and to Aucb. Through all the N. of France, comprehending every thing N. of the Loire, I no where found it, excepting only a few traces imperfedly ex- ecuted at Neufchatel, Bernay, and Falaife, in Normandy, and at Izoire, in the Beauvoifois, but to fo inconsiderable an amount, that they do not merit attention in a general view of the kingdom. The Due de Liancourt, always attentive to every thing that promifes public utility, has made a noble experiment at Lian- court, to introduce this pradice into the Clermontois, where it is fo greatly wanted, that many confiderable vales are hardly better than bogs, which, wa- tered, would be the richeft meadows ; his firft cutting was fixty-five tons on eight arpents. France owes much to the enlarged views of that adtive, patriotic, and enlightened citizen, Through Picardy, Flanders, Artois, Champagne, Lo- raine, Alface, Franche Compte, Bourgogne, and the Bourbonnois, I will not affert that the pradice is unknown ; I have noted fomething of it in Alface ; but generally fpeaking, it may be underftood, that thefe provinces are not watered. In travelling much above a thoufand miles through them, I faw nothing that merits a moment’s attention upon this head ; but I viewed and even examined many hundred ftreams, in various parts of them, affording numerous opportuni- ties of irrigation, without being ufed for this purpofe. It is at Riom, in Au- vergne, before this pradice is met with in effed. Hardly more, therefore, than MEADOWS. 383 than one- third of the kingdom can be faid to underdand this moil obvious and important objedt, one of the fird in the circle of rural ceconomics. If acade- mies and focieties of agriculture are amenable to the judicature of common fenfe, what are we to think of their employing their time, attention, and revenues on drill-ploughs and horfe-hoes — on tindtures from roots — and thread from nettles — while two- thirds of fuch a territory as that of France remain ignorant of irrigation ? CHAP. VII. Meadows. I N a country, the greater part of which is open, and much the greater part very ill cultivated, meadow mud: rteceflarily bear a price much beyond the pro- portion of other countries differently fituated. I hardly know a lurer proof of the backward ftate of a co'untry, than that of meadows bearing an exorbitant price. When chalk hills become covered, as they ought to be, with fainfoin,. the price of meadows links half. When the arable lands yield neither cabbage, turnip, nor potatoefor the winter nourishment of cattle, hay is the only depen- dence. When the value of clover is little known, meadow mud: be rated at too high a value. Thefe fimple indances fhew at once the connedtion, and the caufe. It follows,, that the price and rental will vary, not according to the in- trinfic value, but the circumdances of the arable didridis in its neighbourhood. The price in France is everywhere confiderable, and in fome places exceedingly great ; fuggeding no battering ideas of the general hufbandry of the kingdom. The produce of hay is in fome cafes large, but, on the whole, does not anfwer the price ; ariling, doubtlefs, in fome meafure, from the lands being fed at feafons when food is Scarce and valuable, and thereby leffening the quantity of hay.. In the general management of meadow ground, the fird feature is irrigation,, on which this is not the place to enlarge. It is fufficient to remark here, that hardly more than one-third of the meadow's of the kingdom is fo improved. Draining, fmoothing the furface, by keeping it free from all mole and ant hills, rolling, weeding, &c. are performed very infufficiently, every where, except in watered didridis : draining is almod univerfally negledted. Immenfe tracks, in all the provinces of the kingdom, and on almod all the principal rivers, are commons ; consequently curfed with rights abfolutely fubverdve of all ideas of good hufbandry. From the minutes I took of the ufeful plants mod frequent in the meadows of France quite to the Pyrenees, it appears, that they are exadlly the fame as we find LUCERNE. 38 4 find in the heft meadows of Great Britain. The principal are, 1, lathyrus pratenjisy which I take to be the fird plant for meadows that is to be found in either of the kingdoms, and meriting an attention which it has been very far from receiving; 2, achillaa millefolium , an admirable plant, equally negledled with the former; 3, trifolium pratenfe , the common clover, a biennial plant, but found abundantly in moll meadows; 4, trifolium re- pens , the white Dutch clover, not valued by fome very good farmers ; but£ its being found largely in the bed: meadows of Europe, fhould make fuch an idea very doubtful ; 5, plant ago lane eolat a, rib grafs ; 6, medic ago lupulina, trefoil, indigenous over the whole kingdom, as it is alfo in England ; 7, me- dic ago arabica polymorpha ; 8> lotus corniculata ; 9, poterium fanguiforba y burnet, excellent in fituations and foils directly the reverfe of each other ; on barren fands for fheep-walk, and it is Fund largely in the fined meadows. To thefe we may add another plant, found amply in the riched meadows over the fruth of Europe, and indigenous in England on poor fands, the chicorium intybus , equal, perhaps fiiperior to all the red, except the lathy i us p? ateifis , the cultuie of which is difficult. I fay nothing of grades, from the extreme uncertainty, as well as difficulty, of getting feed clean. If the nurfery that affords it be kept without alternate] tillage, many forts bad, as well as good, are found in it ; and for alternate til- lage, in courfes of crops, it mud be difeovered, that they improve and prepare for corn like clover, &c. Ray grafs, in England, has been cultivated under that great deficiency for a peculiar purpofe, the early fpring feed of fheep. If the feed of the fefluca pratenjis , poa trivialis , the poa pretenfis, the alopecurus pratenfis, and a few others, could at all times be procured at a reafonable price, they ought to be objects of more attention. When the plants are well known that fill the bed meadows of a country, the mod important knowledge is gained for forming new ones ; fuch of thefe plants as yield feed fo plentifully as to enable feedfmen to deal in them, fhould be fown, and never the chance-medley of hay chambers, a practice pretty well ex- ploded in England, but in France fuch quedions are novel. CHAP. VIII. Lucerne * Picardy — Boulogne . — X ASTS twelve to fixeen yeafs; three cuts, very fine 1 j and thick ; fixteen pounds of feed per meafure, about an acre ; four or five horfes kept for five months. Breteuil. LUCERNE* BreteuiL — Value it more than corn ; three cuts ; in fpots four feet high ; lafls ten years ; firft cut for horfes, the reft for cows. Isle of France-— Arpajon>— Much,- three cuts. Roussillo n — Belle gar de . — W atering fhortens its duration] give it water every eight days, when there is no rain. Perpignan . — Watered lucerne in all the bottoms. Pia .~- -By far the lichen, ciop, and moft profitable culture; it is fown largely on two forts of land, the dry ftony poor foils that are watered, and alfo on the rich deep friable loam in the vale between Pia and the calcareous northern mountains, which are not watered ; in all cafes it is fown broadcaft and without corn. It is cut, for the firft time, the end of April ; and, if watered every forty days afterwaids, to the amount of five cuts in all ; if the land be not watered it is cut thrice with a lull product ; and a fourth time with an inferior one. If watered it does not lafi above feven or eight years, but in other land twenty and even thirty years ; the hay is preferred to all others ; a minatre is worth 6 louis at four cuts (5I. 9s. 4d. per acre) ; I walked over many fields of it, and found the ci ops beautifully clean and luxuriant, of a complexion and produdt very dif- Lient fiom what is ever feen in England, but not equal to that of Barcelona in height by a third. Perpignan to Villa Franca, take three crops of wheat after lucerne. Sijean . — Yields two cuttings in dry years, and four in wet ones; lafls ten years. Languedoc — Caujfan . — Fine; under mulberries ; from thirty-fix fefterees get an hundred feptiers of feed ; the fefleree is fown with ioolb. of wheat ; the price laft year was 50 liv. the feptier. Vale land under lucerne lets fometimes at 40 liv. to 72 liv. the fefleree ; corn land only 1 5 liv. P ezenas . — Lucerne every where ; lafls ten or twelve years ; is excellent for every thing except fheep, for which animal it is too fattening. Ptnjan . — Sow 15 lb. the fefleree ; always alone; cut five times a year, and lafls fifteen years, yielding iaoolb. dry hay each cutting; and the feed of a fef- teree has yielded 100 liv.; the prefent price of the feed is 45 liv. the quintal, and of the forage 40 f. When it is weedy they clean it by ploughing in the winter with a narrow pointed fhare, choofing frofty weather, which kills the weeds, but not the lucerne; an admirable practice, and apparently the origin of Rocque s harrowing, if it extend into Provence, his country. When it is worn out, their conduct is no lefs excellent : greatly as it improves the land, they do not venture to fow wheat, but barley and oats for hay, not corn, for two years in fucceffion ; a great deal of lucerne, pufhing from the old roots, would con- fiderably injure any corn, but add equally to the value of a crop of forage, as they call it ; and the mowing early cuts off abundance bf weeds ; after thefe two crops they fow wheat, which proves very fine. 3 ^ Luneh 3 S 6 lucerne. Zunel. — Much lucerne, but not fine, for the foil is inferior. CarcajJ'ojine. — Cut it four to fix times, according to rains lafts io to 14 years. Gascoign — St. Vincents . — Cut in good years thrice, in bad ones twicer- much over-run with couch. Fleur an. — A few fmall pieces ufed for foiling horfes. FJlafort. Cut four times for foiling horfes, and it is thebeft food of all for them. Landron. — See a fmall piece of lucerne, but no other in the rich vale of the Garonne. Poitou — Poitiers. — Lafts fifteen years 3 ufe it both for foiling and hay, which is better than that of fainfoin. Touraine — Ghanteloup. — The Due de Choifeul’s cows always tied up the year round 3 in Summer foiled on lucerne, which gave cream and butter of the very fineft flavour. Blois. — Pieces of it on a poor and almoft blowing fand 3 lafts five years 3 cut it thrice 3 and the produce more valuable than corn. Orleans. — Lafts eight or nine years, and is cut thrice. Isle of France — Petiviers. — Lafts twelve or fifteen years. Melun. — Much here 3 lafts ten years 3 it is cut thrice, and the produce more valuable than wheat. Terfaint . — Cut thrice 3 the firft yields 400 bottes of hays the fecond 200 ; the third 100 3 in all 700 (about 4 tons per acre), and the felling price 20 liv. the 100 : or 140 the arpent. The fineft of all their corn crops are thofe which fucceed it. To Montgeron. — It is the beft feature of their hufbandry.. Sow 22lb. of feed per arpent, with oats. It lafts twelve years. The price, at prefent, 2oliv. the 100 bottes. When they break it up, they fow oats, and then wheat, getting by far the fineft crops they ever experience. Liancourt . — Cultivated in considerable quantities. Sow 301b. of feed per ar- pent, at the average price of 20 to 24 f the pound. Monf. Prevoft, a very in- telligent and underftanding farmer in the vale of Catnoir, has remarked a great difference between the feed of Provence, &c. which is commonly fold in the north of France, and their own. The former rarely Succeeds fo well as their own, which he attributes to the great difference of the climate: with their own feed they never fail. — The general cuftom is to fow it with oats. It lafts, with tolerable management, ten or twelve years 3 but on a rich deep foil, on a dry bottom, it has been known to reach the duration of twenty years. To deftroy the weeds which arife in it, they harrow it partially with iron toothed harrows, and manure it with rotten dung. It is always cut three times a-year, and Some- times four 3 but that is not common : a very good arpent would let at 1 50 liv. a-year, which is more than any other production in the country. The fineft of LUCERNE. 387 all may give 1600 bottes of hay, each of i2lb. or 19,2001b. which is above feven tons the Englifh acre. In general, the crop may be reckoned at 500 bottes, at two cuts on amine, or 1000 the arpent, which is i2,ooolb. or better than five tons per Englilh acre. The price of it does not equal that of good common hay 5 nor is it reckoned fo good for horfes. At prefent it is not worth more than 20 liv. the 100 bottes: they fave feed of the third growth, and reckon 2oolb. per arpent a middling crop. Seeding does not deftroy it : on good land it is juft as good after ; but fometimes on poor land it is injured. A vaft objedt In the culture is the great improvement it works in the land ; when they plough it up, they do not venture to have wheat, as the luxuriance would be fuch that the produdt would be all ftraw. They take two, three, four, and even five crops of oats in fucceflion, which are prodigioully great ; and when the oats decline, they fow wheat, and get a very fine crop ! Marenne . — Lafts twelve to fifteen years ; cut thrice ; when ploughed ud, fow two crops of oats, and then wheat, all fure to be excellent. Pontoife . — Near the town half the land is under it. Brajeu/e . — Commonly fown with oats that fucceed wheat, and often upon one ploughing only ; yet fuch is the happy texture of the foil, a fine friable fandy loam, that it fucceeds tolerably well, and would, with better hulbandry, yield an immenfe advantage ; it lafts ten or twelve years, and longer when taken care of. They cut it thrice a year. It yields, at the two firft cuttings, 300 or 400 bottes per arpent of hay fit for horfes, and the third is for cows. Madame la Vifcountefs du Pont, lifter of the Duchefs de Liancourt, has polfibly more lucerne than any other perfon in Europe. She has 250 arpents 80 of which were mowed this year. I faw the hay, and never met with better or fweeter, yet botted from the field in the method univerfal in France. She was fo good as to inform me, that no food for cows yielded finer butter ; I tafted it, and none could be better flavoured. Dammarttn . — Much ; lafts nine years ; cut thrice, unlefs for feed, in which cafe, twice only. The firft cutting yields 400 or 500 bottes ; the fecond half as much. The Archbilhop of Aix, who has an abbey in the neighbourhood, has taken great pains to fpread the culture, and has occafioned near 800 arpents being fown. Soijjbns . — Lafts eight or nine years ; cut thrice ; yields at the firft 300 bottes of hay, of 1 2lb. ; at the fecond 250 ; and at the third 100 per arpent, of 96 perch, of 22 feet, 46,464 feet (3 tons 3 cwt.). Artois — RecouJJe , — They have fome ; cut thrice; lafts twelve to fifteen years, and reckoned excellent. Normandy — Coutances . — In the way to Granville many patches, the firft I had feen in Normandy, and they increafe to pieces of fome confequence; lafts twenty years, and is conftantly cut thrice. 3D 2 La LUCERNE, 388 La Roche Guyonc'—Much cultivated ; the Duchefs d’Anvillehas fifty arpents, and a farmer in the neighbourhood forty-feven ; and I faw fome good pieces in going to Magny ; it is cut thrice, but does not lad more than fix years ; fow it with oats ; when broken up, they take three crops of corn in fucceffion ; in the open fields every body turns into it the ifl of November. Isle of France — Nangis . — Seed 2olb. anarpentde Paris, at 12 to 20/i the pound (261b. the acre) ; fow it with barley or oats that follow wheat; lads fix years, if manured eight ; a good arpent yields three hundred bottes the fird cut (1 ton 14 cwt. per acre), two hundred the fecond (1 ton 3 cwt.), one hundred the third (1 1 \ cwt.), each of iolb. (in all 3 tons 8f cwt.) ; fome fown alone on a clean fallow in Auguft, and this is by far the belt ; the hay 20 to 30 liv. the hundred bottes (2I. 3s. 8d. a ton) ; if let it is at 40 liv. (2I. 2s. per acre) ; when they break it up, two crops of oats, and then one of wheat, and all good. Meaux. — When oats have two leaves, they harrow in the lucerne feed 2olb. per arpent (100 perch 22 feet) (171b. per acre) ; the price per lb. 4 to 10 f. ufually 6/.'; the firfl year it produces, the firfl cut, but one hundred bottes per arpent, afterwards four hundred (2 ton 2 cwt, per acre), fome five hundred, each of 12 to 1 61b.; the fecond cut two hundred (1 ton 1 cwt. per acre), the third one hun- dred ( 1 o l cwt. per acre), in all 3 tons 1 3 f cwt.; the hay of the firfl cut is given to horfes, the fecond to fheep, and the third to cows ; it is never manured; but the foil is a deep rich loam, that is to be ranked among the fined in the world ; couch is the greatefl enemy to it ; they never ufe it in foiling, but always for hay ; for mowing, making, cocking, and carting, 10 liv. the arpent; all is hotted in the field. They are now (July 3,) mowing the firfl growth, but fome has been cut fome time ; nothing, they fay, improves land lo much ; all the good oats that Mr. Gibert fliewed me, at Neufmoutier, were after lucerne ; the dif- ference between thole, and the other crops after wheat, being that of yellow and green. D auph in e-— Z/O/ 0/.— Prepare for it with the fpade, at the expence of 1 2 liv. the lepterde ; dung well ; lads five years ; after that time, if they would preferve it, they plough it acrofs with a little plough, sailed a binet^ to dedroy the grais* and then it fucceeds for two years more. When they break it up, they take five crops of wheat in fucceffion. I exp-reded my amazement at this execrable ma- nagement ; and Monf. Faujas de St. Fond atteded the truth of the -fi&H. If wild oats come the third year, they fow oats or rye in dead of wheat, on that account. Provence — Avignon.— Much; it is ufually fown alone in March, fib. of feed per eymena of 2 1 ,600 feet ( 1 olb. per acre) ; cut four, five, or fix times, and lafls feven or eight years if much watered, ten or twelve if lefs ; they then plough it, and find the amelioration fb great, that they take five, fix, feven, and even eight crops of wheat in fuccefiion! But, bad as fuc-h management may oe. LUCERNE. 3 ** it is not, however, to be clafied with a fimilar rotation among us, for water works miracles ; and the wheat harveft is fo early, that it affords time for what they pleafe. Lucerne fuits light rich land bed: ; the produce at every cutting twenty-five quintals (3 tons 3 cwt. per acre) ; but for this it muft be dunged as well as watered, which muft be done in winter, after the frofts are gone ; if no dung fifteen quintals ( 1 ton 5 cwt. per acre) ; the price 40 to 50 f. the quintal, being 1 o f below meadow hay. They reckon the hay bad for horfes, blowing them up too much, but excellent for all other animals ; I faw fome of it at Avig- non fo beautifully green, that I felt it to afcertain if it were really hay, and not, as my eyes told me, frefh cut ; it is fometimes let, and rents from 20 to 60 liv. the eymena (60 liv. is 4I. 12s. gd. per acre) 5 at five cuttings the produce per acre in money is 21I. 13s. 2d. Hyeres . — I viewed a new plantation making by Monf. Battaile ; the piece con- tained one and a half acre Englilh, and he was working it at the following ex- pence : Firfi digging, 96 liv. — Burning roots, weeds, clods, &c. 96 liv. — Dunging 120 liv. — Second digging, 96 liv. — Seed, 60 liv.— Total, 468 liv. or 1 3 l- 1 3 s - P er acre * ^ was left q u he frnooth and fine to the depth of a foot, free from every fort of root weed, and laid in beds ready for watering, and now (Sep- tember) fowing ; next year he will cut it four times, afterwards five, and per- haps fix ; it will laft fifteen years, and pofiibly twenty ; could let it at 400 liv. a year (ill. 1 3s. yd. per acre), and the produce grofs 500 liv. (14I. 1 is. 1 id. per acre) ; and when broken up it will give great crops of wheat. \ Observations. The culture of the plant under our confideration, is one of the principal fea- tures of French hufbandry. We have gone to the French fchool for the culture of it, yet it is ill managed, and with bad fuccefs in England, and has been fo in every period; but in France, even in climates fimilar to our own, it is an objed: of almoft uniform profit ; and it muft therefore be unfortunate indeed, if we do not extract fomething from the French practice deferving our attention and imitation. The firfi: leading circumfiance that demands our at- tention is the unvarying pradice of fowing itbroadcafi. The lucerne in Spain, which is of a luxuriance we have no conception of, and the little I have feen in Italy, is all fown in the fame way : a contrary pradiice, namely, that of drilling has very generally taken place in England ; it has been repeatedly urged, that the humidity of our climate renders hoeing necefiary to keep it free from the lpontaneous grades ; and, if hoeing is necefiary, drilling is certainly fo. But this, necefiity is not found to take place in the north of France, the climate of which very nearly refembles our own. After fome years, thofe grafies deftroy it there as -LUCERNE. 390 •as well as here j but the French think it much more profitable when that hap- pens to plough it up, than to infure a longer pofiefiion by perpetual expence and attention. A Frenchman from Provence (Rocque), introduced this broadcafl culture of lucerne, about twenty-five years ago into England : I faw his crops, which were very fine, and equal to any in the north of France. Mr. Arbuthnot, of Mitcham, had it alfo in the fame method on a large fcale, and with confiderable fuccefs ; other perfons have fucceeded equally well, whofe experiments may be found in the regifters of my agricultural tours through England ; the method, however, has not been generally purfued ; and the little lucerne to be found in England is chiefly in drills. It certainly deferves inquiry, whether this is not the reafo/i of the cultivation at large not having made a greater progrefs with us *. The in- troduction of hoes and horfe~hoes among crops that are cleared but once a year from the land, and with no neceflity of mowing them clofe to the ground, ap- pears to be much eafier, and more practicable, than hoeing and horfe-hoeing a meadow cut and cleared thrice in a year ; and which mult of neceflity be mown quite clofely. The preceding minutes feem to allow the conclufion, that the drill is not neceflary for this culture ; the broadcafl fucceeds well in every part of France, in proportion to the goodnefs of the foil and to management, like every other crop. I with not to make this a didaCtic work, or I could offer hints that might be of advantage poflibly to the culture in England ; I fhould apprehend, that a turnip or cabbage fallow is the right preparation ; if the field be foul for two years in fucceflion, fed on the land, fown with barley or oats, three-fourths the common quantity of feed, fay two bufhels ; fhould weeds appear the firfl year, I would bellow 1 os. per acre in drawing, weeding, or other wife extirpating them ; and after that the lucerne fhould take its chance. Explanations are endlefs ; a hint is fufficient for the practical hufbandman, without prejudices : I would never manure till the crop was two years old. — Its ameliorating effect is a lingular feature in the preceding notes j the accounts are fuch as will furprize fome perfons ; but where hufbandry is not very well underflood, effects fo remarkable mult be eflimated with caution ; and it may, without danger of deception, be admitted, that a material reafon for this apparently exaggerated merit is, that fallows are the common preparation for wheat. If the French were well acquainted with the culture of clover as a preparation for wheat, no- thing very marvellous would be found in lucerne. The intelligence at Pinjan * So erroneous was it in a French writer, to mention this plant as one of the hinges of Englifh agriculture, Les Int. dc la France Mai Entendus v. i. p. 144. Another couples lupines and ce- drangola with it, Zanoni dell Agrlcol. tom, i. p. 1 18. but a native fell into the fame error, Patullo EJf. fur Vamel'ior des Terres. indicates, SAINFOIN. 39 * indicates, in this refped, a condud that is truly excellent ; taking a tillage crop of fodder, winter tares for inflance, on the fxrft breaking up, is a pradice that merits the greatefl commendation. C H A P. IX. Sainfoin . Picardy — MontreuiL — A BEAUTIFUL piece. 12 or 14 inches high,, jlJl and as thick as poflible, the 1 8 th of May; and a fcattering to Amiens . Quercy — Ponte de Rodez.—~Soil every where proper for it, but none fown.. Perges . — A final! piece. Roussillon — Sijean .. — Sowit alone in March; reap no crop the firflyear; but the fecond, third, and fourth, it is good ; after that it fails, and they break it up for corn Never cut it more than once.. Languedoc — Beziers. — Efparcette fown with oats in March,- lafls three years. The hay better than lucerne. Pinjan . — Sow two feptiers per fefleree always alone; the feptieree holds 1 oolb.. of wheat (between four and five bufhels the Eng. acre) price of the hay 25 f the ioolb. (of lucerne 40 f .) ; cut it but once a year, lafts five years.- Does not improve land fo much as lucerne ; fow wheat on it when broken up.. Beg de Rieux to Beziers. — Cultivated here. Carcajfonne. — Efparcette much cultivated ; fow it February, either on the wheat which is then high, or with barley or oats ; cut it but once a year ; lafls but three years. Sow wheat always after it, which are their greatefb crops, and far better than after a fallow. Angoumois — La Graule to Rignac. — Some fainfoin. Rignac. — Much ; it lafts fix or feven years ; fown in autumn with wheat, and not in the fpring. Barbefieux. — Every wherein this chalky country ; lafls fix years ; when they break it up, plough in July, and fow wheat ; it improves the land fo much, that they get great crops. Maifons Blanches. — Lafls eight or nine years, plough it up for wheat ; feven years ago there was very little in this part of the Angoumois. V ivonne *— -Sainfoin land but little feen here. Tourainne 39 * SAINFOIN. To UR A i n E—Cbateauroux to St. Maur. — Sow forty boifeau of feed (at 24 f. the boifeau at prefent), to the arpent of 100 chainee of 12 feet, 14,400 feet. St. Maur. — Much of it, for other hay very fcarce ; generally fow it as foon as the feed is ripe, which is the middle of June. Their method of gathering the feed is by hand, arming their hands with gloves of leather or linen ; they draw the branches through their hands, fo as to drip off all the feed, which they put in their aprons ; after which the crop is mown for hay, and though not fo good, as if not feeded, is eaten by horfes. They fow forty to fifty boifeau per arpent ; but affert that it cannot be fown too thick ; lads five years, and produces generally 100 quintals of hay, at from forty to fifty f. the quintal; reckon the produce fix orfeven louis an arp>ent. Improves land fo much, that they take two or three crops of wheat, confidering five years fainfoin as five fallows. Orleans to Petiviers. — Lads four or five years. Pafs fome pieces fown alone in Auguft. When they break it up fow wheat, and get great crops-. Never feed it in the fpring ; but fometimes with fneep in January and February. Isle of France — Petiviers. — Yields 40001b. hay per arpent of 100 perch at twenty-two feet (1 ton 1 1 cwt. Eng. acre.). La Chapelle La Reine . — Much ; lads three, four, and five years. Never feed it with fheep. Liancourt .—Mown but once a year ; lads five or fix years. Beauvais. — Chalk-hills, they have fome, and lucerne alfo. Marenne.~— Called Rurgoine ; lads five or fix years ; mown once. Artois — Betbune to Arras. — Some. Amie?is to Poix . — Ought to be JL under this crop, but there is none. Normandie — Caen. — Sow it with the third crop of corn ; lads three to five years. With fuch execrable management they think it improves the ground fo much, that when they break it up, they take two crops of wheat, one of barley, and one of oats in fuccedion. Falaife. — Not one acre where there ought to be fifty. They fow fix boifeau of feed ; lads from three to five years. No wonder for fome farmers do not fow it, except when their land is worn out with corn and full of weeds. But others manage better, and give it clean land. The produce is worth i2olb. an acre (2I. 12s. 6d. per Eng. acre.). The hay fells at 241b. the hundred bottes of 12 to 141b. (30s.) a ton at prefent (Augud 1788), 25. Avranches to Pant Orjin. — Stoney foil, fit only for lainfoine, but none cul- tivated. Alen^on. — A little here. Grace . — Some good; lads twelve or fifteen years, and has been known to twenty ; fow it in September with rye. La f SAINFOIN. 393 La Roche Guy on .*— Lafts only three or four years; fow it with oats, when broken up fown with corn three years in fucceffion. CHAMPAGNE-MW.-On dry fandy land fow it in September on rye. Cut once, pioduce 400 bottes, at 10 to i2lb. (1 ton 14 cwt. Eng;, acre) - kftc IX years it is belt the third. Sometimes a fecond cut produce only the half The feed is always gathered by hand. When it is broken up vetches are fown', then wheat, and then oats ; and the wheat is better than after a fallow. pernay.— 11 a chalky country. There is much; it lalts four or five foiTagafn" P ^ Wheat and ° atS ’ and after that la y il d °wn for fain- LlLfL L °^;— Some ’ , but not acre where there ought to be 100. o Chalons. None, yet the country ought to contain nothing elfe. “ ore tban three ° r foiall pieces in fifteen miles, yet they loam^eight ^ "■ h «' * ■* five A vIrs RG T^^“'7° n the dry land$ they have k > and Efts four or venoh with the Und f lt ln h the medicago falcata, both purple and yellow. withr g r N m7w^nt _S ° W i V n M T h am0ngft wheatj feed itin winter ploughed in, and wl aSn IK the f* d* ^ "*** “ holds icoto I, 2 lb ofwZi ibe P nce of the feed 4 Itv. the feptier, which fngularhuibandry hclmon J ^ *»• This eight* or 22“ th' 22 * *** * wheat ftubble, above deferred he ^iLwheir^r ’fy knd ’ 0n wbkb > « day, five or fix’ f^pf! "£el 2 ’the So “ ” 7 ^ blue marl, with many Ihells in it and Under 11 a bed of If fainfom is near mulberries for two or three vears if Irillc * even walnuts. The eauifetiim w +u r nr m ^ s> lf kllls tke tr ee, and the equifetum. ^ ' C fame and fainf oin will kill even to rf C ^S?^ Carl f ly ' thefe minutes would jptobably appear cult to believe that fainfi, T^if Un n0wnm England, for it would be diffi- that fawfom could b e m^ged as it is aflually in France. With 3 E us 39 + SAINFOIN. us this grafslafts generally from twelve to fifteen years ; in France three, four, or five and not often fix years. I viewed much in many parts of that kingdom, and though it was not equal to our crops, yet I could not remark any appearance that feemed to ihew a neceflity of breaking it up fo foon. This very extraordinary cir- cumftance I attribute to the fhortnefs of leafes, to the bad arrangement of farms, and to the importance of cattle being fcarcely any where underftood. Leafes are generally for nine years ; and a tenantry fixed in confidence upon eftates is rarely found; under thefe circumftances, one might naturally fuppofe, that a ciop which lafts longer than the whole duration of the leafe, and is known at the fame time to prepare the land for corn, would not be cultivated at all ; as he who fowed would have no certainty of reaping the harveft. The conclufion ap- pears natural ; but there is at the fame time an objeftion to it which raifes a dif- ficulty. I found precifely the fame culture and the fame conviction of its pro- priety among gentlemen who farm their own lands, as well as among t ie tenantry around them . So far as it refpeCts thofe who do not occupy their lands, by means of metayers, at half or third produce, the objeaion has fome force ; but very little as to thofe whofe praftice is different. Under the propel hea it is ihewn, that no improvements or new practices can be introduced under the fpecies of occupation above-mentioned, without too great a hazai 01 muc 1 111- iuftice. But where a proprietor fairly occupies his land, without the ‘nterven- tion of a metayer, he can have no inducement of this nature to aft at ,m y. Either therefore the common pradice influences the idea, and occasions an ration, without inquiry or experiment, or there are other reafons for this con- duct. When corn is the only capital object of a farmer, and throug ignoiance in his profeffion he thinks there is no better view than to fow as much as pof- fible regardlefs of every other circumftance, he may be fuppoled o e in fo break up fainfoin before the proper time ; he is eager to get thofe three or four crops of wheat, which the barbarous praftices of h.s country have pe - mined him to expeCt. And on fimilar principles, a farmer who has no juft at- tention to cattle and knows nothing of the art of making them productive of corn by a well ’ordered arrangement of his fields, will feel no companion at fodng a plough to work in a fainfoin field, at the very moment it is coming o perfection! Thefe remarks are chiefly applicable to crops that are apparently good and from their appearance, promife to laft much longer than the farmer good, ana, num 1 others which feem worn out or has an inclination to permit them . but for others, a There is not choaked with grafs and weeds, another obfervation is nec y. L any pan of France, where I have been, the leaft idea of making land per- fcaiyX and free from weeds, as a preparation for grafs ■, wh^ver attemi n of this fort is any where met with, is all exerted m fallowing foin is ufually fown with a fecond or third crop of corn, and in fome places he 395 SAINFOIN. farmer* do not think of this grafs till their land is fo full of weeds and fo ex- haufled, that it will produce corn no longer. In fuch cafes I do not fo much wonder at fainfoin lading only four or five years, as that it fhould be produced at all, or that enough of it would be found on the land to afcertain what the crop is. The different circumflances which may be fuppofed to occafion the management I fpeak of, it is not very material to difcriminate. It is fufficient to remark, that there can hardly be produced, in the range of hufbandry, a proof more decifive of that art being in its infancy in France. On poor, chalky, flony foils, very indifferently adapted to corn, to be eager to plough up fainfoin, before it is worn out, or tst lay it down in fuch a flovenly manner, as to fhorten its proper duration two-thirds, is a conduct that cannot be too feverely condemned. I was repeatedly allured, that no management would make it lafl longer in France. To refute fuch affertions, by fhewing their abfurdity, would take up more room and time than fuch queftions are worth. The French cannot at prefent under- ftand how much every fort of the cultivated graffes depends on a judicious courfe of crops ; nor do they comprehend how fuch plants depend as much on turnips (or on fome other plant whofe culture may anfwer the fame end) as upon any pre- paration immediately to be given. Clean fallows in a kingdom, where agricul- ture is ill underflood, will always be fown with bread corn ; but if covered with plants that are not removed or confumed time enough for wheat or rye, and confequently barley or oats to be fown, the land may be laid down in good order, provided the farmer will give up a fecond crop. To thofe who fow thefe graffes with rye on fallow, this obfervation is not equally applicable ; their common hufbandry offers the fame opportunity, if they will forbear the fecond and third corn crops. In fome provinces, particularly in the Bourbonnois and Nevernois, on dry found gravels, fome of which are on a hard bottom, the courfe is, i, fal- low; 2, rye; and the country is not open. Here, one would think, graffes, and particularly fainfoin, might very eaiily be introduced, as the farmers would have a crop in lieu of a fallow the third year ; but fuch is the perverfenefs of French agriculture, that no graffes are there cultivated. In many con venations I have had in France, on the fubjeCt of graffes, a favourite topic in that king- dom, I have always told them they mufl begin with turnips ; the connection with which they could not underfland. It is, however, a faCt, that this culture no where thrives without the fallow being a crop that yields green winter food for cattle ; fuch as turnips, cabbages, rape, potatoes, &c. &c. This is not the place for enlarging on fuch a point ; in the chapter of courfes of crops it is fhewn, that the cultivation of grades, without that of green winter crops, is but a poor ifyflem, and hardly worth attention. It appears from the notes, that fain- foin is no where well managed, or on the fcale in which it ought to be found, but that it is cultivated through a great extent of country; in fome provinces, 3 E 2 however. SAINFOIN. 39& however, fuch as the vafl one of Bretagne, and fome others, I met with none. There is nothing in the notes fo remarkable as the ameliorating quality in pre- paring for corn, univerfally attributed to it in every part of the kingdom. — . Wherever the comparifon is made, wheat is better after it than after fallow; yet fainfoin is fown without any attention to the cleannefs of the land. This furely merits notice, and feems to prove ftrongly how futile a preparation the expen- five one of a fallow is ; and it ought to be received, as a leffon of the firffc confe- quence, not for the French only, but for ourfelves and every other people, that a lay is a much better preparation for corn than a fallow : and farther, that there is no improvement of land apparently fo cheap or fo fure as a ceffation of tillage by laying to grafs. Thefe conclufions arife from an uniform concurrence of fadts obfervable throughout the kingdom. The general management of fuch crops in France is indeed too bad for Englishmen to learn from them ; but there is no country, from which we may not glean fomething ; nor any people, whofe rules and experience, when properly combined with what we already pof- fefs, may not prove a valuable addition to the common flock of knowledge. It would be eafy, and even pleafant, to enlarge on fuch topics — but I am registering the refult of travels, and not compofing differtations on thefe fubje&s. C H A P. X. Of Inclofures in France . '“INHERE is fcarcely a circumflance concerning this great kingdom, which ought to be fo well kriowp, and yet which is fo grofsly mifreprefented, both In common books and common converfation, as the fubje<5t of this inquiry. The idle loungers, that write the guides and journies to Paris and Rome, would make their readers believe, that if you turn a horfe loofe at Calais, he may run to Bayonne for want of an inclofure to flop him. France is certainly much lefs inclofed than England ; but the travellers who take the common route only from Calais to Paris, Dijon, Lyons, and Chambery, can have no more idea of the inclofures in that kingdom, than if they had Raid at home in Portman or Grofvenor-fquares. The principal diflricfts of inclofure which I viewed are, all Bretagne, the weflern part of Normandy, with the northern part of the Seine. Mo.fl 397 INCLOSURES. Moft of Anjou and Maine, as far as near Allenfon. To the S. of the Loire an immenfe range of country is inclofed ; Bas Poitou, Touraine, Sologne, Berry, Limolin, the Bourbonnois, and much of the Nevernois ; and from Mont Cenis in Burgundy, to St. Poncin in Auvergne, all is inclofed. There is fome open country in the Angoumois, and the eahern part of Poitou, but more is inclofed. Quercy is partly fo; but the whole dihridt of the Pyrenees, from Per- pignan to Bayonne, extending to Auch, and aimoh to Touloufe, is all (wahes excepted) thickly inclofed. This contiguous mafs of country comprehends not lefs than 1 1,000 fquare leagues * of the 26,000 contained in the whole kingdom ; and if to this we add the confiderabie dihridts in other parts of France which are inclofed, they will, beyond a doubt, raife the total to a full half of the kingdom. It is to be confidered, that Provence, efpecially about Avignon, is not without inclofures ; Dauphine has more. The whole range of the moun- tainous diftridt of Auvergne, Velay, Vivarais, and Cevenois, contains many : Tranche Compte and Burgundy, efpecially the former, have large tracks in- clofed : Loraine has fome ; and Flanders has them throughout.. Add to this, mod; of the vineyards, woods and forehs, and meadows of the kingdom ; and it will not be thought too large an allowance, to fuppofe one-half of it in this Bate. In fuch a calculation it would be abfurd to pretend to ac- curacy ; it is a guefs, founded on actual oblervation, and innumerable notes taken on the fpot. Some of the inclofed provinces are chequered by open fields ; and every open province is chequered by tracks that are inclofed. An- other remark, not unneceflary to make, for the ufe of fuch as may travel in future, is, that there are many lands in France really inclofed for mold of the purpofes of hufbanary, though apparently open ; that is, property is abfo- lutely diflinguifhed, though without the limit of a hedge or a ditch. The ufe which is made of inclofures in this great kingdom, is a fubjedt of more im- portance. If they do not know what to do with them, they might as well not have them. That this is really the cafe, no perfon can doubt who travels there with attention ; and a hronger proof cannot be adduced, than that the fame price per arpent Ihould be given for inclofed and open lands, provided both are arable. This fadt I met with often, to my ahonifhment. It is the more lingu- lar, becaufe there are many parts alfo of the fame kingdom, where the fmall proprietors drew, by their practice, how well they underhand the value of in- clofng ; no fooner acquiring the foil, than immediately fecuring it to themfelves- by hedges, or ditches, or both. Bearn is as hriking an inhance of this as any part of Europe can exhibit. There is not a diftridt in England clofer, thicker, or * That is, equal to the contents of the following generalities, Rennes, Caen, Tours, Bourges* Poitiers, Limoges, Moulins, Rochelle, Auch and Pau, Montauban, and Bourdeaux, Not all y for many are common, ai;d there are rights over others. better j 9 8 I. N CLOSURES. better inclofed ; and, what is uncommon in France, gates and fliies are in good order. The whole territory of the Pyrenees is in general an inclofed country, but fences are not fo neat, or fo well preferved, as in Bearn. In Bretagne alio, the whole of which , is more or lefs inclofed, though ordinarily with a rough and favage afpedl, yet there is a diflridl from Guingamp to Belleifle much better, where the gates are ingenioufly contrived to fave iron ; by means of the polls being ilout, that on which the gate fwings has a projedtion at top and at bot- tom, the latter being fufficient for the gate to turn on, and the former to turn in, for confining it to the perpendicular pofition ; and the other pefl has a hole, flit, or gafh, cut acrofs the face of it, for lifting a projedtion of the head of the gate into, by which it is as fecurely faflened, as by means of irons in the gates of England — a contrivance that anfwers well where wood is not too dear. It cannot be doubted, but that in thefe provinces, and in Limofin, Berry, and others, where I obferved the hedges well kept, and gaps attentively mended, the farmers muff be well perfuaded, from experience, of the advantages of in- clofing. They would not put thernfelves to a conliderable expence, if they did not expedl a reimburfement. But in the provinces where the open fields predo- minate, there inclofures are little valued : I do not well underhand the reafon for this; — if the hufbandry varied in the inclofed fields, from that of the unin- clofed one, there would be nothing furprifing in it ; but the marvellous folly is, that, in nine-tenths of all the inclofures of France, the fyflem of manage- ment is precifely the fame as in the open fields ; that is to fay, fallows as regularly prevail, and confequently the cattle and fheep of a farm are nothing in com- parifon of what they ought to be. Flanders and Alface, and in general the very rich foils, are well cultivated, but not every where ; for the noble loams of Bcrnay to Elboeuf, and thofe of the Pays de Caux, are difgraced with fallows. Sologne is inclofed, yet it is the moil miferable province in France, of the fame rank with Bretagne itfelf. The Bourbonnois, and great part of the Nevernois, are inclofed; yet the courfe purfued is, i, fallow; 2, rye; and, 1, fallow; 2, rye ; 3, left to weeds and broom — and all thefe on foils, as Bretagne, Sologne, and the Bourbonnois, highly improveable, and capable of the belt Norfolk hufbandry. With fuch miferable fyflem s, of what good are inclofures ? — • Hence we may draw this conclufion, that when we f nd half of France inclofed, we are not to fuppofe that kingdom in the flate of improvement and cultivation, which this circumflance implies among us ; on the contrary, it indicates no fuch thing ; for fome of the poorefl, and mofl unimproved provinces, are precifely thefe which are inclofed; and, for what I know, there may be vifionary theorifls in that kingdom, who will, from this circumflance, argue againfl the practice of inclofing, fince no abfurdities are fo grofs as to want advocates. The chief caufe of new inclofure in France, that fell within my knowledge, is, that the communities of many parifhes, in various parts of the kingdom, and parti- IN CLOSURES/ 399 particularly in the territory of the Pyrenees, being proprietors of the waftes, fell them to any perfon that applies for the property ; to him they give an abfo- lute alignment, without referving any rights of commonage or fuel ; in confe- quence of which, the purchafer has the power of inclofure, of which he never fails making ufe. Hence fuch numerous improvements have been made in the mountainous provinces. On the other hand, in the wafte plains of Bretagne, Anjou, Maine, and Guienne, the whole being in the hands of great lords or feigneurs, who will not fell, but only fief out thefe waftes, we fee them remain in the fame barren and defolate hate in which they were five hundred years ago ; nor is it a fmall impediment, in thefe cafes, that the rights of commonage are claimed in many instances by communities, when the property is in the feigneurs ; a claim that has no exiftence when the property is in the communities themfelves. The open arable fields of Picardy, Artois, part of Normandy, the Ifle of France, Brie, and the Pays de Beauce, are curfed with all the mifchievous cir- cumftances known in fimilar cafes in England, fuch as rights of common paf- turage, commencing on given days, when under corn, and throughout the fallow year ; as well as that miferable phantaftical divifion of property which feems to have been contrived, for giving an occupier as much trouble and expence as pofhble in the culture of his fcraps of fields. In England we have been making, for forty or fifty years paft, a confiderable progrefs in the allotment and inclo- fure of open fields and through tythes, folly, obftinacy, prejudice, and heavy expences in parliament, operate powerfully in preventing great numbers of in- clofures, yet we have enough to preferve the habit, mode, and fyftem of doing the bufinefs j it goes on 5 and, from the progrefs of good fenfe and experience, we may hope to have the whole kingdom inclofed in another century. In France, on the contrary, they have not taken the fir ft ftep ; they have not de- vifed a method of proceeding ; they know not, nor have any idea of giving full powers to commiffioners to go through the Herculean labour, as the French would efteem it, of making a fair divifion, without appeal. There was a royal edidt for this purpofe in 1764, or 1765, I think, which had a particular refe- rence to Loraine; but, in palling through that province, I made enquiries into its effedt, and found little or nothing had refulted from it. Nay, I was allured at Metz, Pont aMouffon, Nancy, and Luneville, that rights of common pafture were univerfal in the province, and that every thing was eaten which was fowm con- trary to the eftablifhed routine. I afked, at Luneville, why they had not more lucerne? The anfwer was, the droit de fare ours prevents it. But under the old government of France, no permiftion, or regulation of this fort, could be carried into execution, becaufe there was in reality no legiflature in France. I fhal! elfewhere fhew this more diftindtly : no law could be effectual, unlefs confented to 'willingly by the parliaments, and then vigoroufly executed by them ; for, by means of the vicious conftitution of their courts of juftice, there was no execu- tive 400 IN CLOSURES. tive government to carry the law into execution ; fo that if all parties were not fully united in executing, as well as enacting in any meafure, nothing could ever be done — the King being really impotent in this refpedt, with all his def- potifm. Under the new government, which is eftablifhing in France, I have great doubts whether any progrefs can ever be made in this great and leading hep to all ufeful improvements in agriculture : as far as the prefent conflitu- tion can be underhood, it is the will of the people that is to govern; and I know of no country where the people are not againh inclofures. The Tiers Etat, and clergy of Mentz * exprefsly demand, that the edidt of inclofure fhall be revoked : that of Troyes, and Nifmes, and Anjou, make the fame requeh'f'; another, that tne right of commonage in forehs fhall be granted to the neighbouring parishes J. — ’The nobility of Cambray declare, that commons ought not to be broken up§. Nay, fome of the cahiers go fo far as to fay, that the commons which have already been divided, ought to be thrown open again ||. Hence we may judge what probability there can be, of any new and effective laws to promote and enforce fuch a meafure. I o enter largely into the advantages of inclofures, in fuch a work as this, and at this time of day, would be fuperfluous ** ; it is fufficient to remark, that without a regular fyflern of inclofures no cattle can be kept, except on the * Cahier de Tiers Etat de Metz , p. 45. Du Clerg'e. , p. 11. The very people, therefore, moft peftered with commons are thofe who are the firft to defire them. Mem. fur la Culture du Chou Navet , par M. de Mononcourt. 8vo. 1788. p. 7. t T. Etat Troyes. Art. 118. Nifmes , p. 27. Jnjou, p. 49. $ E. Etat Thimerais. p. 44. § Nob . Cambray , p. 19. It is, however, but juft to remark, that the divifion of commons is de- manded by the nobility of Sens, p. 26; nobility of Provins, p. 24; nobility of St. Quintin, p. 12; t e clergy of Bayonne, art. 5 1 ; the nobility of Lyons, p. 23. The Tier Etat of Contentin, MS. II Cl erg e Sautnur , p. 9. Troyes , p. 10. Tie King of I ruffia juftly remarks, “ Ce ne fut qu’apres la feparation des communes que I’agri- cu tine es Anglois commen^a a profperer.” Oeuvres , tom.v. p. 151. See alfo, for vaft advantages, /f f (es Starnes^ 5th edit. 1760. vol. v. p. 125. But, above all, let me quote the inftances given f a ie “, C j, W1 ^ ter ’ which are fo pointed as to merit much attention. u There are in the eledtion of . ateau Ihiery, 109 communities, among whom 32 poffefs commons, and 74 have none. In the 32, eeun cue augmented in their fires 152; twenty others have diminifhed 375; and one has ie c as it uas j in the 77 without commons, 13 have augmented 147 fires; 42 diminifhed 473 ; aii 22 remaine as they were. The election of Soiftons offers an example not lefs ftriking: 32 paii.es po efi near 4000 arpents cf commons, which contained, in 1729, families 2470 ; but at pre ent t ey 'are reduced to 1689. In 20 villages without commons, there are 90 fires more than in 20 oti er^vi ages that have commons. With commons there is a cow to 1 3 T C- arpents ; without, one to 9 6 arpents. Traite des Communes. 8vo. 17 77. And it is very well obferved by another, t . liat CC ? mrn ° nS an< ^ comm on fields are of much lefs ufe to thofe who want moft, than to thofe who can oo wit out them. Memoire de la Soc, Oecon. de Berne. 1762. tom. ii. p. 80. Flemifh IN CLOSURE*. 40I Flemifh fyflem of conflant confinement in flables, flails, or yards ; and this method, when the lands which are to yield the food are diflant from the home- flail, is inconvenient and expenfive, though in a great variety of refpe&s truly admirable. With open field farms, much difperfed, it is impoflible to follow the Flemifh fyflem ; not only becaufe the eflablifhed rotation excludes the pro- per plants for cattle, but becaufe, if they were raifed, they could not be daily carted home, without committing trefpaffes on other people; therefore, it fhould always be remembered, that cattle and inclofure are fynonymous terms. The numerous academies and focieties of agriculture in France, that, by pre- miums and differtations, attempted to increafe the cattle of the kingdom, by the culture of new grades and other plants, without making proper diflindiions, and paying a peculiar attention to inclofed diflri&s, could not, in the nature of things, fee any good effects refult from their endeavours : it was fome thing like the Intendant’s giving turnip feed to farmers who had not, perhaps, afingleacre of land in circumftances that permitted the cultivation. But we may fafely af- fert, that without inclofure the half of France cannot poffibly fupport the requifite flock of cattle and fheep ; and without fuch flock, a good and pro- ductive hufbandry is utterly impracticable. On whatever agricultural fubjeCt we may be employed, it is never to be forgotten, nor can we recur too often to the pofition, that the fallows of a farm are to fupport the cattle and fheep of it. The firfl great objeCt of French agriculture is to eflablifh a better hufbandry in the parts of the kingdom already inclofed ; and the fecond is to inclofe the parts now open. It is remarkable that vineyards are generally open, though property is diflinCt and afcertained ; I have met with inflances where the di- vided and icattered fcraps of land in this culture have been as various and as inconvenient as in common arable fields, probably from their having been in this flate before they were converted into vineyards. Inclofures, however, are in no culture more important than in the vineyard. Trefpaffes are mif- chievous in proportion to the value of the produCt, and to the eafe and tempta- tion of committing them. The afliduity exerted, and the expence bellowed, in watching vineyards in many parts of France, are a convincing proof, that the better they are incloied, the more valuable they would be confidered. flow fai the fhelter rel tilting from inclofures would prefer ve the vines from the incle- mencies of unfavourable ieafons, delerves the attention of French agriculturifls. There is another light in which this improvement may be placed, which in France meiits particular attention, namely, the neceflity of making every where provifion for fuel, by fome application of the land to it, from the fcarcity or badnefs of coal in leven-eights of the kingdom. I have already fhewn what an immenfe proportion of it is under woods and forefls, for fupplying fuel ; hereas a well regulated inclofure, the hedges judicioufly planted and preferved, 3 F would t 02 TENANTRY. SIZE OF FARMS. would yield, as they do in England, confiderable quantities cf fuel. Whcie Ihelter or humidity were wanted, this quantity would be large ; where the fence fimply was the objeft, it would be lefs, as fuch motives would regulate the height of the hedge. CHAP. XI. Of the Tenantry, and Size of Farms in France . T HERE are five circumftances in the occupation of land in France, under which I may include the very numerous notes I took in all the provinces, and which are too voluminous for infertion : i , the fmall properties of the pea- fants; 2, hiring at a money rent, as in England j 3, feudal tenures ; 4, mono- polizing lands hired at money rent, and re-let to peafants ; 5, metayers ; by which is to be underftood, hiring at half or third produce. I. The fmall properties of the peafants are found every where, to a degree we have no idea of in England 3 they are foitnd in every part of the kingdom, even in thofe provinces where other tenures prevail ; but in Quercy, Languedoc, the whole diftrid of the Pyrenees, Bearn, Gafcoign, part of Guienne, Alface, Flanders, and Loraine, they abound to a greater degree than common. In Flanders, Alface, on the Garonne, and Bearn, I found many in comfortable circumftances, fuch as might rather be called fmall farmers than cottagers, and in Bas Bretagne, many are reputed rich, but in general they are poor and miferable, much arifing from the minute divifion of their little farms . among all the children. In Loraine, and the part of Champagne that joins it, they are quite wretched. I have, more than once, feen divifion carried to fuch excefs, that a fingle fruit tree, handing in about ten perch cf ground, has conftituted a farm, and the local fituation of a family decided by the pofieffion. II. Hiring at money rent is the general pradice in Picardy, Artois, part of Flanders, Normandy (except the Pays de Caux), Ifle of France, and 1 ays de Beauce; and I found fomein Bearn and about Navarens. Such tenures aie found alfo in moft parts of France, fcattered among thofe which are different and predominant ; but, upon a moderate eftimate, they have not yet made theic way through more than, a fixth or feventh of the kingdom., III. Feudal tenures.— Thefe are fiefs granted by the feigneurs- of parifhes, under a refervation of fines, quit rents, fbrfeitures, fervices, &c. I found them abounding moft in Bretagne, Limofin, Berry, La Marche, &c. where they fpread through whole provinces y but they are fcattered very much in every part TENANTRY— SIZE OF FARMS. 403 of thS kingdom. About Verfon, Vatan, &c. in Berry, they complained lb hea- vily of thefe burthens, that the mode of levying and enforcing them mull con- flitute much of the evil ; they are every where much more burthenfome than apparent, from the amount which I attribute to that circumflance. Legal adju- dications, they affert, are very fevere againfl the tenant, in favour of the feigneur. IV. Monopoly. — This is commonly pradtifed in various of the provinces where metaying is known ; men of fome fubflance Ijire great tradls of land, at a money rent, and re-let it in fmall divifions to metayers, who pay half the pro- duce. I heard many complaints of it in La Marche, Berry, Poitou, and An- goumois, and it is met with in other provinces ; it appears to flow from the dif- ficulties inherent in the metaying fyflem, but is itfelf a mifchievous practice, well known in Ireland, where thefe middle men are almofl banifhed. V. Metayers . — This is the tenure under which, perhaps, feven-eighths of the lands of France are held; it pervades almofl every part of Sologne, Berry, La Marche, Limofin, Anjou, Bourgogne, Bourbonnois, Nevernois, Auvergne, &c« and is found in Bretagne, Maine, Provence, and all the fouthern counties, &c. In Champagne there are many at tier franc , which is the third of the produce, but in general it is half. The landlord commonly finds half the cattle and half the feed ; and the metayer labour, implements, and taxes ; but in fome dif- tridls the landlord bears a fhare of thefe. In Berry fome are at half, fome one- third, fome one-fourth produce. In Rouffillon the landlord pays half the taxes ; and in Guienne, from Auch to Fleuran, many landlords pay all. Near Aguil- lon, on the Garonne, the metayers furnifh half the cattle. Near Falaife, in Normandy, I found metayers, where they fhould leafl of all be looked for, on the farms which gentlemen keep in their own hands ; the confequence there is, that every gentleman’s farm mull be precifely the worfl cultivated of all the neigh- bourhood this difgraceful circumflance needs no comment. At Nangis, in the I fie of France, I met with an agreement for the landlord to furnifh live flock, implements, harnefs., and taxes ; the metayer found labour and his own capitation tax : — the landlord repaired the houfe and gates; the metayer the windows : — the landlord provided feed the firfl year ; the metayer the lafl ; in the intervening years they fupply half and half. Produce fold for money divided. Butter and cheefe ufed in the metayer’s family, to any amount, com- pounded for at 5s. a cow. In the Bourbonnois the landlord finds all forts of live flock, yet the metayer fells, changes, and buys at his will ; the Reward keeping an account of thefe mutations, for the landlord has half the produdt of fales, and pays half the purchafes. The tenant carts the landlord’s half of the com to the barn of the chateau, and comes again th take the ft raw ; the confe- quences of this abfurd fyftem are itriking; land which in England would let at 1 os. pay about as. 6d. for both land and live flock. At 404 TENANTRY. SIZE OF FARMS. At the firft blufh, the great difadvantage of the metaying fyftem is to land- lords ; but, on a nearer examination, the tenants are found in the loweft ftate of poverty, and fome of them in mifery. At Vatan, in Berry, I was allured, that the metayers almoft every year borrowed their bread of the landlord before the harveft came round, yet hardly worth borrowing, for it was made of lye and barley mixed; I tailed enough of it to pity fincerely the poor. people; but no common perfon there eat&. wheaten bread ; with all this mifery among the farmers, the landlord’s fituation may be eftimated by the rents he receives. At Salbris, in Sologne, for a fheep-walk that feeds 700 flieep, and 200 Englifh acres of other land, paid the, landlord, for his half, about 33I. flerling ; the whole rent, for land and flock too, did not, therefore,, amount to is. per head on the flieep ! In Limofin, the metayers are confidered as little better than, menial fervants, removeable at pleafure, and obliged to conform ijjfcall things to the will of the landlords ; it is commonly computed that half the tenantry are deeply in debt to the proprietor, fo that he is often obliged to turn them off with the lofs of thefe debts, in order to fave his land from running wafte. In all the modes of occupying land, the great evil is the fmallnefs of farms. There are large ones in Picardy, the Ifle of France, the Pays de Beauce,. Artois, and Normandy; but, in the reft of the kingdom, fuch are not general. The divifion of the farms and population is fo great, that the mifery flowing from it is in many places extreme ; the idlenefs of the people is feen the moment you enter a town on market-day ; the fwarms of people are incredible. At Lander- vifian, in Bretagne, I faw a man who walked feven miles to bring two chicksns, which would not fell for 24/. the couple, as he told me himfelf. At Avranches men attending each a horfe, with a pannier load of fea ooze, not more than fourbufhels. Near Ifenheim, in Alface, a rich country, women, in the midft of harveft, where their labour is nearly as valuable as that of men, reaping graft by the road fide to carry home to their cows. Observations;., Three material queftions obvioufly arife ; ift, the iriconveniencies of metay- ing, and the advantages of the tenure at a money rent 2d, the fize of farms $, 5 3d, how far fmall properties are beneficial. I. Metayers,. This fubjed may be eafily difpatched ; for there is not-one word to be faid in ; favour of the pradice, and a thoufand arguments that might be ufed againft it. The hard plea of neeeflity can alonebe urged in its favour ; the poverty of the farmers being fo great, that the landlord mu ft flock the farm, or it could not be flocked at; all : this is a moft cruel burthen to a proprietor, who is thus obliged to- TENANTRY, SIZE OF FARMS. 4 *>$ to run much of the hazard of farming in the mod dangerous of all methods, that of truding his property abfolutely in the hands of people who are generally ignorant, many carelefs, and fome undoubtedly wicked. Among fome gentlemen I perfonally knew, I was acquainted with one at Bagnere de Luchon, who was obliged to fell his edate, becaufe he was unable to redock it, the fheep having all died of epidemical didempers; proceeding, doubtlefs, from the execrable methods • of the metayers cramming them into dables as hot as doves, on reeking dunghills ; and then in the common cuftom of the kingdom, fhutting every hole and crack, that could let in air. — In this moll miferable of all the modes of letting land, af- ter running the hazard of luch lodes, fatal in many inftances, the defrauded landlord receives a contemptible rent ; — the farmer is in the lowed: date of poverty ; — the land is miferably cultivated ; and the nation differs as feverely as the parties themfelves. It is a curious quedion how this practice came to be exploded in Picardy, Normandy, and the Ide of France. The wealth of great cities will effed fomething, but not much; for Bourdeaux, Marfeilles, and, above all, Lyons and Nantes, have done nothing in this refped ; yet they are to be claded among the riched cities in Europe, and far beyond Rouen, Abbe- ville, Amiens, &c.-— And were we to afcribe it to the nearer vicinity of the. capital, why has not the fame caufe edablifhed a good hufbandry, as well as rents paid in money ? — The fad, however, is certain, that thofe three pro- vinces, with. Artois and Flanders,, in which we fhould not be furprized at any variation, as they were conquered from a free country, comparatively fpeaking,, are the only ones in the kingdom where this benedcial pradice generally pre- vails. It is found> indeed; in a fcattered and irregular manner elfe where,, but not edablifhed as in thofe provinces. That the poverty of the tenantry, which has given rife to this mifchievous pradice, has arifen from the principles of an arbitrary government, cannot be doubted. Heavy taxes on. the farmers, from which the nobility and clergy are exempt; and thofe taxes levied arbi- trarily, at the will, of the intendant and his fub-delegues,. have been fufficient to impoverifh the lower claffes. One would naturally have fuppofed, from the grofs abufes and cruelty of this method of taxation, that the objed in view were as much to keep the people poor, as to make the King rich.. As the taille was profeffedly levied, in proportion to every one’s fubdance, it had the milchievous effed of all equal land taxes, when levied even with honedy ; for a farmer s profit — his fuccefs — his merit,, was taxed exadly in proportion to the quantum ;. a fure method of putting a period to the exidence of either profit,, fuccefs, or merit.. The farmers are really poor, or apparently poor, fince a rich', man will affed poverty to efcape the arbitrary rife of a tax, , which profefies to be- in proportion to his power of bearing it : hence poor cattle, poor implements, and poor dung-hills, even on the farms of men who. could afford the. bed.. What: ■SIZE OF FARMS. 406 TENANTR Y.< What a ruinous and deteftable fyflem, and how furely calculated to flop the current of the wealth of the fovereign, as well as of his people ! — What man of common fenfe and feeling, can lament the fall of a go- vernment that conducted itfelf on fuch principles ? And who can juflly 'condemn the people for their violence, in wrefling from the nobility and clergy thofe privileges and diflin&ions, which they had ufed fo unworthily, to the depreffion and ruin of all the inferior clafTes ?* Thefe taxes, united with the burthenfome and odious feudal rights and impofitions of the feig- neurs, prevented all inveflment of capital, which could not be removed at pieafure, from the land : the evil was not fo much a general want of capital in the kingdom, as an apprehenfion of fixing it on land, where it would of necefiity be expofed to the rapin of regal and noble harpies ; that this was the faCt, we find from the cafe of the rich grazing diflriCts of Normandy, where no want of capital was heard of, yet fuch lands demand a larger fum to flock than any other ; a fum equal to the amplefl improvement of the poorefl and molt difficult foils. Why then ihould not a proper flock be found on arable as well as on palture lands? For an obvious reafon — the capital inverted in fat oxen and fheep is removeable at a moment’s warning ; and, being every year renewed, the grazier has an annual opportunity of withdrawing from bufmefs ; he has confequently a fort of independence, ut- terly unknown to an arable farmer, who has the leart idea of improving his land, or of keeping a proper flock of implements and manure. The knowledge of this circumflance keeps the tyrants in order, and makes them tender in impo- fitions, which being evaded, would leave the moil valuable land in the kingdom without the means of being rendered productive. In regard to the bell means of remedying the evils of metaying, they certainly confirt in the proprietor’s farming his own lands till improved, and then letting them at a money rent, without the flock, if he can find farmers to hire 3 but if not, lending the flock at interefl. Thus favoured, the farmers would, under a good govern- ment and eafed of tythes, prefently grow rich, and, in all probability, wx>uld, for the mofl part, free themfelves from the debt in twenty- five or thirty years ; and, with good husbandry, even in a fingle leafe of twenty-one years ; but with their prefent wretched fyflems of cropping, and deficiency of cattle and fheep, they would be a century effecting it. If a landlord could not, or would not, farm himfelf, the next method would be, to let live flock and land at a money rent, for twenty-one years, the tenant, at the expiration, paying him in money the original value of the live flock, and fubjeCt to all * The paflage is left as originally written ; the people have fince fhewn in their turn, that the little finger of a democracy is heavier than the whole body of an arbitrary monarch. hazards TENANTRY. SIZE OF FARMS. 407 hazards and lodes. There can be no doubt but fuch a fydem, with a good mode of taxation and freedom from tythes, would enable the metayer in that term to become at lead capable of carrying on his bufinefs, without any affi dance in future from his landlord.. II. Size of Farms , I have treated at large of this fubjetf: in my Tours through England, and'im the Annals of Agriculture, vol. vii. p. 510; at prefent therefore, I fhall briefly touch upon fome circumdances more particularly ariflng from the hulhandry of France. I fhall begin by aflerting, with confidence, that I never faw a Angle indance of good hufbandry on a fmall farm, except on foils of the greated fer- tility. Flanders is always an exception ; on that rich, deep, and putrid foil; in the exuberant plain of Alface, and in the deep and fertile borders of the Ga- ronne, the land is fo good, that it mud be perverfity alone that can contrive very bad hufbandry; but on all inferior foils, that is to lay, through nine- tenths of the kingdom, and in fome indances even on very rich land, as, for indance, in Normandy, the hufbandry is execrable. I may further obferve, that when- ever bad management is found in thofe rich and well cultivated diflridts, it is fure to be found on fmall farms.. When, therefore, I obferved in many cahiers of the three orders, a demand to limit the fize of farms, and great panegyricks on fmall ones, I could not but conclude, that the townfme.n who drew up thofe indrudHons knew nothing of the practice of agriculture, except the vulgar errors which float in every country upon that fubjedt*. This inquiry is of fo much importance to every nation, that it ought to depend as much as poflible on fadts, and of couxfe to be handled by thofe only who pradtife agriculture as well as underdand it.. The following quedion naturally arife. Is it the grofs produce of hufbandry that fhould chiefly be confidered ? Or the greated pro- duce that can be carried, to market ? Or is it the net profit ? Should the populoufnefs ariflng from cultivation be the guide ? Or fhould the eafe and happinefs of the cultivators be only had in view ? Thefe queflions might be multiplied, but they are fufiicient for unfolding the inquiry. It will probably be found, that no one point, is fingly to be attended to, but an aggregate of all, in due proportions, I. The grofs produce cannot be alone confidered, for this Ample reafon, that fo many hands may be employed to raife the larged, as to afford none foe * Cahier de Dour don, p. ly.—Crepy, p. 5 — Ejfampes, p. 27 .*-Paris, p. 41.— Brovins -aud Mon iereaur-i p> 51. . market ; in which cafe there could be no towns, no manufacturers, but merely domeftic ones no army, no navy, no {hipping. Such an arrangement, though perfectly confident with the Count de Mirabeau’s fyftem, of an equal difperfion of a people over their whole territory, is yet fo truly vifionary, that it does not demand a moment’s attention. II. The net profit of hulbandry cannot pofiibly be the guide, becaufe the moft uncultivated fpots may be attended with a greater net profit on the capital employed, than the richeft gardens ; as a mere warren, fheep- walk, &c. III. Populoufnefs cannot be a fafe guide in the inquiry, becaufe if it be alone .attended to, it infallibly deftroys itfelf by excefs of milery. There can be no merit in any iyftem. that breeds people to fiarve ; food and employment (towns) muft, therefore, be in view as well as people. IV. The eafe and happinefs of cultivators alone cannot be our guide, becaufe they may be eafier and happier in the midft of a howling defert, than in the gardens of Montreuil. V. I am not abfolutely fatisfied with the great eft produce that can be carried to market , but it comes infinitely nearer to the truth than any of the reft ; it in- cludes a confiderable grofs produce ; it implies a great net profit ; and indicates, cxaCtly in proportion to its amount, that populoufnefs which is found in towns, and that which ought to depend on manufactures ; it fecures the eafe of the cul- tivating dalles ; it enables the farmer to employ much labour, and, what is of more confequence, to pay it well. This leading proposition, being thus far fatisfaCtorily afeertained, on compa- rifon with the others, we are able to determine that that fize of farms is moft be- neficial, in general, which fecures the greateft produce in the ?narket ; or, in other words, converted into money. Now, in order thus to commands great furplus, above what is confirmed by men and their families employed or de- pending on the cultivation, every fpecies of good hufbandry muft be exerted. Lands already in culture muft be kept improving $ great ftocks of cattle and ftieep fupported ; every fort of manure that can be procured ufed plentifully j draining, irrigating, folding, hoeing, marling, claying, liming, inclofing, all muft be exerted with activity and vigour: — no ferap of wafte land left in a negleCted ftate: — all improved; all puftiing forward towards perfection ; and the farmer encouraged, by the profit of his undertakings, to inveft his favings in frefti ex- ertions, that he may receive that compound intereft fo practicable for the good farmer. The fized farm that beft effeCts all thefe works, will certainly carry to market the greateft furplus produce. I have attended, with great care and im- partiality, to the refult of this inquiry throughout the kingdom ; and though in many TENAN T R Yv— S I t E- O F FARMS. .4^ many provinces the hulbandry is fo infamoufly bad, as to yield a choice only of evils, yet I may fafely aflert, that on farms of 300 to 600 acres it is infinitely better than on little ones, and fupplies the market with a produce beyond all companion fuperior. But by farms I mean always occupations , and by no means, fuch as are hired by middle men to re-let to little metayers. There is nothing ft range in the bad huibandry fo common on little farms; by which I mean Rich as are under soo arpents, and even from 100 to 200 ; thole propor- tions between the ftock and labour, and the land, by which practical men will underhand what I. mean, are on fuch farms unfavourable. The man is poor; and no poor farmer can make thofe exertions that are demanded for good hus- bandry*; and his poverty is neceflarily in proportion to the fmall nefs of his farm. The profit of a large farm fupports the farmer and his family, and leaves a furplus which may be laid out in improvements ; that of a fmall trail of land will do no more than fupport the farmer, and leaves nothing for im- provements. With the latter the horfes are more numerous than with the former, and in a proportion that abridges much of the profit. The divifion of labour, which in every purfuit of induftry gives fkill and difpatch, cannot in- deed take place on the greateft farms in the degree in which it is found in manufactures ; but upon fmall farms it does not take place at all the fame man, by turns, applies to every work of the farm ; upon the larger occupation there are ploughmen, threlhers, hedgers, Ihepherds, cow-herds, ox-herds, hog- herds, lime-burners, drainers, and irrigators : — -this circumftance is of confider- able importance, and decides that every work will be better performed on a large than on a fmall farm ; one of the greateft engines of good huibandry, a fheepfold, is either to be found on a large farm only, or at an expence of labour which defiroys the profit. It has often been urged, that fmall farms are greater nurferies of population ; in many inftances this is the cafe, and they are often pernicious exactly in that proportion ; prolific in mifery ; and breeding mouths without yielding a produce to feedthem. In France, population, outftripping the demand, is a public nuifance, and ought to be carefully difeouraged ; but of this faCt, glaring through the whole kingdom, more in another chapter. The farms I fhould prefer in France would be 250 to 330 acres upon rich foils; and 400 to 600 upon poorer ones. England has made, upon the whole, a much greater progrefs in agriculture 1 than any other country in Europe ; and great farms have abfolutely done the whole : infomuch, that we have not a capital improvement that is ever found on * « Wealth,” fays a French writer, M in the hands of farmers becomes fatal to agriculture.” EJfai fur I’etat de la culture Belgique. 8vo. 1784. p. 7. Who can wonder at a kingdom being ill cul- tivated, that abounds with fuch politicians ? 3G a fmall TENANTRY,- SIZE OF FARM S. 410 a fmall one. Let foreigners let the Count de Hertzberg* come to Eng- land and view our hufbandry let me have the honour of fhewing him that of our large farms, and then let Dr. Price condud him to that of our fmall ones : when he has viewed both, he will find no difficulty in drawing conclufions very different from thofe which he has hitherto patronized. We have in Eng- land brought to perfe&ion the management of inclofing, marling, claying, and every fpecies of manuring. We have made great advances in irrigation ; and fhould, perhaps, have equalled Lombardy, if the liberty of the people would have allowed as ready a trefpafs on private property. Wb have carried the breeding of cattle and fheep to a greater perfection, than any country in the world ever yet experienced. W^e have, in our belt managed diftnCts, banifhed fallows i and, what is the great glory of our ifland, the beft hufbandry is found on our pooreft foils. Let me demand, of the advocates for fmall farms, where the little farmer is to be found who will cover his whole farm with mail, at the rate of 100 to 1 tons per acre ? who will drain all his land at the expence of two or three pounds an acre ? who will pay a heavy price for the manure of towns, and convey it thirty miles by land carriage ? who will float his meadows at the expence of 5I. per acre ? who, to improve the breed of his fheep, will give 1 000 guineas for the ufe of a fingle ram for a Angle leafon ? who will give 25 guineas per cow for being covered by a fine bull ? who will fend aciofs the kingdom to diftant provinces for new implements, and for men to ufe them ? who employ and pay men for refiding in provinces, where practices are found which they want to introduce on their farms ?— — At the very mention of fuch exertions, common in England, what mind can be fo perverfely framed as to imagine, for a fingle moment, that such things are to be effected by little farmers ? — DeduCt from agriculture all the practices that have made it flourifh- ing in this ifland, and you have precifely the management of fmall farms. * That Minifter fays, in one of his difcourfes to the Academy of Berlin, “ Ce le principe de que le cultivateur Anglois Young fontient, dans fon Arithmetique Politique, fur l’utilite des grandes fermes. M. Young paroit avoir tort a l’egard d’un gouvernement republicain tel que celui de la Grande Bretagne, que a plus befoin qu’un autre d’une grande population. Here, as in many in- ftances, it is fuppofed, that large farms are unfavourable to population, becaufe their produce is con- fumed in towns. Has the count given any reafon to make us believe, that the produce of a large farm confumed in a town, does not imply a population proportioned to its quantity, as well as the produce of a fmall farm, which is Confumed by the people that raife it ? As population is in propor- tion to food, thofe who urge that great farms are injurious, fhould fhew that fmall ones raife a greater quantity ; that is, are better cultivated : furely the aflertion implies too grofs an abfurdity to be ventured. Frederic, who attained the title of Great, on account of his fuperior fkill in the arts of flaughtering men, was, on military principles, a friend to breeding them. u confiderant que le nombre des habitants fait la richelfe des fouverains on trouva— — — — ’ &c.* Oeuvres de Fted» II. Tom. p. 146. The SIZE OF FARM 3. T E N A N T R Y.- — 411 The falfe ideas, at prefen t fo common in France, are the more furprifing, as no language abounds with jufter fentiments on many of thefe queftions of political oeconomy than the Franch. There cannot be jufter, truer, or more appofite remarks on the advantage of great farms and rich farmers, than in the Ency- clopedic *. Nor can any one write better on the fubjedt than M. Delegorguef . Artois, he obferves, was univerfally under two crops and a fallow ; but changed to a crop every year, by the old cuftoms being abolifhed. So beneficial an alte- ration, not common in France, was founded many and expenfive experiments, which could be eftabliflied only by means of the manures gamed from large flocks and herds. By whom was this change efledted ? — by little farmers, who can hardly effedt their own fupport ? — affuredly not. He further obferves, that fome parts of Artois are divided for the fake of a higher rent, and cattle are there fenfibly decreafed; alfo, that a country labourer is much happier than a little farmer. And I give him no flight credit for his obfervation, that little farmers are not able to keep their corn ; and that all monopolies are in confequence of them; implying, that great farmers keeping back their corn is beneficial; but monopolies are equally beneficial ; and tend as advantageoufly to remedy the evils that flow from little farmers being in too great a hurry to fell. But however clearly I may be convinced of the infinite fuperiority-of large farms, and that no country can ever be highly improved, by means of fmall ones, yet I am very far from recommending any laws or regulations to enforce the union of feveral. I contend for nothing but freedom; and for the rejedtion of thofe abfurd and prepofterous demands, in fome of the French cahiers, for laws agamjl fuch an union. And let me add, that little attention fhould be paid to thofe writers and politicians, who, under defpotic governments, are fo Rrenuous for a great population, as to be blind to much fuperior objedts ; who fee nothing in the propagation of mankind but the means of increafmg foldiers ; who admire fmall farms as the nurferies of flaves — and think it a worthy objedb of policy to breed men to mifery, that they may beenlifted, or ftarve, Such fen- timents may be congenial with the keen atmofphere of German delpotifm; but that they fhould find their way into a nation, whofe profpedts are cheared by the brighter beams of new-born liberty, is a contradidtion to that general felicity which ought to flow from freedom. Much too populous to be happy, France fhould feek the means of feeding the numbers which fhe hath, inflead of breed- ing more to fhare a too fcanty pittance. III. Small Properties. In the preceding obfervations, I have had rented farms only in view ; but there is another fort which abounds in almoft every part of France, of which we * Tom. 7, p. 821. Folio. f Mem. fur cette queftion : Eft-il utile en Artois de Divifer les Fernaes ? 1786. p. 7 * 3 G 2 cannot TENANTRY. SIZE OF FARMS. 412 cannot form an idea from what we fee in England — I mean fmall properties ; that is, little farms, belonging to thofe who cultivate them. The number is fo great, that I am inclined to fuppofe more than one-third of the kingdom occupied by them. Before I travelled, I conceived, that fmall farms, in property, were very fufceptible of good cultivation ; and that the occupier of fuch, having no rent to pay, might be fufficiently at his eafe to work improvements, and carry on a vigorous hufbandry ; but what I have feen in France, has greatly leflened my good opinion of them. In Flanders, I faw excellent hufbandry on properties of 30 to 100 acres ; but we feldom find here fuch fmall patches of property as are common in other provinces. In Alface, and on the Garonne, that is, on foils of fuch exuberant fertility as to demand no exertions, fome fmall properties alfo are well cultivated. In Bearn, I palled through a region of little farmers, whofe appearance, neatnefs, eafe, and happinefs, charmed me ; it was what property alone could, on a fmall fcale, effedt-j but thefe were by no means contemptibly fmaH; they are, as I j udged by the diflance from houfe to houfe, from 40 to 80 acres. Except thefe, and a very few other inflances, I faw nothing refpe&able on fmall properties, except a moil unremitting induflry. Indeed, it is neceflary to imprefs on the reader’s mind, that though the hufbandry I met with, in a great variety of in- fiances on little properties, was as bad as can well be conceived, yet the induflry of the pofTeffors was fo confpicuous, and fo meritorious, that no commendations would be too great for it. It was fufficient to prove, that property in land is, of all others, the mofl a&ive infligator to fevere and inceflant labour. And this truth is of fuch force and extent, that I know no way fo fure of carrying tillage to a mountain-top, as by permitting the adjoining villagers to acquire it in property ; in fadt, we fee that, in the mountains of Eanguedoc, &c. they have conveyed earth in bafkets, on their backs, to form a foil where nature had denied it. Another circumflance attending fmall properties, is the increafe of population ; but what may be advantageous to other countries, may be a mif- fortune to France. Having, in this manner, admitted the merit of fuch fmall farms in property, I fhall, in the next place, Rate the inconveniences I have obferved to refult from them in France. The firfl and greatefl, is the divifion which univerfally takes place after the death of the proprietor, commonly amongfl all the children, but in fome dif- tridls amongfl the fons only. Forty or fifty acres in property are not incapable of good hufbandry ; but when divided, twenty acres muft'bt ill cultivated ; again divided, they become farms of ten acres, of five, of two, and even one ; and I have feen fome of half, and even a quarter of a rood, with a family as much attached to it, as if it were an hundred acres. The population flowing from. TENANTRY. SIZE OF FARMS. 4E3 this divifion. is, in fome cafes, great, but it is the multiplication of wretched - nefs. Couples marry and procreate on the idea, not the reality , of a mainte- nance ; they increafe beyond the demand of towns and manufactures ; and the confequence is, diftrefs, and numbers dying of difeafes, arifing from infufficient nourifhment. Hence, therefore, fmail properties, much divided, prove the greateft fource of mifery that can b’e conceived ; and this has operated to fuch an extent and degree in France, that a law undoubtedly ought to be pafied, to render all divifion, below a certain number of arpents, illegal. But what are we, in this view of the fubjeCt, drawn from aCtual 4 and multiplied obfervations, to think of the men who contend, that the property of land cannot be too much divided ? That a country is flourifhing in proportion to the equal difperfion of the people over their territory, is the opinion of one celebrated leader* in the National Aflembly ; but his father was of different ientiments ; with great good fenfe and deep reflection he declares, that that culture does not moft favour po- pulation which employs mofl: hand ■f * ; “ e’eft a bien des egards un prejuge de croire, que plus la culture occupe d’hommes plus elle eft favourable a la pa- pulation meaning, that the furplus of produCt carried to market is as favour- able to population, by feeding towns, as if eaten on the fields that produced it, ainfi plus l mdujlrie & la richejje des entre preneurs de la culture epargne de travail d homines , plus la culture four nit a la fubjijiance d’ autre homines. Another deputy, high in general eftimation, and at the head of the committee of finances, after ts, that the greateft poflible divifion of land property is the beft. Such gentlemen,. * De la Monarchic PruJJienne , tom. iv. p. 13. The Count de Mirabeau, In this paflage agree?,, that great farms, upon a given fpace of land, will yield the greateft poflible production, at the leaft pofc fible expence ; but contends, that there is a multitude of little objeds, which efcape the great farmer,, of much more confequence thanfaving expences. It is incredible that a man of fuch decided talents fhould fo utterly rmftake the fads that govern a queftion, to which he has give much attention, at' Jeafl if we are to judge by his recurring to it fo often. Where does he find the fad upon which he builds all his reafoning, that little farmers make larger inveflments and expences than great farmers ? I will not appeal to England, in which the queftion is determined as foon as named ; but I fhould ■wifh» to be informed, in what provinces of France the little farmers have their lands as well flocked ay great ones ? or as well cultivated ? M. de Mirabeau completely begs the queftion,. in fuppofing what is di redly contrary to fad, fince the advances of the great farms are more confiderable, perhaps the double of thole of the little one ; I am fure it is fo in every part of the kingdom in which I have been. But tne Count goes on to ftate how luperior the little farms are, becaufe fo many more fa- milies are found on the land, which is precifely the moft powerful argument againfl them, as that merit admitted, implies at once the annihilation of towns and manufadures being beneficial to a modern ftate, provided the people be found in the country 5 a pofltion I have fufficiently anfwered in the text. f V Ami des Hommes , 5th edit. 1760. tom. v. p. 43. See alfo tom. vi. p. 79. Tableau Oecono- raique . See the fame fubjed, handled with, much ability, by one of the greateft political geniuftes of the prefent age, De L’ Qeconomie Politique , par Monf. Herrenfchwand, 8vi 1.786.. p. 275, And Difcoursfur la divifion des Terres, 8vo. 1786.. Par k meme». withi 414 TENANTRY SIZE OF FARMS. with the beft intentions, fpread opinions, which, if fully embraced, would make all France a fcene of beggary and wretchednefs. Amidft a mafs of moft ufeful knowledge, of deep and juft reflections, and true political principles, a tendency to fimilar ideas is found in the reports of the committee of Mendecite *, in which the multiplication of little properties is confldered as a refource againft mifery. Nothing more is neceflary, than to extend fuch ideas, by fuppofition to faCt, to {hew their real tendency. There are 130 millions of acres, and at leaft 25 millions of people in France. Aflign, therefore, to each perfon, its {hare of that extent: call it (allowing for rocks, rivers, roads, &c.) five acres each, of 2 5 acres per family. When, by the firft principles of the idea, which is that of encouraging population, the luxury, celibacy, unhealthy employments, profti- tution and fterrility of cities are removed, and the plain manners of the country are univerfally eftabliflied, every circumftance in nature carries the people to marriage and procreation : a great increafe takes place ; and the 25 acres gra- dually, by divifion, become 20, 15, 12, 8, and fo on, perpetually leflening. What, on fuch a fuppofition, is to become of the fuperfluity of people ? — You prefently arrive at the limit beyond which the earth, cultivate it as you pleafe, will feed no more mouths $ yet thofe Ample manners, which inftigate to mar- riage, ftill continue what then is the confequence, but the mod dreadful mifery imaginable ! — You foon would exceed the populoufnefs of China, where the putrid carcaftes of dogs, cats, rats, and every fpecies of filth and vermin, are fought with avidity, to fuftain the life of wretches who were born only to be ftarved. Such are the infallible effects of carrying into execution a too minute divifion of landed property. No country upon earth is curfed with fo bad a government as that would be, which aimed ferioufly at fuch a divifion fo ruinous is that population, which arifes from principles pure and virtuous in their origin, but leads diredly to the extremes of human mifery ! — Great cities have been called the graves of the human fpecies : if they condud eafily to the grave, they become the beft euthanafia of too much populoufnefs. They are more apt to prevent increafe than to deftroy, which is precifely the efted wanted in fuch a country as France, where the divifion of property has unhappily nurfed up a population, which fhe cannot feed • what, therefore, would be the mifery of cities and towns fupported their numbers, and left the whole furplus of the country regorging in the cottages ?— ' This is too much th« cafe for the happinefs of the kingdom, as we fee in a thoufand circumftances, and particularly in the dil- trefs arifingfrom the leaft failure in the crops ; fuch a deficiency, as in England paffes almoft without notice, in France is attended with dreadful calamities. * Premier Rapport . 8vo. 1790. p. 6. Quatrieme Rapport , p. 9. Thefe reports were made fcy the chairman, M. de la Rochefoucauld Liancourt, and do very great honour to his abilities and his induftry. There There cannot be a more pleafing fpe&acle, or better framed to call into ahimation the fympathies of our nature, than that of a family living on a little property, which their induftry cultivates, and perhaps created : it is this objedl, fo touching to the beft feelings of the human bofom, that has certainly made many writers indifcriminate advocates for fmall properties. If the induftry of towns and manufactures were active enough to demand the furplus of all this population as faft as it arofe, the advantages of the fyftem would be clear ; but France knows, by fad experience, that fuch a furplus is not demanded at prefent ; what, therefore, would the confequence be of bringing a frefh one to market, while the old one remains on hand ? It is idle to cite the example of Ame- rica, where an immenfity of fertile land lies open to every one who will accept it ; and where population is valuable to an unexampled degree, as we fee in the price of their labour ; but what comparifon, between fuch a country and France, where the competition for employment is fo great, arifing from too great a po- puloufnefs, that the price of labour is 76 per cent, below that of its more flourifliing neighbour ? — But, in confidering this interefting fubjeCt, I fhall re- cur, as I have done on fo many other occaftons, to the example of England. In this kingdom, fmall properties are exceedingly rare ; in great numbers of our counties, there are fcarcely any fuch thing to be found : our labouring poor are juftly emulous of being the proprietors of their cottages, and of that fcrap of land, a few perches, which form the garden ; but they feldom think of buying land enough to employ themfelves ; and, as in France, of offering prices fo much beyond the value, as to enfure the acquifition ; a man that has two or three hundred pounds with us, does not buy a little field, but flocks a farm ; now, as our labouring poor are incomparably more at their eafe, and in every refpeCt happier than thole of France, does it not appear to follow, by fair con- clufion, that fmall properties are by no means neceffary for the welfare of the lower dalles in the country ? in every part of England, in which I have been, there is no companion between the eafe of a day-labourer and of a very little farmer ; we have no people that work fo hard, and fare fo ill, as the latter. Why then Ihould this minute divifion be conlidered as fo advantageous in France, while we in England feel the benefit of a fyftem direCtly contrary ? There are feveral reafons for this ; the manufactures of France, compared with thofe of England, are not nearly fo confiderable refpeCtively, in proportion to the popula- tion of the two kingdoms. Nor does the agriculture of France, which is car- ried on either by farmers or metayers, afford any employment comparable to that which Englilh culture yields. Country gentlemen, in France, do not employ probably the hundredth part of the labourers that are employed by country gentlemen in England, who have always fome works of ornamental gardening or farming going on, which gives bread to many people. An objeCt, more inw portant, TENANTRY SIZE OF FARMS. 416 pbrtant, is, that the prices of provifions are as dear in France as in England, while thofe of labour are 76 per cent, lower. We have another proof, if any were wanted, how much too great the population of that kingdom is. The Eng- lish labourer, who commands Readily eight, nine, or ten {hillings a week, by working for a farmer, hazards much when he labours land for himfelf ; and this fad is fo ftrong, that the moft induftrious and hard labouring of our poor peafants, are not thofe who keep their little gardens in the beft order and culti- vation ; but fuch, on the contrary, as make inferior earnings, that mark fome- thirig of debility. By means of thefe, and various other caufes, the poor coun- trymen in England find a much more regular employment by day labour than thofe of France, who, having no refource in working for others, are obliged to work for themfelves, or ftarve. And when gentlemen find them in this fituation, no wonder they readily expatiate on the advantages of fmall properties being to fuch families the only refource that offers. But, in fad:, the very height of operofe culture upon fuch, and what appears perfedion to a vulgar eye, can arife only from the mifery of half employed people. The dearnefs of labour, very common in fuch a country, is no proof againft this obfervation. No labour is io wretchedly performed, and fo dear, as that of hired hands accuftomed much to labour for themfelves ; there is a difguft, and a liffleffnefs that cannot efcape an intelligent obferver } and nothing but real diftrefs will drive fuch little pro- prietors to work at all for others ; fo that I have feen, in the operofely cultivated parts of France, labour comparatively dear, and ill performed, amidff fwarms of half idle people. And here I Ihould remark, the circumftance feen to fo ff range a degree in almoft all the markets of France, that fwarms of people regularly lofe one day in a week, for objeds that clearly fhew the little value time is of to thefe fmall farmers. Can any thing be apparently fo abfurd, as a ftrong hearty man walking lome miles, and lofing a day’s work, which ought to be worth 1 5 or 20 f. in order to fell a dozen of eggs, or a chicken, the value of which would not equal the labour of conveying it, were the people ufefully em- ployed? This ought to convince us, that thefe fmall occupations are a real lofs of labour ; and that people are fed upon them, whole time is worth little or nothing. There are many pradices in French hulbandry, that are apparently of confider- able merit, yet cannot be recommended to other countries. I have feen them, in a part of Flanders, mattocking up every corner of .a field where the plough could not come • and, in the fouth of France, the peafant makes a common pradice of mattocking up whole fields. In many parts of the kingdom all the land is digged. In the mountains of the Vivarais, terraces are built by walling, and the earth carried to them in balkets. Such pradices and a thoufand other limilar, fpring .abfdlutely from the extreme divifion of landed property, having nurfed SHEEP. 417 nuried up a population beyond the power of induftry to fupport j and ought to be coniidered as a proof of a real evil in the vitals of the ftate. The man who unhappily has exigence in a country where there is no employment for him, will, if he has the property of a fcrap of land, work for two-pence a day upon it i he will work for half a farthing s and, if he has an ardour of induftry, for nothing, as thoufands do in France. If he does not perform fome bufinefs, upon his little farm, he thinks he does nothing $ in fuch a fituation, he will pick ftiaws — he will take up a ftone here and lay it there : he will carry earth in a ba/ket to the top of a mountain ; he will walk ten miles to fell an egg. Is it not obvious to the reader, that fuch practices exifting, and, if tolerably directed, producing an effeCt well calculated to command admiration from an extreme of culture, are in reality no more analagous to a well conftituted country, if I may venture the expreflion, than would the moft prepofterous prac- tices to be fancied. You might as well go a ftep further in population, and hold up, with M. de Poivre, the example of the Chinefe, as worthy of Euro- pean imitation. Upon the whole, one muft be inclined to think, that fmall properties are car- ried much too far in France ; that a moft miferable population has been created by them, which ought to have had no exiftence ; that their divifion ftiould be reftrained by exprefs laws, at leaft till the demand for hands is equal to the pro- duction ; that the fyftem of great farms regularly employing, and well paying a numerous peafantry by day labour, is infinitely more advantageous to the nation, and to the poor themfelves, than the multiplication of fmall properties ; in fine, it is obvious, that all meafures which prevent the eftablilhment of large farms, and increafing wealthy farmers, fuch as reftriCtions or bars to inclofures, the exiftence of rights of commonage, and the leaft favour to little proprietors in levying of the land taxes, are ruinous to agriculture, and ought to be depre- cated, as a fyftem deftruCtive of the public welfare. CHAP. XII. Of the Sheep of 'France . ^pHE eftablifhment of the woollen manufactures in France, in the reign of * Lewis > or> more properly fpeaking, by that clerk of a counting houle, Colbert, rendered government fomewhat folicitous to encourage the breed of ftieep in the kingdom ; but no material fteps were taken for that pur- pofe, till the middle of the prefent century, when the free export was allowed, 3 H very very wifely to encourage their production. Under the controller general, Monf. de Bertin, Monf. Carlier was fent through all the provinces* to examine the flocks, the quantity and quality of the wool, &c. ; and fome progrefs was foon after made in importing, both from Spain and England, rams and ewes, in order to improve the breed of the French fheep ; but the people that were employed, under flood the bufinefs fo little, that thefe efforts were not attended with any effedt : they were indeed not refpedtable ones, and therefore the refult was juft as mi°-ht have been expected. France imports of wool to the amount of 27,000,000 liv. a year; an enormous fum for a commodity, every pound of which mio'ht be produced in the kingdom, if the proper means were ufed in the em- ployment of people who really underftand fheep. ' Picardy. — Calais . — Fleece 51b. at 26/ of a combing fort. Bonbrie. — Fleece 61 b. at 24/ Bernay. — Fleece 4* lb. at 26/ ; very coarfe ; clip their lambs ; 1 8/ per lb. ; the fheep of the whole province of Picardy, and feveral of the neighbouring ones, are all without horns; have white faces; and hanging fiiky ears; all I felt handled badly, and were ill made, but fome have rather a better appearance. Pays de BtiAVCE—B/tampes.— Fleece 3 fib. at 20/; price of a ftieep 1 5 liv. cfoury .—Fleece 41b. at 19/; coarfe; winter food, pea-ftraw and fecond-crop hay ; all are fhut up (as in moft parts of France) in ftables at night, and folded in the fields till November ; fome fold alfo at noon in fummer ; flocks from forty to one hundred ; the dogs conduct them with fuch dexterity, that the narrowed: baulks are fed without injury to the corn. Orleans.— Fleece 61 b. at 20 f Price of a fheep 1 1 liv. All are fed in the winter with ftraw. Sologne— La Ferte'.— Breed of Berry 2flb. at 23/ enfuint , and 40 f . wafhed ; price of a fheep 1 2 liv. ; have nothing in winter to feed on but heaths and woods ; kept in ftables every night, to be fecured from wolves, and when the fnow is deep they are fed with branches of trees ; a farmer that has 200 arpents under the plough, and 300 of heath, will have from 200 to 230 ihe^p and lambs. jga Matte Beuvron.— Feed them in ftables with rye-ftraw, but they eat only the ears. I found a farmer’s flock in the ftable at three o clock in the after- noon ; it was not at all open, and much too hot. During the fummer they are brought home at twelve o’clock, to ftarve and fweat till four, when they are fent out again, and at night houfed regularly. The breed refembles that of Picardy in the face and ears, but are much fmaller, not weighing above 91b. a quarter. La Loge.—- The rot common; one farmer loft 199 in 200, one black fheep only efcaping ; they are in the common fyftem of felling annually the wether lambs, part of the ewe lambs, and the old ewes, keeping enough of the lambs to reinftate the ewes fold. It is ufual. to feparate the lambs from the ewes, in order to milk the latter for butter and cheefe, which thq family confumes. The v fheep- SHEEP, 419 fheep-houfe is cleaned but twice a year, but clean flraw given every third day ; all thefe houfes are fo clofe and hot that it isaftonifhing the fheep are not alldeflroyed. Berry — Verfon . — Fleece 2flb. at 22 f. en fuint ; price of fheep 6 liv.j they are very fmall, not more than 61 b. a quarter, and a few goats in every flock ; three rams they reckon neceflary for 100 ewes ; a good ram fells for 24 liv. j an old lean ewe 3 to 5 liv. when fat 8 liv. ; the wool in the part of the province called Champagne, where flocks are very large, is far better than here, by rear- fon, as they imagine, of the land being Wronger, and the paflure more nourifhing; the refemblance to the Picardy breed would make one fuppofe them of the fame if ock ; the food here, as elfewhere, flraw in winter, and when the weather is bad lib. of hay per fheep.per diem * ; fleece 1 fib. at 27/ en fuint ; price liv. Vatan to Chateauroux—F\GGGG 2 fib. at 23/ en faint-, laffc year 27/— Fleece 3lb. at 25/ en faint . — Fleece 2lb. at 23! f en faint-, price 9 liv. ; wool ten years ago was 15 to 20 f Some feigneurs, in order to improve the wool, imported rams and ewes from Spain, which degenerated, and became like the natives in; four years * on the other hand, fheep of a worfe kind than thofe of the country, improve in the fame proportion by living and pafturing here : I flate the infor- mation as I received it. In all probability thefe trials were made in the fame carelefs manner as fo many others. They have alfo another fort of fheep, with horns, which come from the hills, and are called balloes -, are bought only for fattening, at 8 to 10 liv. and are then fold at 15 liv ; they are larger than the common breed; are fpotted black and white ; have good carcafes, but coarfe wool. Argentan.— Wool at 2 $f en faint coarfe. — Fleece ilb.at24yi per lb. -—Fleece 3 fib. at 20 f. per lb. ; price 8 liv. La Marche — La Ville auBrun . — Fleece 1 lb. at 20 f Limosin — Limoges. — They are the fmallefl breed I have ever feen, and poor miferable looking animals ; but both mutton and wool good. Querc Y — Brize to Soui/lac.— Meet fome fheep of a larger breed than the Li- mofin, with very coarfe long wool ; black fheep are .very prevalent here. — Fleece 4flb. at 12 f en faint-, fometimes. fatten them on. turnips. — Fleece 5 fib. at 1 2 f\ en faint . Here fee, for the firfl time, fmall fheep folds made with hurdles; a fmall hut of flraw for the fhepherd, on two poles to carry about ; and a little pne for his dog. They are now folding for turnips, called her Gravities. Font de Rodez.-r-W ood 1 3 f ; feveral fheep in all the flocks, with tufts of wool left about their necks and fhoulders ; on inquiry, found that it is left, on account of fuperior value, to be clipped byitfelf ; felling at i\f the pound, the refl at 1 2 J. * Monf. de Lamerville fays, that the beft fheep of Berry are thofe called Brionnes , from the name of the chief place where they are found ; that the Berry fheep give 2 fib. of Wool, at 20 f and that the lambs fell at 7 liv. each. Obfervations fur les Betes a Laine. 8vo. 1786. P. 6, 218, 219. t In thefe notes, wherever more minutes than one are entered, they are taken at the diftance of fome miles. 3 H 2 Pellecoy 420 SHEEP. P elk coy. — No lambs clipped fince I left the Limofin. Meafured a fheep-fold feven yards by lix 3 there were thirty-fix fheep and five lambs in it 3 they feem, therefore, to allow a fquare yard per head 3 the fhepherd was abfent, but the dog was left in charge of them. Here they fay the tufts of wool are not left for the value, but through a kind of fancy 3 I fufpedt fomething of fuperftition in it. Every farmer has a few fheep, becaufe the fmalleft parcel will yield wool to cloath the family 3 an idea which fuppofes poverty, and a want of national circulation. Gabors . — See many fheep-folds 3 the fhepherd’s houfe is fomething like a tall bee-hive on two handles, to move as a fedan, and a little one for his dog. Having many wolves, they arm their dogs with collars, Ruck with iron fpikes, for the wolf never attacks them in any other place than the neck. The fheep atthis time of the year are folded abroad all night, as their enemy is clofe in his recedes, the forefls and rocky fleeps, where they live upon hares, rabbits, rats, and even mice. Perges. — The fheep with and without horns 3 a fmall breed and coarfe wool ; they are not yet fheared (June 12). Languedoc — Toulou/e.—Sez feveral docks, all of horned fheep, for the firfl time from Calais 3 horned ones with thick fleeces, I guefs jib. 3 fee fome fine large heavy ones fo fat and broad, that when laid down, it was with fome difficulty they raifed themfelves 3 they are fheared, but fome with wool left along the belly, and others with a tuft left on the rump. St. Gaudents . — Are kept from June till autumn on the hills, the roots of the Pyrenees 3 and put at night into ftrong folds, and guarded by many dogs. Bagnere de Lucbon. — Some attempts have been made to improve the breed in this part of the Pyrenees, by the import of Spanifh rams 3 old ewes and wethers here are fold in Spain. Roussillon — Bellegarde to Perpignan. Large flocks of fheep, both horned and polled, with fome black ones. — Ditto polled 3 white faces, and white legs 3 about I2lb. a quarter. — They gave 6 to 81 b. of wool unwafhed3 wafhing re- duces it to 2lb. — Fleece 2lb. at 39^ wafhed. — They are kept in the open air the whole year. Are now (July) in Hubbles, which will be ploughed up in Sep- tember, and fown with rye for their winter paflurage. — Meet a flock of near 500, belonging to a man in Perpignan, who has people in the country to take care of his bufinefs, efpecially his fheep. The chief fhepherd has four charges of wheat, each ten meafures, and each meafure gives 6olb. of bread. Four charges of wine, one meafure of fait, one of oil, and 3 liv. a month. — Many large flock. — Thus far Rouffillon is a very great fheep country 3 infinitely more fo than any I have yet feen in France, and not yielding, in this refpedt, to Dorfetfhire itfelf. Pia. — Feed them, with their lambs, very early in the fpring with clover fown alone in Augufl: on ftubbles once ploughed 3 after it is fpring fed, it is watered, and yields in many a full crop of hay, Salfeze SHEEP. 421 Salfeze — Fooet . — Two large flocks and folds.— Ditto with goats. Sijean . — Many flocks, and folded in thefummer, but houfed in the winter, on account of wolves. Languedoc — Narbonne . — Price i$f. en fuint ; 50 f wafhed. — To Beziers, and further, to Pezenas, fmall flocks all the way, but none large ; fee fome netted folds in olive-ground fallows. Nifmes to Gange. — Many fmall flocks of fheep. St, Maurice to Lodeve. — -On thefe mountains (a wafte defolate diftridf) there are very large flocks kept : one man has 3000 in four or five different flocks.— Fleece 3 ^lb. at 14 f en fuint ; but it is 50/. to 58 f, wafhed. During fnow, they feed on ftraw — otherwife pafture all the year. Flocks and folds. Mirepoix, — Their flocks are now in the mountains — but in the winter they are in the vale. — Fleece 2 lib. at 1 \f. en fuint ; wafhed 22 f, to 25^ Coming out of Mirepoix, meet a flock totally diftindt from any fheep I have yet feen in France, they would hardly be diftinguifhed from Norfolks ; all with horns, and thofe of the rams turning forward one curl ; many of them with black faces and black legs ; others dark fpeckled ; wool and fhape alfo carry the fame refemblance. Lann Maifon to Bagnere de Bigore. — They have many fheep on their exten- five waftes, and the wool fells at 22 f to 25/! en fuint , and double when wafhed.— Meet, between Bagnere and Campan, four flocks ; the fheep larger than Nor- folks ; moft with horns, curling behind the ears, but fome polled ; fome black ones ; combing wool of a middling length. Bearn — Lourd to Pau. — The wool of the fheep of Bearn is nine inches long, and fells en fuint 1 5 f per lb. : pafs many folds. — At Pau many flocks and folds : horns ; coarfe wool ; many black fheep. Navareen to St, Palais and Anfpan . — Sheep not numerous, yet much wafle ; polled; wool fix or eight inches long, and very coarfe. — Many fheep with coarfe wool, price 20 f lb. en fuint. Gas coign — Bayonne to St. Vincent's. — Thefe waftes are not without fheep, though there are large tracks under water : meet fome fmall flocks, both polled and horned, with very coarfe wool : almoft as many goats as fheep. Granade. — Many fmall flocks of black fheep ; the wool of both white and black coarfe and bad ; fells at 1 of. a lb. en fuint . It is ufed for the poor people’s fluffs, Saintonge — Monlieu . — Fleece 1 1-lb. at 20 f wafhed. Angouleme. — Fleece 1 fib. at 21 f wafhed. Contre Ferae. — Fleece 1 fib. at 27 f. wafhed. Poitou —Vivonne. — Fleece 1 lb. at 3 1 f. wafhed. Live the whole year round on pafture ; ftraw in the houfe in winter; never folded. Orleans to Petiviers. — Fleece 31b. at 15/ Sheep-folds every where, with the fhepherd’s houfe on wheels. Isle of France — La Chapelle la Reine.'—Fteece 41b. at i^f Liancourt .— SHEEP. 422 Liancourt.*— Fleece 5! lb. at 1 zf. en fuint . Every farmer has a flock, which is folded in dimmer on the fallows. The breed neither good nor bad ; the Duke of Liancourt procured fome from Berry, and others from Flanders, for experi- ment, The former refemble a good deal our South Downs ; the wool a fine carding fort. The latter a well formed flieep, with very coarfe wool. The wool of the country, of which the price is named above, is very bad. Beauvais to Izoire. — A better breed than common; polled; large; well made ; fleece 5 fib.. : every man has his fold. Flocks this morning (Sep. 10.) in a heavy rain, at ten o’clock, Ml in the fold. Dugny . — Monf. Crette de Palluel’s fyftem is, to buy wethers in June for folding till November, when he fells about two- thirds of them half fat to the butcher ; the other third he keeps fattening in the winter, in the liable en- tirely on corn, bran, hay, &c. to be ready for the markets, when mutton grows dearer. It is now (October) 6 f and 7 f per pound ; but from Eader, to the end of June, 2 f or yf more. The variation in beef is rather lefs. It is now yf. or 10 f and cow beef yf but in May 2.f more. This inequality in the price of meat, is a certain proof of bad hulbandry. I viewed his fheep-houle, which is an arched done building, without any yard for them to be in at plea- fure.; the windows fmall, and confequently the animals kept infinitely too hot. — There are men in this country that .have large flocks of fheep, without an ar- pent of land; they let them to farmers, who have no fheep, at from 30 f to 40 f % a head, and food from June to November for folding. Dammartin . — Many flocks ; fleece 51b. at 20 f en fuint . Picardy — - Strain tin. — Every farmer has a flock now folding for the lad fown wheat: they are the Picardy breed ; 4 or 51b. wool at 24/ en fuint: hoggits 2 fib, Flanders — Bouchaine. — Every farmer has a flock; they give 4 to 51b. of wool, which fells at Lille for 30 f the pound wafhed. Valenciennes to Qrchees . — Long combing wool 51b. at 30 f the pound wafhed. They give them, in the winter, beans in the draw, unthrefhed. — I law fome wethers bought at 21 liv. each, lean, which was about the price they would have fold for in England. Lille . — But few in this neigbourhood ; 51b. at 30 f wafhed*. Artois — S. Omers. — Meet a flock of 200 — the Flanders breed; wool feven or eight inches long; 5 fib. each fleece, at 25/ wafhed. Thefe fheep have the clean filky ears of thofe of Picardy ; but with bodies dirty from the dable. Betbune. — See a flock of two year old wethers, whofe wool this year pro- duced 9 liv. each. The fame breed as before. Feed them in winter on beans and draw. — Fleece 51b. at 2 $f waflied. * The Marquis de Guerchy fays, there are long wools at Turcoin, Lille, and Varneton, that fell at 50/ and 60 f the pound. Mem. pour l’ Amelioration dee Bites a lame . 8 yo . 1788. p. 3. —I did not meet with them, Arafs . SHEEP. 4-3 Ardfs . — Sheepfolds thinly fcattered thro’ all the country — Fleeces 5I1V. each. Dourlens. — Fleeces worth 4liv. each. Amiens. — I was offered 4 a pound for common Lincoln combing wool, neither long nor fhort of the kind ; this is about 2od. the pound Englifh — but trade is very Hack at Amiens. Poix to Aumale . — Flocks large; 200 to 400. Fleeces 41b. at 33 f Neufchatel to Rouen , — The fame breed as in Picardy ; give qlb. at 33 f. waffled. Tvetot. — 31b. at 32^ They are folded for wheat. BolbeCu — 41b. at 33 f. never any other green food in winter than what they can pick up. Honfleur. — Sheep give fleeces of 61b. en fuint , which are 31b. waffled, and fell at 30/ — Fleece 2lb. waffled ; 51b. en fuint , price 30 f — Red faces and red legs. Pays dl Auge. — 3 5* to 36 J. per lb. ditto. Valley Cor bon. — 5 lb .en Juint, 2 fib. waffled ; fells at 20 f per lb. en fuint , or 40 f waffled — about five inches long. The flieep in Normandy feem very generally to be the red faced and red legged breed. Falaife . — Fleeces 3 fib. at 24 f waffled. Due de Harcourt . — Fleeces 41b. at 40 f waffled, or 2olb. en fuint. There is fome Spanifh blood in a few, but fo croffed and negleCted as to be hardly perceivable. Here, as in moff other parts of France, when you would have a flieep caught that it may be examined, the ffiepherd orders his dog to drive the flock around his maffer, which he does by going round them in a circle gra- dually decreafing, till the ffiepherd takes any one he wants. How infinitely fuperior to our barbarous methods ? Carentan . — Sheep, in the rich marffies, the fame as on the hills ; the red face and red leg breed ; thefe marffies are as capable of carrying to perfection the longeff wool, as any land in Lincolnfliire. Wool 4 inches ; 40 f per lb. waffled, and 20 or 22 f. en fuint . Piere Butte . — Monf. Doumerc buys fheep at two years old, and fells them at three, to thofe who fatten them. They are fmall, and pretty well made, without horns; face and leg white — fomewhat inclining' to reddifh, as if a mixed Norman breed. The wool fold this year at 4 5/I per lb. waffled; but at 18 f only if en fuint. Bretagne — Broom. — Poor little flieep, not more than iolb. a quarter when quite fat. Very few flieep, after entering this province. Landervifia .■ — At a fair here no fheep at all ; and all the way from Rennes to Breft, there are fcarcely any to be feen — yet a wafee country, and very well adapted to them. La Roche Bernard to Guerande.-— I have now paffed through almoft all Bre- tagne,., and feen fcarcely one fheep 5 where there, ought to. be an. hundred ; but. here. 4 H SHEEP. here are Tome flocks of poor black things, which fhew the carelefTnefs and favage ignorance of the inhabitants. Savanal to Nantes.— Rich fait marfhes fed by little miferable black fheep, with wretched coarfe wool, where the longeft woolled fheep of Lincolnfhire would thrive and fatten. Miferable black fheep on all the waftes. Parades. — Very poor fheep ; many black, and fome with red faces, but they are better than thofe on the landes. Anjou — Angers to La Fleche.— The number of fheep in this ride of thirty miles quite infignificant ; now and then four or fix, and once about twenty; but they are fuperior to the wretched animals of Bretagne; are worth about 12I1V. each, and yield 41b. of wool, at 36 f. the lb. wafhed ; yet there is not a country in Europe better calculated for them, as it is all a dry found fand and gravel, and not too poor. V our billy .-—Wool 36 f Norm and Y—Alengon.— The Norman breed here, of red faces and legs, and no horns ; they are worth 12 or 14 liv. each ; 31b. of wool, at 12 f. en fuint , or 30 J wafhed. Nonant.— Many flocks ; wool 1 2 to 1 8 fen fuint , and 35/! wafhed ; 1 f to 2 fib. each fleece ; the fheep fell at 1 5 liv. ; they are never folded ; the breed the red face and leg. Gace to Bernay. — Red face and leg; 2 fib. of wool, at 36 f to 40^ wafhed. LeJJiniolc. — Many flocks. Bnonne. — Many flocks ; wool this year (1788) 32 f Iaft year 36 f. ; fleece 2 fib. Rouen . — Waited on Meff. Midy, Roflfec, and Co. the greatefl: wool-ftaplers in France, and to whom I had letters of recommendation ; they were fo obliging as to fhevvme the wools in their magazines, explain the prices, and allow me to take fpecimens : thofe I particularly noted were : Lyow and Nkmark. — Combing; the price 36^ ; three years ago 2 6f Mecklenburgh. — Combing 32^ ; three years pafl: 24 f. Griefclaire .- — Combing 2 6f. ; three years ago 20 f. Cawnteblanche.* — Carding 26 f\ was 20 f. Damtban. — 2 6f.- y was 20 f Mittelband. — 22 /-, was 12 f G uft row.— this 20 f ; was 16 to 18 f Loquets. — (Locks) carding was 6 to 8 f. Eyderjiadt . — Combing 38 to 40 f.- 3 was 28 to 30 f Pologne. — Combing 28 f. ; was 18 to 20^ French — Berry. — Carding 3 liv. to 3 liv. 4/; tare 81b. per fack. Cologne.— Carding 2 liv. 10 f. RouJfillon.^Gnrdmg 3 liv. to 3 liv. 10 f Pays de Caux. — Combing 36 to 38 f. Poitou. — Carding 48 to 50 f Spain — Segovie. — Carding 6 liv. Segovaine. — Carding 4 liv. lof. to 3 liv. —Conditions of fale, tare 10 lb. and 3 lb. allowed. SHEEP. R. 180 Tare - 13 T are again, 167' • - 15 or 9 per cent. Net - - 142 at 120/ And feventeen and eighteen months credit, and bills taken at two, three, and four months to run. This for three forts Spanifh, 1 20 J\ 10 5/ and 9 5 f. The German wools, 1 10 given for 100, tare 6 per cent, for long credit. The rife in the price of the German wools proceeds entirely from a great mortality, which has for two or three years leflened the quantity confiderably ; the fall in the Spanilh may be afcribed to a decline, either real or apprehended, in the French fabricks ; the manufacturers affirming they have great flocks of cloths unfold. No Englifh; but they would give 38 to 40 f per lb. for the combing fort, at the prefent prices ; that is, the price of Eyderfladt. Totte . — Many fheep-folds, and, like moft others in the kingdom, double, that the ffiepherd may change them in the night ; fee a flock of hoggits now worth 1 2 liv. each ; no horns ; fleece 2f to 31b. at 34^. Isle of France — Nangis. — Price of wool 30/ waffied, or 15/ en fuint ; they never fell lambs, but old ewes and wethers at five years old, lean in No- vember 9 to 10 liv. each, fat 12 to 15 liv. ; give them nothing in winter but firaw. See Monf. du Praye’s fheep in fold on the fallows at noon ; wethers bought in merely for folding, at 14 to 1 5 liv. which will be fold in November, at a lofs ; and this pretty fyftem merely to get five or fix feptiers of wheat ! the feptier half an Englifh quarter (6f coomb per acre) ; fheep (called) fat from So- logne 13 to 1 5 liv. each. Faggots here are made in fummer, while the wood is in leaf, and laid up for feeding fheep in the winter. Neuf Moutier . — Fleece 61b. to 81b. at 12/. en fuint. Champagne — Mareuil . — The King of France having imported feme Fpa- nifh fheep, gave the provincial aflembly of Champagne a lot of a ram and fou r- teen ewes, which were committed to the care of Monf. Le Blanc of this place. I viewed them with attention, and found the carcafs of many of them as ill made as the w^ool was excellent. The ram clips 6 fib. of wool; the fheep 3, 4, and 51b. i and the price of fome of it has rifen as high as 4 liv. and 4 liv. 1 of per lb. ; 4 lb. at that price is 14s. iofd. for the fleece : I law the wool in the fleece, but it did not appear to me equal to fuch a price. R/jeims . — Wool of Champagne this year 30/ per lb. In 1788, 30^ In 1787, 26/I In 1786, 25/1 Such an increafe of the price of w'ool is a very flrong prefumption that the fheep have experienced no epidemical diftemper ; and that the manufacture is flourifhing ; and it is not improbable that the de- 3 I duCtion 42 6 SHEEP. dudion of half from the earnings of the poor fpinners is very much d 1 ' Anglais-, that is to fay, an injuftice. Chalons to Ove. — A flock of fheep belonging to every community, 2, 3, or 400 in each; 380 in one, the fhepherd of which I converfed with ; there are twelve or fourteen owners. The fheep give each 3 or 4 lb. of wool, which this year fold from 26/. to 30/ waffled. They are never folded, on account of the fmall- nefs of the properties. Lorain e — Braban.'— Sheep fell at 9 liv. Wool i| Id. each fleece, at 3 A/* per lb. waffled. Lunev Hie . — The wool is walhed on the Iheep’s back before clipping, which is uncommon in France; the fleece 2 to 3 lb. price lafb year this )'eai 3 °./* Blamont to Henning . — See one fheepfold, the firft in the piovince; and I law but this. Alsace — —Stra/bourg.- — The fheep are walhed before clipping; wool 24 /• fleece 2 to 3 lb. twice a year, 1 lb. each, at Eafter and Michaelmas. IJle . — Small fheep, that give from 4 to 1 \ lb. of wool, that fells at 36 f. to 4 of. waffled. There are fome wethers that do not weigh more than 41b. a quarter.^ Franche Compte — Befanpon . — Clip their fheep always twice a^ year, in May and in autumn ; and to the fecond they give the fame name, as to the fecond hay crop, regain ; the flrft yields if lb. the fecond I lb. ; fome albeit tne fini to be the fineft wool, others the fecond, but they go together in price, this year and lafb 36 to 40 f. walhed, fome years pafl: 20 to 24 J. only. Near Lyons the fheep go cloathed into the vineyards during winter, to preferve the wool; I enter this where I have the intelligence, but I know how to ciedit it. What eloathing would not be torn to tatters among the vines ? Bourgogne — Dijon. — Sheep dipt twice a year; the firfb uie ben.; walhed on the back before clipping ; price 40 f. Couch to Mont Cents. — Poor little miferable fheep on the high grounds. Mdifon de Bourgogne toLuzy. — Clipbutonce a-year; wool 30/. p^i lb. waffled; was two years ago but 24 f Bourbonnois — Chavanne.- — Twenty miles, one little flock omy of poor mi- ferable fheep of about io lb- a quarter, yet the country is adapted to nothing fo much as fheep. Moulins. — Fleece 2 to 3 lb. at 26 f . ; wafhed coarfely ; lambs at lour or live months old fell at 3 liv. ; fheep 15 liv. the pair. Auvergne — Jligue Prejje. — A fheepfold, and fhepherd s houfe on wheels; the firfb I have feen for fome hundreds of miles- Riom. — Many fheep and folds all the way. . • % Clermont. — Salt given every eight or ten days to fheep; price 10 to 18 liv. tne pair; wethers 24 to 40 liv, the pair;, a lamb of four or five months 4 ^ 1V * > fleece SHEEP. 417 of a wether en fuint 3 lb. ; wafhed 1 f lb. ; of an ewe 2 lb. en fuint ; 1 lb. wafhed; price en fuint 1 6 to 1 8 f ; wafhed 30 to 32^ In the mountains, price of coarfe wool en fuint 10 to 1 Sf ; and wafhed 28 to 30^ per lb. ; fpinning a pound of coarfe 1 oyi ; fine ditto 1 2 to 1 6 f Izoire. — Price of lean wethers 12 liv. ; a fleece 2| lb. at 15/ en fuint. Briude. — Wool 80 liv. the quintal ; per lb. en fuint 16 f and fo dirty that it lofes half ; fleece of a wether 3 to 4 lb. ; of a fheep, 1 to 2 lb. Fix to Le.Puy. — Price of fheep 20 to 24 liv. the pair ; the fleece 3 liv. at 14 or 1 5/I en fuint . — Folds. Vivarais — Pradelies . — Wethers 10 or 12 liv. ; fleece of ditto 3 or 3! lb. ; of fheep 2 ib. ; price 14 or i;f en fuint. Dauphine — Montelimart. — A great change on crofling the Rhone. — In the Vivarais the fheep are poor little things, but on the other fide of the river good and large. The price of wool was laft year 60 liv. for 93 lb. en fuint ; this year 40 liv. — It lofes half in wafhing. The fall is attributed to the want of oil in Province for combing it; it is all combing wool though fliort, and olive oil only is ufed in the operation. A flock of one-third ewes, one-third wethers, and one- third lambs, will give all round 5 lb. of wool each — all fold at an average price, but that of lambs the moil valuable ! hats are made of it. — The fheep in this country feed readily on the trifolium bituminofum , the fcent of which is very flrong. A gentleman, near this place, has a flock partly Spanifh and partly crofs-bred fheep, which fucceed well ; and the wool fells at 3 liv. per lb. All the farmers here, juft as in the Vivarais, have long fm'all troughs on legs, in which they give fait regularly to their fheep mixed with bran every fifteen days. Feeding in the dew is found to rot them more than any thing ; on which account, they do not let them out of fold till the fun has exhaled it ; fait is the prefervative againft that diftemper. The quantity they give is 3 lb. to forty fheep. It is remarkable that they fatten the fafter for feeding in the dew, but muft be killed within a few months, or they die rotten. Monf. Faujas de St. Fond has found it very ufeful to give them oak bark pounded, and a little moiftened with bran ; it is good in the manner of fait as a prefervative againft the rot, and has its eftedl alfo againft the enfle. Provence — Avignon. — Very few kept ; price of the wool 1 of. the pound en fuint ; 4 lb. per fleece. F our d’ Aigues . — There is, in Provence, as regular an emigration of fheep as in Spain ; the march is acrofs the province, from the Crau to the mountains of Gap and Barcelonetta ; not regulated by any other written laws than fome arrets of the parliament to limit the roads to five toifes of breadth; if they do any damage beyond that, it is paid for. The Barcelonetta mountains are the beft; they are covered with fine turf, gazone fuperbement ; the fheep belong to per- 3 I 2 fons SHEEP. 428 fons about the Crau, at Arle 9 , Salon, &c. The Prefident de la Tour d’Aigues calculates them at a million. They come from the mountains in autumn fat. The Crau fhepherds hire the feed in the mountains, at 20 j. each fheep for fix months ; and the Crau price for winter is the fame. They give 8 or 9 lb. of wool en faint ; this year they fold at 45/ the fleece ; laft year 56/ Monf. Darluc*, who gives a detail of thefe fheep, aflerts alfo, that their number is a million; and that they travel in flocks of 10,000 to 40,000, and are 20 to 30 days on the journey ; but he fays, the fleece is 5 or 5I lb. only. They fold neither the Crau fheep, nor thofe at Tour d’Aigues. But in the Cammargue, where are no ftones, and where the fheep do not travel, they fold them. It is remarkable, that the Crau fheep are never in ftables either in winter or in fum- mer. Sheep in general 5 lb. each fleece, at 8 fen faint . The common calcu- lation 4 of It is mofl miferable hairy fluff. Wethers 1 2 to 14 liv. each. The lamb of an ewe pays 3 liv. and the wool 2 liv. which makes her produce 5 liv. I viewed the flock of the Spanifh breed, of which the prefident has given a very interefling account in the memoirs of the Society of Agriculture at Paris ; and of which I inferred a tranflation in the Annals of Agriculture, vol. xii. p. 430. They have been introduced fome years ago, and, from the prefident’s abfence, much negleded ; fome of the ewes I found very old and lean ; in genera], the form was not fo bad as I expeded, particularly the back-bone, which, in many Spanifh ones I have feen, is quite ridged. The wool is clofe and tolerably curl- led, but not fo hard coated to the feel as fome I have feen. Their wool was fold this year at 75 liv. the quintal, en faint . I heard of fome who had tried the Spanifh breed, but had left them off, becaufe they did not anfwer, eating much more than their own breed; I place no confidence, however, in the accuracy of thefe experi- ments. The prefident is now making elm faggots tolay up for the winter food of his flock. It is the common pradice of the country ; elm bell ; then poplar ; oak good. Eftrelles Price of wool 36 to 50 liv. the 1 00 lb. en faint. Fleece 4 to 4 4 lb. Lyons. — Inquired for the cloathed fheep, but found nobody that had feen them. St. Martin. — From Lyons hither, 67 miles, in a country adapted to fheep, yet I have not feen fifty. Roanne. — Fleece wafhed 22 f. the pound. JSeuvy to Grcifiere. — A few flocks of forty or fifty, poor, fmall, and ill looking. Recapitulation . Average weight of all the fleeces minuted, - 34 lb. fleeces fold en fuint , - 4 . — — wafhed, - 3 Average price per lb. enfuint 9 - 18 f ■ wafhed, - 30 * Hifl. Nat. de la Provence, 8vo. 1782. tom. i. p. 303, 324, 329, &c. The SHEEP. 4-9 The reader fhould be particularly cautioned againft drawing conclufions from the rates and weights of the wool here minuted clean and dirty ; for, being taken from notes made at diftant and diftincft places, it does not follow, that the proportion between wafhed and un wafhed is, in weight, as 3 to 4 lb. or in price, as 18 to 30^ to difcover the latter proportion we muff have recourfe to thofe minutes only, which, at the fame place, give the price both wafhed and unwafhed. The average prices of thefe are En fuint , - - - - 1 6 f Walked, - 37 And I am therefore inclined to lix on the following, as the data to be drawn from the preceding minutes. Average fleece en fuint, - - 141b. Average price per lb. - - 18 f Which would be, wafhed, - 41 The average of very numorous minutes, is 18 f. per lb. en fuint ; and then, to find the proportion wafhed, I take that between 16 and 37 f which gives 41 p for the general price wafhed. That the difference between wafhed and unwafhed is moderate in thefe notes, will appear from thofe of Monf. Carlier, viz. Roufhllon, nf en fuint , — 38/i wafhed. Cammargue, 12 — 24 Prevence, 10 — 20 Saintonge, 10 — 20 Berry, 16 - 38 Beauce, 8 — 16 Average, 11 — 26 Now, it is worth nothing, that 16 and 37, or 18 and 41, bear the fame proportion as 11 and 26, which is the refult of this gentleman’s enquiries in thofe fix pro- vinces*. In my farming travels, twenty years ago, through England, I found the average fleece 5I lb. at 5 id. per lb. But the average price, in 11 counties in 1788, was 9|d. per lb. — The average fleece of wafhed wool in France being, ac- cording to thefe notes, 3 lb. at the places where the price is fettled walked, and 4 lb. en fuint, the mean of the whole kingdom cannot be more than 2f lb. wafhed. The fleeces of England are therefore doubly more heavy. But the prince in France at 41/ and, deduding for the difference of French and Englifh weight, is fomething more than is. 6d. per lb. for (on an average) worfe wool. But the trade in wool is free in France. As the French price is the fair one of Europe, that of England being artificially depreffed, we are not to judge of the quality of the wools of France, relatively to our own by the price; for they * Traits des Bites a law. 4to. 1770, have 430 SHEEP. have in fact (thofe of Rouffillon, Narbonne, and Berry for carding forts, and of Flanders for combing, alone excepted) very few that are fo good as ours.— We have a great deal of bad wool in England, but the French have much more; and indeed feem to have managed this branch of their agricultural Geconomy as they have done almoft every other. Rouffillon is a part of Spain rather than of France, and therefore it is the Spaniffi blood that has given good wool there; and Flanders is an Auftrian province; thus France, properly fo called, had no- thing but the Berry wool to pride herfelf upon ; and that only in a fmall diAriCt of a fmall province. Bi*t the management of fheep, throughout the kingdom, is the moll abominable that can be conceived. It appears, by the notes, that in winter they are, according to our ideas, univerfally ftarved ; that is, fed upon ftraw ; for as to a provifion of green winter food, cultivated purpofely for them, of which no good farmer in England is ever deflitute, there is not fuch a prac- tice in France, from one end of the kingdom to the other. The confluences of this, are thefe poor fleeces, a bad quality of wool, and one ffieep kept where there might be an hundred. Hence alfo the neceflity of an immenfe import of every kind of wool ; and, what is hill much worfe-, fuch a deficiency of ffieep in eighteen-twentieths of the kingdom, that every article of hufbandry fuffers; and meat is fo much dearer than bread, that it cannot be purchafed by the poor. Ail thefe are great evils, and deferve a deep consideration from every friend of his country, to take the proper means of remedying them; which, however, is not likely ever to be done effectually, till a large farm, on a poor foil, be fully hocked with a well fed hock as in England. But the deficiency of food is not the only point that wants to be remedied — the management of their hables is an enor- mous evil. To reap the benefit of manure, at a feafon that prevents the ffiep- herd from rehing abroad with his flock, out of an apprehenfion of the wolves, the ffieep are almoh univerfally houfed at night throughout the winter : there is nothing objectionable in this, for much dung may be, and is certainly made by it : but the clofe fuffocating heat of the hables is fuch, that the health of thefe animals fuffers dreadfully; and epidemical diforders often break out, arifing principally from this caufe. Notice is taken, in the minutes, of the ffieep being alfo thus confined in the middle of the day in fummer. The hables are cleaned but once a-year, or, at the moh, but twice. Thus the flock lies on a dung- hill, and breathes the effluvia of it, inhead of air. Before clipping, it is kept for fome time, without freffi hraw, that the wool may be rendered dirty, and there- fore heavy ; and fome men throw water on the dung, to excite a fermentation, that the fleeces may be fo impregnated with inoihure, as to weigh to the fatisfac- tionof the owner. This management is now and then rewarded, as it ought to be, with the lofs of whole flocks in a Angle night ; fuch barbarous practices will eafily lead the reader to judge of the profound ignorance of the Trench with SHEEP. 43i with refpedl to fheep*. There is no doubt, that they ought never to be houfed by force; but to have the choice in a yard, fecurely walled in, to be under cover, or expofed to the weather at their pleafure. 1 have myfelf a farm too wet for folding abroad in winter > and therefore ufe a well littered yard and barn, in which the fheep are dry and clean, and not hotter than they pleafe to be. I find the pra&ice very beneficial ; but mention it here only curforily, as I have in another work -p expatiated largely upon it. One of the mod fingular practices in the eyes of an Englifhman, that is to be met with abroad, in the management of fheep, is the regularity with which fait is every where given to their docks, and aifo to cattle. The practice is of great; antiquity. The ancients were in a regular pra&ice of giving fait to Iheep, Columella tells us, that if the paflure for this animal were ever fo fweet, yet it would grow dale to them if they have not fait given in wooden troughs t. It appears, from an impofition edablifhed fo long ago as 1462, in the Milanefe, that the confumption of lalt is reckoned at 28 lb. for each head of cattle §.. In France it is conjectured to amount to 50 lb . |] , and for fheep to 15 lb. where the fale of it is free. The fame author mentions it as a known fad, that cows give the more milk for it ; fheep finer wool ; and that all animals are kept by it in good health. In fome of the cabiers of indruCtion to the deputies in the Na- tional Affembly, fait is conddered as effential to the well-being of cattle, indif - T penjable aux bejtiaux\. Monf. d’Abbenton directs 1 lb. every eight days to twenty fheep**. In Spain it is as common as it is in Italy and France ; a fanega of fait, or 100 lb. is allowed for one. hundred fheep, by law ; but they ufe fifteen and twenty fanegas for 1000 fheep In a memoir on the Spanidi flocks, by, * A French writer very erroneoufly fays, that the Englifh Iofe prodigious quantities of fheep by folding. Mem. fur V Agriculture, par M. Eormoy. 8vo. 1789. p. 47 * No fuen thing. — One would think that the management of Englifh fheep were as well known in France as other parts of Eng- iifh agriculture,. Another writer fays, that fhort woolled rams fell in England much dearer than long' woolled ones, Mem. pour /’ Amelioration des Bctes a iaine dans C Ifie cle France. 1788. p. 8. Juft the contrary. — -Ten guineas is a high price for a ram in Suflex, the fmeft breed of the fhort woolled kind ; whereas a long woolled ram in Leicefcerfhire has been let at one tlioufand guineas for a fingle teafon. f Annals of Agriculture. Vol.-xv. No. 87. I Nee tamen ulla funt tarn blanda pabula, aut etiam pafeua, quorum gratia non exolefcat ufu con- tinuo, nifi pecudum faftidio paftor occurrerit prebito fale quod velut ad pabuli condimentum per sfta- tem canahbus ligneis impofitum cum e paftu redierint oves, lambunt, atque eo fapore cupidinerrv bibendi pafcendique concipiunt. Lib. vii. § De /’ Adminijlration Provinciate, par M. le Trone. 8vo. 1788. tom. i. p.237. jj lbid.. Cahier du Tiers Etat de Foul. p. 17. Alfo, De la Noble ffe cle Clermont Ferand. p. 22. ** Inflrudtion pour les Bergers. 8vo. 1782. p.105. See alfo, Traite d’ Economic Politique. 8vo, 1783. P..545., fit, EJffai Hijl. Pol. fur la. race. des Brebis, trad. d’Aflrom. i2mo. 1784. p. 47. the: 43 - SHEEP. the late Mr. Collinfon, the account is more particular and curious. “ The firft thing the fhepherd does when the flock returns from the S. to its fummer downs, is to give the theep as much fait as they will eat. Every owner allows his flock, of a thoufand fheep, twenty-five quintals of fait, which the flock eat in about five months ; they eat none in their journey, nor in their winter- walk. It is believed, that if they hinted their fheep of this quantity, it would weaken their confutations, and degrade their wool ; the fhepherd places fifty or flxty flat hones, at about five heps dihance from each other ; he hrews fait upon each hone ; he leads the flocks flowly through the hones, and every fheep eats to his liking. What is very remarkable is, that the fheep never eat a grain of fait, nor with for it, when they are feeding on land which lies on lime-hone ; and as the fhepherd muh not fuffer them to be too long without fait, he leads them to a lpot of clayey foil, and, after a quarter of an hour’s feeding them, they march back to the hones and devour the fait. So fenfible are they of the difference, that if they meet with a fpot of mixed foil, which often happens, they eat fait in proportion.” The practice is found equally in Germany; the late King of Pruflia, by ordonance, expected his peafants to take two mebzen (91b.) for each milch-cow, and one metze for every five milch-fheep, and half as much for f uc h as do not give milk ;* ; and in Bohemia the price of fait is found very pre- judicial to the flocks f. The Hungarian peafants lay pieces of rock-falt at the doors of their hables, cow-houfes, &c. for cattle and horfes to lick It is known alfo in Poland §. Throughout all North America fait is given to cattle and horfes once or twice a week ||. Paoletti, a practical Italian writer, orders 1 lb. to each flieep in autumn, and another in fpring ^[. Monl. Carlier decides againfl: it, but on very inl'ufficient authority **. Monf. Peflier unites with the common practice, by recommending it-f“f*. This practice, which is unknown in England only, merits I believe much more attention than the Englifli farmers are willing to give it, at leaf! thofe with whom I have converfed upon this fub- jedt. I have tried it for tw r o years pafl: in my own flock ; and though it is very difficult to pronounce the efledl of fuch additions to their food, except after long * Mirabeau cle la Monarchic Pruffienne. Tom. Iv. p. 102. + Ibid. Tom. vi. p. 236. % Keyfler’s Travels. i2mo. 1758. Vol. iv. p.242. § Sir Thomas Pope Blount’s Nat. Hift. i2mo. 1693. p.220. || Smyth’s Tour in the United States. 8vo. 1784. Vol. i. p.143. — Bartram s Travels, p. 354. P enfiere fopra /’ Agricoltura. 8vo. 1789- P* 209. ** Traite dcs Bctes a laine. 4to. Tom. i. p. 296. 44 Obferv • fur Plufieurs Maladies de Bejl. p. 67. See alfo, on this fubjea, Markham's cheap and good Hufbandry, p. in. 120. Parkinfon's Theatrum Botanlcum, , p. 552. Maifon Rujlique , p. 107. Hartlib’s Legacy , p. 199. Mills' new and complete Syjlem of Practical Hufoandry , vol. iii. p. 416. Memoirs of the Bath Society , vol. i. p. 180, And a curious paflage in Birch's Edition of Boyle , vol. v. p. 52 1 . Dr. Blower to Air. Boyle. * and sheep. 433 and repeated experiments, I have, I think, reafon to be fatisfied, my fheep having been very healthy, and once or twice fo, when my neighbours differed Ioffes. The breeds which I have noted in France are, i. The Picardy; hornlefs; white faces; and iilky hanging ears. This I take to be a baftard breed of Flanders; the wool coarfe ; of middling length. 2, Normandy; red legs and red faces; coarfe wool. 3, Berry; refembling fomewhat the South Downs of England ; fine wool. 4, Spanifh in Rouffillon, and in part of Langue- doc. 5, Near Mirepoix, a fort that refembles Norfolk fhesp; with horns; black faces and legs. The reft, I apprehend are all mongrels, without any ftrong features to difcriminate them. The badnefs of the breeds, and the ill management of fheep in France, is the more furprifing, as I conceive there is no country in Europe better adapted to this animal. The foil is, in general, dry, and the climate much lefs humid than that of England, which circum- ftances are of effential confequence for commanding great fuccefs with fheep : wet land and a wet climate are, next to French management, by far their greateft enemies. The old government often expreffed a great inclination to take what- ever fteps might be deemed neceffary to improve their fheep ; I have noted the controleur general Bertin employing Monf. Carlier to travel through France, from 1762 to 1766, for examining the flocks ; and Monf. d’Aubenton acknow- ledges, that whatever he executed in regard to importing the Spanifh breed, was done at the inftigation of another controleur general. “ Monf. Trudaine ne m’a rien laiffe a defirer de tout ce qui pouvoit m’etre utile pour remplir mon objet.” Much encouragement has fince been given to Monf. Delporte, of Bou- logne, for importing a flock of Englifh fheep ; and the late Marquis of Conflans bought, for the provincial affembly of Normandy, one hundred Englifh rams, which were to be landed at nine guineas a-piece. The government was always inclined to be liberal upon this bufinefs, but never took the right fteps. I viewed ieveral parcels of fheep that were faid to be Spanifh, but never faw a Angle one that gave wool comparable to Spanifh ; and I was affured, by very refpeCtable manufacturers, at Louviers and Elbceuf, that not one fleece of fuch has ever been produced in France, and that the Rouffillon wool is the beft in the king- dom. The Spanifh fheep I examined in France were fuch ill made animals, that as much would be loft in the careafs, and in the want of difpofition to thrive, as could be gained in wool, fuppoflng it as fine as pofiible. The Englifh fheep which I faw were chofen pretty much in the fame manner ; and no won- der, as fmugglers had been the agents, who would of courfe procure fuch as were to be had cheapeft. Where the Marquis de Conflans bought his Englifh fheep, I never heard ; by his death France loft them, and, if I may judge from the others I have feen, the lofs is not great. All thefe exertions have been made by people whofe profefiions, habits of life, employments, and purfuits have been 3 K far 43+ CAPITAL. far removed from agriculture ; ufually by inhabitants of the capital, or other great cities. — In a word, they have been made by men, in whole hands fuccefs was impoilible. If the government had, for the introdudlion of Spanifh wool, fixed a Spanifh farmer, with Spanifh fhepherds, and a Spanifh flock, in fuch a diflrift as the Crau, in Provence, to enjoy their annual emigration, it would have been known what could really be done in carding wool. And if an Englifhman, with a flock of well-chofen Lincol-nfhire, or Leicefterfhire, long woolled fheep, had been fixed in the Pays d’Auge, with a falary of five hundred louis a-year for himfelf, and with every other expence amply provided, it would at once have been found, that as long and as fine combing wool may be produced in Fiance as in England. But fuch eftablifhments would depend abfolutely on the choice of the men; in fome hands the whole expence would be thrown away ; in otheis not a penny of it would be loft. CHAP. XIII. Of the Capital employed in Hujbandry. T HERE is no light in which the agriculture of France can appear to lefs advantage than upon this head. It is fcarcely credible how the metayers are able to fupport themfelves with a flock fo much inferior to what would be neceflary to a good cultivation. In all the provinces which are backward in point of agriculture, as Bretagne, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Sologne, Berry, La Marche, Limofin, Angoumois, Poitou, part of Guienne and Languedoc ; in Champagne, Loraine, Franche Compte, Bourbonnois, Nevernois, Lyonois, and part of Auvergne, Dauphine, and Provence ; the flock of every fort upon the farms, whether belonging to the landlord or the tenant, would not rife to 2 os. per Englifh acre, and in many diflrids not to 1 5s. The paftures of Nor- mandy, and the arable lands of Flanders, and part of Artois, are well flocked ; but there is a great deficiency in every other part of the kingdom, even in the befl provinces. The quantity of fheep and cattle is every where trifling in comparifon of what it ought to be. The implements of hufbandry are con- trived for cheapnefs, not for duration and effedt ; and fuch flacks of hay in flore, as are found all over England, are rarely feen in France. Improvements in- verted in the land, by marling, draining, &c. which, on farms in England, amount to large fums of money, are inconfiderable even in the befl parts of France. And befide the flock, transferable from tenant to tenant, the invert - ments, which in England fall upon the landlord, fuch as all forts of conve- nience CAPITAL. 435 niencies in building, fencing, gates, Eiles, polls, rails, &c. which he mull pro- vide or repair for a new tenant, are done in England at an expence unknown in the greateE part of France 5 not but that in fome provinces, efpecially in the northern ones, the buildings are fubEantial, and eredted on a large fcale. I Eiall, however, have no doubt in calculating the inferiority of France in its prefent Eate to that of England, in the circumEances of building, inclofing, marling, claying, draining, laying to meadow, and other permanent improve- ments, at 30s. an acre over the whole territory. It is 40s. or 50s. inferior to all our w r ell improved counties ; but as we have fome backward in agriculture, as well as France, I calculate the whole at 30s. I have calculated the capital of the farmers in all the provinces of the king- dom, and the medium of my notes is 40s. an acre. A fimilar calculation of the capital employed in the hufbandry of England gives 4I. per acre*; in other words, 40s. more than is found in France: add 30s. for the lefs quantity of perma- nent improvements ; and /we have the total of 3I. 10s. per acre for the inferiority of French to EngliEi capital employed in agriculture, which, upon 13 1,000,000 of acres, forms a deficiency of 458,500,0001. Eerling, or 10,480,000,000 ofliv. — above ten milliards. Hence it is, that it would demand this vaE fum to be ex- pended and inveEed in the agriculture of France, to bring the whole of that kingdom to an acreable equality with England ; and I am confident, that I have not been guilty of the leaE exaggeration. The capital of farmers in England being 4I. per acre, let us calculate that of Scotland at 30s. and that of Ireland at 40s. England, 46,000,000 acres at 4I. jT. 184,000,000 Scotland, 26,000,000 at 30s. 39,000,000 Ireland, 26,000,000 at 40s. 52,000,000 98,000,000 275,000,000 F ranee. - 131,000,000 at 40s. 262,000,000 The capital employed, therefore, in huftandry in the JBrifiih ifies, is confider- ably greater than is employed in France. It furely is not necefiary to obferve, in this age, that the productive Eate of agriculture in a country depends much more * It will be proper here to explain what I mean by capital. A fanner, in England, who flocks a farm, finds it necefiary, on entering, to have a given fum of money for engaging in, and carrying on the bufinefs through the firft year, in which is reckoned a year’s labour, rent, tythe, feed, &c. ; and this fum varies generally from 3]. to 5I. an acre : if the accounts of the fame farmer be examined lome years after, he will be found to have flock to a greater value, having increafed it in cattle, fheep, manuring, and other improvements, for which he would be paid if he fuddenly left his farm. Now, take the average of all farms, cf all flocks, and of all periods erf leafes, and I value the capital em- employed at 4I. an acre, which I have reafon to believe, from circumftances too numerous to detail here, to be a very moderate eflimate. 3 K 2 Oil CAPITAL. 43 ^ on the capital employed, than on any other circumftance whatever; and that lince ours is larger than that of France, though in the pofieflion of 15 millions of people only (for that of France is to be connected with 25 or 26 millions), the Britifh dominions ought to be eftentially richer, and more powerful, than France ; and while the two countries continue in their prefent fituation, no- thing can reverfe this conclufion, but egregioufly ill management in our own government. It is upon the firm bafis of this momentous fad:, that politi- cians ought to feek the folution of that apparent phcenomenon, which the two laft wars exhibited; the fpedacle of England refitting, fuccefsfully, the whole power of France and Spain : and I will venture farther to afifert, that thofe who leek the explanation in American colonies, or Indian conquefts, feek it in caufes of weaknefs, much more than of ttrength ; and that the pofieflion of near 300 millions fterling of adive capital employed upon our lands, is of quite another importance than that of fuch dittant and brittle dependencies, or than any ad- vantage that our boatted foreign commerce ever gave us. When Mr. Paine* calculates, with pieafure, the fuperiority of France to England in fpecie , at feventy millions, upon data which, I (hall fhew in another place, have nothing more to do with the profperity of the French than of the Hurons, he adverts to a policy which will be found a rotten one by every nation that relies on it, I mean, that of ettimating gold and lilver as national wealth ; their rapid currency, indeed, implies profperity — but that of paper does the fame; and if paper has given to England a fuperiority of four hundred and fifty millions sterling in the folid and real wealth of ttock in hufbandry, fhe has not much reafon to envy France a fuperiority of feventy millions in fpecie. One great deviation of French capital has been in the fugar iflands, which, according to the produce, cannot have a lefs capital employed in them than fifty millions fterling. The royal navy of France has been, and is now, a favourite objedt, chiefly for the fake of defending and fecuring thele colonies ; let us take but twenty-five years expence of the navy, at two millions fterling, and here are fifty other millions ; in thefe two alone, without extending the luppofition to many others that might be equally included, there are one hundred millions fter- ling, or two and a-half milliards of livres, which, under a different policy, might have been invefted in agriculture; and had this taken place, the nation would have been in the receipt (counting only at 50 per cent, produce for the capital invefted) of fifty millions fterling per annum more than floe receives from her agriculture at prefent ; or conliderably more than 1 ,000,000,000 liv. Now what comparifon can there be in the wealth, profperity, power, or refources, between the import of five or fix millions fterling in Weft- Indian commodities, and the nrcdudfion of ten times that amount in the native foil of France? Yet this * Rights of Man y p. 155. wretched CAPITAL. 437 wretched commercial policy is now continuing ; invettments are ttill made in the Wett-Indies, becaufe the nation expends two millions a-year on a navy to protect them ; and it expends the two millions becaufe the invettments are thus made in the Indies ; going eternally in this vicious circle ; planting American wattes on account of the navy, and keeping up the navy becaufe thofe wattes are planted; while her own agriculture wants 450 millions tterling in capital to be placed on an equality with England, which, from a fimilar policy, is not half improved to the perfection of which it is capable. What utter infatuation and blindnefs does fuch a condudt prove ! And may we not fairly conclude, that the greatett favour which an enemy, or a friend, could do to France, would be the Sizing of thofe colonies, and thereby flopping this miferable deviation of capital. Perhaps this remark may, with equal juttice, be applied to England. Tippo Saib was mentioned to me in France as an objedt of ferious alarm to our kingdom; much the contrary; if he drove us out of the Eattern Indies, and the negroes were to drive us out of the Wettern, they would be our beft friends ; for the capitals of the nation would then f nd the employment which they ought long ago to have found. But I fhall venture to carry this idea yet farther; it is not only the French capital employed in the fugar illands, and in the royal navy, that is a diredt de- viation from agriculture, for whatever is ufed in foreign commerce falls under the fame predicament. The value of all the navigation of France, fhips, ttores, furniture, feamen, feamen’s- wages, and all the exertions within land, in confe- quence of them, fo much commended by numerous writers, mutt equally be confidered as an employment of capital, much lefs profitable than that of agri- culture. I do not contend that a ftate fhould negledt the proper means of its defence, and the advantages of a maritime fituation ; I maintain only, that the true progrefs of national induftry is to ftock fully the lands of a country, before any capitals are invetted in other purfuits. It will be faid (for the obfervation is common), that the invettment of capitals in a nation mutt be left to the option of the individuals who poflefs them ; but this objection is removed in a moment: the fadt is granted ; but the policy contended for is, that the ttate ought not, by laws and regulations, to tempt and bribe men to an invettment of capital, contrary to the interetts of agriculture ; which Colbert did in fo flagrant a man- ner, and which is yet done in every country of Europe with which I am ac- quainted, either by diredl encouragements to the commercial fyflem, or by laying burthens and taxes on land. The foie policy here infilled upon is that of freedom ; let the ttate take no party, and agriculture, from its fuperior profit, will attradl capitals, as long as an acre wants them ; but when the ttate lays taxes upon the land, in any other way whatever than the confumption of its pro- ducts, or carries proper taxes to an undue extent, or permits the cultivators^ to become 43 s PRICE OF PROVISIONS. become ; the prey of a ty the- gatherer, or loads them with the total fuppoi t oi toe poor, or, in fine, cramps the free fale of products, by prohibitions and monopolies ; in all thefe cafes, capital is as much driven from land as if an exprefs law forbade the inveftment. It is not difficult to conjecture what turn this policy will take jo France, when we fee the prepofterous and pernicous doctrines ot tnc eecono— unifies triumphant; when the falfe and abfuid dodtiine, tiiat an taxes ultimately fail on lands, is recognized and admitted ; and when we know that apropofition for a direCt land-tax of twelve millions fterling was received without abhorrence ; f uc h fpedtacles are not thofe of the regeneration of agriculture. Upon the whole, the following conclufion may fairly be drawn as the old Government of France, by all forts of burthens and oppreffions, kept down the agriculture of the kingdom, and as it were prohibited improvements, tread- ing in the falfe and fallacious fieps of Colbert, and encouraging exclufively manu- factures and foreign commerce, it neceflarily follows, that little credit can be given to the wifdom of the new legifiature, which has arifen in that kingdom, unlefs different plans be adopted. To fofier and promote agriculture in fuch a manner as to enable her to attraCt the capitals (he has hitherto wanted, is an ob- ject not to be effeaed by fugar-ifiands, and is eafily to be deftroyed by fuch land- taxes as have lately been efiabliffied by the National Affembly. It is not the divifion of farms, and holding commons facred, that will enrich th^ flock of hufbandry. The government of the kingdom, it is true, is regenerated ; but the ideas of the people muff alfo be regenerated upon thefe queftions, before a •fyfiem can be embraced, which, by giving capital to agriculture, fhall cany France to fuch a profperity as England has attained. C H A P. XIV. Of the Price of Provifions , Labour , &c. W ITHOUT knowing the price of thefe articles in different countries, the political arithmetician would want one of the principal bafes to build and fupport many of his moft ufeful calculations. ' The connection between the price of labour and of provifions ; the effeds of high or low prices on agriculture, and the re-adtion of culture on price; the manner by which high and low prices afiedt population, manufactures, and national profperity, thefe, and a thoufand other inquiries in political ceconony, which fo many writers have treated on the grounds of mere theory and reafoning, fhould be iufpended PRICE OF PROVISIONS. 435 till a {Efficient mafs of fid's be collected, the examination and companion of which can alone elucidate fuch intricate fubjeds. When the rates of labour, proviiions, &c. are corredly known in countries governed upon different prin- ciples, and pofleffing very different quantities of the precious metals, and de- grees of indudry, the politician will have valuable data on which he may rea- fon : to colled fuch ought to be one great objed of thofe who travel with philofophical views, and who direct their attention to fabjeds of ufeful know- ledge, indead of the common frivolous purfuits that wade the time and fortunes of fo many. Of the Price of Provisions ~ p* } 7 S 7 - Calais, Abbeville, Toury, Orleans, Limoges, Brive, Souillac, Montauban, St. Martory, Perpignan, Pinjan, Rodezin Rouverge ; Lodeve, . Beg de Rieux, Amous, Bagnere Bigore, Navarcns, Bayonne, Tartafs, Auch, Fleurance toLeitour Agen, Tonneins, Bourdeaux,, } Caudec, Tours, Chambord, LaChapellelaReine Montgeron, Ermenonville, Tamuiartin, pq Sols. 12 7 i 6 5 i 12 St 5 i 4 _4 i 4 5 4 6 5 f ' Si Sols I 2 1 2 94 5 8 8 8 9i io IC 12 64 7\ 7 \ 6 8 8 8 8 io io > Sols 8 8 I 2 7k 9 4 5 5 5 7 Si 4 I 1: 8 8 8 io io IO Sols 9 io 6 Sols. *5 16 U Sols. fc.o to a ools >3 3 ° io J 5 6o 1 9 2 1 2C 12 Sols 1 2 + 2 2 2 2 2 k 2 i 2 l 2 k d 2 3-2 d 3i 2 i 2 3 3 Sols 5 6 5 5 io 6 In winter mutton 2 if.. In winter butter 2 if. Brandy 13IV the bottle.. 4 Beef 1 7 for the lb. of 48 oz. belt freflfe 9 butter 6f. a lump, and 4 to 6 lumps a lb. J white wine 3I. red 41. for the poor 1 £f. } Bed bread 3d oil iof. the lb. the poor I eat much fromage de Roquefort, 1-6'f, Bed oil i2f. the lb.. Mutton I5f. the lb. of 4802, Beef 13d the lb. of 4.8 oz. Beef 1 8 ~d for 45 oz. 1 Fined white bread 4f. good wine for the > table iliv. common white 4b good white j 1 liv. 5’d fait butter 2of. Bed bread 2 if. butter in winter 24 to 2-Sd The bed bread 3d Valenciennes. 440 PRICE OF PROVISIONS. Valenciennes, Lille, Dunkirk, 1788. Calais, Arras, Rouen, Yvetot, Havre, Caen, Cherbourg, Doll, Rennes, St. Brieux, Landernau, Nantes, Angers, j Gace, Elbceuf, La Roche Guyone, , 7 8 9 - Nangis, | La Perte, Chateau Thiery, Mareuil, | St. Menehoud, | Braban, Verdun, Marie Tour, | Metz, Pont a Mouflon, ^ Nancy, Luneville, | Strafbourg, Schelelladt, Jfenheim, Befanqon, Dole, Dijon, ^ Mont Cenis, Luzy, Bourbon Lancy, Moulins, 03 Sols. 9 8 8 8 8 1 1 9 1 1 8, 9 8 7 i 8 9 8 7 \ 6 \ 10 8, Sols. 9 8 8 8 8 1 1 9 1 1 8 9 .8 4 8 6 8 7 6 10 / 'l 6 7 k 6 7 64 6 6 > Sols 9 S 8 1 1 9 7 84 5 8 6 8 7 6-1 10 St Sols. 10 10 10 1 2 I 2 I I 10 10 7 / 6 7 t 6 7 7 6 7 s 6 7 t 6 7 7 t 7 7 6 6; si 7 8 7 64 6 Sols. 16 14 14 16 18 16 H *5 o Sols. 8 H bo bo W Sols. 13 12 10 6 14 »o 03 Sols 3 2 3 2 2l ->J 2l 2t 24 Sols. 16 Bread for the poor of. 9 den. For the poor. Ditto. Cyder. Bell breed, 3 %. Cyder. Buck wheat, lif. lb. ) Salt butter, iof. bell ds pre-vela, 20 t» I 2 + f. 7 Milk 2f. the pint of Paris, or a quart ) Eng. tallow 57 liv. iof. the ioolb. Bread for the poor 29k the i2lb. The poor meat in the country 8f. 4 Wheat 48 and 49 liv. the feptier (which > is 1 qu. Eng ) and troopers drawn up in j the market to keep people in order. Wheat 50 liv. the fept. 7 Wheat now (July) 7 to 8 liv. the mea- 1 fure of 401b. ; common price 3 liv. } Bread for the poor $(. 9 den. Wheat j 4 liv. iof. the boif. of 301b. Black bread- 7 Black wheat 6 liv. 1 2f. the franchar of 5 4 olb. Bread for the poor 2f. 9 den. 3 The three meats are taxed at 6f. by the > police ; but none good to be got under J 716. Bread for the por 2f. 3 den. 7 Bread brown 24 f. Wheat l8olb. 33 liv. } laft year 18 liv. and in common 12 liv. All beef from Franconia. 7 For the poor bread 2lf. lowered by the 3 police. Inferior meat 7 1-f. Bread for the .poor that price. Riom, PRICE OF PROVISIONS. 441 Riom, Clermont, Izoir, Briude, Le Puy, Pradelles, Thuytz, Viviers, Loriol, Piere Latte Avignon, Aix, Marfeille, Eftrelies, Lyons, French money. Beef, per lb. aver, of 76 minutes, jf. Mutton, average of ditto, 7 Veal, average of 72, ditto, l\ Meat average of the three 7 Pork, average of 28 minutes, I Some bread 2 C 4 den. and if. 1 1 den. [■New wheat, Aug. 8, 31 liv. 2f. thefept*. j of Paris. Brown bread zf. Common bread 3f. Brown ditto 2|f. Brown ditto 2 if. 4l T I O N. Butter, average of 38 minutes, Cheefe, average of 10 ditto. Eggs, average of 19 ditto, Bread, average of 67 ditto, French money. r6|y: 9 9 3 Wine, per bottle, aver, of 32 do. 4f Englifh money. 8 \d. 4 i 4 l H Twenty-three minutes concerning bread, having been made in 1789, when the price of wheat was extravagant, we certainly muft not reckon the averao- e price of fuch bread, as the bulk of what people eat in France, at more than 2 f. the pound, or id. Englifh. — It is to be remembered, that the pound, poid de marc of France, is to the Englifh pound avoir - du poids, as 1,0000 is 100,9264; it is therefore about heavier, a difference which muft be kept in mind. In order to compare the prices of thefe commodities in the two kingdoms, fome previous ob- fervations are neceffary. Beef is, in many parts of France, exceedingly good and well fattened ; better is not to be found any where than at Paris ; and I have remarked, elfewhere, the great numbers of fine oxen fattened in Limofin in winter, and in Normandy in fummer, for the Paris market. I think, therefore, that the beef of England, and of great cities in France, may very fairly be compared. It is not fo generally good, perhaps, in the latter kingdom, but the difference does not demand attention. — It is, however, very difcernible in little country towns, where nothing is killed but old cows — and good beef is as rare as good mutton ; whereas there is not a fpot in England, in which a private gentleman s family, that lives in the country, is not fupplied with good ox beef. 3 L Veal, 442 PRICE OF PROVISIONS. Veal, notwithftanding that at Paris from Pontoife, is much inferior ; but the great inferiority of French meat to English is in mutton, which is univerfaliy fo bad in France, that I may aflert, very corre&ly, that from one end of the kingdom to the other, I never faw a live or dead fheep that would in England be edeemed a fat one. In general, mutton is fo lean, that, to an Englifh palate, it is barely eatable. The French do not like very fat mutton, that is to fay, they do not like much fat ; but they mull like the lean of fat meat, as being more juicy, and better flavoured, than that of lean. It is however to be remem- bered, that at common tables (I do not fpeak of thofe of great lords, for they do not form a nation) meat is ufually fo much roafted, that it is not an equal objeT to have it fo fat as in England. But though the nicenefs of the palate is a mat- ter of no importance, yet whether the mutton in general be lean or fat, is of very great confequence in thefe inquiries ; for this circumftance may make that meat much dearer in France than it is in England. Upon an average in the lat- ter kingdom, the price of meat, in 1790, as I found by numerous returns from many counties, was,' — Beef, 4d. perlb. — Mutton, 4’d. — Veal, 4*rd. Average of the three 4|d. — Pork, 4d. I am of opinion, that the beef and veal are as cheap at thefe prices, if we con- fider the quality, as in France, for thefe minutes refped the bed joints only. As to mutton, it is at lead 20 per cent, cheaper ; by which I wifh to have it under- flood, that I allude to the fuperior expence which muft be incurred by the. grazier, in order to bring his mutton fo fat to market, as is univerfal in Eng- land ; or, in other words, that he would make a greater profit, by felling it at the French price, than at the Englifh one, provided he were to make it no fatter than is ufual in France. Whoever attentively conflders the French hufbandry,. will not be furprized at the leannefs of their mutton. The want of artificial, grafles is fo great, that fheep, though few in number, are miferably fed in. fummer ; but as to winter, they are in moft of the provinces fed upon draw, and what they can pick up on wades and flubbles. There are few diflridts where you fee any thing like a regular provifion for them ; in confequence of which, the markets are fupplied in a very imperfect manner, and farms differ dreadfully from want of the manuring, which a flock of hearty well fed flieep are fure to depoflt. Bread in England may be reckoned at 1 id. a pound; but we mud not, therefore, conclude, that it is near double the French price; for the materials are not the fame. In England, it is very generally made of wheat; and the poor, in many parts of the kingdom, eat the whited and bed ; but in France; the bread minuted in the preceding notes, is often of rye and other grain ; fo that the price is not double for the fame bread ; though there is cent., per cent, variation in the price of the bread confumed by the poor of the two countries. Bread being fo much cheaper in France, in comparifon of meat, than; » PRICE OF PROVISIONS. 443 than it is in England, occalions that great confumption of bread in France in preference to meat, which the French poor rarely eat. In England, the confumption of meat, by the labouring poor, is pretty confiderable ; for as bread approaches fo much nearer to the price of meat in this kingdom, it neceflarily occafions this difference between the two countries, which has been already re- marked by Monf. Herrenfchwandt with his ufual acutenefs. The confump- tion of cheefe in England, by the poor, is immenfe. In France they eat none at all. The Englifh confumption of meat is infinitely more beneficial to agri- culture than the French confumption of bread: it is by means of great flocks of cattle and fheep, that lands are improved and rendered productive ; the crops which fupport cattle and fheep are of an ameliorating nature ; but thole that yield bread are, on the contrary, exhaufling. Itmuflbe therefore evident, that agriculture will be advanced in proportion to the quantity of meat, butter, and cheefe con fumed by any nation. Poultry — Average. — Fowl 22 f. (nd.); turkey 68 yT (2s. iod.) ; duck 22 Jl ( 1 id.) ; goofe 50/ (2S. Id.); pigeon 7/ (3*d.) Obfervations. It appears from thefe averages, that poultry is not generally fo cheap in France as it has been reprefen ted; it is, however, cheaper than in England ; for I can- not eflimate the prices with us lower than, a fowl is. 6d. ; a turkey 5s.; a duck is. 6d. ; a goofe 4s. ; a pigeon 4d. LABOUR. j 78 7. — Pi car die — Abbeville. — Men 12 f. fome 16 f.\o2of. Isle of France — EJlampes. — Men 20 f. in winter $f. and food; in firm- mer with food 12 f. Sologne — La Ferte . — Men 1 6/1 Salbris. — Servants wages on a farm 75 to 1 20 liv. Berry — Verfan. — Men 15/. in winter 8/1 and food. Argent an. — Men 2 of. in winter 8 f. and food. La Marche — La Ville au Brun.—Mcn 27 f in winter ic f. and food ; if no food 16 f. in general 20 f Limosin — Uzarcb. — Men 14 f. Que rcy — Brive. — Men 19 /i Montanban. — Men 15 f. in flrort days 12 f Languedo c — LoulouJ'e . — Men 2 of Bagnere de Luchon . — Men 20 f women 4 f and food. . Rouissillon— Perpignan. — Men 24 f. or 15/ and food. Languedoc — Beziers. — Men 12/i in fummer and food. Pinjand — Men 30 f. if with food 12 /i in winter 24 f. if with food 1 o /. 3 L 2 S a true.— 444 PRICE OF LABOUR. Sauve.— Men 27 f Amous . — Men 1 5/ Rouvergue— M en 22 / Guienne — Navareen . — Men 10/ Tartafs. — Men 19 f Fleurance. — Men 1 5/ Port de Leyrac . — Men 1 2/ and food* Tonneins . — Men 22 / Bourdeaux . — Men 30 / Angoumois — Angouleme . — Men 6-1/ and foot!. Ruffec . — Men 12/ Poitou — M en 12/ in 1777 8 to 10/ Touraine- — Tours. — Men 10/ and food, the fame in 1777. Isle of France — Ermenonville. — Men 20/ Flanders — Cambray. — Men 30/ 1 78 8-— Picardy — Calais. — Men 24/ in harveft 30/ Normandy — Aumale . — Men 24/ in harveft, in 1777, 1 5/ Havre.— Men 30 / CWtz. — M en 22/ mafon and carpenter 40/ ' % Har court — Men 15/ Bretagne— Doll. — Men 4 to 6/ and food, in harveft 20 / but no food. Rennes.— Men 16/; for the year round the common pay 5/ and food ; threfhers no food, but 12 / or the 17th of the corn ; for reaping and mowing 20/ and no board ; wages of a carter 90 liv. boy 60 liv. maid 30 liv. St. Brieux . — Men 25/ Landernau . — Men 18/ with food 5 or 6/ Mufiliac. — Men 15/ a man, 2 oxen, and a cart, 4 liv. Auvergnac . Men 1 5/ women 5 or 6/ and food; mafon and carpenter 2 5/ Nantes . — Men 14/ in the town 24/ porters are paid by the job and earn 3 or 4 liv. ; mafon and carpenter 35/ Anjou —Angers . — Men 10/ women 8 /. mafon and carpenter 20/ Tour btliy. — The Marquis de Tourbilly paid 12/ a day in his improvements, which began in 1738. Gace. — Men 24/ Normandy — Darnetal. — Men 20/ ten or twelve years ago not much more than half that. La Roche Guyon. Men 20/ in winter 15/ in harveft 30/ mafon and carpenter 35/ 1789 Isle of France — Nangis. — Men in fummer 24 f. in winter 1 5 to 18/ Men 44 5 PRICE OF LABOUR/ Men In harveft 30 f. women in fummer i$fi Cutting wheat 7 to 9 liv. per arp. barley and oats 30 f. — « — meadow 3 liv. if fed the half. Wages of a carter 8 louis, a boy 4 Is. A dairy maid 4 Is. other maids 3 or 3 f Is. To load and pitch hay and corn through the feafon 5 Is. or 3 Is. if fed. Sowing 10/ an arp. Champagn e — Marc ml . — Men 25/; in winter 12/; wages of a carter 150 liv. Loraine — Brahan. — Women in hay time 6y^ and food. Men in ditto 12. f. mowing 30 to 40/ a day and no food, but 2 or 3 bottles of wine. For threfhing the 1 8th or 19th part of the corn. Metz, — In winter i$f. and no food. — fummer 1 8 and 20 f, ditto. General employment in manufafttires, public works, &c. 1 8 to 2o/i A mafon to 24 f, Pont m MouJ}on.~-A mower 20 to 30 f. and food. Haymaker 12 f. and food. Harvefl 2. de bichet per diem for cutting and binding. Mowing oats 20 f, and food. Nancy. — In winter 20 f, no food. A better fort in towns 30 f In fummer 25/ and no food. Alsace Sewern . — In winter 16 f. in fummer 20 f no food. Strajbourg, —In fummer 20 to 24/ in winter 16/ Schelejladt . — All the year 20 f. or 12 and food. Franche Compte — BeJan<;on>-~- 20 to 30 f. and food ; in fummer 10 f, and 10 od in winter. J Bourgogne Dijon . In fummer 24/ in winter 20 f. and in winter in feme counuy places 1 5/ no food; carpenter 35, 36 f. mafon -iof, Mont Cents — 24 f. a-day. c Moulins,— All the year 1 5/ no food except harveft, then .ood; by filk 20 to 24/ J women 8 to 12/; carpenter and mafon 2 5 and no food • hire of a man and four oxen a day of eight hours 3 liv. Au vE R one Riom. Summer 20 to 24/ in winter 10 to 15/ no food. , y ' i ummer 2 + t0 3 °/ four pints of wine; in winter 12 to 14 f. and three pints of wine. Briude.—> 44 6 PRICE OF LABOUR. Briude . — In winter 14 to 16/ ; in fummer 24 to 36/ V ivarais — Tbuytz . — In winter 18/. in fummer 20 f. Vinters . — In fummer 20 f. in winter 1 8y. mailer carpenter 4 ®.f the man 20 to 30/. mafon 30 f. Dauphine — Lortol . — In fummer 3 in winter 20 f. s, cutting, liai veil- ing, and threfhing the corn of the crop of ali iorts ; workmen tor all the year 1 $f. if employed in harveft. Mont Him ar t . — In fummer 36/ in winter 2 of. Provence — Avignon . — In iummer 26 to 30 [ in winter 2 of. Tour d' Aigues , — Now 24 f a day, in winter 15/ about twenty years pall 16 f cutting and binding loliv. the fomma, • threfliing 15^. (50,400 it. 10 liv. is 5s. 3d. Eng. ac. 1 5 liv. jf. 10 den. Marfeille . — A fhip carpenter 3 liv. calif at, he who bores and drives, 3 to 4 liv. mafon 50 to 60 f common labour 40 to 60 /. JLJlrelles . — In fummer 30 f. in harveft up to 3 liv. on a pinch, and even 4 ,liv. ; in winter 24/i Average earnings of men throughout the kingdom 19 f > mafon and car- penter, 3 of. There are but few minutes concerning the rife of the price 01 la- bour; in Normandy it has been doubled in twelve years; in Provence it has rifen From fix teen to twenty-four ; but in Anjou it remains as it was fifty years ago. The idea I had of the general price of labour in France, taken about twenty or twenty-five years ago, which I acquired from reading and from in- formation, was the average of i6y. a day. If that idea were at all conecc, la- bour has rifen about 20 per cent. But though the price is now fatisfadorily afeertained, I do not know that it was ever fo before, and the genera^ ideas to which I allude might be very erroneous. I take the fadt not to be far from the rife of 20 per cent, on the average, but to have been much moie fo in the provinces where there is fome activity of commerce and manufactures ; and no increafe at all, or at leafl very little, in thofe which do not enjoy tnefe advantages. The average price of labour in England twenty years ago, when I macie my tours, was ys. 6d. a week, or is. 3d. a day ; the price at prefent I fhould fiate at 8s. i;d.* a week, or is. 4|d. a day ; but this idea is not founded on an actual furvey. Indeed it is much to be wifhed that England were again travel led through, with the views that I examined it twenty years ago, that its progieflion might be well afeertained ; fuch a knowledge is uleful to every man who would * Calculated thus, five weeks at 12s. a week ; four at 9s. ; and forty three at 8s. ; in all 22I. but r.o eftimate by the week will fhevv the real earnings of our labourers, who peixotm io much v.'crtc by the piece, that they earn much more than any weekly rate can point out. really PRICE OF LABOUR. 447 really underlland the Rate of his country ; fo ufeful, that it ought to be done at the expence, not of government, but of parliament, independently of miniRers, if poffible, whole intereft it is always to reprefent the country as flourilhing ; for mold of them alfume a merit from the profperous condition of the kingdom, though perhaps not indebted to them for one atom of its amount: but what- ever evils befai a nation, are, for the mold part, to be charged to the account of government alone* If meat and bread be combined into one price, it follows, that labour in England, when proportioned to labour in France, fhould be at 25 f f. a day, in- Idead of 33! f If bread alone be taken, there is almold the fame proportion that is, 19 at 2 are the fame as 33d at 3k ; but this coincidence, perhaps, is accidental ; becaule in England the rate of labour, fuppofing it to depend on provifions, would certainly depend, not on bread only, but on an aggregate of bread, cheefe, and meat ; however, one would wilh to fee thefe naked facts af- certained, whatever conclulions may be drawn from them. The confumption*' of bread, and the price of labour being about 76 per cent, cheaper in France than in England, is an enormous deduction from what may, with propriety, be called, the mafs of national profperity in the former kingdom. This opinion, however, I venture to maintain againft a cloud of writers and politicians, who Rrenuoufly contend for cheap provifions and cheap labour, in order to have cheap, and con-- fequently flaurilhing, manufactures ; but the example of England, which has outRripped the whole world in this circumftance, ought long ago to have- driven fuch fentiments from every mind. Country-labour being 76 per cent., cheaper in France than in England, it may be inferred, that all thofe clades which depend on labour, and are the molt numerous in fociety, are 76 per cent, lefs at their eafe (if I may ufe thefe expreflions), worfe fed, worfe cloathed,, and worfe fupported, both in licknefs and in health, than the fame dalles in England, notwithflanding the immenfe quantity of precious metals, and the impofing appearance of wealth in France. And if the labouring poor confume 76 per cent, lefs than the poor in our kingdom, they confequently afford, in the lame ratio, a worfe market to the farmer ; whence agriculture fullers in the fame proportion, and ought to be found, by this combination, at lead; 76 per cent., worfe than the agriculture of England. Every country contains a certain por- tion of the precious metals, or of fome other Currency that anfwers the fame pur- * I fey the confumption , and not the price , becaufe the kinds of bread in the two kingdoms are not the fame : there is no fuch difference as this in the price of wheat ; I apprehend no difference at ah. Labour in France, Labour in England, SUPPORT OF THE POOR. 448 pofe ; and the difference between a high and a low price of labour and provifions is, that in one country a large proportion of thofe metals is in the hands of farmers and labourers ; and in the other a fmall one only. In one cafe great activity and vigour will be found in hufbandry ; in the other very little. Rut this argument may be extended yet farther ; for if there be 76 per cent, dif- ference in the confumption of the French and Englifh labourers, there ought to be 76 per cent, difference in the flrength of body between the two nations. Strength depends on nourifhment ; and if this difference be admitted, an Englifh ' workman ought to be able to do half as much work again as a Frenchman, — this alfo will I believe be found to be correctly the cafe ; and if the great fupe- riority, not only of the Englifh hufbandry, but alfo of thofe manufactures into which machines do not enter any more than in France, be well confidered, this extenfion of thefe proportions will not be thought at all extravagant. To what is all this to be afcribed ? Moil clearly to the pernicious influence of a govern- ment, rotten in its principles ; that ftruck a palfy into all the lower and pro- ductive claffes to favour thofe whofe only merit is confumption. If fome future traveller fhould examine France with the fame attention I have done, he will probably find, under a free government, all thefe proportions greatly changed ; and, unlefs the Englifh government be more vigilant and intelligent than it hath hitherto been, France will be able to boafl as great a fuperiority as England does at prefen t.* Of fome Circumfances concerning the Poor. Sologne — La Motte Beuvron. — Poor labourers make bread of buck-wheat, but it is very bad. Berry — Argentan.— They pay rent for a cottage 2oliv. get their fuel in the woods; their tallies 15 to 24 f as much for capitation, and do lix days la- bour in the roads, Limosin — Lhnoges. — Lodging of a common artizan or manufacturer 1 5 liv. a year ; druggits for their drefs 24 f the auln ; very few wear leather fhoes, common labourers throughout the province very few, the metayers working as much as poffible for themfelves. St. George. — They eat buck wheat made in very thin cakes without leaven. Quercy — Payrac. — All the women and girls are without fhoes or ftock- ings, and the ploughmen at their work without fhoes or fabots, or feet to their ftockings. Peliecoy. — Poor women picking weeds into their aprons to feed their cows with, and fomething like this I have remarked more or lefs all the way from Calais ; it conveys an idea of poverty and want of employment. * I leave the paflage as written ; events have fhewn, that the idea of a free government has produced the reality of a devouring tyranny. Languedoc SUPPORT OF THE POOR. 44g Languedoc Grijjfoles . Cottages without glafs, and fome with no other light than what enters at the door. Touloufe . — A year’s earnings about 300 liv. 13I. 2s. 6d. meet women com- ing from market with their ihoes in their baikets ; it reminds me of Ireland. 'To Bagnere de Lucbon.—L'we upon buck-wheat, either made into bread or boiled in milk. Nar bonne— A held full of gleaners. Mod: of the women in this country are without ilockings, and many of them without ihoes. Pmjan .— The labourers here work very hard, three men have been known to mattock up as much land in a day, as one man and a pair of oxen ploughs, but they live well ; when they work hard have always three bottles a day of good wine ; I tailed and found it flrong and full bodied, and by turning to the table of labour it will be feen that the price is high. Guienne L eyraC . — T h ey are in this rich country on the Garonne very much at then eaie, make four meals a day, eat meat and drink wine. * Poitou V erac.—A man makes four pair of fabots a day, is paid 3/ a pair, they lail from two weeks to fix months, cod 10/ to 1 5/ Tour ain — Tours . — Rent of two chambers for a workman 24 liv. 1 1 c a r d y C elicits . — A cellar is not to be hired under 100 liv. a year. Rouen . fhe pooreil cellar 80 liv. one room 120 liv. a poor man’s houie 300 liv. Normandy — Vvetot.—Very poor houfe for 100 liv. Havre. The pooreil room or cellar 60 liv. j when cyder is to be had it is ufually 2 f the bottle, but when it fails they drink water, and as cyder a moil uncertain crop in Normandy as well as in England, we may judge how much more beneficial a dependance on beer is ; the breakfail of the poor here is bread and brandy ; bread and cheefe at 8 f. the lb. for dinner ; ajid for fup- per a piece of bread and an apple - y but on Sunday a piece of meat of the woril joints it 6 f. the lb. Falaife. Live very badly, much of the bread is barley and buck-wheat, and many have nothing elfe but this and water, unlefs cyder happens to be very cheap ; their fuel what wood they can ileal. Caen, rloufe-rent 80 liv. to 100 liv. in the country 30 liv. to 50 liv. Ifig n y^— Sheep from two to fix with their their fore-legs tied together by a line, led by a woman, with many fo, feeding in the fields ; I clafs this article Gere, as I cannot conceive any fuch management to belong to the graziers, but the poor people wno attend them in the road and pay for them in the fields. Bre tagne — Pont Orjin to Doll . — The poor peole live upon Buck-wheat . bread, 01 made into thin cakes, which fell at 1 \f. the lb. while common bread is 3 m 2 ij: SUPPORT OF THE POOR. 2|/ they alfo eat it mixed into pottage; no potatoes in the country, as the people will not touch them. Morlaix to Breft.— The people of the country are all dreffed in great trowfer like breeches, many of them with naked legs and mod: with wooden fhoes ; the women feemed from their perfons and features to be harder worked than horfes. # Aury to Vannes Pafs many cabins almod as bad as the word Infh, a hole at the corner, by way of chimney, and no windows. Nantes. — The cheaped room 40 liv. a year. Anjou Angers. The poored houfe to be had entire is 1 2 louis a year. Llbcenf. In the country, houfe rent 40 to 45 liv. but more in town. La Roche Guy on. — Houfe-rent 20 to 40 liv. but in general fifed at a few fols a year, mofi: are hewn out of the chalk rock ; potatoes 8/ the boif. 8 th. of a feptier; apples 1 and 2/ ditto; this year cyder 12 liv. the muid, 4 liv. with- out cafk ; milk 4/ the P. pint ; the cows, horfes, and ades of the poor taken into the duchefs’s meadows from the id: of Oct. to the id. of March, at 5/ each. Isle of France— Nangis.— Milk 2 \f the Paris pint; houfe-rent 2 louis, all have cows, which they feed on roads and commons ; Monf. de Guerchy finds them cows at 6 liv. each, and half the calf. Loraine — Font a Moujjbn. — Some few of the poor are without a cow, but in general not ; many are proprietors of their houfe and gardens ; rent in a village 30 liv. for a houfe, 50 liv. with a garden, but without any other land. Auvergne Clermont. — In the mountains rent 12 liv. without land. Dauphine — Loriol. — Potatoes 40/ the 100 lb. Provence Tour d'Aigues . — The poor are in lar better circumdances in the mountains than in the plains ; here they are miferable, eat only rye bread quite black and onions ; all the foundations and collections for the poor at Aix amount to 1 50,000 liv. a year. Lyons. — A room for a manufacturer 200 to 300 liv. and houfe-rent of all forts verv dear ; 20,000 people are now (1790) darving, yet charities of all forts do not amount to lefs than million of livres a year. A Philanthropic So- ciety has fubfcribed 10,000 louis dor for lupporting the poor ; three years ago 1 50,000 liv. were fubfcribed in order to provide beds enough in the hofpital to have all the poor lye fingle, and foon after 400,000 liv. to fupport the poor out of employment, becaufe the crop of filk failed, and lad: year 250,000 liv. more for the fame reafon. It was not long after the feizure of the ecclefiadical edates, that the National Adembly publicly declared, they would confider the care of the poor as one of their primary duties. They appointed alfo a committee of mendicity whofe bulinefs was_to inquire into, and report to the Adembly, the date of the poor, and SUPPORT OF THE POOR. 45 1 and their opinion of the bed; means of extinguishing indigence in France. Of this committee the Duke of Liancourt was chairman. In their third report, they date to the Affembly the heads of thofe propodtions which they thought neceffary to form the bafe of a decree for that purpofe. The committee examine, in this report, the idea of eftablifhing a poor’s rate, and with great wifdom abfo- lutely rejed it. In their fourth report, they date the mifehiefs of the English fydem — and add, “ Mais cet exemple ed un grand & important lecpon pour nous-:- car, independamment des vices quelle nous prefen te, &d’une depenfe mondreufe, &d’un encouragement neceffaire a la faineantiie, ellenous decouvre la plaie poli- tique de l’Angleterre la plus devorante, qu’il ed egalement dangereux pour fa tran- quillite & fon bonheur de detruire ou de laiffer fubfifter*. — I am rather furprifed, that while they feem perfedly well informed of the evils attending the mifehiev- ous fydem of England, they Should adopt the principle of our poor’s lav/s, by declaring, that the poor have a right to pecuniary adidance from the date $ that the National Affembly ought to confider fuch providon as one of its drd and mod facred duties ; and that an expence, with this view, ought to be incurred to the amount of 50 millions a year. I do not comprehend how it is pofiible to regard the expenditure of 50 millions as a facred duty, and not extend that 50 to 100, if neceffity Should demand it- — the 100 to 200 — the 200 to 300 — andfo on in the fame miferable progreffion, that has taken place in England. We have found, by long experience in England, that the more money is expended, even well and humanely expended, the more poor are created ; and that the de- gree of indigence and mifery is exactly in proportion to the alliftance given to them by rates. The fame effed would certainly take place in France ; the expenditure of 50 millions would inevitably make 100 neceffary. It is in vain to fay, that of that 50 there are 30 already expended by hofpitals, and fix -f by the clergy j for the committee themfelves give fuch a detail of the horrors of the hofpitals, that a dependence on fuch charity will not be among the regular refources of the poor ; and as to the ecclefiafiical affiftance, no families could rely on it as a matter of appropriated right. 1'he cafe would be very different, if the National Affembly were folemnly to declare it their duty to provide for the poor, and affign 50 millions for that purpofe ; there would then be an uni- verfal reliance on that duty, and that humanity, of the legislature; and the con- fequence we know by fatal experience. I cannot but be perfuaded, that the poor ought to be left to private charity, as they are in Scotland and in Ireland, to an in- finitely better effed; than refults from the rates in England. In proportion as the public interferes, private charity is wounded, till the maintenance of the poor comes to be confidered as one of the molt grievous evils to which property is expofed. * gtuatrieme Rapport du Comite de Mendicite. 8vo. 1790. p. 7. t Cinqui eme Rapport, p. 21. 3 M 2 If 45 2 PRICE OF LABOUR. If fifty millions could be expended in France without creating a dependence, the burthen would be very moderate ; but we are convinced of the utter impof- fibility of fuch a cafe ; we know that the wifeft difpenfation of money am'ongft the poor, not earned by induRry, always creates a dependence, and confequently becomes, in fuch a proportion, the origin of the evil that is cured. For the like reafon, hofpitals, if well adminijiered , are equal nuifances ; they are attended by a fimilar effedt, and the more that effed is lefiened by a vicious and cruel ma- nagement, fo much, perhaps, the better for the benefit of the great mafs of poor, who will not be tempted into a reliance on an abode of mifery, defpair, and death. The expenditure of the poor’s rates of England is certainly not free from abufes, but they are, all things confidered, lefs than might reafonably be ex- peded. They amount to above two millions Rerling, and I am confident, from a long and attentive obfervation of their effeds upon the poor, that the mafs of human wretchednefs is quadrupled by their influence ; or, in other words, that for one perfon made eafy, at the expence of the public, four are rendered poor or miferable, by depending on that expence, inftead of the exertions of private in- duflry; and when it is confidered, that on a moderate average the amount of our poor’s rates increafes in the proportion of near i oo,oool. a year, of courfe approach- ing rapidly towards three millions, and at the fame time curing no evils that they have not created, what ought to be thought of the political oeconomy of our government, which, intent upon trifles, negleds this growing and alarmine evil ? Had an ad pafled ten years ago, limiting thefe afleflinents to the average of the laid feven years (a meafure I urged in print for more than ten years pafi), it would have laved half a million a year in expenditure, and four times that amount in the prevention of poverty and diftrefs. What has fatally obtained in England will take place in France, if the Engliih principle be adopted, namely, that the Rate is compelled in duty to fupport the poor; fifty millions will be the forerunner of one hundred, and both of them the parent of increafing mifery. It is not the Rate, but individuals that are bound ; and private charity is indifputably the proper method. .Foundling hofpitals may be clafled among the moR mifehievous infiitutions that can be efiablifhed ; for they muR cer- tainly encourage that vicious procreation, which, from its mifery, does not de- ferve the name of population. From the almoR indiferiminate defirudtion of the children they receive, which in France is fo enormous, that of ici,ooo in iixteen years, 1 5,000 only were in exifience *, it might by fome be thought, that they do not tend to increafe the people; but the prefervatlon of the chil- dren, fuppofing them to efledt it, would not be the principal operation. Such hofpitals encourage marriage, from the certainty that the children need not to remain a burthen upon the parents ; but when the conflict comes in the mo- R.apport fait an nous du Comite dc 14 tndicite des vifites faites dans divers Hofpitaux , 8vo. 1790. p. 27. ther’s RISE OF PRICES. 453 ther’s bofom, the feelings of nature will oftener triumph than the dictates of fo infamous a crime as that of abandoning her offspring ; and thus more children will be preferved than expofed. A government cannot, by any methods, encour- age marriage without increafing the people ; for whatever tends to facilitate the maintenance of children, whether by an increafe of induftry, that fhall enable children to fupport themfelves, or by foundling hofpitals, that remove the bur- then altogether, the effect in the end will be inevitable. And this effed in France is of a mod; pernicious nature ; for the competition for employment be- ing already too great to permit the people to live with comfort, no inftitutions to encourage population can take place there at prefen t without entailing mi- fery upon the bulk of the nation. It may alfo be added, that the encourage- ment afforded by foundling hofpitals, is an encouragement alfo of vice and in- humanity ; and a public premium given to the banifhment of the bed; feelings of the human bofom. Rife of Prices. Sologne — La Ferte . — Cattle of all kinds increafed in price more than a third in one year. A cow from 48 liv. to 90 liv. ; a horfe 7 or 8 louis to 12*-; a hog 1 5 liv. to 30 liv. It has been owing to a want of forage. Berry — Vatan. — See two good cart-horfes, which were fold this year for 20 louis each ; and feveral farmers aderted, that a horfe which three years ago was worth 5 louis, would now bring 12. Limosin — Limoges. — The fame quantity of cord wood, which was fold 15 years ago at 50 liv. now fells at 1 50 liv. Land greatly railed in its value, and husbandry doubly more productive than 20 years ago. L a n g u e d o c — Bag 7 'iere de Lucbon .* — The meafure of land, called the coperade, which fome years fince fold at 12 liv. is now at 24 liv. and even 30 liv. Bayonne. — Within ten years, prices of every thing, including houfe-rent, very much increafed. Bourdeaux. — Very great increafe in the price of every thing in ten years. Isle of France — Liancourt. — Within ten years, the general expenccs of living, bread alone excepted, have rifen 50 per cent, and labour nearly in the fame proportion. Normandy — Havre.— A houfe, in 1779, let without any fine, on a leafe. of fix years, for 240 liv. per annum, was let this year again for three years, with a fine of 25 louis for 600 liv. per annum. A cellar which is now 69 liv. was 24 liv. 12 years pafb Bretagne — Rennes. — Cord of wood 16 liv. In 1740, it was 9I liv. Champagne — St. Menekoud.— Cord of wood 18 liv. 1 of. — -but 25 years ago 7 liv. 1 of. Lor ains RISE OF PRICES. 454 Loraine — Pont au Moujfon . — The prices of all the necellaries of life rifcn one-third in twenty years. Luneville — Cord of wood now 26 liv. was fifty-two years ago 9 liv. Strajbourg. — Cord of wood 27 liv. which, twenty years ago, was 12 to 15 liv. Fran che Compte. — T hole eflates, which twenty years ago fold at 300 liv. now are 800 liv. Befanyon — Dole.— Meat now 7/ the pound — fome years ago 4 f — A couple of fowls 24 f which were 12 f — In general every thing is doubled in price in ten years. To what is this to he aferibed t — To the great increafe of population. Such was the anfwer I received 3 there is, however, no manufacture in the country, iron forges excepted. Bourgogne — Dijon. — Everything raifed in 20 years cent, per cent, partly on account of the improvement of roads. Obfervations . There is fcarcely any circumfiance in the political oeconomy of France which makes fo refpeCtable a figure as that of the general rife of prices, wdiich has taken place in the laffc twenty years. This is a fure lign that the mafs of currency has confiderably increafed, which, in the cafe of that kingdom, mufl neceffarily have arifen from an increafe of induftry. We know that taxes cannot have been the caufe, as they have not in the fame period been increafed 3 or, at leaft, to fo fmall an amount as to be irrelative to the queflion. The moll re- markable circumftance attending this apparent profperity (for this circumftance is ufually concomitant with profperity, though not of neceffity flowing from it) is the ftill miferable hate of the labouring poor 3 it is rather a matter of furprize, that the price of labour has not rifen equally, or in fome degree of proportion, with other things 3 this muh probably be attributed to the too great populouf- nefs of the kingdom, of which I lhall fpeak more particularly in another chap- ter. Certain it is, that the mifery which we fee amongh the lower clalies in France feems quite inconfihent with a great rife in the price of commodities, occalioned by an increafe of induhry and wealth 3 and as the price of labour con- tinues fo low as not to enable the people to fupport themfelves tolerably, not- withhanding the rife of other prices, it affords a clear proof, as it has been juft obferved, that there is too great a competition for employment, arifing from the excefs of population in the kingdom. CHAP. PRODUCE. 455 CHAP. XV. Of the Produce of France, npHIS may properly be conlidered as the great queftion of political oeconomy, in relation to the prefent flate of kingdoms ; there being no circumftance in the fituation of any people, whether it concerns their wealth, profperity, power, or refources, but what mult*ftepend, in a high degree, on the produce of their lands. As it is a fubjeCt which becomes every day more interefting on account of the abufes generated by the complex fyftem of modern taxation, it has naturally put politicians upon comparing the productions of a kingdom, and the contributions of the people, with the neceffities, or rather vices, of their government. It is well known, that this proportion was fought for with the molt anxious folicitude by the ceconomifts . They conceived, that produce ought alone to bear all the impolitions which the government of any kingdom fhould lay upon its fubje&s ; a doCtrine equally ill-founded and dangerous, but which has been drelfed and decorated with fo much ability as to have found advocates in every part of Europe. The conjectures which have been made of the grofs produce of all the lands in France, are innumerable. There has been fcarcely a political writer on the affairs of that kingdom, for the laft twenty years, who has not taken an opportunity, perhaps ill-afforded by his fubjeCt, to calculate the amount ; but all the accounts that I have feen have been made on fuch infuf- ficient data, that it is uninterefting whether the imagined refult happens to be near to, or far from, the faCt ; fince of fo many random gueffes it is hardly pof- fible that all Ihould be remote from truth. Of the methods ufed in calculating the national produce by various French writers, two have been principally relied upon ; the produce of certain taxes, particularly, the vingtiemes, and the quan- tity of food eaten by the people. More vague foundations could hardly have been fought or deviled ; the taxes were laid with fo little regard to a fair propor- tion, the exemptions were fo numerous, and abufes fo univerfal, that the po- rtion of the liars might almolt as well be reforted to as a political guide. Th$ confumption of bread is almofl equally unfatisfadory in a kingdom, where wheaten bread is not probably eaten by half the people ; and where chefnuts, maiz, harricots, and other legumes, form principal objects of confumption. But if this difficulty were gotten over, in which there are no data that deferve a moment’s attention, we mull alfo take into the account the confumption of the earth’s products, in meat, butter, cheefe, liquors, fuel, timber, and all the va- riety of objects that adminilter to, or are confumed by, manufactures, commerce, and and fliipping. However, though we have every reafon imaginable to believe, that fuch data are abfolutely infufficient for calculating the produce of a king- dom like France, yet judice ought to be done to the authors who have given attention to a fubjed of fo much utility. Accuracy was not to be attained by purfuing any methods ; but it muft be confefled, that thofe which they adopted, though not applicable to the ends they had in view, gave rife to important dif- quifitions ; and we owe to their labours fome fads truly ufeful, and many ob- fervations deferring attention. The extreme difficulty of forming the calcu- lation in a fatisfadory manner, appears clatrly from the attempts that have been made by miniders at the head of the national finances, and consequently pofieffed of every opportunity which power could confer, to acquire whatever knowledge they fought ; yet the ideas have been as vague and unfatisfadory as thofe of fpe- culatids, who have been devoid of fuch advantages. It ffiould feem, that it is not in the bureau or the clofet,' that data for this calculation are to be fought • but that he who would know what the lands of a kingdom produce, ffiould view and examine them. It would be madnefs in a traveller like myfelf to pretend that it is poffible to give a true edimate of the produdions of a kingdom from viewing but a part of it : I know the difficulties and hazard of the undertaking too well to have any fuch pretenfions ; and all I would afiiime, is nothing more than the probability that my edimate of the part I faw is not greatly removed from fad. 1 hirty years experience, I hope, have contributed to enable me to form more than a vague conjedure of the produds of any country that I view with attention; and when it is conlidered, that my journies, in almod every direc- tion, amount to feveral thoufands of miles, there will not appear to be any great hazard in fuppofing, that the average of fuch a portion, correded on refiedion and from information relative to the parts not feen, cannot be very far didant from the real one of the whole kingdom. To purfue this inquiry, I ffiall divide France not into generalities, which have no longer any exidence, nor into departments, which are yet hardly in exidence, but into didrids relatively to their foil, according to the map which is annexed to the chapter of foils.- — The method by which I made the edimatc is this : in viewing the country, I combined thofe circumdances which drike the eye in regard to foil, crops, proportion of thofe crops of vines, of wood, •and wade, with the courfes and the produds of all forts by information ; and from the whole deduced the conclulion of what I conceived was the annual produce; and at each dage, or reding-place, druck the average of the preceding ten, fifteen, or twenty miles, wich were afterwards, in fome indances, thrown into aiviiions, by calculating the average of larger didrids of country. I give, in another chapter, the produce of corn, and price per acre at which the culti- vated parts of the didrids I travelled through are let and fold ; but the reader will PRODUCE. will carry in his mind, that the prefent view of the produce of the kingdom has nothing in common with what is juft mentioned ; for the object here in contemplation is, the average product of all forts of land, heath, rock, marfti, and mountain, as well as cultivated fields; tracks of which it is in vain to de- mand the produce, fince not one inhabitant in a thoufand ever thought of them with any fuch view : in countries where agriculture is fo ill underftood, and where the peafants are fo little enlightened, a traveller will come out of a pro- vince as ignorant as he entered it, if he has no other means of information. Northern Ditrict of Rich Loam. Contains the Provinces of Flanders . , Artois , Picardy , Normandy , and the Ife of France. Prndnr<» npi- Vicinity. To Amiens, Clermont, To Orleans, Petiviers, Malfherbs, Fonta;nb';eau, The Foreft, Yerfaint, Paris, Liancourt, Vicinity. Rouen, Barentin, Y vetot, Havre, Puntau deM P ntl’Aveqi Lificux Carn, Bayeux, There is not the fame difficulty in calculating the produce of this track of rich land, as in fome other provinces, where the foil is much more various.— Bad hufbandry and fallows occafion a much greater deduction here, than infe- feriority ot toil. No particular reafons induce me at prefent to lower this efti- mate, excep, perhaps:, the forefts of Chantilly and Villefcoterets, may not have been eroded in fuch directions as to allow fufficient deductions; but of this I am in doubt. Conlidering, however, the number of forefts which are within thefe limits, which i did not pafs, I am inclined to make the further allowance or 3s. 9 j d. and let down this average product at 2I. 10s. 3 N Produce per Miles. Eng. acre. Vicinity. Miles. Produce per Eng. acre. Vicinity 95 39 s - Pontoife, 3° 39 s - Dunkirk, 40 43 Dammartin, 22 60 Calais, 70 46 Villefcoterets, 2 6 55 5t. Omers, 25 49 Coucy, 24 54 . Bethune, 1 1 52 St. Quintia, 30 43 Arafs, 17 47 Cambray, 22 43 Dourlens, 7 0 Valenciennes, 18 43 Amiens, 10 43 Orchies, 16 120 Poix, 20 52 Lille, 16 100 Aumale, 3* 52 Mont Calfel, 30 9° Neufchatel, Miles. Produce. Vicinity. Miles. Produce. Vicinity. 25 60/. Carentan, 22 8oj. Magny, 20 5° Vologne, I? 70 Lccouis, I I 60 Gace, IO 60 Rouen, 30 60 Bernay, 25 32 Tote, ’,20 60 Bonterode, 17 80 Dieppe, Nangis, , 20 70 Elboeuf, 7 60 6 80 Rouen, 10 1 6 Meux, 27 75 Lonviers, J 7 3° Ditto, 50 Vernon, *5 55 Plain Plain of Alface . Miles. Produce. 1 Miles. Produce, Strafbourg, 22 - 70J. 1 Colmar, - l% 1 Un O • Scheleftadt, - 60 1 lienheim, - 25 - 45 Miles, 84 . — — Average produce, 2l. 16s. 8 jd. Much of this diftridt is not To rich as a great part of the former ; but the foil within thefe limits more equal— and of courfe not fuch deductions on account of foreft. The Limagne. Riom to Izoire. Miles, 20. Average produce, 5]. This celebrated volcanic vale is very narrow ; and in this eftimate nothing is. included but the mere vale : if the dopes were to be included, the produce would not be more than 45s. Plain of the Garonne . Miles. Produce, Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce, In Querey, 90 60s. Leitour, 5 60s. Tonneins, 8 12 S * To Pyrenees, 103 50 Leyrac, 17 80 Reolle, 22 IOO Fleuran, 14 5° Aguillon, J 7 8s Bourdeaux, 15 Miles, 29 1 .—Average produce, 3I. 3s. 3 id. As this route carried us very much on the banks of the Garonne, one of the richeft: vales in the world, though not wide, I am not inclined to rife this efti- mate on account of the immenfe vineyards of the Pays de Medoc, &c. which, fhould be done, if I had not pretty much extended the diftriCl:, as may be feen on the map. Not having vifited the Bas Poitou, another rich track, which may be clafled with the above mentioned, I am unable to give any other efti- mate than I was favoured with by an intelligent gentleman, who apparently knew it very well ; he allured me, that the moft exaCt calculation of its pro- duce was 50 liv. per arpent.de Paris : — this is 2I. 10s. gd. per Englifh acre, Obfer nations. In thefe parts of France, which are undoubtedly the richeft, the produce is-^ very much beneath what it would become with a more enlightened practice.—- Flanders,, part of Artois, Alface, the vale of the Garonne, and the Limagne of Auvergne, are the only diftridts of the kingdom where fallows are banilhed and the great products of thofe territories Ihew the prodigious confequence of this- improvement. They form, however, but a finall portion of the divifion of the kingdom which we are conlidering at prefent ^ the arable part of the reft is uni- formly applied in the barbarous courfe of, 1, fallow ; 2,. wheat; 3, fpring corn the produds are confequently much inferior to what they ought to be ; and the number ‘of horfes much greater. Confiderable tracks are in open fields, and Ihacklecb PRODUCE. v 4 ^ /hackled with the rights of commonage, and preferred rotations. As the Na- tional Aflembly has paded a decree againd inclofures, and there are no fuch methods known in France to effedt the allotment of open fields, as we pradtife fo beneficially in England ; and as power in that country, under the new con- ftitution, refides very much in the people, we may take for granted, that fuch methods will either not be adopted at all, which is the mod probable, or at lead very flowly and incompletely. — In whatever manner the improvement is introduced, and by whatever preparatory deps, it is certain, that the manage- ment of thefe didridts mud be very much changed, before they can be made to yield a produce adequate to the great excellency of the foil. Distsict of Heath. Contains the Provinces of Bretagne , Anjou , Parts of Normandy , and Guienne and Gafcoigne . Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Miles. Prodace> Carentan to Per- Mountaban, 20 4 5 s - Faou, IO 17/. ry, 10 8 or. Broons, 12 40 Chateaulin, 10 23 Coutances, 10 50 Lambaile, 17 32 Quimper, 15 13 Avranches 5° St. Brieux, 12 40 Rofpolin, I 2 20 Pont Orfin, 10 5 ° Guingamp, 17 3° Quimperlay, 15 1 9 Doll, 10 45 Belleifle, 12 40 L’Orient, 12 <16 Hede 18 20 Morlaiz, 20 35 Hennebon, 7 3° Rennes, 13 35 Bred, 34 30 Auray, 17 Vanes, 10 14 Savanel, i5 28 Duretal, 30 40 Mufiiiac, 24 Nantes, 20 15 Guercefland, 17 26 La Roche Ber- Ancenis 22 IS Le Mans, 10 8 nard, 10 13 St. George, I? 80 Allen$on, 30 40 Auvergnac, 20 •28 Ditto, 5 5° Nonant, 1 6 3^ St. Nazaire, .18 40 Angers, 10 38 Miles, 608 . Average produce, il. 14 s. 9 fd. Guienne and Gafcoigne . Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce Bagnere de L 11 - Navarens, 22 45 I was allured, on no mean authority, that two-fifths of the whole pro- vince are uncultivated; and by a very intelligent nobleman, that even of 39 parts, 24 are lande , which amounts to three-fifths. And the author of the: Qonjiderations fur le Commerce de Bretagne , who knew it well* lays, p. 30, that one-third of it is in that Bate. That part I vifited, is not the word; ; yet-, from what I faw, I can eafily credit there are three-fifths in that Bate. Anjou and Maine are equally noted for the immcnfity of their heaths ( bruyeres J t which are reported to extend. 60. leagues at one place. In going from La Fleche to Tour- billy, I faw more than in any other quarter,, but heard fo much of them from perlons I could depend upon, that I am clear my own notes of the country I- palled through go a good deal beyond the fair average of the whole : a confidera- tion which will induce me to calculate the three provinces of Bretagne, Anjou, and Maine, with that part of Normandy not included in the rich loam divifion, at 28s. It would fwell thefe papers too much, to fpecify. all my reafons for this eBimation, which I have not made without duly adverting to various circum^ Bances that affed the produce in different quarters of thefe provinces. Observations*. One pound eight Ihillings average produce of all the lands of Bretagne, Anjou*. Maine, and a confiderable part of Normandy, fome of which territories poffefs lingular advantages, evidently marks the miferable Bate of agriculture.. I am within bounds, when I offer the opinion, that the whole of this diBrid, con- taining above fifteen millions of acres, and, with great probability, twelve mil** lions-, PRODUCE. 461 lions capable of improvement, might be made to produce, on an average, 2I. 5s. per acre, without any extraordinary efforts, were the farmers induced to change their methods,, and adopt new rotations of crops. Thus 17s. an acre would be gained to the community, which, on twelve millions, amounts to io,aoo,oool. a year. Improvements, on the heaths of Bourdeaux, that is, in the Gafcoign divifion, are not equally obvious, becaufe on immenfe tracks th z proprietor re- ceives as much perhaps at prefent from pines, as he would receive were the whole in cultivation. But the difference to the nation is prodigious ; it is not the net income of the landlord which makes a kingdom profperous j it is the grofs produce of the lands j this, on the heaths above-mentioned, would be trebled* though the landlords gained nothing. But there are on thefe heaths very coniiderable tracks not occupied by pines, but, on the contrary, left abfo- lutely wafte ; I paffed many of them which were noticed in other, parts of this work ; thefe are capable of as great an improvement as the heights of Bretagne : at prefent, they produce nothing, but are all capable of yielding from 40s. to 50s. an acre. If, however, they were converted into good fheep-walk only, the. ad- vantage would be very confiderable.. District of Chalk.. Containing the Provinces of Champagne, Cologne, fouraine, Poitou, Saint onge, and Angoumois Arofs Sologne; Miles, 50:.- Average produce, 5s. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Angoumois. — Cavignac to Monlieu, 14 4s. 6d. Angouleme, 25 24.?. Barbefieux, 22 24 S . Verteuil, - 27 24 Miles, 89. Average produce. il. os. 8|d. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. 1 Miles. Produce. Poitou. — Vivonne, 35. 35^. Poitiers, 12 2cj. Chafeaurault, 25 25 A Miles, 72. Average produce. il. 9s. iofd. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Tou r a i ne . — T 0 T ours. 25 40*. Amboife, - 17 40/. Saumur, 10 60 Blois, - 2 C 60 Miles, 77. -Average proc uce. 2L 9S. id. Miles. Produce. . Miles.' Produce. C^hampagne.— -N ear Meaux to Gha- La Loge, , 12 IOi“, teau Thiery, 30.' 40J. Chalons, 12 10 Epernay,. 25; 40 Ove,, *5 20 Rheims, 15 <0 St. Menehoud, 1 S' 27 Miles, 1 24, —•—Average prod ce, il. ijs. 5d* I receive*! PRODUCE. 462 I received no information relating to the parts of Poitou, Touraine, and So- logne, which I had not examined, that gives me reafon to doubt of the general refemblance between the different diftridts of thofe provinces. I was, however, allured, that if I faw more of Angoumois, I Ihould form a better opinion of it than from the part I had viewed : fuch hints, from perfons of observation, ought not to be disregarded ; and will induce me to fuppofe the average value fomething higher, viz. il. 4s. — This province is faid, by an author who has written upon it, to contain — arable, 437,000 journals ; — vines, 290,000 j — grafs, 145,000 woods, 107,400 ; — chaumcsy 88,000; — total, 1,067,400. BeSide for- eSts and waftes. — What cbaumes means, diftindt from arable land, I know not; unlefs it be arable left to weeds for fome years, after being exhausted by crops*. The cafe with Champagne is exceedingly different: — a very con- siderable portion of that province, which I did not view, is called Pouilleux , or louiy, from its poverty of foil — a poor hungry chalk. But my route, except from Rheims to Chalons, was in the vale of the Marne, and through the fineft ^vineyards of the province. The provincial alfembly of Chalons Sent to the ministry a reprefentation of the condition of the whole province, in which they gave a detail of its produdts as follows : Extent, in arpents. 4,000,000 Of which wood, meadow, - vines, commons, t vagae i arable. 850.000 1 50.000 100.000 97,000 160.000 2,643,000 4,000,000 Total grofs produce, - 60,000,000 liv. Or, perarpent, - 15 liv. Reprefen tations of this kind, however, are rarely deferving of much attention, in thofe circumstances that concern the value or income of lands, for it is always the interelt of luch bodies to Sink the value 3 and no doubt can be entertained in the prefent cafe; as it is impoffible, that the valuation of 1 5 liv. can be juft, if there be the quantity of vines, meadow, and arable lands here Specified ; fnce thefe alone muSt, in the nature of things, produce much more than 60,000,000 liv. For the vines at 1 50 liv.— the meadows at 80 liv. — and the arable at no more than 20 liv. amount to 79,860,000 liv. — If the wood were to yield no more than 10 liv. it adds 8,500,000 liv. making 88,360,000 liv. without reckoning a livre for the f refl. Inftead of 1 5 liv. per arpent on the whole, I have no hesitation at all in calculating at 25 liv. which makes il. 6s. 3d. per acre. '* EJfai d'une ?netbode a etcndre ks Connoijances des Voyageurs , par M. Meunier. Svo. 1779. tom, 1. P* 176. Recapitulation. FRO D u < E- V Recapitulation . Sologne, 5 0 miles. , at 5a. £■ IO O Ang jumois, 89 ac il. 4s. 106 1.6 Q Poitou,. 72 at il. 9s. io|d. 107 9 6 Touraine, 77 at 2I. 9s. id. 188. 5 Champagne, 1 24 at il. 6s. 3d. 162 15 0 412 9 11 Average, : il. 8s. Obfervations* The produce of thefe wretched provinces, riling fa high as 28s. is, in a great meafure, to be afcribed to vines, which, it is always to be noted, is a branch of cultivation better underftood than any other in France, if we may judge from the general fuccefs that attends it* Without the aid of the vineyards, the ave- rage produce of the chalk diftridts would be low indeed*. Nothing can be worle cultivated, or rather more negledted. Sainfoin is known, and yet no ufe is made of it, comparatively fpeaking j; fo little underftood, that I have feen the. farmers feduloufly fummer-fallowing a field at no flight expence, in order to get fome miferable rye and oats, while his adjoining field was abandoned to nature, as not worth cultivating. The chalk provinces contain 16 millions of acres : and the whole are are fufceptible of a very eafy and obvious improvement, to the amount of 15s* an acre, which, on 12 millions only, would add nine millions fterling per annum to the wealth, and profperity of the nation $ and would fiill be capable of much greater improvement, and yet would be far behind what we are well acquainted with in fome parts of England. District of Gravel,. Contains Bourbonnois and Never mis. Miles. Autun to Luzy, 22 Chavanne, 27 Moulins, ; 10 Riaux, 10 Produce. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. 1 5 S> St. Poncrin, 30 26^. Pogues, a. 3°s> IS Roanne to Moulins,. 45 15 La Charite, 8 25 1 5 St. P. le Mont, id 12 Pouilly, 9 5 ° 12. Magny, - 7 30 Croiiiiere,, 47 2 5 Miles,. 241.- — —Average produce, il. os. 6 f.d.. I. law too little of the Nevernois to judge of its equalizing what I remarked in other fimilar tracks, and therefore have given thefe products from informa- tion, on comparing them, with other difiridts I knew much better.- There are mo particular circumftances that make the attainment of fomething approaching accuracy- P R O D U C £. 4.64 accuracy difficult. My information at Moulins was, that three-fourths of the Bourbonnois are heath, broom, or wood ; if any thing like this be true, I cer- tainly am not too low in the eftimation, but probably above it. Objervations. Thefe mufl be ranked among the moil improveable of the French provinces. The agriculture that is carried on here (1 fallow, 2 rye) is hardly better than that of Sologne, though the crops are fuperior. The whole country being in- clofed, there is little wanted but to change the courfe of hufbandry, and to multiply and improve the breed of ffieep. A farmer, with a little money, and much fkill, would no where make a fortune fooner tjian in the Bourbonnois. — Thefe provinces, inftead of 20s. an acre, ought to produce 33s. which, over more than three millions of acres, would be an improvement of fome confequence to the nation. District of Story Soils. Contains Loraine , Bourgogne , Tranche Compte , &Ci Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce St. Menehoud to Savern, 49 33 *- Dole, IO 3 os Metz, 62 ays. Before, 2$ 3 ° Dijon, 2-3 45 Pont aMoulfon, 17 3 6 Beaume, 35 2 5 Beaune, 22 8 S Nancy, 17 35 Befan^on, 17 3 ° Mont (Jenis, 28 40 Lunev ille, 17 40 Orechamps, 12 3 ° Autun, 20 18 Miles, 362. Average produce, il . 15 s. From information, on which I have reafon to depend, I am inclined to believe, that the line traverfed, in thefe provinces, is a good deal richer, and more culti- vated than the average of them ; which is a natural fuppofition, from the road leading very much in vales by rivers, and by many confiderable towns : on this account it will be proper to make a deduction of 6s. an acre, and to calculate the average produce at il. 9s. — Commons are of immenfe extent in Loraine, and yield fcarcely any thing; for the cattle that are ftarved, rather than kept on them, are attended with the fame lofs, want, and even mifery, which we fee fo often in England. — 50s. an acre ought, moderately fpeaking, to be the pro- duce of thefe provinces, in which I faw no bad land ; or fo little, as not to pre- vent any general conclufions. Here is, therefore, a deficiency of a guinea an acre over 1 <: or 16 millions of acres. J - T District PRODUCE, 4 % District gf Various Loams. Co?itains Limojin , Berry , La Marche. Miles. Produce. I Miles. Produce: Ac rofs Berry, 60 joj. ( La Marche and Limofin, 130 32 -j. Miles,, 190. Average produce, il. 11s. 4fd. Thefe provinces are difgraced by miferable hufbandry, though pofTeffing the advantage of a good climate, and a foil almoft every where good. Even the fands are of a quality which well adapts them to very profitable courfes of huf- bandry, that are here utterly unknown. The produce, inftead of 31s. ought to be 50s. — for the whole country that I fa w is inclofed, and wants little more than a lkilful variation in the courfes of crops. Here is a lofs of 1 9s.. an acre over fix or feven millions. District of Mountain. Contains Anver gn, Dauphine > Provence , Languedoc , See. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Roufliilon, 3 ° s. Lodeve, 36 51. Le Puy, 15 2p. Languedoc. Beziers, 40 1 5 Pradelles, - 20 20 Narbonne to Nimes, 94 50 Carcaffonne, 40 40 Thuytz, 20 2 s. Cd. Pone du Gard, 12 38 Fanjour, 16 3 ° Villeneuve, 22 10 Gange, 30 30 St. Martory, 86 27 Montelimart , 20 •25 Miles, 5 ° 7 - Average produce, il. 8s. 6 id. Dauphine. Miles. Produce. Miles. Produce. Miles- Produce. L'Oriol, 15 Cos. Provence. Tour d’Aigues, 20 30 J. Pierelatte, *5 6 Avignon, *9 26s. Marfeilles, 20 38 Orange, 20 28 Life, 16 60 Luges, 21 25 Pont Beauvoifm to Vauclufe, 20 45 Toulon, 20 10 Lyons, 46 35 Organ, 12 60 Hyeres, IO 60 Lyonnois. Salon, 15 *5 Frcjus, 30 5 Les Arnas, 17 30 St. Canat, 20 28 Cano, 22 ' 5 Roanne, 28 25 Aix, 12 60 Nice, 2 5 IO Miles, 423. Average produce, il. 8s. 8fd. Auvergn. — Riom, 20 301 | Brinde, 17 401. | Fix, 20 i$s. Miles, 57. Average produce, il. 7s. 8d. The author of the Hijioire des Plantes de Dauphine, fays, in his preface, that if that province were divided into three parts, three-fourths of one would be 3 O cultivated ; PRODUCE. 466 cultivated; more than three-fourths of another mountains, and uncultivated? half the third mountain, and one-half in culture. I am inclined to think, that thefe notes do not materially vary from truth, except in the cafe of Lan- guedoc, which here appears inferior in produce to what I conceive to be the fad, for reafons too complex to detail at prefent. I have reflected on various circumdances conneded with this quedion, and believe I (hall be well founded in edimating that province at il. 1 is. in head of il. 8s. 6d. 507 miles, at il.. us. per mile.-— 423 at il. 8s. 8fd.-~ 57 at it. 7s. 8d. Average, il. 9s. 9d,. Thofe of my readers, who have travelled only through die vale, fo rich in various produdions, that reaches from Narbonne to Nifmes; who have viewed the exuberant fertility of the watered grounds of Avignon to Vauclufe, or the rich borders of the Rhone at Montelimart, or the vale waffied by the Here, will find it difficult to believe, that provinces which can prefent fuch pidures of fertility fhould, on an average, produce no more than what has been hated; but they fhould have in their recolledion the proportion of the whole dihrid that is mountainous. None of the vales, through which Itravelled, are of any confi- derable breadth, except the vicinity of Toulouze. That from Narbonne to Nifmes, which is the mod celebrated for its produdions, is no where more than a few leagues acrofs : mountains are every where contiguous ; and I eroded very extenfive tracks of thefe that appeared to be the leah productive of any land I faw in France. The Vivarais has been extolled for its cultivation ; fome vales and flopes undoubtedly evince much indudry : but they are ufually ac- companied by tracks of ten and twenty times the extent that yield little I muft make the fame remark on this didrid of mountain that I have done on fo many other occafions ; every part, except the rich vales, is capable of great and pal- pable improvement. I examined the mountains between Gange and Lodeve with attention, becaufe they appeared to be in a date of the mod miferable negled, and the lead produdive of any I faw in Languedoc ; and I am confi- dent they might with great eafe be made to produce four times as much as they yield at prefent , were they improved for fheep only* A fydem of tillage is too much -introduced, by fmall proprietors, on all the mountains of France; they fhould be tilled with no other view than of being prepared for grades, and for profit derived by means of fheep and cattle, efpeciady the former. This vad portion of the kingdom, containing 28 millions of, acres, might, with, very moderate exertions be brought to produce 1 5 millions derling more than at pre- fent ; and dill be far from that pitch of improvement of which it is really ■ General,, PRODUCE. 467 General Recapitulation. In order to afcertain the proportional areas of the feveral divifions into which I have thrown the kingdom, according to the foil of it, I procured a copy of the map to be made on a fheet of paper of equal and fimilar thicknefs, as exadtly as could be chofen ; and then cut out, with a fine pair of fciffars, the feveral divi- fions, which were firft weighed feparately, and afterwards the whole together. All France weighed 41 3 weights, equal to one-fourth of a grain. The feveral divifions as follow : The rich diftrift of the N. E. 57 parts of 413. — The plain of the Garronne 24.— The plain of Alface 2. — The Bas Poitou, &c. 6. Rich Loam, - - - - - 89 Bretagne, Anjou, Maine, and part of Normandy 48. — Part of Guienne and Gaf- coign 32. Heath, - - - - °° Mountain, — containing Auvergn, Languedoc, Rouflillon, Rouerge, Provence, and Dauphine. (Of thefe Dauphine by itfelf 14.) - - 90 Chalk, — containing Champagne, and parts of Angoumois, Poitou, Touraine, Ifle of France, Sologne, &c. - - - - - 5 2 Gravel,-— containing the Bourbonnois, and Nevernois - - - 12 Stone, — containing Loraine, Franche Compte, Bourgogne, and part of Alface, 64 Sand, granite, gravel. Hone, &c. containing the Limofin, La Marche, Berry, &c. 26 4 i 3 The queftion arifing from thefe proportions, is the following: — If 413 give 131,722,295 acres, what will be the proportional quantities of thefe divifions refpedively ? The anfwers are thefe : Rich diftridt of the N. E. Plain of the Garonne, Plain of the Alface, - - - Bas Poitou, &c. - Rich Loam, Bretagne, Anjou, &c. Guienne, &c. - Heath, - Acres. 18, i 79 > 59 ° 7,654,564 637,880 1 , 9 l 3 M* i 5 j 3 ° 7 j I2 8 10,206,085 Acres. 28,385,675 25 > 5 T 3 > 2 i 3 Mountain, - - 28,707,037 Chalk, - 16,584,889 Gravel, - - 3,827,282 Stone, - - 20,412,17 1 Sand, &:c. • - 8,292,444 Error in weighing, ** i . 131,722,711 416 3 O 2 And 46 s P R O D' U c P. And the produd s of thefe divifions. according to t he preceding minutes. are. Rich Loam, Acres. £■ J* d. £■ s . d. 28,385,6 75 — 2 13 — 7 6 . 345 . 6 3 8 7 9 * Heath, — 1 8 9 i — ■ 3 6 > 754>972 9 6f Mountain, 28,707,037 — 1 9 9 — 42,701,737 10 9 Chalk, 16,584,889 — 1 8 0 — - 23,218,844 12 0 Gravel, 3,827,282. — 1 0 6 -Z 3793 0 .937 1 1 1 Stone, 20,41 2,17 1 — 1 0 — 35.721,299 5 0 Sand, 8,292,444 — — 1 1 1 4 * — 12,950,133 1 1 3 ,. 131,722,711 1 if 031.623,543 7 Si The meafurement of the kingdom here given, includes its whole furface, roads, rivers, canals, towns, &c. ; wherefore a dedudion mud be made from the total area, and alfo from the total produce, calculated at the above mentioned average per acre. Mr. Necker tells us, there are 9000 leagues of roads in France. Let us allow 10 toifes of breadth, which is not too much, confidering not only the great width of the roads themfelves, but the wade of ground they occafion on each fide ; this will give for the whole 228,200 arpents of Paris, or 193,207 Englifh acres. Rivers probably occupy a much larger fpace. If the number of acres be fuppofed 131,000,000, and the 722,711 be given up for all thefe deduc- tions, we poffibly may not be far from the truth ; as it is to be remembered, that, .foreds, woods, heaths, waftes, and commons, are included in the calculation. Acres. f. s. d . Totals, - 131,722,711 . — 1 15 if Dedud, 722,711 231,623,543. 1,268,506 13 1,000,000 13°>3SS>°37 In livres tourn. 40 5,240,000,000 The next inquiry, which is not unimportant, is concerning the divilion of this total produce into the mod material articles that compofe it, fuch as wheat and rye; vines; wood; arable land in general; meadow and padure; — this is a much more difficult inquiry; forthe.data on which the calculation is to be 1 made are uncertain, and dil'puted. By one writer the lands in culture are., ailerted to be 1 j 2,760,000 arpents. By another 70,470,000 By a third, 65,000,000 £. By a fourth, the arable is calculated at 40,000,000 §. Another makes 60,000.000 of winter and fpring corn and fallow ||. Another, 18,000,000 of wheat and rye, as much of fpring corn, and as much of fallow^. The .- authors of the Encyclopasdie edimate the corn, cultivation, and fallow, * The Marechal de Vauban. f dlpol. fur /’ Edit? de Nantes. J Voltaire. § DuPont; del Ex. Imp. des Grains Soillons. 1764 * p- 150 * || De I’Aminifl. des.Finances^ par M, Malpart. S.vo. 1787./ P- 3.1* If Recberches fur la Houilk d’ Evgrais. tom. ii. p. 3. . atv R R O D U C E. 469 at 50,000,000*. The Marquis de Mirabeau makes the fame 60,000,000 •f** in which a later author J agrees with him, calculating by the confumption of the people. Monl. Dellay d’Agier, in the National Aflembly, calculated the arable at 70,000,000 It is fufficiently evident, from the variety of thefe ac- counts, that their authors did not calculate on the fame data. The common confumption of bread corn, by the people of France, is known, from many obfervations and experiments, to be 3 feptiers a head for both fexes and all ages, , on an average. Now, if we compute the people at 25,000,000 (and we cannot atalefs number), this makes 75,000,000 of feptiers, each of 2401b. a French weight, or 342,105,263 Engliffi bufhels, at 571b. If, therefore, the average ' product be 1 8 bufhels per acre, there are confequentfy 1 9,005,847 acres employed in railing that quantity of bread corn. Reckoning the feed at 2 1 bufhels an acre, there mull be allowed farther 3,006,325 acres ; in all 22,012,172 acres. - But here it is neceflary to remark, that many of the people in France eat but little rye, and no wheat: in part of Normandy and Bretagne, they live very much,, , though not entirely, upon buck-wheat. In Limofm, La Marche, and in part of Languedoc, they eat chelnuts abundantly- and through the foufhern parts of the kingdom, they are nourished principally by maiz. To fuppofe, therefore*., that the quantity of land here noted is all under wheat or or rye,. would be a grofs error. It is, however,, very probable, that thofe two products, with maiz, do not occupy a lefs extent ; which calculation would fet the buck- wheat, millet, potatoes, chefhuts, &c. again ft that portion of wheat, rye, and maiz confumed- by cattle and manufactures ; but this fuppofition has no data for its foundation „ • There is a c-onfiderabfc export of wheat flour to the Weft- Indies, but no notice can be taken of it here, as the.kingdom, on the other hand, imports largely.— - About two-thirds of the arable lands in France, as I conjecture from reviewing the article of courfes of crops, are under the rotation of three years, viz, 1, fal- low; 2, wheat or rye; 3, fpring corn, or fome other courfe fimilar in its re- fult. The other third is made up of a great variety of courfes, that cannot be brought to a ltandard for drawing any conclufions. In fome diftriCts, the courfe is for two years; but in the greater part it LTor more than three. Hence we may lately conclude, that the . arable lands of the kingdom exceed rather than fall fhort of thrice 22 millions of acres, or in the whole 66 millions. I Ihould conceive, that, they cannot be lefs than 70* - The fallows amount to 15 or 16 millions. . Vines. Notwithftanding the aides and cuftoms afford fome affiftance towards calcu- lating the confumption and export of wine, yet it is very difficult to eftimate ~ * 1 om.vi. p. 533. Folio edit. f Tbeorie de P'Jmpot. p, 142. f Credit National, 1789. p. I02> * S balance du Commerce. ■ 1791. tom. 2. p.,220,^- ' With PRODUCE. 470 ■with any degree of certainty, the quantity of vineyards in the kingdom. Of this difficulty, we may judge, by obferving the amazing difference in the re- ports of French writers. Monf. le Trone*, who appears generally very well informed, gives 1,600,000 arpents for their extent; this the lame as the cal- culation of M. de Mirabeau -f ; but another writer, who publifhedone year after only, calculates the quantity (however from very vague ideas) at 18,000,000 J. — Monf. Lavoiffer luppofes the produce 80,000,000 liv. § — The ceconomijies , of the E ncyclopcedie, make the annual produce 500,000,000 liv. ||. This, at the average produce of 175 liv. per acre (fee the chapter on vines) makes 2,857,142 acres. If we dedud from this fum of 500,000,000 liv. that of 40,000,000, which is nearly the export of wine and brandy, there will re- main 460,000,000 liv. for the home confumption of France. — 1 f. per diem for 25,000,000 of people, amounts to 456,250,000 liv. ; but I .cannot con- ceive that this is an adequate allowance, poor as the lower clafles are in France. Yet that the author of Credit National has committed a grofs error, will appear from conffdering, that 18,000,000 of arpents de Paris, which is his calculation, producing in the proportion of 175 liv. per Englilh acre, amount to about 3000 millions of livres ; that is to fay, nearly as much as many writers make the whole land produce of France. I cannot, however, agree, as 1 have juft obferved, to the calculation of 1 J\ per diem for the home confumption ; the number of people in the kingdom, who either drink their own wine, or are provided with it by their mafters, in both which cafes the confump- tion is void of that ceconomy which always takes place in a greater degree when the commodity is bought , muft render fuch a calculation below the truth : for it is to be remembered, that the 1 f. per diem is a mark only of that quantity of wine which 1 J. repreients in the market ; but which, in fo many inftances, is neither bought nor lold. I met with labourers in Languedoc, who drank each three bottles of ftrong wine a day ; and I faw, amongft the poor, in every part of the kingdom, an appearance of a pretty regular confumption, either of wine or cyder; and recourfe was not had to water, but in cafe of failing crops. If, by calculat- ing the confumption at 2 f. a-day, I meant that fo much money was thus expended , the idea would be abfurd and extravagant; but in this cafe, through all the wine provinces, no expenditure takes place ; an immenfe quantity is coniumed which is neither bought nor fold — and which, in plentiful years, has no value : money is here merely a meafure of quantity. Price confidered, the confumption per head of 4 \J\ at Paris, is twenty times greater than 2 f. for the whole kingdom. If the reader be not very careful in this combination, he muft of neceftity think the eftimate high ; but, taken as a calculation of the real money-payment, pro- * Dc F Adminiji ration Provincial? de /’ I/npot. 8vo. 2 tom. 1788. tom. j. p. 293* f Tbeorie de ritnpot. p. 126. % Credit National. 8vo. 1789. p. 106. § Rcfultats d’unOuvrage remit an Comite de F Impofttion. 8vo. 1791. p. 35. [{ Art. Grains. bably P R O D U C E.. 471 Babiy would not be near if. But the foil as much produces wine that is given away, as wine that is bought. It is like that confumption of wood which the poor make in all countries by theft. When the fpaceof land occupied by vines is the queftion, of what confequence is it whether the wine be bought, given, or ftolen? — Upon the whole, I am inclined to calculate the vineyards of France at five millions of acres ; in which cafe, their, produce will amount to 87 5,000,000 liv. and the confumption of the people will be under 2 J. a-head.— The confumption of Paris, according to the entrees , amounted to 36,000,000 liv. fSee M. Lavoifier Refultats d'un outrage , 179J, p. 43.) or near 4 f per head per diem; but this, as every one well knows, was not the whole ; for it fup~ pofes nothing for contraband, which probably was notlefs than one-eight, and- which would make it nearly 4 1 f. a head. Woods , There is as great a difference in. the calculation of the extent of woods'/ as of that of vines. The. Marquis de Mirabeau reprefents them as 30,000,000 of ar- pents*, in which another writer. agrees -f*. But another allows only 6,000,000 J. And a third, . 8,000, ooo§. — Neither of the three gives any reafons- whatever for his opinions; confequently they may be mere conjectures. There are two me- thods, by which fome approximation to the truth may be gained ; I , by the maps of Caffini ; 2, by the confumption of the people. — In examining the maps, I mealured, as accurately as pollible; the- proportion of -the fpace covered by wood in each map ; and, from many experiments on 140 ot them, I found the-fol- lowing refuit : — but, it is necelfary to premile, jfet I fappofe each map to con- tain one million of arpents, or acres ; not becaule they are the real contents, but merely to be enabled irom the total to calculate the proportion of the whole.. The firfl: of the following columns contains the number of maps, the fecond the pro- portion of the furface covered by wood; and the third the number of acres of wood, fuppofing each map to reprefent one million of arpents of country. Exam- ple of the firfl line; there are three maps, in which half of the contents is wood; and confequently, if thofe maps contain each one million of arpents, there are 1,500,000 arpents of wood. Arpents. Arpents. Arpents. 3 I- „ X 1,500,000 • 6 1 * 's ' 4 750,000 12 IS 800,000 16 I T 5 ) 3335 °°° 10 1 y I, T1 1,000 6, U 375 )°°° 3 1 4 - 75 °)°°° ... 14. 1 10 - 1,400,000 2 tt 1 10,000 U 1 T 2,600,000 9 1 1 7. 750,000 l6 1 To 800,000 16 X ~6 2,666,000 2 1 f 1 54,000 I T To 33 ,°°o * 9 - X 7 1,285,000 ! - 2 - 1 i 1 4 * 140,000 ■ '■■■ ■■ ■■ - ■ —* ... — — I4O 20, 5 : , 7, 000 60 1 4, 1 34, ©00 i° 3 '>: 18,4.39,000 — % 'Tbeorie de Idlmpot. p. 124. f Plan d' AdmlnijL-des Finances , par M. Malpart, 8vo*. 1787. p, *36* % Credit ^National. p. no. § M. Dellay d’Agier in the National Affemhhy Hence PRODUCE. 47 2 Hence it appears, that the quantity of wood may (reje&ing the fradion) be called one-feventh of the kingdom ; and as there are 1 3 1 ,722,295 acres in it, the woods amount to 18,8 17,470 acres. Upon this refult, it is to be obferved, that none but woods of confiderable extent are marked in the maps ; or at leaf! if marked, have not an extent fufficient to come into fuch an eftimation : hence this method, of afcertaining the quantity, is confeffedly impeded: if the maps be tolerably accurate, we are certain, that this calculation is below the truth. The next method of inquiry is by the confumption of the people; I took fome notes concerning it, in different parts of the kingdom, which will ,affif! the calculation. Confumption. Quantity per ann - Value. Paris cords. Liancourt, the poorelt family, 60 liv. Orechamps, a little auberge, 25 loads, - 200 7! Auxonne, ditto, one fire, 200 7! « a poor family, 80 3 Dijon, a poor family, 5 ! mo- eul at 4 cubical feet, 71 2f Quantity per ann. Value. Paris cords. Dijon, 24,000 fouls, 40,000 moeul, which is, per family, of 6 fouls, 10 moeul, 130 4 !* Riom, a poor family, 80 3 Clermont, ditto, 10 cord, 60 2f Tour d’Aigues, the pooreft family, 60 quintals, 60 2 Average of the poor families, 70 n\ It is here proper to examine the confumption of Paris.. Erom 1731 to 1740, the quantity tor which duty was paid at the gates was, on an average f, cords, ■ " “ ^ 9 2 > 3^ 2 In 1748, voyes 3 350,000 In 177°, 55 °> 0O ° ”d n 630,000 4. I have procured the following from the bureau. In 1784, i .7 8 voyes 3 669,017 59 2 j3 i 1 In 1786, voyesj U 8 7 > 602,31.4 5 84,602 In 1788, voyes } 608,403 1789, 619,900 Average of the fix laft years, 612,091, Charcoal. In 1784, voyeSy each of 16 boifeau, or 5 bufhels Englifh, 1785, 1786, * 17 8 7 , 1788, — 1 7 8 9 -* — * Average, 790,100 783,319 767,900 795, 001 749,167 687,429 762,152 Equal to cords of wood to form it. 38,107 Average of both wood and charcoal, *— 650,198 * Excllifive of charcoal. -j- E)e la Lande des Canaux de Navigation, p. 373 * % Recherches fur la Houilk d’Engrais , par M. deLaille vault. i2mo. 1783. tom. ii. p. 21. . conniption PRODUCE. 473 Monf. Necker informs us, that the inhabitants are 660,000 ^ If we call them 660,000 families, the confumption will be about 10 cords per family. The Dijon confumption of wood only per family, of ten moeul, at 64 cub. feet, is 640 feet, or 4! Paris cords. The Paris confumption of both wood and charcoal, at 140 cub. feet is 1 400 feet. The difference between thefe is not greater than would be rea- fonably expected, if we confider the manufactures of Paris, the vaft number of great hotels, and its being the centre of all wealth and all luxury. We are far- ther to fuppofe the 5,709,270 fouls, inhabitants of all the towns of France ( which is the reful t of the late enumeration) to be, exclufively of Paris, 1,000,000 of families, and we may allow them by the Dijon regifcer, charcoal included, five cords each. To the remainder of French population, viz. 4,000,000 of fami- lies, we will fuppofe 300,000, each at four cords j and 3,700,000 at 2 Cords. Paris at ten cords, — 687,121# Other towns at five, * • — 5,000,000 300,000 country families, at four, — 1,200,000 3,700,000 ditto at 2|, 9,250,000 16,137,121 Which, at the average price of 30 liv. * is 484,1 13,630 f, or fterling^. 21,179,971 6 3 We are, in the next place, to enquire into the produce of the woods of the kingdom. The following are the minutes : Produce. Produce per Places. Yrs. growth. per ann. Eng. acre. Places. Yrs. growth. Senar, 20 24 11 V. f-o 16 8 Metz, 20 — Liancourt, 1 1 *• 12 — O 84 Tunevilie, 25 — Falaife, 12 22 O II O Befancon, 25 - Normandy, 20 0 10 6 Do. near Forges, — Columiers, 9 — 20 — 1 00 Moulins, 15 — Mareuil, 20 — 15 — 0 10 6 Braban, 20 — 12 — 0184 Average, 17 It is on this to be obferved, that the fums here noted are Produce. Produce per per ann. Eng. acre. 10 liv. £. o 15 0 3 — o 89 8 — 089 o 12 9 o 26 0120 ,12 3 ! !3 net produce, or rent ; and that confequently the grofs produce is more confi- cierabie, as there are many expences to be deducted ; thefe cannot make it lefs than 14s. an acre, or 1 6 liv. And in the calculations to be founded on this pro- duce, no difference arifes from the age at which the wood is cut : if at 20 years, it is 320 liv. per acre, that is, twenty times fixteen : if at 100 years, it is 1 600 liv. &c. Hence 14s. an acre being the annual produce, it will give 30,257, io ; i * This is the average of the notes. t Monf. Lavoifier calculates the produce of the woods of all France at 120, 000,000 liv. Refuliats d’un ouvrage , 1791, p. 35. I fhould probably be nearer the truth in aflerting, that the confumption of manufactures alone amounts to this fum, than he is calculating the total at no more. The utter impoflibility of the truth of his eftimate, will appear by the confumption of Paris only, being by his own account 27,500,000 liv. 3 p acres 474 PRODUCE. acres for the total of France.' — Upon this, however, fome ohfervations are neceffary, or erroneous conclusions muff be the confequence.’ — If it is objected, that there are many families fo poor as to be utterly unable to afford 60 or 70 liv. for fuel ; I grant it readily, but immenfe numbers burn, though they buy perhaps none ; they Steal it as in England, as I was very generally in- formed ; but this mode of acquiring it does not affed: the calculation, fince the wood is as clearly produced by the foil as if all was bought : I am, however, of opinion, that there are many families too poor, and too badly fituated, to be able by any means to command fuch a confumption. But, on the other hand, if we take into the account, as we ought to do, the vaft iron forges which are fo numerous in Franche Compte, the Limofin, Loraine, and other provinces ; and the very confiderable founderies, glafs-houfes, falt-pans *, and other ma- nufactures, which confume affonifhing quantities of wood, we Shall be inclined to think, that many fuch deficiencies are amply counterbalanced ; not forgetting confumption by houfe and fhip-building. Acres by die maps of Caffini, 18,8 17,470.-— By the Confumption, 30,25^,101. Average of the two, 24,537,285. Which, at 1 6 liv. per acre, is - 392,596,560 liv. — Or fterling, - £. 17,176,099. The Marquis of Mirabeau does not acquaint us with the data by which he calculated the quantity at 30,000,000 ; but as it is probable he went upon dif- ferent grounds from thofe by which I have calculated, the two refults may poffibly be a confirmation of each other. Recapitulation .- — Arable lands, — — — — — 70,000,000 acres. Vines, • 5,000,000 Woods, 24,537,285 R emains for meadows, permanent paftures, fuch wafles as do not produce wood, roads, . rivers, ponds, &c. 99 * 537 * 28 $ 32,185,426 Total 131,722,711 A modern author -f* has. calculated the meadows at 1 5,000,000 of arpents, that is, at one-fourth of what he makes the arable land; I do not conceive, from the notes. I took throughout the kingdom,, that they amount to one- third of that quantity. The cattle of great tracks of arable are. fupported without any meadows, upon clover, lucerne, &c. ; in whole provinces there are none, exceot on the b anks of rivers ; and of thefe the breadth is not considerable. The plough moves to the water’s edge of the Marne ; and wherever I faw the Loire, the meadows were very iaconfiderable, and often none at all. Chalk hills * The falins of Franche Compte and Loraine make 750,00© quintals, which coil’s 2 liv. per quintal in wood only. ; this is a confumption to the value of 2,500,000 liv. Rechercbes & Confid. fur ies . t input s y 8yo. 1 7S9. tom. ii. p. 163. 4 Credit National, p. 105. •* covered PRODUCE. 475 covered with wood, or gravelly plains under the plough, are found on the Seine; much tillage on the Garonne ; and vines and rocks on the Rhone. On the Soanne there are large tracks of meadow ; but thefe are found more generally on the fmaller than on the larged; rivers, and, relatively to the quantity of arable land, are very infignificant. The fame author remarks, that the vineyards ap- pear to every one more extenfive than meadows ; confequently thefe do not amount to 5,000,000 of acres, the fpace covered by vines. We have found the grofs produce of the kingdom, by another mode of calculation, to be 5,240,000,000 liv. or 230,516,2631. The details now explained, give the fol- lowing refult : Arable land, Vines, — Woods, . Meadow and rich paflurage, Lucerne, &c. « - ■ ■ • P allures and wades, — Acres. 70,000,000 at 40 5,000,000 175 24,000,000 16 4,000,000 100 5,000,000 100 23,000,000 * 10 131,000,000 40 French money. 2,800,000,000 liv 875 , 000,000 384.000. 000 400.000. 000 500.000. 000 230.000. 000 5,189,000,000 Englifh money. £.122,860,583 38,225,250 16,800,000 17,500,000 21,875,000 10,062,500 22 7 >i93>333 Hence it is clear, that the latter calculation, which is made on different data from the other, is probably a moderate one. At the fame time, it comes as near to it as can be expeded, from fuch diftind variations in the mode of ellimation. Vines, meadows, and lucerne, are the only objeds here that admit of little im- provement; and it would be well for France, if their extent were proportioned to their merit. The produd of the arable land is doubtlefs very much beneath what it might be. The produd of arable, in England, may be eftimated, per- haps not remotely from truth, at 50s. an acre, or 1 5s. more than France; which makes, in 70 millions of acres, a difference of 52,500,0001. or, in French money, 1, 200,000,000 liv. ; and no one fhould confider this as the utmofl term of improve- ment, fince it includes all arable in England, great tracks of which are very ill cultivated.. By an eflimate, drawn up with much attention, the arable land in that kingdom, at the rent of 15s. well jnanaged , yields an average pro- duce of 3I. 14s. yd. per acre, which is confiderably more than double of the French produce. Twenty-three millions of acres of paftures and wafles, one with another, at 10 liv. (more likely to be too high than too low an eflimate), are a field for ample improvement. There are very few of thefe not fufceptible of culture ; but if ten millions of thefe acres were made, as they might be, to produce 40s. only an acre, the amount 20 millions flerling, would be a vail re- Iburce to the kingdom. Upon the queflion of the value of the grofs produce of * Monf. Roland de la Platerie informed me, at Lyons, that in general wade lands are fold for one-third of the price of woods ; if the produce be proportioned, this would make that of wafles 5 or 6 liv. per acre ; but in the prefent cafe all pajlures come into the calculation. 3 p 2 France, PRODUCE. 476 France, the French writers vary much. The Marquis de Cafiaux makes it 2,000, 400, oooliv. or 87,5 17,5001.* Another late writerf 5,015,500,000 liv. or 219,428,125!. Another^ makes it 1,780,330,000 liv. which is 77,889,437!. — Monf. deTolozan makes it 1,826,000,000 liv. or 79, 887,5001. §. And Monf. Dellay d’Agier, of the National Affembly, 1,449,200 liv. ||. — Thefe calculations being founded on no data that confer any authority, admit of no other merit than that of one conjedure being nearer the truth than another ; but all are little more than gueffes . It is eafier to calculate the produce of France than the rent of it, by reafon of the various modes of letting or adminiftrating land. It will not, however, be far from the fad, to calculate the rent of the arable and lucerne at 1 5s. yd. which is the average of my notes on that fubjed ; the woods at 12s.; the vines at their pront of 8 1 per cent, on the purchafe 45I. ; the meadow at half produce, or 50 liv. that is 2I. 3s. qd. ; and the paftures and waftes at 2 liv. which is probably not too low, as they are, in fo many diftrids, thrown into the bargain with the adjoining lands, in which cafe, though they are of eflential confequence to the tenant in the produce, yet are they of none to the landlord. ’Recapitulation . Acres. Rent per acre. Total. Arable and lucerne, 75,000,000 at j£-o 15 7 j£* 57 a 437 > 5 °° Woods, 24,000,000 0 12 0 14,400,000 Vines, - 5,000,000 3 16 6 19,125,000 Meadow, 4,000,000 2 3 9 8,750,000 W aftes. 23,020,000 0 1 9 2,012,500 1 3 1 ,000,000 0 1 5 10 101,725,000 While the produce of land in England is lo much higher than in France, the landlord’s rent is lower upon the whole; this is on account of the vines, which yield near one-fifth of all the rent of France. If, by net produce, we are to under- Rand rent, and if it does not me an that, I know not what it can mean, the rent has been calculated by feveral writers ; ByM. deForbonais^f, at 800,000, oooliv.; this is 35,000,000!. which is not within two- thirds of the probable truth. Another**, at 1,794,000,000 liv. or 78,487,500]. A third makes fogrofs a blun- der as to eflimaie it at only 2 3,000,000 ‘f'-f** A fourth JJ, that it is fuppofed to * tfueflions a examiner avant V Affe ruble des Etats Generaux. p. 36. 178S. \ Apologie fur l' Edift de Nantes. % La Subvention territoriale en Nature y par Al. Gamier de St. f ulien. 1789. 8vo. p. 24, § Memoire fur la Commerce de la France. 4to. 1789. p. 20. || Balance du Commerce. 1791. tom. ii. p. 220. PrcfpeSius fur les Finances. 1789. p. 11. ** Credit National. 1789. p. 136. ft P atullo's EJfay on the Cultivation of Bengal, p. 5. Another work of this author, EJfai fur /’ Amelio- ration de Terre. i2rao. 1758, is much quoted by French writers. Reflexions fur un queflion d’ economic Pol, par M. Varenne de Fenille. 8vo. 1790. p. 24. exceed POPULATION. 477 exceed 1,000,000 liv. or 43,750,000!. Monf. de Calonne*, from many com- parifons, ftates it at 1,500,000,000 liv. or 65,620,000!. But what are we to think of the political information of the parliaments of the kingdom, which declared, that the taxes at 600 millions exceeded two-thirds, and even reached three- fourths of Rentier revenu territorial de la France! ^ — By thefe expreffions, they ought to mean the grofs produce of the foil, and therefore were not near the truth by five-ftxths. C H A P. XVI. Of the Population of France, A S the fubjedt of population is bed; treated by an inquiry into the induftry, ** ■*■ agriculture, divifion of landed property, &c. I (hall at prefent merely lay before the reader fome fadts collected with care in France^ that afford ufeful data for political arithmeticians. Monf. L’Abbe Expilly, in his Diffiionaire de la France , makes the number 21,000,000. And the Marquis de Mirabeau -J mentions an enumeration, of the kingdom in 1755 3 total 1 8,1 07,000. In Nor- mandy 1,665,200, and in Bretagne 847,500. Monf. de Buffon, in his Hofoire Naturelle , affigns for the population of the kingdom 22,672,077. Monf. Mef- fance, in his Recherches fur la Population, 410. 1766, gives the details from which he draws the conclulion, that in many towns in Auvergne the births are to the number of inhabitants as 1 to 24 f ~ 3 the marriages per annum 1 to 1 14 inhabitants 3 and families, one with another, compofed of 5.1 or 24 families contain 1 24 inhabitants. In. various towns in the Lyonnois, births are to the inhabitants as 1 to 23 £ 3 the marriages per annum 1 to in perfons 3 and families compofed 4 \ f || 3 80 families contain 381 inhabitants. In va- rious towns in Normandy the births to the inhabitants as 1 to 27 \ A; marriages per annum 1 to 114 perfons 3 families are compofed of 3 f £ Vo t 20 reprefen t 76 inhabitants. In the city of Lyons families are compofed of 5 £ 3 60 reprefen t 316 inhabitants 3 and there are a few above 24 perfons per houfe in that city. In the city of Rouen families are compofed of 6-P0 perfons 3 and there are 64 -fr perfons per houfe. At Lyons 1 in 35 £ dies annually 3 at Rouen 1 in 27 £. Mean life in fome parishes in the generality of Lyons 25 years 3 ditto in the generality * Requet au Roi, 8vo. 1787. p. 155. f Arreth du Parle meat de Grenoble du 21, Aout 1787, da Par lenient de Touloufe du 27, Sc du Parlement de Befan$on , du 30 . % V Aral des Homines . 1760. 5th edit. tom. iv. p. 184. || The committee of mendiclte afierts,, that each family in France confifts of five, as each has three children. Cinquierne Rapport, p. 34. of POPULATIO N. 478 of Rouen 25 years 10 months. At Paris 1 in 30 dies annually; a family confifls of 8, and each houfe contains 24I perfons. By comparing the number of births in every month at Paris, for forty years, he found that thofe in which con- ception flourifhed moft: were May, June, July, and Auguft:, and that the mor- tality for forty years was as follows : Months. Deaths. March, - 77,803 April, - 76,815 May, - 72,198 January, 69,166 Months. Deaths. February, 66,789 December, 60,926 June, - 58,272 J ul y> ~ 57>339 Months. October, September, November, Auguft, Deaths. 54,897 54,339 54,029 52,479 It fhould appear from this table, that the influence of the fun is as important to human health as it is to vegetation. What pity -that we have not limilar tables of cities in all the different latitudes and circumftances of the globe. At Clermont Ferrand 1 in 38 dies annually. — At Carcaflbnne 1 in 22$. — At Valence 1 in 24-i. — iVtVitry le Francois 1 in 23E — AtElboeuf 1 in 294. — At Louviers 1 in 31 — AtHonfleur 1 in 24. — At Vernon 1 in 25. — At Gifors 1 in 29. — AtPont-au-de-Mer 1 11133. — AtNeufchatel 1 in24f. — AtPont-FEveque 1 in 26.* — At le Havre 1 in 35. Upon a comparifon in feven principal provinces of the kingdom, population in 60 years has augmented in the proportion of 21 1 to 196, or a thirteenth. General dedu&ion ;- — that the number of people in France in 1764 was ,23,909,400. Monf. Moheau* gives to the beft peopled provinces 1700 inhabitants per fquare league; and to the worft: 500 ; the me- dium 872, at which rate he makes the total 23,500,000, and an increafe of a ninth fince 1688. The ifle of Oleron is peopled at the rate of 2886 per league, .and that of Re 4205. He alfo calculates that 1 in 36 dies, and 1 in 26 is born every year. Monf. Necker, in his work de l’ Adminifir at ion des Finances de la France , has the following particulars, which it is alfo neceflary to have in our attention : — Births in the whole kingdom per annum, on an average, of 1776, 77, 778, 79, and 80, were 963, 207.: — which, multiplied by 25 f, the proportion he fixes on, gives 24,802,580 inhabitants in France. He notices the grofs error of the ceco - nomiftes , in eftimating the population of the kingdom at 15 or 16 millions. — A later authority, but given in whole numbers, and therefore not accurate, Rates the population of the kingdom at 25,500,000, of which the clergy are fiippofed to be 80,000, the nobility 110,000, proteftants 3,000,000, and Jews 30,000 -f* : The committee of impofts affert, that to multiply the births in the cities of France by 30, will give their population with fuflicient truth ; but for the country not fo high .J. The rule of 30 would make the population 28,89 6,210. But much later than all thefe authorities, the National Affembly has ordered ifuch inquiries to be made into the population of the kingdom, as have produced a * Recher.Jur la Populatlon.de la France. 8vo. 1778. + Bibliotheque de V Homme publiqute, -par MefT. ' jJe-Condorcet, Peyfonnel, & le Chapelier. tom. iii, t Rapport de Camite d’ Impoj. juries Faxes, p. 27. much POPULATION- much greater degree of accuracy than was ever approached before : this has been done by the returns of taxes, in which all perfons, not liable to be charged, are entered in what we fhould call the duplicates y and as the directions for making thefe lifts are pofitive and explicit, and no advantage whatever refults to the people by concealing their numbers, but, on the contrary, in many inftances, they are favoured in taxation, by reafon of the number of their children, we may furely conclude, that thefe returns are the fafeft guides to direCt our cal- culations. Here follows the detail : E tat generate de la Population du Royaume de la France‘s No. No ms des De'partemens . Population des 1 lilies beurgs. Pop. des •vil- lages & des Campagne . 'Total de la population . L,Ain, 42,300 251,566 293,866 2j L'Aine, 86,8oc 3 ° 5> 2 53 39 2 »°53 246,080 3 » L’Allier, 42,800 203 280 4> Lcs Hautes Alpes, 29,500 * 5 I , 8 33 181,333 5 , Des Baffes Alpei, 38,060 180,606 218,666 6, L’Ardeche, Les Ardennes, 24,600 185,533 210,133' 7 , 62, 100 113,260 175,360, 8, L’Arieges, 31,400 139,266 170,666, 9 , L’Aube, 40,100 * 57,255 197 , 355 ! 10, L’Aude, 48,400 203,120 251,520 XI, L’Aveyron, 46,500 2 5°, I 35 296,635 12, Les bouches du Rhone, 163,200 1 5 8 >9 3 3 322,133 13, Le Calvados, x° 5 , 35 o 329,850 435,200 14, Le Cantal, 39 , 95 ° 237,385 2 77,335 * 5 , La Charente, 44,100 224,060 268,160 16, La Charente Inferi- eure, 89,120 279,306 368,426 Le Cher, 47,900 228,366 576,266 18, La Correze, 54 , 75 ° 221,692 254.442 * 9 , La Corfe, 131,266 20) La Cote d’Or, 59 , 35 ° 367,983 427,333 21, Les Cotes da Nord, 27,500 441,166 468,666 22, La Creufe, 22,800 244,293 267,093 2 3 > La Dordogne, 5.1,900 353,433 4°5 333 24 > Le Doubs, 3 6 , 5 °° 187 >500 224,0001 2 5 > La Drome, -29,900 .1,94, IPO 224,0001 26, L’Eure, 76,600 323,400 400,000: 2.7, U- Lureet Loire, 28,'Le Finiftere, 44 , 35 ° i 186,050 230,400j 63,000 417,000 480,000: 20, L?u Gard, 100,700 124,900 225,600} 3 C » De la Haute G arcnne, 71,600 182,053 253 , 6 53 l 31, Da Gets, 32, (La Gironde, 54,000 214,^00 268,800 200,000 408,000 608,000* 33,'D'Herault, 108,700 1 5 5 > 8 3 3 264,53'j 34 , L Ille et-Villaiise, 50,800 439,866. 490,666 35 , L’lndre, 50,65c 219,750 270,1100! 36 V L Indre et Loir e, 82,500 267,366 549,866 37 * L Ilere. 3 3 > 7 °° 269,873 3 ° 3,573 38 , Hu Jura, Des Landes, , 30,900 2.18,700 349,600 39 , 36,500 209,700 246,200 4c, Loire et.Cher, 5 1 > 4 °° 207,800 259,200 4 1 , La Haute Loire,. 41,100 - 172,233 213,333 42j[La Loire Inferiieure, icS, 100 399, 6 33 537,733 Carry for ward* 2,447,880 10,019,53 hz-, 599,677! No. |n677 43 , Du l’Oriet, 84,600 185,266 269,866 44 , Du Lot, 55 , 100 2 12,900 268,000 45 , Du Lot& Garonne, 39,200 2.62,666 308,666 46, La Lozerre, 19,400 176,226 195,626 47 , De Maine & Loire} 94,000 200,666 294,666 48, La Manche, 88,100 242,566 3.30,666. 49 , La Marne, 76,200 206,466 282,666 5 °, La Haute Marne, 36,100 177,293 213,393 5 i, La Mayenne, 73,600 248,533 322,133 52, La Meurte, 65,900 3*4,336 380.266 53 , La Meufe, 58,100 194,166 252,266. 54 , Le Morbihan,. 42,400 448,266 490,666' 55 , LaMozelle, 67,000 223,133 290,133 56 , La Nyevre, 34 , 5 °° 2 18, ico 252,600 568,533 57 , Le Nord, 168,800 399-733 58 , L’Oife, «•- 53 , 9 °° 266,100 320,000 L’Orne, 57,800 328,333 386,133 60, Du Paris,- 556,800 168,533 725,333 61, LePas Ju Calais, 79,600 507,066 586 066 62, Le Puy de Dome, 82,550 322,783 4°;, 333 6 3 , Les Hautes Pyrennees, 35,000 122,866 157 86 6 64, Les BalTes Pyrennees, Lea Pyrennees Orien- 55 , 49 ° 231,465 286,955 65, tales, 31,100 1 3. 1, 03 3 162,133 66, Le Haut Rhin, 29,500 276,633 306,133 67, Le Bas Rhin, 90,500 272,366 362,666 68, Le Rhone & Loire, 2 I 5 ,CCO 460,440 23 i,q66 675,840 69, La Haute Saonne, , - 18,700 250,666 7 °, Saonne & Loire, - 60,100 342 , 033 : 402,133 7 i, La Sarte,. 66,500 296,166 362,666 72, S.'ine & Olfe, 105.900 214,100 320,000 73 , Le Seme Inlerieur.*. . 184,550 261,316 44.5,866 74 , La Seine & Marne, 52,300 293,300 345 .600 75 , Des dept Sevres, 56,300 1 57,°33 213.333 76 , La Somme,. 91,600 294,533 386,133 77 , Le T am, - 51,900 171,500 23O.4OO • 78 , Le Var, 49,900 215,566 263,466 79 , La Vendee, 34,900 i-c, 1,2 a 3 226,133- 80, La Vienne, 48,70c 232,000 281,600 81, La Haute Vienne, 41,30° 140,033 1 8 x- 333 ' 82, Lss V ofges, 28,20c 291,800 366,566 320,000. 83 , L’ Y onne, 72,90c 439 466 Total .5,709,270 20,52 i , 5 3814 6, 363,074 Eftimatmg the acres at 131,722,295, and the people as here detailed, ws find that it makes, within a ftnali fraction, five acres a head. That proportion Would; POPULATION. 480 would be 131,815,270 acres. If England were equally well peopled, there fhould be upon 46,915,933 acres, rather more than 9,000,000 fouls. And for our two iflands, to equal France in this refpedt, there fhould be in them 19,867,117 fouls 5 inftead of which there are not more than 15,000,000. An obfervation, rather curious, may be made on this detail ; it appears, that lefs than one-fourth of the people inhabit towns ; a very remarkable circum- ftance, becaufe it is commonly obferved, and doubtlefs founded on certain fadfs, that in flourifhing countries the half of a nation is found in towns. Many writers, I believe, has looked upon this as the proportion in England in Holland, and in Lombardy, the richeft countries in Europe, the fame probably ex ills. I am much inclined to conned: this fingular fad:, relating to France, with that want of effect and luccefs in its agriculture, which I have remarked in almoft every part of the kingdom ^ refulting alfo from the extreme divifion of the foil into little properties. It appears likewife, from this detail, that their towns are not confiderable enough to give that animation and vigour to the induftry of the country, which is belt encouraged by the adivity of the demand which cities afford for the products of agriculture. A more certain and unequivocal proof of the jufticeof my remarks, on the too great and mifchievous diviiion of landed property and farms in that kingdom could hardly have arifen : and it yields the cleareff convidion, that the progrefs of national improvement has been upon the whole but fmall in France. The manufadures and commerce of the kingdom muff have made a lefs advance than one would have conceived pof- fible, not to have effededa proportion far different from this of a fifth. A really adive induftry, proportioned to the real refources of the kingdom, fhould long ago have purged the country (to ufe an expreftion of Sir James Stuart’s), of thofe fuperfluous mouths, — I do not fay hands ; for they eat more than they work ; and it is their want of employment that ought to drive them into towns. — Ano- ther obfervation is fuggefted by this curious table of population : I have re- peatedly, in the diary of my journey, remarked, that the near approach to Paris is a defert compared with that to London ; that the difference is infinitely greater than the difference of their population ; and that the want of traffic, on the high roads, is found every where in the kingdom as well as at Paris. Now it deferves notice, that the great refort, which is every where obfervable on the high ways of England, flows from the number, fize, and wealth of our towns, much more than from any other circumftance. It is not the country, but towns that give the rapid circulation from one part of a kingdom to the other ; and though, at firft fight, France may be thought to have the advantage in this refpedt, yet a nearer view of the fubjedt will allow of no fuch conclufion. In the following lift, the Englifh column has furely the advantage ^ London, POPULATION. Engliih. London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Briftol, Newcaftle, Hull, The vail fuperiority of London and Dublin, to Paris and Lyons, renders the whole comparifon ridiculous. I believe London, without exaggeration, to be alone equal to Paris, Lyons, Bourdeaux, and Marfeilles, as appears by the lifts of population, and by the wealth and trade of all. But if we reflect, that the towns of England, &c. are portions of a population of 15 millions only, and thofe of France parts of 26 millions, the comparifon fhews at once the vaftly greater activity there muft be in one country than in the other *. Of all the fubje&s of political oeconomy, I know not one that has given rife to fuch a cloud of errors as this of population. It feems, for fome centuries, to have been confidered as the only fure teft of national profperity. The politicians of thofe times, and the majority of them in the prefen t, have been of opinion, that, to enumerate the people, was the only ftep neceffary to be taken, in order to afeertain the degree in which a country was flourifhing. Two-and-twenty years ago, in my Tour through the North of England, 1769, I entered my caveat again ft fuch a do&rine, and prefumed to affert, that no nation is rich or powerful by means of mere numbers of people j it is the indufrious alone that conftitute a king - do/ns frength } that affertion I repeated in my Political Arithmetic , 1774; and in the fecond part, 1779) under other combinations. About the fame time a ge- nius of a fuperior caft (Sir James Stuart), very much exceeded my weak efforts, and, with a mafterly hand, explained the principles of population. Long fince that period, other writers have arifen who have viewed the fubje£t in its right light and of thefe none have equalled Monf. Herenfchwandt, who, in his Economie Politique Moderne, 1786 ; and his Difcours fur la Divi/ion des Terres-f, 178S, has almoft exhaufted the fubjedt. I fhall not, however, omit to name the report of the committee of mendicite in the National Affembly. The following paffage does the higheft honour to their political difeernment: — “ C’eft ainfi que malgre les affertions, fans cede repetees depuis vingtans, de tous les ecrivains '* What can be thought of thofe marvellous politicians, the nobility of Dourdon, who call for entrees at the gates of the cities, not as a good mode of taxation, but to reftrain the too great populoufnefs of cities, u which never takes place but by the depopulation of the country.” Cahier , p. 20. The Count de Mirabeau, in his Monarchic Prujpenne , recurs often to the fame idea. — He was grofsly erroneous, when he ftated the fubjedts of the King of France as thrice more numerous than thofe of England, if he meant by England, as we are to fuppofe, Scotland and Ireland alfo. tom. i. p. 402. f See particularly, p. 48, 51. &c. 3 Q French. Paris, Lyons* Bourdeaux, Marfeilles, Nantes;, Havre* Rochelle, Englifh. Manchefter, Birmingham, Norwich, Corke, Glafgow, Bath, French. Rouen, Lille, Nifmes, St. Malo, Bayonne, Vcrfailles. politiques 48 2 POPULATION. politiques qui placent la profperitt d’un empire dans fa plus grande population, une population exceffive fans un grand travail & fans des productions abondantes, fercit au contraire une devorante furcharge pour un etat ; car, il faudroit alors que cette exceffive population partageat les benefices de celle qui, fans elle, eut trouve une fubfiftence fuffifante 5 il faudroit que la meme fomme de travail fut abandonnee a une plus grande quantite de bras j il faudroit enfin neceffairement que le prix de ce travail baiffat par la plus grande concurrence des travailleurs, d’on reful tcroit une indigence complette pour ceux qui ne trouveroient pas de travail, & une fubfiflance' incomplete pour ceux-memes aux quels il ne feroit pas refufe*.”— France itfelf affords an irrefragable proof of the truth of thefe lentiments ; for I am clearly of opinion, from the obfervations I made in eveiy province of the kingdom, that her population is fo much beyond the proportion of her induftry and labour, that fhe would be much more powerful, and infinitely more flourilhing, if flie had five or fix millions lefs of inhabitants. From her • too great population, file prefects, in every quarter, fiich fpedlacles of wretcned- nefs as are abfolutely inconfiftent with that degree of national felicity, which fhe was capable of attaining even under her old government. A traveller much lefs attentive than I was to objefts of this kind, muft fee at every turn moll un- equivocal figns of diftrefs. That thefe fliould exift, no One can wonder who confiders the price of labour, and of provifions, and the mifery into which a liiT’11 rife in the price of wheat throws the lower claffes ; a nulery, that is fine to increafe itfelf by the alarm it excites, leflTubfiftence fhould be wanted. The caufes of this o-reat population were certainly not to be found in the benignity 01 the old government yielding a due proteftion to the lower clafles, for, on the contrary, it abandoned them to the mercy of the privileged orders. It is fair, however, to obferve, that there was nothing in the principles of the old govern- ment, fo direftly inimical to population, as to prevent its increafe. Many croait- ino- writers in France have repeatedly announced the depopulation of that king- dom with pretty much the fame truth and ingenuity that have been exercifed on the fame fubjeft in England. Monf. Necker, in a very fenfible pa age, gives a decifive anfwer to them, which is at the fame time thoroughly appli- cable to tine Hate of England, as well as to that of France +. Nor can the o-reat population of France be attributed to the climate, for the tables of births and burials offer nothing more favourable iu that kingdom, than in our ownt And a much worfe climate in Holland and Flanders, and in feme parts o* Ger- many and Italy, is attended with a Hill greater populoufnefs J. Nor is it to be * Flan de Travail du Gmki pour lextihClionde la Menduii'eprefenle.par M. de Liancourt, 8vo. 1790. , +. Del’ Adminift. des Finances. Oeuvres. 4to. Londres. p.320. *' t A very ingenious Italian writer dates the people of France at 1290 fouls per league ; and m Italy at 1335* Fabbroni Reflexions fur TAgric. P- 243. POPULATION. 4S3 imputed to an extraordinary profperity of manufactures, for our own are much more conflderable, in proportion to the number of people in the two countries. This great populoufnefs of France I attribute very much to the divifion of the •lands into fmall properties, which takes place in that country to a degree of which we have in England but little conception. Whatever promifes the ap- pearance even of fubfiftence, induces men to marry. The inheritance of ten or twelve acres to be divided among# the children of the proprietor, will be looked to with the views of a permanent fettlement, and either occafions a marriage, the infants of which die young for want of fufficient nourishment* j or keeps children at home, diftreffing their relations, long after the time that they fhould have emigrated to towns. In diftriCts that contain immenfe quantities of waftc land of a certain degree of fertility, as in the roots of the Pyrenees, belonging to communities ready to fell them, ceconomy and i.ndi;ftry, animated with the views of fettling and marrying, fiourifh greatly : in fuch neighbourhoods fome- thing like an American increafe takes place ; and, if the land be cheap, little diftrefs is found. But as procreation goes on rapidly, under fuch circumftances, the lead check to fubftftence is attended with great mifery; as waftes becoming dearer, or the bed: portions being fold, or difficulties arifing in the acquifition ; all which cafes I met with in thofe mountains. The moment any impediment happens, the diftrefs of fuch people will be proportioned to the activity and vigour which had animated population. It is obvious, that in the cafes here •referred to, no diftrefs occurs, if the manufactures and commerce of the diftriCt are fo flouriffiing as to demand all this fuperfluity of rural population as fall as it ariles j for that is precifely the balance of employments which prevails in a well regulated fociety ; the country breeding people to fupply the demand and -confumption of towns and manufactures. Population will, in every ftate, in- creafe perhaps too fait for this demand. England is in this refpect, from the un- rivalled profperity cf her manufactures, in a better fituation than any other country in Europe ; but even in England population is fometimes too aCtive, as w'e fee clearly by the dangerous increafe of poor’s rates in country villages ; and her manufactures being employed very much for fupplying foreign con- fumption, they are often expofed to bad times ; to a flack demand, which turns thoufands out of employment, and fends them to their parifhes for fupport. Since the conclulion of the American war, however, nothing of this kind has happened ; and the feven years which have elapfed flnee that period, may be named as the moil decisively profperous which England ever knew. It has been - * Monf. Nccker, in the fame feCtion as that quoted above, remarks this to be the cafe in France j and iuftly obferves, that the population of fuch a country being compofed of too great a proportion of infants, a million of people implies neither the force nor labour of a million in countries otherwife conftituted. 3 Q ^ 2 faid 484 POPULATION. faid to me in France, would you leave uncultivated lands wade, rather than let them be cultivated in fmall portions, through a fear of population ? — I certainly would not: I would, on the contrary, encourage their culture; but I would prohibit the divifion of fmall farms, which is as mifchievous to cul- tivation, as it is fure to be didrefiing to the people. The indiscriminate praife of a great fubdivifion, which has found its way unhappily into the National Aflembly, muft have arifen from a want of examination into fads : go to didrids where the properties are minutely divided, and you will find (at lead I have done it univerfally), great didrefs, and even mifery, and probably very bad agriculture. Go to others, where fucli fubdivifion has not taken place, and you will find a better cultivation, and infinitely lefs mifery ; and if you would fee a didrid, with as little diftrefs in it as is confident with the poli- tical fyftem of the old government of France, you mud afluredly go where there are no little properties at all. You mud vifit the great farms in Beauce, Picardy, part of Normandy, and Artois, and there you will find no more popu- lation than what is regularly employed and regularly paid ; and if in fuch dif- trids you Should, contrary to this rule, meet with much didrefs, it is twenty to one but that it is in a parifh which has fome commons that tempt the poor to have cattle — to have property — and, in confequence, mifery. When you are engaged in this political tour, finifh it by feeing England, and I will Shew you a fetof peafants well cloathed, well nourifhed, tolerably drunken from Superfluity, well lodged, and at their eafe ; and yet amongd them, not one in a thoufand has either land or cattle. When you have viewed all this, go back to your tri- bune, and preach, if you pleafe, in favour of a minute divifion of landed pro- perty. There are two other grofs errors, in relation to this fubjed, that Should be mentioned; thefe are, the encouragements that are Sometimes given to mar- riage, and the idea of the importance of attrading foreigners. Neither of thefe is at all admiflible on jud principles, in fuch a country as France. The predomi- nant evil of the kingdom, is the having fo great a population, that Sine can neither employ, nor feed it : why then encourage marriage ? would you breed more people, becaufe you have more already than you know what to do with ? \ ou have fo great a competition for tood, that your people are darving or in mifery ; and you would encourage the produdion of more to increafe that competition. It may almod be quedioned, whether the contrary policy ought not to be em- braced ? whether dnficuities Should not be laid on the marriage of thole who cannot make it appear that they have a profped of maintaining the children that Shall be the fruit of it ? But why encourage marriages which are lure to take place in all fituations in which they ought to take place? — There is no indance to be found of plenty of regular employment being fird edablilhed, where mar- riages have not followed in a proportionate degree. The policy, therefore, at bed. POPULATION. 485 is ufelefs, and may be pernicious. Nor is the attra&ion of foreigners defirable in fuch a kingdom as France. It does not feem reafonable to have a peafantry half-ftarved for want of employment, arifing from a too great populoufnefs ; and yet, at the fame time, to import foreigners, to increafe the competition for employment and bread, which are infufficient for the prefent popula- tion of the kingdom. This muft be the effect, if the new comers be in- duftrious ; if they belong to the higher claftes, their emigration from home muft be very infignificant, and by no means an objedt of true policy ; they muft leave their own country, not in confequence of encouragement given in another, but from fome ftrokes of ill policy at home. Such inftances are in- deed out of the common courfe of events, like the perfections of a Duke d’Alva, or the revocation of the edidt of Nantes. It is the duty of every coun- try, to open its arms, through mere humanity, to receive fuch fugitives; and the advantages derived from receiving them may be very confiderable, as was the cafe with England. But this is not the kind of emigrations to which I would allude, but rather to the eftabliftiment of fuch colonies as the King of Spain’s, in the Sierre Morena. German beggars were imported, at an immenfe expence, and lupplied with every thing neceftary to eftablifh little farms in thofe deferts ; whilft at the fame time, every town in Spain fwarmed with multitudes of idle and poor vagrants, who owed their fupport to bifhops and convents. Supprefs gradually this blind and indifcriminate charity, the parent of infinite abufe and mifery, and at the fame time give fimilar employments to your own poor ; by means of this policy, you will want no foreigners ; and you may fettle ten Spanifh families for the expence of one German. It is very common to hear of the want of population in Spain, and fome other countries ; but fuch ideas are ufually the refult of ignorance, fince all ill governed countries are commonly too populous. Spain, from the happinefs of its climate, is greatly fo, notwithftanding the ap- parent fcarcity of inhabitants ; for, as it has been fliewn above, that country which has more people than it can maintain by induftry, who muft either ftarve, or remain a dead weight on the charity of others, is manifeftly too populous * and Spain is perhaps the beft peopled country in Europe, in proportion to its in- duftry. When the great evil is having more people than there is wifdom, in the political inftitutes of a country to govern, the remedy is not by attracting foreigners — it lies much nearer home. * An Italian author, with whom I had the pleafure of converfmg at Turin, juftly obferves, t( Quanto la popolazione proporzionata ai prodotti della natura e dell’ arte e vantaggiofa ad una nazione, al- trettanto e nociva una popolazione foverchia.” V Abb ate Vafco , Rifpojla al quefito propojio dalia Reale. Accad. delle Science , &c. 8vo. 1788. p. 85. Consumption. Consumption. ‘Twenty Tears Confumption at Paris, of Oxen , Calves , Sheep , and Hogs, as en- tered in the Boohs of the Entrees. Years. Oxen. Calves. Sheep. Hogs. | Years. Oxen. Calves. 1767, 68,763 106,579 358.577 37> s 99 1777, 71.755 104,600 68, 69,985 112,949 344.320 32,299 78 , 73,6o6 107,292 69, 66,586 1 1 1,608 333 > 9 l6 36,186 79 . 73,468 99,952 7 o, 66,818 110,578 33 5 .o 1 3 36/7 1 2 80, 7:1,488 104,825 7 1 , 65,360 107,598 3 14. 1 24 30,753 8l, 70,484 99,533 72, 63 . 39 ° 101,791 293.946 28,6 IO 82, 72,107 100,706 7 3 , 65 , 3 2 4 99.749 3 ° 9. x 37 29, 39 1 83 , 71,042 98,478 74 , 68,02^ 103,247 309.573 30,032 84, 72,984 I CO, I I 2 75 , 68,306 109,235 309,662 32,722 85> 73,846 94,727 76, 71,208 102,291 328,505 37,740 8 ~ 5 , 73,088 89.575 Average. — Oxen, 69, 883. Calves, 103 ,271. bheep, 323,702. Sheep. Hogs. 343,300 35,823 328,868 36,204 324,028 38,211 308,043 41,419 317,681 41,205 3*6,563 44,772 321,627' 39 , T 77 327,034 39,621 332,628 28,697 328,699 39^57 2 Hogs, 36, 332 . Thefe are the quantities for which duties are paid j but it is calculated by the officers of the cuftoms, that what enters contraband, and for which nothing is paid, amounts to one-fixth of the whole *. The confumption of flour is 1500 facks per diem, each weighing 3201b. re- quiring nine feptiers of corn to yield four of thole facks, or 3375 fbptiers per diem. This is, per annum, 1,23 1,875 feptiers ; the French political arithme- ticians agree in calculating the coniumption of their people pet head, at three feptiers for the whole kingdom on an average ; but this will not lead us to the population of the capital, as the immenfc confumption of meat in it mull evi- dently reduce confiderably that proportion. It may probably be eftimated at two feptiers, which will make the population 615,937 fouls. Monf. Necker s ac- count of the population was 660,000. The enumeration in 1790 made tne num- bers no more than 550,800 ; and there are abundant reafons for believing the aflertion, that this capital was diminifhed by the revolution in that proportion at lead:. This point is, however, afcertained by the confumption, which is now 1 350 facks a day, or reduced one-tenth, which, at two feptiers of corn, implies a population of 554,344 ; and as this comes within 2000 of the adtual enume- ration, it proves that two feptiers a head is an accurate eflimate ; and though it does not perfectly agree with Monf. Necker’s account ot the former population * To fome it may appear ftrange, how fuch a commodity, as live oxen, can be finuggicd in great quantities ; but the means ot doing it are numerous; one was dilcovered, and many more of the fame fort are fuppofed to exift undifcovered : a fubterraneous pailage was pierced unaei the vwn!, go- ing from a court-yard without the wall, to a butcher’s yard, within ; and whole droves cf oxen, Si c. entered by it in the night for a long time, before it was known. I he officers of the D^rrieis aiw con- vinced, that, on an average of commodities, one-fixth is fmuggled. of POPULATION. 4S7 of Paris, yet it is much nearer to it than the calculations made to correCl that account, by Dr. Price, and by the very able and ingenious political Arithme- tician, Mr. Howlet. As the late enumeration thews the population of Paris to have been (proportionally to the confumption of corn) 615,937 fouls, when its births amounted to 20,550, this faCt confirms the general calculation in France, that the births in a great city are to be multiplied by 30 ; for the above-mentioned number, fo multiplied, gives 616,500, which comes fo near the truth, that the difference is not worth correcting. M. Necker’s multiplier is confirmed clearly ; and the event, which gives to France a population of 26,000,000, has proved, that Dr. Price, who calculated them at above 30,0,00,000, was as grofsly miflaken in his exaggeration of French populoufnefs, as Mr. Howlet has fhewn him to be in his diminution of that of England. It feems indeed to have been the fate of that calculator to have been equally refuted upon almoft every political fubjeCt he handled; the mifchief of inclofures — the depopulation of England — — the populoufnefs of France — and the denunciation of ruin he pronounced fo au- thoritatively againfl: a variety of annuitant focieties, that have flourished almofl: in proportion to the diftreffes he afligned them. The confumption of wine at Paris, on an average of the lafl: twenty years, has been from 230,000 to 260,000 muids per annum ; average, 245,000. In 1 78 9 it funk rather more than 50,000 muias, by fmuggling, during the confufions of that period. In 245,000 muids- there are 70,560,000 Paris pints, or English quarts, which makes the daily confumption 193,315 quarts ; and if to this, according to the computation of the commis of the barriers, one-fixth is to be added for fmuggling, it makes 225,534, which is one-third of a quart, and one-tenth of that third per head per diem. The confumption of meat is very difficult to be calculated, becaufe the weight, of the beafis is not noted ; I can guefs at. it only, and therefore the reader will pay no other attention to what follows than to a mere conjecture.. I viewed many hundreds of the oxen, at different times, and eflimate the ave- rage of thofe. I faw at fixty ftone; but as there are dpubtiefs many others fmaller, let us calculate at 50 or 700.1b. and let us drop fmuggling in thefe cafes., fince though it may on the whole, be one-fixth yet it cannot be any thing like that in thefe. commodities ; the calves at 1 2cib. the fheep at 6olb. and the hogs at iooib. Oxen, Calves, Sheep, Hogs, Total *, 69,883, at 7001b, 103,271, at 120 323,762, at 60 36,332, at 100. 48,9 1 8, iooib. 12,392,520 19,425,720 3,633,200 84 > 3 6 9 > 54 a - * Long fince this was written, I received Monf. Lavoif.e ’s Refultats cVun ouvrage^ 1 79 1 » ‘ n which he gives a table of the Paris confumption ; but I do not know on what authority, for the weight per head he makes the total of all meats 82,300,0001b. This 4 SS P O PULATION, This quantity divided amongft a population of 615,937, gives to each perfon 1 361b. of meat for his annual confumption, or above one-third of a pound per diem. During the fame twenty years, the confumption of London was, on an average, per annum, 92,^39 oxen, and 649,369 fheep*. Thefe oxen probably weighed 8401b. each, and the fheep ioolb.; which two articles only, without calves or hogs, make 142,669,660 ; yet thefe quantities do not nearly contain the whole number brought to London, which, for want of fuch taxes as at Paris, can be dilcovered with no certainty. The confumption of Bred: is re- gidered for the year 1778, when 22,000 people, in 1900 houfes, confumed 82,000 boifeau, each 1501b. of corn of all forts ; 16,000 bariques of wine and brandy, and 1000 of cyder and beer'f*. This confumption amounted to per head — corn 2-f feptiers, of 2401b. per annum ; — wine, brandy, beer, and cyder, one-third of a quart per head per diem. Nancy, in 1733, when it contained 19,645 fouls, confumed. Oxen, 2402.* — Calves, 9073.— Sheep, 11,863 “Total, 23,338. It confumed, therefore, more than one of thefe pieces per head of its population. In 1738, when it contained 19,831 fouls, it confumed. Oxen, 2309. — Calves, 5038.— -Sheep, 9549. Total, 16,896;):. Above three-fourths each. The confumption of Paris is three-fourths of one of thefe beads per head of population. As the fined cattle in the kingdom are fent to the capital, the proportions in number ought to be lefs; but the wealth ot that capital would have judified the luppofition of a dill greater comparative confumption. Chap, xvil Of the Police of Corn in France * f \ F all fubjedts, there is none comparable to the police of corn, for difplayiqg the folly to which men can arrive, who do not betray a want of commcjA fenfe in reafoning on other topics. One tells us (I confine myfelf chiefly to French authorities, engaged as I am at prefent in refeafches in that kingdom), that the price is in exadt proportion to the quantity of corn, and to the quantity of money at the fame time in the kingdom || ; and that when wheat fells at 36 liv. the feptier, it is a proof there is not half enough to lad till harved§. — * Report of the Com. of the Court of Common Council. 1786; Folio, p. 75 * + Encyclop. Methodique .Marine , t. i. part 1. p. 198. | Defcrip. cle la Lorraine , par M. Durival. 3 tom. 4to. 17^8. t. ii. p. 5. || Conftd. fur la Chert e des Grains, par M, Vauclrey. 1789. 8vo» p< 5» § lb. p. 7, 8, 19* He POLICE OF CORN. He propofes to have magazines in every market, and to prohibit, under fevere penalties, a higher price than 24 liv. This would be the infallible method to have it very foon at 50, and perhaps 100 liv. That the price of corn does not depend on the quantity of money, is proved by the .fudden rife proceeding from alarms, of which this author might have known an inftance in the year he printed ; for Monf. Necker’s memoir to the National Aflembly was no fooner difperfed, than the price rofe in one week 30 per cent. ; yet the quantity in the kingdom, both of money and corn, remained juft as before that memoir was published. But it has already been fufficiently proved, that a very fmall de- ficiency of the crop will make an enormous difference in the price. I may add, that the mere apprehenfion of a deficiency, whether ill or well founded, will have the fame effedt. From this circumftance, I draw a conclufion of no trifling import to all governments ; and that is, never to exprefs publicly any apprehen- fion of a want of corn ; and the only method by which governments can exprefs their fears, is by proclamations againft export ; prohibitions ; ordonances of re- gulation of fale ; arrets, or laws againft monopolizers ; or vain and frivolous boafts, like thofe of Monf. Necker, of making great imports from abroad— -all thefe meafures have the fame tendency ; they confirm amongft the people the apprehenfion of want ; for when it is found, amongft the loweft orders, that government is alarmed as well as they themfelves, their own fears augment; they rife in a rage againft monopolizers, or lpeculators, as they ought rather to be called, and then every ftep they take has the never-failing eftedt of increafing the evil ; the price rifes ftill higher, as it muft do inevitably, when fuch furious obftrudtions are thrown on the interior trade in corn, as to make it a matter of great and ferious danger to have any thing to do with it. In fuch a fituation of madnefs and folly in the people, the plenty of one diftridt cannot fupply the want of another, without fuch a monftrous premium, as fhall not only pay the expence of tranfport, but infure the corn, when lodged in granaries, againft the blind and violent fufpicions of the people. To rail'e this fpirit, nothing more is neceflary than for government to iftiie any decree whatever that difcovers an alarm ; the people immediately are apprehenfive of famine; and this apprehenfion can never take place without creating the reality in a great meafure. It is therefore the duty of a wife and enlightened government, if at any time they fhould fear a fhort provilion of corn, to take the moft private and cautious meafures poflible, either to prevent export, by buying up the corn that is colledted for exportation, and keeping it within the kingdom, a meafure eafy to be done through individuals, or to encourage import, and to avoid making any public decree or declara- tion. The hiftory of corn, in France, during the year 1789, was a moft extraordinary proof of the juftnefs of thefe principles. Wherever I pafled, and it was through many provinces, I made inquiries into the caufes of the 3 R fcarcity $ POLICE OF CORN. 49 ° fcarcity ; and was every where allured, that the dearnefs was the moR extraor- dinary circumRance in the world; for, though the crop had not been great, yet it was about an average one ; and confequently, that the deficiency mull certainly have been occafioned by exportation. I demanded, if they were fure that an exportation, had taken place? — They replied, no ; but that it might have been done privately: this anfwer fufficiently fhewed, that thefe exports were purely ideal. The dearnefs, however, prevailed to fuch a degree, in May and June particularly (not without being fomented by men who fought to blow the dif- contents of the people into abfolute outrage), that Monf. Necker thought it right not only to order immenfe cargoes of wheat, and every other fort of corn, to be bought up all over Europe, but like wife, in June, to announce to the public, with great parade, the Reps that he had taken, in a paper called Memoire injlruttif, in which he Rated, that he had bought, and ordered to be bought, 1,404,4.63 quintaux of different forts of grain, of which more than 800,000 were arrived. I was a perfonal witnefs, in many markets, of the effed of this publication ; inRead of linking the price, it raifed it diredly, and enormouily. Upon one market-day, at Nangis, from 38 liv. to 43 liv. the feptier of 2401b. ; and upon the following one to 49 liv. which was July iR; and on the next day, at Columiers, it was taxed by the police at 4 liv. §f. and 4 liv. 6 f the 251b. ; but as the farmers would not bring it to market at that price, they fold it at their farms at 5I liv. and even 6 liv. or 57 liv. the feptier. At Nangis it advanced, in 14 days, 11 liv. a feptier; and at Columiers a great deal more. Now, it is to be obferved, that thefe markets are in the vicinity of the capital, for which Monf. Necker’s great foreign proviRon was chiefly defigned ; and confequently, if his meafures would have had any where a good effed, it might have been expeded here ; but lince the contrary happened, and the price, in two markets, was raifed 25 per cent, we may reafonably conclude, that it did good no where ; but to what was this apparent fcarcity imputable ? Abfolutely to Monf. Necker’s having faid, in his memoir, “ a mon arivee dans la minifere je me hcitai de prendre des informations fur le produit de la recolte & fur les befoins des pays etr angers* .. It was from thefe unfeafonable inquiries, in September * He has introduced a tiflire of the fame fluff in his Memoir fur L* Adminif ration de M. Necksr y par lui rneme , p. 367, where he fays, with the true ignorance of the prohibitory fyftem, {< Mon fyf- teme fur l’exportation des grains eft infiniment fimple, ainfi que j’ai en fouvent l’o'ccafion de le de- velopper; il-fe borne a n’en avoir aucun d’immuab'e, mais a defendre ou permettre cette exportation felon le temps & felon les circonftances.” When a man ftarts upon a rotten foundation, he is fure to flounder in this manner; the fimpiicity of a fyftem to be new-moulded every moment, u felon le temps & felon les circonftances ! ” And who is to judge of thefe feafons and circumftances ? A mi- nifter ? A government ? Thefe, it feems, are to promulgate laws, in confequence of their having made Inquiries into the Jlate of crops and flacks on hand. What prefumption ; what an excefs of vanity muft it be, which impels a man to fuppofe, that the truth is within the verge of fuch inquiries or, that POLICE O.F CORN. September 1788, that all the mifchief was derived. They pervaded the whole kingdom, ana fpread an univerfal alarm ; the price in confequence arofe ; and when once it rifes in France, mifchief immediately follows, becaufe the popu- lace, by their violence, render the internal trade infecure and dangerous. The bufinefs of the minifter was done in a moment ; his confummate vanity, which, from having been confined to his character as an author, now became the fcourge of the kingdom, prohibited the export for no other reafon, than becaufe the Aichbifhop of Sens had the year before allowed it, in contradiction to that mafs of errors and prejudices which M. Necker’s book upon the corn trade had difieminated. It is curious to fee him, in his IVLemoire mjlrudlif, afierting, that Prance, in 1787, etoit livrie au commerce des grains dans tout le royaume , avec pins d a cl rent e , que jamais & l on avoit envoy e dans l etr anger line quant it e confider - able de grains. Now, to fee the invidious manner in which this is put, let us tuin to tne lvgiftei or th o, Bureau General de la balance du Commerce , where we fhall find the following flatement of the corn-trade for 1 787 : that he is one line, one point nearer to it, after he has made them than before he began. Go to the In- tendant in France, or to the Lord Lieutenant in England, and fuppofe him to receive a letter from government dire&ing fuch inquiries ; — purfue the intelligence, — follow him to his table for converla- tion on crops,— or in his ride among the farmers (an idea that may obtain in England, but never was fuch a ride taken by an Intendant in France) in order to make inquiries; mark the defultory,broken, and falfe fpecimens of the intelligence he receives, — and then recur to the fimplicity of the fyftem that is to be founded on luch inquiries. Monf. Necker writes as if we were ignorant of the fources of his information. He ought to have known, that minifters can never procure it; and that they can- not be fo good an authority for a whole kingdom, as a country gentleman, fkiiled in agriculture, is for his own parifh; yet what gentleman would prefume to pronounce upon a crop to the 360th part of its amount, or even to the 20th ? But it muft be obferved, that all Monf. Necker’s fmple operations, which caufed an unlimited import, at an unlimited expence, affe&ed not one 200th part of a year’s confumption by the people, whofe welfare he took upon him to fuperintend. If this plain fa£t— . the undoubted ignorance of every man what the crop is, or has been, in fuch fractions as a _jl _jl and much more be well confidered, it will furely follow, that an abfolute and unbounded'hbertv in the corn trade is infinitely more likely to have effeft, than fuch paltry, deceitful, and falfe inqui- ries as this minifter, with his fyftem ©f complex fimplicity , was forced, according to his own account to rely upon. Let the reader purfue the paflage, p. 369, the prevoyance of government —application — hater le mouvement du commerce — attrait prochain — calculi. A pretty fupport for a great nation ! Their fubfiftence is to depend on the combination of a vifionary declaimer, rather than on the in- duftry and energy of their own exertions. Monf. Necker’s performance deferves an attentive pe- rufal, efpecially when he paints pathetically the anxieties he fuffered on account of the want of corn. I wifti that thofe who read it would only carry in their minds this undoubted fa£t, that the fcarcity which occafioned thofe inquietudes was abfolutely and folely of his own creating; and that if he had not been minifter in France, and that government had taken no Ibep whatever in this affair there would not have been fuch a word as fcarcity heard in the kingdom. He converted, by his ma- nagement, an ordinarily fhort crop into a fcarcity ; and he made that fcarcity a famine ; to remedy which, he affumes fo much merit, as to naufeate a common reader. 3 R 2 Imports . 49 ^ POLICE OF CORN. Imports * Wheat, - 8,11 6,000 liv. Rice,. - - 2,040,000 Barley. - - 375 >°°° Legumes, - - 945,000 1 1,476,000 Exports. Corn, - - 3,165,600 liv. Wheat, ~ 6,559,900 Legumes, - 949,200 10,674,700 This account (hews pretty clearly how well founded the mini Her was, when he attempted to throw on the wife meafure of his predeceflor the mifchiefs which arofe from his own pernicious prejudices alone ; and how the liberty of com- merce, which had taken place mod; advantageoufly in confequence of the free trade in 1787) had been more an import trade than an export one ; and, of courfe, it fhews, that when he advifed his fovereign to prohibit that trade, he added diredtly contrary even to his own principles ; and he did this at the hazard of raifing a general alarm in the kingdom, which is always of worfe confe- quence than any poffible export. His whole conduct, therefore, was one con- tinued feries of fuch errors, as can, in a fenfible man, be attributed only to the predominant vanity that inftigated him to hazard the welfare of a great nation to defend a treatife of his own compofition . But as this minifter thought proper to change the fyftem of a natural export and import; and to fpread, by his meafures, an alarm amongft the people, that feemed to confirm their own apprehenlions,. let us next examine what he did to cure the evils he had thus created. He im- ported, at the enormous expence of 45,543,697 liv. (about 2,000,000 fterhng) the quantity of 1,404,465 quintaux of corn of all forts, which, at zqolb. make 585,192 feptiers, fufficient to feed no more than 195,064 people a year.. At three fep tiers per head, for the population of 26 millions of mouths, this fupply, thus egregioufly boafted of, would not, by 5 5,908 feptiers, feed France even for three days; for her daily confumption is 21 3,700 feptiers : nor have I the lead doubt of more perfons dying of famine, in confequence of his meafures, than all the . corn he procured would feed for a year*. So abfolutely contemptible is all - importation as a remedy for famine ! and fo utterly ridiculous is the idea of pre- venting your own people from being ftarved, by allowing an import, which, in , its greateft and mo ft forced quantities, bears fo trifling a proportion to the con- fumption of a whole people, even when bribed, rather than bought from every * country in Europe ! But a conclufion of much greater importance is to be de- - duced from thefe curious fadls, in the moft explicit confirmation of the pre-- ceding principles* that all great variations in the price of com are engendered, by apprehenflon, and do not depend on the quantity in the markets. The report * \t a moment when there was a great ftagnation in every fort of employment, a high price of bread, inftead of a moderate one, muft have deftroyed many; there was no doubt of great numbers dying for want in every part of the kingdom. The people were reduced in fome, places to eat bran and boiled grafs. "Journal de I'Alp Nat. tom, u. of. POLICE OF CORN. 493 of'Monf. Necker’s meafures, we have found, did not fink, but raifed the price : providing France with lefs than three days bread, when blazed forth with all the apparatus of government, adually raised the price in the markets, where I was a witnefs, 25 per cent. Of what poffible confequence was three days pro- vifi on added to the national flock, when compared with the milery and famine implied — and which actually took place in confequence of pufhing the price Up fo enormoufly, by Monf. Necker’s meafures ? Would it not have been in- finitely wifer never to have flopped the trade, which I have proved to have been a trade of import? — Never to have expreffed any folicitude ?— Never, to have taken any public Reps, but to have let the demand and fupply quietly meet, without noile and without parade ? The confequence would have been, faving 45, millions of the public money, and the lives of fome hundred thoufands, ftarved by the high price that was created, even without a fcarcity ; for I am firmly perfuaded, that if no public Rep whatever had been taken, and the Archbifhop of Sens’ edid never repealed, the price of wheat in no part of France would have feen, in 1789, fo high a rate as gpliv.. inRead of rifing to 50 and 57 liv. If there, is any truth in thefe principles, what are we to think of the firR miniRer hunting after a little popularity, and boaRing in his Memoire, that the King allowed only bread of wheat and rye mixed to be ferved at his own table?. What. were the conclufions to be looked fcr in the people, but that if fuch were the extremities to which France was reduced, all were in danger of death for want of bread. The confequence is palpable; — a blind rage againR monopolizers, hanging bakers, feizing barges, and fet ting fire to magazines; and the inevitable efieCt of a fudden and enormous rife in the price, wherever - fuch meafures are. precipitated by the populace, who. never are truly adive but in their own deRrudion. It was the fame fpirit that . dictated the following paflage, in that Memoire inftrutiij, “ Les accaparemens font la premiere caufe a laquelie la multitude attribue la cherte des grains, & en efifet on fouvent eu. lieu de fie plain d re de la cupidite des fipeculateurs*.” I cannot read thefe lines, which are as untrue in fad as. erroneous in argument, without indignation. The multitude never have to complain of fpeculators ; they are always greatly indebted to them. There is no such thing as monopolizing CORN BUT TO. , THE BENEFIT OF. THE PEOPLE qN And all the evils of the year . * This is pretty much like his fendihg a memoir to the National AflembTy, which was read Oc- tober 24, in which the minifters fays, II eft done urgent de defendre de plus en plus l’exportation en France ; mais il eft difficile de veiller a cette prohibition. Ou a fait placer des cordons de troupes fur les frontiers a cette eifet.” 'Journal chs Etats Generaux , tom. v. p. 194. Every expreffion ©f . this nature becoming public, tended to inflame the people, and confequently to raife the price. f lam much inclined to believe, that no fort of monopoly ever wa?, or ever can be injurious, without the affiftance of government ; and th^t government never tends in the leaf! to favour a mo- nopoly 494 POLICE OF CORN. year 1789 would have been prevented, if monopolizers, by railing the price in the preceding autumn, and by leffening the confumption, had divided the fupply more equally through the year. In a country like France, fubdivided mif- chievoufly into little farms, the quantity of corn in the markets in autumn is always beyond the proportion referved for fupplying the reft of the year : of this evil, the beft remedy is, enlarging the fize of farms ; but when this does not take place, the dealings of monopolizers are the only refource. They buy .nopoly without doing infinite mifchief. We have heard in England of attempts to monopolize hemp, allum, cotton, and many other articles ; ill conceived fpeculations, that always ended in the ruin of the fchemers, and eventually did good, as I could {hew, if this were the proper place. But t® mo- nopolize any article of common and daily fupply and confumption_to a mifchievcus degree, is abso- lutely impoflible : to buy large quantities, at the cheapefl feafon of the year, in order to hoard and bring them out at the very dearefl moment, is the idea of a monopolizer or accapareur : this is, of all other tranfadlions, the mofl beneficial towards an equal fupply. The wheat which fuch a man buys is cheap, or he would not buy it with a view to profit : What does he then ? He takes from the market a portion, when the fupply is large ; and he brings that portion to the market when the fupply is fmall ; and for doing this you hang him as an enemy. Why ? Becaufe he has made a private profit, perhaps a very great one, by coming in between the farmer and the confumer. What fhould induce him to carry on his bufinefs, except the defire of profit ? But the benefit of the people is ex- adtly in proportion to the greatnefs of that profit, fince it arifes diredlly from the low price of corn at one feafon, and the dearnefs of it at another. Mofl clearly any trade which tends to level this in- equality is advantageous in proportion as it effedls it. By buying great quantities when cheap, the price is raifed, and trie confumption forced to be more /paring: this circumflance can alone fave the people from famine; if, when the crop is fcanty, the people confume plentifully in autumn, they muff inevitably flarve in Summer ; and they certainly will confume plentifully if corn is cheap. Govern- ment cannot flep in and fay, you fhall now eat half a pound of bread only, that you may not by-and- by be put to half an ounce. Government cannot do this without eredling granaries, which we know, by the experience of all Europe, is a mofl pernicious fyflem, and done at an expence which, if laid out in premiums, encouraging cultivation, would convert deferts into fruitful corn-fields. But pri- vate monopolizers can and do efredt it ; for by their purchafes in cheap months they raife the price, and exadlly in that proportion teflon the confumption; this is the great objedt, for nothing; elfe can make a fhort crop hold out through the year; when once this is effedled, the people are fafe ; they may pay very dear afterwards, but the corn will be forth coming, and they will have it though at a high price. But reverfe the medal, and fuppofe no monopolizers ; in fuch a cafe, the cheapnefs in autumn continuing, the free confumption would continue with it: and an undue portion being eaten in winter, the fumrner would come without its fupply : this was manifeflly the hiflory of 1789 ; the people enraged at the idea of monopolizers, not at their real exiflence (for the nation was flarving for want of them), hung the miferable dealers, on the idea of their having done what they were utterly unable to do. Thus, with fuch a fyflem of fmall farms as empty the whole crop into the markets in autumn, and make no referve for fumrner, there is no pofiible remedy, but many and great monopo- lizers, who are beneficial to the public exadlly in proportion to their profits. But in a country like England, divided into large farms, fuch corn dealers are not equally wanted ; the farmers are rich enough to wait for their returns, and keep a due referve in flacks to be threfhed in fumrner ; the bell of kll methods of keeping corn, aud the only one in which it receives nq damage. when POLICE OF CORN, * 4 95 when corn is cheap, in order to hoard it till it is dear; this is their fpeculation, and it is precifely the condutf: that keeps the people from Varying ; all imagin- able encouragement fhould be given to fuch merchants, whofe bufmefs anfwers every purpofe of public granaries, without any of the evils that are fure to flow from them *. It may eafily be conceived, that in a country where the people live almoft entirely on. bread, and the blind proceedings of mobs are encouraged by arrets of parliaments, feconded by fuch blunders of government as I have defcribed, and unaided by the beneficial exigence of real monopolizers ; it may eafily be conceived, I fay, that the fupply mu ft be irregular, and in many in- ftances infufficient : it muff be infufficient, exa&ly in proportion to the violence of the populace ; and a very high price will be the unavoidable confequence, whatever may be the quantity in the kingdom. In June and July 1789, the markets were not opened, before troops arrived to pro ted: the farmers from having their corn feized; and the magiftrates, to avoid infurredions among the people^ fet the affize too low upon corn, bread, and butcher’s meat ; that is, they fixed the prices at which they were to be fold, which is a moft pernicious regulation. The farmers, in confequence, refrained from going to market, in order to fell their wheat at home at the beft price they could get, which was of courfe much higher than the affize of the markets. How well thele principles, which fuch ample experience proves to be juft, are underftood in France, maybe colleded from the cahiers , many of whom demand meafures which, if really purfued, would fpread abfolute famine through every province in the kingdom. It is demanded at one place, ‘ c mat as F ranee is expofed to the rigours of famine, every farmer ftiould be obliged to regifter his crop of every kind, gerbs, bottes, muids, &c. ; and alfo every month the quantity fold J.” Another requires, “ that export be feverely prohibited, as well as the circulation from province to province; and that importation be always allowed A third ||, “ that the ievereft laws be palled againft monopolizers ; a circumftance, which at prefent defolates the kingdom.” A fyftem of prohibition of export is demanded by no ' icfs than twelve cabin? s And 111 teen demand the ercdlion of public ma°a— M * Wen has it been obferved by a modern writer, « Lorfque les recoltes manquent en quelque lieu a’un grand empire, les travaux du refte de fes provinces etant payes d’une he-urufe fecundite fuffifent a la confommation de la totalite. Sans follicitude de la partdu gouvernement, fans magazins publics, par le feul effet d’une communication libre & facile on n’y _ connoit ni difette ni grande cherte.- Tbeorie de Luxe , tom. i. p. 5. p. 438. $ Tier Etat de Meudon, p. 36. § Tier Etai de Paris , p. 43. || Tier Etat de Reims , art. no. ** Nob ' dc ^4 no h P- 24; Nob. de St. Q uintin . , p. 9. Nob. de Lille , p. 20. T. Etat de Reims , p. 20. T. Etat de Rouen, p. 43. T. Etat de Dunkerque, p. 15. T. Etat de Mets, p. 46. Clerge de Rouen, p. 24. T. Etat de Rennes , p. 65. T. Etat de Vulcmiennes , p. 1 2. T. Etat dc Troyes, art! 96. T. Etat de Dour don, art. 3. zines *, PRICE O F C O R N. -456 zincs*. Of all folecifms, none ever equalled Paris demanding that the tranf* port of corn from province to province fliould be prohibited. Such a requeft is really edifying, by offering to the attention of the philofophical obferver, man- kind under a new feature, worthy of the knowledge and intelligence that ought to reign in the capital of a great empire - y and Monf. Necker was exactly fuited to be minifler in the corn department of fuch a city ! — The conclufions to be drawn -from the whole bufinefs, are evident enough. There is but one policy which can fecure a fupply with entire fafety to a kingdom fo populous and fo ill f cultivated as France, with fo large a portion of its territory under wood and vines j the policy I mean is an entire and abfolute liberty of export and im- port at all times, and at all prices, to be perfifted in with the fame unremitted hrmnefs, that has not only refeued Tufcany from the jaws of periodical famines, but has given her eighteen years of plenty, without the intervention of a mo- ment’s want. A great and important experiment ! and if it has anfwered in luch a mountainous, and, on comparifon with France, a barren territory, though full of people, affuredly it would fulfil every hope, in fo noble and fertile a kingdom as France. But to fecure a regular and certain fupply, it is neceflary that the farmer be equally fecure of a Ready and good price. 1 he average price in France vibrates between 18 and 22 liv. afeptier of 2401b. I made inquiries * I have lately feen (January, 1792), in public print, the mention of a propofal of one of the mi- nifters to.eredt public magazines ; there wants nothing elfe to complete the fyftem of abfurdity in re- lation to corn which has infefted that fine kingdom. Magazines can do nothing more than private acca - pareurs ; they can only buy when corn is cheap, and fell when it is dear ; but they do this at fuch a vafl: expence, and with fo little ceconomy, that if they do not take an equal advantage and profit with pri- vate fpeculators, they mufl demand an enormous tax to enable them to carry on their bufinefs ; and if they do take fuch profit, the people are never the better for them. Mr. Symonds, in his paper on the public magazines of Italy, has proved them to be every where nuifances. See Annals of Agriculture , vol. xiii. p. 299, &c. \ The aflertionof the marquis de Cafiaux, “ that the free corn trade eftablifhed by Monf. Turgot, increafed the productions of the agriculture of France as 150 to 100” ( Seconde Suite de Confid. fur les Mech. desSoc. p. 1 19.), mull be received with great caution. That of Monf. Millot, u that^the lands of the fame kingdom produced five times as much in Henry IV .’s reign as they do at prefent, is a very grofs error, irreconcileable with the leaf! degree of probability. Elem. de V Hijl. Gen. t. ii. p. 488. J Price of Wheat at Paris , or at Rofoy, for 146 years. Price of 73 Tears, the Reign of Louis XW. Liv. Sol. Den. Price of y^Years, the Reigns of L outs Liv. XV. and XVI. Sol. Den. From 1643 to 1652 — 35 1 From 1716 to 1725 — J 7 10 9 1653 to 1662 — 3 * 12 2 1726 to 1735 — 16 9 4 1663 to 1672 — 23 6 1 1 1736 to 1745 — 18 15 7 1673 to 1682 — 25 13 8 1746 to 1755 — • 18 10 1 1 3683 to 1692 — 22 0 4 1756 to 1765 17 9 1 1693 to 1702 — 3 1 16 1 1766 to 1775 • — • 28 7 9 3703 to 1712 — 23 1 7 1 1776 to 1785 22 4 7 3713101715 — 33 1 6 1786 — 1787 — 20 22 12 2 6 6 Gei eral Average 28 1 5 1788 — • 24 0 • De la Balance du Commerce, tom. 2. General average 20 1 4 through POLICE OF CORN, 49 , through many provinces in 1789, into the common price, as well as that of the moment, and found (reducing their meafures to the feptier of 2401b.), that the mean price in Champagne is 18 liv. 3 in Loraine iyf • in Alface 22 liv. 3 in Tranche Compte 20 liv. 3 in Bourgogne 1 8 liv 3 at Avignon, &c. 24 liv. 3 at Paris, I believe, it may be calculated at 19 liv.— -Perhaps the price, through the whole kingdom, would be found to be about 20 liv. Now, without entering imo any analyfis of the fubjedt, or forming any comparifon with other coun- tries, France ought to know, at leafUhe has dearly learned from experience, that this is not a price fufficient to give fucli encouragement to the farmers as to fecure her a certainty of fupply : no nation can have enough without a fur- plus 3 and no furplus will ever be raifed, where there is not a free corn trade.— The objedt, therefore, of an abfolutely free export, is to fecure the home fupply. The meie profit of felling corn is no objedt : it is lefs than none 3 for the right ufe thereof is to feed your own people. But they cannot be fed, if the farmers have not encouragement to improve their agriculture 3 and this en- couragement muft be the certainty of a good price. Experience has proved fufficiently, that 20 liv. will not do. An abfolute freedom of interior circula- tion is obvioufly neceffary, that to name it is fufficient *. A great and decided encouragement to monopolizers •f* is as neceflary to the regular fupply, as that feed fhould be fown to procure a crop 3 but reaping, in oiuei to load the markets in winter, and to flarve the people in fummer, can be remedied oy no other perfon but an accapareur. While fuch men are therefore objedts of public hatred 3 while even laws are in force againfi: them (the moil piepofterous that can difgrace a people, fince they arc made by the mouth, againfl the hand for lifting food to it), no regular fupply can be looked for.— e may expedt to fee famine periodical, in a kingdom governed by the principles which muff take place, where the populace rule not by enlightened represen- tatives, but by the violence of their ignorant and unmanageable wills. Paris governs the National Affembly 3 and the mafs of the people, in great cities, are all aiike abfolutely ignorant how they are fed 3 and whether the bread they eat be gathered like acorns from a tree, or rained from the clouds, they are well ^ e d nter ' na * tackles on the corn trade of France, are fuch as will greatly impede the efiablifli- ment of that perfect freedom which alone forms the proper regulation for fuch a country. M. Tur- got, in his Lettres fur les Grains , p. 126, notices a mod abfurd duty at Bourdeaux, of 20 f perfep- tier on a w eat confumed there, or even depofited for foreign commerce, a duty which ought to have prevented the remark of the author of Credit National \ p. 222, who mentions, as an extraordi- nary a , that at I ouloufe there is a duty of 12/ per feptier on grinding, yet bread is cheaper there than at Bourdeaux.” Surely it would be fo ; it ought to be Sf. the feptier cheaper. t 1 he word /peculator, in various pafTages of this chapter, would be as proper as monopolizer, , they mean the lame thing as accapareur 3 a man who buys corn with a view to felling it at a higher price ■ Whatever term is ufed, the thing meant is every where underftood. * 3 S convinced. +5 g POLICE OF CORN. convinced, that God Almighty fends the bread, and that they have the beft poffible right to eat it. The courts of London, aldermen and common council- men, have, in every period, reafoned juft, like the populace of Paris *. The pie- fent lyftem of France, relative to agriculture, is curious, * To encourage inveftments in land, I. Tax it Three Hundred Millions. To enable the land to pay it, II. Prohibit the Export of Corn. That cultivation may be rich and fpirited, III. Encourage small Farms. That cattle may be plentiful, IV. Forbid the Inclosure of Commons. And that the fupply of the markets may be equal in fummer as in winter, V. Hang all Monopolizers. Such may be called the agricultural code of the new government of France -f. C H A P. . Aldermen, common ceuncilmen, and mobs, are confident when they talk nonfenfe; but philofo- phers are. rot fo eaf.ly to be pardoned ; when M. L’ Abbe Rozier declares “ quo la France r t co e,„ e ordinaire ores du double plus de bled qu’elle n’en confomme,” (Recue, l de Mmoiresfur la Culture J le Roulffagldu chauvrc , 8vo. .787. P- 5 -) he wrote what has a direft tendency to , aflame the people ; f r th/ronclufion they muft draw is, that an immenfe and incredible export is always going on. I> France prod^Mes^nacommon year double her confumption, what becomes of the furplus i Where ate X r *6 millions of people that are fed with French corn ? Where do the 78,000,000 offepuers go Sat France ha to fpare; a quantity that would load all the fhips poffeffed by that kingdom above thirtv ttoes to carry it. Inftead of the common crop equalling two years confumption, ,t ceru.nl, does^not equal thirteen months common confumption ; that is, fuch a confumption as takes place at ar average price. And all the difference of crops is, that confumption is moderate with a bad product, and pkmiful with a good one. The failure of a crop in one province m a very fmall degree, which, unde a «ood government, and entire liberty of trade, would not even be felt, will, under a (yftem . f reffriaions and prohibitions, taife the price through the whole kmgdom enormoufly ; and if meafures are taken to correct it by government, they will convert the high price into a famine. The author of Traite cteconomie Politique. 8vo. 1783, P- 59 *, does not talk qufee fo greatly, when I feys avood crop will feed France a year and a half ; but pretty near ,t The abfurdi ties that d i lv aonetr on this fubiea are aftonifhing. In a work now publilhmg, ,t is fa.d that a moderate d-ily appear } and a ffood one for fiv.e. Encyclopedic Mcthochque Economic 4 from an Italian, viz. .LLi dell’ Agriceltura, . 763 8 ' P .: m ‘ i P. ion Who took it verbatim from EffaU fur divers fujets interejaus de polmque et de leZ™ 8vo. 1760 . p. 216. It is thus that fuch- nonfenfe becomes propagated, when authors are con- tent to’ copy one another, without knowledge or confideratipn-. ^ C O M p E R C E, 409 C H A P. XVIII. Of the Commerce of France . A GRICULTURE, manufa&ures, and commerce, uniting to form what may be properly termed the mats of national induftry, are fo intimately connected in point of interefl, under the difpenfations of a wife political fyflem, that it is impoffible to treat amply of one of them, without perpetually recurring to the others. I feel, in the progrefs of my undertaking, the impoffibility of giving the reader a clear idea of all the interefts of French agriculture, without inferring, at the fame time, fome details of manufactures and commerce. The opportunities I poiTeffed of gaining fome valuable intelligence, enable me to in* fert feveral accounts hitherto unpublished, which I believe my commercial read* ers (Should I have any fuch), will not be difpleafed to examine. Imports into France in 1784. Woods, Timber, . Hoops, &c. Staves, Planks, Pitch and ta'-, Afhes, Soda and pot-alh, llv. 216.200 1,866,800 92,100 628,500 2,412,000 825.200 1,372,600 3,873,900 Kelp, Peat allies for manure. Grain, Millet and Canary, Flax-feed, Hops, Tallow loaves, Refufe of filk. llv. 50,700 665,100 141,500 51,400 612,600 272,400 1,133,400 , 94>9°° Hemp, Hemp and flax thread. Thread of refufe filk. Various wools. Spun ditto, . Vigonia ditto, Flax, Silk raw, - ? liv. 4,385,300 2>09I,IOO 55,800 25,925,000 119,400 259,800 1,109,500 29,582,700 Manufactured Goods . Mercery, thread, Sc boneterie, Woollen fluffs, . Ditto filk, Bours d’oefl, Silk gauzes, - - - Silk handkerchiefs, Silk ribbons, Ribbons of wool, Thread ribbons, «. Ribbons of thread and wool, Linen, flax, & hemp, mix.d, Linen of flax. 335>5 c6 ! 81,300 430,700 252,200 54.700 115,900 374»f°° 87,500 1,406,100 92.700 1,918,600 4,849,700 Table linen, - Linen called platiley ■ » treilis , • couth hemp, Sail doth, Candles, Y ellow wax, • Cordage, Horfe-hair, - Raw hides, Diflilled waters and oils, Eflencis, 99,206 602,100 892.700 432,000 157.700 50,300 1,317,900 99.000 59.000 2,805,400 87,5500 226,50a Drefles, * - 93,20 o Oil of grain, » 248,300 Corks, - - 219,300 in plank, - 97,100 Skins, - «• 873,400 — — goats and kids, 148,400 " ■ ■■ calves, *■ — 215,200 — 1 " hares and rabbits, 78,600 Quills, - - 243,900 Bed feathers, <■ - 81,700 Hog and wild boar hair 4 148,400. Coaches, >. a. 783,900 3 S 2 Edibles 500 COMMERCE Kv. Almonds, — 140,600 Butter, <- 28 o,ioo Salt beef, — 1,716,400 Salt pork. 181,600 Cheefe, 3,352,700 Fruits, 238,100 Lemons and oranges, &c. (in No. 17,543,000), 731,000 Sweetmeats, 52,600 Dried fruits and figs, 254,600 Dried grapes, 248,300 Wheat, 5,347,90° Rye, 139,800 Barley, 163,800 Oil of Olives, 25,615,700 Various woods, Plank, Pitch and tar, Common afhss, Charcoal, Coals, Grains, Colefeed, Garden-feeds, “ Flax-feed, Bours of filk. Hemp, Thread of flax and hemp. Wool, Silk, Boneterie of thread, &c. — - filofel. Woollen ftockings, — W oil n caps, » Boneterie or filk, - Hats, - — Boneterie of hair and wool. Silk laces, - - Laces of thread and filk, Woollen cloth, - Various fluffs, — Woollen fluffs, - Stuffs of thread and wool, — hair, - - — hair and wool, rich in gold. Silk fluffs, - Stuffs mixed with filk. Silk gauzes, - Thread and filk gauzes, Thread and cotton handkgr- chiefs, — — Silk handkerchiefs, Silk ribbons, — 89.600 66,300 255,700 1 52.000 70.600 410.000 148,500 144.900 75.700 248.900 94.700 47.200 143,400 1.576.300 2,657,600 175.100 83,400 364, coo 413.100 3 > 375 » 100 86.200 91.0,30° 2,589,200 445 3 ;0 15 ) 53 °, S 00 I 22 ,y j OO 7.491.300 109,300 3,655,700 633.600 1,538,500 14,834,100 649.600 5,452,000 209.000 40-5,800 1 18.000 1,231,900 Edibles. liv. Legumes, 5 50,900 Vermicelli, 287,200 Salt, 113,800 Various edibles, 90,800 Beer, 3 8 3 ) 5 °° Brandy of wine, . 1,151,900 corn, 1 ,086,900 Liqueurs and lemon juice, 62,900 Various wines, 684,900 Defert wines. 362,20c L'uvejiock. 31,800 Cattle of all ferts, Oxen, 1,355,20° Sheep, O O O 00 0 w Exports the fame Tear. Linen of flax and hemp mixed, — _ 12,437,200 flax, - 1,727,800 ■ ■ ■ fine, - 346,300 Cambric and linen, - 6,173,200 Linen of thread and cotton, 291, -oo ■ fiamoif.s, - 1,047,600 hemp, - 344 > 3 00 Candles, -• - 78,700 Wax, - 449,800 Wax candles, - 90,400 Woollen blankets, - 129,800 Raw leathers. - 96,300 Prepared leathers, - 304,500 Leather curried, - 137,700 tanned, - 698,100 Dift lied water and oils, 167,500 Gloves of Skins, - 63,900 — Grenoble, - 49 I ) 7 °° Dreffes, — - 131,100 Oil of grains, - 368, 100 Corks, — - 65,500 in plank, - 110,600 Cabinet ware, - 65,700 Villow ware, - 54 8o ° Cole feed cakes. - 547,600 Parchment, — 76,100 Perfumery, — • 196,100 Various /kins, — Skins of goats and kids, 123,500 156,800 calves prepared, 448,600 — - — flieep ditto, - 312,500 calves curried, - 1,571,10° — — — flieep and calves tan- 256,000 ned, — - Feathers prepared, - 54,600 Soap, - 1,376,70° Various edibles, — 49,100 Almonds, •* 450,800 Hogs, Cows and built, Calves, Horfes, Mules, Drugs, Liquorice juice, Gaul nuts, - Madder, Roots of Allifary, Saft'ranam, Shumac, Turnfole, Tobacco leaf, Butter, - Salt meat, — Flour, — Cheefe, - Various fruits, Raw ditto, Dried ditto, Prunes dried, C rapes, — Wheat, Rye, Meflin and Maiz, Indian corn, — Barley, — Legumes, Oil of olives. Honey, - Eggs, Salt, Wine brandy, Corn ditto. Liqueurs, — Wines, Wines of Bourdeaux, Vinegar, Cattle, Oxen (No. 7659), Sheep (No. 104,990), Hogs, Cows and bulls, Horfes, Mules, Saffron, Oil of terebinth. Terebinth, Verdigrife, Tobacco leaf, rappe. liv. 276,10 a 1,264,800 89,300 2,052,900 148,400 67,30a 313,000 476,600 226,309 57 8 >:°o 73)209 87,600 5,993,100 118,40* 121,400 J> 2 7 J> 50 o 1 44 ) 1 00 2 - 79 )OOo I 3 H 500 69,600 79 I ) 7 °o 324.200 2,608,300 239 > 4 oo 52,700 633>ioo 321.100 558.600 1,346,100 361.800 75,200 2,189,800 1 1 035,200 1,045,500 205.300 6,807,900 16,150,900 1 24.400 108.600 1.088.200 1.017.200 965.800 227.000 455,700 1,509,000 239.200 46.000 128.400 266.300 4 j 8>4oo 653.100 JV. B. The- provinces of Loraine, Alface, and the three bifhoprics, are not included in this account, nor any export or import to or front the Weft Indies. Total export, import, 307,151,700 liv. 27 1, 365, 000 Balance, 35,786,700 £. 1,565,668 fterling. Imports, COMMERCE. Soi Imports into France in 1787 . liv. Steel from Holland, Switzer- land, and Germany, 862 000 Copper, - - 7,217,000 Tin from England, 885,000 Iron from Sweden and Germa- ny, - - 8,469,000 E rat's from ditto, - 1,175,000 Lead from England and the Hanfiatjc towns, 2,242,000 Steel manufactures from Ger- many and England, 4,927,000 Coals from England, Flan- ders, andTufc.tny, 5,674,000 Woods from the Baltic, 5,408,000 Woods feuillard & mercin, 1,593,000 Cork from Spain, - 262,000 Fitch and tar, - 1,557,000 Afhes, foda, and pot-afh, . 5,762,000 Yellow wax, - 2,260,000 Garden feeds, flax, and mil- let. Madder and roots of Alli- fary, Wheat, Rice, Barley, Legumes, Fruits, Butter, Salt beef and pork, Cheefe, Oil of olives, Brandy of corn, - ■ of wine, Wines, Beer, Oxen, fheep, and hogs, Horfes and mules, Raw hides, liv. 1.115.000 962.000 8,n6,ooo 2.040.000 3 7 5,000 945.000 3 060,000 2.507.000 2.960.000 4.522.000 16,645,000 1.874.000 3,715,00c 1.489.000 469,000 6.646.000 2 911,000 2.707.000 liv. Skins not prepared, 1,180,000 Goat’s hair from Levant, 1,137,000 Bridles of hogs and wild boars, - - 275.000- Tallow, - * 3,111,000 Raw wool, - - 20,884,000 Woollen fluffs, - 4,325,000 Raw filk, - - 28,266 000 Silk manufactures, 4,154,000 Flax, - - 6,056 000 Linens of flax, - 11,955,000 Hemp, - - 5,040,000 Linen of hemp, - 65544 000 Cotton from the Brazils, the Levant, and Naples, 16,494,000 Cotton manufactures, 13 448,000 Tobacco, - 14,142,000 Drugs, fpic’s, glafs, pottery, books, feathers, &c. &c. 61,820,000 Exports in the fame Tear. Timber and wood of all forts. Pitch and tar, - Afhes for manure. Charcoal, Vetch hay, Garden feeds, flax-feed, &c. Greafe, Hops, Tallow-loaves, Cocoon fllk refufe, Threads of all forts, - 241,800 Hemp, - - 117,100 Wool, raw and fpun, 4,378,905 Flax, - - 22,800 Rabbzits wool, - 10,400 Silk, - - 628,000 Starch, - - 32,200 Caudles, - - 131,900 Horfes, - - 42,100 Wax, - - 307,800 Cordag”, - - 268,000 Tanned leather, - 1,280,300 Raw leather, - 1 16, coo Diftilled w'at-rs and oils, 162,50c Pigeon’s dung, - 37,000 166,300 Spirit of wine. - 144,700 0 0 E'- en Effences, - 10,000 59,400 Staves, - 22,800 3 I > 3 00 Gloves, - 428,900 12,000 Linleed-oil, - 174,800 988,500 Corks, - 139,000 17,300 105,600 CoLfeed oil cakes Shee, roebuck, and calve-fkins 449, 500 145,600 tanned, - 2,705,200 41,500 Feathers for beds. - 51,100 Soap, - - 1,752,800 Aimonds, - - 850,500 Butter, - - 88,600 Salted meat, - 487,700 Preferved fruits, - 1,518,600 Com of all forts, except here- after named, - 3,165,600 Wheat, - - 6,559,900 Legumes, - 949,200 Olive oil, - - 1,732,400 Honey, - - 644,600 Eggs, - - 99,800 Salt, - - 2,322,500 Poultry, - - 35 - 7 °° Cyder, - - 17,500 Brandy of wine (114,044 muids). Liqueurs, Wines in general (159,222 maids), — — Bourdeaux (201,246 muids), Vin de liqueurs, Vinegar, Oxen, hogs, flietp, &c. Mules, horfes, afles, Ju : ce of lemons, — — — liquorice. Liquorice, * Saffron, Roots of Allifary, Salt of tartar, Shumac, Terebinth, Turnfole, Verdigrife, Cloth, Woollen fluffs, Cotton, linen, cambric, &c. Of this cambric, 5,230,000 liv. 14,455,600 234,000 8.558.200 17,718,100 io,coo 130.900 5.074.200 j j 453 > 7 °° 60,000 35>503 24.600 214,900 1,500 14 900 10.200 33>ioo 12.200 512,400 14 242,400 5,615,800 19,692,000 Total exports, including tine articles not here minuted, 349,72.5,400 liv. — imports, - 310,184,000 Balance, - 39,541,400 f . 1,729,9.36 fterling. Explanation , — The contraband trade of export and import has been calculated, and the true balance found to be about 25,000,000 liv. (1,093,750!.}, the provinces of Loraine, Alface, the three bifhoprics, and the Weft-Indies, not included*, Olfervd: iris , <02 COMMERCE. Obfervations . The preceding accounts of the trade of France, for thefe two years, aie cor- rect in all probability in the articles noted ,• but that they are imperfect there is great reafon to believe. In 1787 there is an impoit of raw metals to the amount of above 20 millions: but in the account 01 1784 tneie is no fuch ar- ticle in the lift, which is plainly an omiffion. And though coals are among the exports in 1784, there are none in the imports, which is another omiffion. In the manufactured articles alfo are various omiffions, not eafily to be accounted for, though the treaty of commerce explains fome articles, as that of cotton ma- nufactures, &c.: the idea to be formed of the exports and imports of France ihould be gathered from an union of the two, rather than horn eithei 01 them feparate. No idea, thus to be gained or acquired by any other combinations, will allow for one moment the poffibility of a balance of commerce of 70, 000,000 liv. (3,062,5001.) in favour of France, which Monf. Necker has calculated it to be, in bis book, Do V Adminiftration des Finances , and which calculation the Marquis de Caftaux, in his Mechanijm des Societes , has refuted in an unanl'.veiable man- ner. It will be curious to examine what is the amount of the imports of the -"produce of land, minerals excluded. . In 1784 the imports of the produce of land amounted to. Wool, Silk, Hemp and flax. Oil, Live flock and its produce, Corn, Sundries, liv. 25,925,000 29. 582.700 5,494,800 25.615.700 18,398,400 5*651,500 24.860.700 i35>55M°° In 1787 the fame articles are, liv. 20,884,000 Wool, Silk, Hemp and flax. Oil, Live flock. Corn, Tobacco, Sundries, - 28.266.000 1 1.096.000 16.645.000 29.079.000 1 1.476.000 14.142.000 24,2066,000 155 * 794*000 She may be faid, therefore, to import in a common year about 145,000,000 liv. (6,343,7501.) of agricultural produfts: and thefe imports are a fluking proof, that I was not wide of the truth when I condemned fo feverely the rural oeco- nomy of France in almoft every particular, the culture of vines alone excepted. For the country, of all Europe the beft adapted by nature to the production of wool, to import fo immenfely, fhews how wretchedly they are underftocked with fheep ; and how much their agriculture fuffers for want of the fold of thefe five or fix millions, in which they are deficient even for their own de- mand. The import of fuch great quantities of other forts of live flock alfo fpeaks the fame language. Their hufbandry is weak and languifliing .in every part of the kingdom, for want of larger flocks of cattle, and the national de- r mands COMMERCE. S°3 mands cannot be fupplied. In this trade of live Rock there is, however, one circumRance which does the higheR honour to the good fenfe and policy of the old French government ; for though wool was fo much wanted for their fa- brics, and many meafures were taken for increaling fheep and improving the breed, yet was there no prohibition on the export either of live fheep or wool, nor any duty farther than for afcertaining the amount. It appears that they ex- ported above 100,000 fheep annually ; and this policy they embraced, not for want of experience of any other (for the export was prohibited for many years), but finding it a difcouragement to the breed, they laid the trade open, and the fame plan has been continued ever fince ; by this fyRem they are fure that the price is as high in France as amongft her neighbours, and confequentiy that there is all the encouragement to breed which luch equality of price can give. The export of woollen manufacture in 1784, amounts to 24,795,800!^. or not equal to the import of raw wool. On the general account, therefore, France does not fupply herfelf ; and the treaty of commerce having introduced many Englifh woollen fluffs, fhe is at prefent further removed from that fupply,, Confidering the climate, foil, and population of the kingdom, this Rate of her woollen trade certainly indicates a moR grofs negleCt. For want of having im- proved the breed of her fheep, her wools are very bad, and fhe is obliged to im- port, at a heavy expence, other wools, fome of which are by no means good; and thus her manufactures are under a heavy difadvantage, on account of the low Rate of agriculture. The Reps Rie has taken to improve her wools, by giv- ing penfions to academicians, and ordering experiments of enquiry upon obvious points, are not the means of improvement- An Englifh cultivator, at the head of a fheep farm of three or four thoufand acres, as I obferved above, would, in a few years, do more for their wools than, all the academicians and philofophers will effeCt in ten centuries. Bayonne. Trade here is various, the chief articles are the Spanifh commerce, the Newfoundland fifhery, and the coaRing trade' to BreR, Nantes, Havre, Dunkirk, &c. they have an export of wine and flour, and they ma- nufacture a good deal of table linen. They build merchant flnps, and the king has two frigates on the Rocks here under flated roofs. Of a merchantman, the workmanRiip alone amounts to about 1 5UV. a ton. They reckon 2000 Tailors and fiihermen, including die bafque men, about fixtydhips of different fizes, be- long to the place, eight of which are in the American trade, feventeen in the Newfoundland fifhery, of from 80 to 100 tons average, but fome much larger; the reR in the Spanifh, Mediterranean, and coaRing trades. Seamen here are paid in the Newfoundland fifhery 36 liv. a month wages, and 1 quintal in 5 c£ all the fifh. caught. To Dunkirk 27 liv. to Nantes 45 liv. per voyage; to the Coafi. of Guinea 5oliv. per month; to BoRon and Philadelphia 50 liv. to St. SebaRian 24 liv. the voyage ; to Bfiboa 36 liv- to St. Andero 4.0 liv- to.Colo- nia COMMERCE. 504 nia and Ferro! 46 liv. to Liibon and Cadiz 30 liv. a month, and for three months certain . Bourdeaux. All the world knows that an immenfe commerce is car- ried on at this city ; every part of it exhibits to the traveller’s eye unequivocal proofs that it is great; the fhips that lye in the river are always too numerous to count ealily ; I guefs there are at prefent between 3 and 400, befides fmall craft and barges; at fome leafons they amount to 1000 or 1500, as I was allured, but know not the truth of it ; I rather queftion it, as it does not feem abfolutely to agree with another account, which makes the number of fhips that enter the harbour ten on an average every day ; or, as alferted by others, 3000 in a year. It may be fufficient to fay, at prefent, that here are every lign of a great and flourilhng trade ; crouds of men all employed, bufy, and active ; and the river much wider than the Thames at London, animated with fo much commercial motion, will leave no one in doubt. Shipbuilding is a conliderable article of their trade ; they have built lixty fhips here in one year ; a lingle builder has had eight of his own on the flocks at a time; at prefent they reckon the number on an average from 20 to 30 ; the greater number was towards the termination of the war, a fpeculation on the effedt of peace ; there are fixty builders who are regiftered after undergoing an examination by an officer of the royal navy ; they reckon from 2 to 3000 fhip-carpenters, but including the river Garonne for many leagues; alfo 15000 failors, including thofe carpenters ; the expence of building rifes to 5I. a ton, for the hulk, mafks, and boats ; the rigging and all other articles about 4I. more ; thirty-three men, officers and boys included, are eftimated the crew for a veffel of 400 tons, eight men for one of 100 tons, and fo in proportion ; they are paid all by the month from 30 to 36 liv. fome few 40 lit. carpenters 40 to 50/1 a day, and fome 3 liv. there are private fhip-owners, whole whole trade conlifts in the poffeffion of their veliels, which they navigate on freight for the merchants ; they have a calculation, that fhips laft one with another twelve years, which would make the number pofTeffed by thetovn 300, built by themfelves ; a number I fhould apprehend under the truth ; the Bretons and Dutch build alfo for them. Ships of a larger burthen than 700 tons cannot come up to th< town but in fpring tides. The export of wine alone is reckoned to amount to 80,000 tons, belides which brandy mull; be an immenfe article. Havre de Grace. There is not only an immenfe commene carried on here, but it is on a rapid increafe ; there is no doubt of its beiig the fourth town in France for trade. The harbour is a foreffc of mails ; tley fay, a 50 gun fhip can enter, I fuppofe without her guns. They have fone very large nerchantmen C O M M E R C E. SOS merchantmen in the Guinea trade of* 5 or 600 tons, but by far their greateft commerce is to the Weft- India fugar iflands ; they were once confiderable in the fifheries, but not at prefent. Situation muft of neceflity give them a great coafting trade, for as flips of burthen cannot go up to Rouen, this place is the emporium for that town, for Paris, and all the navigation of the Seine, which is very great. Sailors are paid 40 liy. a month. There are thirty Guineamen belonging to the town, from 350 to 700 tons; 120 Weft-Indiamenj 100 coafting trade; moft of them are built at Havre! The mere building a (hip of 300 tons is 30,000 liv. but fitted out 60,000 liv. The increafe of the commerce of Havre has been very great in twenty-five years, the expreffion ufed was, that every crown has become a louis, and not gained by rivalling other places, but an increafe nationally, and yet they confider themfelves as having buffered very considerably by the regulations of the Marechal de Cafiries, in relation to the colonies ; his permitting foreigners to lerve them with fait provifions, lumber, &c. opened an immenfe door to fmuggling manufactures in, and fugar out, which France feels feverely. Honfleur. The bafon full of flips, and as large as thofe at Havre, I law fame of at leaf 600 tons. Cherbourg. Sailors 36 liv. to 40 liv. a month. St. Brieux. The flips belonging to this little port are generally of 200 tons, employed in the Newfoundland fifieries, carrying fixty men of all forts, who are paid not by fhares, but wages by the voyage ; feamen 200 liv. to 250 liv. and feme to 500 liv. Nantes. The accounts I received here of the trade of this place, made the number of flips in the fugar trade 120, which import to the amount of about 32 millions, 20 are in the fave trade ; thefe are by far the greateft ar- ticles of their commerce ; they have an export of corn, which is confiderable from the provinces wafhed by the Loire, and are not without minoteries, but vafly inferior to thofe of the Garonne. Wines and brandy are great articles, and manufactu res even from Switzerland, particularly printed linens and cot- tons, in imitation of Indian, which the Swifs make cheaper than the French fabrics of the ffame kind, yet they are brought quite acrofs France; they ex- port fome of tlhe linens of Bretagne, but not at all compared with St. Maloes, which has beem much longer efablifhed in that bufinefs. To the American States they hav^e no trade, or next to none. I afked ifBourdeaux had it? No# Marfeilles ? N o. Havre ? No. Where then is it ? Tout en Angleterre . The accounts they give here of the trade to the Sugar Iflands is, that Bourdeaux has twice as much of it as Nantes, and Havre to the amount of 25 millions, this will make it, 3 T Bourdeaux 50 6 COMM E R C E. liv. Bourdeaux, - 60,000,000 And the proportion of fhips. Nantes, - 30,000,000 Bourdeaux, 240 Havre, • 25,000,000 Nantes, - * 120 Havre, - IOO 1 15,000,000 Merfeilles, m 50,000,000 460 Merfeilles, « I40 165,000,000 - 600 But at Havre they talk of 120. The whole commerce of thefe ifles they calculate at 500 liv. millions, by which I fuppofe they mean exports, imports, navigation, profit, &c. &c. The trade of Nantes is not at prefent fo great as it was before the American war ; thirty fhips have been building here at once, but never half that num- ber now ; the decline they think has been much owing to the Marifhal de Caftries’ regulations, admitting the North Americans into the Sugar Iflands, by which means the navigation of much fugar was loft to France, and foreign fabrics introduced by the fame channel. The 40 liv. a ton given by govern- ment to all fhips that carry flaves from Africa to the Sugar Iflands, and re- turn home with fugars, and which I urged as a great favour and attention in government, they contended was juft the contrary to a favour; it is not near equal to what was at the fame time taken away ; that of favouring all cargoes of fugar in fhips under that defcrption, with paying only half the duties, 2 1 inftead of 5 per cent, and which equalled 60 liv. per ton inftead of 40. A fhip of 300 tons in the fugar trade thirty hands, but not more than fixteen or eighteen good, ones, becaufe of the law which forces a certain proportion of new hands every voyage, Weft-India eftates in general render to their owners at Nantes 10 per cent, on the capital fo invefted. They affert, that if the Eaft-India trade was laid open, numbers here would engage in it. There is a fhip of 1250 tons now at Pambon, idle for want of employ. A circumftance in fhipbuilding defcrves attention. It was' remarked in con- verfation, that many Spanifh flips laft incomparably longer than any other ; \ that this is owing to maftic being laid on under the copper bottom. Mon ft Epivent, a confiderable merchant here, has tried it and with the greateft fuc- cefs ; copper bottoms all with copper bolts inftead of iron ones. ■fiuiidmg a fhip of 300 tons, 30 to 35,000 liv. ten now building. L’Orient. COMMERCE. ■ 'SP7 L’Orient. Every thing I faw in this port fpoke the dedenfion of the India commerce, the magazines and warehoufes of the company are immenfe, and form a fpedtacle of which I had feen nothing of the kind equal, but the trade is evidently dead, yet they talk of the company pofTeffing ten ffiips from 600 to 900 tons, and they even fay, that five have gone this year to India and China. In 1774,5,6, it was great, amounting to 60 millions a year. What adtivity there is at this port at prefent, is owing to its royal dock for building fome men of war. It is the port at which the farmers general import their American tobacco, the contradt of which was for 25,000 hogfheads, but dwindled to 17,000. Marseilles. I found here as at the other great ports of France, that the commerce with North America is nothing, not to a greater amount than a million of livres a year. The great trade is that of the Levant. I was informed here, that the great plantation of Monf. Galifet, in St. Do- mingo, has 1800 negroes on it, and that each negroe in general in the ifland produces grofs 660 liv. feeding himfelf befides. Wages of feamen 33 to 40 liv. a month ; in the Mediterranean 33, Ame- rica 40 liv. A fhip of 200 tons building here cofts for timber only 25,000 liv. of 300 tons 40,000 liv. of 400 tons 75,oooliv. the wood is from 50 to 70 f per cubical foot ; fitting out afterwards for fea, cofts nearly the fame. Weft India Trade . The following is the date of the trade in 1775, as given by Monf. 1 ’Abbe Raynal . Products exported to France of St. . Domingo , Martinique y Guadaloupe , Cayenne . Re-exported Value of re- Value. from France. export. lb. liv. lb. liv. Sugar, 166,353,834 61,849,381 104,099,8 66 3 8 , 703,720 Coffee, - , 61,991,699 29,421,099 50,058,246 23 , 757,464 Indigo, 2,067,498 17.573.733 i,i 3 °A 3 8 9,610,423 Cacao, 1,562,027 1,093,419 794,275 5 5 5>99 2 Rocon, 352,216 220,369 ,53.178 95.83* Cotton, 3 , 407,157 1 1 ,0 1 7-»$ Q 2 102,01 1 255,027 Hides, 16,123 180,078 568 5,U2 Carret, 8,912 89,1 20 100 1,000 Canefice, 206,916 5 5,7 5 2 120,759 32,604 Wood, 9,441,900 922,222 4,180,820 40*>355 Sundries, 1,352,148 Silver, 2,600,000 126,378,155 73.425.53* -Sterling, 3 ? 2 Ships 5©8 COMMERCE. Ships that carried on the Trade the fame Tear . Ships. Dunkerque, 13 Le Havre, 96 Honfleur, 4 St. Malo, 13 Nantes, 1 12 La Rochelle, Slips. - 24 Bourdeaux, 220 Bayonne, - 9 Marfeille, 7 i 562 In 1786, the imports from thefe colonies into France were. St. Domingo, Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, Tobago, St. Lucic, nothing dire&ly. 13 1 ,4Si,oooliv. 23.958.000 14.360.000 919,000 4,113,000 * 174,831,000 Of thefe, — Sugar, 174,222,0001b. — Coffee, 66,231,0001b — Cotton, 7,595,0001b. The navigation in 569 fhips, of 162,31 1 tons, of which Bourdeauxf employs 246 fhips, of 75,285 tons. In 1786 the import of raw fugar was greater than in 1784, by Of white fugar, by Of cotton, by lb. 8,47 5> 000 17,155,000 2,740,000 Cotton has been increafing in demand by foreigners, who took in 1785, more by 1,495,0001b. than in 17843 and in 1786 more by 1,798,0001b. than in 1785. In 1784, France fent to Africa feventy-two fhips of 15,198 tons.. In 1785, the number 102 fhips of 36,429 tons, and in 1786, fhe employed 1 51 * Total in 1784 was i39,ooo,oooliv. What can Monf. Begoueu, of Havre, mean by railing this to 230,000,000 ? — 800 fhips -I2©0 fhips ? — 25,000 feamen ? and I do not know what other ex- travagances? Precis fur /’ Importance des Colonies. 8vo. 179®. p. 3, 5, &c. Another writer ftates, 800 large fhips, 500 finall ones, and value 240 millions! Opinion de Monf. Biin , p. 7. How thefe calculations are made, I do not conceive. f Bourdeaux I take to be a place of greater and richer trade than any provincial town in the Bri- tifh dominions. Our gre-ateft are, Tons. Seamea. Newcaftle, which in 1787. pofleffed of (hipping, 105,000 5,393 Liverpool, 172,000-10,000 Tons. Seamen, Whitehaven, 53,000 - 4,000 Sunderland, 53,000 - 3,300 Whitby, 46,000 - 4,200 Hull, 46,000- Briftol, Yarmouth, Lynn, Dublin, Tons. Seamen. 33.000 - 4,070 32.000 16,000 14,000 COMMERCE. 509 /hips of 65,521 tons, the cargoes worth 22,748,000 liv. of which navigation Nantes poiTeffed forty-two fhips ; the cargoes confided of Hv. liv. Arms, Pitch and tar. Cafes, Salt meat, &c. Cowrie-fhells, Coral, Cordage and fails. Cutlery, Copper, Woollen cloths. Brandies, Stuffs of all forts. Flour, 617,000 Iron, 82,000 Oil of olives. 78,000 Legumes, 677,000 Liqueurs, 1,251,000 Handkerchiefs, 265,000 Piaftres, 357,000 Beads, &c. 132,000 Rice, 431,000 French linens. 393,000 Foreign, ditto. 1,289,000 Bourdeaux wines 566.000 186.000 Other wines, 446.000 41,000 415.000 100.000 735.000 514.000 123.000 257.000 2.205.000 8.865.000 655.000 1 14.000 The returns to France in fix lhips of 1180 tons, brought 355,0001b. of gum Senega, 37,0001b. of elephant’s teeth, both worth 1,173,000 liv. But the Have trade on French bottoms did not increafe with the increafe of the African trade in general. In 1784, Haves fold in the iffes, ' - - 25,116 1785, ditto, - - 17,147 1786, ditto, - - 26,000 But as the produce increafed, there feems reafon to think, that foreigners partook of this trade. Thefe in French bottoms, the total numbers mud be much more confider- able^ as appears from the following table of St. Domingo only,. Years. No. Negroes fold. Price. 1783 9 > 37 ° liv. 15,650,000 I784 25,025 43,602,000 1785 21,762 43 j^ 34 ,°oo I786 27,648 54,420,000 17&7 30,839 60,563,000 I788 29,506 61,936,000 Y ears. Coffee fold. Price. lb. lb. 1783 44 , 573 5 °oo 33 . 429,750 1784 52,8 85,000 44,95^250 1 7 8 5 57,368,000 57 , 368,000 1786 52, I 80,000 57 , 398 , 000 1787 70,003,000 91 , 003,900 1788 68,1 5 i,ooo 92 , 003 , 850 - It defer ves obfervation, that while the the price rofe continually. Price per lb. in 1783,. - 15/i 1784, - 1 7/ 1 7 8 5 , - 2 °f- quantity almod trebled in five years. Price per lb. in 1786, - 22 f. 1787, - 26/. 1788. * - 2 7 / * Memoir e Envoy t le iff Juin 1790, an Comite da Rapports, par M. de la Luzerne, Miniftre&Seca d’Etat. 4to. p. 70. Exports: 3 *o C O M M E R C E. Exports from France to thefe i/les in 1786 . To St. Domingo, Martinique, Guadaloupe, Cayenne, * Tobago, St. Lucie, nothing dire&ly. 44.722.000 liv. 12.109.000 6,274,000 578.000 658.000 64.341.000 Confiding of Salted beef. Stockings and caps. Hats, &c. Cordage and fails. Silk lace. Woollen cloths. Stuffs of all forts, Brandy, Flour, Iron, Cheefe, Oil of olives. Linen, Handkerchiefs, liv. 1.264.000 722.000 1.676.000 2.667.000 791.000 602.000 1.442.000 467.000 6.515.000 1.410.000 740.000 1.314.000 697.000 Confiding of liv. Mullins, French, foreign, and Indian, - 789,000 Mercery and clinqualeric 1,028,000 Furniture, - - 374,000 Sundries, - - 804,000 Shoes, - - - 1,248,000 Soap, - - 1,402,000 Tallow and candles, - 1,420,000 French linens, - 13,360,000 Foreign linens, - 985,000 Bourdeaux wines, - 5,490,000 Other wines and liquors, 1,080,000 64*342,000 Foreign articles 1,696,000 Of which Bourdeaux exports to the amount 0633,761,000 liv. exported purfuant to the arret of Auguft 30th, were 4,967,000 liv. Imports from the illes, 174,831,000 liv. Exports to them, 64,341,000 liv. Balance againft France, 210,490,000, The exports in 1786 to the Illes were lefs than thofe of 1785 by 11,761,000 liv. But the exports to Senegal were greater by 12,514,000 liv. The decreafe was in manufactures ; Linens in 1784, 17,796,000 liv.*- 1786, 13,363,000 liv. Auguft 30, 1784, in the miniftry of the Marechal de Caftries, foreigners were permitted, under certain regulations, to trade to the French fugar illands, after a fpirited controverfy in print for and againft the meafure. The trade of 1786, in confequence of this arret, was as follows ; Exports from Ditto . Imports in ,the IJlcs . liv. From the United States, 13,065,000 Englilh, - 4,550,000 Spaniards, - 2,201,000 Dutch, - 801,000 Portuguefe, - 152,000 Danes, - .68,000 Swedes, - 41,000 To the Americans, Englilh, Spaniards, Dutch, Swedes and Danes, 20,880,000 f In 1777, it was 600,000 liv. liv. 7.263.000 1,2 59,000 3.189.000 2.030.000 39EOOO 14 , 133 *°°° Navigation COMMERCE. Navigation of this Trade. 5 11 Imports. Ships. Tons. Exports. Ship$. Tons. American veflels, 1,392 — 105,095 American, - 1,1 27 — 85,403: French, - 313 — 9,122 French, 534 — i 3 > 94 i Englifh, - 189 — 10,192 Englifh, i 53 — 10,778 Spanifh, - 245 — 6,471 Spanifh, 249 — 5,856 Dutch, Portuguefe, Dutch, &c. 32 1,821 Swedes & Danes, 34 — 2,102 — 2,229 J 33> 10 9 2,095 1 * 7,799 As the cultivation and exports from the ifles in 1786, were greater than in 1784, the demand for French manufactures ought to have been greater alfo* but this was not the cafe ; Export of French linens to the ifles in 1784, 17,796,000 liv. 1786, 13,363,000 Aulns of French linen 178 4, 7,700,000 178 5, 5,200,000 1786,. 6,100,000 It would have been found fo, if the arret of Augufl: 30 had not opened the colo- nies to foreigners, who introduced manufadtures as well as lumber and provifions. It is a great queftion, whether this was right policy ; the argument evidently turns on one great hinge ; the peculiar benefit to the mother country* from pof- fefling colonies, is their fupply ; to fell them, whatever they demand, and to fecure the navigation dependent. It is not, to be fure, of fugar and coffee that nations plant colonies ; they are fbre of thofe, and of any other commodities if they be rich enough to pay for them ; a Ruffian or Pole, is as certain of com- manding fugar as a Frenchman, or an Englishman; and the governments of ^ thofe countries may raife as great a revenue on the import, as the governments that poflefs the iflands. The peculiar benefit, therefore, of colonies, is the monopoly of their fupply. It is in vain to fay, that permitting the colonifts to buy what they want at the cheapefl: and the befl: hand, will enable them to raife fb much more fugar, and tend ultimately to the benefit of the mother country; fince, let them grow as rich as poffible, and increase their culture to any degree whatever, frill the advantage of the mother country arifesfrom the fupply; and if /he lofes that to gain more fugar, fhe lofes all for which the pofleflion is de- fireable. It would be right for every country to open her colonies to all the world on principles of liberality and freedom ; and frill it would be better to go one flep farther, and have no colonies at all. The fugar iflands of all nations, in the Wefi> Indies, including the great ifland of Cuba, are confiderable enough to 5ia COMMERCE. to form an independent free nation ; and it wants not many arguments to fhew, that the exigence of fuch an one would be far more beneficial to the Englifti, French, and Spaniards, than the pofieffion of thofe ifiands as colonies. Tore- turn, however, to the arret of Auguft 30, there is reafon to believe, that the policy which induced the Marechal de Caftries to alter the exifting laws relat- ing to foreigners was quefiionable, and attended with evils, in proportion to the extent of the trade that took place in confequence. The reful t of the French fugar trade, refembles nearly that which England carries on with her fugar colonies, namely, an immenfe balance again ft her. — We have writers who tell us, that this trade ought to be judged by a method the reverie of every other, the merit of it depending not on the exports, but on the imports : I have met with the fame idea in France ; and as it is an object of very great confequence in the national oeconomy, it may be worth re- marking, — i,fthat the advantages refulting from commerce, are the encourage- ment of the national induftry, whether in agriculture or manufactures ; and it is unqueftionably the exports which give this encouragement, and not the im- ports of a trade, unlefs they are the raw materials of future labour. 2, The real wealth of all trade confifts in the confumption of the commodities that are the objedt of fuch trade ; and if a nation be rich enough to confume great quanti- ties of fugar and coffee, fire has undoubtedly the power of giving activity to a certain quantum of her own induftry, in confequence of the commerce which fuch confumption occafions, whether the fugar be the produCt of her own colo- nies, or thofe of any other power. 3, The taxes levied on Weft-Indian commo- dities are no motive whatever for efteeming the poffefiion of fuch colonies bene- ficial, fince it is the confumption that pays the tax, and not the pojj'ejjion of the land that produces the commodity. 4, The monopoly of navigation is valuable no farther than as it implies the manufacture of fhip-building and fitting out; the pofieffion of many bailors, as inftruments of future wars, ought to be es- teemed in the fame light as great Ruffian or Pruffian armies ; that is to fay, as the means of ambition; and as the inftruments of wide-extended mifery 5, The pofieffion of fugar ifiands is the inveftment of immenfe capitals in the agriculture of America, inftead of the agriculture of France: the people of that kingdom ftarve periodically for want of bread, becaufe the capitals which fhould raife wheat in France are employed on fugar in St. Domingo. What- * Prejudices of the deepeft root are to be eradicated in England before men will be brought to ad- mit-this obvious truth. Thofe prejudices took their rife from a daftardly fear of being conquered by France, which government has taken every art to propagate ever fince the revolution, the better to promote its own plans of expence, profufion, and public debts. Portugal, Sardinia, the little Italian and German States, Sweden, and Denmark, &c. have been able, deficient as they are in government and in people, to defend themfelves ; but the Britifh illes, with fifteen millions of people, are to be conquered ! ! * . . ever ,C O M M E R c E. 5*3 ever advantage the advocates for colonies may be fuppoied to fee in fuch porte fiions, they are bound to Ihew, that the inveftment of equal capitals in the agriculture of France would not be productive of equal and even of in- finitely fuperior benefits. 6, It is Ihewn, in another place, tliat the agri- culture of France is, in the capital employed, 450,000,000!. inferior to that of England ; can any madnefs, therefore, be greater than the in ve Il- men t of capitals in American agriculture for the fake of a trade, the ba- lance of which is above 100,000,000 liv. againft the mother country, while nothing but poverty is found in the fields that ought to feed Frenchmen ? 7, If it be faid, that the re-exportation of Wert-Indian commodities is immenfe, and greater even than the balance, I reply, in the firfl place, that Monf. Necker gives us reafon to believe, that this re-exportation is greatly exaggerated ; but granting it to rife to any amount, France bought thofe commodities before fhe fold them, and bought them with hard cafh to the fum of the balance againft her ; firft lofing by her tranfaCtions with America the bums fhe afterwards gains by exporting to the north. The benefit of fuch a trade is nothing more than the profit on the exchange and tranfport. But in the employment of capital, the lofs is great. In all common trades, fuch as thofe fhe carries on with the Levant, or with Spain, fhe has the common profit of the commerce, without inverting any capitals in producing the commodities fhe buys ; but in the Wert-Indian commerce fhe inverts double capitals, to produce the goods fhe fells, and equally to produce the goods fhe buys. 8, If it fhould be faid that St. Domingo is not to be confidered as a foreign country, with which France trades, nor a colony, but as a part of itfelf ; and that the balance between them is like the balance between them and the provinces, then I reply, that it is fo ill fituated a province, that to encourage a deviation of capitals from all other provinces to be inverted in this, is little fhort of madnefs; frft^, from dirtance and cultivation by flaves, it is infecure. If it efcapes the attacks of European foes, the natural progrefs of events will throw it into the hands of the United States. Secondly , it demands a great navy to defend it ; and confequently taxes on all the other provinces, to the amount of two millions rterling per annum. Of what expence to Lan- guedoc, is the pofiefiion of Bretagne ? Its proportion of the common defence. Is this fo with St. Domingo > France pays a marine of two millions, but St. Domingo does not pay one /hilling to defend France, or even' to defend itfelf. In common fenfe, the. poftefiion of fuch a province ought to be deemed a principle of poverty and weaknefs, rather than of riches and of rtrength. 9, I have converted on this fubjeCt at Havre, Nantes, Bourdeaux, and Marfeilles ; and I have not yet met with a man able to give me one other folid reafon for fuch a fyftem than the faCt that agriculture in the Wert-Indies is profitable, and not fo in France. The fame argument is ufed, and with equal truth, in England. I admit the faCt ; and it recurs at once to the pernicious doCtrine of laying fuch 3 U . taxes 5H COMMERCE taxes, reftridions, prohibitions, and monopolies on land at home, that men in- clined to purfue agriculture as a trade muft go with their capitals into another hemifphere, in order to reap an adequate profit. But change this wretched and abominable policy; remove every taxs even to the lhadow of one on land; throw all on confumption ; proclaim a free corn trade; give every man a power of inclofure. — In other words give in the Bourbonnois what you have given in Domingo, and then fee if French corn and wool will not return greater profits than American fugar and coffee. The pofiefiion of fugar iflands, fo rich and prof- perous as thofe of France and England, dazzles the underftandings of mankind, who are apt to look only on one fide, where they fee navigation, re-export, commercial profit, and a great circulation : they do not reverfe the medal, and fee, in the mifchievous deviation of capitals from home, agriculture languish- ing, canals fianding ftill, and roads impaflable. They do not balance the cul- ture of Martinique by the landes of Bourdeaux ; the tillage of St. Domingo by the deferts of Bretagne ; or the wealth of Guadaloupe by the mifery of Sologne. If you purchafe the riches that flow from *America by the poverty and wretch- ednefs of whole provinces, are you blind enough to think the account a bene- ficial one ? I have ufed no arguments againft the French fugar iflands that are not applicable likewife to the Englifh : I hold them to be equal obfiacles to the profperity of both kingdoms ; and, as far as experiment of the lofs of North America goes, I am juflified by that vaft and important fad: — that a country may lofe the monopoly of a diflant empire, and rife from the imagi- nary lofs more rich, more powerful, and more profperous ! If thefe principles be juft, and that they are fo is confirmed By an immenfe range of fads, which are we to think of a politican who declares, that the lofs of Bengal, or the Dutch withdrawing their money from our funds, would ruin England * ? Export of the 'Products of French Agriculture to the Wef -Indies, in 1787 .. liv. 6.332.000. 769.000. 97 1 >000. 6r944,oco, 300,000* 500.000. 2,869,000 4.000. 000 2.000. 000; 2,000,000 26,685,000 ■VSTine, brandy* &c. ■ - — — - Edibles, ■ — • Salted meats* . . — — — ■ ■ Flour, - - ■ — Legumes* — Candles,. — — • - - Woods, cordage, &c. — — — Raw materials of manufactures, — — • — Furniture, deaths,. &c. the raw materials of* ~ Raw materials of the exports to Africa* Exports, of the foil,. — * Confid. fur les Richejfes et le Luxe* 8vo. 1787. p. 492. In the feme fpirit is the opinion, that. England, before the laft war, had attained the maximum of her profperity, p. 483. Manufactures. COMMERCE. 5'5 liv. Manufactured goods of national workmanfhip, 20,549,000 Materials, as above, — — . 4,000,000 Furniture, cloaths, See. Materials, as above, Exports to Africa, Materials, as above. Sundry articles, — 10^136,000 2, 000,000 17,000,000 2,000,000 16,549,000 8,136,000 1 5,000,000 7,341,000 73,711,000 Of which 49,947,oooliv. were French products and manufactures. Fifheries. No trade is fo beneficial as that of flfhing $ none in which a given capital makes fuch large returns ; nor any fo favourable to thofe ideal advantages, ^hich are fuppofed to flow from a great navigation. The French were always very afliduous in pufliing the progrefs of their fifheries. Suppofing them right ia the principles of thofe efforts they have made to become powerful at fea, which, however, is exceedingly queftionable, they have certainly aCted wifely in en- deavouring to extend thefe nurferies of maritime power. Newfoundland and Ifland fifheries, 1784, * 328 — • 36,34.9, ' 7 *S> * 45° — 48,631 178 6, - 43 3 — — 5 ^ ^ 43 Returnss of cod, mackarel, and herring, in 1784, were 15,414,0001b. 1785, 18,154,000 1786, 19; 100,000 Quantity of Newfoundland dried cod, 1784, - 230,516 quintaux. 1785, 1786, Cod exported to Italy and Spain, 1784, 1785, 1786, This great increaie attributed to the arret of Sept, j 785, which granted boun - * ties on the export of cod of 5 li v. and of ioliv. per quintal. Molt of the national fifheries are flourifhingj they employed in 1786, Ships. Tons. _ Ships. Tom. 928 — Irifh from Dunkerque, 62 — 2,742 39i — 47,399 Whale, - - 4—970 poffefling 556 fhips, of 21,53-1 tons. U z The 241,850 272,398 1,835,0001b. 2,410,000 4,1 17,00a Herrings, Sec. - Newfoundland, 391 — 47:>399 Dieppe does moft in the fifhing trac COMMERCE. 516 The value of the merchandize embarked in 1786, on board the fifhing vefiels, 3,734,00011V. and the returns the fame year were. Herrings and mackarel, &c. — 5,589,000 liv. Cod, — — — 13,686,000 Whales, — — — 53,000 Sundries, — — • — 200,000 19,528,000 Trade with the United States. The commerce with France carries on with the North Americans, is all the reward fhe reaps from having expended probably 50 millions fterling to fecure their freedom. Vifions of the depreffion of the British power, played indeed in the imaginations of the cabinet of Verfailles ; but peace was fcarcely returned, be- fore thofe airy hopes entirely vaniffied ; every hour proved, that England, by the emancipation of her colonies, was fo far from lofing any thing, that die had gained immenfely : the detail of this trade will prove, that France was as much deceived in one expectation as in the other. liv. On an average of three years preceding the French revolution, th: imports from America were - - - 9,600,000 Ditto into the French fugar iilands, - 11,100,000 20,700,000 1.800.000 6.400.000 — — 8,200,000 Balance, - 12,500,000 “ Ces republicans,” fays Monf. Arnould*, “ fe procurent maintenant fur nous, une balance en argent de 7 a 8 millions, avec laquelle ils foudoyent l’in- duftrie Angloife. Voila done pour la France le nec plus ultra d’un commerce, dont I’efpoir au pu contribuer a faire facrifier quelques. centaines de millions et plufieurs generations d’hommes !'* Trade to Ruffia . It is commonly fuppofed in England, that the trade which France carries on with Ruffia is very beneficial, in the amount of the balance ; and there are French writers alfo who give the fame reprefentation ; the part in French navi- gation will appear in the following ftatement : * De la Reliance du Commerce^ 1 791 . tom. i. p.234. Imports Exports of France to North America, Ditto from the ifles. COMMERCE, 5*7 Imports from Ruflia to France in 17 88, From France to Ruflia, liv. 6,87 1,900 6,108,500 Balance againft France, - - 763,400 / This, it is to be noted, concerns French bottoms only ; the greateft part of the commerce being carried on in Englifh and Dutch bottoms *. The whole commerce of France with the Baltic is faid to employ 6 or 700 fhips of 200 tons^f*. . Trade to India. At the period of the Revolution the ftate of the trade to India was as follows : Imports from India on a medium of 1785, 1786, and 1787 In 1788, - Merchandize . 34.700.000 33.300.000 Indian manufactures, Spices, tea and coffee of Moka, Silk, cotton, ivory, woods, China, &c.'&c. Drugs, liv. 26.600.000 6,000,000 1,150,000 493. 000 367.000 34,6x0,000 1 7. 400. 000 J 4.600.000 2.700.000 Exports from France at fame time, - Exports to the ifles of France and Bourbon on an average of the fame three years, - - Imports, - By the regulation of May 1787, confirmed by the National Aflembly, Port Louis, in the Iile of Fiance, is made free to foreign fhips, by which means it is expected that that port will become an entrepot for the India trade. * The navigation of the Baltic wi 11 appear from the following lift of fhips which palled the 1784 1785 1784 f M OC t Cn Englifh, 3 T 7 2 2535 Courlanders, 16 25 Danifh, 1691 1789 Dantzickers, 190 161 S^vedifh, 2170 2136 Bremene>rs, 259 176 Pruffians, 1429 *358 Hamburghers, 75 61 Dutch, 1366 1571 Lubeckers, 63 79 Imperial, 167 66 Roftockers, 53 IIO Portugutfe, 38 28 Oldemburghers, 8 0 Spanifh, J 9 15 French, 25 20 American, 13 20 - Venetian, 5 4 10,897 10,226. Ruffian, 138 114 » Cormere Rechcrcbes fur iei Finances, tom. i. p. 385. f lb. p. 362. t De la Balance du Commerce , tom. i. p. 182. Thera COMMERCE. 51* Navigation, There is not much reafon for modern readers to be folicitous- concerning the commerce or navigation of any country ; we may reft afliired, that the trading ipirit which has feized all nations, will make the governments anxious to pro- mote, as much as pofiible, whatever interefts their commerce, though their agri- culture is, at the fame moment, in the loweft ftate of poverty and neglett. All the Englhh authorities I have met with, refpe&ing the navigation of France, are of a very old date; perfons who are curious in thefe fpeculations, will probably be pleafed with the following account : Ships in France cleared outwards in 178 3 . For the Levant and coaft of Barbary, — Whale filhery, — -- r Herring filhery, - ■ - Mackarel filhery, - Sardinia, • - - .. Frefh both in the ocean and Mediterranean, Cod, All parts of Europe and the American States, Weft-Indies, - .. Senegal and Guinea, . Eaft-Indies, China, Ifles of France and Bourbon, both by company and otherways, . Ships. Tons. 366 — 45»285 14 — 3*232. 330 — ■ 9,804 437 — 4*754 1,441 — 4,289 2,668 — 11,596 '432 — 45*446 2,038 — 128,736 677 — ' 9°>7 S 3 10 5 •— * 35,227 86 — 37*1.57 8,588 — 5 i6 *279 >. . rtiin ciuicr oy rrenen or foieign ihips, amounts to 9*445 fhips and 556,152 tons. Monf. Arnould in his treatife De la Balance du Commerce, has given an ac- count of the French navigation for the year 1787, which does not well accord with this, I infert an extraft from it here that the reader may have the op- portunity of comparing them. Table oj thPTbnnage, -.French and foreign, employed in the Commerce of France in 1787. Europe, the Levant, coaft of Barbary, and United States, India and China, - - Coaft of Guinea, Have trade, Ifles of France and Bourbon, Sugar I Hands, . French. tons. 161,582 6,667 45^24 164,081 Foreign. tons. 532,687 Whale. COMMERCE. S'9 Whale fi flier y. Cod fifliery. Herring ditto, Mack are! ditto, Anchovie ditto. Sundry fiflieries, Coafting trade,. French. tons. 3,720 53,800 8,602 5,166 3,062 12,320 ,004,729 Foreign. tons. 6,123 Total, *>459>99 8 — 1 " " — ■ ■ 2,007,661 The immenfe increafe of the navigation of England, appears by comparing this account with that firft of commercial writers, Lord Sheffield, for the average of three years preceding 1773* Foreign trade*, Coafting trade* Fifhing veflels. Totals, — — - This is exclufive of Scotland *. Ships. Tons. Men. 2719 335.583- 30,771 3458 3I9>756 *5 j 2 44 1441 2 5>339 6,774 7619 580,579 54.78^ at the period of the Revolution, * X \ * HUHiuvia, vv nivii ai — ways betray inaccuracy,), of 250 tons, employed in long voyages, and in the. cod and whale fiffieries -f . The whole maritime commerce of exportation, employing at the- fame time 5:80,000 tons of aU nations, of which 152,000 tons were French. Cabotage (coafting Trade) the fame Tear . French fliips, Foreign ditto, Ships. 22,360 — 60 — Tons. 997,666 2,742 22,420 1,000,40ft N.. B. There is no diftinttibn between ffiip and voyage;, if a ffiip clears out five times a-year, fhe is regiftered every voyage The article Sardinia , which, appears ib large in ffiips, and fo fmall in tonnage, muft, I ffiould fnppofe* be for a fifhery on the coafts of that iftand^ * Obferv. on the Commerce of the American States, by John Lord Sheffield, 6th. edit., p. i6o~ t, Balance du Commerce, tom., ii. p. 23^ 8vo. 1791. From* 5^o COMMERCE. From the tonnage of thefhips, as they are called, in the fiflierie:, it appears, that they are little more than boats : thofe in the herring fifhery, ire- about 30 tons each — and in the mackarel, little more than 10 tons. The navigation of England for a year, ending the 30th September, 178 7, was. Ships. Tonnage. Wen. Englilh, — 8,7 1 1 — 954,729 — 8^,532 Scotch, — - 1,700 ~ 13330 34 — 1 J>443 Eaft Indiamen, 54 — 43,629 — 7,400 Ireland. 10,465 — I 9 I ,39 2 — 10.437 5 Without including the Weft-India trade, or that of the North American colo- nies, or the African or Allan, the Indiamen excepted. Progrefs of the French Commerce* . Imports. liv. 1716 to 17 20, peace, average per annum, 65,079,000 1721 to 1732, peace, 17 33 t0 1735 * war > 17 36 to 1739, P eace > 1740 to 1748, war, 1749 to 1755, peace, 1756 to 1763, war, 1764 to 1776, peace, 1777 to 1783, war, 1784 to 1788, peace, 80.198.000 — 76.600.000 — 102.035.000 — 112,805,020 — iSS>SSS>°°° ~ *33> 77 8 >°o° — 165.164.000 — 207, 536,00° — 301.727.000 — Exports. liv. Ic6,2l6,OCO 1 16,76 5, OCO 124,465,900 1 43 . 441.000 I 9 2 a 334 >ooo 257.205.000 210.899.000 309.245.000 259.782.000 354j423,ooo It will not be ufelefs to contrail: this with the trade of England : Imports. Exports. Imports. Exports. L. L. L. L. 1 7 1 7 > 6,346,768 — 9,147,700 17713 12,821 ,995 — 17,161,446 17253 7,094,708 — 1 I, 352,480 l 7 $ 3 > 13,122,235 — I 5 , 45 °, 77 8 17353 8,160,184 ' — 1335443144 1785, 16,279,419 — 16,770,228 173^3 7,438,960 — 12,289,495 17 ^ 7 , 17,804,000 — 1 6,869,000 17433 7,802,353 — 14,623,653 1 7 8 3 , 18,027,000 — 17,471,000 i 753 » 8,625,029 — 14,264,6 14 1789, 17,821,000 — 19,340,000 * 7 6 3 , 11,665,036 — 16,160^181 I 79 °> 19,130,000 — 20,120,000 As the balance , or ideas of a balance, are a good deal vifionary, we fhajl find, by adding the two columns together, that the trade of England has fuffered no de- * Monf. Arnould, of the Bureau de la Balance du Commerce at Paris, aflerts, I know, not on what authority, that the Englilh navigation in 1789 amounted to 2,000,000 tons. cline, COMMERCE. 52* dine, but, on the contrary, is greater than ever ; it defer ves attention, however, that the progrefs of it has not been nearly fo rapid as that of France, whofe com- merce, in the laft period, is 3! times as great as it was in the firft; whereas ours has in the fame period not much more than doubled. The French trade has alinoft doubled fince the peace of 1763, but ours has increafed not near fo much. Now it is obfervable, that the improvements, which in their aggre- gate mark national profperity, have, in this period of twenty-nine years, been abundantly more adive in England than in France, which affords a pretty ffrong proof that thofe improvements, and that profperity, depend on fomething elfe than foreign commerce ; and as the force of this argument is drawn di redly from fads, and not at all from theory or opinion, it ought to check that blind rage for commerce, which has done more mifchief to Europe, perhaps, than all other evils, taken together. We find, that trade has made an immenfe progrefs in France ; and it is elfewhere fhewn, that agriculture has made little or none : on the contrary, agriculture has experienced a great in- creafe in England, though very feldom favoured by government, but commerce an inferior one ; unite this with the vaff fuperiority of the latter in national pro- fperity, and furely the leffon afforded by fuch fads needs no comment. Of the Premiums for the Encouragement of Commerce in France . The French adminiffration has long been infeded with that commercial fpirit which is at prefent the difgrace of all the Cabinets of Europe. A to- tally lalie eflimate that has been made of England, has been the origin of it, and the effed has been an almoff univerfal negled of agriculture. I he premiums paid in France for encouraging their commerce are the fol- lowing, and the amount for a year ending the 1 ft of May 1789, is added, Expenfe of transporting dry cod to the American ifies, and to various foreign countries, at the rate of 5, 10, and 12 liv. per quintal, by the arret of 18th Sep. 1785, and nth Feb. 1787, — — 547*000 Bounty payable on the departure of ihips for the coaft of Guinea and for Mozambique, at the rate of 40 liv. per ton, by the arrets of 26th Od. 1784, &c. , . 1,950,000 bounty on tue negroes tranfported into the Colonies at the rate of 60 to 100 liv. a-head, by the arret of 26th Od. 1781, and of 160 liv. and 200 liv. -by that of theioth Sep. 1786, _ _ — 865,000 Bounty for encouraging the navigation in the North Sea, at the rate 3> 4 j 6j an d 10 liv. per ton, by the arret of 25th Sept. 4,000 Bounty on the export of refined fugar 4 liv. the quintal, by the arret of 26th May, 1786, — _ • tn(? _ 177 • r lOOyOOO bncouragements given to feventeen manufadures. To others 100,000 Bounty COMMERCE. \w t 1 8,000 170.000 1 00.000 *3,862,000 I hope it does not at this time of day want much explanation, or many ob- fervations on this contemptible catalogue of the commercial merit of the old government of France. The fisheries and fugar illands, if we are to believe the French writers, are the mod; valuable and the mod important articles of the French commerce. — How can this be, if they want thefe paltry bounties to aflid them ? St. Domingo is faid in France to be the riched and mod va- luable colony there is in the world : I believe the faCt ; but if we were to con- fider only a premium on fupplying it with daves, we fhould be apt to imagine it a poor dckly fcttlement, icarcely able to fupport itfelf. If cultivation is vigorous there, it demands daves without any bounty ; if it is not vigorous, no bounty will make it fo ; but the object, real or pretended, of bounties, is to induce people to inved capitals in certain employments, which they would not fo inved without fuch bounties. This is to profefs giving bounties to the invedment of capitals in American agriculture, rather than in that of France; the tendency is clear ; but in this age it furely becomes a quedion, whether the Icindes of Bretagne and Anjou would not be as deferving of fuch a bounty as the foreds of Hifpaniola ? To remark on all thefe premiums is unnecedary ; it is fudlcient to obferve, that all, except that for coal, is abfurd, and that that is fo given as to be ufelefs. Bounty of 4liv. per iooolb. of cad iron, granted to the foundries of Mont Cenis in Bourgogne, — — — Bounty granted to the people of Nantuket edablifhed at Dunkerque for the whale fifhery, at 50 liv. per ton of oil, — - • — T 0 the coal mines of the kingdom, — * — Of the Treaty of Commerce between Great Britain and France . This celebrated meafure was fo thoroughly debated in England, that I fhall not go again over ground trodden almod bare ; but, with attention chiedy to brevity, give fome French authorities upon it, which are but little known in England. There are in mod of the great commercial towns in France, locieties of merchants and manufacturers, known under the title of Chambre du Commerce ; thefe gentlemen adociate for the purpofe of giving information to the minidry on any commercial quedion upon which their opinion is demanded, and for other purpofes that concern the trading intereds of their refpeCtive towns. * ComPte Gmerctly 1789. p. 186. The COMMERCE. 52 3 The Chambre du Commerce de Normandie , on occafion of this treaty, printed and difperfed (it was not fold) a pamphlet entiturled, Obfervations fur le traite de Co?nmerce entre la France & 1 ’ dinglet err e. In this work they inform their readers, that in order to draw a fair com- panion between the advantages and difad vantages of the two kingdoms in manufactures, they had deputed two merchants of Rouen, fufficiently under- ftanding in the fabrics of Normandie, and who fpoke Englifh, to take a journey to the manufacturing parts of England, in order to acquire authentic intelligence, and upon their return they were delired to make a fimilar tour through the manufactures of Normandie, that they might poffefs themfelves of the knowledge requifite for a fair comparifon ; and from their reports, as well as from other materials, the Chambre du Commerce fpeak in their ob- fervations : But while we are embarking in this undertaking, the alarm of our commerce increafes every day, and becomes a real evil by a moft aCtive fale of every article of Englifh manufacture, which can enter into competition with our fabrics. There is not an article of habitual confumption with which Eng- land has not filled all the magazines of France, and particularly thofe of this province, and in the greateft number of thefe articles the Englifh have a victorious preponderance. It is afflicting to fee the manufacturers who fuffer by this rivalfhip already diminifhing fucceffively the number of their work- men, and important fabrics yielding in another manner to the fame fcourge, by Englifh goods being fubftituted in the fale for French ones,- receiving a preparation agreeable to the confumption, named, marked, and fold as French, to the infinite prejudice of the national induftry. “ The Chamber is apprehenfive of the immediate effeCt of the introduction of Englifh cottons, whereof the perfection of the preparation, the merit of the fpinning, united with their cheapnefs, has already procured an immenfe fale. A coup d’oeil upon the folio 5 of the table of patterns of Manchefter, and the I auxbouig St. Sever, at Rouen, will demonftrate the difadvantages of the latter. “ Our potteries cannot efcape a notable prejudice ; the low price of coals in England enables the Englifh to underfell us in thefe articles 25 per cent.; con- fiderable cargoes have already arrived at Rouen. ^ 1 ne 36,000 dozen pairs of Hockings and caps of cotton, made in the" ge- neiaiity, are the produce of 1200 looms. Within three months it is calcu- lated, that at Rouen alone, more than one hundred have Hopped. The mer- chants ^have made provifion of Englifh goods, for more than 30,000 dozen pairs of flockings and caps have already been imported. 3 X 2 “ MancheHer COMMERCE. “ Manchefler is the Rouen of England, the immenfe fabrication of cotton Ruffs, the induflry of the manufacturers, their activity, the refource of their mechanical inventions, enable them to underfell us from io to 15 per cent. Every circumflance of the fabric proves the riches of the mailer manufacturers, and the folicitude of government for fupporting and favouring their in- duftry. “ In general their fluffs and their linens are finer, of a more equal fpinning, and more beautiful than ours ; neverthelefs they are at a lower price, which proves the importance of their machines for carding and fpinning the cotton in a perfect and expeditious manner. By the aid of thefe united means, they flatter themfelves at Manchefter with equalling the muflins of India, yet the highefl price of thofe hitherto wrought does not exceed 8s. a yard, but the fabric is fo confiderable, that they are not afraid to value it at 500,000 liv. a week ; how r ever one may be permitted to doubt of this, one mull be amazed (effraye) at the immenfe fale which the Englifh have procured for this article, and the more fo as we have been allured, that the magazines of the company contained, within a few months, to the value of 80,000,000 liv. in India muflins. “ We do not know that the Englifh have in their /abides of linen any other inventions for Amplifying the labour than the flying fhuttle and the flax-mill, becaufe the fibres of flax are not adapted to the application of machines for fpinning and carding ; we are, however, allured that they have found means, by water-mills, to weave many pieces of linen at the fame time and in the fame loom . “ The price of coals in the preparation of cotton is of fome importance. The inhabitants of Manchefler pay for coal only 9s. a ton, of 200olb. (French,) but at Rouen it is 47 to 50 liv. the ton. “ The Englifh are forced to render juflice to the cloths of Louviers, as well' as to thofe of Abbeville and Sedan. They cannot diffemble that they think them more foft than their own, and that the colours are more lively and more feducing, but we cannot hope to fell them in England. The Englifh, whe- ther through a fpirit of patriotifm, or by the real agreement of their kind of fabric to the nature of their climate, prefer their cloths extremely fulled, and of colours very jbrnbre , becaufe the frnoke of their coal Ares, combined with the humidity of the atmofphere, depofiting a greafy dull, might eafily affeCt our colours fo lively, but of little folidity ; however it may be, the competi- tion at prefent of the Englifh in France cannot be very hurtful to the manu- factures of Louviers, Sedan, and Abbeville ; but as the Englifh import as well as we the wools of Spain, they may certainly attain the beauty of the cloths of Louviers. “ The COMMERCE. (C The. fabrics ofElbaeuf, however profperous, have not the lame refources as the Englifh ones of the fame kind, excellent national wools proper for their fabric ata low price. We calculate that the ordinary cloths of five-fourths breadth, and 15 or 16 liv. price per auln, can fcarcely withftand the competition of the cloths of Leeds, called Briffols, which coil only 11 liv. the auln. “ The cloths, ratines, efpagnolettes, handles, and blankets of Darnetal, have mod of them a fuperiority over many fimilar Englifh fabrics ; but the low price of thefe laft will render their competition fatal. We cannot too often recur to the advantages which the Englifii poffefs over all the woollens of France, which are wrought like thefe of Darnetal, with the wools of France, The high price of our wool, and its inferiority in quality* to that of Eng- land is fuch, that this inequality alone ought to have induced the rejection of the treaty of commerce on the terms upon which it. has paffed. The ma- nufacturers of Darnetal, Rouen, Beauvais, Amiens, Lille, and Rheims, may' find it their intereft to import Englifii fabrics before they have received the laft hand, which they can give cheaper than in England, and thus appropri- ate to themfelves a profit in the cheapnefs and beauty of the Englifii wools,, by underfelling the fimilar fabrics entirely French. “ The Englifii ratines cannot fupport the parallel with thofe of Andely, where alfo good cazimirs are made in imitation of the Englifii, but quite' unable to ffand againff them. Before the treaty the Englifii cazimirs came contraband to France, and were therefore dear, but now all the magazines of the kingdom regorge with them, for at the fame time that they are cheap- er, they are in quality more perfect, of a more equal grain, and lefs fubjeCt to greafe. . “ The manufacture of cloths at Vi re has fallen from 26,000 pieces per ann. to 8000. During the war they had an export to North America, but on the peace the cloths of Leeds prefented themfelves with a victorious fuperiority,, and will hold it till we have perfected the breed of our fheep, and obtained fleeces of a greater length and weight. “ In regard to the fluffs of wool, called ferges, molletons, flanelles, lon- drins, fatins, burats, camelots, baracans, calmandes, etamines, cazimirs, fagathis, &c. which were furnifiied both to France and foreigners by Dar- netal, Aumale, Beauvais, Amiens, Lille, Rheims, and le Mans, they muff fink under the competition of the fimilar manufactures of England. During the late war the Spaniards gave confiderable employment in thefe articles to- the manufactures of Amiens, Lille, and Aumale. Oq the firfi report of a * The manufacturers of France pofTefs no fuch iniquitous monopoly againfi the farmer, as makes the dilgrace and mifchief of Englifii agriculture. peace* COMMERCE, 526 peace, they not only fufpended their commiflions, but even gave counter or- ders for what were already befpoke, the English having offered the fame fluffs 20 per cent, cheaper than we could afford them. “ We may obfervein fine, upon the conditions of the treaty, that the Englifh have contrived to leave exceflive duties upon all the articles, the trade of which would have offered advantages for France, and to prohibit the moff interefting, to admit thofe whereof the reciprocity would be wholly to their own advantage ; and to favour in a manner almoft exclufively, in their importations, fuch as are made in Englifh bottoms ; circumffances which, united with the famous aft of navigation, explain, in a great meafure, the difproportion which exifts be- tween the number of Englifh and French vefiels in the commerce of the two nations fince the treaty, which is at leafl twenty to one. “ The opinion we develope upon this treaty is general, and founded on a fimple reflection, that France furnifhes twenty-four millions of confumera againff eight millions which England offers in return *. “ The fituation of France cannot have been confidered in the prefent circumffances ; at the fame time that the confumption of its inhabitants, firff, that natural and neceffary aliment of national induff ry becomes a tri- bute to England, who has carried her fabrics to the higheft degree of per- fection ; the French manufacturers and workmen, difcouraged without labour, xmd without bread, may offer an eafy conqueft to Spain, who, more enlight- ened at prefent upon the real means of increafing her profperity and her glory, developes with energy the defire of augmenting her population, of ex- tending and perfecting her agriculture, and of acquiring the induftry that fhall fuffice for her wants, and exclude as much as fhall be pofiible from her markets objeCts of foreign fabrication. We are allured that the workmen in the fouthern provinces pafs fuccefiively into the different manufactures which, are effablifhed ; an emigration, which cannot but increafe by the ef- fects of the treaty of commerce with England.” “ The Chamber of Commerce in the fame memoir declare, that the Englifh had not augmented their confumption of French wines in confequence of the treaty. And they dwell repeatedly on the fuperior wealth of the Englifh manufacturers to that of the French ones, the influence of which, in the com- petition of every fabric, they feel decifively. “ The French miniftry, the Archbifhop of Sens at their head, to remove the im- preffon which they feared would follow the preceding memorial of the mer- chants and manufacturers of Normandie, employed the celebrated ceconomijh Monf. du Pont, editor of the Ephemerides du Citoyen , a periodical work, printed * It is not a trifling error in the Chamber to ftate eight millions inftead of fifteen, the fa£t. 1767— COMMERCE. 5 2 7 1767 — 1770, and ftnce elected for Nemours into the national affembly, to anfwer it, which he did in detail, and wdth ability : the following extracts will fhew the arguments in favour of the treaty. “ Relative to the wine trade, your information has not been exadt. I am certain that it has been confiderably augmented. The difference between the duties in England upon the wines of Portugal and France was 34 f of our money the bottle; it is at prefent but 5/ 8 den. in fpite of the proportional diminution made upon the wines of Portugal, an approximation of which muft be very favourable to us. Authentic accounts of the cuftom-houfe at Lon- don have been fent to the department of foreign affairs, Rating the quantity of French wines imported into that fingle city, and it rifes from the month of May to that of December of the laft year (1787) to 6000 tons of four ba- riques each. In preceding years, in the fame fpace of time, the legal importa- tion has amounted only to 400 tons, and the contraband import w^as eftimated at about an equality. The augmentation, therefore, for the city of London, is at lead 5000 tons, or 20,000 bariques, which, at 1200 liv. amount to 6,000,000 liv. The accounts of the balance of commerce for nine years pre- ceding the laft war mark 1500 tons as the mean export of our wines to Eng- land, Scotland, and Ireland. In 1784, that export did not exceed 2400 tons. The city of London has therefore imported in the eight laft months of 1787 four times more than the three kingdoms formerly imported in the courfe of a • whole year. “ The fale of vinegars, brandy, oil, foap, dried fruits, preferves, cambric, linens, and inillenery, has much augmented. In particular, cambric and linens have doubled. “ But this is no reafon why the miniftry fhould not, on one hand, exert them- felves with all activity to oblige the Englilh to adhere to the terms of the treaty (which they have deranged by their tariffs and regulations of their cuftoms) ; and, on the other, to favour the national induftry, particularly that of the pro- vinces of Picardy, Normandie, and Champagne, for whom, knee the treaty, the competition of the Englilh has certainly been very mifehievous ftres jacheufe J. “ There are live branches of induftry in which the Englilh have over us at prefent, in fome refpe&r an advantage more or lefs folid ; in cotton fluffs, in fmall woollens, in pottery, in fteel, and in leather. “ In regard to cotton, Mon f. Barneville is in poffeffion of a machine, invented by his uncle, which fpins thread of a degree of finenefs till now unknown ; even to 300,000 aulns of thread from a pound of cotton. The fineft muftins or Alia are made with threads of 140,000 aulns to the pound. The govern- ment, after three years conlideration, has at laft determined on the report of M. Def- COMMERCE. 528 M. Definareft to purchafe this machine, and to diflribute many of them among our manufactures. “ It is inconceivable that we have not a fuperiority over the Englifh in cot- tons. We have the raw material, and even fell to our rivals the greater part of what they ufe. We have provifions and labour cheaper than they have'*. It is only machines which we want, or rather we do not want them, for we have them in great numbers ; we have artifts capable of perfecting them ; we have already the foreign models ; we can give prizes, and we have academies to judge +. “ As to the woollen fabrics, we have nothing to fear of competition m fine cloths, ratines, efpagnolettes, molletons, and caps made of Spanifh wool ; or in which it enters for the greater part. Our fabrication of this fort is fu- perior to that of the Englifh ; our fluffs are fofter and more durable, and our dyeing more beautiful. We can imitate at will, all the fombre colours of the Englifh fabrics, but they cannot copy any of our lively colours, and efpecially our fcarlet. “ In the middling clafs of wollens, which comprizes the tricots and fmall fluffs, we have a marked inferiority. The wools of which thefe are made are with us lets fine, lefs brilliant, and higher priced. But this evil is not with- out a remedy. - “ Of the next manufacture it may be obferved, that the Englifh potteries have been imported at all times into Loraine, without paying any duties, and yet that province is full of manufactures of pottery which profper.” Relative to the fteel manufaaure, Monf. du Pont cites the following cafe ; and on fllver 28 4444-44- Nov. 29 3 77 May, - 29 1 7 + T Nov. - 29, » 7 ■TT Dec. 29 s 1 6 June, - 29 s z 4. Dec. - 29 3 Ti Jan. 2 9 3 S JTT July, - 29 1 , I 7 8 7 J a n. - 29 $ T? Feb. 29 7 1 z Aug. - 2 9 * 3 ITS" Feb. - 29 I i March, - 29 z 3 3 z Sept. - 2 9 9 3 z March, - 29 » J TT April, - 29 7 1 z oa. - 2 9 3 TT April, - 29 t 4. TT Upon this epoch, Monf. du Pont has a long obfervation concerning a fup- pofed tranfport of old louis d’or from England to the French mint, which the chamber of commerce, in their reply, judly rejeds. Y 2 Third 533 C O M M E R C E. ' Third Epoch. Par as before. 17S7 May “ 30 -% Sept. - 2944 17S 8 Jan. - 2914 Tune ' 2954 oa. - 2944 Feb. “ 29 4 July - 29 | Nov. - 2 9 44 March - 2944 Aug. - 2914 ■ Dec. - 29-75- During thefe eleven months. the mean rate has been 20 4 - 444, or about 24*. per cent, in favour of France.. By the accounts of the Bureau General de la Balance du Commerce , the im- ports of Englifh goods in France for the eight lafl months of 1787, amounted to 35,294,000 liv. and the export of French goods to England during the fame time to 26,276,000 liv. a difference which Monf. du Pent attempts to con- vert into the favour of France, upon grounds not at all fatisfadlory. The Chamber of Commerce, in their reply, affert, refpedtingthe navigation employed*, that from May to December 1787, there entered the ports of France 1030, Englifh (hips of 68,686 tons, whereas, in the fame trade, there were only 170 French fhips of 5570 tons. In the fame reply, the Chamber rejedt the reafonkigs of M. du Pont upon the courfe of exchange, and infill that it was affedted by collateral changes, and by tranfadlions not commercial. I fhall lay beiore the reader the refult of the treaty, both according to the Englifh cuffom-houfe, and alfo by the rcgiflers of the Bureau de la Balance du Commerce at Paris 3 which, I'fhould however remark, is beyond all compari- fon more accurate in its ellimations 3 and whenever it is a quellicn between the authority of the two in oppolition to each other, I fhould not heftate a moment in preferring the French authority 3 indeed it is certain, that in many articles the valuation attached to fome denominations is as old as the reigi of Charles II.. though the real value is known to have quintupled. Englifh Account.. ' ■ Export of Brit if Manuf adheres to France .. 1769, -- £■ £3*213 j 9 18 d. 4 1784,. £• 93 * 7 6 3 J*. d. 7 * 2770, ~ 93*231 7 5 . 1785* - 244*807 3 9 5 - 85*95 1 2 6 1786,. - ' 343 >7 °7 I E 10 1772, -* 79*534 *3 7 1787,; 7 3 3*446 14 II 3 773 > - 95 * 37 ^ 3 3 8 1788, 884,100 7 1 1774 . £5*6^5 3 3 2 1789, - 830,177 177 0 The COMMERCE. 5J 3 The rife in the years 1785 and 1786, may be attributed to the rage for every thing Englifh, which, I believe, was then pretty much at its height ; the mo- ment the honour of the nation was fecured by wiping off the difgraces of the war of 1 756, by the fuccefs of the American one, the predilection for every thing Englifh fpread rapidly. In order to fhew the proportion which our ex- port of manufactures to France bears to our exports to all the world, I fhall in- fert the total account by the fame authority. 1786, T- s. - 11,830,194 l 9 1787, - I2 >° 53 > 9 00 3 1788, - 12,724,719 16 d. 7 178* 5 9 C d. * 3 > 779 > 74 ° 18 9 14,921,000 0 0 W e know that all thefe fums are incorrect ; but we may fuppofe the incorreCt- nefs as great one year as another, and that therefore the comparifon of one year with another may be tolerably exaCt. The following French accounts have been taken with lingular attention y and as duties have been levied on every article, the amount, may be more, but cannot be lefs.. French Account , Imports from England into France, in 1788. Woods, . coal, and raw materials, of which coal near 6,000,000 liv. Other raw materials, not the direCt product of the earth, , Manufactured goods, - - , Manufactured goods from foreign induftry Liquors ( boijfons ) Eatables (comeftibles), iuch as fait meat, butter, cheefe, corn, &c. Drugs, — 1 - , Groceries, - _ ______ Cattle and horfes, ______ Tobacco, . ■ . ■ Various articles, . Welt India cotton, and Weft India goods, none. Iiv. l6 >55h4oa 2,246,500 19,101,90 o 7.700.900 27 1,000 9,992,000 l > 995 > 9 °° 1.026.900 702,800 84^,100 ' 187,200 60,621 ,900 Exports from France to England, iniy 88. Woods, coal, and raw materials, Other raw materials, not the direCt product of the earth, Manufactured French goods* Manufactured goods from foreign induftry, , * Liquors, . _ Eatables, Drugs, — - , - ___ Groceries none. Cattle and holies. liv. 534 , 100 ^ 635,200" 4,786,200 2,015,100 13^92,200 2,21 5,400^ 759,100 181,700 Tobacco,-- 5JH • COMMERCE. Tobacco, Various articles, Weft India cotton, Weft India goods. li' r « 733,900 167,400 4,297,300 641,100 3 1,154,500 'Explanation . — All manufactured goods, both Englifh and foreign, imported by the Englifh merchants, have been under-rated about one-twelfth, which will add 3,238,800 liv. The French exports muft alfo be increafed for fmuggling, &c. &c . } fo that there is great reafon to think the real account between the two nations may be thus Rated : liv. Exports from England to France, — 63,327,600 — France te England, — 33,847,470 Balance againft France, — — 29,480,130 liv. Total Exports of England to France in 1789, — 58,000,000 Ditto of Englilh manufactures in 1787* 1788, 1789, 33.000. 000 27.000. 000 23.000. 000 Hence it appears, that the two cuftom-houfes do not differ effentially in their accounts. Before I offer any obfervations on thefe accounts I fhall infert a few notes I made at fome confiderable towns of the intelligence I received perfonally. 1787. — Abbeville. — In difcourfe upon the effeCt of the new treaty of commerce with England, they expreffed great apprehenfions that it would prove extremely detrimental to their manufactures. I urged their cheap labour and provifions, and the encouragement their government was always ready to give to manufactures : they faid, that for their government nothing was to be depended upon ; if their councils had underftood. the manufactures of the king- dom, they certainly would not have made the treaty upon fuch terms ; that there were intelligent perfons in their town who had been in England, and who were clearly of opinion, that the fimilar Englifh fabrics were fome cheaper and others better, which, aided by fafhion in France, would give them a great advantage ; that provifions were by no means cheap at Abbeville, and the workmen in feverai branches of their fabrics were paid nearly as much as in England, without doing the work equally well, at leaft this was the opi- nion of fome very good judges and laftly, that all Abbeville are of this opinion. Amiens. — - COMMERCE. S3S Amiens.’— I had here fome converfation to the fame purport as at Abbe- ville j the whole town I was allured had been alarmed from the firft ru- mour of the terms on which the treaty of commerce had been concluded they are well convinced that they cannot in any one inftance, as they after t, hand the competition of Englilh goods, On my afking what reafon they had for fuch an idea, the perfon I converfed with went into a warehoufe, and bringing a piece of duff and another of flannel, they were, he faid, Engliih, and from the price at which they were gotten before the treaty, he drew the conclufion; he was alfo, he faid, well informed of the prices in England. In the cotton fabric, he faid, the fuperiority was yet greater ; in a word, that Amiens would be ruined, and that on this point there was but one opinion. The manufacturers of all countries are full of thefe apprehenfions, which ufually prove extremely groundlefs. In all probability the effeCt would be as expeCled, if a counter flream of emulation and induflry did not work again ft it. The introduction of Englifh fabrics may be hurtful for a time, but in the long run may be beneficial, by fpurring up the French manufacturers to greater exertions and to a keener induftry. Bourdeaux. — The intercourfe between this port and England has been increaled a great deal fince the treaty. Warehoufes of Engliih goods are open- ed. The article which has hitherto fold the beft, and quickeft, is that of the StaflforcUhire potteries ; the quantities of thefe which have been fold is very great : but the hardware fent hither has been found fo dear, that it could not be fold in competition with French and German, except in a very few articles. Of fadlery there are feveral drops opened that have fold largely. Beer has been tried, but would not do ; the Dutch is ftill preferred for the Weft-Indies, a? cheaper j that of England has been fold at 90 liv. the barrique, of 250 French bottles, and fome of it arrived fo bad as not to be merchantable. Wine- has increafed in its export to England, but not fo much as was expeCted j be- fore the treaty it was 8000 tonneaux a year, and it has not rifen to 12,000 > however, the courl'e of exchange is againft England | th, and wine, owing to the prel'ent failure of the crop, has increafed in price 50 per cent. Brandy has alfo increafed. The Englifh take only the two firft qualities of wines — or, rather, they are luppoled to do fo ; for their merchants eftablifhed here mix and work the wine fent in fuch a manner, that the real quality of it is unknown : this is the account given us. Thofe two firft forts are now at A'- 20 jC* 22 a bar- rique, which is 250 French bottles, and 270 Englifh ones. The other qualities are fold from ^.15 to £.18, port charges, calk and fhipping indu- ced- height to London is 50s. a ton, beiides 15 per cent, primage, average, 6tc. The French duty is 28 liv. the tonneau, which has been lowered to 5 ] ivv C O M M E R C E. 53 ^ 5 liv. 5/ from laft Odtober to the fir ft of January next, a regulation which it is faid will not take place longer. Beauvais. — The opinion univerfal among the manufacturers here is, that the Englifh fabrics are fo fuperior in cheapnefs, from the wife policy of the encouragements given by government, that thofeof Beauvais, fhould they come in competition, muft fink; fo much of the fabrics here as are for the con- fumption of the lower people might perhaps ftand it, but not any others ; and they think that the moft mifchievous war would not have been fo inju- rious to France as this moft pernicious treaty. Lille.— ^1 no where met with more violence of fentiment, relative to this treaty, than here; the manufacturers will not fpeak of it with any patience; they with for nothing but a war ; they may be faid to pray for one, as the only means of efcaping that ideal ruin, which they are all fu re muft flow from the influx of Englifh fabrics to rival their own. This opinion ftruck me as a moft extraordinary infatuation ; for in the examination which took place at the bars of our Houfes of Lords and Commons, this is precifely the town whofe fa- brics were reprefented as dangeroufly rivalling our own, particularly the cam- blets of Norwich ; and here we find exactly the counter part of thofe aopre- henfions. Norwich confiders Lille as the moft dreadful rival, and Lille regards Norwich as fo formidable to her induftry, that war aqft bloodflied would be preferable to fuch a competition. Such faCts ought to be ufeful to a politician; he will regard thefe jealoufies wherever found, either as impertinence or kna- very, and pay no attention whatever to the hopes, fears, jealoufies, or alarms, which the love of monopoly always infpires, which are ufually falfe, and al- ways mifchievous to the national interefts, equally of every country. Nantes. — In converfation here on this treaty with fome very refpeftable •commercial gentlemen, they were loud againft it; infilled that France fent no fabrics whatever to England in confequence of it, not to the amount of a Angle fol ; fome goes, and the fame went before the treaty ; and that England has not imported more wine or brandy than ufual, or at leaft to a very fmall amount ; we know at prelent that this was not correct. Rouen. — The quantity of merchandize of all forts that has been imported Fere from England fince the treaty, is very confiderable, efpecially Staffordfnire hardware, and cotton fabrics, and feveral Englifli houfes have been eftabli/h- ed. They confider the treaty here as highly detrimental to all the manufactures of Normandie. I am better fatisfied with the real faCt than if it were, as the Chamber of -Commerce of Normandie imagined, much more in favour of England; for as the benefit is more likely to laft, fo the treaty is more likely to be renewed ; ,and confequently peace between the two kingdoms to be more durable. The balance COMMERCE. 537 balance of the manufacturing account does not exceed 14 millions, which is very- far fhort of the French ideas, and mu ft, in the nature of things, lefien. The 1 8 millions of raw materials and coals, inffead of being an import hurtful to the interests of French induftry, is beneficial to it; and they themfelves wifely con- fider it as fuch, and lamented the old duties on the import of Englifh coal, afierting, that there ought to be none at all. Here are 10 millions of imports, and a balance of eight in diredt objects of agriculture, as corn and meat. If a people will manage their agriculture in fuch a prepofterous manner, as not to be able to feed themfelves, they fhould efleem themfelves highly obliged to any neighbour that will do it for them. Raw materials, including drugs, with cattle, corn, and horfes, very nearly account for the whole balance, great as it is, that is paid on the total to England ; and as fuch objects are as much for the advantage of France to import, as for the benefit of England to export, the whole trade muff, both in extent and balance, be deemed equally reciprocal, and of courfe equally tending to advance the profperity of each kingdom. There is, however, a circumftance in which matters are very far from being reciprocal, and that is, in payments. The French are paid for their goods, whatever thefe may be, according to agreement ; but that is very far from being the cafe with the complaints again if the mode of dealing in. France, not only in refpedt of pay- ment, butalfo of want of confidence, fince their goods, fairly executed, accord- ing to patterns agreed on, are feldcm received without difputeor deduction: and while they cheerfully do juftice to the punctuality of the Americans, Ger- mans, &c. they put very little value on the French trade, fpeaking in general. It is the fame with Birmingham, whofe merchants and manufacturers afiert ffrenuoufly, that the commercial treaty has been of no fervice to their town • the French having taken as largely their goods, by contraband, before the treaty, as at prefent, through a different channel 3 with this change, that the Dutch, Germans, and Flemmings, with whom they dealt before, paid better than the French. Thefe circumftances are great deductions from the apparent merit of the treaty, which cannot be fairly eftimafed, unlefs we could know the amount or our exports fent out clandeftinely before it was concluded. The manufac- turers are certainly the belt judges ; and they unite, with one voice, throughout the kingdom, eitner to condemn it, or at lead; to afiert its having been a mere transfer from one channel to another, and not an in cr cafe. The benefit of it, however, as a political meafure, which tends to efiiablifh a friendfhip and con- nection between the two countries, cannot be called in quefrion, with any pro- priety ; for the mere chance of its being productive of peace, is of more conie- qmiice than ten men oalances, as appears on the foot of the above-mentioned account. Z C H A P. MANUFACTURES. 538 CHAP. XIX. Of the ManufaBures of France . Picardie — -Abbeville J I" 'HE famous manufacture of Vanrobais has been JL defcribed in all dictionaries of commerce and fimilar works ; I fhall therefore only obferve, that the buildings are very large, and all the conveniencies feem to be as compleat as expenfe could make them : the fabric of broad cloths is here carried on upon the account of the mailer of the eflablifhment, from the back of the fheep to the laft hand that is given. They affert, that all the wool ufed is Spanifh, but this mufl be received with fome degree of qualification. They fay that 1500 hands are employed, of which 250 are weavers ; but they have experienced a great declenfion fmce the eflablifhment of the fabric at Louviers, in Normandie. They have feveral fpinning jennies, by which one girl does the bufinefs of 46 fpinners. An eflablifhment of this kind, with all the circumflances which every one knows attended it, is certainly a very noble monument of the true fplendour of that celebrated reign to which Monf. de Voltaire juflly enough gave the title of Age ‘ y but I have great doubts whether it is poffible to carry on a ma- nufacture to the belt advantage, by thus concentrating, in one eflablifhment, all the various branches that are effential to the completion of the fabric. The divifion of labour is thus in fome meafure loft, and entirely fo in refpeCt to the maflerof each branch. The man whofe fortune depends entirely on the labour of the fpinner, is more likely to underhand fpinning in perfection, than he who is equally concerned in fpinning and weaving; and it is perhaps the lame with refpeCt to dreffing, milling, dying, &c. when each is a feparate bufinefs each mufl be cheaper and better done. The appointment of corn- mis and overfeers leflens, but by no means gets rid of, the difficulty. In viewing a manufacture therefore I am not fo much ftruck with that great fcale which lpeaks a royal foundation, as with the more diffufive and by much the more ufeful fig ns of induflry and employment, which fpread into every quarter of a city, raife entire flreets of little comfortable houfes, convert poor villages into little towns, and dirty cottages into neat habitations. How far it may be neceffary when manufa&ures are f rfl introduced into a country to proceed on the plan followed by Louis XIV. I fhall not enquire, but when they are as well eflablifhed as they are at prefent, and have long been in Fiance, the more rivals in fmaller undertakings, which thefe great eflablifhments have to contend with, the better it will generally be found for the kingdom, always avoiding MANUFACTURES. $39 avoiding the contrary extreme, which is yet worfe, that of fpreading into the country and turning what ought to be farmers into manufacturers. Befides fine cloths, they make at Abbeville carpets, tapedry, worded {lock- ings, barracans, a light fluff much worn by the clergy, minorques, and other fimilar goods. They have alfo a fmall fabric of cotton handkerchiefs. Amiens — Abounds with fabrics as much as Abbeville ; they make cottons, camblets, calimancoes, minorques, coarfe cloths ; there is fcarcely any wool worked here but that of Picardy and a little of Holland, none of England, or next to none ; they would get it they fay if they could, but they cannot. I examined their cotton (lockings carefully, and found that 4 or 1; livres was the price of fuch as were equal to thofe I had brought from England, and which cod at London 2s. 6d. this difference is furprizing, and proves, if any thing can, the vad fuperiority of our cotton fabrics. Breteuil. — They have a manufa&ure here on a fmall fcale of fcythes and wood hooks, the former at 45/i and the latter at 30 f. the iron comes from St. Diziers, and the coals from Valenciennes. Nails are alfo made here for horfe-fhoes at 8 f. the lb. but not by nailors who do nothing elfe. Orleans. — The manufactures are not inconfiderable, they make (lock- ings of all kinds, and print linens ; a fabric of woollen caps has been ef- tablifhed here fince Louis XIV. ’s time, in which two houfes are employed; the chief we viewed. It employs at home about 300 working hands, and 12 to 1500 others. The caps are entirely made of Spanifh wool, 3 oz. of yarn make a cap ; they are all for exportation, from Marfeilles to Turkey and the coaft of Africa, being worn under turbans ; in dreffing they extrad the greafe with urine, full and fiinifh in the manner of cloth. The fugar refinery is a confiderable bulinefs, there are 10 large and 17 fmaller houfes engaged in it ; the fird employ each 40 to 45 workmen, the latter 10 to 12 ; one of the principal, which I viewed, makes 600,000 lb. of fugar, and the red in proportion. The bed fugar is from Martinico, but they mix them together. Rum is never made from melafles, which is fold to the Dutch at ^ f. the lb. the fcum is fqueezed, and the refufe is fpread thick on meadow to kill mofs, which it does very effectually. The price of raw fugar is 30 to 45 liv. per 100 lb. The coal they burn is from the vicinity of Moulins, in the Bourbonnois. Trade in general is now brifk here. Romorentin. — A fabric of common cloths for liveries and foldiers, car- ried on by private weavers, who procure the wool and work it up ; they are at lead 100 in number, and make on an average 20 pieces each in a year; it is fent to Paris. At Vatan there are about 20 of the fame weavers and 300 fpinners. 3 Z 2 ChATEAUROUX' 5 40 M A N UFACTURE S. Ckateauroux — A fabric of cloth, which two years ago, before the fai- lure of the mailer, gave employment to 500 hands, boys included, and to 1500 to 1 Boo fpinners in this and the neighbouring provinces 3 it is a Manu- facture Roy ale, like that at Abbeville, of Vanrobais, by which is to be un- derftood an exemption for all the workmen employed within the walls from certain taxes, I believe tallies. Some gentlemen of the town keep at prefent 1 00 hands at work in the houfe, and the fpinners depending on that number, in order that the fabric might not be loft, nor the poor left entirely without employment 3 there is true and ufeful patriotifm in this. The cloths that were made here were 1 to i f aulns broad, which told at 8 liv. to 23 liv. the auln 3 they make alfo ratteens. In the town are about 80 private weavers, who make nearly the fame cloths as at Romorentin, but better 3 fell from 8 liv. to 18 liv. the auln, 1C broad 3 thefe private fabrics, which do not depend on any great eftabiiftiment, are vaftly preferable to concentrating the branches in one great inclofure 3 the right method of remedying fuch a failure as has happened here, is to endeavour by every means to increafe the number of pri- vate undertakers. The cloths are all made of the wool of the country now 20 to 37jf the lb. it has been dearer for two years, and ten years ago was to be had for 15 to 20 f. from the 24th of June it is fold at every market and in large quantities 3 manufacturers come from Normandie and Picardy for twelve days together to buy wool, walli, and fend it off. At two leagues from Chateauroux are iron forges which let at 140,000 liv. a year (£.6125), belonging to the Count d’ Artois. Limoges. — The mod confiderable fabric here is that of druggets, the warp of which is of hemp thread, and the woof of wool, 100 looms are employed by them. Siamoife fluffs are made of hemp and cotton, fold at 30 to 48/ an auln 3 there are about 1000 or 1100 cotton fpinners in the Limofin, alfo various mixed fluffs of filk and cotton, and filk and thread under many denominations, for gowns, coats, waiftcoats, breeches, &c. from 4 to 6 liv. the auln. Some fluffs, which they call China, are rather dearer 3 a gown felling for 4louis, but of filk gauze only 2 louis 3 this fabric employs about £0 looms, worked each by 3 or 4 people, boys included. I took many fpecimens of thefe fabrics, but in general there is a great mixture of fhew and finery with coarfenefs of materials and cheapnefs of price, not at all fuitable to an Englifh tafte. They have alfo a porcelane manufacture, purchafed by the King tw r o years ago, which works for Seve 3 it gives employment to about 60 hands 3 I bought a fpecimen, but nothing they make is cheap, and no wonder, if the King is the manufacturer. They M A N U F A C T U R E S. 5 4i They have in the generality of Limoges, which includes the Angoumois, feventy paper mills that manufacture all kinds; they are fuppofed to make every day to the quantity of 1 9 c lives, the contents of which vary according to the fort of paper. A cuve of 1301b. will make 64 reams of large and fine paper, but double that quantity of other forts ; they calculate that a mill can work about 200 days in a year, feftivals and repairs excluded ; this makes at a cuve a day 454,2001b. for a year’s work of a. mill, and 31,794,0001b. for the whole generality, and they value it at 2 of the lb. which makes as many livres, °r £.1,390,987. They confider the manufacture as greatly overloaded with an excife, which amounts to about gth part of the value, but they have an allowance for all they prove to be defigned for exportation, in the nature of our drawbacks ; the manufacture has increafed notwithftanding the duty. They reckon here, and in all the paper mills of France, the cylinder for grinding the rags, which they call Dutch (and which we have had fo long in England), as. a new and great improvement. Each mill employs from 12 to 20 hands, including carters ; they reckon that half the paper is exported, much to the Baltic, andfome they fay to England. They have alfo in this generality 40 iron forges, fome of which employ 100 people, one is a foundry for cafting and boring cannon. Brive. — A filk fabric has been eftablifhed here about five and twenty years, filk alone is wrought in it, and alfo mixed with cotton, and gauzes of all kinds are made ; they fay they have difeovered a manner of dying raw filk, with which they make plain gauzes Iths of an auln broad and 1 1 long ; the price varies according as they are chinees (waved), or not; a piece white, ftriped or not, is 54liv. (2I. 7s. 3d.) coloured ones 60 liv. (2I. 12s. 6d.) and the chinees 80 liv. (3I. 10s. od.) ; they make alfo a thick fliining fluff in imi- tation of Manchefter, at 6 liv. the auln, alfo filk and neck handkerchiefs of a German take, fold chiefly in Germany and Auvergne. A merchant alfo at Bafle, in Switzerland, is fo good a cuftomer as to have taken 1000 dozen of them. They have 60 or 80 looms conftantly at work in the town ; the weaver having his loom in his houfe and fupplied with the material from the manu- factory, and paid by the piece ; each loom employs five people, women and children included. They ufe only French filk, which though not fo fhining as the Italian, is, they fay, flronger, bears the preparation, and wears better. They have alfo here a cotton mill and fabric which is but in its infancy, has only one combing machine, and three double ones for fpinning ; they fay that this machine, with the affiftance of 15 people, does the work of 80 ; this undertaking has been eftablifhed and is carried on by Melfrs. Mills and Clarke, the former an Englifhman from Canterbury, the latter from Ireland, both induced by encouragements to fettle in France. Soui LIAO S4 a MANUFACTURES. Souillac — * Payrac . — No manufactures whatever in the country. Cahors. — Somefmall manufactories among them, one of woollen cloth ; fome years ago it had near 1000 workmen, but the company difagteeing, a lawfuit enfued, fo that it decreafed to 1503 the fpinners are chiefly in the town ; work up both French and Spanifh wool, but the latter not of the hrft quality. They fhewed us however fome cloth, made as they fay entirely of Spanifh wool, at 3 liv. 10/ the lb. which is not fo good as their ratteens, made with * wool of Navarre and Rouffillon, and 4. Spanifh ; they make fome cloths for the home confumption of the province entirely with the wool of Navarre, an auln broad, at 1 1 liv. the auln ; ratteens A °f an au ^ n broad, at 22 Jiv. the auln ; a fecond fort of ratteens, made with French wool, an auln broad, 1 1 liv. the auln. Caussade. — ’This country is full of peafant proprietors of land, who all abound very much with domeftic manufactures ; they work their wool into common cloths and camblets, and all the women and girls fpin wool and hemp, of which they make linen ; there are weavers that buy about two quintals of wool, pay for the fpinning, weave it, and carry the cloth to mar- ket, and there are merchants that buy the fuperfluity for export. Montauban. — The woollen manufacture here is of fome confequence, confi fling of common cloths, croifees , half an auln broad, and feveral forts of fluffs } they give the epithet royale to one houfe, but in general the fpinning and weaving are carried on both in the town and the country, not only on ac- count of the mailer manufacturers, but alfo by private weavers, who make and carry their fluffs to market undreffed ; the people of the fabric I viewed affert, that they ufe only Spanifh wool, but this is every where in France a common affertion by way of recommending their fabrics, and has been heard in thofe, known on much better authority to ufe none at all ; another circum- ftance to be noted is, that the wool of Rouffillon goes in common manufac- turing language under the denomination of Spanifh ; I faw their raw wool, and am clear, that if it is Spanifh it is of a very inferior fort ; the quality and the price of the cloths fpeak the fame language ; they dye the cloth and not the wool previoufly ; they fell their broad cloths, which are Iths of an auln wide, at 17 liv. the auln, (14s. iofd.) and the croifees at 5 liv. 10 f. Twelve hun- dred people are laid to be employed by this fabric. The filk manufacture is alfo confiderable ; they work up not only the filk of the environs, but of the upper country alfo ; they make ftockings and fmall fluffs, but the former the chief; it is executed lik the woollen fabric, both by mailer manufacturers and by private looms ; a flocking engine cofls from 15 to 20 louis, and a workman can earn with it to 3 liv. a day. Toulouse—* MANUFACTURES. M Toulouse — Has a woollen and a filk fabric; in the flrfl are worked light ffcufFs, and has about 80 looms, which are in the town; in the other flockings, fluffs, damafks, and other fabrics, worked in flowers ; about 80 looms alfo. St. Martin. — There are here ten manufacturers houfes, one of which made laft year 700 pieces of woollen fluffs, each fix aulns long • on an aver- age each houfe 500 pieces, chiefly bays, fays, and other fluffs, the chain of thread ; fome for home confumption, but chiefly for exportation to Spain. Their beft is 4 liv. 1 5/ the canne of 8 palms, and 10 palms to the auln, half an auln broad. ; Other fluffs 3 liv. 157.' dye in all kinds of colours. There are plenty of fpinnera of both thread and wool ; weavers and fpinners are fpread over the country, but the combers and carders are at home. They ufe fome Spanifh wool from the Navarre hills at 30/ the lb. this year 33/ but very dear. St. Gaudentz— Manufactures feveral forts of fluffs, both of wool alone, and wool and thread mixed; the principal fabric is a light fluff called Cadis,' the greater part of which is exported to Spain. B agnere de Luchon. — At half a league from this place is a manufac- ture of cobalt, it is faid, the only one in the whole kingdom, which was all fupplied, before the eflablifhment of this fabric, by a Saxon gentleman, from the works in Saxony; and what is now made here is ufed at home and ex- ported as Saxon cobalt. The ore is brought from Spain at a very high price, from a mine in the Pyrenees, not more diflant in a flrait line than fix league^ but the road is fo rocky that the ore is brought by the valley of Larboufle" which takes up a day and a half. The ore is not found in veins, but in lumps, (rognons,) fo that it is often lofl and found again. A remarkable circumftance, and hardly credible, is their employing ore alfo fromStyria, which is Ihipped at Triefte for Rourdeaux, and brought by the Garronne to Touloufe, and hither by land, at the expence of 45/ the quin- tal. They ufe alfo fome from Piedmont ; of thefe different ores that from Styria is the word: and the Span ifli the bed ; they coflat the manufactory, one with another, 300 liv. to 360 liv. the quintal; the Spanifh ore is the flrfl defer ibed by Monf. Fourcroy, the grey or afh coloured ; they do not melt thefe ores feparate but mixed together. 1 he procefs purfued in this manufactory would be tedious to ninety-nine hundredths 01 my readers, I fhall therefore only give a few heads from the me- moranda I made alter having viewed it attentively : the reputation of the Due ce la Rochefoucauld, as an able chymift, united with his rank, induced the director of the fabric to explain the matter fully ; I attended him an viewing the work : they flrfl pound the ore into powder, which is placed in a fort of fpoon in a furnace to road, for the purpofe of expelling the arfenic by fub- iimation; 544 MANUFACTURES. lunation ; it is received in a canal or chimney, which winds horizontally ; by an opening in the wall a man enters for gathering this arfenic ; this is an opera- tion very dangerous to the health, yet for 45/ to 3 liv. a day ^ they get men to execute it, who for a preventative of the ill effefts fwallow fame milk, and keep cloths to their mouths and nofes dipped in milk, and kept constantly wetted. The cobalt remains after this roafting in a greyiih black calx j bifmuth is found mixed with it, which is found at the bottom of the fpoon. They have another way alfo, which is that of fufing the cobalt, tnus ourged of its arfenic, in order to get the regulus ; I faw fome large pieces oi re g ulus with bifmuth adhering, which were in all probability procured in this method ; hitherto they have not applied the bifmuth to ufe, nor tried wneuier it would anfwer to fend it to thofe place* where it is worked. Having thus obtained the calx of the cobalt, they mix it with pot-afli and roalted flints as a flux, in large crucibles, which are- placed fix together, in a large long furnace, the upper part of which is arched to an angle, a cui rent of air palling; the furnace is heated with dry beach wood billets. Somechy- mifts affert, that there ihould be of flints 3 to 1 of the cobalt, but they ule 1 6 to 1 , which they fay is the Saxon method, and thefe flints contain fome final 1 portion of cobalt ; it requires a fierce fire of twelve hours to reduce the calx of cobalt to a glafs ; when this is nearly in a white fufion (as they term it,) they take it out with iron ladles, and throw it into a veflel conftantly fupphed m \th f re ill water for cooling, from which it is taken to a pounding mill and beat to powder, in which operation they almob always find fome diops or remilus, which are taken cut ; when pounded it is carried to a kind of tame three bories high, breams of water are turned on to it, while two men at eacn foble bir it; this is for freeing the cobalt from impurities ; it pafies with the water into a large tub pierced at different heights, that the water may flow away and leave the cobalt' at the bottom; but as this water is m fome mei- fure tindured with this precious material, it is not differed to run to wafte 5 a lar^e ciftern is under the whole room into which it is received, and whence it is drawn off from time to time; the cobalt thus gained is or tne worn The wafhed cobalt is carried to a mill, which grinds it under a ffone, the powder is received in a large veffel of water, which is made by t. itui afi-n ^to imbibe the tindure, and is hence drawn ofi four times into as many vebLm, that the water may depofit the material : The powder thus gained 1 car- ried to the drying room, where it is dried in long fhallow trays, and thm reduced to a finer powder by lifting ; in which bate it is 10 fine that mey water it with a gardener’s role to prevent its being blown away, in vvhicn bate it is in order to pack into calks for bale. The MANUFACTURES. 545 The motion to the whole machinery is given by two underfoot water- wheels. Vicinity to the Spanifo mine, and cheapnefs of wood, were the inducements to eftablifo this fabric here ; they now make pot-afo, which was formerly imported from the Baltic, and coft 40 liv. the quintal, but they can make it here for 1 2 liv. Narbonne. — A manufacture royale of filk Ruffs, the mailer of which is a bankrupt. This is the fecond of thefe privileged eftablilhments which I have found in the fame fituation ; Chateauroux the former. It foould feem that government never interferes by privileges but to do mifchief. Beziers. — A ftnall fabric of lilk {lockings. Montpellier. — Confiderable fabrics of blankets, filk handkerchiefs, ver- digreafe, and many other articles. Nismes. — This is one of the moil confiderable manufacturing places in France ; they make a great variety of Ruffs, in filk, cotton, and thread, but the firR is the great manufacture ; thefe are faid to maintain from 10 to 15,000 hands ; for the intelligence varied between th,ofe numbers. Silk Rockings are laid to employ 2000 ; handkerchiefs are a confiderable article, printed linens,- &c . ; in the laR there are workmen that earn 7 or 800 liv. a year. G ange.— T he moR noted manufacture of filk Rockings in all France ; they make them up to 36 liv. a pair. Vig an. — Silk Rockings, and filk and cotton vefis. Lodeve. — The principal manufacture here is cloth for the uniforms of va- rious regiments in the French army ; 6000 men are thus employed. They make alfo lilk Rockings and veRs of cotton, but no cloths for the Levant ; 60 quintals of oil are confumed in the town every week in the year. Beg de Rieux. — The manufactures here are the famous cloths called Lon- dr ins t which are exported to the Levant they are made of the wool of Rouf- iillon and Narbonne ; alfo fine cloths of a thicker Raple, and filk Rockings. The villages in the mountains are all employed in this manufacture. Carcassonne. — Londrins the great fabric here alfo ; the maRer manu- facturers give the materials to the weavers, who are paid by the piece, and thus the manufacture fpreads into the country both fpinning and weaving ; they are made of Roufiillon and Narbonne wool, which goes by the name of Spa- nilh, 46 inches wide, the l’aune 8 paus. They have alfo eRablifoed a fmall fabric of fine cloths, which they term a fa^on de Louviers, at 10 liv. an auln, but not comparable to the original. I foould here obferve, that thefe Londrins, of which at all thefe towns I took patterns, are a very light, beautiful, well dyed, bright cloth, that have had, and defervedly, from quality and price, the greatefi fuccels in the Levant. I faw 4 A the* 54 6 M A N U F A C T U R E S. the wool they are made of, and fhould not have known it from a good fpecimen from the South Downs of Suflex. Bagnere de Bigore.— They make here fome ftockings and woollen fluffs, but not to any amount. p AU> A confiderable manufacture of linen handkerchiefs, with red cotton borders, alfo of linen for fhirts, table-cloths, and napkins ; the flax is raifed chiefly in the country around ; the fabric is fpread into the country in every di- rection ; much exported to Spain and to America, by way of Bourdeaux. The handkerchiefs are from 36 to 72 liv ; the dozen, my fpecimen at 42/. each, and by the dozen 4 2 liv. to 48 liv. the fquaie 3 paus 3-r's - * T- he linen for fhirts is of the fame breadth, and the price is from 50 f to 6 liv. the auln. A table-cloth and twelve napkins they call a fervice, and cofts from 36 to 150 liv. I examined all, and thought them on the whole very dear, for they make hardly any thing tolerably fine. Anspan. — The Pau linen manufacture is here alfo on a fmaller fcale. Aire. — A fmall manufacture of porcelane, or rather earthen-ware, a cup and faucer for 8 J'. alio of linen for the table and fhirts. Leitour. — There is here a tannery, which was twenty-five years ago not an inconfiderable manufacture, that is, before the excites on leatnei weie laid, but now reduced to lefs than one fourth of wnat it was ; at that time it ufed 37,000 quintals of bark, and drefied 18,000 fkins, but now only 4000. The King’s wood near the town, which is extenfive, yields the bark, the price 40 1050/ the quintal; their water-mill grinds 100 quintals a day; the bark cakes for fuel fell at 6Jiv. the 1000. They have 120 tan pits, which give employment to about 100 men. The mafter of the fabric complains bitterly of the tax, which is 3/ the lb. on all forts of leather, fheep fkins excepted, and he is clear that it has deftroyed the manufacture. It is paid only when the drefied hides are taken out of the warehoufe for file, by which means the lefs capital on account of the tax is necefiary. Agen.— The chief manufacture here is one of fail-cloth, very much decreafed fince the war, which, while it lafted, gave it an extraordinary vigour; at that time 320 workmen were employed in the houfe ; nowit has only 15a in winter. There are now eighteen to twenty combers doing 20 lb. ot hemjp a day, for which they are paid 8 liv. the quintal ; in the war there were forty of them; 3601b. of hemp per diem is therefore the amount of the fabric. All the hemp ufed is raifed- on the banks of the Garonne, and fpun in the country, at the rate of 7 f. the lb. for the befl thread. We viewed an apart- ment with 84 looms (they have 160 in the houfe), that make eleven forts of fail-cloth for the royal navy, in general of 22 or 24 inches broad ; the firll is fold at 44/ the auln, the fecond at 48 ; to prepare the hemp for combing. MANUFACTURES. 547 they grind it under a cylindrical Rone in a fort of ciflern ; it is then divided into two forts for fails, and into a third for ropes. They have many Rone ciRerns for bleaching 1 50 quintals of thread at a time, of which one man doe» the whole work by means of pumping the lixivium at once from the copper into all the ciRerns. The weavers are paid 5! f. the auln on an average. Befides this fabric of hemp they have one of cotton, which is Ropped at prefent ; one of printed linens, which is brifk, and another of ferges and other woollen Ruffs, which is carried on by private weavers in their own houfes. Chateaurault. — They have a manufacture of cutlery here, in which there is one circumRance that appears rather lingular, which is the fabric be- ing carried on with fuccefs almoR without a divifion of labour. Every houfe in feveral Rreets is a cutler’s Ihop, with its little forge, tools, grinding-wheel, &c. and the man, with the alliRance of his wife and children, makes knives, lciffars, &c. &c. executing the whole procefs himfelf, which in a large fabric goes through fo many hands. As a foreigner I paid more than the fair price for the fpecimens I bought, yet they were very cheap, vaRly cheaper than I could have believed poflible with a manufacture carried on in contradiction to a principle which I had erroneoully conceived to be effential to cheapnefs ■ they make nails alfo. Fuel is no where cheap in France (unlefs it be in the foret of the Lyonois), yet here are hundreds of little forges burning, to ex- ecute what one would perform at a third of the expence. Tours. — The principal manufacture in this city is that of filk ; they make flowered damalks and plain Ruffs ; there is a large building called the Manu- fabture Roy ale , in which many workmen were once employed, but none at prefent, as it is found more advantageous to give the filk to the workmen, in order for their weaving it at their own houfes, which feems an experiment that afeertams the benefit of thefe expenfive eRablifhments ; the whole fabric has however declined exceedingly, and is at prefent at a very low ebb ; nor are the men affured of conffant employment, which is the worR circumRance that can attend any fabric. Prices of weaving vary of courfe with the pat- terns of flowered filks ; one which I faw working, a very full pattern, was paid for at the rate of 7 liv. the auln, the price of the filk 38 liv. the auln, and to make the auln, employed the man, his afliflant, and his wife, two days, which earnings may be divided into 40 f a day for the weaver, 20 f. for his afliflant, and 10 J\ for his wife, whofe bufinefs was only to adjufl the chain ; the breadth | of an auln ; the workmanfhip of this filk is therefore between .1 and -i of the grofs value. I faw others working plain filks, in which the women weavers earned 18 to 24 f a day, and men 3 of. They have alfo a fabric of ribbons, of which I bought fpecimens, but they are be- yond compafifon dearer than the ribbons of Coventry. We were told that 4 A 2 filk 1 54 S manufactures. filk at Tours employed 2000 people, but I believe the number is much ex- aggerated. They have Tome woollen fabrics of no great account. They have alfo, as at Chateaurault, many cutlers, who make knives and fciffars of a higher price and much better ; the fpecimens I bought appear to be cheap. Nails are an article alfo which gives employment here ; I found that a middling hand would make about 1000 per diem, for which number he was paid 25/. It is to be noted, that a day’s work in all fabrics means 15 or 16 hours (except the time taken for meals), common labourei lof. and food. The woollen manufacture of common Ruffs is, by fome accounts given us, more conliderable than that of hlk. Am boise. —There is a fabric of Reel eftablifhed here by the Duke de Choifleul; in it are made axes, hoes, files, &c. They fay that 200 men are employed, but I faw no figns of more than 100; they work with charcoal, and alfo with coals from the vicinity of Nantes. They have alfo a fmall ma- nufacture of buttons, another of woollen cloth for cloathing the troops, which, however, did not take root ; there is at prefent one of coaile woollen fluffs, for the ufe of the lower people : thefe fabrics fhew how foflering and powerful is the hand of a prime minifter, in fixing what without him w ould never be fixed at all ; had this Duke continued in power, Amboife would Coon have be. come a conliderable city. Blois . 1 — A fabric of very beautiful gloves, which employs about 25 hands; here is alfo the fame cutlery as at Tours and Chateaurault ; and they make liquorice cakes for coughs, &c. as at PontefraCt. Beauvais. — This is one of the manufacturing towns of France that feems the moft brifk and aCtive in bufmefs. I viewed the tapeftry fabric, of which I had feen fome fine fpecimens in the palace at Fontainebleau; their fineft works are in filk as well as in worfted ; they employ 150 hands, and have another fabric connected with this in La Marche. I viewed the callico printing-houfe of Mefirs. Garnierdans and v^o. which is upon fuch a fcale as to employ 600 hands conftantly ; theie is no diffeience between this fabric and fimilar ones in England, and all the patterns I faw were very common, feeming not to aim fo much at elegance or nicety of ex- ecution, as at the difpatch of a large undertaking, yet Paris is their principal demand ; they print a great quantity of Indian callicoes ; their mad- der is from Alface. There are three other manufactures in the town, and all four employ about 1800 hands; but the chief fabric is the woollen, which employs 7 or 8000 hands in the town and the adjacent country. They make, under various denominations, coarfc fluffs for the cloathing of the country .people, for mens jackets and womens petticoats, &c. a truly ufeful and im- portant MANUFACTURES. 5 49 portant fabric, which works only French wool, and in general that of the country. There are alfo Rocking engines at work. St. Gobin. — The fabric of plate glafs here is by far the greateR and moR . celebrated in Europe ; the inclofure is great, and the buildings are on a vaR fcalej i Boo men are employed on the works and in the provision, &c. of wood. I was fo fortunate as to arrive about half an hour before they began to run ; there is a vaR furnace in the center of the building containing the pots of melted metal , and on each fide of it a row of ovens with fmall furnaces for caRing. An immenfe table of caR copper, as I judge by my eye (for I did not care to meafiure any thing), twelve feet long and eight broad, by five inches thick, Rands at the mouth of the annealing oven heated by a furnace on each lide of it. When every thing is ready for running the glafs, a comis enters, the doors are bolted, and filence is proclaimed by one of the men Rriking an iron bar on the ground ; if any perfon fpeaks but a word after this, he is fined heavily. The furnace, in which is the melted glafs, is then opened, and the pots of 18 inches diameter are drawn out ; two men, receiving it upon a fort of barrow, wheel it to the table above-mentioned, where an iron crank fu (pended from a windlafs is fixed, and hoiRing the metal, is emptied onto the table. A great copper roller is pufhed over it, moving on two Rrips or bars of iron or copper, the thicknefs of which determines that of the intended plate of glafs, for the pot difcharging its contents between them, and the roller brought gradually over it, which flattens by its great weight the metal to the thicknefs of thofe bars j the glafs is then pufhed forward from the table into the oven heated to receive it for annealing, or cooling gradually, to prevent cracking. The dexterity, coolnefs, freedom from confuflon, with which every thing is done, was very pleafing. The grinding houfe is great ; the whole of that operation is performed by hand. The motive for eRabliRting this manufacture here, in a fituation by no means convenient for navigation, though the diRance is not great, was that alone of the plenty of wood. It is in the midR of a great foreR belonging to the Duke of Orleans, hired by the company that carried on the manufacture. All the fuel employed is beach wood, to which circumRance they attribute the fuperiority of the French glafs to that of England. St. Quin tin. — They make here linen, cambric, and gauzes, fabrics that fpread all over the country ; for all common goods, they ufe the flax of the country, but for fine ones that from Flanders. Cambray. — They make gauzes, cleres , and fome fine cambrics, called bat tiles. Valenciennes. — Laces are here and in all the villages around a very con- fiderable manufacture 5 that of 30 to 40 lines breadth, for gentlemen’s ruffles, is MANUFACTURES. £ 5 ° is from ioo to 216 liv. (9I. 9s.) an auln, with all other prices lower ; a pair of ruffles and a frill to 1 6 louis ; the quantity for a lady’s head-drefs from ioooliv. to 2400 liv. The poor women who do this exquifite work do not earn more than 20 f a day, or at the utmofl 30^/ The fine cambrics are all woven in cellars for humidity of atmofphere. Lille. — This is one of the mod: manufacturing, commercial, and induflri- ous towns in France 3 there is a manufacture royale of fine cloths made of Spanilh wool. Three callico printers houfes, but not upon a very great fcale. Their greatefl trade is that of camblets, which employs many hands ; they are made of the long combing wool of Holland, Germany, Flanders, and what they can get from England, this being the fabric which ufes more Englifh wool than any other in France. They have a cotton fabric of fluffs for linings, &c. another of blankets ; alfo one of filk fluffs, which the pro- prietor refufed to let me fee, the only inflance of the kind I met with in the courfe of the journey ; one may fairly conclude that he had nothing to fhew, inflead of the fecret he pretended to : add to thefe a fabric of porcelane. St. Omers. — There is a manufacture of worfted dockings, alfo of a kind of fluff called pannes, but the quantity not confiderable. Much wool is fpun. Arras.' — The only fabric of any confequence is that of coarfe thread laces, which find a good market in England. Beauval. — A confiderable manufacture of coarfe hemp and linens, hack- ing, &c. , Aumale. — A fabric, of no great confequence, of coarfe woollens for the wear of the common people. Rouen. — The Manchefter of France. One of the mofl commercial and ma- nufacturing towns of the kingdom. They fay, that at prefen t the velours and cotton toiles are the mofl flourifhing. The fabrics fpread over all the country, they admit the velverets of England to be much cheaper, but affert their paf- mentiers of filk and cotton mixed, to be cheaper than any fimilar fabric in England ; they have alfo lome woollens, but none fine or deferving particular notice. Afferted here that fpinning cotton employs 50,000 perfons in Nor- mandie. Havre. — Cotton 260 liv. the quintal. The duty on the export of French cotton rather more than 2d. per lb. Pont a de mer. — Viewed the manufacture royale of leather here, having letters to Monf. Martin the director. It confifls of a confiderable tannery and curriery ; there are 96 fats for tanning, and, eighty workmen are employed. I faw eight or ten Englifh curriers; there are forty of them. The price of raw hides from the butcher is at prefent 1 o to 1 2 f a lb= ; a year ago only 6f, which was the price for three or four years paft ; the rife they attribute MANUFACTURES. 55 i attribute to an arret of the parliament, prohibiting the killing any cow calf, which has made the fkins dear, and the high price of meat has had a yet greater effeCt. - . Foreign hides from Buenos Ayres are now 18/ the lb. that were 10 >f. ; they have many from Ireland, which would be the bed;, if it was not for the care- lefs way of cutting them more than neceffary in killing. The Irifh are the larged: hides. The bundle of bark is 30 lb. (28 to 32), and the price per 100 bundles, or 3000, is 150 liv. which is about 4I. 4s. a ton ; a few years pad; it was at 80 liv. ; they bark all oak of ten years growth, preferring young to what is old. Some hides they drefs without lime, in the Jerfey way ; they drefs many hogs hides, and alfo goats from Sweden. They complain of the excife on leather, adert that there were once forty tanners in this town, but now not twenty, the de- clendon owing to the duty of 3 J'. per lb. Caen. — T hey make a great deal of filk lace here, alfo cotton and worded dockings. Cherbourg. — Near this place is a condderable fabric of blown plate-glafs, which Monf. Depuy, the director, was fo obliging as to diew me; about 350 workmen are employed, but before the American war there were 600 ; the works at Cherbourg have hurt it, as well as grubbing up the fored belonging to Monfieur. It is now fent to Paris to be polidred. Bretagne — Rennes . — Some fabrics, but not of condderation ; linen for (hip-fails, hats, earthenware, dimities, fiamoifes, thread dockings : Some years ago one of cotton, edablifhed by Pincjon, author of a pamphlet Commerce de la Bretagne , but it was not attended with any fuccefs, and died with him. St. Brieux. — R eceived here lome information concerning the linen fabric of Bretagne. The rnerchants and fa&ors chiedy redde at St. Quintin and Loudeac, fome at Pontivy and Uzelles ; St. Maloes is faid to export to the amount of ten millions. The thread is fpun all over Bas Bretagne and bought up at markets, and woven into linen at thofe towns and their didriCts ,* the lowed: price is 34 to 38 f. the auln ; the next 40 to 50 f and fome, but little, is made fo high as 5 liv. The greated objeCt in the fabric is bleaching it to a great degree of whitenefs, which the Spaniards feem only to regard ; to dcr this the manufacturers are forced almod to rot it. Among other operations to which they fubjeCt it, is that of putting it in cafks of four milk for 3 or 4 months, but the linen that is only commonly bleached is drong and excellent; the flax is all produced in Bretagne. Belle Isle to Morlaix Ponton. « — Much fpinning of dax through all this country ; the dax of their own raidng ; every farmer enough for the em- ployment of the family ; the thread fells at 30 / a lb. at Morlaix. Morlaix. 552 MANUFACTURES. Morlaix.— -Much linen exported ; thread fells at 45/ the lb. fpinning is 12 f. the lb. I was fhewn fome fine thread that cod 3 liv. 1 of. the lb. and which will make cloth of 4 liv. 10 f the auln. The linen trade is now very dull, but flourished greatly in the war ; the linens here are toil/e de menage ; that exported to Spain is here called toille de leon y and is whitened tell rotten. Nantes. — H ere I am allured that the linen fabric of Bretagne amounts to 24 millions. Examine fome of thele linens that are for the Cadiz market ; the fined of ail is 4 liv. 7 f. the auln of Bretagne of 5 0 inches, and tths wide; it hati oo threads in an inch Englilh : 3 liv. 7 f. the auln ; 25I French inches bioad, 70 threads to the inch Englilh ; they are very white and much beaten. A confiderable fabric eftablilhed near this city in an illand of the Lone, for call- ing and boring cannon; the coals coll here 3 4 liv . the 2000 lb. they come by the river from the neighbourhood, and they calculate that the new fleam-engine, now ereCted, will confume 100 liv. a day. Viewed the cotton manufacture of Monf. Pellontier, Bourcard and Co. the Pruffian Conful, which employs about 200 hands; he fpins (by jennies), weaves and prints the cloth, but the conductor of it fays, that the Swifs fabiics of the fame fort are one-third cheaper, owing to their employing much more machinery 3 and to their men working far better and harder. Price of the bed St. Domingo cotton at prefent 180 liv. to 200 liv. per quintal. Anjou — Angers. — All alive with docking engines, and an infinity of Spin- ning wheels ; the dockings are modly of thread, but fome of wool ; they have fpinning jennies for cotton ; a fabric of fail cloth, and fome callico printing. Maine. — Le Mans . — Here are etamines, linen, dockings, bleach- grounds, &c. &c. Normandie. — Allen con. — Great quantities of hemp fpun and manufactured m all this country into table-linen, lheets, Shirts, &c. Gace. — M uch fpinning of flax, which is brought from Flanders, the price 1 liv. i6y: the lb. and fell it fpun at 4 liv. 10 f. but varying much according to the finenefs ; a woman fpins a pound in a week. Elboeuf. — T he fabrics here are chiefly cloths, and by far the greater part are of Spanifh wool, a Small proportion of that of Roufiillon and Berri, The wools of Segovia and the Leonoife are at 5 liv. 12 f. the lb. and 4 liv. 10/ paid de Vif count. It is fpun in the country for twelve leagues around; the price of fpinning is from 10 to 13 f. the lb. average 11 f. for which they fpin the fine SpaniSh to the length of 825 aulns of Paris; a good Spinner will do a pound in a day, but that is beyond the medium; very few however demand two days. The carder has 6 to 8 f. a lb. Monf. Grande has fome jennies, by which a woman fpins the work of eight. Darnetal. M ANUFACTURES. SS3 Darnetal. — -T he chief fabrics here are cloths, a fagon d’Elboeuf, efpag- nolettes, Handles, ratteens. Of thefe the principal are the eipagnoiettes of 4-ths breadth, and price 5 liv. 10/ to 9 liv. 10/ for mens waiftcoats, ladies habits, &c. The wool is in general from Spain and Berri, but not the Spanifh .of the fir ft quality; the Berri is. as good, or better than the Spanifh for this fabric. The fpinners are paid 14 to 1 6 f the lb. for which they fpin it to the length of 600 aulns. Carding is if. the lb. and no other than carding wool is ufed here. The weaver is alfo paid by the pound, at 1 §f therefore the weaving and fpinning is nearly the fame price ; many of all thefe hands are in the country. The mailer manufacturers here afiert, that their fabrics are as good and as cheap as iimilar ones in England, but they fell none thither. Louviers. — Monfieur Decretot’s fabrics of fine cloths at this place, are, I believe, the firit in the world; I know none in England, nor any where elfe, that can be compared with them ; the beauty and the great variety of his productions remind me more of the fertility of Mr. Wedgewood’s inventions, than any other fabric I have feen in France. Monf. Decretot brings out fomething new for every year, and even for every feafon. The common cloths of this place are well known ; but Monf. D. has now made fome of the fineft and molt beautiful cloth that has ever yet been feen, of the pure undyed Peruvian, or Vigonia wool, if it may be fo called, for it is not produced by a fheep ; this rifes to the vaft price of no liv. the auln, i ths wide ; the raw wool is 19 liv. 10 f the lb. or thrice as dear as the very fineft Spanifh: other fabrics he has made of the wool of the chamois from Perfia. The fineft cloth he makes of common wool, unmixed, is of Spanifh, at 6 liv. 4 /.’ the lb. and the price 33 liv. the auln, i-ths broad. Raye en foie marbre Iths broad, 32 liv. Caftorine raye en foie , fame price and breadth. Of all thefe curious fabrics, as well as the wools they are made of, he very obligingly gave me fpecimens. View the cotton mill here, which is the mo ft confiderable to be found in France. They fpin to the length of 40,000 aulns per lb. machinery in this mill faves in labour in the proportion of three hands doing the work of eight. It is conducted by four Englifhmen, from fome of Mr, Arkwright’s mills. This mill coft building 400,000 liv. Near this town alfo is a great fabric of copper-plates, for bottoming the king’s fhips ; the whole an Englifh colony. Champagne. — Rheims . — There are about 700 matter manufacturers here, and 10,000 perfons in the town and the country about it, fupported by the ma- nufactures. The fabric is not at prefent flcurifhing, and the earnings of carders and fpinners but one half what they were. The weavers are paid 12 liv. 10 f for a piece of 55 aulns, and f an auln broad. . -j 4 B They 554 manufactures. They make here razcaftors, maroc's, flannels, burattes, the chain of almoft every thing of the wool of Champagne; but the reft of Spanifh, or that of Berri ; and thefe fine carding wools are combed for moftof the fabrics: they ufebefides thefe wools much from Bourgogne and Germany, and fome from Rome, which are very bad, becaufe the fheep are clipped twice a year, which deftroys the texture of the wool. The woollens at Rheims amount to io millions, and the trade of wine four or five millions. There are 24,000 pieces of woollen fluffs annually ftamped of 50 aulns each, and at the price of 1 10 to 120 liv. each. Luneville. — Here is a fabric of earthenware, that employs fixty tofeventy hands, who earn 20 to 30 [ a day ; but fome painters to 24 liv. a week. Com- mon plates by no means good, 3 liv. lof. per dozen. Is en helm to Bcf 'ort . — Many fabrics in this country, efpecially callico printing. Bourgogne — Dijon . — Many flocking engines, fome fpinning of cotton, and fome coarfe cloths made, but nothing of confequence, foi the place docs not fubfift by manufadures., Mont Cenis. — Thefe are amongft the greateft iron works in France, and owe their prefent magnitude entirely to Monf. de Calonne ; they weie eftabhfhcd by Mr. Wilkin fon from England, in the fame expedition into France, in which he fixed thofe on the Loire near Nantes. The iron mine is three leagues off, but thofe of coal on the fpot. They call and bore cannon on the greateft fcale,. having five fleam engines at work, and a fixth building : they have iron loads for the waggons, make coak of coal, a TAnglois, &c. &c. Here is alfo a pretty confiderable cryftal glafs work, in which two Englifhmen are ftill left.. There is no navigation, as neceffary as coals or iron ; but the Chaiolois canal is within two leagues, and they hope it will come here. Autun . — N o man ufadure . Bourbonnoi s — Monhns . — N o fabric . Auvergne — Riom . — Nofabric, exceptwhat cotton is fpun, &c. in the ge- neral hofpital. Clermont. — In the mountains at Royau, &c.wool fpun ^of. lb. thefineft 50 f. fpinning ilb. coarfe wool 10 f. fine ditto 12 to 16 f.. Marseille.; — Price of cotton, 1789, St. Domingo, 130 liv. the quintal Martinique, 1 20 Salonica,. 95 to 100 Smyrna, 100 to 1 1 5 Cyprus, 100. to 105 Acre, 100 to no This place makes foap to the amount of 20 millions a year : the oil from Italy, jhe Levant, and Tunis. Caftile, M A N U F A C T U R E $. 555 Caftile, 36 liv. the quintal Blue, 36I White, 37 The trade of Marfeille to the colonies not near equal to that of Bourdeaux. Lyons. — The import of raw filk into all France one million of lb. of 16 oZi The crop of all France the fame, but not fo good by 4. of the price. The price of good filk 25 to 30 liv. The fabric here f of all the kingdom, and its exports in manufactured goods the weight of one million of pounds. There are 12,000 looms, each employing five perfons, or 60,000, who earn on an average 257! a day. The men earn by wrought filks 45 to 50/i ; but on plain ones 30 f. Of the fabric here 4. of the value is raw filk, and 4. labour. Throughout the kingdom in the hemp and flax fabrics ~ labour and ~ raw ma ~ terial. In the laft 20 years the manufacture here has augmented very little, if at all. ‘ # Thev have a prohibitory law again ft any loom being ereCted without the city to a certain diftance ; and at Amiens there is a prohibition againft working woollen fluffs by lamp-light, for fear of greaiing the fluffs, yet here the finefl filks are thus wrought. The advantageous fituation of Lyons, in refpeCt to its two great rivers* has no effeCl on the tranfport 'of its manufactures, for all go by land to Bayonne, Bourdeaux, and Strafbourg, &c. They have here an eftablifhment of Ge~ nevois callico printers, to the number of fix or feven hundred. St. Etienne en Foret. — The iron fabrics now very flourifhing, coals al- most for nothing, and the fame at St. Chaumond ; a great ribbon trade alfo ; forty pieces are made at a time by a machine turned by one man. The following details of French manufactures will explain feveral of them : they are extracted from the new Encyclopedic, in quarto, now publifhing at Paris. Manu failures of Picardie . Camelot poil, — — • — Cameiot mi foie, — — . ■ laine, — ' — Baracans, &c. — Prune! es foie, * — ■ laine, — — — — Panne poil, — • — — laine, * — _ — Velours, mocquettes, trippes damas A'en^ons, etamines, vires, gazes Serges, minorques, turquoifes, &c. Looms. Pieces. Prices liv. 35 ° 3,000 38O ■300 3,600 160 450 3’S°° 120 700 I 2,000 130 1,000 10,000 180 650 7,800 800 7,000 240 950 10,000 120 45 ° 4 i 5 °° 180 300 3,600 200 1,200 4 B 2 14,400 180 Total Value, liv. 1 . 1 40.000 576.000 420.000 1.560.000 1.800.000 897.000 1,680,000 1 , 200,000 8 10.000 720.000 2,592,000 Tamifes, ss<> M A N U F A C T U H E S. Manufactures cf Picardie. Tamifes, duroys, grains d’orge. Serges d’Aumale, Londres, &c. — de Blicourt, Crevecceur, &c. Draperies fines, — — - communes', — — Velours de coton, toileries, &c. Totals* Etoffs de laine> — — Bas douzaines de paires, — — Toiles, — - - — - — Of the country, From Holland, • England, Germany, Fleece , Spun, 400 6,000 100 600, oco 2,000 16,000 100 1,600,000 i,5°o 24,000 15 625,000 100 1,200 480 576,000 600 7,000 60 420,000 450 6,000 150 900,000 12,200 139,600 18,098,000 8,500 220,000 14 5,200,000 4,30° 60,000 50 3,000,000 25,000 26^298,000 fumed . lb. liv. 3,220,000 at 22 J. 3,520,00c 180,000 at 4 of 360,000 200,000 at 32/ 320,000 1 00,000 ' at 22 /. 1 1 0,00c 3,700,000 4,310,000 60,000 8 liv. ic f. 5 1 0,000 100,000 7 liv. 700,000 220,000 5 liv. 1 of. 1, 200,00c 20,000 35 700,00c liv. 7,420,000 Turcoin, — Germany, — - Poil de chevre, Soie, — Spinning of 3,6 8o,ooolb. at 6 or 7 /. the lb. of thread of all forts at 9 liv. the piece Weaving 150,000 pieces at 28 liv. the piece, 12,000 looms making each 14 or 15 pieces, and gaining about 280 liv. per annum, f - Dyeing the materials fpun and not fpun, — — Merchant’s profits, on raw materials and manufacturers, — Value of 1 50,000 pieces going from the hands of the manufacturer. Drugs, colours* &c. — * — — — Nett profit, — — — — 4.310.000 .1,350,000 3.420.000 1 90,000 1.300.000 17,990,000 500,000 2 , 000,000 Draperies Fines. liv. Spanifh wool 330 bales of 200lb. at 5 liv. per lb. — 330,000 Sixty-fix lb. of wool in a piece of broad cloth, 1000 pieces, and confume 66,000 lb. of wool ; the piece of 24 aulns at 25 liv. 600 liv. and for iooo, — - — 600,000 20,490,000 liv. Cotton Velvets. Cotton 40,000 lb. at 48 /. — Spinning, — - — Fabrication of 2,860 pieces at 14/. — — Dyeing, &c. — — Profits, — — 96,000 96.000 6o,oco 82.000 36.000 370,000 Linen , MANUFACTURES. 557 Linen , ‘Thread, and Cordage . liv. Hemp for linen, 4, 5, or 600,000 raw, at 30 liv. the 100, 1,350,000 Reduced to 3,000,000 lb. at 7 J. fpinning, — 1,050,000 Flax 2,000,000 lb. at 40 liv. the 100 — — 800,000 Reduced to 1,200,000 lb. at \oJi fpinning, — 600,000 Weaving, 4,300 looms at 90 liv. to 160 liv. — 400,000 Seventy thoufand pieces at 65 liv. materials, — Hemp and labour on thread, packthread, and cordage 4,200,000 2,000,000 6,200,000 Boneterie. Wool of the country, 8oo,ooolb. Profit at 25/. — 1,000,000 Holland, 250,000 at 40 /. 500,000 Draperies of the Generality of Rouen. Flax — Cotton liv. 100,000 at 1 of. 50,000 — 2,500 at 40 f 5,000 Materials — Labour — Profit — - Recapitulation. M 55 > 000 3.125.000 5 20,000 5.200.000 Total value of raw materials, 13,870,000 Labour and profit, — 19,000,000 32,870,000 50,000 workmen at 140 liv. 7,000,000 50,000 women at 70 liv. 3,500,000 1 50,000 children at 40 liv. 6,000,000 16,500,00a 2,500,000 1 9,000,00a Price per auln. No. Pieces. Value. — liv. " Draps, - - 16 liv. I of. 1 8,000 8,910,000 Roya'es, - - 10 liv. * 5 ° 54,000 Calmoucs, - - 16 liv. 80 38,400 l Alpagas, - - 9 liv. 100 36,000 18,330 — draps fins. - - 24 liv. 4,440 f Draps, - u. 14 liv. 80 33,000 | Ratines, - - 12 liv. 120 51,840 ■{ Ffpagnolettes croifees, - 5 liv. 760 ^89,100 1 - li flees. - 4 liv. 1 of. 180 64,800 ^ Flanelles, - - 2 liv. 10/. 2,690 282,450 3*830 f Draps, - 18 liv. 37 ° 199,800 ( Ratines, - - 12 liv. 10/ 380 1 7 1 ,000 ■i Efpagnolettes Croifees, - 5 liv. 4 * 3^0 1,630,000 i— — — li flees. * 4 liv. 10/. 800 309,600 L Flanelles, - * 3 liv. x > 35 ° 160,000 7 > 3 °° — j 9,038,40a 3,196,800 1,021,190 2,470,400 1 5 > 7 26,7 9 ° 55 ® MANUFACTURES. Tfie draperies of Darnetal may be taken on an average at 2,500,000 liv. blankets not included, which are 4 or 500,000 liv. If every thing is included, the lainages of the Generality will rife to 1 8, 000,000 liv. and linens to the double. Manufactures of Champagne in 1782, taken by Monf Taillardat, InfpeBor of that Province. Places . Denominations . Chalons. Quippes Reims & Environs. < Efpagnolettes, Serges drapees, Draps de Silefia, Dauphins and Marocs, - Perpetuelles, Droguets, etamines, burats, voiles, Imperialles flanelles, Bluteaux, - - Couvertures, - - Toiles de Chanvre, Dauphins and Marocs, eta- mines, flanelles, ferges, Draps fa$on de fedan, Toiles de chanvre, Toiles de coton and bafins, Troyes & Environs.) I _ Efpagnolettes, Chrfiimont, &c. Droguets, Vancouleurs. Siamoifes, toiles de coton, fil, &c. Rhetal & Environs.* Price per au)n. 3 liv - 10 f i 1 6 4 io 1 5 t0 3 5 3 5 S to 3 5 2 to 4 5 17 to 18 p. 20 p. 1 4 / 1 5 to 3 10 22 liv. 1 4 1 to 5 liv 2 15 to 3 IO 6 to 10 10 4 liv. 5/. 1 10 1 15 to 3 I o' No. Pieces. I,8oo 3,000 I I,5GO 27,500 40 22,000 fCO 3>9 6 ° 10.000 2,300 4.500 3° 420 56.000 3, 200 55° 1,000 1.500 i,3°° 175,600 Value. 226,800 322,600 2,300,000 3.100.000 7,000 2.800.000 830.000 67,600 600.000 1 10.000 450.000 26,400 20,200 4,000,000 3 1 0.000 122,400 140.000 100.000 180,000 i 5 > 7 13 > 000 Boneterie en Cot oft. Looms. — Troyes, Arcys and Aube, — In thirty villages near ditto, Vitry la Francois, — Vancouleurs, Chalons, - 11 ■ — 400 280 300 24 30 12 1046 Each loom makes per annum 100 dozen pairs of ftockings or bonets, worth one with another 24 liv. or 104,600 dozen, and 2,510,400 liv. of which .Ids are labour and profit* IM MANUFACTURES. m * In Wool, About 1 2,600 dozens pairs of flockings and bonets at Chaumont, Vignory* Joinville, Vitry, and Chalons, at 50 liv. the dozen, or 360,000 liv.* Boneterie in all France . Boneterie of filk, Woo 1 , Cotton, Thread, looms. 17,50° 24,50° 14,50° 7,500 64,000 Produce of which 55 to 60,000,000 liv. Lace. The laces they make at Valenciennes employ about 3600 perfons, and are an objedt of 400,000 liv. of which the flax is not- more than Vo* The thread fells from 24 liv. to' 700 liv. the pound. The lace-makers at Dieppe earn 7 or 8 f. a day, a few 10 to 15/ There are 8 or 9000 point-makers at and about Alen^on. At Argentan they work to 500,000 liv ; and in all France about 1,200,000 liv. Silk. In 1780, there were in Lyons 1800 to 2000 looms conflantly employed on flockings, making 1500 pairs a day, at 9 liv. or 4,000,000 liv. per ann. for 450,000 pairs. Raw material f, — Labour, Profit ' — liv. 2 , 000,000 1,600,000 400,000 4,000,000 looms. In all France, in 1756. — Lyons, 18,000 Ni fines, 3,000 Tours, L350 Paris, 2,000 24,35° Manufacture of Lyons in 1768, extracted from the regifler of the Capitation and Vingtiemes. Merchants, — Mafter workmen. Looms, — 410 4,202 1 1,007 Ditto in 1788. Looms employed, — > Ditto riot employed, — 9>335 5»44 2 >4*777 Rent of their houies 81 1,667 hv. Total value of the fabric 60,000,000 liv, of which 1 8,000,000 liv. labour. Weight of lilk 2,000,000 lb. Silk and iron in the Forez of the Lyonnois. * Enc. Mtth , Man and Art . t, i. 10, The MANUFACTURES. C 6 * The clincaillerie of St. Etienne 4,000,000 lb. of iron, at 21 liv. the 100^. price wrought 60 liv. the 100. The manufacture of arms for export confumes 1,200,000 lb. 60,000 muihets and piftols. Ribbons amount to 9,000,000 liv. W 00 liens at ho dev e in Languedoc . Grijblancs for the troops, - . ^ * Pieces. 6,000 at 61iv. 10/ liv. 624,000 Blues and reds, — — — 2,000 at 9I1V. ic ;/. 304,000 Draps, — — . — 1,000 at Bliv. ic /. 1.^6,000 Pinchinats, — — — 3,000 at 61iv. — 288,000 Croifees, — • — — 300 at 9liv. — 43,200 Tricots, — — — 1,200 at aliv. 8/. 92,800 Ratines, — — ■ — 100 — — I 2,000 13,600 1,500,000 Total French exportation to the Levant 18,000,000 liv. of which 12,000,000 liv. in draperies and bonets fa9on de Tunis. Clermont. Account of a bale of 20 half pieces of Londrins feconds . lir. Wool, 5 50 lb. at 38/. * 1,04c Lifieres, (lift,) — — — 50 Oil, _ 36 Spinning, . * > ■- 270 Weaving, — — — — 150 Soap, — — * 45 Dyeing, — — — 120 Cocheneal, — ■ ■■ ■ 198 Total including all other charges, — — 1,914 Account of 100 bales. Wool, — Oil, foap, and drugs, Carriage, commiffion, and profit. Labour, - ■ » ■ ■ liv. 550,000 150.000 1 1 0.000 390,000 1 , 200,000 W oollens MANUFACTURES. Woollens at Sedan . S6t Wool, Hair, Oil, Soap, Linen, ^ Spinning, Weaving, Dyeing, liv. A piece of black Juperfne . Wool for the chain, 42I en /urge, at 4 liv. 8 f. Ditto for the trame, 65 £ en furge 3 at 4 liv, 8/. Carriage of 108 lb. wool, — Spinning, — — Weaving 105 aulns, meaf. de Brabant, at 10/. Dyeing, . — — Wear and tear of implements, — Houfe, clerks, &c. — 4 il aulns, at 23 liv. 10/, Manufacturer’s profit, 37 6 t0 47^ 13 to 30 12 to 14 4 to 4i 3 to 3 60 to 90 34 to S3 50 to too liv. f. liv. /• _ 188 1 7 — 287 2 j 4 ^ 4 S 8 $7 18 — 5? IQ — .100 0 — 14 0 — — 14 0 ,887 0 1 004 liv. 12/. 887 o 117 12 In 1767. Looms, — — Pieces, ■» — — Spanifh wool, — — Wool or hair for felvages, See. +** Oil, — — of which olive, — colefeed, « — Linen for envelopes, .1,188 pieces of 28,550 aulns. 7 8 >55 6 864,1051b, 1 33>7 5 1 ^b* 161,158 144,373 Many interefling particulars concerning the fabrics, of Normandie, are found in the Obfervations de la Chambre du Commerce de Normandie , fur le Trait e de Commerce entre la France & 1 Angle ter e. Linens , , In the generality of Rouen are made, in an average year, 500,000 pieces, worth, as they pafs from .the hands of the manufacturer, 45 to 50,000,000 liv. of which *ds are labour and profits. 4 C The MANUFACTURES. 562 Woollens . The cloths and other fluffs of Louviers, d’Elboeuf, Rouen, Darnetal, Andley, Evreux, and other places in the generality of Rouen, may be eflimated in a common year at 34,000 pieces, which are worth at the conlumer s price about 20,000,000 liv. half of which is raw material, and half labour and profit. Cotton . The boneterie en coton at Rouen, amounts to 18,000 dozens of pairs of flockings and caps, and as many more in the country, the value of the whole 1,600,000 liv. to 2,000,000 liv. ^ds of which are labour and profit. The hades tamer ie oi. cotton alone, employs in France 15,000 looms. Sundries . The other articles of manufacture in Rouen and the generality, fuch as rib- bons, fundry woollens, tanneries, earthen-ware, plating, &c. will raife the preceding fums to 80 or 90,000,000 liv. in a common year, confequently thefe fundries amount to 16 or 18,000,000 liv. and half of all on an average is labour and profits. Louviers fabricates annually 4400 pieces of cloth. Elbceuf fabricates 18,000 pieces of cloths and fluffs. Darnetal makes 7300 pieces of cloths, ratines, efpagnolettes, and flanels, without including couvertures. Vife makes 8000 pieces of cloth, but the fabric is much fallen ; for thirty years together it made 26,000 pieces per annum. Valognes and Cherbourg were once famous for their cloths, and fabricated to the amount of near 4000 pieces, at prefent they make 3 or 400. Lifieux, and an hundred parifhes in the environs, fabricate 50 or 60,000 pieces woollen fluffs called frocs, flarinelles, &c. Earnings of Manufacturers. 1787 — Picardie. — Montreui 7 . — By flockings, 20 f 2 day. Abbeville. — By cloths, &c. 25 f Amiens. — Cloths, 18 f. to 2 5 /. to 40 f Breteuil. — Iron, 30 f Orleanois. — Orleans. — Woollen caps, men 26/. boys 7 f fpinners 14 f carders 31 f fu gar refiners 2 6 f Berry. — Chateauroux. — Woollens, men 20 f. boys Sf fpinners 8f La Marche. — Women and girls employed in keeping cattle, fpin wool and hemp 5 for thread of the latter they have 3 f the lb. fi.r coarfe, 6 f. for fine ; MANUFACTURES. fine; for wool 3 to 4/ the lb.; they mull, work very hard in the fields to {pin 1 lb. of coarfe thread in a day; when they work for themfelves they give their yarn and thread to a weaver, who makes the fluff at 5 or 6J the auln. Limosin. — Limoges . — Stuffs and china men ijf. boys 9 f weavers are paid 5 or 6/ the auln, and earn 1 5/ a day ; in the porcelaine fabric fome earn 1 20 liv. a month. Brive . — Silks, gauzes, and cotton men 27 f boys 5/ Guienne. — Cahors . — Woollens, men 20 f. fpinners Sf. Montauban. — Silks, women 10 f. woollens, men 25/ fpinners 8/ comb- ers 30/. St. Martori . — Woollen fluffs, men 24/ fpinners 8 f. women 8/ Bagnere de Luchon . — Cobalt, men 27^ Languedoc. — Nifmes. — Silks, men 20 to 40/ a man will make a pair of filk ftockings in a day if he is a good hand, he is paid 40/ for them, out of which he muft pay for the engine and oil for his lamp; the engine cofts 4 to 500 liv. women alfo work at it, common earnings of either, by means of this tool, 30 to 35/ . i j , .. Gange. — Silk ftockings, men 32/. and fome particular hands, by making the fineft ftockings, up to 36 liv. the pair, will earn 5 liv. a day. Lodeve. — -Cloths, men 28 /. filk ftockings 35/. cotton 35/ fome in cotton are faid to earn even to 50/. Beg de Rieux . — Londrins, men 18 f. filk ftockings 35/. Guienne. — Pan. — 'Linen, men 24/i from 18 to \of. they are paid 20 f. for weaving a handkerchief. Navarens. — Flax, a pound before fpinning fells for 30/ fpinning it to a middling degree of finenefs adds 30^ more, or 3 liv. in all, but much fpin- ning improves it only 20 f. a good hand will fpin a pound a day, in common # woman earns 7 to 12 f. weavers 15 to 3 T/* generally 20 J". Bayonne . — Spinning flax, 10 to ii/« a day. Aire. — Linen 15 to 2 5/! Lei tour. — Tannery 15 to 30/. Agen. — Hemp weavers 15 to 22/. Touraine. — Tours. — Silk weavers, men 30 f. boys 20 f. women 21 f. nailors 2 $f. Amboife.— Steel, men 3 (of. women 18 f. Isle of Fr ance. — Beauvais. — Tapeftry, men 40 f. boys $f fome to 100 j. calico printers 10 liv. to 24 liv. a week, none under 10 liv. women pencillers 20/. a day, pattern drawers to ^olouis a year, feveral at 100, woollens 20 to 30 f. Picardie.— St. Gobin. — Glafs, men 20 to 40 f. 4 C 2 MANUFACTURES. 564 St. Quintin . — Linen, cambric men 20 f fpinners i$f. and even to 20 f. Cambray. — Gauzes, cleres, &c. 20 /. in general, fome 30, and a very few to 40 f. Valenciennes.*— Lace- makers 20 to 30 f. for the fined. Lille . — Woollen fluffs 20 to 35/ many to 40/ St. Omers. — Stockings 22 f. fpinning wool, women 9 f. Aire . — Spinning wool gf. to 10 f. Arafs. — Laces, women earn 12 to 15/ a day, (lockings 24 f. to 30 f. Beauval. — Weavers of linen 30 f. fpinners 31b. at 4/. per day, or 12 f. if good hands. Aumale. — Weavers 2 2/ women fpinners 7/ Rouen. — Weavers 30 f. by the piece, that is 24 to 40 f. fpinners 8 to 12 f Vvetot. — The poor here, and the fame at Rouen, buy their cotton, fpin it, and then fell the yarn j at prefent they give 4HV. 5/ per lb. fdr the cotton, and when fpun fell it at 5 liv. 10 /. to 5 liv. 15/. and 6 liv. and earn in general about 12/. a day; children begin at fix or feven years old. Very little wool fpun, as the whole country is employed on cotton. Havre. — The country people can buy their cotton at 300 liv. the quintal, which is to the quintal of Paris as 108 is to 100 ; at Rouen it is 106 ; they have 40/ a lb. for fpinning it, and a woman earns 16 f a day. I was here allured, that none of the cotton mills of France were on a great eflablifhment, as I fhould find when I viewed them ; much talked of only at a diflance. Pont a deMer. — In the tannery and curriery here the men earn from 24 f to 4 liv. a day. Caen. — Silk lace, 15 f women, fome fo high as 30, Bayeux. — Lace of filk and thread, women earn in common 10 to 12/. but fome 20 to 24./. Cherbourg . — Blown plate glafs, blowers 40 to 50 f. lowed workmen 24 f. Bretagne. — Rennes. — Sundries, 25^ a day. St. Brieux. — Spinning wool 8yi to 20 f. per lb. St. ^uintiriy Londeac, &c. — Linen, weavers gf. an auln, and do four in a day of common work, 30 to 36 f. common wages, fpinners 10 to 20 f. but the latter very uncommon. Ponton. — Many fpinners do not earn more than $f a day, 10 hours. Morlaix. — For fpinning 12 f. a lb. and do it in three days, belides family bufinefs. Anjou. — Weavers 8 f. per auln, and do three or four a day. Angers. — Weavers 30 to 35^ fpinners 5 to 8 f. more by wool than by cotton or flax, 1 lb. of flax in a day for 6 f . ; 1 lb. of fine cotton, three days to a week, and for 30 f Maine. — MANUFACTURES. 565 Maine .—Guefceland . — Spinning hemp, do half a pound at 10/. the lb. but a very good fpinner will do a pound. Normandie. — Allengon. — 8 f. a day by fpinning hemp, and 10, and even to 12 and 15, but this is only for the fined; of 56 f. the auln. Gace. — Spinning flax gf. a day, which is rather more than they gain by hemp. Elbceuf. — Spinning wool 5! to 11 f. weavers 30 to 35/ Darnetal. — Spinning wool 8 to 12/. a man carding 20 to 28 f. weaving 24 to 30/ Louviers. — Spinning wool 12 f. weavers 24 to 35^ and the higheft wages earned 48^ La Roche Guyon. — Spinning cotton, good ones earn 12 and 1 $f Spinning hemp 10 to 12 f the lb. and one lb. in two days. Champagne. — Rheims . — For carding and fpinning, are paid by the chain and gain 6 f. a day, at prefent 12 f when the fabric was flourifhing, a weaver, that is a good hand, 20 to 25/. a day by the piece, but he has to pay a child, if he has none of his own, 3 or \f. out of it. Bourgogne. — Mont Cent's. — Forge men 30 to 40 f. Auvergne. — Clermont. — In the mountains. Vellay. — Le Pay. — Making lace, earn 4 to $ f. a day. Vivarais. — Pradelles. — Ditto, 7 or %f. and fome up to 20 f. Earnings. Average earnings of all the fabrics, of the men 26 f . — Of the women 1 $f . — Of fpinners, 9 j \ — Thefe earnings are, without any doubt, much under thofe of fimi- lar manufactures in England ; where I fhould apprehend the men earn, upon an average 2od. a-day or 40 f . ; the women 9d. or 1 8/ and fpinners I have fhewn (Annals of Agriculture, vol. ix..) to earn 6fd. or 1 2\f . — The vaft fuperiority of Englifh manufactures, taken in the grofs, to thofe of France, united with this higher price of labour, is a fubjeCt of great political curiofity and importance ; for it thews clearly, that it is not the nominal cheapnefs of labour that favours manufactures, which flourith moft where labour is nominally the deareft — per- haps they fiourifh on this account, fince labour is generally in reality the cheapeft, where it is nominally the deareft; the quality of the work, the ikill and dexterity of performance, come largely into the account; and thefe muft, on an average, depend very much on the fiate of eafe in which the workman lives. If he be well nourifhed and cloathed, and his conftitution kept in a fiate of vigour and activity, he will perform his work incomparably better than a man whofe peverty allows but a fcanty nourifhment. There is doubtlels great luxury amonerfi MANUFACTURES. 566 amongft the manufacturing poor in England ; there is little amongft thofe of France; this apparent evil has grown fo regularly with the profperity of Englifh fabrics, that I am not too ready to confider it fo great an evil, as to demand any laws or regulations to reprefs it, which have been injudicioufty called for by fome writers; inconveniencies, indeed, may flow from it, but they are fo inti- mately connected with the fources of profperity, that to touch them might be dangerous : the hidden benefit is concealed fometimes beneath the apparent evil ; and by remedying the inconvenience, the advantage might be loft. It is thus fometimes in the natural body, and I believe often in the political. It is a remarkable circumftance in the agriculture, or rather’ in the domeftic ceconomy cf France, that the culture of hemp or flax, for home ufes, pervades every part of the kingdom. It is a curious queftion how far this is beneficial or not to the general interefts of the national profperity. On the one hand, in favour of this fyftem it may be urged, that national profperity being nothing more than the united profperity of Angle families, if any fuch article of ceconomy be advantageous to individuals, it muft be fo to the nation at large ; that it can- not fail of being beneficial to a poor man’s family to have the women and chil- dren induftrioufly employed on clothing the whole, rather than forced to buy fuch articles at an expence of money which they may not be able to procure. — ■ By means of induftry, thus exerted, a poor family is rendered as independent as its Atuation admits. All of them are likewife warmer, and more comfortably cloathed, as far as linen is concerned, than if it were bought; for whatever de- mands money v/ill be conlumed with much more caution than if the refult merely of labour. Thefe arguments are unanfwerable ; yet there are others, on the contrary, that alfo deferve attention. If it be true, that national profperity depends on individuals, and that whatever carries comfort into the cottage of the poor man, adds proportionably to themafs of national enjoyment, it mufl: alfo be equally admitted, tliat whatever renders a people nationally flourishing and rich, reflects back on the lowed: clafles a large fhare of, and intimate connection in, fuch wealth and profperity, confequently, if domeftic manufactures of this fort be injurious to the great mafs of national interefts, in aftate of combination, they muft, in fome meafure, be individually fo in a lhateof reparation. A modern fociety flourifhes by the mutual exchange of the products of land for the manu- factures of towns ; a natural connection of one with the other ; and it may be remarked, that in proportion as this exchange is rapid from a great confump- tion, in fuch proportion will a people generally flourifh. If every family in the country have a patch of flax or hemp for its own fupply of all the manufactures founded on thofe materials, this bencflcial intercourfe of the country with the town, is fo far cut oft, and no circulation takes place. If the practice be good in flax, it is good in wool ; and every family fliould have a fufflcient number of MANUFACTURES. S 6 7 fheep, to cloath themfelves in woollens ; and if every little village have its little tanner, the fame fuppofition may be extended to leather. . A patch of vines fur- nifhes the beverage of the family ; and thus, by fimple domeftic induftry, all wants are fupplied ; and a poor family,- as it would be improperly called, would have no occahon to refort to market for any thing to buy. But if it go thither for nothing to buy, it ought to go thither with nothing to fell ; this part of the theory is abfolutely necelfary, for the town has the power of buying only in confequence of having that of felling ; if the country buy nothing of the town, affuredly the town can buy nothing of the country. Thus it is, that in every combination on thefe fubjeCts, a minute divifion of the foil into fmall properties always attacks the exigence of towns, that is to fay, of what Sir James Stewart calls the free hands of a fociety. A countryman living on his own little property, with his family induftrioully employed in manufacturing for all their own wants, without exchange, connection, or dependence on any one, offers, indeed, a fpeCtacle of rural comfort, but of a fpecies abfolutely inconfiflent with the prof- peri ty of a modern fociety ; and were France to confift of nothing elfe, the whole kingdom would become the prey of the firft invader. Upon fuch a fyftem all taxes mulf ceafe, and confequently all public force be annihilated. The whole routine of life would be as well carried on without, as with money, and he who has of neceffity land and commodities only, could pay no taxes but in kind ; in other words, could pay none at all. However plaufible, therefore, the argu- ments may be in favour of thefe domeftic manufactures, there are not wanted reafons that militate powerfully againft them. In a' cafe of this kind a reference to faCt is more valuable than reafoning. The poor in France abound very much with thefe fabrics, and are very miferable ; the poor in England hardly know fuch a thing, and are very much at their eafe ; but in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and fome of our counties moil back- ward in point of agriculture, the fyftem is found ; and precifely in the pooreft diftriCts of the three kingdoms. It is with regret that I feel myfelf obliged to differ in opinion fo often, on political fubjeCts, from a man of fuch diftinguifhed abilities as the Count de Mirabeau ; but upon this fubjeCt he gives an opinion deciftvely in favour of thefe fcattered domeftic manufactures, advancing the fol- lowing ft range affertion ; “ Les manufactures reunies, les enterprizes de quel- ques particuliers qui foident des ouvriers au jour la journee pour travailler a leur compte ne feront jamais un objet digne de l’attention des gouvernemens.*” If there be truth in this idea, the fabrics eftablifhed in towns, in which a mafter manufacturer employs the poor, are good for nothing. Thofe of Lyons, Rouen, Louviers, Elbceuf, Carcaflonne ; Manchefter, Birmingham, Sheffield, &c. are * De la Monarchic PruJJienne , tom. iii. p. log. Of MANUFACTURES. 568 of no account, and do not confer national profperity. It would be wafting the reader’s time to refute formally fuch opinions. The faCts are too notorious, and the arguments too obvious, to .dwell upon. Of the Influence of Manufactures on Agriculture. Normandie. — Rouen to Barentin . — A noble foil and full of manufactures, but the moft execrable hufbandry I have yet feen ; every held a bed of weeds and couch. Tvetot . — A noble track of land ; richer or deeper loams hardly to be feen, but all miferably culivated ; an exception to the common cafe in France, where line foils are ufually well cultivated : the crops in this country are a perfect con- trail to the foil. Havre . — This whole country, from Rouen, the Pays de Caux, is a region more of manufactures than agriculture. The fabric is what the great population of this diftriCt depends on, their farms being but a fecondary object. The num- ber of fmall properties, and confequently population, is very great, which is the reafon for the price and rental of land through this country being vaftly out of proportion to the products. Landlords alfo divide their farms according to the demand, as the rife of rent tempts it ; but he often finds himfelf depending for the rent of his land on the profperity of a fabric. The whole country forms a cu- rious fpeCtacle ; a vaft fabric, and an immenfe employment, and population hav- ing been abfolutely mifchievous to agriculture. This has been the refult throughout the Pays de Caux, the foil of which may be ranked among the fineft in France. Had it been a miferably poor, rocky, or barren territory, the refult would have been beneficial, for the fabric would have covered fuch a diftriCt with cultivation,. But the farmers of the Pays de Caux are not only manufac- turers, but have an inclination alfo for trade the large ones engage in commer- cial fpeculations at Havre, particularly in the cotton trade, and fome even in that of the Weft Indies.. This is a moft pernicious and mifchievous circum- ftance ; the improvement of their cultivation being never the objeCt or refult of their growing rich, but merely the engaging more largely in trade or manu- facture. If they get a fhare in an American adventure, no matter whether thiftles and docks cover their fields. Bretagne — St. Brieux .< — Meeting here with a linen merchant, and fome other well-inftruCted perfons, I demanded information concerning the ftate of hufbandry in the central parts of the province, and particularly the diftriCts in which the great linen manufacture (one of the moft confiderable in Europe) is carried on. All I had feen of the province was fuch a wretched and almolt; de- ferted wafte, that I fuppofed the other parts much better. I was informed, that the M A N U F A OT U R E S. 569 the whole province was alike, except the bifihpprick of St. Pol. de Leon ; that where the linen fabric was chiefly eftabliihed, there hufbandry was moil ne- glected, from the people depending on their linen alone ; that this Rate of things could not be helped, as it was impoffible to attend both to their fabric and their land ; and the former being found of the molt importance, the latter was left quite neglefted ; and that the landcs in the linen parts of the province were enormous. L' Orient — Here, in converfation concerning the waftes of Bretagne, I was again allured, that the landcs were of very great extent in the linen country of Pontivy, Loudeac, Moncontour, and St. Quintin ; and that what is cultivated is as rough as any I have feen j for the weavers are amongft the very worfl farmers in the province. Auvergnac. — A perlbn intimately acquainted with every part of the province, informed me, that the linen fabric in Bretagne is almoll; always found amidft bad agriculture, which he attributed to their al ways flowing hemp or flax on their befc lands, and neglecting corn ; but where corn is found, as about this place, they depend on it, and are not equally folicitous for hemp and flax. Eilbceuj to Rouen . — A defer t. M. l’Abbe Raynal remitted 1200 liv. to the Royal Society of Agriculture, at Paris, to be given as a prize on the fubjeCt of the following queftion, Une agricul- ture florifante influe-telle plus fur la profperite des manufactures , que la ccroiffement des manufactures fur la profperite , de l' agriculture? How the writers, who con- tend for the prize, will decide the queftion, I fhall not inquire ; but the faCts, which I have here noted, feem to weigh materially towards enabling us to exa- mine it. I take France to have pofleffed, from 1650 to 1750, the moft flourifh- ing manufactures in Europe : they wer^ fo conftderable, and fome of them re- main yet fo important, as to enable us to appeal merely to faCts for an anfwer to fuch a queftion, fo far as the example of that kingdom is concerned. That cen- tury of profperous fabrics, what did it efteCt for agriculture ? I may very fecurely reply, nothing. Whatever accounts I received of the comparifon between the former and the prefent ftate of their cultivation, were in favour of the latter ; yet, fuppofingit as good in 1750 as at prefent, I hefttate not to after t, that if fuch immenfe fabrics, encouraged almoft exclufively for a century, could create no better hufbandry than I met with in France, we may very fafely con- clude, that manufactures may flourifh greatly, without fhedding much influence in favour of agriculture. Such is the conclufton which forces itfelf upon one from the general view of the kingdom ; but let us examine it more in detail. — The greateft fabrics in France are the cottons and woollens of Normandie, the woollens of Picardy and Champagne, the linens of Bretagne, and the ftlks and hardware of the Lyonois. Now, if manufactures be the true encouragement 4O ■ of 57 o manufactures. of agriculture, the vicinity of thofe great fabrics ought to be the bell cultivated diftriCts in the kingdom. I have vifited all thofe manufactures, and remarked the attendant culture, which is unexceptionably fo execrable, that one would be much more inclined to think there was fomething peftiferous to agriculture in the neighbourhood of a manufacture, than to look up to it as a mean of encou- ragement. Confidering the fertility of the foil, which is great, Picardy and Nor- mandie are among the word: cultivated countries I have feen. The immenfe fabrics of Abbeville and Amiens have not caufed the inclofure of a fingle field, or the banifhment of fallows from a fingle acre. Go from Elbceuf to Rouen, if you would view a defer! : and the Pays de Caux, pofleffing one of the richefl foils in the world, with manufactures in every hut and cottage, prefents one con- tinued fcene of weeds, filth, and beggary ; a foil fo villainoufiy managed, that if it were not naturally of an inexhauftible fertility, it would long ago have been utterly ruined. The agriculture of Champagne is miferable, even to a proverb ; I faw there great and flourifhing manufactures, and cultivation in ruins around them. Let us pafs into Bretagne, which affords but one fpeCtacle, that of a dreary, defolate wafte ; dark as ling — -fombre as broom can make it. — You find yourfelf in the midft of one of the greateft linen manufactures in Europe, and, throwing your eye around the country, can fcarcely believe the inhabitants are fed by agricultures if they fubfifted by the chafe of wild animals, their country might - be as well cultivated. From hence crofs the kingdom to Lyons ; all the world knows the immenfe fabrics found there } and thofe of St. Etienne among the moft flourifhing in the kingdom i De toutes les provinces de France , fays M. Roland de la Platiere, le Lyonois eft le plus miferable *. What I faw of it gave me little reafon to cjueftion the affertion. The remaik of another French writer makes the experiment double : L ALi'tois eft un de provinces les plus riches du royaume. Ceft un verite incont eft able elle ne pojjede point de manu- factures^. I will not prefume to affert, that the agriculture of certain diftriCts is bad, becaufe they abound with manufactures, though I believe it to be very much the cafe in the Pays de Caux ; I merely Rate the faCts, which I clearly know, becaufe they came within my own eye s the fabrics are the greateft in the kingdom, and certainly the agriculture is amongft the worft. In my tour through Ireland, the journal of which is before the public, I examined, with attention, the vaft linen manufacture which fpreads all over the north of that kingdom. I there found the lame fpeCtacle that Bretagne offers ; hufbandry fo miferably, fo contemptibly bad, that I have fhewn, by calculation, the whole province converted into a fheep-walk, and feeding but two fheep per acre, would yield, in * Journal Phyfique> tom. xxxvi. p.342. , r Memoir e fur cette queftion , Eft-il utile en Artois du divifer lesfermes , par M. Dekgorgue . 1786. p. 23. wool 57* M ANUFACTUR.ES. Wool only, a greater value than the whole amount of the linen fabric * ; a cir- cumftance I attribute entirely to the manufafture fpreading into the country, in- Head of being confined to towns. Wherever the linen manufacture fpreads there tillage is very bad , faid that attentive obferver the Lord Chief Baron Forfter + The Earl of Tyrone has an eflate, in the county of Derry, anjidft manufactures, and another in that of Waterford, where there are none ; and he allured me, that if the Derry land were in Waterford, or abfolutely freed fiom fabrics, he fhould clear full one-third more money from it — If we pals into England, we lhall find fomething fimilar, though not in an equal degree; the manufacturing parts of the kingdom being among the worft cultivated. You mufl not go ioi agiicul- ture to Yorkshire, Lancafhire, Warwickfhire, or Gloucefteifhiie, which aie full of fabrics, but to Kent, where there is not the trace of a fabric; to Berk- fhire, Hertfordshire, and Suffolk, where there are fcarcely any ; Norwich is an exception, being the only great manufacture in the kingdom in a thoroughly well cultivated diftriCt, which muft very much be attributed to the faoiic being kept remarkably within the city, and fpreading (fpinning excepted) not much into the country; a circumftance that deferves attention, as it confirms ftrongly the oreceding obfervations. But the two counties of Kent and Lancafter aie ex- prefsly to the purpofe, becaufe they form a double experiment ; Lancafter is the moft manufacturing province in England, and amongft the worft cultivated : Kent has not the fhadow of a manufacture, and is perhaps the belt cultivated. Italy will furnifh inftances, more to the purpofe, than any yet cited. The richeft and moft flourifhing countries in Europe, in propoition to then extent, are probably Piedmont, and the Milanefe. All the figns of profperity are there met with; populoufnefs well employed and well fupported; a great export without ; a thriving confumption within ; magnificent roads ; numerous and^ wealthy towns ; circulation aCtive ; intereft of money low ; and the pi ice of labour hi°h. In a word, you can name no circumftance that fhall prove Man- chefter, Birmingham, Rouen, and Lyons to be in a proiperous ftate,^ that is found diffufed throughout the whole of thefe countries ; to what is all this proi- perity to be afcribed ? certainly not to manufactures, becaufe they poffefs hardly the trace of a fabric : there are a few of no conftderation at Milan ; and there are in Piedmont the filk mills, to give the firft hand to that produCt; but on the whole to an amount fo very trifling, that both countries muft; be conlidere as without fabrics. They are equally without commerce, being excluded from the fea • and though there is a navigable river that paffes through both thefe terri- tories, yet no ufe is made of it, for there are five fovereigns between Piedmont and its mouth, all of whom lay duties on the tranfit of every fort of merchan- dize. As thefe two countries do not owe their riches to manufactures or com- * A Tour in Ireland, , 2 d edit. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 3 c 4 . t lb. vol. i. P- 123 . t «>. vol. i. p. 5*5- 4 D 2 merce, MANUFACTURES. 572 merce, fo undoubtedly they are not indebted for them to any peculiar felicity in their governments • both are defpotifms ; and the defpot * of Milan makes that country a bead; of burthen to Germany ; the revenues are remitted to Vienna ; and the cloaths, even for the troops paid by Milan, come from Germany. The crigin and the fupport of all the wealth of thefe countries, are to be found in Agriculture alone, which is carried to fuch perfection as to prove, that it is equal to the foie fupport of a modern and mod: douridiing fociety : to keep that fociety in a date of great wealth ; and to enable the governments to be, in proportion to their extent, doubly more powerful than either France or England. Piedmont fupports a regal court, and pays 30,000 men. The fame extent of country, or number of people, does not effeCt the half of this in any other dominion of Europe. But are thefe territories really without manufactures ? no : nor is any country in the world ; it is not podible to find a people totally exempt from them. The prefent inquiry demands no fuch exemption : it is only necefiary to drew, that the manufactures found in the Milanefe and in Piedmont are fuch as arife abfo- lutely in confequence of agriculture ; that it is agriculture which fupports and nouridies them ; and that, on the contrary, thefe manufactures are fo far from doing any thing politically for agriculture, that they occafion the expofing of it to redxiCtions and monopolies ; for the government in thefe countries have been bitten by the fame madnefs of commerce that has infefted other kingdoms; and have attempted, by fuch means, to raife thefe triding fabrics into foreign export. Plappily they have never been able to do it ; for there is reafon to imagine, that fuccefs would have fuggeded other reftriClions unfavourable to the great foundation of all their profperity. Thus the inftances produced are ex- prefs to the purpofe, as they exhibit two opulent Rates, fupported by agricul- ture alone, and pofiefiing no other manufactures or commerce, than what every country mud pofiefs that enjoys a douridiing cultivation ; for it is not to be expeCted that fuch great refults are to be found attending common exertions only. On the contrary, thofe that have converted part of thefe noble territo- ries into a garden, have been great and exemplary. The canals, for mere ir- rigation, are greater works than many in England for the purpofes of naviga- tion ; and the infinite attention that is given to the perpetual deviation of the wa- ters, is a fpeCtacle of equal merit and curiofity. Hence the following fads cannot be controverted : I. That the agriculture of France, after a century of exclufive and fuccefsful attention to manufactures, w r as in a wretched date. * exp refli on has nothing too harfh, when applied to the late Emperor, in whole reign I vifited the Milanefe : it is not applicable to the wife and benignant Leopold, who has given ample grounds to induce a belief, that he will prove a bleiling to every country that is happy enough to be governed by him. II. That MANUFACTURES. $73 II. That the manufacturing diflxiCts in France and England are the word: cultivated. III. That the beft cultivation in England, and fome of the bed: in France, mult be looked for where no manufactures are to be found. IV. That when the fabrics fpread into all the cottages of a country, as in France and Ireland, fuch a circumftance is abfolutely deftruCtive of agriculture: fpinning only excepted, which is almofl univerfal in every country. V. That agrisulture alone, when thoroughly improved, is equal to the efta- blifhment and fupport of great national wealth, power, and felicity. And from thefe faCts, the following corollaries are clearly deducible : I. That the belt method of improving agriculture is not by eftablilhing ma- nufactures and commerce, becaufe they may be eftablifhed in great extent and perfection, and yet agriculture may remain in a miferable Rate. II. That the eftablilhment of a fiourifliing agriculture inevitably occadons the podeflion of fuch manufactures and commerce as are equal to the fupport of numerous and flouridling towns ; and to whatever is neceflary to form a great and potent fociety. The leflon to governments is deducible in few words : firft, fecure profperity to agriculture, by equal taxation *, and by abfolute liberty -f* of cultivation and fale §. Secondly, do no more to encourage manufactures and commerce than by letting them alone, a policy excluflve of every idea of mono- poly. We may fafely affirm, and our affertions are founded on unqueftionable faCts, that any country will attain the utmofl profperity of which its government is capable that fteadily purfues this conduCt. CHAP. XX. Of the 'Taxation of France. T HE difficulty of underflanding the details of the finances of France, induced me to attempt difentangling their confufion, by reducing them to fuch heads as are common in our own revenue. The particulars indeed are too long to infert, but the fubjeCt of taxation is of too much importance to be pafled over abfolutely in filence. * There is no equality but in thofe on confumption, and tythes alfo incompatible, f Liberty of cultivation implies an unlimited power of inclofure : the privilege of cultivating any plant the farmer pleafes, without lhackle or reftjaint, X An unbounded freedom of export. Taxes 574 TAXATION. Taxes on Land under the old Government. Vingtiemes, Taille, Local impofitions, Capitation, Decimes, Sundries, French Money. 55,565,264liv. 81,000,000 1,800,000 22 , 000,000 10,600,000 600,000 Englifh Money. £.2,430,980 3 , 543 , 75 ° 7 8 , 75 ° 962,500 463,75° 26,250 i 7 i , 5 6 5,264 7,505,98° The calculation of the committee of impofition*, in the National Affembly, is this, Vingtiemes, Decimes, Other impofitions, Taille, Capitation, Tythes, Half the gabelle> Half the excife on leather. 3 I 4 ,° 59 , 7 2 4 Or, £.13,740,112 fterling. 55,565,264 liv. 10.000. 000 23,844,016 73,816,179 6,133,274 1 10,000,000 30.000. 000 4,500,000 It is fufficiently evident that this is an inflamed account in feveral articles, as the committee had fome defign in view. Upon the principles of the oecono- miftes, they propofed a land-tax of three hundred millions for the fervice of the year 1791 and that propofition was made under the affertion that the nation paid a preater land-tax under the old government. The reafoning, however, is erroneous ; and to diredt 110,000,000, the amount of tythes (which the Af- fembly had exprefsly abolifhed without condition), to be made good by a land- tax, is an oppreffion for no better reafon than its having exifted before: to bring fait and leather into the account is another exaggeration ; why not include the duties on wine, by parity of reafoning ? A farmer who has no vineyard of his own muft buy it, and he cannot buy without paying aides ; but are thofe taxes therefore to be reckoned ? Certainly not ; nor any others on confumption, which are clearly in a different clafs, and not to be included in fuch a detail. * Rap or t du Comitt de I'impofition. Pieces Ju/i. No. 1. Taxes TAXATION. 575 Taxes on Confumption. French Money. Englifh Money. Salt, 58,560,000 liv. £.2,562,000 Wine and brandy, &c. - 56,250,181 2,460,444 Tobacco, 27,000,000 I,l8 1,205 Leather, - 5,850,008 25,5937 Paper and cards, ^ 1,081,509 47.315 Starch and powder. 758,049 33> z 64 Iron, 980,000 42,875 Oil, 763,000 33.38 1 Glafs, 150,000 6,562 Soap, 838,971 36,704 Linen and (luffs. 150,000 6,562 Octrois, Entrees, See. - 57 > 5 6i > 55 2 2,5*8, 3*7 Cattle, - 630,000 27,562 Cuftoms, 23 , 440,000 1,025,500 Tolls, 5,000,000 218,750 Stamps, - 20 , 244,473 885,695 Local duties. 1,133,162 49*575 260 , 390,905 n. 39 1 . 548 It merits the reader’s attention, that of this long lift nothing is retair the new government but the cuftoms and (lamps. General Revenue.. French Money Englifli Money, Taxes on land. I7 i ,565.264liv. £.7,505,980 Domaines, 9,900,000 433.125 Confumption, 260,390,905 I *,39 *>548 Perfonal, 44,240,000 1 , 935 . 5 °° Monopolies, 28,513.774 *>247,49(5 Sundries, including the Pays d’Etat, 1 2,580,000 550,375 Taxes not received on account of government. 95,900,000 4,195,625. 622,999,943 22,184,649 Collection, - 57,665,000 2,522,843 Total, 680,664,943 24 , 7 ° 7 , 4^2 Such was the revenue, at the entire command of Louis XVI. And fuch were the confecjuences of the funding fyftem, that it had power to ftrike a palfy into the receipt of fo enormous an income, even in the hands of the mailer of 250,000 bayonets, and twenty-five millions of fubje&s. Sovereigns ought to contemplate thefe effects of that Public Credit, upon which the banking. money- TAXATION. 576 money-changing, and flock-broking writers, with Necker at their head, have delivered fuch panegyrics ! A fyftem that never entered a country, but to d'eilroy or to annihilate profperity : it has fpread ruin or debility in Spain, Holland, Genoa, Venice, and France : it threatens fpeedily the extinction of the power, and the overthrow of the conftitution of England : it has weakened and almofl deftroyed Europe, except one country, faved by the fplendid talents of a tingle fovereign. It is impoffible to contemplate fuch a revenue and population, united with variety of natural advantages poficfled by France, without blefiing the goodnefs of providence, that a prince like Frederic II, did not fill the throne of Louis XV. Such a penetrating mind would have feen, in perfpedtive, the mifchiefs of public credit in France, as clearly as he did in Pruffia ; he would have firangled the monfter for ever, and would have thereby efcablifhed a power irrefiflible by all his neighbours and the nations of Europe would have lain in ruins around him. Changes in the Revenue , occajioned by the Revolution . The general ftatement, by the firfl minifler of the finances, from the firfl: May, 1789, to April 30, 1790, compared with the receipt for 1788, will give the defalcation that has taken place, and the additions that are carried to account. 1789. 1790. 1. Fcrmes generates, 150,107,000 liv. 1 26,895,086 2. Regie generate des aides, 50, 220,000 31,501,988 3. Regie des domaines. 50,000,000 49 > 644, 573 4. Ferine des poftes. 1 2,000,000 io* 953,754 5. Ferme des meffageries. 1,100,000 66r,i62 6. Ferme de Sceau & Poiffy, 630,000 780,000 7. Ferme des affinages, I 20,000 8. Abonnement de la Fiandre 823,000 822,219 9. Loterie, 14,000,000 12,710,855 10. Revenus cafuels. 3,coo,oco 1* t 57*447 1 1 . Marc d’or. 1,500,000 760,889 1 2. Saltpetre, 8,00,000 303 >t 3 4 13. Recette generate, 157*035*39° 2 7 * 2 33 , 5' 2 4 14. Pays d’Etats, 24,556,000 23,848,261 15, Capitations & vintiemes abonnees 575, 000 i* 2I 3 > 5°5 16. Impofitions aux fortifications. 575,000 676,399 17. Benefice des monnoies, 500,000 824,301 18. Droits attribues a lacaifie du commerce, 636,355 305,318 19. Forges royales. 80,000 401,702 20. Interets, l’Amerique, 1,600,000 2 1 . Debets des comptables. 2,291,860 Carried forward 469,858,235 292*996*! 27 22. Parties TAXATION. S 77 1789. Brought forward, - 469,858,245117. 22. Parties non reclamees a l’hotel de Ville, 1 3. Petits recouvremens, - . , 24. Quinzc vingt, - - 180,000 25. Plate carried to the mint, 26. Dons patriotiques, 27. Contribution patriotique*. 460,038,245 1790. 292,996,127 liv. 240,262 257,000 < 2 93 A 93 > 3%9 14,256,040 361,587 9,721,085 317,832,101 The vaft defalcation is, therefore, 176,544,856 liv. (7,723,837!.) the fum which 1790 falls fhort of 1789. 1791. — The Committee of Imports have calculated the fums wanted for the \vai 1791, and they piopofed to raife them in the following manner •'j'* ; Land-tax (contribution fonciere), - 287,000,000 liv. T ax on perfonal property ( contribution mobiliare ), 60,000,000 Stamps ( droit d' enregijirement ), _ Other ftamps, r Patents (ftamps). Lotteries, - Cuftoms, - Powder, faltpetre, marc d’or, and affinages, * Mortgages, - Ports and ftage-coaches, Contribution patriotique, Domaines, . Salt works. Intereft from Americans, &c. Sale of fait and tobacco in the warehoufes of the farmers general, 5 0,246,478 20,764,800 ao, 1 8 2,000 10 , 000,000 20,700,000 1.000. 000 5 > 375 > 000 1 2.000. 000 34^62,000 1 5.000. 000 3.000. 000 4.000. 000 29,169,462 573, ooo ,ooo Or, £.25,068,750 It appears, by the Memoir es prefentes a /’ AJftemblee Nationale au nom du Com . des Finances, par M. de Montefquiou, September 9, 1791. 4 to. that the revenue in 1 79 ° produced only 253,091,000 liv. which was made up by anticipations and aflignats. * It deferves attention, that this contribution patriotique is mentioned as a refource of 35,000,000!^. or the year 1791, by the committee of impofition. Rapport 6 Decembre, 1790, fur les moyens de pouvoir aux depenfes pour 1791, p. 5. J t Rapport fait le 6 Decembre, 1790. 8vo. p, 6. Rapport fait le 19 February, 1791 , 8vo. p. 7. 4 E Intereft TAXATION. 57 * Intereji of Debts. The extreme variation of ftatement that thefe exhibit, may prove to us how exceedingly difficult it is to gain any clear and precife idea of French finances, for thefe eftimations of intereft do not proceed from equal variations in faft, but more from the modes in which accounts are drawn up ; anti- cipations vary confiderably, and rembourfemens are fometimes paid and fome- times not. It will however be proper to enquire into the amount of the debt, according to the lateft ftatements. The following is the account of the com- mittee of finances : Rents viageres (life annuities), . ^ - Rentes peypetuelles . — Ren tes c onfiitutees^ Rentes payees a V hotel de ville 3 Bettes liqiiid'ees , Gages traitemens , CemmunanteSy IndemniteSy EmpruntSy Pays d'EtatSy Bette exigible r Or flerling, Capitals. i ,01 8, 233,460 liv. 94>9 i2 j34° 2,422,987,301 12,351,643 2,603,210 3,066,240 27,306,840 126,964,734 *3>7 o8 >43°>7 68 fi, 878,816,534 1 5 > 5 8 7 ^ 47 > 3°2 £•244,442*099 Intereft. 101,823,846 liv. 4>745>6i7 52 / 735 > 8 5 6 544,114 93> 6 4 5 1 53 > 3*2 »>3 6 5>J4* 6,276,087 167,737,819 92 , 133^39 259,871,058 ^• ii > 3 6 9^357 The fum total of thefe interefts, however, do not agree with thofe above- mentioned under the year 1790, of 371,306,938 liv. which feetns to be owing to many remourfemens of that year, for fums ve.iy lately advanced on the plate carried to the mint on the don patriotique, and on various other receipts. I mull again remark, that clear accounts are not to be looked for in the com- plex mountain of French finances. * The Committee ftate, that this debt, by leaving the annuities to extinguifli themfelres, and by buying in the perpetual funds, at twenty years purchafe, the whole would be extinguifhed with the fum of 1 , 321 , 191 , 817 HV. Etat de la Bette PubtiqUe. 4to. 1790. p. 8 . jl Monf. de Montefquiou, in the memoire prefented September 9 , 179 - 1 , makes the dette exigible amount to 2,300,000,000 liv. p. 58. He makes the whole debt 3,400,000,000 liv. to which add 1,800,000,000 of affignats, and this is 5 , 200 , 000,000 liv. .j but 21 5,000, oooliv. of affignats have been burnt, p. 46 . tit, 4 I have read Monf. Arnould (De 'la Balance du Commerce, 1791), who makes the deot 4 ?1 52,000,000 liv. ; but not giving his authorities Satisfactorily, I muft adhere to the above-men- tioned ft&temgnt. Afli^nats TAXATION. 579 Aflignats to the amount of 400,000,000 had then been iffued ; but the com- mittee does not include them in the preceding account. Since the above was written I have received the Appergu des Recettes & Depenfes de V Annee, 1791? by the finance minifier, M. Dufrefne, gives the account of the expences necefiary to be incurred in 1791, according to the decrees of the ailembly, and they are as follows : To the ecclefiaftics, for the expence of public w®rlhip, - 70,000,000 liv. Penfions to the religious of the convents and monafteries fupprefled, - - 70,000,000 Juftice, - - 12,000,000 Directories of departments and diftrits, - 9,360,000 Civil lift, penfions, falaries, bureaus, academies, &c. 67,041,363 All other payments, of which fil- tered: of debts, - - 192,265,000 Paris, - - 9,323,800 War department and marine, - 134,432 360,770,500 589,172,000 Or, £.25,776,274 To procur^an account equally clear of the real receipts for 1790, would be a more interefting object, for this end I confulted Etat des Recettes et Depenfes pendant V Ann^e^ 1790, qto. 1791, but it is in vain, the receipts are no longer thrown into fuch a form as to permit a clear diftindtion between the product of taxes and the receipt, by funding and affignats ; the receipt is given in two divifions ; firfi:, for the four firfi: months of the year ; and fecondly, for the eight Taft ; and the heads in the two accounts not being the fame, to calculate them would be attended with very little certainty. By the Memoir es fur les Finances prefentes, 9th September, 1791, 4to, fome points receive more light than in any preceding account. It appears, that the national eilates fold have produced 964,733,114 liv. ; this is a curious fadt; but the idea, that the remainder will produce enough to make this fum up 3,500,090,000 liv. is by no means certain; indeed, it is of a complexion too dubious to be admitted ; and of thofe adtually fold, the receipt only to the amount 735>°54>754^ v * pofitively afcertained : and this vaft fum, in the whole pro- bably not lefs than 40 millions fterling, mull, without doubt, contribute very greatly, even beyond all calculation, to give fecurity to the new government, as it interefis the moll clofely an immenfe number of perfons, with all their con- nexions and dependencies, to fupport that fyftem, by which alone this great property can be rendered fafe. If to this be added the whole Tiers Etat of the 4 E 2 kingdom. 5 3 o T A X A T I O N. kingdom, that is 90 in 100 of the total, it muft be apparent, that the hopes of a counter-revolution mult reft on external force, inadequate to the conqueft of fuch a kingdom as France, unlefs all poffible advantages towards favouring the attempt be united and aided by a well connected infurreCtion of thofe who are difcontented. liv. The Affembly decreed, that the general expence of the year fhould be, 584,700,000 And for the departments, - 56,300,000 Total, - 641,000,000 Of which the Cafe del Extraordinaire was to furnilh in lieu of domaines received, - - 60,000,000 581,000,000 DeduCt expence of receipt of 56,300,000 included, - - 8,000,000 Wanting by taxes, - - ' - 573,000,000 But the expence of collection and management adds a further burthen to the people of - - - 26,292,500 I have drawn up this budget as nearly to the truth as I can, from the three reports of the Committee of Impofts, of Dec. 6, 1790, Feb. Sp, and March 15, 1791, which reports are not free from confulion, owing to decrees of the Affembly, which were changeable and various. The entrees were poli- tively voted for 25 millions, and the vote fcarcely paffed, when the Fauxbourg St. Antoine voted their abolition ; and it was no queftion, who was to be obeyed, the National Affembly of France, or the Fauxbourgs of Paris. The Affembly inftantly gave way and abolifhed the entrees . Other duties alfo varied much from changeable votes, fo that there is a neceffary difagreement between the three reports in almoff every article, but in this account I have guided myfelf by the fums laft propofed. Of the Funding Syflem. It appears, from the preceding accounts, that France, under the old go- vernment, purfued the ruinous fyftem of mortgaging its revenues, as regularly as any other country, whole greater freedom might be fuppofed to offer more temptations to the practice. This fyftem, however, almoft unaided by any other caufe, has overturned that government, by means of the moft extraordinary re- volution upon record. If Louis XIV. amidft the fplendour of his reign and ca- reer of his conquefts, could poffibly have forefeen that the fecond fovereign in defeent from him would be led captive by his fubjeCts, on account of the debts he was then contracting, he would either have rejected with horror the fyftem he adopted, or have manifefted the moft entire want of thofe feelings which ought TAXATION. 581 ought to dwell in the bread: of a great and ambitious monarch. But, after this memorable example to other countries, it remains a fubjeCt of infinite curiofity, to fee how far the infatuated and blind fpirit of funding will now be purfued. Every hour, after the great event in France, will make it more and more critical, and will inevitably involve in its train new revolutions, perhaps of a complexion more dangerous to eftablifhed families, than any thing we have feen in France. If peace is preferved in that kingdom, the debt will extinguifh itfelf, being in a great proportion annuities for lives ; but were not this the cafe, and fhould new wars add to the national burthens, the people, almoft emancipated as they have been from taxation, will be brought back to it with great difficulty ; and other afifemblies, feeling their power better eftablifhed, will not pay the fame attention to the public creditors which the prefent has done; and the event might be fimi- lar to what will happen in England. No government will ever think pf committing a deliberate adfc of bankruptcy ; but when taxes are pufhed to fuch a height that the people will no longer pay them, they are ripe for fedition ; prefently feel their own power ; — and the event may be eafily conjectured. What is the conclufion that follows ? — That the funding f/fcem, or rather the wars which occafion it, are fo fatal and peftilential, that, at all events, they ought to be avoided ; but that, if unhappily they cannot, they fhould be fupported by annual taxes (never by loans), which implies a war of defence at home ; a renunciation of all exterior dominion; and the abfolute annihilation of that commercial fyftem of policy on which conquefts, colonies, and debts have been fo fatally ereCted. Of the amount of Specie in France . The writings of Monf. Necker will afiift in the regifter of the French mint, which proves fatisfa&orily the quantity of money coined in France ; it muft, however, be fufficiently obvious, that from this quantity it is mere conjecture to attempt to afcertain, at any period, the aCtual quantity of fpecie remaining in the kingdom. Coined in France from 1726 to 1780. — Gold, - 957,200,000 liv. Silver, - 1,489,500,000 2,446,700,000 1.11781, 82, and" 83, - • - 52,300,000 i 2,500,000,000 And exifting in 1784, 2 , 200 , 000,000 And TAXATION. 582 And he makes the increafe of fpecie, in 1 5 years, from 1763 to 1777, in France, equal to the increafe of all the reft of Europe. From the inquiries of M. Cla- viere*and M. Arnould +, it appears, that the gold and filver currency of France, at the a fie mb ly of the States, was two milliards (87,500,000k). Whatever au- thority Monk Necker placed in the fuppofed balance of the French trade, of above three millions fterling per annum, was affumed on very infufficient grounds. The Marquis de Caflaux has proved the fads, which Monk Necker deduced from that balance, to have never exifted but in his own imagination J. The importance alfo, which, in the 10th chapter of the fame book, that writer affigns to the pofieffion of great quantities of gold and filver; the political con- dud he exprefsly recommends to procure thofe metals, as felling much mer- chandize to other nations, and buying little; ftudying to efted this by ffiack- ling trade with duties upon export and import; and by the acquifition of colo- nies: the whole of this fy ftem betrays no inconfiderable degree of littlenefs ; it is worthy of the counting-houfe alone ; and manifefts none of the views of a great ftatefman, nor even the abilities of an able politician : one is fure to meet, in Monk Necker’s productions, with an eloquent difplay of narrow ideas, and never the great reach of real talents, nor the mafterly views of decilive genius. His miniftry, and his publications, ffiew the equable orderly arrangement of a mind well relgulated for little purfuits ; but loft amidft the great events of a new fyftem, burfting into efficiency amidft the whirlwind of a revolution. The total currency, of both gold and filver, in Great Britain, may probably not be lefs than 40 millions fterling. But no comparifon can be made between the two kingdoms, becaufe the great mafs of England’s circulating currency is in paper; whereas, in France, all, or nearly all, was in coin, till affignats were iflued. It is probably a juft obfervation of Mr. Hume, that the circulation of paper tends ftrongly to baniffi coin. Every kingdom muft have, proportioned to its induftry, a circulation of fomething; and if it have no paper, that circulation, fo proportioned to its induftry, will be in coin ; the creation of fo much paper fupplies the place of it ; and confequently keeps it from flowing into any coun- try, where it is demanded by the offer of valuable equivalents. But, on the other hand, it has been urged, that paper, fupplying the circulation as well and more conveniently than the metals, allows the latter to be fent profitably * Opinion d'un Creamier de I’Etat. + De la Bal. du Com. tom, ii, p. 206. t Monf. de Calonne’s recoinage, of 1785, has proved, that Monf. Necker, even upon a fubje& more peculiarly his own, as a banker, isnotfo correct as one would imagine, when he ventures either to calculate or to conjedlure. It is with -difficulty he allows 300 millions for the export and melting of louis’, which appear to have been 650,000, oooliv. He ftates the gold coinage (including the filver of the years 1781, 82, and 83), at 1,009,500, oooliv, inftead of which, it was, by Monf. de Ca- Jonne’s account, *,300,000,000 liv. out TAXATION. 5*3 out of the kingdom, not to be loft, but beneficially as merchandize, and that an annual benefit is made by this, as well as by all other trades. If this argu- ment be good, and in all probability there is fome truth in it, France, by keep- ing fo enormous a capital at home as 90 millions fterling, to anfwer purpofes which, in England, are fulfilled with lets than half, by means of paper, lofes the profit which might be made on 45 millions, were that fum employed as it is employed in England. There is yet another explanation of the great paper currency of England, which has alfo much truth in it, and efpecially in the pre- fent moment. It may be faid, that paper has been fo largely coined in England, becaufe the balance of its tranfadtions with foreigners has not brought in the metals as faft as its induftry has demanded a circulating reprefentative ; its in- duftry has increafed fafter than its money ; and I believe this to have been very much the cafe fince the American war, in which period the progrefs of profpe- rity, in this kingdom, has been of an unexampled rapidity. In fuch a circum- ftance, the circulation of paper, inftead of leflening the quantity of fpecie, will increafe it, by facilitating the operations of commerce. Another evil, of a worle tendency, perhaps, is the difpofition to hoard, when the currency is all in the precious metals. Monf. Necker ftates, as an undoubted fadt, that vaft fums of gold are hoarded in France; and circumftances came to light on Monf. de Ca- lonne s recoinage, which proved the fame fadt. The ordinary circulation of Paris does not exceed from 80 to 100,000,000 liv. as we learn from the fame minifter*; a fadt which alfo unites with the immenfity of the total fpecie of France, to fhew that perhaps the great mafs of it is hoarded. It muft be fufii- ciently obvious, that this pradtice depends much on a want of confidence in the government, and on the erroneous condudt of not encouraging inveftments in the national induftry : but it tends ftrongly to give France a greater mafs of the precious metals than is demanded by her induftry. Two confiderable proofs exift in Europe, that a country will always attradt fuch a ihare of the precious metals as is proportioned to its induftry, if not pre- vented by circulating paper. Thefe are Pruffia and Modena. The King of Prufiia’s treafure, calculated as it is at 1 5 millions fterling, is thrice as much as the whole circulating fpecie of his dominions. In all probability, had that treafure not been withdrawn from circulation, the fpecie would not at this moment have- been one dollar greater than it is at prefent ; and for this plain reafon, that there appears no want of currency in thofe dominions; the degree of induftry there demanding fpecie from ail its neighbours, has acquired it as faft as the King has accumulated his treafure, but had no treafure been formed, the lame de- mand would not have taken place, and confequently no fuch influx of money.. Modena, as I once before obferved, in proportion to its extent and riches, affords * De I’Etat dg la France , p. 80. a fimilar TAXATION. 584 a fimilar inflance ; yet the duke’s hoard is fuppofed, on pretty good grounds, to exceed very much all the circulating fpecie of his duchy ; and I made parti- cular inquiries at Modena, whether a want of it were perceptible ? I was allured of the contrary, and that their currency was fully equal to the demands of their induftry and money-exchanges. From thefe inftances, we may, without hefita- tion, pronounce, that the fpecie of England is kept vaflly below its natural mea- fure, by the immenfity of our paper circulation. There is little importance in polleffing great quantities of fpecie, if not in a national hoard : the cafe of Eng- land nearly permits us to queflion it altogether. For neither in the domeltic circulation, nor in foreign tranfadtions, has France been able to effedt any thing by means of her money, which we have not been able to command equally well, perhaps better, with our paper. A wife government Ihould therefore be folicit- ous for the induftrious and productive employment of her people ; if Ihe fecure that elfential point, die may fafely leave the metals to find their own level, without paying any regard whether her circulation be in paper or in gold. Nor is there danger of paper being too much multiplied, as long as the acceptance of it is voluntary; for it would not be multiplied, if it were not demanded; and if it be demanded, it ought to be multiplied. With paper, forced by government on the people, the cafe is far different : from the circumflance of its bein g forced there is the cleared: proof that it is not demanded , and confequently ought not to be iffued : force, in fuch a cafe, is fraud ; and a public fraud ought never to be pradlifed, but in the laft extremity of diffrefs. The afiignats iffued by the Na- tional Aflembly, are of this complexion ; the ftep, however dangerous, might pofiibly be neceffary to fccurc the new conflitution ; but I fhall not hefitate a moment in declaring, that an avowed bankruptcy would, in other refpedls, have been a much wifer meafure, and attended probably with fewer and lefs evils. — Of thirty-four commercial cities, that prefented addreffes upon the projedt of affignats, feven only were for them*. The fcheme met with equal oppofition from rank ■f*, literature J, and commerce ||. The prognofiics, however, of an enormous difeount, were not verified fo much as might have been expedted. — M. Decretot, in September 1790, mentions them with 400 millions only in circulation, being at 10 per cent, difeount at Bourdeaux ; and M. de Condorcet 6 percent, at Paris; thence they both concluded, that the difeount would be enormous, if a greater iffueof them took place; yet, in May 1791, after many hundred millions more had been iffued, they were only at from 7 to 1 o per cent. difcount§. And another circumflance equally miifaken, was the expectation * j De I' Etat de la France , par M. de Calonne. 8vo. 1 790. p. 82. f Opinion de M. de la Roche- foucauld, fur V Afiignats monnoi. 8vo. £ Sur la Proportion d’ ac quitter les dettes en Afiignats, par M. Condorcet. 8vo. p. 14. |j Opinion de M. Decretot fur l' Afiignats. Svo. p. 8, § It became greater iince; but owing to foreign caufes. TAXATION. i 5*3 of an enormous rife of all common prices— which did not happen, for corn ra- ther fell in its value j a remarkable experiment, that delerves to be remembered. The Marquis de Condorcet fuppofed, that wheat would rife from 24 to 36 liv* the feptier, perhaps in one day *. The affignats amounted, on the diffolution of the tint Anembly, to 1800,000,000 liv. What conjiitutes the Merit of a Tax. Many writings have appeared of late in France, on the fubied of taxation and many fpeeches have been delivered in the National Alfembly concerning the pnnaples that ought to govern the ftatefmen who polfefs the power of de eiding in queftions of fuch importance. It is much to be regretted, that the members, who have made the greateft figure in that alfembly, have, in thefe n qmnes rather adopted the opinions of a certain clafs of philofophers, who made considerable noife in France 20 or 30 years ago, than taken the pains ferioullv o inform themfelves well of the fads that ought to be examined upon thefuM wr . "T, f ° r n t , raVeIler t0 g ° t0 the b0tt0m of fuch intricate inquiries which would demand long details, and a very minute examinations bm "he queftion is, m the prefent moment, of fuch importance to France thataramV) ZilT h r “■ ” f '- Th « *~J2Z1‘3Z vhich I conceive form all the merit of taxation : 1. Equality, Facility of payment. Encouragement of induftry. Eafe of collection . Difficulty of too great extenlion. The firft eflential point is equality. It is abfolutely necelfary, that every indi ViQual in the fodety contribute to the wants of the date, in proportion to Ms abi- ‘ y, piovided luch contribution does not impede the progrefs of his induftry f . Every ! par M. Condorcet, p. 2r . Wv™ft“«be fumption : fuppofe a IST’ I ‘ « tenant called it, which melts in con- vening r 5 ool. in his b, Zef i Ts f t 20001 -W “P™ 500I. and annually i„- the xsoof. o'l US; T" ] f ^ ^ ^ “ 'V liufadlurer dies, and his Ton turns o-entlem, h ° i. V ' 1C ° n ! nconle ex P of ed ; but when the ma- obvious, however, that excites on “a ma ZSl ** > W y°f ,nC °"“ “ made to ““tribute. It mull be turner, for he draws them comnletelJ Z,J aK taXeS ° H ih * but on the idIe expend the income in improvements 7 Iiviuu "h r ma " ner ’ .' f 3 land,ord farm h; s own eftate, and improvements, living on but a fmall port, on of the profit, it is fufficiently clear, ^ 1 that 2 . 3 - 4 - 5 * $86 T A X A T I O N* Every writer, and every opinion upon the fubjed agree in this; but the difficulty is, how to afcertain the ability. Taxes on property, and taxes on confump- tion, feem to have this merit; they will, however, be found to vary prodi- gioufly ; for long experience, in all countries, has proved the infinite difficulty of afcertaining property, and the tyranny that is neceflary to be pradifed, in order to be tolerably exad. For this reafon, all land-taxes, under an appearance of equality, are cruelly unequal : if levied on the grofs produce in kind , they are ten times heavier on poor land than on rich ; and the value taken by the date, bears no proportion to the expence which effeded the produdion. If levied on the rent, the eafe of frauds makes them univerfal and perpetual; and if, to avoid thefe, the leafes are regiftered and taxed, this prevents leafes, and deftroys agri- culture. If lands are valued by a cadafire , the expence is enormous*, and the merit is gone in a few years, by variations impoffible to corred; till at lad the only merit of the tax is its inequality , which is now the cafe in the Milanefe, Piedmont, Savoy, and England; where an attempt to make the land-taxes equal would ruin the hulbandry, and produce infinite oppreffion. Land taxes, fo far from being equal, are fo much the reverfe, that it is the nominal, and not the raz/property, that bears the tax ; for mortgages efcape though amounting to three - fourths of the property; and if, to avoid this cruelty, the proprietor be allowed, as in the cafe of the vingtiemes in France, to tax the mortgagee, either the regu- lation is evaded by private agreements, or money is no longer lent for the mod ufeful of all purpofes. Ladly, land is vifible, and cannot be concealed; whereas fortunes in money are invifible, and will ever flip away from taxation of every kind, except from thofe on confumption. Thus land taxes, viewed in what light foever, are totally unequal, oppreffive, and ruinous. On the contrary, taxes that taxes ought not to affed one {hilling of his expenditure on his land; they can reach, with pro- priety, the expences of his living only; if they touch any other part of his expenditure, they eprive him of thofe tools that are working the bufinefs of the ftate. A man paying, therefore, according to his ability , mult be underftood in a reftrained fenfe. The prepofterous nature of land-taxes is feen m this diftindion, that an idle worthlefs diflipator is taxed exaftly in the fame degree as his mduftnoua neighbour, who is converting a defert into a garden. a - * Yet the nobility of Lyons and Artois, and the tiers of Troyes, demand a geneial cadafire of all France, Cahier. p. I J.-Jrtm, p. .8 .-Troyes, p. 7— The committee of impofmon recommends one alfo Rapports p. 8.—' To make the cadafire of Limofin coft 2,592,000 liv. ( 11 3^355 • I 5 S *) and the’ whole kingdom would coft, at the lame rate, 82,944, oooliv. (3,628,8001.) requiring the employment of 3072 engineers during .8 years, Effai d’un Metbode generate a etenelre let conm.JJancet delvlyageursy par Motif, Meunier. 1779. 8vo. tom. i. p. 199.—' The King of Sardinia s ‘ s lid to have coft 8 f. the arpent, Admiration Prov. Le Trine, tom. ... p. 236. The cahters de- mand a cadafire in the language of the atanmifta , as if it were to be done as foon as imagined, and to coft only a trifle: and this operation, which would take eighteen years to execute, is advifed y . e Trone to be repeated every nine 1 upon TAXATION. 587 upon confumption are, of all others, the moft equal, and the mod fair; for they' are ftudioufly and corre&ly proportioned to the quantity of every man's conlump- tion *, which may with truth generally be fuppofed to be commenfurate to his in- come ; at leaft it may be averted fafely, that there is no other method, equally fure of edimating income, as by that of confumption. There are, it is true, mifers who poflefs much, and confume little ; but it is utterly impoffible to reach fuch men in taxation, without tyranny : nor is it of much confequence, for a fuccef- don of mifers is not to be expected, — and the more the father faved, the more the fon conlumes ; fo that upon the revolution of a given period, the thing balances itfelf, and the date lofes nothing. But there is alfo the greated judnefs in the equality of thefe taxes : for they meafure themfelves by a man’s voluntary expences ; if he fpend his income advantageoufly to the national indudry and im- provement, he pays very light, or no taxes ; but if he confume largely and luxurioudy, his contribution to the date rifes with his expences ; advantages podeded by no other fpecies of tax. Equality reigns fo completely in thefe taxes, that from the poor man, who, confuming nothing, pays nothing; to the next clafs, which, confuming little, pays little ; and to the mod wealthy, which, confuming much, pays much, all is regulated on the mod perfect fcale of con- tribution. It is needlefs to obferve, that excifes and cudoms equally podefs this advantage; that damps have the fame, and even greater; and that entrees and oStrois have a like merit, fo far as cities are concerned, but are inferior in not being equally laid on all perfons, wherever they may redde : a benedt in the eyes of thole who think towns an evil. It mud be fudiciently obvious, that all perfonal taxes are, to the highed degree unequal, from the impodibility of vary- ing them properly with the conditions of life: monopolies are equal or not, in proportion to the whole fociety being equally fubje&ed to them ; the pod-office is one of the bed of taxes, and the mod equal. 2. Facility of payment. — In this great point, there is only one fort of tax which has real merit, namely, that on confumption. Here the tax is blended with the * The obje&ion of the committee of impofts, that the produCt of fuch taxes is uncertain, is one of the fureft proofs of their merit. Would you have a certain tax from an uncertain income ? To de- mand it is tyranny, Rapport du Comite de t Imp option concernant les Loix Con/iitutionelles des Finances , 20th December, 1790. 8vo. p. 19. I know of no objections to taxes on confumption, that do not bear in a greater degree on thofe upon property. It is faid, that excifes raife the prices of manufactures, and impede foreign trade and domeftic confumption, which has certainly truth in it ; but it is alfo true, that England is, in fpiteofthem, the mod manufacturing and commercial nation upon earth, even with many very bad excifes, and which ought to be changed; they are faid to afFeCt the confumption of t e poor particularly, which is merely objecting to the abufe , and not to the nature of the tax; certainly the kaght to. which taxation of every kind is carried in England, is cruel, fhameful, and tyrannical. Moderate excifes, properly laid, would have no other ill effeCts than fuch as flow of neceffity from the nature ot all taxation; as to immoderate taxes, and improperly laid, they muft be milchievous, whether on property or on confumption. 4 F 2 pric® TAXATION. 5 88 price of the commodity, and the confumer pays without knowing it. He knows the price of a bottle of wine or brandy, a pack of cards, a coach-wheel, a pound of candles, tea, fnuff, or fait — and he buys as he can afford ; it is the fame to him, whether the fum he pays be the original expence of production, the dealer’s profit, or the national tax* he has nothing to do with calculating them fepa- rately, and pays them blended in the price. His eafe of paying the tax is great alfo, by the time of demanding it, which is juft at the moment when he may be thought difpofed to confume, becaufe he can afford it, which is certainly the cafe with the great mafs of mankind. Taxes on property,, and efpecially on land, are much inferior in this refpeCt. So far as they are advanced by the tenant, and drawn back when he reckons with the landlord, they are eafy to the latter : but they are exaCtly, in the fame proportion, burthenfome to the tenant, who has to advance, out of his own pocket, another man’s tax, which is palpably unjuft. We do not feel this much in England, becaufe the tenantry are commonly rich enough not to regard it ; but in other countries, where they are poor, it is a great oppreftion. At the time alfo of demanding the tax from the landlord, who farms his own eftate, his eafe is never confulted ; he has to pay the tax, not be- caufe he has fold his produce, for he muft pay, though his land fhould not pro- duce a fingle farthing ; not becaufe he buys, and thereby fhews that he can afford it, but merely becaufe he poffeffes, which by no means proves an ability to pay at all : nay, he pays without poffeffing more than the name, while another receives the profit; all which fhews, that land-taxes are grofsly deficient in this effential requisite. It is fair, however, to admit, that a land-tax, paid in kind, like tythes gathered, are eafy of payment ; enormous as other objections are to them, in this refpeCt they have merit. But no ftate, in modern ages, can take taxes in kind; and if let, and confequently made an engine of private and per- fonal pique or refentment, they become one of the moft horrible and deteftable op- preftions, fit to be endured by flaves only. Perfonal taxes are as bad ; a man’s having a head, or being born to to a title, is no proof that he is able to pay a tax, which is demanded of him, at a time that marks neither receipt nor payment. 3. Encouragement of induflry . — Taxes may be laid in fuch a manner as to difcourage and opprefs induftry, or, on the contrary, to be in this refpeCt harm- lefs ; and under this head, is to be included the investment of capital. If any branch of national induftry be overloaded with duties, the profits arifing from it will be fo much leffened, that men will not inveft their capitals in employments thus injurioufly treated. The firft objeCt to be confidered is, what branch of human exertions and induftry is nationally moft beneficial? The writers and, ftatefmen* of all nations (how much foever they blunder practically), are theoretically agreed upon this point. There is no queftion, that agriculture is, of all other employments, the moftimportant ; and a country will be profperous,. * Except Colbert, Monf. Necker, and Mr. Pitt, in. TAXATION. in proportion to the capitals inverted in that purfuit. This decides the merit of land-taxes ; in the degree they take place, the profit of poffeffing land is dimi- ni flied, and confequently capitals are banilhed. If a land-tax be equally affeffed, a man’s improvements are taxed, which he will calculate before he lays out his money, and never invert it in a manner that lays him direCtly open to the ope- ration of fuch duties. Thus the lands of fuch a country will be in the hands of men who have no other capital ; and experience uniformly tells us, how import- ant it is to the welfare of agriculture, to have land in rich hands. Taxes upon confumption, may be made utterly deftruCtive of any branch of indurtry by in- judicious methods of laying them; or by carrying them to too great a height; but in this cafe, the duty fails fo much in its produce, that the government fuffers as much as the employment. The tax upon leather, in France, was ruinous; the fame tax in England is levied without difficulty. The incon- venience of excifes chiefly flows from the neceffity of larger capitals being in the hands of manufacturers, to enable them, not to pay, but to advance the tax, which they draw back in the price of the commodity ; the real payment being thus thrown, as it always ought to be, on the confumer. This circum- rtance gives a vart fuperiority to taxes on confumption, over thofe on land. The induftrious man, who inverts his capital in land, cannot draw back his taxes by railing the price of his cattle and corn, and thus make the confumers pay them; it is fufficiently evident, that this is impoffible, whereas all taxes on confumption are completely drawn back in the price of the goods ; unlefs the merchant or manufacturer confumes himfelf, in which cafe he pays, as he ought to do, the tax. Perfonal taxes, with refpeCt to the not difcouraging of indurtry, and the invertmentof capital, are very imperfeCt ; and monopolies (except the port-office), ahfolutely ruinous, for they are prohibitions on every fort of indurtry which the. ftate chufes to referve to itfelf.. The coinage is mifchievous or not, in propor- tion to its fidelity. 4. Eafe of colledlion . — In this refpeCt, land and houfe-taxes have a manifeflr and clear fuperiority ; for the property is impoffible to be concealed, — and the col- lection is as cheap as it is eafy ; and this fmall merit (of moft trifling import compared with the magnitude of the evils that attend them) has been the mo- tive for recurring to them fo much in every country. Excifes and cuftoms are difficult and expenfive to levy. Stamps, however, have great merit; in the Britilh revenue, 1,329,9051. is raifed at the expence of 51,691k Perfonal taxes are cheaply collected, which is their only merit : monopolies are every where expenfive — a frefh reafon for rejecting them. 5 . Difficulty of too great extenfon . — There is fome merit in a tax rectifying its own excels,, which is the cafe with thofe on confumption; for if they be car- ried to an extreme,, they fall off in their produce, by encouraging fmuggling and frauds <90 TAXATION, fraud. But thofe on property cannot be evaded, and therefore may be extended to a mod oppreflive and ruinous excefs. The general corrollary to be drawn on this fubjed is this— -that the belt taxes are thofe on confumption; and the word: thofe on property. On the Proportion of the Qeconomifes for an Union of all 'Paxes on Land . If the preceding ideas have any thing of truth in them, this fyftem mud be grofly falfe and mifchievous. I know not whether Mr. Locke were the origi- nal father of the doCtrine, that all taxes, laid in any manner whatfoever, fall ul- timately on land; but whoever darted or fupported it, contributed towards the edablidiment of one of the mod dangerous abiurdities that ever difgraced com- mon fenfe. To enter largely into a refutation of the maxim would be ufelefs, as Sir James Stuart, in his Principles of Political Oeconomy , has, with great force of reafoning, laid it in the dud. It was upon this falfe and vicious theory that the ceconomides propofed to abforb all the impods of France in a Angle land-tax. Grant the erroneous datum, that every tax whatever, on confumption or otherwife, is really borne by the land, and their concludon is juft, that it would be better and cheaper to lay on the impofition diredly, in the fird in- ftance, than indiredly and circuitoudy : but the original idea being, abfolutely miftaken, the concludon falls of courfe. “ Mais que pretendez vous done obtenir par cette regie li mena9ante & d difpendieufe ? De V argent. Et furquoi pre- nez-vous cet argent ? Sur des productions. Et d’ou viennent ces productions ? De la terre. Allez done plutot puifer a la fource, Sc demandez un . partage re- gulier, fixe & proportionnel du produit net du territoire What aferies of grofs errors is found in this fhort paflage; almoft as many as there are words. . The contrary is the faCt ; for thefe taxes are not raifed on productions ; and thefe objeCts do not arife from the land; and by laying land-taxes you do not dig at the fource, unlefs you could impofe land-taxes in foreign countries as well as your own. What trifling is it to repeat, again and again, the fame jargon of ideas, without faying one word of the powerful refutation which the above- noted Britifh writer has poured on the whole fydem ? Let the National Ai- fembly lay twenty-feven vingtiemes in a varying land-tax, and then let the ruined kingdom come to thefe vifionaries for the balm of their nouvelle fcience , their phyfiocratie, and their tableau ceconomique ! The Noblefle of Guienne give it as their opinion, that an imp oft en nature fur les fruits, that is to fay, a tythe, is the bed. tax-f*. The clergy of Chalons afk the fame thing, and that it may, abforb all others f ; but the nobility of the fame place declare exprefsly againd * Le Trone , tom. i. p. 323. + Cahier d« la Noblejfe ds Guienne, p. 20. £ Cahier du Clcrge de Chalons fur Marne, p. 11. it. TAXATION, it*. The Abbe Raynal, with all his ingenuity, falls into the common error •fv and calls a cadabre une belle injlitution . Monf. de Mirabeau J has entered at large into a defence of this fybem, by fhewing that there are great inconve- niencies in taxes on confumption ; this every one mub grant : I know of but two taxes that are free from inconveniencies, the pob-office and turnpikes ; all others abound with them ; but to dwell on the inconveniencies of excifes, with- out fhewing that they exceed thofe of land-taxes, is abfurd : you had in France taxes on confumption to the amount of 260,000,000 j we have them in England to a greater amount ; the only quebion really to the purpofe is this, can you bear an additional land-tax to that amount, in confequence of the benefit that would refult from taking off the taxes on confumption ? Monf. Necker has anfwered this quebion, with relation to France, in a manner that ought to fhut the mouths of the oeconomibes for ever ; and in England there can be but one opinion : we are able to bear the taxes as they are laid at prefent; but if they were all abforbed on land, agriculture would receive at one broke its mortal wound, and the nation would fink into utter ruin. We know, from experience, that the landed intereb cannot poflibly draw back their taxes j this truth, founded on incontrovertible fadts, is decifive ; and if they cannot draw them back, how is the rental of twenty millions to bear land-taxes to the amount of feventeen millions ? And of what account is the mybical jargon of a new dialed! || , relying on theory alone,, when oppofed to the innumerable fadts which the prefent bate of every country in Europe exhibits ? This circumbance of drawing back a tax, which, with all well imagined duties on confumption, is univerfally effedted, but is abfolutely impradticable with land-taxes, is the great hinge on which this inquiry really turns. When Monf. Necker fhews, that if the oeconomical ideas were realized, there mub be twenty-eight ving- tiemes raifedin France; and when it is considered, that in England the rental of the kingdom is but a fifth § more than the taxes of it, we poffefs in both cafes the cleareb and mob explicit proofs that there would be an utter impof- fibility to commute the prefent taxes in either country, unlefs it were at the fame time proved, that landlords could, in the price of their produdts, draw back fome enormous taxes, the mere advemee of which would be an intolerable burthen. But as it is manifeb, from fadts equally explicit, that no land-tax can be drawn back ; that the produdt of land taxed at 4s. in the pound fells precifely at the fame price as. that of land taxed at no more than qd. ; and that prices never vary in the leab in England from the land-tax being at is. or 4s. in the pound; nor in France when Land pays one or three vingtiemes; when we are * Gabier, p. 1 1. f Etab. des Europ . 4to. tom. iv. p. 640. % De la Mon. P ruff. tom. iV. p. 59. !1 The writings of the ceconomiftes feritti in un certo dialetto mijlico . Impojl fe condo /’ or dine della natura . i,2ino. 171, p. 15. § Including poor rates and tythes, taxes exceed the rental. TAXATION, in poffeflion, I fay, of fads fo decifive, there is the cleared ground to conclude, that the idea is vifionary ; that fuch an extenfion of land-taxes is utterly imprac- ticable ; and that every attempt towards the execution of thefe plans mud be immediately pernicious to agriculture, and ultimately ruinous to every intered in the date. Relative to the utter impoflibility of extending land-taxes in England to fiich a degree as to include all others, I have it in my power to refer to an indance of our taxation mod correCtly given. I have inferted in the Annals of Agriculture , No. 86, an account of all the taxes I pay for my edate in Suffolk; and in that account it appears, that the track of land which pays me net 229I. 12s. yd. pays to the burthens of the public 219I. 1 8s. 5d. Deducting from fifteen millions and a half (the net revenue of Great Britain) thofe taxes which enter into that fum of 219I. 1 8s. 5d. there remains ten millions and a half; and as the prefent land-tax, at two millions, burthens me 40I. a year, an additional one of ten mil- lions and a half would confequently lay the further burthen of five and a half times as much, 01*220!.; that is to fay, it would leave me the net receipt of 9I. for the whole clear income of my edate! Perhaps the ceconomides never received, direCtly from faCts, fo convincing a proof as this indance offers, of the utter impracticability of their prepoderous fchemes. Yet thefe are the prin- ciples, forry I am to remark, that feem at prefent to govern the National Af- fembly in matters of finance. To their honour, however — greatly to their honour — they do not feem inclined to go all the lengths which fome of their members with for : “ puifque l’interet bien entendu deces trois grandes fources de la profpe- rite des nations, appuye des noms impofans de Quefnay, de Turgot, de Gour- nay, de Mirabeau le pere, de la Riviere, de Condorcet, de Schmidt, & de Leo- pold, & developpe de nouveau dans c'es derniers momens avec une logique fi vi- goureufe par M. Farcet n’a pas encore perfuade cette arbitraire inconfequente & defpotique reine du monde qu’on appelle lopinion*.” One cannot but fmile at the figure the great Leopold makes ; he is put in the rear, I fuppofe, becaufe he never realized, in any one inffance, the land-tax of the ceconomiftes, much to his credit. The mifchievous, and indeed infamous abufesin the collection of the gabelles, droits d’ aides, and droits de trait es, &c. have certainly been in a great meafure the origin of that prejudice, fo general in France againfl: taxes on confumption: the cruelties praCtifed in the collection, have been falfely fuppofed to flow, of ne- ceflity, from the nature of the taxes ; but we know, from long experience, the contrary in England ; and that excifes, to a vaft amount, may be raifed without any fuch cruelties, as have been commonly praCtifed by the old government in France. I am very far from contending that thefe taxes in England are free * De quelques ameliorations dans la perception de Vimpot , par M. Dupont, p. 7. from 593 T A X AT I O N. from abufes 5 and I am fenfible, that there are cafes in which the dealers in ex- cifed commodities feel themfelves hardly dealt by ; and that liberty is attacked in their operation : but every one mud: alfo be fenfible, that land-taxes are not free from objections equally ftrong. When the colledor demands fums that are out of the power of the individual to pay, and feizes, by diftrefs, the goods and chattels, to fell them, perhaps, for half their value ; — when we fee the people flopping up their windows, denying themfelves the enjoyment even of light itfelf, and fubmitting to live in dampnefs and in darknefs, rather than pay a cruel tax on the property of houfes ; when fuch hardlhips occur, it furely will not be thought, that it is duties on confumption only, that open to fuch abufes • every fort of tax, except the pofl-office, is a heavy evil, and the only enquiry is, of fo many ills, which is leaft ? The fmallnefs of the properties in land, is another infuperable objedion to land- taxes in France : if fairly laid to the real value, on the pofieffion of a few acres, they become the fource of great mifery : the man whofe land gives him barely the neceffaries of life, lias nothing to l'pare for dired taxes; he mull: depend for paying them on fome other employment at bell precarious, in a kingdom where population goes fo much beyond employment, and where numbers flarve from inability of maintenance. If, to avoid thefe evils, exemptions from the tax are given them, thefe fmall properties, the parent and origin, at bell, of fuch mul- tiplied dillrefs, receive a dired encouragement, than which a more cruel policy could not be embraced. The only meafure that would remedy both evils, is to prohibit the diviiion of landed property into portions, below the ability of paying uties; or elie, to rejed land-taxes altogether. A grofs evil of thefe dired im- ports is, that of moneyed men, or capitalijls , efcaping all taxation : none but c.uues on conlumption affed them. In countries where land-taxes abound thefe men will never become proprietors, for the fimpleft reafon, becaufe thefe taxes reduce the profit of pofleffing land below the profit of other invellments They live upon the interell of money in the public funds ; and the cleared: prin- ciples of juftice, call for a fyftem of taxation that fhall bring thefe men within its fphere; this is only to be done by taxes on confumption; by excifes, curtoms, ftamps, entrees , &c.; and is a powerful reafon for multiplying' fuch taxes, inftead of thole on land. Under the regimen of land-taxes, all foreigners redding in a kingdom abfolutely efcape taxation ; but with duties on confump- tion they are made to contribute equally with the natives ; in fuch a kingdom as France, which always aid, and ever will, attrad many ldran °ers, this is an objed of fome confequence. But, perhaps, the greateft objediln to taxes upon land is, their preventing ail improvements in agriculture, if they are equal ; and if unequal, carrying with them the greateft principle of injuftice, by beino- de- fedtve in the firft requilite of all taxation. The greateft friends to this fplcies 594 TAXATION. of impofition, acknowledges the neceffity of being equal. It is this that induces the Abbe Raynal to call a cad aft re line belle inftitution 3 and a late writer declares, << I] n ’ e ft p 0 i n t de Pays ou il lie foil neeeffaire d’inventorier tout le territoire dans le plus grand detail d’enregiflrer chaque portion, d’en connoitre les mutations d’en evaluer le revenu & ou fi l’on defire de perpetuer 1’impofition egale & pro- portionelle il ne foit indifpenfable de fuivre la progreflion du revenue * ’—and this method he explains afterwards, by aflerting the abfolute neceffity of having a new valuation every nine years 3 and he finds fault j with ttie King of Sardinia s cadaftre , becaufe the valuation has never been renewed. Another of thefe poli- ticians obferves, that the excellency of a tythe, as a mode of taxation, is, that if improvements are extended, or lands cultivated with more care, the revenue of the flat e increafes with it f. In the fame fpirit, many of the cahiers demanded the fuppreffion of all duties on confumption ||. — I could multiply fuch Senti- ments almoft to fill a volume, if I were to go back to confult the deluge of writings which infefled France five- and- twenty years ago, but I quote only fome living authors, who hold thefe pernicious doctrines at prefent, and whole writings are received with fubmiffion by the National Affembly, adopted, and in part carried into execution. Thus would thefe writers reject the only advantage found in the land-taxes of Milan, Piedmont, and England, that of permenance : they call for valu- ations of every improvement the moment it is effected in ordei to tax it, to what amount ? To that of abforbing all the imports of a modern ftate, to the amount of twenty-feven vingtiemes in France ; and to that of a rental of twenty millions paying feventeen in England ! To reafon upon fuch extravagance would be an idle wafte of time ; but I ihall not difmifs the fubjeft without re- marking, that if the National Afi'embly adopts the tax recommended by their committee, of 300 millions, and Ihould, upon thefe principles, make it a va- riable one, though never rifing in its amount above that fum, the mere muta- tion of eafing a wretched, poor, flovenly farmer, and loading proportionally an improving one, will abfolutely prohibit all ameliorations of the national agri- culture : and if they (hall draw thefe variations to the profit of the ftate, by in- creafing the total fum proportionably to fuch improvements, they will ftill prevent them, as no man will invert his capital in any induftrious employment in which the ftate taxes his profits. Duties on confumption do not afTed the induftrious, they fall principally on the idle conl'umer, where they ought to fall, and confequently manufafturers. * Le Trine Ad. Prav. tom. i. pref. xiv. t p. 235. t Plan d’ Admin, del Finances , par M. Malport. 1787. p. 34. I Nobleffe de Lyon, p. 16. Bugey, p. 28. Troyes Tiers Etat, art. 1 3. Etampes, art. 33. p. 44. There is not a tax exiting in France, which is not demanded in fome cahiei to be fupprefled. and TAXATION. $95 and merchants, as we have ample experience in England, are not deterred from inverting their capitals in employments fubjededto thofe taxes, for their profits abfolutely efcape the tax, till by a voluntary confumption they clafs themfelves (in fpending thofe profits), among the non-induftrious ; then they not only advance the°tax, but really pay it, as it is right they rtiould ; but with land- taxes the cafe is totally different, becaufe they cannot be drawn back ; an in- duftrious manufacturer calculates the profits his capital will yield him under the preffure of taxes on confumption ; he eftimates the advance only of the tax, charging upon his goods the interert of that advance, and thus the tax is to him merely inconvenience, in requiring a larger capital ; but an indurtrious farmer, calculating in like manner, the profit of his capital inverted under the preffure of land-taxes, finds, in a moment, that with him it is not merely advancing the tax, but actually paying and bearing it ; it comes then imme- diately upon him as a deduction from his profit ; and if it is proportional and equal, not a {hilling of that profit efcapes. What is the felf-evident confe- quence ? Mod clearly that he will not make fuch an invertment, but turn his money to other employments that will pay him better : and can it be necefiary, at this time of day, to point out the mifchief of turning capitals from agri- culture to any other employment; or, which is the fame thing, preventing their being inverted in it ? As I have mentioned feveral writers in favour of land-taxes, in terms of that condemnation, abiolutely necertary by a friend of agriculture, it is no moie than juftice to obferve, that- France contains fome others, whofe writings are free from this great objedion. Monf. Necker, in his treatife on the adminiftration of the finances, gives the preference to taxes on confumption, and {hews the ut- ter importibility of a land-tax abforbing all others. The Marquis de Caffaux * alfo has attempted, with much force of reafon, to prove, that the land-taxes of France and England ought to be converted into duties on confumption. And fome of the beft writers of that vart collection, in which the phyfiocratical fcience ori- ginated, are of the fame opinion. Proportional imports, on the confumption of commodities are the moji juft , the moji productive ^ and the leaf burthenfome to a people, becaufe paid daily and imperceptibly f. And the nobility of Quercy have, in their cahier , a paffage, which does honour to their good fenfe : “ Confiderant que I’impot indirect a Inappreciable avantage dune perception imperceptible 6c fpontanee : que le contribuable ne la paye qif au moment ou il en a les moyens qu il frappe fur les capitalirtes don't le genre de fortune echappe a toute autre impot que la meaiure des confummations etant en general celle des richeffes il atteint par fa nature a une juftefie de repartition d ont 1 impoi. diieCt * Mechanifme des Societies, 8vo. 1785. p. 222. f Encyclopedic . folio, tom. viii. p. 602. 4 O 2 n’eft TAXATION. 596 n’eft pas fuceptible *. — Thefe are fterling and wife principles, in few words, developed in the moft ftriking features . Of Simplicity in Taxation. So many of the eahiers of France unite with the ceconomijles , in calling for the utmoft fimplicity in taxation, by means of one only and uniform proportional import on land, that it merits a rtiort inquiry, how far this theory of fimplicity is, in itfelf, deferving of the ideas entertained of it. There can be no doubt of the advantage of a cheap collection attending this or any plan of fimplicity ; but there are reafons for thinking that this benefit would be purchafed at an ex- pence a thoufand times greater than it is worth. I do not love recurring to, or depending altogether on reafoning, when fa< 5 ts are at hand on which we can build our conclufions : the taxes of England are infinitely various ; much more fo than thole of France, efpecially in the articles of excifes and rtamps ; our taxes are alfo very great; in proportion to the population of the kingdom, much more than double thofe of France ; yet, with this vaft burthen, they are borne by the people with much more eafe than the French nation bears lefs than the half. This is to be attributed not to one caufe only, but to many; but amongrt thofe caufes, I believe, will be found this great variety of points on which they bear. The mere circumftance of taxes being very numerous, in order to raife a given fum, is a confiderable ftep towards equality in the burthen falling on the people ; If I was to define a good fyrtem of taxation, it fhould. be that of bearing lightly on an infinite number of points, heavily on none. In other words that fimplicity in taxation is the greatert additional weight that can be given to taxes, and ought, in every country, to be moft feduloufly avoided. By a fyrtem of fimplicity in taxation, let it be exerted in whatever method, whether on land, on perfons, or on confumption, there will always be clafies of the people much lighter taxed than other clafies ; and this inequality will throw an opprefiive burthen on thofe who are moft expofed to the operation of whatever tax is chofen. No one is a greater enemy than I am to land-taxes • but fuch is the advantage of an extremely various fyrtem, that I would not con- tend for taking them entirely off in any country. A land-tax of 6d. 9d.. or per- haps is. in the pound, but permanent, would be fo light a burthen, that it might be borne, without the mifchief of impeding agriculture. Taxes on windows are amongrt the very worft that can be laid; but as far as 3d. each, might not be liable to much objection. Unfortunately for France, the fa- vourite idea there is the very contrary one — that of fimplicity. It would have been wife not abfolutely to fupprefs any one of their taxes, not even the ga- * Page 6* belle. REVOLUTION. 597 belle itfelf : removing the abufes that flow from farming a revenue, introducing into the receipt the mildnefs of a free government, and changing entirely the mode of colle&ion, would have removed the chief objections to thofe taxes which have been aboliflied, and have faved the enormous evil, now neceflary, of loading land. This fubjeCt is a fruitful one, worthy the attention of able pens exp refs ly employed on it, the rapid fketches which can alone be given by a traveller will allow of mere hints. CHAP. XXL On the 'Revolution of France . HE grofs infamy which attended lettres de cachet and the Baftile, during the whole reign of Louis XV . made them efteemed in England, by people not well informed, as the molt prominent features of the defpotifm of France. They were certainly carried to an excefs hardly credible ; to the length of being fold, with blanks, to be filled up with names at the pleafure of the purchafer ; who was thus able, in the gratification of private revenge, to tear a man from the bofom of his family, and bury him in a dungeon, where he would exift forgotten,, and die unknown * ! — But fuch excefles could not be common in any coun- * An anecdote* which I have from an authority to be depended on, will explain the profligacy of government, in refpedf to thefe arbitrary imprifonments. Lord Albemarle, when ambaflador in France, about the year 1753, negotiating the fixing of the limits of the American colonies, which, three years after, produced the war, calling one day on the minifter for foreign affairs, was introduced, for a few minutes, into his cabinet, while he finifhed a fhort converfation in the apartment in which he ufuafiy received thofe who conferred with him. As his lordfhip walked backwards and forwards, in a very fmall room (a French cabinet is never a large one), he could not help feeing, a paper lying on the table, written in a large legible hand, and containing a lift of the prifoners in the Baftile, in which the firft name v/as Gordon. When the minifter entered, lord Albemarle apologized for his involun- tary remarking the paper ; the other replied that it was not of the leaft confequence, for they made no fecret of the names. Lord A. then faid, that he had feen the name of Gordon firft in the lift, and he begged to know, as in all probability the perfon of this name was a Britifh fubjedt, on what account he had been put into the Baftile. The minifter told him that he knew nothing of the matter, but would make the proper inquiries. The next time he faw lord Albemarle, he informed him, that, on inquiring into the cafe of Gordon, he could find no perfon who could give him the leaft information on which he had had Gordon himfelf interrogated, who folemnly affirmed, that he had not the fmalleft knowledge, or even fufpicion, of the caufe of his imprifonment, but that he had been confined 30- years ; however, added the minifter, I ordered him to be immediately releafed, and he is now at large- Such a cafe wants no comment. REVOLUTION, 5 5 3 try ; and they were reduced almoft: to nothing, from the acceftion of the prefent King. The great mafs of the people, by which I mean the lower and middle ranks, could fuffer very little from fuch engines, and as few of them are objedts of jealoufy, had there been nothing elfe to complain of, it is not probable they would ever have been brought to take arms. ’I heabufes attending the levy of taxes were heavy and univerfal. The kingdom was parcelled into generalities, with an intendant at the head of each, into whofe hands the whole power of the crown was delegated for every thing except the military authority ; but particu- larly for all affairs of finance. The . generalities were fubdivided into elections, at the head of which was a fub-delegue , appointed by the intendant. The rolls of the tattle capitation ,vingtiemes , and other taxes, were diftributed among diftriCts, parifhes, and individuals, at the pleafure of the intendant, who could exempt, change, add, or diminifh at pleafure. Such an enormous power, conftantly act- ing, and from which no man was free, muft, in the nature of things, degene- rate in many cafes intoabfolute tyranny. It muft be obvious, that the friends, acquaintances, and dependents of the intendant, and of all his fub-delegues , and the friends of thefe friends, to a long chain of dependence, might be favoured in taxation at the expence of their miferable neighbours ; and that noblemen, in favour at court, to whofe protection the intendant himfelf would naturally look up, could find little difficulty in throwing much of the weight of their taxes on others, without a fimilar fupport. Inftances, and even grofs ones, have been reported to me in many parts of the kingdom, that made me fhudder at the op- preffion to which numbers muft have been condemned, by the undue favours granted to fuch crooked influence. But, without recurring to fuch cafes, what muft have been the ftate of the poor people paying heavy taxes, from which the nobility and clergy w r ere exempted ? A cruel aggravation of their mifery, to fee thofe who could belt afford to pay, exempted becaufe able ! — The inrollments for the militia, which the cahiers call an injujlice without example *, were ano- ther dreadful lcourge on the peafantry ; and, as married men were exempted from it, occaftoned in feme degree that mifehievous population, which brought beings into the world, in order for little elfe than to be ftarved. The corvee's , or police of the roads, w r ere annually the ruin of many hundreds of farmers ; more than 300 were reduced to beggary in filing up one vale in Loraine : all thefe oppreffions fell on the tiers eiat only ; the nobility and clergy having been equally exempted from tattles , militia, and corvees. The penal code of finance makes one fhudder at the horrors of punifhment inadequate to the crime. -j~. A few features will fufficiently characterize the old government of France : 1 . Smugglers * Neh. Briey, p. 6. &c. &c. f It is calculated by a writer ( Recbercbes et Conftd. par M. le Baron ch Cormerc , tom. ji. p. 187.), very well informed on every fubjeft of finance, that, upon an average, there were annually taken up and lent REVOLUTION. 599 1. Smugglers of fait, armed and afiembled to the number of five, in Provence, a fine of 500 liv. ci 7 id nine years gallies ; — -in all the red of the kin gdom , death . o 7 2. Smugglers armed, afiembled, but in number under five, a fine-af 300 liv. and three years gullies. Second offence, death. 3. Smugglers, without arms, but with horfes, carts, or boats, a fine of 300 liv. if not paid , three years gallies. Second offence, 400 liv. and nine years gallies . — In Dauphine, fecond offence, gallies for life. In Provenc z, five years gallics. 4. Smugglers, who carry the fait on their backs, and without arms, a fine of 200 liv. and, if not paid, are flogged and branded. Second offence, a fine of 300 liv. and fix years gallies. 5. Women, married and fingle, fmugglers, fil'd offence, a fine of 100 liv. Second, 500 liv. Third, flogged, and banifhed the kingdom for life. Hujbands refpo?ifible both in fine a 7 id body. 6 . Children fmugglers, the fame as women . — Fathers and mothers refponfible ; and fior defebl of payment flogged. Nobles, if fmugglers, deprived of their nobility ; and their houfes razed to the ground. 8. Any perfons in employments (I fuppofe employed in the fait- works or the revenue), if fmugglers, death. And fuch as affift in the theft of fait in the tranfport, hanged. 9. Soldiers fmuggling, with arms, are hanged without arms, gallies for life. 10. Buying fmuggled fait to refel it, the fame punifhments as for finug- gling. 1 1 . Perfons in the frit employments, empowered if two, or 07 ie with two wit- nefies, to enter and examine houfes even of the privileged orders. 12. All families, and perfons liable to the faille, in the provinces of the Grandes Gabelles inrolled, and their confumption of fait for the pot and faliere (that is the daily confumption, exclufive of falting meat, &c. 6cc.) efiimated at fentto prifon. or the gallies. Men, 2340. Women, 896. Children, 20T. Total, 3437. 300 of thefe- to the gallies (tom. i. p. 112.) 1 he fait confifcated from thefe miferables amounted to 12,63.3 quin- tals, which, at the mean price of 8= liv. are 27721b. 'of falted flefhy at 10/. 1086 horfes, at 50 liv 52 carts, at 150 liv. Fines, Seized in houfes. 101,064 1,386 54 > 3 00 7,800 53 j 29 7 105.530 3 2 3> 2g 7 ylb, Boo REVOLUTION. 71b. a head per annum, which quantity they are forced to buy whether they want it or not, under the pain of various fines according to the cafe. The Capitaineries were a dreadful fcourge on all the occupiers of land. By this term, is to be underilood the paramountihip of certain diftri&s, granted by the king, to princes of the blood, by which they were put in pofteflion of the property of all game, even on lands not belonging to them ; and, what is very lingular, on manors granted long before to individuals fo that the ere&ing of a diftri& into a capitainerie , was an annihilation of all manerial rights to game within it. This was a trifling bufinefs, in comparifon of other circumftances ; for, in fpeaking of the prefervation of the game in thefe capitaineries , it mull be obferved, that by game muft be underilood whole droves of wild boars, and herds of deer not confined by any wall or pale, but wandering, at pleafure, over the whole country, to the deftru&ion of crops j and to the peopling of the gallies by the wretched peafants, who prefumed to kill them, in order to fave that food which was to fupport their helplefs children. The game in the capitainerie of Montceau, in four parilhes only, did mifchief to the amount of 184,263 liv. per annum *. No wonder then that we Ihould find the people afking, < ( Nous demandons a grand cris la def ruff ion des capitaineries & celle de toute forte degibier 'f” And what are we to think of demanding, as a favour, the permif- fton — “ De nett oyer fes grains de faucher les pres artificiels, & d'enlever fes chanmes fans e gar d pour la perdrix on tout autre gibier%. ,y Now an Englifh reader will fcarcely underlland it without being told, that there were numerous edi&s for preferving the game which prohibited weeding and hoeing, left the young partridges Ihould be difturbed ; fteeping feed, left it Ihould injure the game ; ma- nuring with night foil, left the flavour of the patridges Ihould be injured by feeding on the corn fo produced ; mowing hay, &c. before a certain time, lb late as to fpoil many crops ; and taking away the ftubble, which would deprive the birds of Ihelter. The tyranny exercifed in thefe capitaineries , which extended over 400 leagues of country, was fo great, that many cahiers demanded the utter fupprefiion of them ||. Such were the exertions of arbitrary power which the lower orders felt diredtly from the royal authority ; but, heavy as they were, it is a queftion whether the others, fuffered circuitoufly through the nobility and the clergy, w T ere not yet more opprefnve ? Nothing can exceed the complaints made in the cahiers under this head. They fpeak of the difpenfation of juftice in the manerial courts, as comprifing every fpecies of defpotifm : the diftri&s indeter- minate — appeals endlefs— irreconcileable to liberty andprofperity--and irrevocably * Cahier du tiers ctat de Maaux , p. 49. + De Montes and Meulan , p. 38. £ Ibid , p. 40. — Alfa, Nob. id Tier Etat de Perone , p. 42. De Trois ordres de Montfort , p. 28. j! Clerge de Provins iff Montereau , p. 35. — Clerge de Paris p. 25. — Clerge de Mantei iff Meulan , p. 45, 46. Clerge de Laon, p. n, — Nob. de Nemours , p. 17. — Nob. de Paris, p. 22. — Nob. d’ Arras, p. 29. profcribed REVOLUTION. profcribed in the opinion of the public* — augmen ting litigations— -favouring every fpecies of chicane — ruining the parties — not only by enormous expences on the molt petty objects, but by a dreadful lofs of time. The judges commonly ig- norant pretenders, who hold their courts in cabarets , and are abfolutely de- pendent on the feigneurs f . Nothing can exceed the forceof expreffion ufed in painting tne oppieffions of the feigneurs, in confecjuence of their feudal powers. T. hey are i vexations quif'ont le plus gr and feau des peuples * .* — ILJc lavage afflig - eant\\. — Ce regime defajireufe%. That the feodalite be for ever abolifhed. The countryman is tyrannically enflaved by it. Fixed and heavy rents; vexa- tious proceffes to fecure them ; appreciated unjuftly to augment them: rents, folidairesy and revench ablest rents, che antes, and levant es', fumages. Fines at every change of the property, in the direCt as well as collateral line; feudal re- demption ( retraite) ; fines on fale, to the 8th and even the 6th penny; redemp- tions ( rachats) injurious in their origin, and dull more fo in their exten lion : ba - nalite of the mill f , of the oven, and of the wine and cyder-prefs ; corvees by ■cuftom; corvees by ufage of the fief; corvees eflablifhed by unjuft decrees ; corvees arbitrary, and even phantaftical ; fervitudes ; prejlations , extravagant and buithemfome; collections by-aflefTments incolleCtible ; aveux, minus , impuniejje~ mens-, litigations ruinous and without end : the rod of feigneural finance for *ever fhaken over our heads; vexation, ruin, outrage, violence, and deflruCtive Servitude, under which the peafants, almoft on a level with Polifh flaves, can never but be miferable, vile, and opprelled**. They demand alfo, that the ufe of ■hand-mills be free ; and hope that pofterity, if poffible, may be ignorant that •feudal tyranny in Bretagne, armed with the judicial power, has not blufhed even .in thefe times at breaking hand-mills, and at felling annually to the miferable the faculty of bruiling between two ftones ameafure of buck- wheat or barley-^-f'. The very terms of thefe complaints are unknown in England, and confequently untranflatable : they have probably airifen long fmce the feudal fyflem ceafed in this kingdom. What are thefe tortures of the peafantry in Bretagne, which they call chevanches , quint aines , Joule , Jaut de poijoti, baijer de mariees ; chanfons ; tranj- porte d ceuf fur un char-ette ; fie nee des grenouilles J J ; corvee a mifericorde • mi - By this horrible law, the people are bound to grind their corn at the mill of the feigneur only; to prefs their grapes at his prefs tmiy,; and, to bakfe their bread in his oven-; by which means the bread is •often fpoiled, and more efpecially wine, fincein Champagne thofe grapes which, prefled immediately would make white wine, will, by waiting, for the prefs, which often happens, make, red wine only. * ** Tiers Et at Rennes, p. 159, ff Rennes , p. -57. tt Tiis ^ a curious article : whenthe lady of the feigneur lies in, the people are obliged to beat the waters in mar/hy diftricts, to keep the frogs filent, that the may not be tlifturbed ; this duty a very ©ppreflive one, is commuted anto a, pecuniary fine. ' ’ 3 * Rennes, art. 12. || T. Etat Clermont Fer ranch f Tier Etat de Vannes, p. 24. 4H . 6 02 REVOLUTION. lods j hide ; coup on age ; cartelage ; bar age ; fouage ; marechaujfee ; ban vin ; ban d’aout ; trouJJ'es ; ge linage ; average; taillabilite ; vingtain; Jlerlage; bordelage; rninage; ban de vendanges ; droit d’accapte* . In palling through many of the French provinces, I was ftruck with the various and heavy complaints of the farmers and little proprietors of the feudal grievances, with the weight of which their induftry wasburthenedj but I could not then conceive the multiplicity of the fhackles which kept them poor and deprefled. I underftood it better afterwards, from the converfation and complaints of fome grand feigneurs, as the revolution advanced ; and I then learned, that the principal rental of many eftates conflfted in fervices and feudal tenures ; by the baneful influence of which, the induftry of the people was almoft exterminated. In regard to the oppreflions of the clergy, as to tythes, I muft do that body a juftice, to which a claim cannot be laid in England. Though the eccleflaftical tenth was levied in France more feverely than ufual in Italy, yet was it never exaded with fuch horrid greedinefs as is at prefent the difgrace of England. When taken in kind, no fuch thing was known in any part of France, where I made inquiries, as a tenth : it was always a twelfth, or a thirteenth, or even a twentieth of the produce. And in no part of the kingdom did a new article of culture pay any thing : thus turnips, cab- bages, clover, chicores, potatoes, &c. &c. paid nothing. In many parts, mea- dows were exempted. Silk worms nothing. Olives in fome places paid — in more they did not. Cows nothing. Lambs from the 12th to the 21ft. Wool no- thing. — Such mildnefs, in the levy of this odious tax, is abfolutely unknown in England. But mild as it was, the burthen to people groaning under fo many other oppreflions, united to render their fltuation fo bad that no charge could be for the worfef-. But thefe were not all the evils with which the people ftrug- o-led. The adminiftration of juftice was partial, venal, infamous. I have, in converfation with many very fenflble men, in different parts of the kingdom, met with fomething of content with their government, in all other refpeds than this ; but upon the queftion of expecting juftice to be really and fairly admini- ftered, every one confefled there was no fuch thing to be looked for. The con- dud: of the parliaments was profligate and atrocious. Upon almoft every caufe that came before them, intereft was openly made with the judges : and wo be- tided the man who, in a caufe to fupport, had no means of conciliating favour, ] either by the beauty of a handfome wife, or by other methods. It has been faid, by many writers, that property was as fecure under the old government of France * Refume des cahiers , tom. iil. p. 316, 317. f They have found Twice how erroneous this opinion was, and that great as their evils were, they have been aggravated into a more exterminating defpotifm under the fictitious names of liberty and equality. as REVOLUTION. 603 a's it is in England ; and the aflertion might poflibly be true, as far as any vio- lence from the King, his miniflers, or the great was concerned : but for all that mafs of property, which comes in every country to be litigated in courts of juflice, there was not even the Ihadow of lecurity, unlefs the parties were totally and equally unknown, and totally and equally honed: ; in every other cafe, he who had the bed: intered with the judges, was dire to be the winner. To re- flecting minds, the cruelty and abominable practice attending fuch courts are fuf- flciently apparent. There was alfo a circumflance in the conditution of thele parliaments, but little known in England, and which, under fuch a government as that of France, mud be coniidered as very Angular. They had the power, and were in the condant practice of ifluing decrees, without the confent of the crown, and which had the force of laws through the whole of their jurifdiCtion ; and of all other laws, thefe were fure to be the bed obeyed ; for as all infringe- ments of them were brought before fovereign courts, compofed of the fame per- lons who had enaCted thefe laws (a horrible fydem of tyranny !) they were certain of being punifhed with the lad feverity. It mud appear Arange, in a govern- ment fo defpotic in fome refpeCts as that of France, to fee the parliaments in every part of the kingdom making laws without the King’s confent, and even in de- fiance of his authority. The Englilh, whom I met in France in j 789, were fur- prized to fee fome of thefe bodies ifluing arrets againfl the export of corn out of the provinces lubjeCt to their jurifdiCtion, into the neighbouring provinces, at the fime time that the King, through the organ of fo popular a minifler as Monf. Necker, was decreeing an abfolutely free tranfport of corn throughout the king- dom, and even at the requifition of the National Aflembly itfelf. But this was nothing new; it was their common practice. The parliament of Rouen pafled an arret againfl killing of calves ; it was a prepoderous one, and oppofed by adminidration ; but it had its full force ; and had a butcher dared to offend againd it, he would have found, by the rigour of his punifliment, who was his mafler. Innoculation was favoured by the court in Louis XV. ’s time; but the parliament of Paris pafled an arret againd it, much more effective in prohibiting, than the favour of the court in encouraging that practice. Indances are innu- merable, and I may remark, that the bigotry, ignorance, falfe principles, and tyranny of thefe bodies were generally confpicuous; and that the court (taxation excepted) never had a difpute with a parliament, but the parliament was fure to be wrong. Their conditution, in refpeCt to the admin Aration of judice, was fo truly rotten, that the members fat as judges, even in caufes of private property, in which they were themfelves the parties, and have, in this capacity, been guilty of oppreflions and cruelties, which the crown has rarely dared to attempt. It is impoflible to juflify the excefles of the people on their taking up arms; they were certainly guilty of cruelties ; it is idle to deny the faCts, for they have been 4 H 2 proved REVOLUTION. 604 proved too dearly to admit of a doubt. But is it really the people to whom we are to impute the whole ? — Or to their oppreffors, who had kept them fo long in a ftate of bondage ? He who choofes to be ferved by Haves, and by ill-treated Haves, muft know that he holds both his property and life by a tenure far differ- ent from thole who prefer the fervice of well-treated freemen ; and he who dines to the mufic of groaning fufferers, muft not, in the moment of infurredtion, com- plain that his daughters are raviftied, and then deftroyed ; and that his fons throats are cut. When luch evils happen, they furely are more imputable to the tyranny of the mafter, than to the cruelty of the fervant. The analogy holds with the French peafants — the murder of a feigneur, or a chateau in flames, is recorded in every newfpaper; the rank of the perfon who fuffers, attrads no- tice; but where do we find the regifler of that feigneur’s oppreflions of his pea- fantry, and his exactions of feudal fervices, from thofe whofe children were dy- ing around them for want of bread ? Where do we find the minutes that afllgned . thefe ftarving wretches to fome vile petty-fogger, to be fleeced by impofitions, and a mockery of juftice, in the feigneurai courts Who gives us the awards of the intendant and his fub-delegues , which took off the taxes of a man of falhion, and laid them with accumulated weight, on the poor, who were fo unfortunate as to be his neighbours ? Who has dwelt fufficiently upon explaining all the. ramifications of defpotifm, regal, ariftocratical, and eccleliaftical, pervading the whole mafs of the people; reaching, like a ciculating fluid, the moft diftant capillary tubes of poverty and wretched nefs ? In thefe cafes, the fufferers are too ignoble to be known ; and the mafs too indifcriminate to be pitied. But Ihould a philofopher. feel and reafon thus ? fliould he miftake the caufe for the effect ? and giving all his pity to the few, feel no compafiion for the many, becaufe they fuffer in his. eyes not individually, but by millions ? The exceffes of the people cannot, I re- peat, be juffified; it would undoubtedly have done them credit* both as men and- chriftians, if they had poffeffed their new acquired power with moderation. But: let it be remembered, that the populace in no country ever ufe power with modera-- tion; excefs is inherent in their aggregate conflitution : and as every government: in the world knows, that violence infallibly attends power in fuch hands, it is- doubly bound in common fenfe, and for common fafety, fo to condudt itfelf, that; the people may not find an intereft in public confufions. They will always fuf- fer much and long, before they are effectually roufed ; nothing, therefore, can- kindle the flame, but fuch oppreflions of fome claffes or order' in the fociety, as give able men the opportunity of feconding the general mafs ; difcontent will foon diffufe itfelf around ; and if the government take not warning in time, it is. alone anfwerable for all the burnings, and plunderings, and deveftation, and blood that follow. The true judgment to be formed of the French revolution* muft furely be gained, from an attentive conflderation of the evils of the old go- vernment : when thefe are well underftood— and wfften the extent and univeria- lity REVOLUTION. 605 lity of the opprefiion under which the people groaned — >oppreflion which bore upon them from every quarter, it will fcarcely be attempted to be urged, that a revolution was not abfolutely neceflary to the welfare of the kingdom. Not one oppofing voice* can, with reafon, be raifed againft this affertion : abufes ought certainly to be corrected, and corrected efFe&ually : this could not be done without the eftablifhment of a new form of government ; whether the form that has been adopted were the belt, is another queftion abfolutely diflinCt. Rut that the above-mentioned. detail of enormities praCtifed on the people required fome great change is fufficiently apparent; and I cannot better conclude fuch a lift of deteftable oppreffions, then in the words of th z.TiersEtat of Ni vernois, who hailed- the approaching day of liberty, , with an eloquence worthy of the fubjed. “ Les plaintes du peuple fe font long-temps perdues dans l’efpace immenfe qui le fepare du trone: cette claffe la plus nombreufe & la plus intereflante de lafociete; cette claffe qui merite les premiers foins du gouvernement, puifqu* elle alimente toutes les autres; cette claffe a laquelle on doit.& les arts neceflaires a la vie, fe ceux qui en embelliffent le cours;, cette claffe enfin qui en recueillent moins a toujours paye davantage, peut-elle apres tant defiecles d’oppreffion & de mifere compter aujourdhui fur un.fort plus heureux ? Ce feroit pour ainfi dire blafphemer l’autorite tutelaire. fous laquelle nous vivons. que. d’en douter un feul moment. Un refpeCt aveugle pour les abus etablis ou pour la violence ou par la fuperftitipn, une ignorance profonde des conditions du pacfte focial voila ce qui a perpetue jufqu’ a nous la fervitude dans laquelle. out gemi nos peres. Un jour plus pure eft pres d’eclorrer le roi,a manifefte le defir de trouver des fujets capables de lui dire la verite;, une de fes loix l’edit de creation des af- femblees provinciales du.moi de Juin 1787, annonce que le veeu le plus preffant de fon coeur fera toujours celui qui tendra au foulagement & au bonheur de fes peuples : une autre loi qui a retenti du centre du Royaume. a fes dernieres extre- mitesnousapromis la.reftitution.de tous nos droits, do.nt nous n’avions perdu, *. Many oppofing voices have been raifed; but fo little to their credit, that I leave the pafiage as ifc was written long ago. The abufes that are rooted in all the old governments of Europe, give fucll- numbers of men a diredt intereft in fupporting, cherifhing, and defending abufes, that no, wonder ad- vocates for tyranny, of every fpecies, are found in every country, and almoft in everycompany. What' amafs'of people, in every part ofEngland, are fome way or other interefted in the prefent reprefenta-' tion of the people, tythes, charters, corporations, monopolies,, and taxation ! and not merely to the things themfelves,. but to all the abufes attending them; , and how many are there who derive their profit or their confideration in life, not merely from fuch inftitutions, but from the evils they engen- der ! The great mafs of the people, however, is free from fuch influence, and will be enlightened by degrees; afliiredly they will find out, in every country of Europe, that by combinations, on the prin- ciples of liberty and property, aimed equally againft regal, ariftocratical, and mobbifti tyranny, they will be able to refill: fuccefsfully, that variety of combination, which,.on principles of plunder and de£- potifm, is every where at work to enflave them. dont 6o 6 REVOLUTION. & dont nous ns pouvions perdre que l’exercife puifque le fond de ces monies droits eft inalienable & imprefcriptible. Ofons done fecouer le joug des anciennes erreurs : ofons dire tout ce qui eft vrai, tout ce qui eft utile j ofons reclaimer les droits eftentiels & primitifs deThomme: la raifon, requite, Popinion generale, la bienfaifance connue de notre augufte fouverain tout concour a aflurer le fucces de nous doleances." Having feen the propriety, or rather the neceffity, of fome change in the go- vernment, let us next brifly inquire into the effects of the revolution on the principal interefts in the kingdom* In refpedt to all the honours, power, and profit derived to the nobility from the feudal fyftem, which was of an extent in France beyond any thing known in * England fmee the revolution, or long parliament in 1640, all is laid in the duft, without a rag or remnant being fpared * : the importance of thefe, both in in- fluence and revenue, was fo great, that the refult is all but ruin to numbers. However, as thefe properties were real tyrannies ; as they rendered the poffeffion of one fpot of land ruinous to ail around it— and equally fubverfive of agriculture, and the common rights of mankind, the utter deftru&ion brought 011 all this fpecies of property, does not ill deferve the epithet they are fo fond of in France ; it is a real regeneration of the people to the privileges of human nature. No man of common feelings can regret the fall of that abominable fyftem, which made a whole parifh flaves to the lord of the manor. But the effects of the revo- lution have gone much farther ; and have been attended with confequences not equally juftifiable. The rents of land, which are as legal under the new govern- ment as they were under the'old, are no longer paid with regularity. I have been lately informed (Auguft 1791), on authority not to be doubted, that afto- ciations among tenantry, to a great amount and extent, have been formed, even within fifty miles of Paris, for the non-payment of rent $ faying, in direeft terms, we are ftrong enough to detain the rent, and you are not ftrong enough to enforce the payment. In a country where fuch things are pofiible, property of every kind, it muft be allowed, is in a dubious fituation. Very evil confe- * It is to be obferved, that the orders of knighthood were at firft preferved ; when the National Aflembly, with a forbearance that did them honour, refufed to abolifti thofe orders, becaufe perfonal, ©f merit, and not hereditary, they were guilty of one grofs error. They ought immediately to have addrefied the King, to inftitute a new order of knighthood — -Knights of the plough. I here are doubtlefs little fouls that will fmile at this, and think a thifble, a garter, or an eagle more figniheant, and mere honourable ; I fay nothing cf orders, that exceed common fenfe and common chronology, fuch as St. Efprit, St. Andrew, and St, Patrick, leaving them to fuch as venerate moft what they leaft un- derftand. But that prince, whofhould firft inftitute this order of rural merit, will reap no vulgar ho- nour: Leopold, whofe twenty years of fteady and well earned Tufcan fame gives him a good right to do it with propriety, might, as Emperor, inftitute it with moft effedt. In him, fuch an adtion would have in it nothing of affedlation. But I had rather that the plough had thus been honoured by a free aftembly. It would have been a trait, that marked the philosophy of a new age, and a new fyftem. quences REVOLUTION, 6 07 quences will refult from this ; arrears will accumulate too great for landlords to lofe, or for the peafants to pay, who will not eafily be brought to relifh that order and legal government, which mud necefTarily fecure thefe arrears to their right owners. In addition to all the red:, by the new fydem of taxation, there is laid a land-tax of 300 millions, or not to exceed 4s. in the pound ; but, un- der the old government, their vingtiemes did not amount to the feventh part of fuch an impod. In whatever light, therefore, the cafe of French landlords is viewed, it will appear, that they have fuffered immenfely by the revolution. — That many of them deferved it, cannot, however, be doubted, fince we fee their cahiers demanding deadily, that all their feudal rights fhould be confirmed* : that the carrying of arms lhould be dridtly prohibited to every body but noble- men •f* : that the infamous arrangements of the militia fhould remain on its old footing that breaking up wafles, and inclofing commons, fhould be prohi- bited || : that the nobility alone fhould be eligible to enter into the army, church, &c. § : that let ires de cachet fhould continue**: that the prefs fhould not be free f-f* : and, in fine, that there fhould be no free corn trade JJ* To the clergy, the revolution has been yet more fatal. One word will dif- patch this inquiry. The revolution was a decided benefit to all the lower clergy of the kingdom; but it was dedruftive of all the red. It is not eafy to know what they loft on the one hand, or what the national account will gain on the other. Monf. Necker calculates their revenue at 1 30,000,000 liv. of which only 42,50o,oooliv. were in the hands of the curees of the kingdom. Their wealth has been much exaggerated: a late writer fays, they pofTeffed half the king- dom ||||. Their number was as little known as their revenue ; one writer makes them 400,000 §§ ; another 8 1,400 *T ; a third 80,000 *J. * Evreux , p. 32. — Bourbonnois , p, 14. — Artois , p. 22. — Bazas , p. 8. — Nivernois , p. 7.— • Poitou , p. 13. — Saintonge , p. 5.. — Orleans , p. 19. — Chaumont , p. 7. f Vermaudois , p. 41. — hiefnoy , p. 19. — Sens. p. 25. — Evreux , p. 36. — Sefanne , p. 17. — Bar - fur- Seine , p. 6. — Beauvais , p. 1 3 . — Bugey , p. 34 . — Clermont Fer and, p. 11. 4 Limoges , p. 36. j[ Cambray , p. 19. — Pont a Moufflon, p. 38. § Lyon , p. 13 ,—Tourairte, p. 31 .-—Angoumois, p. 13 .—Auxerre. p. 13. The Author of the Hijlorical Sketch of the French Revolution, Bvo. 1792, fays, p, 68, “the worft enemies of nobility have not yet brought to light any cahier , in which the nobles infilled on their exclufive right to mili- tary preferments.”— In the fame page this gentleman fays, it is impoflible for any Knglifhman to ftudy four or five hundred cahiers . It is evident, however, from this miflake, how necefiary it is to- examine them before writing on the revolution. ** Vermaudois , p. 23.-— Chalons- fur -Marne, p. 6 .— Gien, p. 9. ft Crepy, p. 10. 44 St. Quentin, p. 9. |j |[ De V Autorite de Montefquieu dans la revolution prefente . 8vo, 5789. p. 61. §§ Etats Generaux convoques , par Louis XVI. par M. I arget, pretn. fuite, p. 7. -*+ Ahf ejl-ce-que le Tiers Etat, 3d edit, par M. 1 ’Abbe Sieyes. 840. p. 51, *4 Bibliotheque de I'homme publique , par M. Condorcet, £cc. tom. hi. The 6o8 REVOLUTION. The clergy in France have been fuppofed, by many perfons in England, to merit their fate from their peculiar profligacy. But the idea is not accurate : that fo large a body of men, pofleflfed of very great revenues, Ihould be free from vice, would be improbable, or rather impoflible ; but they preferved, what is not always preferved in England, an exterior decency of behaviour. One did not find among them poachers or fox-hunters, who, having fpent the morning in fcampering after hounds, dedicate the evening to the bottle, and reel from inebriety to the pulpit. Such advertifements were never feen in France as I have heard of in England : — - Wanted a curacy in a good /porting coun~ try, where the duty is light , and the neighbourhood convivial. The proper exerche for a country clergyman is the employment of arigulture; which demands ftrength and activity — and which, vigoroufly followed, will fatigue enough to give eafe its bell relifli. A fportfman parfon may be, as he often is in England, a good fort of man, and an honejl fellow ; but certainly this purfuit, and the re- ferring to obfcene comedies, and kicking their heels in the jig of an aflembly, are not the occupations for which we can fuppofe f:y thes were given*'. Who- ever will give any attention to the demands of the clergy in their cahiers , will fee, that there was, on many topics, an ill fpirit in that body. They maintain, for inftance, that the liberty of the prefs ought rather to be reflrained than ex- tended -f: that the laws againft it fhould he renewed and executed J : that ad- miffion into religious orders fhould be, as formerly, at fixteen years of age j| : that lettres de cachet are ufeful, and ■ even neceflary§. They folicit to prohibit all divifionof commons^ to revoke the edidt allowing inclofures ** ; that the export of corn be not allowed -J-j-.j and that public granaries be eftablifhed JJ.. The ill efledts of the revolution have been felt more feverely by the manufac- turers of the kingdom, than by any other clafs of the people. The rivalry of the Engliih fabrics, in 1787 and 1788., was ftrong and fuccefsful ; and the confu- fions that followed in all parts of the kingdom, had the effedl of leffhning the in- comes ot fo many landlords, clergy, and men in public employments; and fuch numbers fled from the kingdom, that the general mafs of the confumption of national fabrics funk perhaps three-fourths-. The men, whofe incomes were untouched, leflening their confumption greatly, from an apprehenfion of the un- fettled Rate of things : the profpedf s of a civil war, fuggefled to every man, that his fafety., perhaps his future bread, depended on the money which he could hoard. The inevitable confequence, was turning abfolutely out of employment * Nothing appears fo fcandalous to all the clergy of Europe, as their brethren in England dancing at public aflemblies ; and a bifhop’s wife engaged in the fame amufenient, Teems to them as prepofte- rous as a biftiop, in his lawn fieeves, following the fame diverfion, would to us. Probably both are wrong. f Saintonge, p. 24. — Limoges , p. 6. &c. % Lyon , p. 13 . — Dour don, p. 5. It Saintonge , p. 2 6 . — Mont argis, p. 10 . § Limoges , p, 22. Troyes. , p. II. ** Metz , p. 11. tf Rouen , p. 24. Laon , p. n .-~~Dotirdan, p. 17. immenfe REVOLUTION 609 immenfe numbers of workmen. I have, in the diary of the journey, noticed the infinite mifery to which I was a witnefs at Lyons, Abbeville, Amiens, &c. and by intelligence I underflood that it was flill worfe at Rouen : the fadt could not be otherwife. This effedl, which was abfolute death, by flarving many thou lands of families, was a refill t, that, in my opinion, might have been avoided. It flowed only from carrying things to extremities — from driving the . nobility out of *he kingdom, and .feizing, inflead of regulating, the whole re- gal authority. I hefe violences were not necefiary to liberty; they even defcroyed true liberty, by giving the government of the kingdom, in too great a degree, to Paris, and to the populace of every town. i he effedl of the revolution, to the fmall proprietors of the kingdom, muff, according to the common nature of events, be, tn the end \ remarkably happy; and had tne new government adopted any principles of taxation, except thofe of tne ceconomijiesy eflablifhing at the fame time an abfolute freedom in the buflnefs of inclofure, and in the police of corn, the refult would probably have been advantageous, even at this recent period. The committee of impofls * men- tion (and I doubt not their accuracy) the profperity of agriculture, in the fame page in which they lament the deprefiion of every other branch of the national induflry. Upon a moderate calculation, there remained, in the hands of the dalles depending on land, on the account of taxes in the years 1789 and 1790, at leaft 300,000,000 liv ; the execution of corvee's was as lax: as the payment of taxes. To this we are to add two years tythe, which I cannot eflimate at lels than 300,000,000 liv. more. The abolition of all feudal rents, and payments of eveiy fort during thofe two years, could not be lefs than 100,000,000 liv. includ- ing lervices. But all thele articles, great as they were, amounting to near 8oo,oco,ooo liv. were lefs than the immenfe fums that came into the hands of the farmers by the high price ot corn throughout the year 1789 ; a price arifing almofl entirely from Monf. Necker’s fine operations in the corn trade, as it has D.^en pioved at large ; it is true there is a deduction to be made on account of the unavoidable diminution of coniumption in every article of land produce, not eiien tially neceffarv to life: every objedf of luxury, or tending to it, is leffened gieatly. But after this difeount is allowed, the balance, in favour of the little piopiietor farmers, mufi: be very great. The benefit of fiach a fum being added as it is to tne capital of husbandry, needs no explanation. Their agriculture mufi; be invigorated by fuch wealth — by the freedom enjoyed by its profefiors ; by the. deih udtion of its innumerable fhackles ; and even by the diftrefies of other employments, occafioning new and great inveftments of capital in land : and tisCxb leading fadls will appear in a clearer light, when the prodigious divifion of landed pioperty m Prance is well confidered; probably half, perhaps two-thirds, * Rapport k o Decsmbre 17 90, fur Ics moyens de pourvYir aux depenfes pour 1791, p. 4. 4 I of 6io REVOLUTION. of the kingdom are in the poffeflion of little proprietors, who paid quit-rents, and feudal duties, for the fpots they farmed. Such men are placed at once in compa- rative affluence ; and as eafe is thus acquired by at lead; half the kingdom, it mud not be fet down as a point of trifling importance. Should France efcape a civil war, fhe will, in the profpcrity of thefe men, find a refource which poli- ticians at a diftance do not calculate. With renters the cafe is certainly diffe- rent; for, beyond all doubt, landlords will, fooner or later, avail themlelves of thefe circumftances, by advancing their rents ; adting in this refpedt, as in every other country, is common ; but they will find it impoflible to deprive the tenantry of a vaft advantage, neceffarily flowing from their emancipation. The confufion which has fince arifen in the finances, owing almoft entirely to the mode of taxation adopted by the affembly, has had the effedt of conti- nuing to the prefent moment (1791), a freedom from all impoff to the little proprietors, which, however dreadful its general effedts on the national aflairs, has tended ftrongly to enrich this clafs. The eftedls of the revolution, not on any particular clafs of cultivators, but ©n agriculture in general, is with me, I muff confefs, very queftionable ; I fee no benefits flowing, particularly to agriculture (liberty applies equally to all claffes, and is not yet fufficiently eff ablilhed for the protection of property J , except the cafe of tythes ; but I fee the rife of many evils ; reftridtions and prohibitions on the trade of corn — a varying land-tax — and impeded inclofures, are mifchiefs> on principle y that may have a generative faculty ; and will prove infinite draw- backs from the profperity, which certainly was attainable. It is to be hoped, that the good fenfe of the affembly .will reverfe this fyffem by degrees ; for, if it is not reverfed, agriculture cannot flourish. The effedt of the revolution, on the public revenue, is one great point on which Monf. de Calonne lays confiderable ftrefs ; and it has been fince urged in- France, that the ruin of 30,000 families, thrown abfolutely out of employment, and confequently out of bread,, in the colledcion of the taxes on fait and tobacco only, has had a powerful influence in fpreading univerfal diffrefs and mifery. The public revenue funk, in one year, 175 millions this was not a lofs of that funi; the people to whom affignats were paid on that account loft no more than the difcount, ; the lofs, therefore, to the people to whom that revenue was paid, could amount to no more, than from 5 to 10 per cent. *. But was it a lots to . the miferable fubjedts. who formerly paid thofe taxes ; and who paid them by the fweat of their brows, at the expence of the bread out of their children’s mouths, affeffed with tyranny, and levied in blood? Do they feel a lofs in * Since this was written, affignats fell, in December 1791, and January 179 to 34 to 3 ^ P cr cent, paid in fiver, and 42 to 50 paid in gold, arifing from great emiffions ; from the quantity of pri- vate paper ifihed ; from forgrd ones being common ; and from the profpect of a war... having REVOLUTION. 611 having 175 millions in their pockets in 1789, more than they had in 1788 ? and inpoffeffing another 175 millions more in 1790, and the inheritance in future ? Is not fuch a change eafe, wealth, life, and animation to thofe clafies, who, while the pens of political fatirifts llander all innovations, are every moment reviving, by inheriting from that revolution fomething which the old go- vernment affuredly did not give ? The revenue of the clergy may be called the revenue of the public : — thofe to whom the difference between the pre- fen t payment of one hundred and forty millions, and the old tythes are a de- duction of all revenue, are, beyond doubt, in great diftrefs ; but what fay the farmers throughout the kingdom, from whom the deteftable burthen of thofe taxes was extorted ? Do not they find their culture lightened, their in duff ry freed, their products their own ? Go to the ariftocratical politician at Paris, or at London, and you hear only of the ruin of France — go to the cottage of the metayer, or the houfe of the farmer, and demand of him what the refult has been — there will be but one voice from Calais to Bayonne. If tythes were to be at one ffroke abolifhed in England no doubt the clergy would fuffer, but would not the agriculture of the kingdom, with every man dependent on it, rife with a vigour never before experienced. Future Effefls. • It would betray no inconffderable prefumption to attempt to predict what will be the event of the revolution now palling in France; I am not fo impru- dent. But there are conffderations that may be offered to the attention of thofe who love to {peculate on future events better than I do. There are three appa- rent benefits in an ariftocracy forming the part of a conftitution ; firft, the fixed, confolidated, and hereditary importance of the great nobility, is, for the moff part, a bar to the dangerous pretenfions, and illegal views, of a victorious and highly popular king, president, or leader. Afi'emblies, fo eleCted, as to be fwayed abfolutely by the opinion of the people, would frequently, under fuch a prince, be ready to grant him much more than a well confti tuted ariftocratic fenate. Secondly, fuch popular affemblies as I have juft defcribed, are fometimes led to adopt decilions too haftily, and too imprudently ; and particularly in the cafe of wars with neighbouring nations; in the free countries, we have known the com- monalty have been too apt to call lightly for them. An ariftocracy, not unduly * R is an error in France to fuppofe, that the revenue of the church is fmall in England. The Royal Society of Agriculture at Paris flates that revenue at 210,000!. ; it cannot be ftated at lefs than five millions fteriing. Mem. prejente par la S. R. cf Ag* a /’ AJJc?nblee Nationale, 1789, p. 52. — One of the greateft and wifefl men we have in England, perfifts in alferting it to be much Jefs than two millions. From very numerous enquiries, which I am ftill purfuing, I have reafon to believe this •opinion to be founded on infufficient data. 4 I 2 influenced 6ia 'REVOLUTION. influenced by the crown, dands like a rock againft fuch phrenzies, and hath a diredt filtered in the encouragement and fupport of peaceable maxims. The re- mark is applicable to many other fubjedts, in which mature deliberation is wanted to ballad the impetuoflty of the people. I always fuppofe the ariflocratic body well conftituted upon the bafis of a fufficient property, and at the fame time no unlimited power in the crown, to throw all the property of the kingdom into the fame fcale, which is the cafe in England. Thirdly, whatever benefits may arife from the exiflence of an executive power, diftindt from the legiflative, mud abfolutely depend on fome intermediate and independent body between the people and the executive power. Every one mud grant, that if there be no fuch body, the people are enabled, when they pleafe, to annihilate the executive authority, — and afiign it, as in the cafe of the long parliament, to committees of their own representatives ; or, which is the fame thing, they may appear as they did at Verfaiiles, armed before the King, and infid on his confent to any propofi- tioris they bring him 3 in thefe cafes, the feeming advantages derived from a didindt executive power are loft. And it mud be obvious, that in fuch a con- ditution as the prefent one of France, the kingly office can be put down as ea- fily and as readily, as a fecretary can be reprimanded for a falfe entry, in the jour- nals. If a conditution be good, all great changes in it fhould be edeemed a matter of great difficulty and hazard : it is in bad ones only that alterations fhould not be looked upon in a formidable light. That thefe circumftances may prove advantages in an aridocratical portion of a legiflature, there is reafon to believe 3 the inquiry is, whether they be counter- balanced by poffible or probable evils. May there not come within this de- feription, the danger of an aridocracy uniting with the crown againft the people ? that is to fay, influencing by weight of property and power, a great mafs of the people dependent — againft the red of the people who are independent? Do we not fee this to be very much the cafe in England at this moment?. To what other part of our conditution is it imputable that we have been infamoufly in- volved in perpetual wars, from which none reap any benefit but that tribe of vermin which thrive mod when a nation mod declines contractors, victuallers, paymafters, dock-jobbers, and money- feriveners : a fet by whom minifters are furrounded 3 and in favour of whom whole clafles amongft the people are beg- gared and ruined. Thole who will afifert a conditution can be' good * which * It ought not to be allowed even tolerable, for this plain reafon, fuch public extravagance engen- ders taxes to an amount that will fooner or later force the people into refinance, which is always the- deftru&icn of a confutation ; and finely that mud be admitted bad, which carries to the molt earelefs eye the feeds of its own deffrudiion. Two hundred and forty millions of public debt in. a century, is in, a ratio impofTible to be supported 3. and therefore evidently ruinous.. differs.. REVOLUTION. 613 buffers thefe things, ought at leaft to agree, that fuch an one as would not fuffer them would be much better*. If an ariFocracy hath thus its advantages and difadvantages, it is natural to inquire, whether the French nation be likely to eFabliFi fomething of a fenate, that (hall have the advantages without the evils. If there fhould be none, no popular reprefen tatives will ever be brought, with the confent of their conFitu- ents, to give up a power in their own poffeffion and enjoyment. It is experi- ence alone, and long experience, that can fatisfy the doubts which every one mult entertain on this fubjedt. What can we know, experimentally, of a government which has not Food thebrunt of unfuccefsful and of fuccefsful wars ? The Englifh contitution has Food this teF, and has been found deficient 4 or rather, as far as this teF can decide any thing, has been proved worthlefs ; fince, in a fingle cen- tury, it has involved the nation in a debt of fo vaF ff & magnitude, that every bleFing which might otherwife have been perpetuated is put to the Fake; fo that if the nation do not make fome change in its conFitution, it is much to be dreaded that the conFitution will ruin the nation. Where pradice and expe- rience have fo utterly failed, it would be vain to reafon from theory : and efpeci- allyon a fubjed on which a very able writer has feen his own predidion fo to- tally erroneous : “ In the monarchical Fates of Europe, it is highly improbable that any form of properly equal government Fiouid be eFablifFed for many ages ; the people, in general, and efpecially in France, being proud of their rnonarchs, even when they are oppreffed by them In regard to the future confequences of this lingular revolution, as an example to ether nations, there can be no doubt but the fpirit which has produced it, will, fonner, or later, fpread throughout Europe, according to the different degrees: of illumination amongF the common people ; and it will prove either mifehievous or beneficial, in proportion to the previous Feps taken by governments. It is urr- ~ u The direeft power of the King of England,” fays Mr. Burke, “ is confiderable. His indirect is great indeed. When was ife that a King of England wanted wherewithal to make him refpected, courted, or perhaps even feared in every ftate in Europe?” It is in fuch padages as thefe,. that this elegant writer lays himfdf open to the attacks formidable, becaufe juft, of men. who have not an hun- dreetn part of his talents. Who queftions, or can queftion, the power of a prince that in lefs than a century has expended above 1000 millions, and involved his people in a debt of 240 ? The point in debate is not the exifience of power, but its excefs. What is the confutation that generates or allows of fuch expences ? i he very mifehief complained of is here wrought into a merit, and brought in ar- gument to prove that exaggerated power is falutary. f I his debt, and our enormous taxation, are the bed: anfwer the National Adembly gives to thofe who would have had the Englifh government, with all its faults on its head, adopted in France ; nor -a a- ii without reafon laid by a popular writer, that a government, formed like the Englifh, obtains more: revenue tnan it could do, either by dire£f deipot; (m, or in a. full ftate of freedom. X. DrffTieftley’s Leffures on.Fii.ft. qto. 1788. p. 3. 317. queFienably 6 14 REVOLUTION. queftionably the fubje which fpecies of tenant is chiefly found fouth of the Loire. The laft crop (of 1 79 1 ) is faid to have been fhort ; in a good year, in Picardy 40 eaves gave a Jeptier of wheat, of 240 lb. - y but now it takes co to 60 This circumstance* however, cannot be general, as the price plainly proves • for January 7^, 1792, price at Paris of wheat was 22 to 28 liv. with affignats at 36 per cent, difcount,. a remarkable proof, that the moll depreciated paper cur- AtaSZJtil T e . n . fe r private fo,tunes are formed ’ .na,. Probably ft wiU ** be found e £ womb of time — T he experiment is wnT cl 1 , proor , it is in the • . '11 , not MADE. Such remarks, however- oui/ht alwnvs flying of national burthens taxes, rates, tythes, and monopolies-it thefe anfwerl 3 ° “ “ d he grofs aDufe which has been thrown on the French nafinn j T . biles, in certain pamphlets, and without interruption' b feve a rf P 11 '“H th=,r affem- precated by every man who feels for the future interefts of this Country' “ft ifb fome^ancet' de ' ried to fo fcandalous an excefs, that we muft necefTarily give extreme difruK t / T ; r Car * who, may hereafter have an ample opportunity to vote Jnd art lin ^ th • 8 fl ^ thoufa nds of people, vourable towards a country, that, unprovoked Z r T ° f lmpreffions ™fa- non groaning under a deb/if ,40 milhc^ tht dld^ZlZ f Zt f ?* * * ufe the mildeft language, to be at leaf* very imprudent, 7 ^ tIus feejns > tG rency 622 revolution. r-ency will anfwer every purpofe for objects of phyfical rieceffity, ana daily con- iumotion. The difcount cn this paper, is greater than ever was foretold, by thofe who predicted an enormous rife of all the neceffaries of life ; a proof how new the fcience of politics is, and how little able the moil ingenious men are to foretel the effects of any fpecified event. The fale of the national eftates has been of late very flow, which is a ftrange circumftance, fince the rapidity of their transfer ought to have been proportioned to the difcount upon affignats, lor an' obvious reafon ; for, while land is to be acquired with money, the more de- preciated paper is, the greater the benefit to the purchafer. While the fale of the eftates lafted with any degree of briiknefs, the common price, of fuch as have come to my knowledge, was 20 to 3°, and even more years puicliafej at which rate the advantages attending inveftments may be great. Commerce and manafadlures.—Tht refult of the vaft difcount upon affignats has, in relation to the national induftry, been almoft contrary to what many perfons, not ill informed, expeffed. Early in the confufion of the revolution, nothing differed fo feverely as manufadures j. but I am now (1792) informed, that there is much more motion and employment in them than lome time paft, when the general afpect of affairs was lefs alarming. The very circumftance which, according to common ideas, fliould have continued their depreffion, has maft unaccountably revived them in fome meafure ; I mean the depriciation of the affignats. Paper currency has been at fo low a pitch, that every fpecies of goods has been preferred in payments ; mafter manufadurers paying their work- men, &c. in affignats, by which bread is purchafed at a price proportioned to the crop, can fell the product of that labour to iuch an advantage, as to create demand enough to animate their bufinefs : a mod; curious political combination, which feems to ffiew, that in circumftances where evils are of the mod; alarming tendency, there is a re-aCtion, an under-current, that works againft the apparent tide, and brings relief, even from the very nature of the misfortune. Combine this with the point of depreffion of England, in all her wars, as explained with fuch talents by the ingenious Mr. Chalmers, and fomething of a fimilarity will ftrike the reflecting reader. The lofs by the depreffion of affignats has not been by any interior tranfa&ions, but by thofe with foreign powers. In con- fequence of it, the courfe of exchange rofe at laffc fo high, that the lofs to the kingdom has been great, but by no means fo great as fome have imagined, who fuppofed the intercoufe to be moving in the fame ratio as in preceding periods. But this is no light error : the evil of exchange, like all other political evils, correds itfelf j when it is very much againft a people, they neceflarily leflen their confumption of foreign commodities ; and on the contrary, foreign nations confume theirs very freely, becaufe fo eaflly paid for. Through the month of January, 1792, the courfe of exchange between us and Paris, has been about 18 REVOLUTION. 613 on an average; reckoning the par at 30 (which, however, is not exaCt), here is 40 per cent, againd France ; deduct 36 for the difcount on affignats, and this apparent enormity of evil is reduced to 4 per cent. Through the month of January, 1791, the courfe was 25 \ ; this was 15 per cent, difadvantage, and de- ducing 5 for the difcount on affignats, the real difadvantage was 10. Thus the exchange in. January, 1792, is 6 per cent, more favourable to France than in 1791 ; a remark, however, which mud: not be extended to any other cafe, and touches not on the internal mifchiefs of a depreciated currency. It feems to ffiew, that the evils of their fituation, fo little underdood by the generality of people here, are correcting themfelves, relative to foreigners, through the operation of the caufes I have mentioned. It is at the fame time to be remarked, that while the price of corn, and other things, in which there is no competition by foreigners, rifes merely on account of a fcarcity, real or apprehendve; at the fame time, every thing bought by foreigners, or which can be bought by them, has rifen greatly; for indance, the cloth of Abbeville, a French commodity, has rifen from 30 liv. to 40 liv. the aulne ; and copper, a foreign commodity, has increafed, it is afferted, in the petition of the Norman manufactures to the National Affem- bly, 70 per cent. Such a fabric may fuffer ; but if their pins fell proportionably with other things, the evil, it mult be admitted, tends to correCt itfelf. Finances . — The prominent feature is the immenfity of the debt, which in- ereafes every hour. That which bears in tered may be about 5,000,000,000 liv. ; and affignats, or the debt not bearing intered, may be grofsly edimated at 1.500.000. 000 liv..; in all 6,500,000,000 liv. or 284,375,0001. derling, a debt of fuch enormity, that nothing but the mod regular, and well paid revenue, could enable the kingdom to fupport it. The annual deficit may be reckoned about 250.000. 000 liv. at prefent, but improveable by a better collection of the revenue. The following is the account for the month of February 1790 : Recette, - - - 20,000,000 Depenfes extraordinaire de 1792, Id. pour 1791, Avances au de part de Paris, Deficit,’ 12.000. 000 2.000. 000 1.000. 000 43.000. 000 58,000,000 I am afraid that any attempt to fupport fficb infinite burthens mud continue to deluge the kingdom with paper, till,, like congrefs dollars in America, circula- tion ceafes altogether. There feems to be no remedy but a bankruptcy, which is the bed, eafied, and mod beneficial meafure to the nation, that can be em- braced; it is alfo the mod judand the mod honourable ; all fhifting expedients are, in faCt, more mifchievous to the people, and yet leave government as deeply Involved REVOLUTION. 624 involved, as if no recourfe had been made to them. If the milice bourgedife of Paris is lo intereded in the funds, as to render this too dangerous, there does not appear to be any other rule of conduct, than one great and lad appeal to the nation, declaring, that they mull either destroy public credit, or be destroyed by it. If the National Aflembly have not virtue and courage enough thus to extricate France, fhe mud at all events, remain, however free, in a Rate of political debility. The impoflibility of levying the ceconomijles land-tax, is found in France to be as great in practice as the principles of it were abfurd in theory. I am informed (February, 1792), that the confufion arifng from this caufe, in almoft every part of the kingdom, is great *. The tax of 300 millions, laid on the rental of France, would not be more than 2s. 6d. in the pound ; too great a burthen on juft political principles, but not a very oppreflive one, had it been once fairly afieflfed, and never afterwards varied. But, by purfuing the jargon of the produit net , and making it variable, inftead of fixed, every fpecies of inconve- nience and uncertainty has arifen. The aflembly divided the total among the departments ; the departments the quotas among the didridts ; the didridts among the municipalities ; and the municipalities aflembled for the aflefiment of individuals : the fame decree that fixed the tax at 300 millions, limited it alfo not to exceed one-fifth of th e produit net ; every man had therefore a power to rejedt any aflefiment that exceeded that proportion ; the confequence was, the total afiigned to the municipalities was fcarcely any where to be found, but upon large farms, let at a money-rent in the north of France; among the fmall proprietors of a few acres, which fpread over fo large a part of the king- dom, they all fereened themfelves under definitions, of what the produit net meant; and the relult was, that the month of December, which ought to have produced 40 millions, really produced but 14. So pradticable has this vifionary nonfenle of the produit net proved, under the difpenfations of a mere democracy, though adting nominally •f* by reprefentativ.es. The fadt has been, that this ill conceived and ill laid land-tax, which, under a different management, and un- der the orderly government of the fettled part of America, might have been effedtively productive, has been fo contrived, that it never will, and never can produce what it was eflimated at in France. The people, without property, have a diredt intereft in feconding the refufals of others to pay, that are in the lowed: clafles of property, and who can really ill afford it ; cne great objedtion to ail land-taxes, w r here poflefiions are much divided. With power in fuch hands, * The inequalities and the numerous injuftices which have Hipped into the valuations of landed pro- perty, excite a general difeontent againft the new fyftem of taxation. — Speech of the P ref dent of the Dif. of Tonnere at the bar. f Whether nominally, or really, is not of confequence, if ejfeflive qualifications of property be not, at every flep, the guard, as in the American conftitution. the revolution. 6ij the retufal is effective, and the national treafury is empty. But fuppofing fncli enormous difficulties overcome, and thefe little properties valued and taxed on feme practicable plan, from that moment there muft be anew valuation every year ; for, if one has wealth enough to improve beyond the capacity of the reft they immediately ftnft a proportion of their taxon him ; and this has accord- ingly happened, early as it is in the day, and indeed is inherent in the nature of the taoc, as promulgated by the affembly *. Thus annual affeffments, annual confufion, annual quarrels, and heart-burnings, and annual oppreffion, muft be the confequence ; and all this, becaufe a plain, fimple, and practicable mode of afleffment was not laid down by the legiilature itfelf, inftead of leaving it to be debated and fought through S oo legiflatures, on the plan, purely ideal and theoretical, of the ceconomijtes ! Police of Corn, —The National Affembly has been of late repeatedly em- ployed in receiving complaints from various departments, relative to the fcarcity and lngh price of corn, and debates on it arife, and votes pafs, which are printed t0 n V l Pe ° P , tnat , dl P recautions ^e taken to prevent exportation. Such a conduct thews, that they tread in the fteps of Monf. Necker, and that thev confequently may expeCt with a crop but (lightly deficient, to fee a famine. In the Gazette Nationale, of March 6, 1 792, 1 read, in the journal of the Affembly Inquietudes precautions prifes—c ommijaires envoy es — veilkr^ a la fubfijiance du feufle— finds four acheter des grains cbez l' etranger—dix millions— (see. Now this is precifely the blind and infatuated condud of Monf. Necker. If thefe fteps are neceflary to be taken (which is impoffible), why talk of and print ' Wliy alarm the people, by fhewing yourfelves alarmed? Forty-five millions lofs, in the hands of M. Necker, purchafed not three days corn for b ranee; ten millions will not purchafe one day’s confumption ! but the renort and parade of it will do more mifehief than the lofs of five times the quantity • without being in France, I am clear, and can rely enough upon principles to know, that thefe meafures will raise, not fink the price. One of the mart, mftances m legiflat.on,_that proves the immenfe difference (regarding the cafe or ' ranee and the United States) between a reprefentation of mere population and one of property ! M four frevenir les inquietudes qui fourraient arrher t annee frochaine et les fuivantes, I’qfimblee doit soccufer des ce moment d’vn plan general fur les fubjlances— There is but one plan, absolute freedom • and you will !hew, by accepting or rejecting it, what clafs of the people it is that you reprefent, Proclaim a free trade, and from that moment ordain that an mkftand be crammed inftantly into the throat of the firft member that pro- nounces the word corn. * * ** Au ? tot qiie ' es °P eratl0ns prelimmaircs feront terminees les officiecs municipauv et les com mrifatres adjomts feront, cn fcur ame et conference devaluation tlu revenue net des differentes proorietes foncieresde la coenmunante fedtion par fedtion. Jiunuldes Btau'Gen. toni. xvi. p. 510. 4 L Pro - 626 revolution. _ prohibition of the Export oj the raw Materials of Manufactures. The laft in- "formation I have had from France is a confirmation of the intelligence our newfpapers gave, that the National Aifembly had ordered a decree to be pre- pared for this prohibition. It feems that the mafter manufadurers of various towns, taking advantage of the great decline of the national fabrics, made heavy complaints to the National Aifembly; and, among other means of re- drefs demanded a prohibition of the export of cotton, filk, wool, leather, and in general of all raw materials. It was ftrenuoudy oppofed by a few men, better acquainted than the common mafs with political principles but in vain ; and order! were given to prepare the decree, which I am alfured will pafs . As I have in various papers in the Annals of Agriculture, entered much at large into this aueftion, I fhall only mention a few circumftances here, to convince France if poffible, of the mifchievous and mod pernicious tendency of fuch a fyftem * which will be attended with events little thought of at prefent in that kingdom As it is idle to have recourfe to reafoning, when fads are at hand, it is only'neceflary to defcribe the effea of a fimilar prohibition in the cafe of wool in England :-ift, The price is funk by it 50 per cent, below that of all the countries around us, which, as is proved by documents unqueftionable, amounts to a land-tax of between three and four millions fterl.ng ; being fo much taken from land and given to manufadures. 2d, Not to make them fiounih ; for a fecond curious faft is, that of all the great fabrics of England that of wool is leaft profperous, and has been regularly mojl complaining, of which the proofs are before the public ; the policy therefore has failed ; and becaufe it fails in England it is going to be adopted in France. The home monopoly of wool givfs to ’the manufacturers fo great a profit, that they are not felicitous about fny extenfion of their trade beyond the home produft ; and to this it is owing that no foreign wool, Spaniih alone excepted (which is not produced here), is imported into England. The fame thing will happen in France ; the home- orice will fall ; the landed intereft will be robbed ; and the manufadturei , tail big the fweets of monopoly, will no longer import as before : the fabric at large Jl receive no increafe ; and all the effed will be, to give the mafter manufac- turer a great profit on a fmall trade : he will gam, but the nation will lofe. 3d, The moft flouriihing manufadure of England is that o, cotton, of whic e manufadturer is fo far from having a monopoly, that phs of the ma erial are imported under a duty, and our own exportable duty free. The next (po 1 y the firft) is that of hardware; Englifh iron is exported duty fiee, and the im- port of foreign pays 2I. 1 6s. 2d. a ton , Englilh coals exported in vaft quantities. Glafs exhibits the fame fpeftacle; Engliih kelp exportable duty free • a ton on foreign ; raw filk pays 3 s. a lb. on import ; expo t of Bntilh hemp and fo r d Sn >,s.d,,.j on import, Br.nlh „ S ,, fc „.k„g REVOLUTION. 627 paper, exportable duty free j unwrought tin, lead, and copper all exportable either free or under a flight duty. The immenfe progrefs made by thefe manufac- tures, particularly hardware, cotton, glafs, flax, and earthen-ware, another in which no monopoly of material can exift, is known to all Europe ; they are among the greatefl: fabrics in the world, and have rifen rapidly ; but note (for it merits the attention of France), that wool has experienced no fuch rife *. Our policy in wool ftands on faCt, therefore convicted of rottennefs ; and this is precifely the policy which the new government of France copies, and extends to every raw material ! 4th, The free trade in raw materials is neceflary, like the free trade in corn, not to fend thofe materials abroad, but to fecure their production at home ; and lowering the price, by giving a monopoly to the buyer, is not the way to encourage farmers to produce. 5th, France imports filk and wool to the amount of 50 or 60 millions a year, and exports none, or next to none ; why prohibit an export, which in fettled times does not take place ? At the prefent moment, the export either takes place, or it does not take place $ if the latter, why prohibit a trade which has no exigence ? If it does take place, it proves that the manufacturers cannot buy it as heretofore : is that a reafon why the farmers flhould not produce it ? \ our manufacturers cannot buy, and you will not let foreigners ; what is that but telling your hufband- men that they flhall not produce ? Why then do the manufacturers afk this favour ? They are cunning ; they very well know why : they have the fame view as their brethren in England — folely that of sinking the price, and thereby putting money in their own pockets, at the expence of the landed fil- tered: I 6th, All the towns of France contain but fix millions of people ; the manufacturing towns not two millions : why are twenty millions in the country to be cheated out of their property, in order to favour one-tenth of that number in towns ? 7th, In various paflages of thefe travels, I have flhewn the wretched Rate of French agriculture, for want of more fheep ; the new fyflem is a curi- ous way to eflfeCt an xncreafe — by lowering the profit ofi keeping them . 8 th, The French manufacturers, under the old fyftem of freedom , bought raw materials from other nations, to the amount of feveral millions, befides working up all the produce of France ; if finking the price be not their objeCt, what is ? Can they defire to do more than this ? If under their new government their fabrics do not flourifh as under the old one, is that a reafon for prohibition and reftriCtion, for robbery and plunder of the landed filtered, to make good their own lofles ? And if fuch a demand is good logic in a manufacturer’s counting -houfe, is that a reafon for its being received in a NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ! ! One of the molt curious enquiries that can be made by a traveller, is to endea- * Exports 1757, 4,758,0951. In 1767, 4,277^462. In 1777, 3 > 743 > 537 b In * 7 8 7 > 3 > 68 7 > 795 h See this lubjeft fully examined, Armais of Agriculture, vol. X. p. 235* 4 L 2 vour ♦ €23 REVOLUTION. vour to afcertain how much per cent, a capital inverted in land, and in farming- rtock, will return for cultivation in different countries.; no perfon, according to my knowledge, has attempted to explain this very important but difficult problem. The price of land, the interert of money, the wages of labour, the rates of all forts of produrts, and the amount of taxes, murt be calculated with fome degree Gi preciiion, in oidci to annalyfe this combination. I have for many years at- tempted to gain information on this curious point, concerning various countries. If a man in England buys land rented at 1 2 s. an acre, at thirty years purchafe, and cultivates it liimfelf, making five rents, he will not make more than from 5 P er cent, and at mort 6, fpeaking of general culture, and not ertimating lingular fpots or circumrtances, and including the capital inverted in both land and flock. I learn, from the correfpondence of the beft farmer, and the greateft eha- re&er the new world has produced, certain circumrtances, which enable me to afieit, with confidence, that money inverted on the fame principles, in the middle rtates of Norths America, will yield confiderably more than double the return in England, and m many mitances the treble of it. To compare France with thele two cafes, is very difficult had the National Affembly done for the agriculture of the kingdom what F ranee had a right to expert from freedom, the account would have been advantageous. For buying at 30 years purchafe, rtocking the fame as in England, and reckoning produrts 6 per cent, lower in price (about the fart), the total capital would have paid from 5! to 6 \ per cent. ; land- tax reckoned at 3s. in the pound, which is the proportion of the total tax to the rental of the kingdom *. It is true, that the courfe of exchange would make an enormous difference, for when exchange is at 15, this ratio per cent, inrtead of 5I becomes 1 1, if the capital is remitted from Britain : but as that immenfe lofs (50 per cent.) on the exchange of France, arifes from the political rtate of the kingdom, the fame circumrtances which caufe it, would be ertimated at fo much hazard and danger. But bring to account the operations of the National Affembiy, relating to the non-inclofure of commons ; the land-tax, variable with improvements (an article fufficient to ftifle the thoughts of fuch a thing) ; the export of corn at an end ; the tranfport every where impeded; and your grana- * But this land-tax is variable, and therefore impoffible to eftimate accurately; if you remain better farmers man your French neighbours,/, is fi much, but if you improve,/* Lfed, and tl are Junk , all that has, and can be faid againft tythes, bears with equal force againft fuch a tax. A though this impofition cannot go by the prefent law beyond 4s. in the pound, it would be very eafy fiiew, by aplain calculation that 4 s. in the pound, riftng with improvement , is a tax impoffible to be bor by one who improves ; and, confequently, that is a direct tax on improvement ; and it is a tax in t very worft form fmee the power to lay and inforce it, is not in the government of the kingdom l in the municipal government of the parifh. Your neighbour, with whom you may be oS ill tern has the power to tax you ; no fuch private heart-burnings and tyranny are found in excifes DCS REVOLUTION, 62^ ries burnt and plundered at the pleafure of the populace, if they do not like the price ; and, above all, the prohibition of the export of all materials of manufac- tures, as wool, &c. and it is fufficiently clear, that America offers a vaftly more eligible field for the inveftment of capital in land than France does f a proof that the meafures of the National Affembly have been ill-judged, ill-advifed, and unpolitical : I had ferious thoughts of fettling in that kingdom, in order to farm there 3 but the two meafures adopted, of a variable land-tax, and a prohibit bition of the export of wool, damped my hopes, ardent as they were, that I might have breathed that fine climate, free from the extortions of a government, ftupid in this refpedt as that of England. It is, however, plain enough, that America is the only country that affords an adequate profit, and in which a man, who calculates with intelligence and precifion, can think of inverting his capital. How different would this have been, had the National Affembly conducted themfelves on principles dire&ly contrary ; had they avoided all land-taxes * ; had they prefer ved the free corn- trade, a trade of import more than of export ; had they been filent upon inclofures ; and done nothing in relation to raw ma- terials, the profit of invertments would have been higher in France than in America, or any country in the world, and immenfe capitals would have flowed into the kingdom from every part of Europe : fcarcity and famine would not have been heard of, and the national wealth would have been equal to all the exigencies of the period. * To have avoided land-taxes, might very eafily have been made a moft popular meafure, in a. kingdom fo divided into little properties as France is. No tax is fo heavy upon a fmall proprietor; and the ceconomijles might have forefeen what has happened, that fuch little democratic owners would' not pay the tax ; but taxes on confumption, laid as in England , , and not in the infamous methods of the old government of France, would have been paid by them in a light proportion, without knowing it ; but the ceconomijles , to be confident with their old pernicious dodtrines, took every ftep to make all, except land-taxes, unpopular ; and the people were ignorant enough to be deceived into the opinion, that it was better to pay a tax on the bread put into their childrens mouths' — and, what is worfe, on the= land which ought, but does not, produce that bread, than to pay an excife on tobacco and fait ; better to pay a tax which is demanded equally, whether they have or have not the money to pay it, than a duty which, mingled with the price of a luxury, is paid in the eafieft mode, and at the moft convenient- moment. In the writings of the ceconomijles , you hear of a free corn trade, and free export of every thing, being the recompence for a land-tax 3 but fee their, adtions in power— they impofe the burthen^, and forget the recompenfe ! A A GRICULTURE, great importance of, 375 Not favoured by the revolution, 610 Alps, pafiage of Montcenis, 269 America, United States, French trade to, 5 1 6 Anecdotes, 46, 123 Avignon, 1B6 B Bayonne, 57 Bears, 28 Bergamo, 220 Bologna, 242 Bourdeaux, 59 Breft, 100 C Cadaftre, expence of, 586 Cahiers againft inclofures, 400. For public granaries, 495. Againft circulation of corn, 495. Demands of, 618 Canal of Languedoc, 45. Of Picardy, 86 Capital, farming, good in the grazing lands of Normandy, 406, In France, 434. In England, 435 Capitaineries, 60O Chantilly, 7 Chambord, 67 Cherbourg, 94 Clergy, effect of the revolution on, 607 Climate of France, 19, 20, 24, 28, 52, 54, 71, 1 95 » 306. Or Italy, 255, 260 Commerce of France, 499. Progrefs of, 520 Corn, high price of, 118. 142, 144, 490. Price of in France, 496. Produce of in, 313, 35 2 ' Police of in, 488, 625 Country-feats, 58, 64, 66, 70, 142 Courfes of crops in France, 358. Thofeof France and England compared, 358 Crau, La, 379 D Deficit, amount of, 376 Democracy, effed of in England, 614 Duhamel, his feat and hufbandrv, 69 E Ecole Veterinaire, 81 Ermenonville, 73 Extent of France, 294 F Face of the country in France, 304 Farmers, 72, 145 Farms, fize of, 407 Faujas de St. Fond, 184 Feudal rights and abufes, 601 Finances 1792, 617 Fifheries of France, 515 Flies the peft of hot climates, 311 Florence, 246 Fontainbleau, 69 France, king of, a prifoner, 277. France compared with England, 356, 436, 475, 481, 520. Produce of, 467 French, charader of, 26, 51, 75 Frofts in fpring, France fubjed to, 310 G Gabelle, punilhments of, 599 H Flail, 309 Halle aux bleds, 77 Havre, 91 I Jacobin club, 81, 289 Ignorance and want of political information, 145, 160, 164 Inclofures in France, 396 Inns in France, 23, 53, 96, 104, 277. In Italy, 245 Intereft per cent, paid by land in France, 352 Irrigation in France, 376 Italy the firft country in the world, 274. Belt road to-, 306 Labour, INDEX. L Labour, price of, in France, 446. In Eng- land, 446 Lakes, &c. and fi{h, 63, 97, 191 Land-taxes of France, 573 Lavoifier, Monf. 78 Lazowfki, Monf. 293 Lettres de cachet, anecdote, 597 Liancourt, 70. Duke of 292 Limagne, 331 Lifle, 87 Living, cheapnefs of, 20, 50, 101, 143, 152, 230, 244, 259. Manner of, 25, 71, 284 Lodi, 217 Lucerne in France, 384 Lyons, 274 M Manufactures, cutlery, 6 4. Porcelaine, 93. Cloth, 111. Earnings in all, 565. Domef- tic, 566. Influence of on agriculture, 506 Maize, climate of, 307. Great importance of, 314 Meadows of France, 383, 474 Metayers, 403 Milan, 212 Milanefe one of the richeft countries in Eu- rope, 571 Mirabeau, Monf. 127, 133 Monopoly of corn always ulcful, 493 Montpellier, 47 Morveau, Monf. de, 163 Moulins, 170 Mulberries, 313 N Nantes, 103 National Aflfembly, 124, 129, 280, 283 National debt of France, 578 National eftates fold, amount of, 579 Navigation of France, 518. Of England, 5 1 1, 5 20 Necker, Monf. 122, 134* 487 N ice, 200 Nifmes, 48 Nobility, effed of the revolution on, 606 O Olives, climate of, 31 1 Open fields and common rights, mifchiefs of in France, 360, 400 Orleans, duke of, 121,131 P Padua, 226 Paper money, erfed of, 582 Paris, 76. Living at, 84. Confumption of wood at, 473. Confumption of cattle at, 48 6 Parma, 264 Parliaments, condud of, 602 Peafantry comfortable in Bearne, 55. Mi- ferable in Bretagne, 98. In Loraine, 148 Piedmont, wealth and power of, 571. Com- pared with that of France, 21 1 Po river, 238 Population, miferies attending a too great, 414. Of France, 477 Poor, fome circumftances concerning, 448. Public fupport 450. Rates of England, mifchiefs of, 451 Poultry, price of, 443 Price of land in France, 317 Prices, rife of, in France, 453 Profpeds beautiful, 14, 1 7 > 2 7 > 55 , Produce of France, 455, 467. Of England, 475 Prohibitions of export, 627 Properties, evils of fmall, 41 1, 483 Provifions, price of, in France, 438 Pruffia, treafure of, 583 Pyrenees, 27 a. Queen of France, 10, 83 R Raynal, Monf. Abbe, 192, 569 Rent of land in France, 317, 354 Rental of all France, 476 Revolution, progrefs of, 80, 117, 122, 129, 137, 1 5 1, 279, On the, 597. Future effeds, 6 1 1 Revenue, changes in, by the revolution, 576 Rivers of France, 305 Roads, noble ones, 44 Roche Guyon, 1 12 Ruflia, French trade to, 516 S Sainfoine, 391 Sardinia, 201, 267 Serres, De, 183 Seed, quantity fown in France, 352 Sheep V INDEX. Sheep in France, 417. Bad management of, 430. Salt given to, 43 1 . Breeds of, in ^ France, 433 Societies of agriculture, their abfurd con- dud, 15, 8 1, 120, 213 Soil of France, 296. Quantity of each fort, 467 Specie of France, 58 Strafbourg, 154 Sugar Iflands, French, evils of, 436, 51 1. Trade to, 507. Navigation of, 51 1 T Table d’hote, 90, 149 Taxation of France, 573. Simplicity in, 596 Taxes on land in France, 574, 590. Con- luption ditto, 575. New, 577. Merit of, 585. Tenantry in France, 402 Tourbilly, 107 Tours, 64 Towns of France and England, 481 Trade, balance of, in France, 501 Treaty of commerce with England, 275, 522 Turin, 207, 267 Tythes moderate in France, 602 V Venice, 228. Ancient families, 240. Edu- cation, 239 Vent de bize, 312 Verlailles, 10 Vicenza, 224 Vines, climate of, 307. Produce of, in all France, 469 Volcanoes of Auvergne, 173 W Waggons, 22 Warens, Madame de, 272 Wine, confumption of, in France, 470 Wool, price and quality in France, 470. In England, 429 Woods, produce of, in France, 471. Quan- tity in ditto, 471. Confumption, 472. Price, 473. . THE END. Back of Foldout Not Imaged — tel- TRAVELS, During the Years 1787, 1788, and 1789. UNDERTAKEN MORE PARTICULARLY WITH A VIEW OF ASCERTAINING THE CULTIVATION, WEALTH, RESOURCES, AND NATIONAL PROSPERITY, OF THE KINGDOM OF FRANCE. THE SECOND EDITION. VOL. II. By ARTHUR YOUNG, Esq^ F. R. S. SECRETARY TO THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE} HONORARY MEMBER OF THE SOCIETIES OF DUBLINj BATH, YORK, SALFORD, ODIHAM, AND KENT} THE PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY SOCIETY OF MANCHESTER} THE VETERINARY COLLEGE OF LONDON} THE ECONOMICAL SOCIETY OF BERNE} THE PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF ZURICH} THE PALATINE ACADEMY OF AGRICUL- TURE AT MANHEIM } THE IMPERIAL ECONOMICAL SOCIETY ESTABLISHED AT PETERSBURGH} THE ROYAL AND ELECTORAL ECONOMICAL SOCIETY OF CELLE} ASSOCIATE OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF AGRICULTURE AT PARIS} AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURE AT FLORENCE} AND OF THE PATRIOTIC SOCIETY AT MILAN. BURY ST. EDMUND’S: PRINTED BY J. RACKHAM, FOR W. RICHARDSON, ROYAL-EXCHANCE, LONDON. U94- TRAVELS, See. CHAP. X. Fines, T HE number of notes I took, in moft of the provinces of the kingdom, re- lative to the culture of vineyards, was not inconfiderable; but the difficulty of reducing the infinite variety of French meafures, of land and liquids, to a common ftandard, added to an unavoidable uncertainty in the information itfelf, renders this the mod perplexing inquiry that can be conceived. It was an ob- ject to afeertain the value given to the foil by this culture ; the amount of the annual produce ; and the degree of profit attending it ; inquiries not undeferving the attention even of politicians, as the chief interefts of a country depend, in fomemeafure, on fuch points being well underftood. Now there is fcarcely any product to variable as that of wine. Corn lands and meadow have their bad and their good years, but they always yield fomething, and the average produce is rarely far removed from that of any particular year. With vines the difference is enormous ; this year they yield nothing; in another, perhaps cafks are wanted to contain the exuberant produce of the vintage ; now the price is extravagantly i&h , and again fo low, as to menace with poverty all who are concerned in it. nder fuch variations, the ideas even of proprietors, who live by the culture, are not often corred, in relation to the medium of any circumftance : nor is it. always eafy to bring individuals to regard rather the average of a diftrid, than t le particular one of their own fields. In many cafes, it is more fatisfadory to rely on particular experience, when it appears tolerably exad, than to de- mand ideas, fo often vague of what is not immediately within the pradice of the man who fpeaks. Thefe difficulties have occurred fo often, and in fo many fhapes, that the reader can hardly imagine the labour which it repeatedly coft VoL - 11 B me 2 VINES. me to gain that approximation to accuracy, which I was fortunate enough fomc- times to attain. But, after all the inquiries I have made, with attention and induflry, I do not prefume to infert here an abflradl of my notes as intelligence that can be entirely relied on : I am fatisfied, that it is impoffible to procure fucb, without application, time, and exertions, which are not at the command of many travellers. Contenting myfelf, therefore, with the probability of being free from grofs errors, and with the hope of giving fome information on the fubjedt, not to be found in other books, I venture to fubmit the following extract to the public eye, though it be a refult inadequate to the labour, variety, and expected fuccefs of my inquiries. It is neceffary farther to premife, that the reader mufl not contrail the circumilance of one place with thofe of another, under the idea that a coniiderable difference is any proof of error in the account. The price of an arpent is fometimes out of proportion to the produce ; and the profit at other times unaccounted for by either this depends on demand, competition, the divifion of properties, the higher or lower ratio of expence, and on various other circumflances, which, to explain fully in each article, would be to enlarge this fingle chapter into a volume ; I touch on it here, merely to guard againfl conclufions, which are to be made with caution. The towns named in the following table, are the places where I procured intelligence.-— None are inferted in which I did not make the inquiry, as I was at every place mentioned in the margin. The rents of vines are named but at few places ; for they are very rarely in any other hands than thofe of the proprietor; even where rent is named, there is not one acre in an hundred let. The price of the product is every where that of the fame autumn as the vintage: thofe who can afford to keep their wine have much greater profits: but as that is a fpecies of merchandize as much in the power of a dealer as of a planter, it ought not to be the guide in fuch accounts as thefe. Isle of France. — ' Arpajon . — Rent of iome to Bo liv. j in common 25 iv. Expences in labour, exclufive of vintage, 60 liv. (2I. 10s. 9a. per Englifh acre). Froduce, 6 pieces, of 80 pints, each ik bottle. # E/lampes . — Meafure 80 perch, of 22 feet. Produce, 10 to 22 pieces. Rent to 90 liv. Labour, 60 liv. (2I. 13s. gd. per Englifh acre), vintage excluded. Orleans .—* Price in the town, 150 liv. the niece, of 240 bottles, and retail 6 to 10/ the pint, of i£ bottle. Rent, 45 liv. Labour, 40 liv. vintage excluded (il. 13s. 9d. per Englifh acre.) Arpent of 40,000 feet. S. of ditto . — Meafure 100 perch, of 20 feet. Produce, 7 pieces, and in a goc year 12. Rent, 36 liv. Labour, 40 liv. (il. 13s iod. per Englifh acre). Sologne.— Verfon.— Rent in common, 35 to 50 liv. of the belt 60 liv. the feteree. Produce, 10 to 12 pieces, and to 22.- Account here. Rent, VINES. Produce, n pieces, at 20 liv. 220 liv. Expences, • - 156 Profit, - - 64 Price, 220liv. (9l.6s.4d. per Englifli acre.) They renew fome of the vines every year, by laying down (hoots, called gene- rally provins, but here faujj'es , five hundred per annum, at 50 f. the hundred. They manure to the amount of thirteen fmall cart loads, not reckoned in the above account. Twenty people necefifary for gathering an arpent, at 12 a day, and food. Vines are fometimes much damaged by frofis in the fpring. Berry. — Vat an . — No props ; give four hoeings. FauJJ'e 1 liv. i$f. the hun- dred. Rarely let. Produce, 3 pieces per feteree, fome 6 or 8 ; price now 24 liv. Rent, 60 liv. Produce, 168 liv. ( 61 . 13s. iod. per Englifli acre.) To plant a feteree, for fetting only, 45 liv. to 48 liv. ; for two years produces nothing ; the third a little. All agree it is the moil profitable hufbandry, if one be not obliged to fell in the vintage, for want of capital to keep the wine. Chateauroux.~Vc ry few let. Earth them four times. Produce, 3 poincons, or pieces, a feteree. Rent, 60 liv. Argenton . — Produce 5 or 6 pieces the feteree, each piece 160 bottles. Planted about 2 feet 6 inches fquare. Ufe props of quartered oak. Quer c Y. — Brive. — A journal one-fourth of a feteree, 0,4132 (Pauffon.) In a good year produce 2 muids, of 242 pints of 2 bottles, but not general. Price, 3 to 6 f. the pint. Labour, 15 liv. vintage excluded. Pont de Rodez. — The plants at 4 feet fquare • very old and large. Every where quite clean, and in fine order, worked four times. Price, 6 liv. for 96 Paris pints. Cartona about half an acre. Pellecoy.—Pzfe vineyards, of which there are many fo fieep, that it is ftrange how men can ftand at their work. One-third of the country under vines, which are planted on abfolute rocks, but calcareous. Cahorss— Nineteen- twentieths under vines ; in regular rows, at 4 feet ; many more than two hundred years old. The true vin de Cabers, which has a great reputation, is the product of a range of rocky vineyards, that are upon hills hanging to the fouth, and is called grave wine, becaufe of the ftoney foil. Much fubjedt to florins of hail. Meafure the feteree, not quite an arpent. Produce, 4 barriques, each 210 common bottles. Price, 50 liv. ; fometimes at 20 or 30 liv. ; and if two or three plentiful years together, the price of the wine does not exceed the cafk; lafl year 12 liv.; 50 liv. the barrique, is 3 liv. the B 2 dozen. ieem, T ailles, about 00 I!V. 12 Vingtieme, 5 Labour, 40 Props, 6 1 of Vintage, 33 156 10 VINES. 4 dozen. Price, 800 liv. the meafure (33I. 18s. id. per Englifh acre) ; fome at at 150 liv. ( 61 . 6s. iod.) ; alfo at 300 liv. (12I. 13s. 8d. Labour, exclufive of vintage, 30 liv. (il. 7 8 7> 3 90 270 1788, 44- 75 337 1 he labour confids in carrying of dung, pruning, trimming, four diggings, daking, tying, budding, &c. How VINES. 9 How this hufbandry can be efteemed unprofitable, as it is generally in France, furpaffes my comprehenfion : in the hands of a man without a fufficient capital, it certainly is fo ; but thus alfo is that of wheat and barley. Neuf Moutier . — In one of the richeft diftridts in France, vines on the flopes fell at 2000 liv. to 2500 liv. (2250 liv. is 78I. 13s. 3d. per Englifh acre) the ar- pent of 100 perches of 22 feet ; where the rich vales let at 40 liv. to 60 liv.; and land of 40 liv. fells not higher than 1500 liv. or 1600 liv. C hampagne. — Epernay , &c. — Two-thirds of all the country around, about Ay, Cumiere, Piery, Dify, Hautvilliers, &c. &c. under vines ; and here all the famous Champagne wines are made. The country producing the fine white wine is all contained in thefpace of five leagues: and three or four more include A vife, Aunge, Lumenee, Crammont, &c. where they make the white wine, with white grapes only. At Ay, Piery, and Epernay, the white wine is all made with black grapes. La Montagne de Rheims, Bouze, Verfee, Verznee, Teafe, Airy, and Cumiere, for the bon rouge de la Marne. At Airy the firft quality of the white alfo made. With the black grape they make either red or white wine, but with the white only white wine. The price of the land is very high ; at Piery 2000 liv. ; at Ay 3000 liv. to 6000 liv. ; at Hautvilliers 4000 liv. The word in the country fells at 800 liv. (3000 liv. is 105I. 9s per Englifh acre; 6000 liv is 210I. 18s.) The produce, as may be fuppofed, varies much ; at Ay, two to fix pieces, and four the average ; at Reuil and Vanteuil, to twenty pieces ; at Hautvilliers, a con- vent of Beneditfines, near Epernay, eighty arpents that yield two to four; and the price varies equally : at Ay, the average is two, at 200 liv. ; one at 1 50 liv. ; and one at 50 liv. By another account, 200 iiv„ to 800 liv. the queue, of two pieces ; average 00 liv. the queue. At Reuil and Vanteuil it is 60 liv. to 100 iiv. The vines of Villiers 700 liv. to yooliv. the queue. Red wine is 150 liv. to 300 liv. — Account of a confiderable vineyard, an average one, given me at Epernay. For an Arpent. Intereft of purchafe, 3000 liv. I abour, - - Renewal (provins) ditto, Tying, - Props, - - Manure, 1 part dung to 14 earth, V intage, 1 2 liv. a piece, Cafks, .... ’ 1 axes — taille, vingtieme, and capitation, Carry forward, Per Englijh Acre . Liv. 153 £* 6 ” 3 55 2 8 ix 24 1 1 0 8 070 30 1 6 3 2 3 017 6 4 3 220 15 0 13 if 9 ! 0 7 lOf 359 15 14 VOL.II. C IO VINES. „ For an Arpent . Liv. Per Englijh Acre. Brought forward, - * 359 1 • *5 n Aides, 15 the queue, - 30 X 6 3 Cellar, vaults, prefs, refervolrs, tubs, &c. and build ing to hold them, 8000 liv. for 20 arpents, or 400 liv. per arpent, the intereft, 20 0 i7 6 409 17 »7 5 I HI" Produtt.—— Two pieces, at 200 liv. 400 17 IO 0 One ditto, - - 150 6 11 3 One ditto, - - 50 2 3 9 600 26 5 0 Expences, - - 409 17 *7 iox Profit, - iqr 8 7 i£ Which, with the intereft charged, makes io per cent, on 3000 liv. land, and 400 liv. buildings; the general computation, and which Teems admitted in the country. Sixty women are neceffary to gather the grapes for four pieces, by reafon of the attention paid in the choice of the bunches ; a circumftance to which much of the fine flavour of the wine is owing, as well as to Angularity of foil and climate ; the former of which is all ftrongly calcareous, even to be- ing white with the chalk in it. A fine lengthened flope of a chalk hill, hang- ing to the fouth, between Dify and Ay, which I examined, is entirely covered with vines, from top to bottom, and is the moft celebrated in the province. It is indeed rather a marl than a chalk ; in fome places white, in others much browner, and may properly be called a calcareous loam on a chalk bottom. This marl is, in fome places, very deep, and, in others, fhallow. I was fhewn pieces worth 6000 liv. the arpent, and others worth 3000 liv. but the difference of foil was not perceptible; nor do I credit that this difference depends on foil : none of jt approaching to pure chalk. It is impoflible to difcover, in the prefent date of knowledge and information, on what depends the extraordinary quality of the wine. The people here aflert, that in a piece of not more than three ar- pents, in which the foil is, to all appearance, abfolutely firnilar, the middle arpent only fhall yield the bed wine, and the other two that of an inferior quality : in all fuch cafes, where there is fomething not eafily accounted for, the popular love of the marvellous always adds exaggeration, which is probably the cafe here. Attention in gathering and picking the grapes, and freeing every bunch from each grape that is the lead unfound, mud tend greatly to infure wine of the firft quality, when the difference of foil is not finking. The VINES. 1 1 The vines are planted promifcuoufly, 3 or 4 feet, or 2f from each other : a re now about 18 inches or 2 feet high, and are tied to the props with fmall draw bands. Many plantations are far from being clean, fome full of weeds; but a great number of hands fpread all over the hill, farcling with their crooked hoe. As to the culture, in the middle of January they give the cutting, taille : in March dig the ground : in April and May they plant the provins: in June tie and hoe the feps : in Augud hoe again : in October, or, in good years, in Sep- tember, the vintage. To plant an arpent of vines, cods in all 50 louis d’or: there are 8000 plants on an acre : and 24,000 feps and the props cod 500 liv. : to keep up the dock of props 30 liv. a year. It is three years before they bear any thing, and fix before the wine is good. None are planted now; on the contrary, they grub up. Very few perfons have more than twenty or thirty arpents, except the Marquis de Sillery, near Rheims, who has two hundred and fifty arpents. At Piery there are twenty arpents now to be fold ; a new houfe, a good cellar, magazine, a good prefs, and every thing complete, for 60,000 liv. : the vines a little, but not much, negleded. For this fum I could buy a noble farm in the Bourbon- nois, and make more in feven years than by vines in twenty. Thofe who have not a prefs of their own, are fubjedt to hazards, which mud necefiarily turn the fcale very contrary to the intereds of the fmall proprietor. They pay 3 liv. for the two fird pieces, and 25/* for all the red f but, as they mud wait the owner’s convenience, their wine fometimes is fo damaged, that what would have been white, becomes red. Steeping, before preding, makes red wine. As to preding, to do it very quickly and powerfully, is much the better way; and they perfer turning the wheel of the prefs by fix, feven, or eight men, ra- ther than by a horle. In regard to the aides, or tax, on the transfer of wine, the proprietor who fells a piece worth 200 liv. pays - - - 10 liv. ♦ Ten fols per liv. ^ Augmentation ; gauge , condage, &c. - 5 Odtroi de la Ville and du Roi, - - 5 1L The merchant, when he fells it, pays the fame; and every perfon through whofe hands it palfes. The duty at the port, on exportation, is about 15 liv. each piece. The cabareteer and aubergide pays 30 or 40 liv. more retail duty. The wine trade with England ufed to be direddy from Epernay; but now the wine is fent to Calais, Bologne, Montreuil, and Guernfey, in order to be paded into England, they fuppofe here, by fmuggling. This may explain our Cham- C 2 pagne 12 VINES. pagne not being fo good as formerly. Should the good genius of the plough ever permit me to be an importer of Champagne, I would defire Monf. Quatre- foux Paretclaine, merchant at Epernay, to fend me fome of what I drank in his fine cellars. But what a pretty fuppofition, that a farmer, in England, fhould prefume to drink Champagne, even in idea! The world mud be turned topfy- turvy before a bottle of it can ever be on my table. Go to the monopolizers and exporters of woollens go to and to and every where — -except to a friend of the plough ! The ecclefiaftical tithe is a heavy burthen. At Hautvilliers the eleventh is taken for a dixme ; at Piery the twentieth, or in money 4 liv. 10/ ; at Ay, 48 f. and at Epernay 30/ ; at Dify ; but with all this weight of tax, nothing is known or ever heard of like the enormities pradifed in England, of taking the adual tenth. The idea of the poverty attending vines is here as ftrong as in any other part of France : the little and poor proprietors are all in mifery. The fad is obvious, that a hazardous and uncertain culture is ridiculous, for a man with a weak ca- pital. How could a Kentifh labourer be a hop-planter ? But no dilcrimination is found commonly in France— the afiertion is general, that the vine provinces are the pooreft; but an afiertion without explanation is utterly ridiculous. To render vines profitable, it is a common obfervation here, that a man ought to have one-third of his property in rents, one-third in farm, and one-third in vines. It is eafy to conceive, that the mofit fuccefsful cultivators are thofe who have the largeft capitals. It is thus that w T e hear of the exertions of merchants ; men who not only have many arpents of their own vines, but buy the wine of all their little neighbours. Monf. Lafnier, at Ay, has from fifty to fixty thoufand bottles of wine always in his cellar; and M. Dorfe from thirty to forty thoufand. R helms . — Average price of an arpent 2400 liv. (84I. Account . Liv. Intereft, - »• - - 120 Culture by contrad, - - - 40 Manured every fifth year, 60 liv.; and 1000 men or women’s loads of earth to mix, 36 liv. - - 96 Props, 20 bundles, - - - 12 Extra hoeing, - - - - 6 Taxes, - 8 Calks, - - - - - 18 Vintage, at 20^ a day, - - - 18 Prefs, four men, at 20 f. and 20 f. food, - 8 Carry forward, - - 3 2 ^ per Englifh acre.) Liv. Produce, 3 pieces, at 240 liv. - 420 (14I. 14s. per Englifh acre.) Carry forward, - 420 VINES. Liv. Brought forward, ... 326 Intereft of buildings, cellar, magazine, prefs, and utenfils, 30 The cellar-man, 200 liv. for 20 arpents, per arpent, 10 366 Labour, 64 liv. (2I. 4s. 7d. per Englifh acre) : intereft of which for firft year, - - - 18 3 8 4 Droit d’aides, 74 per cent, on value, three pieces grofs, be- fides conftage, &c. &c. - - - 40 424 But inflead of lofs, every one I talked with, and the gentleman himfelf who gave me this account, Monf. Cadot L’Aine, who has a confiderable vineyard, af- fured me, that they pay, on an average of ten years, 7! per cent, on the capital; this will make a difference of 75 liv. which, with the 24 liv. lofs in this account, is 99 liv. which muff be partly deducted from thefe expences, and partly added to the produce. On an average, the manuring is, I fufpedt, eftimated too high. The vines this year promife to yield not a piece per arpent ; not by reafon of frofts laft winter, but of the cold, being fo late as laft week (in July). The little proprietors here alfo are generally very poor, and many are ruined by not being able to wait for a price. The wine trade at Rheims amounts to four or five millions per annum (175,0001. to 218,7001.) SHlery. — The Marquis has a hundred and fixty arpents under vines, and not two hundred and fifty, as I had been informed ; he has cellar room for two hundred pieces; this was mentioned as an extraordinary circumftance, but it fhews that he is very deficient in a power of keeping his wines : a hundred and fixty arpents, at three each, are four hundred and eighty pieces ; fo that his cel- lar, inftead of containing the crop of three years, will not hold half the crop of one year. It is evidently a bufinefs that ought to have a large capital, and even an apparently fuperfluous one, or all the profit goes to the merchant. Lorain e. — Braban. — Price, 175 liv. (25I. 10s. id. per Englifh acre). Mea- fure, 80 perches, at nf feet. Verdun.—- Meafure, 480 verges, of 8 feet 2 inches, equal 66 perches of Paris : higheft fell to 240oliv. ; not uncommon 1100 liv. (84I. per Englifh acre). Metz.— Meafure, journal, equal to 69 P perches of Paris. Price, 1200 liv. (891. 14s. per Englifh acre). Lir. Brought forward, 420 Lofs, 24 424 Account 14 VINES. Account . Culture, 6 liv. per monee, 8 monees in the journal. Props, 20 f. the monee, - - T wo loads of dung, at 3 liv. - Repairs of calks, - Taxes, taille, and capitation, - Ditto vingtieme, - , Preffing, one-thirtieth of the crop, Vintage, - Liv. 48 8 6 6 13 4 9 16 hi Liv. Produce, 40 hottes, each 44 pints of Paris, at 6| liv. 260 (20I. 9s. 6d. per Englifh acre.) Expences, Profit, III 149 Labour, 64 liv. (5I. os. 7d. per Englifh acre). — But intereft of 1200 liv. is 60 liv. and the tithe here is from the twentieth to the thirtieth to be deduced. The general affertion, which teemed to admit no doubt, was that the profit is 7 per cent. Pont au MouJJ'on . — Meafure a journal, 10 hommees, or 250 verges of 10 feet, the foot of 10 inches. - 45 Liv. Produce, 400 hottes, on 13 arpents, 30 per journal, 180 (14I. ns. 3d. per Englifh acre.) Expences, - - 121 Profit, 59 Account . Liv. Labour, - - - 30 Manuring, 64 liv. but once in eight years, - 8 Vintage, twenty-five perfons for 13 journals, at 12/ fed, 3 Prefs, 2 Calks, - - - - - 16 Taxes, no droit d’aides, - - - 3 Props, > - 4 Arpent, 800 liv. ( 661 . 2s. id. per Englifh acre), ^ Buildings, 60 860 Intereft of ditto, - Droit de gabelle, and gauge, 13 f. per hotte, - 10 121 Labour, 33 liv. (2I. 9s. iod. per Englifh acre.) — ^ But fome little error here, for the common calculation is, that they pay 10 per cent. Vines are planted more and more, the culture augmenting every day * they plant the land proper for wheat as readily as any other;. Nancy . — Meafure, 19,360 feet. Price of the beft, 1000 liv. ; the word:, 500 liv. (at 750 liv. 65I. 12s. 6d. per Englifh acre). They have what they call the grofs race , and the petite race of vines ; the firft gives much in quantity, but of a bad quality 5 the latter wine of a good quality, but in quantity fmall. The VINES. *5 The medium produce is twenty meafures per journal, of eighteen pots of two pints of Paris, of the grofs race, and ten of the petite. The mean price of the firft 5 liv. ; of the latter io liv. (at iooliv. it is 81 . 15s. per Englifh acre). Luneville . — The journal 15,620 feet. Produce, 40 meafures of the grofs race, of all forts j average, twelve meafures, 6 liv. i$f. Price, per journal, 550 liv. (56I. 17s. 6d. per Englifh acre). Produce, 80 liv. ( 81 . 12s. per Englifh acre). Alsace. — Wiltenheim.-~ Meafure, 100 verges, at 22 feet. Price, 900 liv. (31I. 10s. per Englifh acre). Stra/bourg. — Meafure, 24,000 feet. Price, 800 liv. (55I. 7s. 9d. per Englifh acre). Produce, thirty meafures, of twenty-four pints of Paris. Good price, 6 liv. the meafure; middling, 4 liv. 10/.; low, 3 liv. (at 150 liv. produce, it is icl. 7s. 4d. per Englifh acre). Schelefiadt. — Produce, forty meafures. Price, 6 liv. the meafure, _ 240 liv. (16I. 12s. 6d. per Englifh acre). Ifenbeim. — Some fo high as 3000 liv. but few that yield a hundred meafures, at 6 liv. but by no means common. Franche Compte. — Beaume . — Meafure, an oeuvre. Produce, a muid, at 40 liv. to 60 liv. Befangon. — Meafure, a journal, of 8 oeuvres; the oeuvre 45 perches, of 9I feet. Price, 40 liv. to 400 liv. the oeuvre. Produce, a quarter of a muid to one muid, or eight per journal. The grape, called the gamme, yields the mofl wine, but of the word: quality. Common Price, 60 liv. the muid. Account of a jour- nal, 32,400 feet. Liv. Intereft of 2400 liv. (123I. 6s. Englifh acre), at 5 per cent. 120 Culture, 5 liv. the oeuvre, t 40 Props, 1 liv. ditto, •• - - - 8 Vintage, 5 liv. ditto, - - - 40 Tonneaux, 12 liv. the muid new ; but reparation a trifle, o T aille, capitation, and vingtieme 8 f. - - 3 4/ No droit d’aide. Never dung, thinking it fpoils the wine. Faufle, renovation 3 liv. per IOO, - 3 Tythe, none in common; but, where found, only from one- twelfth to one-twentieth. -- 214 Labour, 83 liv. (4I. 4s. per Englifh acre.) The common idea is, that the produce of an ceuvre is And the expence - - Or profit per journal - Intereft - Remains net - - _ » 30 liv. 12 "Is 144 120 2 4 Produce, 4 muids, at 60 liv. (12I. 6s. per Englifh acre, 240 Expences, - 214 Profit, - 26 They 1 6 VINES. They are alfo generally fuppofed to yield but five per cent, profit on capital, and fometimes not fo much. The vines here are in double rows, at about two feet, and the props placed in an inclining pofition, fo as to join over the centre of that fpace, and arc there tied to a horizontal prop ; by which means any fmall flicks anfwer the purpofe of props. Bourgogne. — Dijon. — Meafure, journal of 900 toifes. Price of common vineyards, icooliv. to 1500 liv. (at 1250 liv. it is 63I. 19s. 2d. per Englifh acre), the beft about Dijon. Produce, about feven or eight pieces, or muids, at 36 liv. (at 270 liv. it is 13I. 16s. 6d. per Englifh acre) : pay fix per cent. But the fine vineyards of Veaune, Romane, Tafh, &c. fell at 3000 liv. Clos de Veaujeau . — This is the moll famous of all the vineyards of Burgundy, the wine felling at the higheft price ; it contains above an hundred journals, walled in, and belongs to a convent of Bernardine monks. This reminds me of Hautvilliers, near Epernay, one of the fineft vineyards in Champagne, having reverend mafters alfo. There are no trees in that at Clos de Veaujeau, though in all the more common ones. The vines are now not more than two or three feet high, the props being fhort alfo ; they are not in rows, but planted pro- mifcuoully. The foil a brown loam, inclining to reddifh, with ftones in it, which, on trial, proved calcareous, it is not like the fine vineyards ol Cham- pagne, on a declivity, but flat, at the foot of a hill, which is rocky. The produce, ifmuid, at6ooliv. the muid, 90oliv. (46I. is. 4d. per Engli h acre). The vineyard would, it is laid, fell for 10,000 liv. the jour nal (511!. 17s. 6d. per Englifh acre). They make white wine alfo, of a quality and price equal to th ' red. . Nuys — The finefl vineyards fell up to yoooliv. and 8 ooo 1 iv. a journal; but in common about locoliv. (5 : 1. 3s. 9d. per Englifh acre). The produce of the fine wines never great ; four pieces, or muids, of half a queue, or two hundred and forty bottles, is a great produce ; if middling; and, in ,bad years, none at all, which happens fometimes, as at prefi nt, after a very fine appearance; but the frofts at th end of May cut them off lo entirely, that there is not a grape to be fee n. such wine as the poor people drink, fells commonly at 60 liv. or joiiv. tiie queue, now 120 liv. Account of a journals Intereft, - Culture, by contract (fome at 60 liv.) Props, called here, not ecbalats > but paifeaux y Cafks repaired, T axes, V image, Liv. 5 ° 72 6 6 8 6 148 Liv. Produce, piece, at rooliv. ( 81 . 19s. 4d. per Jbnglnn acre;, 175 Expences, - 148 Front, • 27 One VINES. *7 One vigneron, with his wife and four children, muff all work very well to do four journals ; for which, if at 6oliv. they receive 240 liv. but have the winter for other w’ork. The vineyards which bear the greateft reputation here, after the Clos de Veaujeau, are thofe of St. George, Romane, La Tafhe, de Vaume, Richebourg, Chambertin, and Cote rote. The bed is 25I. the piece, or 3 liv. the bottle ; but this is the price of the vintage; kept three or four years it fells for 4 liv. and even 5 liv. the bottle in the country. In 1782, the crop was fo great, that they gave 12 liv. for very miferable calks, and fold them full at 20 liv. but the wine not good. 1785 was the lad great crop, when the price of a calk, a tonneau, which commonly is 12 liv. new, was 36 liv. to 40 liv. but the wine bad : they never dung for fine wines, only for bad ones, but they manure fometimes with earth. New vineyards give a larger quantity of wine than old ones, but the wine of the latter the bed: qua- lity. There are here, as in all the other wine provinces, many fmall proprietors who have but patches of vines, and always fell their grapes j but there is no idea of their being poorer than if they did not purfue this culture. Beaume, — The ftones in the vineyards here calcareous. An oeuvre cods 40oliv. 320oliv. per journal (163I. 16s. per English acre). Produce, two or three pieces, at 15 liv. this common wine ; but there are fine ones vadly higher. The wines of greated name here, after the Clos de Veajeau 9 are Volny, Pomar, Aloes, Beaume, Savigne, Mulfo (white), and Maureauche, which lad fells, ready to drink, at 4liv. the bottle; new at 1200 liv. the queue. They give here great accounts of the profit attending this culture; but, on being analyzed, they are found all to turn on the fuppofition of having good cellars, and keeping for a price, which is mere merchandize, and not cultivation ; for the merchant who buys at the vintage* to fill his cellars, is exactly in the fame predicament ; and to enjoy this profit, it is not necefiary to cultivate a fingle acre.. Cbagnie. — Price of an oeuvre too liv.; eight of them to^ a journal, 800 liv. (40I. 19s. per Englifh acre). Common produce, one piece per oeuvre : the price now 60 liv. the piece, but 20 liv. more common ( 160 liv.. is 81 . 3s. yd, per Eng- lifh acre.) Couch . — An oeuvre, the eighth of a journal, fells at 100 liv. ; but there is more at 80 liv. Produce, one piece, at 36 liv. common price, but now 60 liv. ; ufually one piece at 25 liv. : half the produce, by contract, for labour (at the price of 640 liv. it is 32I. 15s. 4d. per Englifh acre.) Bourbonnois. — Moulins. — Sell to ioooliv. the arpent (34I. 12s. id. per Eng- lifh acre) of eight boifelees, each 168 toifes, 48,384 feet. In a good year, pro- duce eight poin^ons, at 30 liv. ; common year five or fix, at 30 liv. for common vineyards : half the produce is paid, by contradt, for labour. Very rarely dung :. props 7 liv. : tithe the eleventh. Vov. II. D Riaux .. 18 VINES. Riaux.— Common produce, half a piece per oeuvre, or boifelee ; one-fourth for proprietor, and one-fourth for labour. St. Ponerin . — Vineyards on hills, iooliv. the boifelee; 800 liv. the arpent (27I. 13s. iod. per Englifh acre). . , Auvergne. — Riom. — Sell at 200 liv. the oeuvre ; fometimes if. the bottle, or 1 5/ the pot; now 3 liv. ; middling price 20/ to 30/ Clermont. — Meafure, 800 toifes: beft 300 liv. ; word; 100 liv. ; midling 150 liv. an oeuvre; 1200 liv. the arpent (70I. per Englifh acre); medium ten pots, each fixteen pints of Paris ; on the beft land fifteen, and the mean price 30 f . ; at pre- fent 3 liv. : tie them with willow branches, falix viminea. J Z oire.—ln common fell at 500 liv. or 600 liv. the feteree, but in good flot- ations 800 liv. (46I. 12s. 9d. per Englifh acre) : the oeuvre of the beft yields two fommes ; middling one and a half ; bad one : the fomme fix pots, each fixteen pints of Paris : the common price after the vintage, 25/ to 30 f. the fix pots (at 168 liv. it is 91. 16s. per Englifh acre). Account of an (Euvre. Liv. Sals. Liv. Labour, - - - - - 8 0 Produce, l| fomme, at Props, - 2 10 30 f. the pot, 1 2 liv. Intereft buildings, 100 liv. 50 oeuvres, 2 8 the fous. 21 Intereft of iooliv. purchafe, 5 0 Expences, - •* 19 Taille, &c. - 0 11 Profit, 2 Provins, - 0 8 Dung ditto. 0 2 19 1 By which we are only to underftand that they pay little more than common intereft. . , priude. — Price, ioliv. to iooliv. (55 liv. is 25I. 12s. 9d. p£r Englifh acre): the worft are on rocks, where a ftorm drives foil and crop away. It is very remark- able that the rocky declivities, which are fo natural to the vine, here yield a - wine far inferior to the rich plain of the Limagne. This deferves remark, and a further attention from the naturalifts, who examine this very curious and inte- refting country. They have thirty-five forts of vines here; the Lange dit de chien is the firft. . Dauphin e. — Montelimart Price of a feteree, half an arpent of Paris, 160 iiv. to 480 liv. and produces feven meafures of wine, called charges, each of a hun- dred bottles, the common price 15 liv. or 75 liv. per feteree. Account VINES. *9 Account. 1 Intereft of 300 liv. (44I. 12s. 6d. per Englifh acre) mean price, - - - - Culture, iff, - - 20 liv. 2d, 10 3d, paid by cuttings, - o No props. Vintage, Cafks, - - - - Taxes, - No droit d’aides. Cellar, &c. &c. - Liv. 15 30 6 3 2 2 !* Liv. Produce* (7I. 17s. 6d. Englifh acre), - 75 Expences, 58 Profit, - 17 Provence.— 'Avignon . — Price 70 liv. the eymena, and produce three barrels: price at prefent, 6 liv. the barrel, or 3 f. the bottle; common price zf. The befl vines give 8 per cent, on capital. Aix . — The carteree 800 liv. (63I. per Englifh. acre). Meafure, fix hundred Cannes for the carteree ; the canne of eight pans, the pan of nine inches and three lines. Tour d y Aigues .— The produce of a fomma is a hundred coup, each 60 lb. 31b. a pot; and the common bottle 2|lb. : 100 lb. of grapes give 60 lb. of wine. Mean price 30 f. the coup, or per fomma 150 liv. Meafure, 50,400 feet. Account . Culture, Liv. - 48 Sols. O Hoeing and pruning, - 12 0 Vintage and carriage,, - - 10 0 Intereft of buildings, Sec. 15 0 Taille, by the cadaftre (but this varies every year, by reafon of provincial expence), - - 10 0 Seigneural duty, - 1 12 Price, 600 liv. (20I. 2s. 6d. per Englifh acre), intereft, 30 0 126 12 Liv. Sols. Produce, (4I. 19s. 6d. per Englifh acre), 150 o Expences, - 126 12 Profit, - 23 8 Hyeres . — Ufually planted in double rows, at three or four feet, with intervals of different diftances, ploughed, or hoed for corn ; and this method they call mayotvere. Two hundred and eighty plants produce one bout of wine, of fix barrels, each barrel twenty-eight pots, and each pot 31b. Common price per bout 50 liv. D 2 Obfervations * ao VINES. Obfervations . It is merely for curiofity I obferve, that the average of all the prices per meafure, in the purchafe of thefe vineyards, amounts to 6il. 8s. per acre; fuch a medium demands very little attention, unlefs the minutes were exceedingly numerous, and equally fo in every province. Rejecting thofe in which the prices exceed iool. an acre, as going certainly much beyond what can poffibly be the medium of the kingdom, the average of the reft is 41I. is. 6d. per acre. But I ffiould wifh that attention were rather given to another mode of calcu- lating the price and produce of thefe vineyards ; there are twenty-three minutes that include both price and produce; the average of thefe exclufive of fuch as rife above iool. purchafe, and 21I. produce, is For the price per Englifh acre, - £.45 1 o For the produce, - - - 9 2 o* Which is in French money, per arpent of Paris,— Price, - 871 liv. Produce, 175 From which it appears, that vines, in thefe provinces, give, in annual produce, one-fifth of their fee fimple. The amount of labour per acre, on an average of thofe minutes, in which it appears to be fatisfattorily noted, and reje&ing the higher articles as before, is 2I. 12s. 6d. The net profit appears, from feveral of the minutes, to vibrate between 7 and jo per cent, on the capital employed. How nearly thefe averages, noticed in my route, approach the real medium of the whole kingdom, it is impofiible, with any degree of accuracy, to conjecture; but I am inclined to believe, that the difference may not be confiderable. This, however, muft be left, with a proper diffidence, to the well informed reader’s fuperior fagacity. The importance of this branch of cultivation to the kingdom, and the idea fo common there, I may almoft fay univerfal, that the wine provinces are the pooreft, and that the culture is mifchievous to the national interefts, are fubjedts too curious to be difmiffed haftily : as my opinion is diredly the reverfe of the prevalent one in France, it is neceffary to explain the circumftances on which it is founded. * The Marquis de Mirabeau obferved, that an arpent of vines is, on an average, worth double the beft arpent of corn. VAm des Hommes. 5th edit. 1760. tom. vi. p. 137. This agrees pretty well with my notes. It VINES. 21 It appears, by the preceding minutes, that the value of the foil thus employed was probably higher than it could be in any other application, good meadows (valuable from their fcarcity) alone excepted : that the produce much exceeds all others; and laftly, that the employment depending upon it is very con fi- derable. Under fuch leading and powerful circumftances, and connected as they are with another not lefs eftential, that vaft tradts of the land thus employed are rock and declivities, too deep for the plough, — it fhould feem aftonifhing, how an idea could ever be entertained that fuch a cultivation could be prejudicial to a country : it is, however, very general in France. The queftion ought to be put folely on this iflue — Would the fame land, under any other culture, fell at the fame price? 45I. per acre, amounting to thirty years purchafe, at 30s. an acre, is fuch a value as France, in the richeft: vales, knows nothing of (meadows alone excepted, which will always be valuable ac- cording to fcarcity and heat of climate), and we in England as little. But this greater value arifesnotby any means from the richeft lands, but from thofe which, confidered on a medium, are certainly very inferior to the reft of the kingdom. Great tracks could be applied t© no other ufe than that of fheep-walk or warren; much is fituated, in fome of the pooreft foils in the kingdom, on fands, (harp gravels, and lands fo ftoney, as to be inapplicable to the plough : to poflefs a climate that gives the power of raifing fuch land to the value of 30I. or 40I. an acre, is beyond all doubt or queftion, a fuperiority that cannot be too much valued. The amount of the produce is not lefs ftriking : rich paftures fell every where at high prices, becaufe they are attended wih no expences ; and thus a fmall product may be clafled with a large one; but it is not fo with vines. The ave- rage of 9I. an acre, on a mean of good and bad years, is fuch as no other plant will equal that is cultivated in France, watered lands alone excepted. It is only on Angularly fine foils, in certain peculiar diftridts, that any thing approaching fuch a produdt is to be met with. There is no part of Europe, in which a crop of wheat, of fuch value, is not exceedingly large, and much beyond the average. That of all the wheat, in any of the richeft counties in England, vibrates between 61. and 7I. an acre, prepared for, perhaps, by a barren and expenfive fallow, — at leaft by fomething much lefs profitable than itfelf. What then are we to think of a plant which covers your land with a rich crop of wheat every year ? There are many men, however, in France, who will fay, your reasoning must be erroneous; for there is not a vine proprietor m France , who would not give you his vineyard for your ideal wheat of every year. The obfervation may be perfectly juft ; but it is no anfwer to me, who am not fpeaking of net profit , but of produce . To him who confiders the fubjedt in a national light, and as a politician, the former is not the objedt ; — the great point is to fecure a large produce. The prince may levy fuch heavy taxes on the produce ; and it 22 VINES. it may be gained by fuch an operofe culture, that the poor may levy a much heavier for their labour; the coniequence to the cultivator may be a low profit, but to the nation at large the importance of the product remains the fame, and unimpeached. And in this light I look upon that of vines as fo con- fiderable, that ihould the fad of the real average of the whole kingdom prove lefs than I make it — even fo little as 7I. per acre, I fhould ftill efteem the culture an object of infinite national confequence. It is more than fugar pays in the Weft Indies, which is ufually fuppofed the moft profitable cultivation in the world. In regard to the net profit, which on the minutes vibrates from j to io per cent, it does not feem to fome to be adequate to the peculiar happinefs of the climate, and the reputation of the wines throughout the world ; or to the price of the land, or amount of the product. But, in this refped, it muft be con- fidered, that the minutes, fo far as they concern the returns in money, are the prices of the vintage only : whereas every man that has a capital fufficient, by keeping his wine for three months only, adds confiderably to the profit. — If a proprietor be merely able to ftore his crop in calks in his cellar, long enough to avoid the immediate neceflity of felling for want of calks, he has an advance of price, which will greatly augment the ratio of his profit: it is very fair to give the cultivator of vines the fame time that is taken by moft of his brethren with whom corn is the objed, that is to fay, fix months from the harveft. The dif- ference of profit is exceedingly great between the fale in the vintage, and that of fix months after. But it is ftill of more confequence to obferve, that the rate per cent, here mentioned, is not on the mere bufinefs of the cultivator, but on the purchafe of the eftate upon which the culture is carried on. This makes an enormous difference. If agriculture, in England, yield 15 per cent, and landed property three, throw the two together, and the mean is not more than 5! or 6 ; and thofe who, in England, buy an eftate, and ftock, and cultivate it, and make 6 per cent, will not think they are fuffering, notwithftanding the accumulated advantages of a century of freedom. It is this large annual produd which in the vine provinces gives bread to fuch numbers of people ; befide the dired objed of common labour, which amounts, as we have feen, to 2I. 12s. 6d. per acre, and confequently is above thrice as high as that of common arable crops ; and if they are not in very complete culture, the fuperiority is much more confiderable, there is the trade of cafks, which, independent of the employment of coopers, gives a value to the woods of a coun- try, as well as an adivity to foreign commerce, by the import of ftaves and hoops. The props have the fame effed as our hop-poles, and render willow plantations, as well as common under-woods, much more valuable than they would be otherwife. Befides, there is the circumftance, that fo many politi- cians VINES. n dans regard alone, the exportation of the wine, and the cafk or the bottle ; forming, whether in the fhape of wine or of brandy (as I {hall by and by fhew), one of the greateft trades of export that is to be feen in Europe; as much the export of French labour, as that of the filks of Lyons, or the cloths of Louviers. And after all this, if I be allowed to place laft, what in truth ought ever to be regarded firft, that is, the home confumption, there is the invaluable advantage of a whole people being well and amply fupplied with a beverage, the effect of their own induftry, and the refult of their own labour; and it furely will not be thought a fmall advantage, that a nation has recourfe, for fupplying this con- fumption, to her fands, gravels, declivities and rocks ; that fhe demands it not of her rich plains, but of thofe lands which her lefs fortunate neighbours are forced to cover with copfe or rabbits. But here we are not to forget, that argument is always to give way to fad. From what I have juft faid, the reader is not to conclude that fuch lands only are under vines in France, the contrary is the fad; I found them on the noble and fertile plain of the Garonne; on the richeft lands in the vale which extends from Narbonne to Nimes ; in the vales of Dauphine and of the Loire; and, in a word, indifcriminately on every fort of land in all the wine provinces ; but I found them alfo on fuch rocky and bad foils as I have defcribed, and in fo great quantities as to fhew how well adapted they are to fuch foils and fituations. There are two reafons why vines are fo often found in rich plains ; the firft is, the export of wheat being either prohibited, or allowed with fuch irregularity, that the farmer is never fure of a price : but the export of wine and brandy has never been flopped for a moment. The effed of fuch a contraft in policy muft have been confiderable, and I faw its influence in every part of France, by the new vineyards already planted, or begun to be planted, on corn lands, while the people were ftarving for want of bread ; of fuch confequence, in the en- couragement of any culture, is a fteady unvarying policy ! The fad is the more ftriking in France, becaufe the vine culture is very much burthened in taxation ; but, always pofleffing a free trade, it thrives. The fecond reafon is, that the culture of this plant is much better underftood in France than that of corn. An advantageous rotation of crops, and that arrangement of a farm which makes cattle neceffary to corn, and corn neceffary to cattle, on which the profit of arable land fo much depends, is what the French have hardly an idea of. In their pra&ice it is never to be feen, and in their books it is never to be read. But their vineyards are gardens; the turnips of Norfolk, the carrots of Suffolk, the beans of Kent, and the cabbages of an Englifh gentleman, are not fo clean as the vines of France, while the whole oeconomy of the plant is perfedly under- ftood, both in theory and pradice. It is a queftion which I have heard often ftarted in converfation, whether it be nationally more advantageous that wine fhould be, as in France, the com- mon- *4 VINES. mon beverage, or beer, as in England ? How it fhould ever become a queftion I cannot understand. We are, of neceflity, obliged to have recourfe to our beft lands to Supply our drink; the French, under a good government, would have- all theirs from their word foils. The fands of Sologne, which are pafled in the way from Blois to Chambord, &c. &c. are as bad as ours in Suffolk and Norfolk, which feed only rabbits. The French fands, by means of vines,, yield 81. or 9I. an acre, and thofe of Suffolk not fo many fhillings. Through nine-tenths of England, the land that yields wheat in every rotation yields alfo barley. If our hills, rocks, fands, and chalky declivities gave us our liquor, could we not apply thefe richer foils to fomething better than beer ? Could we not, by means of rotations, that made potatoes, tares, beans, and artificial graffes, the preparatives for wheat alternately, contrive to raife infinitely more bread, beef, and mutton, if barley did not of neceflity come in for an atten- tion equal to what we give to wheat ? Wheat, rye, barley, and oats exhauft* every other crop we raife, either actually or confequentially, ameliorates. Would it be no advantage to ftrike out one of thefe exhaufters, and fubftitute an im- prover ? Would it be no advantage to feed all the horfes of Britain on beans inftead of oats ? Your populoufnefs may be proportioned to your quantity of bread, mutton, and beef. With one-fourth of your land under barley, can you have as much bread, mutton, and beef, as if you were not under the neceflity of having any barley at all ? How few agricultural combinations muft there be in a mind that can entertain doubts on fuch queftions ? There is a common idea that wine is not a wholefome beverage, I take this to be a vulgar error ; bad wine, or wine kept till fharp and acid, may be unwholefome, but fo is bad beer, or beer kept till acid: but this has nothing to do with the queftion * If the lower people be forced, through poverty, to drink bad liquor, the com- plaint ought not to be that wine is unwholefome, but that a bad government is unwholefome : the beer drinkers under fuch a one, will not have much to boaft. There may be more ftrength and vigour of body among the common people in England than among the fame clafs in France; if this be true, it proves nothing againft wine. Are the French poor as well fed as ours ? Do they eat an equal quantity of animal flefti? Were they as free? Thefe common prejudices, for or againft certain liquors, are ufually built on very infufiicient obfervation. But the enemies of vineyards recur to the charge ; the vine provinces are the poor eft of the kingdom ; and you always fee mifery among the poor proportioned to the quantity of vines *. — This is the main hinge on which the argument turns ; it is * So lately as in the Journal Phyfique for May 1790, Monf. Roland de la Platiere, a gentleman with whom I had the pleafure of fome agreeable converfation at Lyons (in the happier period of his life, before he was involved in the mifery and guilt of revolutions), fays, that of all countries the vine ones are the pooreft, and the people the moft wretched ! And in the cahier of the clergy of Auxerre, it 'is demanded, that the ordonances againft planting vines on land proper for corn be executed. P. 19. V I N £ S. 2 5 an obfervation that has been made to me a thoufand times in France, and con- verfation never touches on the fubjedt but you are fure to hear it repeated.— There is fome truth in it as a fadt — there is none as an argument. There is ufually a confiderable population in vine provinces ; and doubtlefs it is not furprifing, that where there is a great population there fhould be many poor, under a bad government. But there is another reafon, much more fatis- fa&ory, which arifes not at all from the nature of the culture, but from the abufe of it. It is the fmallnefs of the property into which vineyards are ufually divided; a circumftance carried to luch excefs, that the mifery flowing from it can hardly be imagined by thofe who are whirled through France in a poft-chaife. 1 he nature of the culture depending almoft entirely on manual labour, and demand- ing no other capital than the pofleflion of the land and a pair of arms ; no carts, no ploughs, no cattle, neceflfarily leads the poor people to this fpecies of pro- perty ; and the univerfal practice of dividing it between the children, multiplies thefe little farms to fuch a degree, that a family depends on a fpot of land for fupport that cannot poffibly yield it ; this weakens the application to other in- duftry, rivets the children to a fpot from which they ought to emigrate, and gives them a flattering intereft in a piece of land, that tempts them to remain when better interefls call them elfewhere. The confequence is, their labour- ing as much as they can for their richer neighbours ; their own little vineyards are then negle&ed; and that culture, which to a more able proprietor is de- ciflvely advantageous, becomes ruinous to inefficient funds. But a misfortune, greater even than this, is the uncertainty of the crop ; to a man of a proper capital, and who confequently regards only the average of feven years, this is of no account; but to the poor proprietor, who lives from hand to mouth, it is fatal ; he cannot fee half a year’s labour loft by hail, froft, cold, or other in- clemencies of the feafon, without feeing, at the fame time, his children in want of bread ; before the ample produce comes, which certainly will come on the average account, he finds himfelf in the hofpital. Th is I take to be the origin of that general and too indifcriminate condemna- tion of vineyards in France. The poverty is obvious; it is connected with vines, and for want of proper diftin&ions, it is confldered as neceflfarily flowing from vineyards ; but, in fa< 5 t, it is merely the refult of fmall properties amongft the poor : a poor man can no where be better fituated than in a vine province, provided he poflfefs not a plant. Whatever may be the feafon, the poor are fure of ample employment among their richer neighbours, and to an amount, as we have above feen, thrice as great as any other arable lands afford. That culture which demands 2I. 12s. in hand labour only, whether there be crop or no crop, and which employs women and children of all ages, ought not furely to be con- Vol. II. E demned SILK. 26 demned as the origin of didrefs among the poor. Attribute the fad to its true caufe, the defire and fpirit of poffedmg landed-property, which is univerfal in France, and occafions infinite mifery. This circumdance, fo prevalent in that kingdom, and (comparatively fpeaking) fo little known in ours, where the poor are fo much more at their eafe than in France and mod: other countries, is very curious to a political obferver. What an apparent contradiction, that property fhould be the parent of poverty, yet there is not a clearer or better afcertained fad in the range of modern politics. The only property fit for a poor family, is their cottage, garden, and perhaps grafs land enough to yield milk j this needs not of necedity impede their daily labour ; if they have more, they are to be claffed with farmers, and will have arable fields, which mud, in the nature of things, be ill cultivated, and the national intered conlequently differ. The explanations I have given of the wine fydem in France will be received, I trud, with candour. To invedigate fuch queftions fully, would demand did- fertations expredly written on every fubjed that arifes, which would be incon- fident with the brevity neceflary to the regider of travels: I attempt no more than to arrange the fads procured; it belongs to the political arithmetician fully to combine and illudrate them. CHAP. XI. Of the Culture of Silk in France . Quercy. — Caujjade . — TN the avenue leading to this town, tworows of the trees are mulberries, and thefe are the fird we have feen. Montauban. — Many mulberries here, in rows ; and under fome of them four rows of vines, and then fix or feven-times the breadth of corn. When the leaves are not in time for the worms, or are dedroyed by frods, they are fed with lettuce leaves ; and if no lettuce, with cabbage, but the filk is fo worthlefs, that the failure is reckoned nearly equal to having none at all. Touloufe to Noe. — Mulberry trees are here worth from 6 f. to 20 f. and 30 f. each per annum, according to their fize. Noe — Mulberries worth up to 3HV. per tree, per annum. But filk worms have miffed much for three years pad. Narbonne , — Many mulberries ; all with pruned flat heads. P 'injean* S I T K. V P injean . — Olives are a beneficial article of culture, but they prefer mulberries, becaufe they yield a crop every year. On four feterees of land they have fixty trees ; and at the fame time the land yields barley or oats, mown for forage, of which the four feterees gives 60 quintals, that fell at 33 f. the quintal. Single mulberries have paid as far as two louis each, and many one louis. If four fete- rees equal two acres, there are thirty trees on an acre, and the acreable produce of forage will be 52UV. or 2I. 5s. 6d. Nijmes to Sauve . — Seven mulberries on an Englifh rood. Quefac . — Mulberry leaves fell commonly at 3 liv. the quintal. A tree yields from one to eleven quintals: two, three, and four are common. Gathering the leaves cofts 12 f. the quintal. Fifteen quintals of leaves are necefiary for one ounce of grain (the feed or eggs of the worm) : 20 liv. the mean price of filk per lb. : reckon that an olive-tree pays as well as a mulberry. Many mulberries about Quefac, and fome on very poor dry land. In grafs fields the ground is kept dug around them, as far as the branches extend. Re- mark fome ftones laid around many trees, for fome diftance from the Rem. Eight trees in fomething lefs than an Englifh rood. By information, almonds, in Rouverge, pay better than mulberries, and with much lefs expence and attention j 3, 4, 5, and 6 liv. a tree. Gauge . — Many fine mulberries about this place, which yield from 3 liv. to 8 liv. a tree in common, young ones excluded. They yield to twelve quintals of leaves ; in general, three, four, or five. The price varies from 3 liv. to 10 liv. the quintal. They are much more valuable than olives. This year the great cold in April deftroyed the young buds and hurt the crop greatly. They never think of giving any thing to worms but the leaves ; have heard of twenty things, but treat the idea with the greateft contempt, knowing as they do, by the fabric, the worthleffnefs of filk, if the worms are fo fed. Lodeve . — Mulberries are more profitable than olives ; yield three, four, and five quintals of leaves, which fell, in common, at 3 liv. Mirepoix . — Mulberries are here, but none after, in going from Carcaffonne to St. Martory. Auch . — A few mulberries near the town. It is here to be noted, that from Mirepoix to Bagnere de Luchon, and from thence by Pau to Bayonne, and back by Dax to Auch, a line of much more than 300 miles, I faw no mulberry trees. Guienne. — Leyrac . — Some few mulberries. Aiguillon .' — A few trees for fome miles before this place. Behind the chateau, in the town, is a large plantation, formed by the late duke ; which, being in the fine vale of the Garonne, the land is cultivated as the reft, under hemp and E 2 wheat 5 ‘28 SILK. wheat; but both thofe crops are lefs than middling, the exprefiion of the perfon who gave us the information, on account of the roots and fhade of the trees. The duke gives the leaves to the people in the town, furnithing alfo the wood, boaids, grain, and whatever elfe is necefiary for the bufinels, and he has in re- turn the third part of the filk they make. Every one in the place, and all round the country, fay that he lofes confiderably by it ; afierting, that the land thus occupied is worth 500 louis a year ; that the crop of filk is fo precarious that he has had eight quintals, and in other years only three, two, and even one; fo that on an average, his third part gives only 150 louis, and the crops under the trees cannot make up one-half of the deficiency. They alfo maintain, that the land is too rich for mulberries; and, to prove that they are right in their ideas, they quoted many gentlemen in the neighbourhood, who have grubbed up their mulberries. Tours . — They have in the neighbourhood of this city many mulberries, info- much, that the value of the raw filk has amounted, as they afisrt, in a good year, to a million of livres. I walked feveral times into the country to view the trees and make inquiries. Many of the corn fields are regularly planted all over ; the gardens are furrounded with them ; and the roads and lanes have rows of them. The large good trees, in a favourable year, give to the value of 4liv. but not in common. I viewed feveral plantations ; containing old, young, good, and bad, that gave on an average, one with another, 30 f. which feemed, from various accounts, to be a general medium ; it, however, excludes very bad years ; fuch, for infiance, as laft fpring, in which they had no crop at all, the frofts in April (note, this is certainly one of the fineft climates in France) having entirely deftroyed it. I faw feveral trees which gave to the amount of lof. to 15 / at ten years old, and 30 f. at the age of fifteen years. Plants, at two years old, are fold at 3 liv. the hundred: at three years old, 4 liv. : and good trees, proper to plant out in an arable field, 20 f. each. In regard to the difiance, at which the trees are planted, they have no general rule. I meafured many diftances, in a large corn field, and found them at two rod fquare, at an average: in another they were fix yards by nine; which trees gave 40/ on a medium : round a garden they were at five yards from tree to tree: a field, entirely cropped with mulberries, had them in rows at one and a half rod ; and between the rows another of fmall plants, in the manner of a hedge. If fixty fquare yards are allowed per tree, there will be eighty on an acre, and if they give 30 f each, it will amount to the vafi produce of 5I. per acre, befides what can be gained under them ; it would, however be a queftion, whether this under-crop would make up for bad years, that yield nothing ? Around fields, in roads, corners, &c. the profit will be greater. It is remark- able. SILK. 29 able, however, that with all this profit attending them, they do not increafe about Tours, yet not one acre in an hundred adapted to the culture, is fo em- ployed, which fhews either a very uncommon want of capital, or doubts whe- ther the cultivation is fo profitable as it appears to be from fuch information. In order to fpread the cultivation, government eftablifhed nurferies, and gave the trees gratis, until private nurferies were opened; and in winding the filk much afli fiance was alfo given to the lofs to government, of 2 of per lb.; but now the bufinefs is carried on without any premium of that fort. Probably fuch encouragements were of very little ufe ; the abufes incident to all governments would direCt fuch affiftance to be given where it was not wanted; and in that cafe it would, by railing difguft, do mifchief. They plant no mulberry but the white ; the black they think very bad. hoRMANDiE.- Bizy .— Having read, in the Memoirs of fome of the Agricul- ture Societies in France, that the marfhal duke de Belleifle made a very confi- derable and fuccefsful experiment on the introduction of the culture of filk in Normandie, on his eftate at Bizy, I had long ago made a note of it, for ex- amining, as the fteps which proved fuccefsful in fuch an attempt in Normandie, might probably have the fame effeCt, if applied in a climate fo fimilar as that of England. I went to Bizy with this view, and did what I could to find out the proper perfons, concerned in this undertaking, to give me the information that was necefifary. Five-and-thirty years ago, the duke began by making fome extenfive planta- tions of mulberries, to the amount of many thoufand trees : they fucceeded well ; and, in order to draw all the advantage pofiible from them, as the people in the neighbourhood were ignorant and awkward in the procefs, the duke, by means of a friend in Provence, procured a man, his wife, and all his children, well fkilled in the whole bufinefs of the filk-worm, and efta- blifhed them at Bizy, in order to inftruCt his own people in it. By thefe means, he made as much filk as the produce of leaves would admit. I wifhed to know to what amount, but could not afcertain it ; but the duke continued his plantations of mulberries during nine or ten years. I tried hard to find out fome defcendant or remains of this provencal family, but in vain ; the man was dead, the woman gone, and the children difperfed ; the eftate, on the marfhal’s death, having been fold, and coming into the pofteffion of the duke de Penthievre, made all thefe circumftances the more difficult. The great objeCt was, the fuccefs of the experiment ; this inquiry was uni- formly anfwered by feveral perfons : — it had no fuccefs at all. It was a favour- ite projeCt of the Duke’s ; and fupported, with perfeverance, for many years, until his death ; but the filk did not pay charges : and though he very li- berally 3 o SILK. berally offered leaves to the poor people, on eafier terms than they are fupplied with them in the fouth of France, and even gave trees ; yet nothing more was done than what his influence and authority forced : and the Provengal family, - after ten years experience, pronounced that the climate would do to make fllk, but not with profit. To his lad hour, the duke had {ilk made, but not an hour longer; the practice had taken no root: the country people, by whom alone fuch an undertaking could profper, faw no inducement to go into the fcheme, and the whole fell at once into utter ruin and negledt on the duke’s death ; fo that the trees themfelves were by degrees condemned, and the number remain- ing at prefent inconfiderable. Certainly no politive phyfical proof, that fllk will not do in Normandy, but it is a prefumptive one, pretty ftrongly featured. Go into Languedoc, Dauphine, and Provence, and the poor people do not want the exertions of marflials of France to induce them to breed fllk-worms ; they have a much more powerful inducement, — the experience that it is their intereft: had this inducement been prefent at Bizy, the culture would, in more than ten years, have taken root. Bourbonnois.. — Moulins. — Monf. Martin, gardener of the Royal Nurfery here, who is from Languedoc, cultivates fllk with great fuccefs ; he was fo obliging as to be as communicative as I could wifh. Trees of two or three years old, yield a few leaves, but to be ffripped cautioufly : at eight to ten years, they come very well into yielding. One ounce of grains , that is, of the eggs of the worm, requires twenty quintals (one hundred weight Englifh) of leaves, and yields from 7 lb. to 91b. of fllk. He has made as far as 30c lb. in a year, the produce of 30001b. of cocoons ; and the worms that year eat 12000 lb. of leaves every day, for four or five days together, and fifty perfons were employed for eight days. The whole bufinefs of hatching and feeding employs a month ; the winding is afterwards done at leifure. For care and at- tendance of the worms, gathering the leaves, and winding the fllk, he gives one- fourth of the produce, or about 6 liv. the pound of filk; for fpinning 3 liv.; in all, 9 liv. ; reds profit, 15 liv. The men earn 20 f* to 24^ a day, and the women $f. to 10/. He prefers this climate for the bufinefs to that of Languedoc, though doves are here neceffary for keeping the room to the temperature of 18 degrees, Reaumur; whereas in Languedoc they do without fires. The feafon here varies from fifteen to twenty days ; the earlied is the 24th of April, and the lated the 15th of May. If the leaves are not ready, he keeps the hatching back, by lodging the grains in a cool cellar. He has known one tree in Languedoc yield 80 liv. a year in filk. Moulins and its environs make to the value of 60 or 80,000 liv. a year. Monf. Martin fells trees, of two years old, at 20 liv. the thoufand. The difiance of planting, if for crops, under the trees, thirty feet; if SILK. 3 * if no crops, twenty feet. Of the writers that have treated of this fubjeft, he prefers Monf. Sauvages. In the particulars of an edate to be fold, was one article relative to the pro- dud of filk ; mulberries enough for 12 oz. of grain, yielding 60 lb. of filk. Vivarais. — MaijJ'e to ‘Tbitys. — Fird meet with mulberries in going fouth from Auvergne. They yield very largely here; I am afTured, that many trees, in a good year, reach 1 2, liv. each. That in four years after planting, they be- gin to produce leaves enough for dripping. The bed of them are all grafted. Trees, fifteen years after planting, have, in a very good year, yielded 6 liv. I was fhewn a fmall field that yields, one year with another, 120 liv. ; I depped, and found it 50 yards by 70 yards, or 3500 fquare yards (7I. 4s. 4b. per Englifh acre) ; yet the trees were not regularly planted, nor fully ; and this befides the other produce of the ground. Aubenas . — The filk mills here, which are conliderable, purchafe the cocoons of the farmer, at 28 f. to 32/. the pound. The mulberry-trees here are very large. ■ Villeneuve de Bergue . — Twenty quintals of leaves give one quintal of cocoons, and one quintal of cocoons lolb. of filk. They reckon that the wade, debris & dechet, pay the fpinning. Eighteen trees, of feven years age, pay 28 liv. a year; but fome trees, of ten years old, have been known to give 3 liv. each. Three-fourths of an arpent de Pams have been fold for 400 liv. ; the foil all rock and done, but calcareous. The trees are grafted before tranfplantation, which is at three years old; price, 12 f. and 15 f. each. The fecond year after planting they begin to gather. The price of the leaves 3 liv. the 100 lb.; and of gathering lof. the quintal. The culture is reckoned more profitable than vines, which are fometimes grubbed up, to make way for mulberries. Of the forts, the rofe fuille is bed. In the road to Viviers, I remarked a tree 2 \ feet in diameter; and very large ones are in the bed of a torrent, where no earth (only dones) is vidble. 'DAU'PHiNE.—Montelimart. — Silk is the great produce of the country; they have mills, where the cocoons are bought, at 2 ~jf the pound. An ounce of grains gives 60 lb. of cocoons, and 12 lb. of cocoons 1 lb. of filk : forty mid- dling trees, each yielding a quintal of leaves, being required to feed that pro- portion of worms. The grains are hatched by artificial heat, and the operation demands wood to the amount of 24 liv. to each ounce of grains. A common method of conducting the budnefs is, for the proprietor of the land to find trees and half th t grains the poor people the- other half and all the labour ; and the parties divide the produce between them. The impediments in the culture are, — 1. climate ; frods in the lpring dedroy the leaves, and, if at a critical time, there is no remedy. I demanded if they had no fuccedaneum, in fuch cafe, in feeding SILK. 3 2 feeding the worms with the leaves of fome other plants ? The anfwer was, that experiments had been made upon that point, without any fuccefs ; that the idea, however, was nonfenfe, for the quantity of food was fo great, as to render it ab- furd to think of providing it, not for a certain want, but merely a contingent one ; the cxpence of fuch a conduct would abforb all the profit. Nor is it frods only that are dreaded — great and fudden heats make the worms fall, and they labour very poorly. 2. The extreme labour of attending the worms, is a great objection to the bufinefs; it is, for the lad fifteen days, fo fevere, as to kill many ; and, for the lad eight days, they are cleaned every day. Upon a comparifon of the culture of the olive and the mulberry, it was re- marked to me, that one great advantage of the olive, was the contracted fpace in which the roots feed, confiding chiefly of a tap-root and fibres, which made the crops fown under them good ; but a mulberry threw out a profufion of roots, fifteen or twenty feet around, in every direction. They have been known, at eleven years growth, to yield 200 lb of leaves each tree. The mulberry is found not to like water ; for there is in the watered meadows a mound of earth, to keep the water from the roots of thefe trees. When filk-worms are ready to fpin the cocoon, if they are cut in halves and thrown into vinegar, each worm gives two traniparent ligaments, very drong, for making fifhing lines, &c. &c. Loriol. — Mont. L’Abbe Berenger, cure of this place, has given an uncommon attention to this culture 5 he was fo obliging as to give me the relult of many years experience on this intereding fubjeCt. Time of Sowing. — There are two feafons ; the fird, with the fruit, frefih, at the end of June : — the fecond in May, with the feed of lad year, dry ; and this is better, becaufe the June fowing differs fometimes, if frods are fevere, or the weather is both cold and humid. When fown dry, if too early and cold weather fucceeds, they are apt to fail. They are often watered. T ranfplantation . — In April following, thofe that were fown in May are tranf- planted, three feet every way, into the nurfery ; only half the plants (the bed) being drawn, the red are left till the year after. They are never tranfplanted a fecond time. Sort .— 1 The f entile roje , with white or grey fruit, is the bed; black fruit not known here, but faid to be good for leafing late, and efcaping frods in the fpring. Grafting .— It is bed to graft, in the nurfery, in May, when they are three years old, at the head, with grafts cut in February preceding, and preferved in fand in a cellar: thefe grafts are branches three feet long, which are buried in land, except four inches at the end, for three or four knots to Ihoot; if all are SILK. 33 are buried in the fand, all the knots will (hoot. At grafting cut off thofe knots that have (hot out, and ufe the reft. The time is after gathering the leaves of the ftandard to be grafted, when the plants are 5 feet, or 5 1 feet high. One year after grafting tranfplant, that is, about April. Graft three or four branches. Soil . — Good and humid fands, and fandy loams are the beft: warm, forward, rich, and friable: rocky and ftoney foils do well ; but all clays are bad. On the lighted ftoney lands, the trees come into bearing much fooner than in the rich vale, but thefe laft vaftly longer ; on the rich vale land, two hundred years are a common age for them. Planting . — In bad land plant at eighteen feet fquare, in moderate at twenty- four, and in very good at thirty-fix ; and, after feven or eight years, there can be no crops under them, if at thefe diftances. There are two forts of trees, the one large ftandards ; and the others dwarf ones, which they call murier nain ; an arpent contains, of courfe, many more in number of thefe than of the others; and they yield, for the firft ten or fifteen years, a larger produce, but afterwards the greater trees are more produ&ive. The 4 warfs are beft for being fet in rows, for ploughing between ; they are grafted at i| feet high ; are never watered. The price of trees 2 $f. the hundred, at the age of one or two years ; the great trees, at four or five years, for grafting, 20 f. each, at pre- sent 1 5/ each, and grafted. The operation of planting is performed by digging a hole 6 feet fquare, and 2f or 3 feet deep; and they commonly lay dung upon the roots. Cultivation .— The attention with which they manage the trees after planting, merits the higheft commendation -.— after they have been planted two years, a trench is dug around each tree, about two feet deep, which is left open all winter, and filled up again in the fpring ; the year following another is dug, more removed from the tree, which is managed in the fame manner; and fo on every year a trench, till the whole land is ftirred as far as the roots extend. This appears to be a moft excellent fyftem, and preferable to trenching the ground at firft ; as in that way much of it is confolidated again, before the roots of the voung trees reach it. No crops whatever to be Town on the land after the trees are of a fize to have their leaves gathered ; as much is loft in leaves as is gained by fuch crops. The trees ihould never be pruned at any other fealon than March, and but once in two years ; the wood pays the expence : they receive one digging per annum, at 6 iiv. and a hoeing, at 3 liv. per arpent. There is another admirable practice known here, and ufed by all (kilful cul- tivators, which is, that of walhing the ftems of the trees every year, in May, Vol.II. F for 34 $ I L K. for four or five years after planting. Monf. L’Abbe Bere-nger always pra&ifes this with great fuccefs. Produce . — For the benefit of the young trees, they ought not to be ftripped for feven or eight years after planting into the field:; they will pay well after- wards for this forbearance; but the pra&ice is not common. I viewed a young plantation of Monf. Blanchard, at prefent in the National Aftembly, who is famous for his attention to his mulberries ; the trees were fix, (even* and eight years old, and none of them had ever been ftripped, and their appearance was very fiourifhing. Monf. L’Abbe Berenger approves the practice, but has not adhered to it; his trees, however, are very fine, and do not complain; one plantation, of eight or ten years growth, that have conftantly been ftripped, are, notwithffanding, very fine. There are forty on 400 toifes of land, that this year produced, each tree, 81 b. of leaves. The beginning of February he planted the land under them with potatoes, which were dug in Auguft, and produced 40 quintals ; among thefe potatoes maiz was planted in April, in fquares of five or fix feet, and the produce of that will be five or fix quintals, at 8 liv. the quintal. He (hewed me another plantation, of an arpent, of very fine and flourishing dwarf trees, which yielded this year 8 lb. of leaves each tree, and 300 lb. on the arpent. They are ten years old; no crops have ever been fown under them. The produce of leaves may be eftimated at 50 lb. from a tree of a toife fquare. The greateft produce known is 10 quintals, from a tree of fifty years old. At twenty years the medium is two quintals. They increafe till fixty years old ; but are in good perfection at twenty. Fhe eggs. — A paper of nine inches by fifteen inches, covered with fmall leaves, ftuck full of worms, gives one quintal of cocoons ; and this is what they call one ounce of grains . But proportions will not hold, for the produce is not in- creafed proportionably to an increafe of quantity. Hatching . — Retarding the hatching of the worms with particular views, is, in many circumftances, impofiible. When once the heat of the atmofphere is come to a certain pitch, the hatching cannot be retarded by cellars. Monf. Faujas remarked, that in June they would hatch in an ice-houfe; which (hews that at a certain age they will hatch in fpite of cold. They never, however, trufi to the natural heat for hatching them, which always does it too (lowly ; it is done with the afliftance of fire, and in the month of May. They begin to hatch at 20 to 22 degrees (Reaumur) ; but artificially it is done at 24 degrees. When the eggs happen to have been put in a cellar, at 10 degrees, their com- mon temperature, they afterwards hatch with difficulty, and never well; always beft when they have to undergo but a moderate change. Feeding* SILK. 35 Feeding''— In this bufinefs all forts of food, except the mulberry-leaf, is re- jected, at the firft mention, as the moft ridiculous, impracticable, and impoffible idea, that ever entered the head of a vifionary ; and never could be conceived but by thofe only who amufe themfelves with a few worms, without taking the the trouble of calculating quantity, expence, and quality of filk. For one ounce of grain, a room of iofeet by 14 feet, and 12 feet high, is ne- ceflary ; but the larger the better, and with windows only to the north. There ihould be ten tables, or fhelves, 6 feet long, and \\ feet broad, one 18 inches above another; the firft expence of which 60 liv. Till the 1 8th of April there is here no fecurity againft frofts. Two years ago there were many leaves before that day, and moft people began their ope- rations; the leaves were all cut oft 7 , and they loft the year entirely, for it is three weeks before the leaves come again. Monf. L’Abbe Berenger would not truft appearances; did not begin tilT after that day, and had as good a year as at any other time. The expences are ufually borne between the parties, and amount to half the produce, not including the keeping the utenfils in repair. But if they are paid i by the owner of the mulberries, fome of them amount to as follow gathering the leaves, 12/ to 15/ the quintal; for gathering the dwarfs, only half the price of the others ; wood, 1 5 liv. for 1, 2, or 3 oz. of eggs in one room ; 30 liv. for 6 oz. becaufe in two rooms ; 22 liv. 10/. for labour in the houfe ; fpinnmg, 40 f. per lb. of filk. The wafte is worth 20/ therefore the expence is 20/ For the laft four or five days, eight men are necefifary to gather leaves for 20 oz. of grain, their voracity being incredible the latter part of the time* The price of the leaves, if bought, is 4 liv. to 5 liv. the quintal, never at 3 liv. but has been at 10 liv. From 15 to 18 quintals of leaves give one quintal of cocoons, and one of cocoons gives 91b. of filk. Cocoons are fold at 2 6/. the pound; filk, on an average, at 19 liv. The leaves, difledted by the worms, are dried, and kept for hogs, fheep, &c. being worth 4 liv. the quintal; and an ounce of grain yields two quintals of fuch: and the dung of the worms, from an ounce, is worth 4 liv. more, being excellent; the beft indeed of all others. Two brothers here, Meflrs. Cartiers have had as far as 80 quintals of cocoons. Monf. Berenger’s three hundred trees on an arpent, at 8 lb. of leaves each, are 24 quintals; and, at 4 liv. the quintal, amount 1096 liv.; and as 16 quintals of leaves give 91b. of filk, at 19 liv. it is 171 liv. and for 24 quintals 256 liv. the half of which is 128 liv.; hence, therefore, to fell the leaves at 4 liv. the quintal, does not anfwer equally with half the produce (128 liv. per arpent de Paris, is 61 . 4s. 3d. per Englifh acre). Provence. — Avignon,— At ten years growth the mulberries yield a con- siderable produce; at that age they give ioolb. to 1501b. of leaves, but not F 2 common. 36 SILK. common. For one ounce of grain, five or fix very large trees are neceffary ; or, if the leaves are bought, to the amount of 24 liv. to 30 liv. The ounce will give from 40 lb. to 50 lb. of cocoons, or 51b. °f fil^J but more commonly i2lb. of cocoons for 1 lb. of filk. Gathering the leaves, lof. or 12 /. the quintal, one with another, dwarfs and ftandards. The wafte pays the fpin- ning. Aix. — Mulberries, beyond all comparifon, more profitable than olives ; will give 3 liv. or 4 liv. per tree, more regularly than olives will io/T; but the great plantations of olives are on barren rocks that will not do for mulberries. Tour d' Aigues. — One ounce of grain requires 15 quintals of leaves, and gives 50 lb. of cocoons ; that is, 50 lb. in a fmall undertaking, like the houfe of a poor family; but not more than 30 lb. in a large building. Monf. the Prefidenthas, however, had 75 oz. of grain that gave 4° lb. one with another : 14 lb. of cocoons give ilb. of organzine filk. On good land, twenty trees, of ten years old, will give 15 quintals of leaves. The wafte, with the addition of 1 of, per lb. will pay the fpinning. Wood is \if. the quintal, and i| quintal will wind and fpin 1 lb. of lilk : and one quintal of charcoal will make 31b. of filk. The common calculation is 10 quintals of charcoal for 1 oz. of grain. Labour and fuel, 40/ per lb. of filk, exclufive of gathering the leaves; but the common method is to find the trees and the grain, and give hah the pro- duce for all the reft. The whole bufinefs, exclufive of winding and fpinning, employs exactly a month. Hyeres. — This article is here but little regarded ; the number is not con- fiderable, nor do they pay nearly the fame attention to them as in Dauphine. A tree of twenty years pays about 30 yC; and fome, of a very great fize and age, 6 liv. . . Frejus. — Clofe without the town, on the banks of a fmall canal of irrigation, are five or fix of the largeft mulberries I have feen, growing clofe to the water s edge; from which it fhould appear, that they have here none of that objection to water which was mentioned to me at Montelimart. F fir elles. — At the inn here there is a mulberry-tree which yields black fruit, and leaves of a remarkable fize. I alked the mafter, if he ufed them for filk- wcrms ? Never , he replied, they are no better for them than elm , oak , or pine leaves: it is the white mulberries that are jor worms. So inaccurately under- ftood is this point, even in the filk countries ; for in Languedoc they told me, all forts were given indifcriminately. This tree would be worth 2 or 3 louis a year. To these notes, taken by myfelf, I fhali add a few others, for the more general elucidation of the fubjedt. Languedoc SILK. 37 Languedoc yields, in a common year, from 500 to 1200 quintals of filk*. I have fearched books in vain for information of the quantity of filk produced in all France; but I find the number of looms which work it, by one account, 29,000+, of which 18,000 at Lyons; but by a later and more authentic ac- count, there were at Lyons only 9335 looms, which worked about 2,ooo,ooolb. J and in all France 17,500 looms; which, in the fame proportion, would work about 3,763,0001b. In 1784, (he imported raw filk to the value of 29,500, oooliv. and in 1787, to 28,220,000 liv.; call it 29 millions, and 20 liv. the mean price per lb. it is 1 ,450,000! b.||; which will leave about 2,310,0001b. for the home produce, or 46,200,oooliv. which is fo grofs an impoflibility, as to afcertain to a certainty, the exaggeration of the number of looms, and confirms, in a frefh in- ftance, the many errors in the new Encyclopaedia. If Languedoc produces only loo,ooclb. all the reft of the kingdom cannot produce twenty times as much ; for the culture is confined to three or four provinces, except fmall quantities, that enter for little in a general account. I was informed, at Lyons, that the home growth was about a million of pounds weight, of two-thirds of the value of the imported per lb. or about 20 liv. This makes the growth to the value of 20,000, oooliv. or 875,0001. If fo, Languedoc muft produce more than ioo,ooolb. for that province mull be at leaft one-fourth, if not one-third of the whole. I muft confefs I have my doubts upon this point, and think that even one million of pounds much exaggerated, for I crofted the filk country in more than one direction, and the quantity of trees appeared inconfiderable for any fuch produce. But admitting the authority, and ftating that the kingdom does produce to the amount of 8 or 900,0001. fterling, I muft remark, that the quantity is ftrangely inconfiderable, and feems to mark, that the climate has fomething in it vaftly inferior to that of Italy, for the production of this commodity ; in which coun- try there are little principalities that give more than the whole kingdom of F' ranee ;— yet, to human feelings, there is no comparifon between the climate cf France and that of Italy ; the former is better, beyond all queftion. But the fpring frofts (found in Italy alfo) are what bring thegreateft deftruClion on this culture, and will for ever retard its progrefs greatly in countries expofed to them. In 1788, there was a general failure in the fouth of France, yet acrofs the Pyrenees, in Catalonia, the crop was abundant, merely becaufe the fpring frofts did not pafs thofe mountains. * Confederations fur le Commerce de Bretagne , par Monf. Pinczon du Sel des Monf. i2mo. p. 5. 4 Lettre fur les Muriers & Pers a foie 'Journal Oeconomique. 1756. vol, ii. p. 36* 4 Encyclop . Methodique Manuf. tom. ii. pt. 2. p. 44. 1 A very late writer was ftrangely miftaken, in faying, that France imports 20,000,000 of pounds weight. Mr, Townjhend’ s Journey through Spain y vol. i. p. 52. In S I L K. 38 In the diftriCts and fpots of the foathern provinces, where the climate has, from experience, been found favourable to filk, there is no want of exertion in following it ; and about Loriol and Montelimart, it is cultivated with more energy than in any part of Lombardy, yet at fmall diftances there are no mul- berries, though the proprietors are as rich and as induftrious as where they are found. The fame obfervation is to be made every where, and feems to mark a great dependence even on the locality of climate, if I may hazard fuch an ex- preffion. Where the culture fucceeds well, it appears, from the preceding mi- nutes, to be highly profitable, and to form one of the moft beneficial objects that can attract the attention of the induftrious. The Society of Arts at London, have, for many years, offered premiums for mulberries and filk in England ; and much has been written and argued in fa- vour of the fcheme, which I take to be a great, but harmlefs folly: it may mif- lead and decieve a few ingenious fpeculative people, who may, for what 1 know, in the courfe of a century, arrive at fuch fuccefs as the late King of Pruffia boafted, that of making a few thoufand pounds of miferably bad filk, after forty years exertion. Such fuccefs is a real lofs; for the fame attention, time, capital, and encouragement, given to productions natural to the climate, would have made twenty times, perhaps an hundred times, the return. That filk may be made in England I have no doubt ; but it will be made on the fame principles, and attended by the fame dead lofs. The duke of Belleifle made filk, in Nor- mandy, and if he had been a great fovereign, his hundreds would have been thoufands of pounds ; but all was lofs, and, therefore, the fooner it dropped the better. Another duke failed, not quite fo much, in the Anguomois; and a third planted mulberries to lofs on the Garonne ; his neighbours did the fame, but grubbed them up again becaufe they did not anfvver. At Tours, thefineft climate of France for fruits, and by confequence well adapted for mulberries, they fucceed tolerably, but the culture does not increafe, which carries with it a prefumption, that more fteady heat in fpring is wanted than the nothern pro- vinces of France enjoy. Such circumftances bear with great force againft any ideas of filk in England, where the heat is never fteady; and leaft of all in fpring , where late frofts cut off vegetables much hardier than the mulberry, even fo late as the end of May and beginning of June; and where I have feen potatoes turned black by them, even on Midfummer day. 1 he minutes are invariably decifive, on the queftion of feeding worms with any thing but mulberry leaves ; the utter impracticability of that fcheme is fhevvn in a manner too fatisfaCtory for any doubts to remain ; and the difficulty of retarding the hatching of the worms beyond a certain period, though not proved with equal decifion, is yet placed in a light not a little queftionable. It is upon thefe two modifications of the common practice, that filk in England confefledly depends; one S I L K. 39 one of them- is a vague groundlefs theory ; and the other too uncertain to be relied on. But I muft further remark, that frofts, in fuch a climate as Eng- land, as well as abroad, are to be looked for after the leafing of the mulberry; and confequently, that the power of retarding the hatching of the eggs would be ufelefs ; the worms in that cafe muft be put upon other food, which, with fmall parcels, would make bad filk, and with large ones would demand an ex- pence impoflible to fubmit to every year for a mere contingency that might be demanded only once in three or four. To urge the example of Brandenbourg is idle: in the firft place, all continental climates are more regular than infular , ones, and therefore the climate of the King of Pruflia’s dominions may be better for the bufinefs ; yet with this advantage Normandy failed. In 1788, that is* after forty years exertion, they made, in all the Prufiian territories, 11,000 lb.* of pounds lighter than French ones. And the author I quote on this fubjed, who commends the proje d, informs us, that in Brandenbourg, to make a pound of filk, demands one-fourth more cocoons than in the fouth of France ■f' ; and that the filk thus made, is fo bad, that it will do only for certain objeds J ; of the climate he fays, that it is. not favourable enough § for the bufinefs. What encouragement is to be collected from this detail, when it is confidered that forty years effort of the firft talents in the world, feconded by boundlefs power, forcing plantations and lavifhing premiums, have been able to drive this nail, that will not go but againft nature, to no greater extent than 11,000 lb. of bad filk in all the Prufiian dominions? In my opinion, the refult of fuch an ex- periment yields a more complete condemnation, than if it had never been tried at all in iuch a climate, and ought to be a lefion to us in England, not obfti- nately to perfift in fuch foolifh attempts, calculated only to bring ridicule on fo- cieties, and difappointment to individuals. In all probability, the filk made in Prufiia coft every year ten times more than it is worth ; that is to fay, the fame royal attention, the fame premiums, the fame favours, as giving trees and filk eggs, — the fame powerful inftigations to redors and curees of the crown livings, &c. — had they been exerted to people the heaths of Brandenbourg with iheep, would have yielded, in wool alone, ten times the value of 11,000 lb. of filk; which, if we value it 12s. a pound, being fo inferior, amounts only to 6600I.; — a pretty article of produce for forty years efforts of the moft energic govern- ment in Europe ! 50,000 Iheep, at 3s. a head in wool, go much beyond it, throwing mutton out of the queftion. An idle error in England, is the idea that this culture demands the labour only of women and children, and old and infirm perfens : the contrary appears * Mirabeau Monarch, Frujf, tom. i. p. 180. f Tom. ii. p. 16 6. X Tom. i. p. 180. § Tom. ii. p. 166, the SILK. 40 the fa&; eight men are neceifiary for gathering the leaves for twenty ounces of grain, during four or five days, when the worms are mod ravenous : and the work of gathering is that of men at all times; for the leaves are not picked, hut ftripped along a branch, by force and hardnefs of hand. And even the feeding and cleaning worms is fo far from being light work, that it is, on the contrary, very fevere, fo as even to kill fomeof the poor people that follow it up ; as the induftrious will follow up all work feverely. The culture is therefore very far from what it has been reprefented in England, as being all net profit, demand- ing only women, children, and the infirm; on the contrary, it would demand many able men, at a bufy feafon of the year, when they could be ill fpared ; and if a propofal was to be made at fuch a feafon to a farmer, that he muft fpare men enough to gather all the leaves of many hundred pollard trees of any fort, he would probably fay the price of mulberry leaves in the filk countries would not pay him ; and that double that price would not be an inducement to him, at fuch a feafon, to derange his bufinefs, and take his men from neceflary work, for employing them on fuch a bufinefs. If it is afked, how the fame thing can be done in filk countries ? I anfwer, that labour is but half the price of Englifh labour, owing to caufes explained in other chapters ; that the multiplied fubdivifion of landed property fills many of thofe countries with hands, — many idle, and many not half employed. To them the culture is highly valuable; but to introduce it in a country, even if the climate would permit, conftituted and politically arranged, in a manner and upon principles abfolutely contrary, would be attended with difficulties and expences, not in the contemplation of people very ingenious, perhaps, who have amufed themfelves with filk-worms, and paid an attention to them, being a pleafure, which, if commercially valued, would poflibly amount to fifty times the value of all the filk they make. CHAP. CATTLE. 4 * CHAP. XII. 0/ Cattle in France. Tp VERY part of agriculture depends fo immediately on the quantity of live flock, that a farming traveller cannot give too much attention to fo material a part of his purfuit. The candid reader will not, however, look to any tra- veller, that does not refide long in a place, for fuch information, as is alone to be acquired by fuch refidence. He who flays a week will gain knowledge beyond the attainment of a day ; and the attention of a month will produce fruits beyond the reach of him whofe obfervations are limited to a week, and yet remain very fuperficial, when compared with the reiearches of others who live on the fpot. A mere traveller fhould gain what his opportunities allow, and what he is thus able to gain is not the less valuable, becaufe larger powers would have com- manded a greater harveft. Pays de Beauce. — Toury , &c. — Their befl cows fell at 150 liv.; they give twelve or thirteen bottles a day. Orleans .—-'They have a remarkable cuflom of letting chick-weed get a head in their vineyards, which they pluck in May and dry. This they boil in water with bran for their cows, giving it thrice a day, and find that it makes them give double the quantity of milk they would do on any other food. This ap- plication of a common plant, that might eafily be cultivated, and got off" time enough for a crop of turnips, probably improving the land, deferves a trial. The fad: is curious. Sologne. — To LaFerte. — Make hay of the weeds of their vineyards, and are the chief rupport of their cows ; do not boil, but give them in bran and water. In fummer feed with grafs and vine cuttings. — A cow, that gives one to three bottles a day, fells at 90 liv. La Fuze her. The cows fmall, and very like Alderneys. Plough bullocks of the fame breed. Berry. Verfon. — A pair of oxen, ready to work, fell at 400 liv. ( 17I. 10s.); and when old and paft labour, but lean, 300 to 340 liv. Argentan. A good pair of oxen fell at 400 liv.; common ones 300 liv.; very fine to 600 liv. (26I. 5s.) All the cattle here are cream coloured, as w'ell as the droves we have met going to Paris. — A cow, not the largeft, fells at icoliv. (6l.ns.3d.) 3 v °l. II. G La 42 CATTLE. LaMarche. — To Boifinande.— Very fine bullocks, well made, and in great order, 600 liv. (26I. 5s.) the pair. Thefe oxen are of a beautiful form; their backs firait and flat, with a fine fpringing rib ; clean throat and leg; felt well; and are in every refpedt fuperior to many breeds we have in England. La Ville Aubrun. — Work their cows, but they do not give as much milk as if not worked. A good one fells, with its calf, at 150 liv. (61. 1 is. 3d.) They fatten oxen here with raves , a fort of turnip ; begin to ufe them in O&ober or November, and laft generally about three months. To fatten a pair of good oxen would take 45 cart loads, cut in pieces, and 20 quintals of hay : when the raves are done, they give the flour of rye or other corn, with water enough added to form apafte ; this they leave four or five days to become four, and then they di- lute it with water, thicken it with cut chaff, and give it to the oxen thrice a day ; when fed with raves the oxen do not want to drink. Such a detail would imply a turnip culture of fome importance, but though hoeing is not abfolutely un- known, yet the turnips may be conjectured, from the common management, being never to hoe, fearing to cut up the crop by it. The young plant is fame- times eaten by the fly, in which cafe they fow again ; frofl: fomtimes damages the roots, but never deftroys them entirely. Often fow wheat after them, and do not cultivate clover ; thus three-fourths of the merit of the culture is lofl. Baffle. — Their raves yield, according to the year, two or three cart loads per boiferee of land, about eight of which make an Englifh acre. A pair of good oxen will eat a cart load in two days, but have hay with them : they are as fond of this root as horfes are of oats: they finifh with flour of rye, mixed as before-mentioned : they aflert that the oxen like it the better for being four, rand that it anfwers better in fatting them. They eat about a boifeau a day (weighs 22lb.) and never give this acid liquor without chopped hay. It is pro- per here to remark, that, in coming to Paris, we have met a great many droves of thefe oxen, to the amount, I guefs, of from twelve to fifteen hundred, and that they were, with few exceptions, very fat ; and, confidering the feafon. May, the moft difficult of the year, they were fatter than oxen are commonly feen in England, in the fpring. I handled many fcores of them, and found them an excellent breed, and very well fattened. Limousin.— To Limoges . — A pair of good oxen will eat a cart load of raves a day ; begin to feed the end of OClober : after the raves, give rye-pafte as de- feribed above, but with the addition of a leve?i flevain ) to thepafte, to quicken the fermentation, and make it quite four : at firfl the oxen will not drink it, but they are ftarved to it ; ufually take it the fecond day, and after they have begun like it much, and never leave a drop. Saw a pair bought laft winter for 1100 liv. (48I. 2s. 6d.); but fuch as are ready for work, fell as dear as fat ones, which is remarkable. An arpent of raves yields forty cart loads ; and a pair of good oxen will CATTLE. 43 will eat one load a day. They have two kinds; one very large and flat; the other more round, and with a root that enters the ground deeply. They gene- rally manure thoroughly for them, in March, and plough in fo early, that the dung may be quite rotten and mixed with the foil by the end of June. Begin to fow a fortnight after Midfummer : they are not hurt by the frofl: when it thaws with rain, but are apt to rot when it thaws with the fun. About Chrift- mas they plough up the part eaten, and fow rye, the refl for oats. — They plough their cows, milking them once a day, from three to five bottles. Limoges. — The great fiaple of the whole province is fat cattle, fent to Paris and other towns, as well as hogs, that go for faking to the fea ports. The cat- tle are all of a yellow cream colour, with no other diftin&ion than having, one in an hundred perhaps, a tendency to a blood red : all have horns of a medium length ; legs fliort in proportion to their carcafles, which are deep and heavy ; the fhape in general very good ; the back ftrait and broad; the rib fpringing, and confequently well arched ; the hips and rumps very fat ; the tail rifing high from the rump; which I note, not becaufe fuch points are of real importance, but becaufe it is efteemed by fome as a proof of a bad breed : the weight I guefs to be from fixty to feventy done (141b.); fome rife to eighty, and a very few may be fo low as fifty. Their hogs are many of them large : fome with lop ears like our old Shropfifire’s. St. George. — The fame breed of oxen continues here, but hardly fo large ; they are always kept in high order : a pair draws the weight commonly of 2coolb. and fupports fuch labour well. They rear calves by keeping them eight or ten months with the cows. JJfarch. — Fatten their oxen with raves, as above, and then with rye-flour, made into a pafle with leaven, and given four, as before deferibed. They alfo fatten fome with potatoes, mixed with cheflnuts, and alfo alone ; but in either cafe boiled thoroughly, and given frefh as boiled every day. They have a great opinion of their fattening quality: they feed their cows alfo with this root, and find that it gives a great increafe of milk. — Calves reared, either for oxen or cows, fuck ten or twelve months, which is the univerfal practice. Quercy. — Brive to Creff'enfac. — A practical farmer, that has the largefl: oxen I had met with, gave me the following account : — they fatten with maiz, but, in order to render it tender, pour boiling water on it, cover it up dole, and give it to the cattle the fame day ; and in this method it is a moft excellent fattener, both of oxen and poultry. But, in order to make them fatten looner and better, this farmer gives them, every night, and fometimes of a morning, a ball of pork-greafe, as large as an apple ; he fays this is both phyfick and food, and makes them thrive the better. G 2 To 44 CATTLE. To Soulliac .—Fat their oxen here alfo with raves, and give them alfo to lean beads ; the mader of the poll town were we hopped fays, that he fent lad year to Paris, four raves that weighed ioolb. They foil their oxen with crops of the vicia latharoides , and of the lathyrus fetifolius ; of thefe plants he ipoke fo highly, when given in the foiling way, in the liable, that he laid the oxen be- came fo fat, that they could not get out of the liable if they were not worked. He (hewed me fome oxen that did not allow a doubt of the truth of what he faid, for they were as fat as bears. The fadt of hog’s greafe being given, was here confirmed; it is given to increafe the appetite, and anfwers fo well, that the beads perfectly devour their food after it, and their coats become fmooth and fhining. The mod fattening food they know for a bullock, is walnut oil- cake. All here give fait plentifully, to both cattle and dieep, being but i/a pound. Put this practice is, more or lefs, univerfal through the whole kingdom. Cahors. — Nearly all the draft cattle are mules, and yoked as oxen in England, only collars to the yoke indead of bows. Cows and oxen all cream-coloured; very good, and in fine order. Languedoc. — TouJoufe. — Very fine cream-coloured horned oxen; a pair good working ones fell at 25 louis. St. Gaudents. — Price 120 liv. (5I. 5s.); in the winter kept in dables, and fed upon hay. Bagnere de Luchon. — Every parifh in thefe mountains has common padures for their cattle and fheep, and each inhabitant has a right to fend as many as they can feed in winter. They are on the mountains three or four months, under the care of people who milk the cows, goats, and ewes, and give the proprietor, at the end of the period, two cheefes, of 1 81b. for each cow ; or four goats ; or ten ewes; the price of the cheefe is $f. the lb. but 10 f. at a year old, and the overplus, if any, is their reward. A cow is reckoned to pay above 2 louis a year, valuing the calf, as they do, at a louis. A pair of cows, dout enough to be worked, fell at 10 to 12 louis ; and a pair of oxen 12 to 15 louis. Basque.— Informed by a gentleman, at Bagnere de Luchon, that the moun- tains in this province afford a very great fupply of food, in dimmer, for cattle, which are fent to winter on the landes of Bourdeaux, where they jud get a living on weeds, rough grafs, branches of trees, &c.; and that they pay only a head for wintering thefe cattle, which is perfectly incredible; but I note it as reported. He alfo informs me, that thofe mountains of Bafque, and alfo of Navarre, breed mod of the oxen that I faw in Limoufin ; they are fold thither calves ; and are all cream-coloured, or yellowilh. Languedoc.— Pinjean to Montpelier.— Ploughing with fine large oxen, in good order; fome cream-coloured, others deep red; middling horns. The fame CATTLE. 45 fame breed has been found all the way, almoft from the Loire to Barcelona ; and from Calais to the Loire, variations of the fhort-borned Alderney, or Norman cow. Bearn . — Navarens. — Cream-coloured cows, ioo liv. to 120 liv. Gascoign.— St. Palais to Anfpan. — In 1786, on thefe mountains, the fcarcity of forage being very great, they cut much fern and made hay of it, and it an- fwered well ; horfes, mules, and young cattle, eat it freely ; but it was cut early. Through this country, and nearly to Bayonne, they fatten oxen with raves, which they cultivate carefully for an after-crop. They anfwer perfectly well, without other food being given ; when the raves are done, they fometimes give maiz-flour, but dry, knowing nothing of the Limoufin method. Port St. Marie. — Very fine cream-coloured oxen. Aguillon. — Ditto, very fine and beautiful. Lonnium to La Morte Landron. — As we advance on the Garonne, the oxen are yet finer; meet common ones at 6oo liv. and 700 liv. the pair ; but fome very fine that rife to 1000 liv. and 1200 liv. (52I. 10s.) as they are in the plough ; all are, however, in fine order, and many fat. Breed their own cattle ; a pretty- good cow fells at 250 liv.; harnefs and work them as oxen, but gently while they r give milk. La Re'ole.— Work their cows : put oxen to work at three years old, and keep them to it four, eight, and even ten years, according as they are found fit for it. Rife in price to 1200 liv. the pair. The leaf! weight they are put to draw, is 20 quintals (a ton Englifh) a pair ; but good oxen draw 30 quintals with eafe : all harnefied by the horns; they are fed now upon maiz leaves, which are fo excellent a food for them, that it is fown in fucceflion thickly for mowing for foiling. Give alfo at prefent vine leaves, which are very good food. See them fhoe an ox ; they are fattened by the horns in a (hoeing ftall, and lifted from the ground, if wanted, by two broad bands of hemp, that pafs under the belly. The (hoe turns over the toe, or hoof, as in England; fhoe for ploughing as well as for the road. Barjac. — Oxen, through all this country, where they are found fine, are dreffed as regularly every day as horfes. Angoumois. — Barbefieux to Petignac.'—* Cream-coloured oxen; 20 louis to 25 louis the pair. Poi t ou>— Poitiers.— Red-coloured oxen, with a black tinge in the head; the fign of the Poitou breed. Cbateaurault.~~G ood cream-coloured and red oxen, but they have declined fince Bourdeaux. The good ones here fell at 25 louis the pair. They plough with a pair, without driver or reins. Amboife. — Cream-coloured, and fome blackifh; and, which (hews we are got to the Loire, fome Norman ones, with mixtures. This great river is the feparatioa CATTLE. 46 reparation of breeds in a remarkable manner. All the way from Tours, to Blois, they raife raves for cows and oxen, but never hoe them ; and the fcale not at all refpecftahle. Pet biers.— Cows quite the Norman breed, and the earth tilled by horfes. Isle of France. — Liancourt.— Exceedingly deficient. Some poor ill fed cows upon the commons were all that I faw, except the Dutchefs of Liancourt’s dairy of Swifs cows. Of oxen and fatting beads they have none. Very fine fat beef appeared at table, which came from Paris, I think. Brajjeufe.— Madame la VifcountefTe duPont’s dairy of cows fed entirely with lucerne, and the butter excellent ; I admired it much, and found the manufac- ture quite different from the common method. The milk is churned inffead of the cream. Her dairy-maid is from Bretagne, a province famous for good dairy- maids. The evening’s milk and the morning’s are put together, and churned as foon as the latter is milked; the proper quantity of fait is added in the churn, and no walking or making in water, which thefe dairy-maids hold to be a very bad method. Finer butter, of a more delicate flavour, was never tailed, than procured by this method from lucerne. Comerle en Vexin. — This part of the province is famous for fatting calves for the Paris market. I had gathered fome circumflances at Marenne, and they were confirmed here. All is known at Paris under the name of Pontoife veal, but it comes chiefly from this country. The farmers here are moffly, if not all, in the fyftem of fuckling. The cows are of the Norman fhort-horned breed, nearly refembling our Alderney; thofe of three confiderable farmers, whofe herds I viewed, were fo unexceptionably. The management of their cows is to keep them tied up conflantly, as far as food is concerned, but turned out every day for air and exercise, during which time they pick up what the bare paflures yield. Their food is given in the houfes, being foiled on lucerne, fain- foin, or clover, mown frefh every day, while they give milk, but hay and flraw in winter. The calves alfo are, in general, tied up in the fame houfe; thofe I faw, both cows and calves, were all littered ; but they feemed to have fo little attention to keep them clean, that I enquired the reafon; and was told, that they are fometimes fuffered to reft on their dung till it rifes high, by the addition of freLh ftraw, but that no inconvenience is found from it. Flaving been allured that they fed their calves with eggs, for giving reputation to the veal of Pontoife, I enquired into the truth of it, and was allured that no fuch pra&ice was known ; and that the reafon of the fuperiority of the veal of Pon- toife, to that of Normandy, from which province moft of the other calves come, was limply that of tnaking them fatter by longer fucking ; whereas the Norman cuftom was to feed them with fkim milk. In this country of the Vexin, they are in the cuftom of keeping them till they are of a large fize: I faw fome of four CATTLE. 47 four months old, valued at 4I0U1S each, and that would be worth 5I0UIS in an- other month; fome have been fold at 6 louis ; and more even than that has been known. I felt one calf that fucked the milk of five cows. It was re- markable to find, that the value of many fatting calves I examined was nearly what it would be in England; I do not think there was 5 per cent, difference. They never bleed them to whiten the flefh, as is done with us. Some of the farmers here keep many cows ; Monf. Coffin, of Commerle, has forty, but his farm is the larged in all the country; the country people fay it is 20,000 liv. a year. Picardie. — St. Quintin, — All the way from Soifons hither, the cattle are fome black, and black and white, which is very uncommon in France. Cambrayto Bouchaine . — Feed their cows, and fatten oxen and cows, on car- rots. They reckon that no food is fo good, for giving much and excellent milk. For fattening an ox they flice them into bran: but they remarked, that in fattening, the great objedt was to change their food ; that a middling one, with change, would go further than a good one without ; but in fuch change, car rots rank very high. Flanders. — Valenciennes to Orchies.— Finding that they fed cattle with lin- feed-cakes, I inquired if they ufed any of their immenfe quantity of colefeed-cakes for the fame ufe ? And was afiured that they did; and that a beaft, with proper care, would fatten on them, though not fo well as on linfeed-cake ; alfo that they feed their ffieep with both. For fattening beads and for cows, they diflblve the cake in hot water, and the animal drinks, not eats it, having various other food given at the fame time, as hay, bran, &c.; for there is no point they adhere to more than always to give variety of foods to a fattening bead. Their cows, of which they are very proud, are Dutch; not large, though bigger than the Norman breed ; they are red, or red and white, with a few black ; the horns ffiort and curled inwards, forward. They are fed in the houfe the whole year round, but kept clean with die greateft attention. They boad of their butter being equal to any in the world ; and I was afiured of a cow that gave 19 liv. (i6s,7id.) in butter every nine days. 1 hey feed them with potatoes, which give excellent butter ; and with turnips, which give as bad. Cows fell at 150 liv. Bo Lille. — All the cattle tied up in houfes, as they afiured me, the year round ; I inquired into their motives for this, and they afierted, that no practice is, they think, fo wadeful as letting cattle padure abroad, as much food, or per- haps more, being fpoiled than eaten ; the raffing dung alfo is a great objedf with them, which hands dill, to their great lofs, when cattle are abroad. Their cows were now (November 4,) feeding on turnips and cabbages. In every cow houfe I fawatub of bran and water, which is their principal drink j boiled CATTLE. 48 boiled with bran in it is greatly preferred, but fome give it without boiling. Such minutiae of practice feems only poffible on a little farm, where the hands are very numerous compared with the quantity of land ; but it merits experiment to inquire, how far boiling all the water drank in winter can anfwer. Without experiment, fuch queftions are never underftood. All the cows I faw were littered, but the floors being flat, and without any ftep at the heel, they were dirty. Normandie. — NeufchateL There are dairies here that rife to fifty cows, the produce of which in money, on an average, rejecting a few of the word, is 80 to 100 liv. including calves, pigs, butter, and cheefe. In winter they feed them with ft raw ; later with hay ; and even with oats and bran ; but not the leaft idea of any green winter food. The vale from hence to Gournay is all full of dairies, and fome alfo to Dieppe. One acre of good grafs feeds a cow through the fummer. To Rouen . — Good cows give three gallons of milk a day 3 they are of the Alderney or Norman breed, but larger than fuch as come commonly to England. Pont au Denier .—Many very fine grafs inclofures, of a better countenance than any I have feen in France, without watering ; grazed by good Norman cows, larger than our Alderneys, but of the fame breed : I faw thirty-two in one field. In the height of the feafon they are always milked three times a day ; good ones give three Englhh gallons of milk a day. A man near the town that has got cows, but wants pafture, pays 10 f. a day for the pafturage of one, which is a verv high rate for cattle of this fize. Pont V Eveque . — This town is fituated in the famous Pay d’Auge, which is the diftrid of the richeft pafturage in Normandy, and indeed of all France, and for what I know of all Europe, it is a vale of about thirty-five miles long, and from half a mile to two miles over, being a flat tract of exceedingly rich land, at the bottom of two flopes of hills, which are either woods, arable, or poor land; but in fome places the pafture rifes partly up the hills. I viewed fome of thefe rich paftures, with a gentleman of Pont TEveque, Monf. Beval, who was fo good as to explain fome of the circumftances that relate to them. About this place they are all grazed by fatting oxen : the fyftem is nearly that of many of our Englifh counties. In March or April, the graziers go to the fairs of Poitou and buy the oxen lean at about 240 liv. (10I. 10s.) : they are generally cream coloured; horns of a middle length, with the tips black ; the ends of their tails black; and tan coloured about the eyes, which are the diftindions of the Poitou breed. At Michaelmas they are fat; and fent to the fair at Poifty, that is Paris : fuch as are bought in at 240 liv. lean, are fold fat at 350 to 400 liv. {15I.6S. 3d. to 171. 10s.) An acre of good pafturage carries more than one CATTLE. 49 of thefe beafts in fummer, befides winter fattening fheep. This acre is 4 verges, each 40 perches, and the perch 22 feet, or a very little better than 2 Englifh acres. The rent of the beft of thefe paftures (called herbages here) amounts to 100 liv. (4I. 7s. 6d.) per Norman acre, or nearly 2I. 3s. 9d. the Englifh; the tenant’s taxes add 14 liv. (12. 3d.) or 6s. 1 id. per L Englifh acre. The expences may be ftated thus : Rent, - Taxes, - Suppofe if ’ox fattened, bought at 240 liv. 100 liv. H 360 Intereft of that total. 474 23 497 Say, - 500 Ox and an half fat, at 375 liv. Expences, - - - - 562 500 Profit,' - 62 Which is about ll. 6s. 6d. per Englifh acre profit ; and will pay a man well, the intereft of his capital being already paid. As thefe Norman graziers are gene- rally rich, I do not apprehend the annual benefit is lefs. In pieces that are tole- rably large, a flock proportioned to the fize is turned in, and not changed till they are taken out fat. Thefe Poitou oxen are for the richefl paflures ; for land of an inferior quality, they buy beafls from Anjou, Maine, and Bretange. The fheep fed in the winter do not belong to the graziers, but are joifled ; there is none with longer wool than five inches, but the paflure is equal to the fined of Lincoln. In walking over one of thefe noble herbages, my conductor made me observe the quantity of clover in it, as a proof of its richnefs ; it was the white Dutch and the common red : it is often thus — the value of a paflure depends more on the diadelphia than on the triandria family. Lifieux . — This rich vale of the Pay d’Auge, fome years ago, was fed al- mofl entirely with cows, but now it is very generally under oxen, which are found to pay better. Whatever cows there are, are milked three times a day in fummer. T 0 Caen . — The valley of Corbon is a part of the Pay d’Auge, and faid to be the richefl of the whole. In this part, one acre, of 160 perches of 24 feet, or about (not exactly) 2? acres Englifh, fattens two oxen. Such rents are known as 200 liv. (3I. 17s. per Englifh acre) but they are extraordinary : the proportions Vol. II. H here CATTLE. 5 ° here are rather greater, and more profitable than in the former minute. They buy fome beads before Chridmas, which they keep on the pafturage alone, except in deep fnows ; thefe are forwarder in fpring than fuch as are bought then, and fatten quicker- they have alfo a few fheep. There are graziers here that are landlords of 10,000 liv. and even 20,000 liv. a year, yet 100 acres are a large farm. Bayeux . — The rich herbages about this place are employed in fattening oxen, of the Poitou breed, as before 3 bought lean, on an average, at 200 liv. and fold fat at 350 liv. Their cows are always milked thrice a day in fummer 3 the bed give 12 pots a day, or above 4 gallons, and fell at 7 or 8 louis each. JJigny to Carentan. — Much fait marfh, and very rich 3 they fat oxen 3 but I was furprifed to find many dairy cows alfo on thefe very rich lands. A cow, they fay, fometimes pays 10 louis in a year 3 giving 81 b. of butter a week, at 20 f to 30 f. a pound at fome feafons, but now (Augud 25) only 10 f. which, they fay, is ruinoully cheap. All are milked thrice a day. Others informed me that a cow gives 10. lb. a week, at the average price of 1 $f. Thefe cows refemble the Sudblk breed, in fize and brindle colour, round carcafe, and fhort leg 3 and would not be known from them but by the horns, which are of the fhort Alderney fort. The profit on fattening a cow here they reckon at 72 liv. and an ox of the larged fize 300 liv. They have alfo a common calculation, that dairy cows feed at the expence of 8/^ a day, and yield 2 of. leaving 12/T profit. It is remarkable, and cannot be too much condemned, that there are no dairies in this country : the milk is fet, and the butter made, in any common room of a houfe or cottage. Carentan . — Many oxen are bought at Michaelmas, and kept a year. They eat each in the winter 300 bottes of hay, or 50 liv. but leave 150 liv. profit, that is, they rife from 300 liv. to 450 liv. Cows pay, on an average, 100 liv. and are kept each on a verge of grafs, the rent of which is from 30 liv. to 40 liv. As the verge is 40 perches, of 24 feet, or 23,040 feet, it is equal to 96 Englifh fquare perches, which fpace pays 100 liv. or per Englifh acre 7I. 5s. 3d. 3 but all expences are to be deducted, including what the wintering cods. Here they have milk-rooms. They work oxen all the way from Bayeux, in yokes and bows, like the old Englifh ones, only fingle indead of double. Advancing 3 cows fell fo high as 10 and 12 louis. Many are milked only twice a day 3 good ones give ii or 1$ lb. of butter a day. They remark, that cows that give the larged quantity of milk do not yield the larged quantity of butter. Fat cows give much richer milk than others. Again; a good cow gives 6 pots of milk a day, which pays in butter 24 f. Three thoufand livres profit has been made by fatting thirty cows. A great number of young cattle all over the country, efpecially year olds. Bretagne* CATTLE. 5 1 Bretagne. — Rennes.— Good oxen of Poitou, 400 liv. to 600 iiv. the pair; they are harnefied by the horns. A good cow, 100 liv. Milk but twice a day. Landervijter . — I was at the fair here, at which were many cows; in general of the Norman breed, but fmall: one of the lize of a middling Alderney, 4 louis, but faid to be dear at prefent. Colour, black and white, and red and white. ^uimper.— Many black and white fmall, but well made, cows on the wafles here; a breed fomewhat diftindt from the Norman; different horns, &c. Nantes. — Many Poitou oxen; cream coloured; black eyes, tips of horns, and end of tail ; about 50 or 60 ftone fat ; all yoked by the horns. Nonant. — Much rich herbage; an acre of which feeds two oxen, to the im- provement of 160 liv. Many cows are fattened alfo; and fome milked always three times a day in fummer. To Gace.— Some very fine cream coloured oxen, of 60 ftone or more; but, in general, red and white, not Poitou. Isle of France. — Nangis . — Cows fell at 4 louis or 5 louis; oxen, half fat, from 8 louis to 11 louis. They come from Franche Compte. Champagne. — Mareuil. — Monf. Le Blanc’s Swifs cows give 18 pints, of Paris (the Paris pint is an Englifh quart) of milk per diem, and hold their milk remarkably long. He gave 40 louis for a bull and a cow. Lor ain e. — Braban. — A fmall cow, 75 liv. Alsace. — Strajbourg. — A cow, 6 louis; an ox the fame. IJjenheim . — Cows improve as you approach Franche Compte. Befort . — Good oxen, red and cream coloured, to 25 louis a pair. JJle . — Here much fmaller; and they fay the fine ones I have feen are from the mountains on the frontiers of Swififerland. Bourgogne. — Dijon to Nuys . — Small oxen in this country, and yoked by the horns. Autun to La Maifon de Bourgogne. — Good oxen drawing by the horns. Auvergne. — Clermont. — Salt given twice a day to cows that give milk. In the mountains the price of cows, 150 liv. to 200 liv.; a few, 300 liv.: an ox, from 200 liv. to 450 liv. Izoir . — A pair of good oxen, 16 louis to 18 louis, which will draw 2ooolb. The Poitevins will buy only red cattle in Auvergne, having remarked that they fatten eafier.* Vivarais. — Cojlerons. — A fmall cow, 4 louis. Provence. — The cities of Aix, Marfeilles, and Toulon, are fed by oxen, cows, and fheep, from Auvergne, which come every week ; and a few from Piedmont. • See alfo Voyage D' Auvergne -par Monf Le Grand D'AuJJy . 8vo. 1788. P. 273. H 2 Tour v CATTLE. 52 Tour d'Aigues . — A pair of good oxen, 18 louis or 20 louis. When they have done working, they are fattened with the flour of the lathyrus fativus , &c. made into pafte, and balls given frelh every night and morning ; each ox, two or three balls, as large as a man’s flft, with hay. Obfervatlons. From the preceding notes it appears, that in Normandy, the Bas Poitou, Limoufln, Quercy, and Guienne, the importance of cattle is pretty well un- de r flood ; in fome diftridts very well; and that in the pafturage part of Nor- mandy, the quantity is well proportioned to the richnefs of the country. In all the reft of the kingdom, which forms much the greater part of it, there is nothing that attracts notice. There would, in eighteen-twentieths of it, be fcarcely any cattle at all, were it not for the practice of ploughing with therm There are fome practices noted, which merit the attention even of English farmers. — 1. The Limofin and Quercy methods of fattening, by means of acid food.— —It is remarkable, that I have found hogs to fatten much better with their food become acid, than when ufed frefh.* But in England no experi- ments, to my knowledge, have been made, on applying the fame principle to oxen ; it is, however, done in the Limoufin with great fuccefs. The fubjedt is very curious, but the brevity neceflary to a traveller will not allow my pur- fuing it at prefent. 2. The pradtice in Flanders, and, in fome degree, in, Quercy, &c. of keeping cows, oxen, and all forts of cattle, confined in ftables the whole year through. — This I take to be one of the moft eorredl and pro- bably one of the moft profitable methods that can be purfued; fince, by means of it, there is a conftant accumulation of dung throughout the year, and the food is made to go much farther. 3. Milking well fed cows thrice a day, as in Normandy. — Experiments Ihould be made on the advantages of this pra&ice* which will probably be found not inconfiderable ; it is never done, either in England nor in Lombardy. Except in the provinces I have named, the management of cattle in France is a blank. On an average of the kingdom, there is not, perhaps, a tenth of what there ought to be: and of this any one muft be convinced, who reflects, that the courfes of crops throughout the kingdom are calculated for corn only* generally bread corn ; and that no attention whatever is paid to the equally im- portant object of fupporting great herds of cattle, for railing manure, by intro- ducing the culture of plants that make cattle the preparative for corn, inftead of thofe barren fallows which are a difgrace to the kingdom. This fyftem of interweaving the crops which fupport the cattle, among thofe of corn, is the pillar * Annals of Agriculture , vol. i. p. 340. CATTLE. 53 pillar of English hufbandry; without which our agriculture would be as mi- ferable and as unproductive as that of France. The importance of grafs in fuch views, is little underflood in France; but in proportion as corn is the ultimate objeCt, fhould be the attention that is paid to grafs. England, by the immenfe extent of her paftures, has a prodigious preparation always ready for corn, if it was demanded. He who has grafs can, at any time, have corn ; but he who has corn, cannot at any time have grafs, which demands one or two years ac- curate preparation. In proportion to your grafs, is the quantity and mafs ot your improvements ; for few foils, not laid to grafs, are at their lafl ftage of improvement. The contrary of all this takes place in France; and there is little appearance, from the complexion of thofe ideas which are at prefent fafhionable there, that the kingdom will be materially improved in this respect : the prejudices in favour of fmall farms, and a minute divifion of property, and the attention paid to the pernicious rights of commonage, are mortal to fuch an improvement ; which never can be effected but by means of large farms, and an unlimitted power of enclofure. Horfes . This is an animal about which I have never been folicitous, nor ever paid much attention ; I was very early and praCtically convinced of the fuperiority of oxen for mofl of the works of hufbandry ; I may, indeed, fay for all, ex- cept quick harrowing : and if oxen trot fix miles an hour with coaches, in Bengal, which is the faCt, they are certainly applicable to the harrow, with proper training. To introduce the ufe of oxen in any country, is fo important an agricultural and political objeCt, that the horfe would be confidered merely as adminidering to luxury and war. The very few minutes I took, I fhall infert in the order they occurred. Limousin. — This province is reckoned to breed the bed light horfes that are in the kingdom ; and fome capital regiments of light horfe are always mounted from hence ; they are noted for their motion and hardinefs.. Some miles to the right of St. George, is Pompadour, a royal demefne,. where the King has a haras (dud): there are all kinds of horfes, but chiedy Arabian, Turkifh, and Englifli. Three years ago four Arabians were imported, which had been procured at the expence of 72,000 liv. (3149I.); and, owing to thefe exertions, the breed of this province, which was almod fpoiled, has been much- recovered. For covering a mare, no more is paid than. 3. liv. which is for the groom, and a feed of oats for the horfe. They are free to fell their colts to whom they pleafe ; but if they come up to the King’s dandard of height,, his officers have the preference, on paying the fame price offered by others ; which, however. CATTLE. 54 however, the owner may refufe, if ,he pleafes. Thefe horfes are never faddled till fix years old, and never eat corn till they are fives the reafon given L, that they may not hurt their eyes. They pafture all day, but not at night, on account of the wolves, which abound foin this country as to be a nuifance. Prices are very high; a horfe of fix years old, a little more than 4 feet 6 inches high, fells for 70 louis s and 15 louis have been offered for a colt at one year old. The paf- tures are good, and proper for breeding horfes. Cahors. — Bean-flraw they reckon excellent for horfes, but not that of peafe, which is too heating. Agen. — Meet women going to this market, loaded with couch roots to fell for feeding horfes. The fame practice obtains at Naples. Saintonge. — Monlieu. — Never give chaff to their horfes, as they think it very bad for them. Isle of France. — Dugny. — Monf. Crette de Palleuel has found cut chaff one of the moft (Economical foods that can be given to horfes; and his machine for cutting it is by far the mofl powerful one that I have any where feen. It is a mill turned by a horfe; the cutting inftruments are two fmall cylinders, that revolve againft each other, circular cutting hoops being on their furface, that lock into each other; thofe of one, plain, but of the other, toothed: juft above them is a large trough or tray, to hold a trufs of ftraw, which weighs 12 lb. and the machine cuts it into chaff in three minutes, without putting the horfe out of his pace ; and in two minutes, by driving him quicker ; a man attends to fpread the ftraw equally in the tray, as it is fucked in by the revolving cylinders ; a boy driving the horfe. One of the machines common in England, for dref- fing corn, is at the fame time turned: the whole is in a building of eight yards fquare. Normandie.— Ifigny. — The rich herbages here arc fed, not only with bul- locks and cows, but alfo with mares and foals. Carentan.— Colts, bred here, fell for very high prices, even to 100 louis, at three years old; but in general good ones from 25 to 30 louis. Bretagne. — Rennes. — Good horfes fell at 150 liv. The author of the Con - Ji 'derations fur le Commerce de Bretagne , fays, p. 87. that he has feen many mar- kets in the bifhopricks of Rennes and Nantes, where the beft horfe was not worth 60 liv. Moriaix. — See in this vicinity, for feveral miles, fome fine bay mares with foals. Auvergnac. — Informed that Bretagne exports 24,000 horfes, from 12 to 25 louis each ; and the country that chiefly produces them, is from Lamballe to the fea beyond Breft. Alsace. — Strafbourg. — A good farm horfe, 12 louis. .To Scheleftadt.*— Clover mown for foiling all the way. The CATTLE. 55 The Norman horfes for draught, and the Limoufin for thefaddle, are efteemed the belt in the kingdom. Great imports have been made of Englifh horfes for the coach and faddle. It is no object to leffen that import, for their own lands can be applied to much more profitable ufes than breeding of horfes. The ceconomiftes were great enemies to the ufe of oxen, and warm advocates for that of horfes becoming general ; one of the many grofs errors which that fanciful fed: were guilty of. Hogs, Gascoign.— St . Palais to Anfpan.—Sze many fine white, and black and white hogs ; they are fed much on acorns, but are fattened throughout this country on maiz ground to flour, — More fubjedt to accidents than olives : fometimes three, four, and five bad crops to one good. Olives flower in June, but almonds in February, and confcquently fubject to frofts. The produce of a good tree is commonly 3 liv. Tour d'Aigues. — Do not yield a good crop oftener than once in ten years. Price, 36 to 40 liv. the [quintal : four and a half quintals in the fhell yield one clean : the price has been 70 liv. Price of the piftachio almond, 6 liv. the 151b. in the (hell. Some few fine almond trees will give a quintal in the fhell. They are a moft hazardous culture, by reafon of the fog that makes them drop; the worm that eats ; and the froft that nips. Beans . Soissonoi s.—Coucy. — In the rich lands cultivated, in the courfe of, 1, beans ; 2, wheat, remark now (O&ober 31) fome beautiful curled and luxuriant pieces of wheat, which, from the beans among it, appear to have been fown after this crop. Artois. — Fillers to Bethune. — Many beans through all Artois, in drills at 12 or 14 inches, very fine and very clean ; the culture is as common and as good as in Kent, and they have a much richer foil. Wheat is fown after muftard, flax, and beans ; and is better after beans than after either of the other two crops. Alsace . — Wiltenheim to Strajbourg.—Nizny pieces; good and very clean. Produce, fix facks (of 180 lb. of wheat) per arpentof 24,000 feet (28bu(hels per Englifh acre). Schelejiadt.— Produce, fix to eight facks, at 7 to 12 liv. (7 at 9 liv. is 4I. 7s. per Englifh acre). The PLANTS. 57 The culture of beans is by no means fo common in France as it ought to be ; they are a very neceflary affiftance on deep rich foils in the great work of baniih- ing fallows ; they prepare on fuch foils better than any other crop for wheat, and are of capital ufe in fupporting and fattening cattle and hogs. Broom . Bretagne.— Rennes.— The land left to it in the common courfe of crops. It is cut for faggots \ fold to the bakers. &c. Morlaix. — Cultivated through all this country, in a very extraordinary fyftem ; it is introduced in a regular courfe of crops, and left three or four years on the land ; at which growth cut for faggots, and forms the principal fuel of the coun- try. It is a vaft growth, much fuperior to any thing I ever faw ; fix or feven feet high, and very flout ; on regular lands, with intervals of two or three feet. Price fometimes of a cord of wood, 30 hv. Does this apologize for fuch a fyftem ? Breft.— The broom feed is fown among oats, as clover is in other places, and left four years, during all which time it is fed. The faggots of a good journal will fell for 400 liv. (14I. per Englifh acre). The faggots weigh 151b. and fell fifty for 9 liv. to 12 liv. being a three-horfe load. It is only within the reach of Breft market that it is worth 400 liv. — elfewhere only 300 liv. the beft. Four years broom improves land fo much, that they can take three crops of com after it. Bourgogne. — Luzy. — When I left Bretagne, I never expected again to find broom an article ©f culture ; but the rye-lands of all this country, and there is nothing but rye in it, are left, when exhaufted by corn, to cover themfelves with broom, during five years ; and they confider it as the principal fupport of their cattle. To Bourbonlancy and Bourbonnois.*— Much broom through all this diftridt of rye-land. Carrots and Parfnips . Flanders. — Cambray . — See fome fine carrots taken up, which, on inquiry, I find are for cows. They fow4lb. of feed per arpent; hoe them thrice: I guefled the crop about four bufhels per fquare rod. An arpent fells, for cattle, at 180 liv. the purchafer taking up (51. 5s. per Englilh acre). After them they dung lightly, and fow wheat. Orchies to Lille. — The culture here is fingular ; they fow the feed at the fame time, and on the fame land, as flax, about Eafter ; that crop is pulled in July, the carrots then grow well, and the produce more profitable than any other VoL.II. I application PLANTS. 58 application of the flax ftubble. They yield, I guefs, from 60 to 80 bufhels, and fome more, per Englifh acre j but what I faw were much too thick. Argentan to Bailleul. — Carrots taken up, and guarded, by building in the neateft ancTmdftrefFe&ual way, againft the froft ; they are topped, laid in round heaps, and packed clofe, with their heads outwards ; and being covered with ftraw, in the form of a pyramid, a trench is digged around, and the earth piled neatly over the ftraw, to keep out the froft. In this manner they are found perfe&ly fecure. Artois. — Afs to Aras. — A fprinklingof carrots, but none good. Bretagne. — Ponton to Morlaix . — Many parfnips cultivated about a league to the left; they are fown alone and hoed. They are given to horfes, and are reckoned fo valuable, that a journal is worth more than one of wheat. Nearer to Morlaix, the road pafles a few fmall pieces. They are on beds, 5 or 6 yards broad, with trenches digged between, and on the edges of thofe trenches a row of cabbages. Morlaix. — About this place, and in general through the biftioprick of St. Pol de Leon, the culture of parfnips is of very great confequence to the people. Almoft half the country fubfifts on them in winter, boiled in foup, &c. arid their horfes are generally fed with them. A horfe load, of about 300 lb. fells commonly at 3 liv.; in fcarce years, at 4 liv. ; and fuch a load is good food for a horfe fifteen days. At 60 lb. to the bufhel, this is 5 bufhels, and 2s. y^d. for that, is 6Jd. per bufhel of that weight. I made many inquiries how many loads on a journal, but no fuch thing as information tolerably to be depended on ; I muft therefore guefs the prefent crop, by the examination I made of many, to amount to about 300 bufhels, or 350 per Englifh acre. The common aflcrtion, therefore, that a journal of parfnips is worth two of wheat, feems to be well founded. The ground is all digged a full fpit deep for them ; they are kept clean by hand-weeding very accurately, but are left, for want of hoeing, be- yond all comparifon, too thick. They are reckoned the beft of all foods for a horfe, and much exceeding oats ; bullocks fatten quicker and better on them than on any other food; in fhort, they are, for all forts of ftock, the mod va- luable produce found on a farm. The foil is a rich deep friable fandy loam. Landernau to Breji. — The culture of parfnips here declines much, but I faw a few pieces ; one was weeding by five men, crawling on their knees. Fatten many horfes, by feeding them with cabbages and parfnips boiled together, and mixed with buckwheat-flour, and given warm. They have a great pride here in having fat horfes. Many other diftri&s in France, befides Bretagne, poflefs the right foil for parfnips ; and many more, befides Flanders, that for carrots; but they are no where eife articles of common culture. Parfnips are not cul- tivated in England ; but carrots are in Suffolk, with great fuccefs, and all the horles PLANTS. 59 horfes in the maritime corner of that county fed with them. I have, in the Annals of Agriculture , gi ven many details of their culture and ufes. Carrots fucceed well on all dry foils that are fix inches deep; but. for large crops, the land fhould be a foot deep, rich and dry. The extent of fuch in France is very great, but this general profitable ufe not made of them. Cabbages . Flanders. — Orchies to Lille. — The kale, called her tchoux de Vache , is com- mon through this country ; it never cabbages, but yields a large produce of loofe reddifh leaves, which the farmers give to their cows. The feed is fown in April, and they are tranfplanted in June or July, on to well-dunged land, in rows, generally two feet by one foot : I faw fome fields of them, in which they were planted at greater diftances. They are kept clean, by hoeing. They are reckoned excellent food for cows ; and the butter made from them is good, but not equal to that from carrots. Normandie. — Granville to Avrajiches. — In the gardens of the cottages, many cabbage trees five and fix feet high. Bretagne.— to. Brieux.— Many fown hereon good land, on wheat ftubbles, for felling plants to all the gardens of the country, and to a diftance. I do not fee more than to the amount of a journal in one piece; which, in Septem- ber, I muft have done, had they poffefied any cabbage culture, as reprefented to me, worth attention. They firft clean, and then plough the wheat fiubbles, and chop and break the furface of the three-feet ridges fine, and then fow. The plants are now (September 7) about an inch high, and fome only coming up. Morlaix . — They have fome crops that are much more productive than their turnips, but planted greatly too thick : they are given to cows and oxen. Anjou— Migniame.—' The chou d' Anjou, of which the Marquis de Turbilly fpeaks, is not to be found at prefen t in this country; they prefer the chou de Poitou , which is a fort of kale, and produces larger crops of leaves than the chou d’ Anjou. Monf. Livonniera gave me fome feeds, but, by miftake, they proved a bad fort of rave , and not comparable to our turnips, as I found, by fowing them at Bradfield. Alsace. — Saverne to Wiltenbeim.-—bA any cabbages, but full of weeds. Strajbourg . — Crops to a great weight, but only for lour-crout. Schelefat . — The quantity increafes between Benfeldt and Scheleflat. Their culture is, to fow the feed on a bed in March, covered with mats, like tobacco, and tranlplant in June, 2000 to 3000 plants on an arpent; they make a hole with a fpade, which they fill with water, and then plant : they never horfe-hoe, yet the diitance would admit it well. They are in fizc 10 lb. or 12 lb. and fome I 2 .20 lb. ; 6o PLANTS. 20 lb.; the hearts are for four-crout, bat the leaves for cows. An arpentis worth 303 liv. (20I. 15s. iod. per Englifh acre); but carriage to a town is to be deduced. The culture of cabbage?, for cattle, is one of the moft important objects in Englifh agriculture ; without which, large flocks of cattle or fheep are not to be kept on foils improper for turnips. They are, in every refpeft but one, preferable to that root ; the only inferiority is, that of cabbages demanding dung on all foils, whereas good land will yield turnips without manuring. Great attention ought to be paid to the full introduction of these two crops, without which we may venture to predict, that the agriculture of France will continue poor and unproductive, for want of its due flock of cattle and fheep. Clover. Isle of France. — Liancourt . — Never cultivate it for its place in a rotation, but merely for forage, like lucerne ; have a barbarous cuftom of fowing it without tillage on wheat bubbles, and it lafts fo fometimes two years. Artois.— Recouffe.—M.onL Drinkbierre, a very intelligent farmer here, af- fured me, that clover exhaufted and fpoiled the land, and that wheat after it was never fo good as after a fallow; but as the clover is fown with a fecond, and even a third corn crop, no wonder therefore that it fouls land. I could add many other notes on this subjeCt, but will be content to mention, in general, that the introduction of clover, wherever I have met with it, has been commonly effe&ed in fuch a manner that very little benefit is to be ex- peaed from it. All good farmers in England know, from long experience, that the common red clover is no friend to clean farming, if fown with a fecond or third crop of corn. In the courfe, 1, turnips or cabbages; 2, barley or oats ; 3, clover ; 4, wheat : the land is kept in garden order. But if after that fourth crop, the farmer goes on and fows, 5, barley or oats; 6, clover; 7, wheat, the land will be both foul and exhaufted. In a word, clover is beneficial to the really good and clean farmer only to the extent of his turnips, cabbages, and fal- low; and never ought to be fown but on land previoufly cleaned by thofe hoeing crops, or by fallow. As to fallow, no Frenchman ever makes it but for wheat, confequently the culture of clover is excluded. I have often feen it fown in this courfe; 1, fallow; 2, wheat; 3, barley; 4, oats ; 5, clover; 6, clover; 7, wheat ; 8, oats ; and the land inevitably full of weeds. I may venture to af- fert, that clover thus introduced, or even in courfes lefs reprehenfible, but not corretf:, will do more mifchief than good, and that a country is better cultivated without than with it. Hence, therefore, let the men, emulous of the character of good farmers, confider it as eflential to good hufbandry to have no more clover PLANTS. 61 clover than they have turnips and cabbages, or Tome other crop that anfwers the fame end; ajid never to fow it but with the firft crop of corn ; by thefe means their land will be clean, and they will reap the benefits of the culture without the common evils. I have read in fome authors, an account of great German farmers having fuch immenfe quantities of clover, as are fufficient to prove the utter impoflibility of a due preparation : thefe quantities are made a matter of boafl. We know, however, in England, in what manner to appreciate fuch extents of clover. Chef nuts* Berry.— La Marche ft. meet with them on entering La Marche. Boifmande . — They are fpread over all the country; the fruit are fold, according to the year, from 5/ to i of. and 15/ the boifeau, which meafure will feed a man three days: they rub off the fkin; boil them in water with fome fait; fqueeze them into a kind of pafte, which they dry by the fire ; they commend this food as pleafant and wholefome. The fmall ones are given to pigs, but will not fatten them fo well as acorns, the bacon being foft ; when fattened with acorns, they are finifhed with a little com. A chefnut tree gives two boifeau each of fruit on an average ; a good one, five or fix. The timber is excellent for building ; 1 meafured the area fpread by many of them, and found it 25 feet every way. Each tree, therefore, occupies 625 feet, and an acre fully planted would contain 70 ; at two boifeau each it is 140, which, at lof. is 2I. 18s. 4d. and as one of thefe meafures will feed a man three days, an acre would fupport a man four hundred and twenty days, or fourteen months. It muft, however, be ob- vious, thaj land cannot be fo exactly filled, and that an acre of land would not probably, in common, do for half that number. La Villeaubrun . — They eat many chefnuts, but do not live upon them, eat- ing fome bread alfo ; in which mode of confuming a boifeau, it will laft a man five or fix days. Price as above. Limousin. — Limoges. — Pricey/ to 15/ the boifeau. This food, though general in the country, would not be fufficient alone ; the poor eat therefore fome rye- bread. The comfort of them to families is very great, for there is no limit in the confumpticn, as of everything elfe : the children eat them all day long; and in feafons when there are no chefnuts there is often great diilrefs among the poor — The exadt tranfcript of potatoes in Ireland. The method of cooking chefnuts here, is to take off the outward fkin, and to put a large quan- tity into a boiler, with a handful of fait, and very little water, to yield fleam; they cover it as clofely as poffible, to keep in the fleam : if much water is added, they lofe PLANTS. 62 iofe their flavour and nourilhing quality. An arpent under chefnuts does not yield a product equal to a good arpent of corn, but more than a bad one. ¥0 Magnac. — They are fpread over all the arable fields. Quercy. — Brive to Noailles,— Ditto ; but after Noailles there are no more. Payrac.— Boil them for their food, as above defcribed. Languedoc. — Gauge . — Many in the mountains ; and exceedingly fine chef- nut underwood. Poitou. — Ruffec, — Yields a good crop, to the amount even of ioliv. fora good tree’s produce. The poor people live on them. A meafure of 451b. has been fold this year at 48 f. B r e t a g n e. — Pont Orfou. — On entering this province, thefe trees immediately occur, for there are none on the Normandy fide of the river, that parts the two provinces. Maine,— La Fkche to Le Mans, — Many chefnuts, the produce chiefly fold to towns ; the poor people here not living on them with any regularity: three bulhels (each holding 30 lb of wheat) are a good crop for one tree, and fell at 4 0 /* the bufhel ; this is more than a mean produce, but not an extraordinary one. The number here is very great ; and trees, but of a few years growth, are well loaded. Vivarais. — Pradelles to Phuytz. — Immenfe quantities of thefe trees on the mountains; it is the greatefl: chefnut region I have feen in France. The poor people live on them boiled; and they fell, by meafure, at the price of rye. The hulbandry of fpreading chefnuts over arable lands mull unqueftionably be very bad; the corn rnufl fuffer greatly, and the plough be much impeded. It is aseafy to have thefe trees upon grafs land, where they would be compara- tively harmlefs : but the fadt is here, as is fo general in France, that they have no paflures which the plough does not occupy by turns ; all, except rich mea- dows, being arable. The fruit is fo great a refource for the poor, that planting thefe trees upon lands not capable of tillage by the plough, is a very considerable improvement : the mountains of the Vivarais thus are made productive in the beft method perhaps that they admit. Chicory . Isle of France. — Monf. Crette de Paleuel, 1787, had this plant recommended to him by the Royal Society of Paris ; in conlequence of which, he has made feveral very fuccefsful experiments on it. He has had it two years under cultivation. The feed is foWn in March, 12 lb. per arpent (100 perches at 18 feet) on one ploughing, and is harrowed in. It riles fo thick, as to cover the whole ground, and is mown the fame year once ; Monf. Crette has cut one piece PLANT S. ^3 piece twice the firft year. The following winter he dunged it, at the rate of eight loads, of three horfes, per arpent. The year after, fome was cut three times, and fome four; and Monf. Crette remarks, that the oftenet the better* becaufe more herbaceous and the ftalks not fo hard. He weighed the crop upon one piece, and found the weight, green. Of thefirft cutting, fecond, third, - lb. 55,000 - l8, GOO 3,000 Per arpent. 76,000 By making fome of it into hay, he found that it loft three-fourths of its weight in drying, confequently the arpent gave 19,000 lb. of hay, or 10 tons per Englifh acre. It is fo fucculent and herbaceous a plant, as to dry with difficulty, if the weather be not very fine; but the hay, he thinks, is equal to that of clover* though inferior to meadow hay. He has ufed much in foiling, and with great fuccefs, for horfes, cows, young cattle, and calves; finds it to be eaten greedily by all, and to give very good cream and butter. Monf. Crette's fine dairy of cows being in their ftalls, he ordered them to be fed with it in my prefence; and they ate all that was given, with great avidity. When in hay, it is mod preferred by fheep ; cows do not, in that ftate, eat the ftalks fo well as fheep. Acircumftance which he confiders as valuable, is its not being hurt by drought fo much as moft other plants ; and he informs me, but not on his own experi- ence, that it will laft good ten years. I viewed one of his crops, of feven or eight arpents, fown laft fpring, and which has been mown once ; I found it truly beautiful. He fowed com- mon clover and fainfoin among it, and altogether it afforded a very fine fleece of herbage, about eight or nine inches high (October 28) which he intends feeding this autumn with his fheep. He is of opinion that the fainfoin will be quite fuffocated, and that the chicory will get the better of the clover. Provence. — Vauclufe to Orgon . — In a very fine watered meadow, one-third of the herbage is this plant. I liked the appearance of this plant fo well in France, and was fo perfectly fatisfied with what I faw of it, cultivated by Monf. Crette de Paleuel, and grow- ing fpontaneoully in the meadows, that I brought feed of it to England ; and have cultivated it largely at Bradfield, with fuch fuccefs, that l think it one of the heft prefents l 1 ranee ever made to this kingdom. I fow it with corn like clover; but it pays well for occupying the land entirely. It will prove, without doubt, a very valuable plant for laying land permanently to grafs ; and alfo for introducing, in courfes of crops, when the land wants reft for three, four, or five PLANTS. 64 five years. I am much miftaken if we do not in a few years make a much greater progrefs in the culture of this plant than the French themfelves, from whom we borrowed it, will do. Sheep are faid to be very fond of it*, a fa£t I have fufficiently proved in Suf- folk. From a paflage in an Italian author, who fpeaks of fowing the wild chi- cory, I am in doubt whether the French have the honour of being really the firft introducers of thisplantf- Colefeed . Flanders.— Catnbray.— Near this town, I met firfi with the culture of colefeed: they call it gozd. Sow the feed thick on a feed-bed, for tanfplant- ing ; fettmg it out on an oat flubble, after one ploughing. This is fo great and firiking an improvement of our culture of the fame plant, that it merits the utmoft attention ; for faving a whole year is an objed of the firfi confequence. The tranfplanting is not performed till Odober, and lafts all November, if no froft ; and at fuch a feafon there is no danger of the plants not fucceeding : earlier would however furely be better, to enable them to be ftronger rooted, to with- fland the fpring frofts, which often deftroy them ; but the objed is not to give their attention to this bufinefs till every thing that concerns wheat fowing is over. The plants are large, and two feet long ; a man makes the holes with a large dibble, like the potatoe one ufed on the Eflex fide of London, and men and women fix the plants, at 18 inches by 10 inches; fomeatafoot iquare, for which they are paid 9 liv. per manco of land. The culture is fo common all the way to Valenciennes, that there are pieces of two, three, and four acres of feed- bed, now cleared, or clearing, for planting. The crop is reckoned very uncer- tain ; fometimes it pays nothing, but in a good year up to 300 liv. the arpent (100 perches of 24 feet) or 81 . 15s. the Englifh acre. They make thecropin July, and, by manuring the land, get good wheat. Valenciennes to Orchies *— This is a more valuable crop than wheat, if it fuc- eeeds ; but it is very uncertain. All tranfplanted. j Lille . — The number of mills, near Lille, for beating colefeed, is furprifing, and proves the immenfe quantity of this plant that is cultivated in the neigh- bourhood. I counted fixty at no great diftancefrom each other. Bailleul .—' The quantity cultivated through this country immenfe ; all tranf- planted ; it occurs once in a courfe of fix or feven years. Price of the cakes, 3 \f. each ; they are the fame fize as ours in England. * Pbytographie Oeconom’tque de la Loratne^ Par M. Willemet. 1780. 8vo. P. 57 * f Ronccni Dizlcnario D' rfgri colt lira 0 Jia La Coltivazione Italiana • Tom. ii. P. 148* Artois. PLANTS. 65 Artois. — St. Omers .— Great ftacks of colefeed draw all over the country (Auguft 7th) bound in bundles, and therefore applied to ufe. 1 fhould remark, in general, that I never met with colefeed cultivated in any part of the kingdom merely for fheep-feed $ yet it is an object, fo applied, of great confequence, and would be particularly ufeful in France, where the operofe cultures of turnips and cabbages will be long edablifhing themfelves. With this view colefeed fhould be thus introduced : 1. Winter tares, Town the begnining of September on a wheat ftubble; mown for foiling: then the land ploughed and colefeed harrowed in. 2. Barley, or oats. 3. Clover. 4. Wheat. Fuller s Fhtftle . Isle of France.— Liancourt. — Very profitable: has been known to amount to 300 liv. or 400 liv. the arpent (about i| acre). Furz . Gascoign — St. Falais to Anspan. — A pradice in these mountainous wades, which deferves attention, is their cutting furz when in blofiom, and chopping them mixed with draw for horfes, &c.; and they find that no food is more hearty or nourifhing. Normandie. — Vologne to Cherbourg. — Throughout this country a fcattering of furz fown as a crop, with wheat or barley, as clover is ufually fown : the third year they cut it to bruife for horfes; and every year afterwards: and it yields thus a produce of 40 liv. the verge, of 96 Englifh perch. Bretagne. — St. Pol Leon. — Through all this bidiopric the horfes are fed with it bruifed, and it is well known to be a mod nourifhing food. The pradice here minuted is not abfolutely unknown in England ; there are many traces of it in Wales, and fome other parts of the kingdom. I have been affured that an acre, well and evenly feeded, and mown for horfes every year, has yielded an annual produce, worth, on a moderate edimate, 10I. but I never tried it, which was a great negled, in Hertfordfhire, for I had there land that was proper for it. Vol. II. K Culture 66 PLANTS. Culture of Hemp and Flax, Pic ar die. — Montreuil to Picquigny.'— m Small patches of flax all the way. At Picquigny, a good deal of land ploughing for hemp, to be Town in a week (May 22). Quercy — The hemp, in much of this province, is fown every year on the fame fpots; and very often highly manured. This appears to be an erroneous fyflem, wherever the lands in general are good enough to yield it. Can fade . — Van quantities near this place, now (June 12,) two or three feet high. Languedoc. — Monrejeau.—Fhx now (Auguft 10) grading. Bagnerede Bigore to Lourd.— Never water their flax, only grafs it. I faw much with the grafs grown through it; if the land or weather be tolerably wet, three weeks are fufficient. Guienne. — Port de Leyrac, — This noble vale of the Garonne, which is one of the richefl diftriCts of France, is alio one of the mod: productive in hemp that is to be found in the kingdom. Agen. — Hemp yields 10 quintals per carteree, at 4oliv. the quintal, poid de table (17I. 10s.), which carteree is fown with 217 lb. of wheat. This is proba- bly about if Englifh acre. Aguillon . — The hemp is every where watering in the Garonne : they do not leave it in more than three or four days. Tonneins . — The whole country, from Aguillon to this place, is all under either hemp or wheat, with exception of fome maiz; and its numerous popula- tion feems now employed on hemp. La Morte Landron,—lt yields 10 to 12 quintals, at 36 liv. to 45 liv. the quintal. Soissonois.— C fl&cy. — Hemp cultivated in the rich vales, in the courfe,-— 1, hemp; 2, wheat. It yields coo bottes, at 23 liv. the hundred, reckoned on the foot before watering. St. Amand. — The carteree of land, of 100 verge of 19 feet (36,100 feet), un- der flax, has this year a very good crop, on account of the rainy weather ; it has been fold at 1200 liv. or very near the fee Ample of the land (55I. ns. 3d. per Englifh acre). This amazing value of flax made me defirous of knowing if it depended on foil, or on management. Sir Richard Wefton* in the laft century, who has been copied by many lcores of writers Ance, fpeaks of poor fandy land as being the beft for that flax of which the fine Bruflels lace is made; confe- quently this is made from land abundantly different from what produces the Va- lenciennes laces, if that aflertion were ever true. The foil at St. Amand is a PLANTS. 6f a deep moift friable loamy clay, of vaft fertility, and fituated in a difiridt where the greateft poffible ufe is made of manures ; it therefore abounds very much with vegetable mould. Flax is Town on the fame land, once in twelve to fif- teen years ; but in Auftrian Flanders, once in feven or eight years. Advancing, and repeating my inquiries, I was aflured that flax had been raifed to the amount of 2000 liv. the carteree (921. 15s. 6d. per Englifh acre). The land is nearly the fame as above defcribed, and lets, when rented, at 36 liv. the carteree (il. 13s. 3d. per Engliflh acre). They fow 2 razicre of feed, each holding 50 lb. of wheat per carteree; and a middling crop of good flax is from 3I to 4 feet high, and extremely thick. They water it in ditches, ten, twelve, and four- teen days, according to the feafon ; the hotter the weather, the fooner it is in a proper ftate of putrefa&ion. After watering, they always grafs it in the com- mon method. Going on, and gleaning frefh information, I learned that 1200 liv. may be efteemed a great produce per carteree ; the land all round, good and bad, of a whale farm letting at 30 liv. and felling at 1200 liv. Nothing can fhew more attention than their cultivation : befides weeding it with the greateft care, while young, they place poles, or forked flakes, amongft it, when at a proper height, in order to prevent its being beaten to the ground by rain, from its own length and weight ; without this precaution it would be flat down, even to rotting. Orchies . — A carteree of flax, of 40,000 feet, rifes to the value of 1500 liv. and even more (63I. 1 8s. gd. per English acre). They fow fuch as is intended for fine thread, as foon as the frofts are over, which is in March ; but fuch as is for coarfer works, fo late as May. Never feed their own flax, always ufing that of Riga. They prefer for it, an oat-flubble that followed clover; and they manure for it in the winter preceding the fowing. Wheat is, in general, better after flax than after hemp. Lille.— -Flax, in common, is worth 90 liv. the centier , or 360 liv, the carteree (15I. 6s. 3d. per Englflh acre) : this is excluding uncommon crops. Artois. — Lillers. — f lax all through the country, and exceedingly fine. Sow wheat after it. Bethune .— An arpent of good flax worth more than one of wheat; yet good wheat is worth 200 liv. Beak'ual . — Flax fometimes worth 500 liv. the journal (25I. 17s. lid. per Eng- lish acre). Hemp docs not equal it. They do not water flax here, only fpread it on grafs or flubbles. Normandie.— Bolbec to Harfleur.—BUx not watered, but fpread on flubble. Bretagne,— Throughout this province, they every where cultivate flax, in patches, by every family, for domeflic emj loyment. K 2 Ancenis . 68 PLANTS. Ancenis. — The culture of flax is generally, throughout the kingdom, as well as n the greateil part of Europe, that of a fpring crop ; but here it is fown in autumn. They are now working the wheat-ftubbles on one ploughing, very fine, with a flout bident-hoe, and fowing them : fome is up. It is pulled in A u gull, and wheat fown after it. Anjou . — Migniame. — They have winter-fown flax all over the country. The value of the crop exceeds that of wheat. They do not water, only grafs it; yet admit that watering makes it whiter and finer. c Turbilly. — Elemp is fown in patches every where through the country ; fells at 8/ the pound, raw; fpun, at 26,/iand zj/-, bleached, at ^of.Xo 3 6 f. The crop is 30 to 40 weights, each 15 lb. or 16 lb. per journal, or about 210 liv. Maine. — Guejceland . — Through all this country there is much hemp fown every year, on the fame fpot ; fpun ; and made, by domeftic fabrics, into cloth, for home ufes. Spinning is 10 f. the pound ; and it is an uncommon fpinner that can do a pound in a day ; in common but half a pound. L o u a 1 n e . — L uneville .—Hemp is cultivated every where in the province, on rich fpots ; hence there is much of it ; and fome villages have been known to make a thoufand crowns in a year of their thread and linen. If it is wifhed that the hemp be very fine, they do not water, but only fpread it on the grafs ; but, in general, water it. Ufe their own feed, and furnifh much to their neighbours ; but have that of flax from Flanders. Sow beans among flax, for fupporting it ; others do this with fmall boughs of trees. Some alfo fow car- rots among their flax ; which pradlice, I fuppofe, they borrowed from Flanders. Hemp is always dunged, and always fown on the fame fpots, which fell at the fame price as gardens ; a common and execrable practice in France. A journal gives, on good land, 951b. and 103 lb. of toup ; price laft year, ready [for fpin- ning, 16/ the lb.; the toup 11 f. now higher: alfo 2 razeau of feed (each iSolb. of wheat). The journal equals 65 Englifh perches. Alsace.— Stra/bourg. — Produdt 3 quintals, at 27 liv. the quintal, the arpent (si- 12s. per Englifli acre). Scbeleftat. — Produce 2 quintals, ready for fpinning, at 36 liv. to 48 liv. the quintal (5I. 1 6s. 3d. per Englifh acre). Water it for cordage, but not for linen ; grafs it only, as whiter. Auvergne. — Clermont . — In the mountains; price of hemp, ready to fpin, 1 5/ to 18/ the lb.; fpun, 24 f. fine, 30 f. Izoir. — Produce of hemp, per cartona, 1501b. rough, at 5/ the lb. which is 1131b. ready for fpinning; but bad hemp lofes more. The feteree is 8 car- toni, of 150 toifes, or 43,200 feet. Hemp grounds fell equally with gardens (nl. iis. 6d. per Englifli acre). Briude . PLANTS. 69 Briude . — Hemp yields a quintal, raw, per cartona 3 female is worth 40 liv. the quinta], n ale, 30 liv. 3 alio 8 coups of feed, at 6 J. Average produce 35 liv. or 36I1V. in all. Dauphine.— Loriol. — Chinefe hemp fucceeds well with Monf. Faujas de St. Fond, and perfects its feed, which it rarely does in the King’s garden, at Paris. Fie thinks it an error to fow it, like other hemp, in the fpring ; for he is of opinion, that it would feed even in England, if fown in autumn. He has found, by experiment, that it is excellent for length and ftrength, it fown thick enough to prevent its fpreading laterally, and to make it rile without branching. Provence. — MarfetUes . — Price of hemp: Riga, fir IF quality, 36 liv. the quintal ; ditto, fecond quality, 33 liv. Ancona, firft quality, 33 liv. 3 ditto, fe- cond quality, 30 liv. to 31 liv. Piedmont, 3 group, 26 liv.; 4 group, 28 liv. From thefe notes it appears, that hemp or flax is cultivated in fmall quanti- ties, through every part of France : generally for the ules of domeftic manu- factures among the lower clafles. A very interefting political queftion arifes on thofe diffufed fabrics, and on which I fhall offer a few obfervations under the chapter of manufactures. Madder . Alsace. — Sra/bourg Fertenheim . — Much of this plant is cultivated in various parts of Alface, where the foil is very deep and rich, efpecially on that which they call limoneufe , from its having been depolited by the river. They dig the land for it three feet deep, and manure highly : the rows are fix to nine inches afunder, and they hoe it clean thrice a fummer. The produce of an arpent, of 24,000 feet, is 40 quintals green, before drying, and the mean price 6 liv. the quintal (16F 12s. 6d. per Englifh acre). Such is the account I received at Strafbourg 3 hut I know enough of this plant, by experience, to conclude, that fuch a produce is abfolutely inadequate to the expences of the culture, and there- fore the crop is probably larger than here Rated 3 not that the low rate of labour fhould be forgotten. Dauphine. — Piere Latte. — Planted here in beds, 3 but it is very poor, and apparently in a foil not rich enough. To Orange . — Much ditto 3 all on flat beds, with trenches between, but weedy and ill cultivated. The price is 27 liv. the quintal, dry. Some juft planted, and the trenches very fhallow: dig at three years old. Price 24 liv. the quintal, dried in the fun. The roots are fmall and poor. Avigi7on.—¥v\ce 24 liv. to 30 liv. but there is no profit if it be under 50 liv. It is three years in the land. Sow wheat after it 3 but if it were not well dunged the 7 ° PLANTS. the crop is poor. A good deal on flat beds, 8 feet wide, with trenches between, two broad and two deep, which are digged gradually for fpreading on it. Lille . — An eymena in three years gives 5 quintals, at 20 liv. to 24 liv. the quintal, but a few years ago was 50 liv. to 70 liv. Theexpences are very high, 120 liv. At 4I. a cwt. which equals a French quintal, madder paid a proper profit for inducing many Englifli cultivators to enter largely into it; but falling to 40s. and 50s. per cwt. fome were ruined, and the reft immediately withdrew from it. But in France we find they carry on the culture ; it is however weakly and poorly done ; with fo little vigour, that common crops, well managed, would pay much better. Maiz. The notes I took on the fubject of this noble plant were very numerous ; but as there is reafon to believe that its culture cannot be introduced, with any profpedtof advantage, in this ifland, I fhall make but a few general obfervations on it. In the paper on the climate of France, I have remarked, that this plant will not fuccefed, in common cultivation, north of Luneville and Ruffec, in a line drawn diagonally acrofs the kingdom; from which interefting faft, we may conclude, that a confiderable degree of heat is neceffary to its profitable culti- vation, and that all ideas of introducing it into England, except as a matter of cunofity, would be vain. It demands a rich foil or plenty of manure, and thrives beft on a friable fandy loam ; but it is planted on all forts of foils, ex- cept poor gravels. 1 have feen it on fands, in Guienne, that were not rich, but none is found on the granite gravels of the Bourbonnois, though that province is fituated within the maiz climate. The ufual culture is to give two or three ploughings to the land ; fometimes one ploughing, and one working with the heavy bident-hoc ; r and the feed is Town in rows at 2 feet or 2 J, by iJor2; fome- times in fquares. Some I have feen near Bagnere de Bigore, in rows, at 3 feet, and 18 inches from plant to plant. The quantity of feed in Bearn, is the eighth part, by meafure, of the quantity of wheat fovvn. it is univerfally kept clean by hoeing, in moft diftricts, with fuch attention as to form a feature, in their hufbandry, of capital merit. In Auguft, th'^y cutoff all that part of the ftalk and herbage which is above the ear, for feeding oxen, cows, &c. and it is per- haps the richeft and moft faccharine* provender that the climate of France affords ; for wherever maiz is cultivated, no lean oxen are to be feen ; all are in high order. The crop of grain is, on an average, double the quantity commonly * A real fugar has been made from it. Spec, de la Nature. Vol. ii. p. 247. reaped PLANTS. i 7 r reaped of wheat; about Navareen, in Bearn, more than that; and there the price (1787) is 54,4 to the meafure, holding 36 lb. to 40 lb. of wheat; but in common years lS/i to 20 f. Whether or not it exhaufts the land is a ques- tion: I have been allured, in Languedoc, that it does not; but near Lourde, in Guienne, they think it exhaufts much. Every where the common management is to manure as highly as pofiible for it. In North America it is faid to exhauft confiderably * ; Monf. Parmentier contends for the contrary opinion •f* : when- ever I found it* wheat fucceeds it, which ought to imply that it is not an ex- haufting crop. The people in all the maiz provinces live upon it, and find it by far more nourifhing than any bread, that of wheat alone excepted. Near Brive, in Quercy, I was informed that they mix one-third rye, and two- thirds maiz to make bread, and, though yellow and heavy, they fay it is very good food* A French writer fays, that, in Brefle, maiz cakes coil: 94 deniers the pound, but that a man eats double the quantity of what he does of bread made of wheat X- A late author contends, that it is to be clafled among the moll whole- fome articles of human food ||. Everyone knows that it is much cultivated in North America; about Al- bany, in New York, it is faid to yield a hundred bufhels from two pecks of feed § ; and that it fhootsagain after being killed by the froft, even twice; that it withftands the drought better than wheat (this is quejiionable ) ; does much better on loofe than on ft iff foils, and not well at all on clay. In South Caro- lina it produces from 101035 bulhels per acre^f. On the Miffifiippi two negroes made 50 barrels, each 150 lb.** In Kongo, on the coaft of Africa, it is faid to yield three crops a year-f-'f'. According to another account, great care is taken to water it where the ftuation will admitJJ ; this I have feen in the Pyrennees ; butmoft: of the maiz in France, even nineteen parts in twenty, are never watered. About Douzenac, in the Limoufin, they fow it thick' to mow for foiling, and at Port St. Marie, on the Garonne, they do the fame, after the harvefl of other grain, which is the mod profitable, and indeed admirable huf- bandry. This is the only purpofe for which it can be cultivated in northern climates. It might be fown in England the firft week in June, and mown the end of Auguft, time enough to catch a late crop of turnips, or as a preparation for wheat. * Mitchel’s Prefent State of Great Britain and N, America , p. 157. f Memoire fur le Mais 4to. 1785* P. 10. % Obfervations fur l’ Agriculture , par M. Varenne de Fenille, p. 91. i Infraction fur la Culture & les XJfages des Mais. 8vo. 1786. P. 30. § Kalm’s Travels in North America. Vol. ii. p 245. Defcription of South Carolina. 8vo. 1761. P. 9. ** Du Pratz Hifory of Louifeana . Vol. i. p. 306. Modern Univ. Hif. Vol. xvi. p. 25. Mem. de PAcad. des Sciences. 1749. P. 471. Milliard. PLANTS. fZ Mujlard . Isle of France. — Petiviers. — At Denainvilliers, near this place, I faw them mowing mudard, in full blofibm, to feed cows with. Artois. — Litters. — Much all the way to Bethunej fow fpring corn after it. Orchards . Normandie.— Palaife.— Many apple and pear trees are fcattered over the country. They never plant them on the bed lands, as they are convinced that the damage to the corn, &c. is at leaf! equal to the value of the cyder ; but on the poorer foils they confider it as an improvement, forming a fourth, or third, and in fome cafes even a half of the value of the land. Bretagne.— Do//.— A cyder country ; but reckon the trees at no real value beyond that of the land, for they fpoil as much as they produce. Rennes. — A common proportion is to plant thirty trees upon a journal (about five roods Englifh), which, if well preferved, will yield, on an average, 5 to 10 barriques of cyder every year 5 and the mean price 12 liv. the barrique, which is 120 pots ; this year good orchards give 40 or 50 per journal, but they have produced none, or next to none, for four years pad. The damage the trees do to the corn is fo great, that, in common exprefiion, they fay they get none. The cyder is made by the prefs, which is of the fame kind as Jerfey, I fuppofe, brought from this country. The ground apples, and wheat or rye draw, in layers under the prefs, and reduced to iuch a deficcated date that they will burn freely immediately out of the prefs. Loraine.— Blamon to Savern.— The whole country fpread with fruit trees, apples, pears, &c. from 10 to 40 rod afunder. Auvergne.— Vaires. — The valley of this place, fituatedin the Limagne, fo famous in the volcanic hidory of France, is much noted for its fine apples, par- ticularly the rennet blanche , the rennet gris y calville, and apy, all grafted on crab docks. Olives . Roussillon. — Bellegard to Perpignan.*— Reckoned to pay 1 liv. each tree. Pia. — The land under them fallowed every other year, and fo wn with corn: they are pruned in the fallow year, yielding no fruit; a crop being only in the corn year. Languedoc. — Nar bonne. **-OY\vzs pay, in general, 3 liv. each tree per an- num; fome 5 liv. Many fields of them are planted in rows, at 12 yards by 10. Beziers , PLANTS. 71 Beziers.— The trees on the farm, that was Monf. L’Abbe Rozier’s, are 17 yards by 2. Pinjean. — Some trees fo large and fine are known to give 841b. of oil in a year, at 10 f. the lb. or 42 liv. ; but they reckon, in common, that good trees give 6 liv. one with another ; this epithet good, (hews that the common average of all trees is much lower. In planting, if they mean to crop the land with corn, in the common manner, that is, one year in two, the other fallow, they put 100 trees on 8 feterees of land; but if they intend to have no corn at all, the fame number on 4 feterees : under corn, the 8 feterees yield 40 feptiers of corn, each 100 lb. at 9 liv. (7s. iofd.). The feteree is about half an acre, as I con- clude, from the bed intelligence I could procure. This proportion is 100 trees on four Englifh acres, or 25 per acre: if they were all good, the produce in oil would be 150 liv. and of wheat 90 liv. — in all 240 liv. or iol. 10s. ; the half only of which is annual produce, or 5I. 5s. which feems not to be any thing very great, even fuppofing the trees to be all good, which mud be far from the fed!. Montpellier to Nifmes . — The trees are 3 rods afunder, by if; alfo 2 by if ; both among vines; alfo 2 fquare ; alfo 1 by if. Pont de Gard. — Planted at 1 rod and \\ ; their heads almoftjoin. They are all pruned to flat round heads, the centre of the tree cut out, cup-fafliion ; and thefe formal figures add to the uglinefs of the tree. Vivarais. — Aubenas.— In palling fouth from Auvergne, here the firfl; olives are met with. Dauphine. — Piere Latte to A v ig non.—M any ; but feven-eighths dead from the froft, and many grubbing up. Provence. — Aix. — Land planted with olives fells at 1000 liv. the carteree, whilft arable only 600 liv. but meadows watered 1200 liv. Clear profit of a carteree of olives, 40 liv. (21,600 feet, at 40 liv. it is 3I. 2s. id. per Englifh acre). Gathering the olives 40 liv. \of. the quintal: prefling 2 liv. : cultiva- tion 18 liv. the carteree: the wood pays the pruning. Pour d' Aigues. — The olive, pomegranate, and other hard trees, as they are called here, bear fruit only at the end of the branches; whence, they conceive, reful ts the neceflity of their being pruned every other year. Thirty years ago, the common calculation of the produce, per olive, was ; but now, the price being double, it may be fuppofed 10 f. Poulon. — They have great trees in this neighbourhood that are known to yield 20 liv. to 30 liv. a tree, when they give a crop, which is once in two years, and fometimes once in three. Small trees yield 3 liv. 5 liv. and 6 liv. each, and are much more profitable than mulberries, for which tree the foil is too dry and floney. Olives demand as great an expence in buildings, prefies, coppers, backs, &c. as vines. Prefling comes to 3 liv. a barrel. Crop of a large tree, 8 Vol. II. L to 74 PLANTS. to io pannaux. Olives, in Provence, never pruned into the hollow cup-form, which is fo general in Languedoc : they appear here in their natural form. Hyeres. — They produce confiderably in twenty or thirty years, and fome have been known to be a hundred years old. I faw, going to Notre Dame , fome that refilled the froft of 1709. A good tree, of thirty years,, gives, when it bears, 3 pannaux of olives ; the pannaux holds 30 lb. to 32 lb. of wheat, and the common price is 24/. the pannaux. They have great trees, that give a mot , or 20 pannaux, or 24 liv. each tree. When fields, planted with olives, are bought, they are meafured by the fquare canne or toife ; a canne of good land, well planted, 30 fy middling, 20 f.\ bad, 10 f . but there are fome that fell to 60 f . ; confe- quently a middling aFpent is 900 liv. Antibes . — The largeft trees I have feen in France are between this place and the Var, as if the near approach to Italy marked a vegetation unknown in the reft of the kingdom. The culture of this tree is found in fo finall a part of France, that the object is not of very great confequence to the kingdom ; one fhould, however, remark,, that in Provence, where the beft oil in Europe is made, there might be twenty trees to one that is found there ; whence we may conclude, that if it were fo profitable a hufbandry, as fome authors have reprefented, they would be multi- plied more. The moft important point is, their thriving upon rocky foils and declivities, impenetrable to the plough ; in which fpots too much encourage- ment cannot be given to their culture. Oranges, Provence. — Hyeres , — This is, I believe, the only fpot in France where oranges are met with in the open air: a proof that the climate is more temperate than Roufiillon, which is more to the south; the Pyrennees are be- tween that province and the fun; but Hyeres lies open to the fea; fo indeed does the coaft of Languedoc; and fo does Antibes; but there is a peculiarity of ffielter at Hyeres, from the pofition of the mountains, that gives this place the advantage. I always, however, doubt whether experiments have been made with fufficient attention, when thefe nice diferiminations are pretended, that are fo often taken on truft without fufficient trial. The dreadful froft of laft winter, which deftroyed fo many olives, attacked the oranges alfo, which were cut down in great numbers, or reduced to the mere trunk ; moft of them,, however,, have made confiderable ffioots, and will therefore recover. The King’s garden here, in the occupation of Monf. Fine, produced, laft year, 21,000 liv. in oranges only, and the people that bought them made as much by the bargain; the other fruits yielded 700 liv. or 800 liv. : the extent of this PLANTS. 7S this garden is 12 arpents; this 1808 liv. perarpent, belides the profit (94I. 7s. 7d. per Englilh acre). A fine tree will produce 1000 oranges, and the price is 20 liv. to 25 liv. the 1000, for the beft; 15 liv. the middling; 10 liv. the fmall. There are trees here that have produced to the value of two louis each ; and what is a more convincing proof of great profit, a fmall one, of no more than feven or eight years, will yield to the value of 3 liv. in a common year. They are planted from the nurfery at two or three years old, and at that age are fold at 30/i each; and it is thought that the flowers, fold for diftilling, pay all the expences of cultivation; they muft, however, be planted on land capable of irrigation, for if water be not at command, the produce is fmall. Pomegranates . Provence.— Hyeres.—Thz hedges are full of them, and they are planted fingly, and of fmall growth : the largefl: fruit fell at 3 f, or 4 f. each ; middling, 1 f . ; little ones, 1 Hard. A good tree, of ten or fifteen years, will give to the value of 2 liv. or 3 liv. a year. Pines. Gascoign. — Bayonne. — The great product of the immenfe range of wafte, as it is commonly called, landes , is refin: th e pinus maritimus is regularly tapped, and yields a produce, with as much regularity as any other crop, in much better foils. I counted from fifty to eighty trees per acre, in fome parts ; but in others, from ten to forty; thofe with incifions for the refin are from 9 to 16 inches diameter. Some good common oak on this fand, 12 to 14 inches diameter, but with bodies not longer than from 8 to 10 or 12 feet. St. Vincent's. — Here pines are out for relin, at the age of fifteen to twenty years ; the firfl: year at about 2 feet from the ground, the fecond to 4 feet, the third to 6 feet, and the fourth to 8 or 9 feet ; and then they begin again at bot- tom, on another fide of the tree, and continue thus for 100 years: the annual value per annum in refin, 4/i or §f. When they yield no longer, they cut into good plank, not being fpoiled by tapping. Much tar alfo is made, chiefly of the roots. Cork trees are barked once in feven years, and yield then about 15/i or about 2 f. per annum. Men are appointed, each to a certain number of trees, to collect the refin, with fpoons, out of the notches, cut at the but-end of the tree to receive it. Dax. — Pines pay \f a year in refin. Pine woods, with a good fuccefiion of young ones; from \\ rod to 3 afunder. Partafs . — Several perfons united in aflerting, that the pines give, one with ^another, 4 f. to 5/ each, from 15 to 100 years old, and are then fold, on an L 2 average. PLANTS. 76 average, at 3 liv. each ; that taking the refia was fo far from fpoiling the tree r that it was the better, and cut into better planks. This furprifing me, I fought a carpenter, and he confirmed it*. They added, that an arpent of pines was worth more than an arpent of any other land in the country j more even than of vines: that it would fell, according to the trees, from 500 liv. to 1000 liv. while the inclofed and cultivated fands would not yield more than 300 liv. or, at rnoft, than 400 liv. The arpent, I found, by meafuring a piece of 2 arpents, to be 3366 Englifh yards (500 liv. is 31I. 10s. per English acre). St. Severe. — Pafs feveral inclofures of fandy land, refembling the adjoining waftes, fown with pines as a crop} they are now of various heights; and ver/ thick. See fome very good chefnut underwood on a white fand. Guienne.— Langon. — Many of the props ufed for their vines here, are young pines,, the thinnings of the new fown ones ; are fold for 36 liv. to 40 liv. the thoufand, or twenty bundles, each fifty pines. Cubfac to Cavignac. — On the pooreft lands fow pines, which are notan unpro- fitable article of culture. At five years old they begin to thin them for vine props; and the fmall branches are fold in faggots. At fifteen years the pro- duce is more cenfiderable ; and at twenty-five the belt trees make boards for heading calks. I faw a journal and half, the boards of which yielded 1200 liv. They fow 1351b. of wheat feed on a journal . Several crops of fown pines very thick. BRETAGNE.-%/^r/^ to L’ Orient. — Pines abound in this country, and feem to have fown themfelves all around ; but none are cut for refin. Fo Vannes . — Such a fcattering of them, that I apprehend all this country was once pine land. Auvergne. — St. George. — In the mountains, fee immenfe pine planks laid by way of fences, not lefs than 60 feet long, and 2 and 2^ broad. Fix. — Dr.Coiffier has them in the mountains 80 feet high, and 10 feet round. Provence. — Cuges to Foulon. — In the rocky mountains ot this coaft, there are pines, and fuch as are of any fize are cut for refin; but they fland too thin* to yield an acreable produce of any account. Cavalero to Frcjus.— The mountains here are covered chiefly with pines, and. have a moll neglected defert appearance. Fo Eftrelles. — The fame; and hacked and deftroyed almofl: as badly as in the Py rennees. Pines are juftly efteemed a profitable crop for the landlord * for they yield a re- gular and certain revenue, at a very little charge ; no repairs, and no lofles, by * M. Secondat makes the fame obfervation, Mem. fur V Hijh Nat. du Ghent. Folio. 1 785. P. 35. The fame affertion is made in Memoir e fur VUtiiite du defrichemeni des Ter res de Caflelnau- de-Medoc, 4to. 1791. Reponfi au Rapport, p. 27. failure PLANTS. 77 f failure of tenants. But, in regard to the nation, pines, like mod of the poor woods of France, fhould be reckoned detrimental to the public intereft, fince a kingdom flourifhes by grofs produce ,, and not by rent . Poppies.. Artois.— Lillers . — Much cultivated for oil: they are called here zuliette. Get as good wheat after them as after colefeed. Aras . — Many here; they are reckoned to yield more money per arpent than wheat ; equal to colefeed ; which, however, is a very uncertain crop. Loraine. — Nancy to LuneviHe . — Some fine pieces on a poor gravel. Alsace.— S'avern to Wiltenbeim.—Mzny poppies; fome fine crops, and very clean. Strajbonrg .— Product three facks, at24 : liv. per arpent, of 24,000 fquare feet C4I- 19s. 9d. per Englifh acre). Manure for them, and fow wheat after. Our ideas of the exhaufting quality of certain plants, are, at prefent, founded, I believe, but upon that half-information which is fcarcely a degree above real ignorance. It is a common obfervation, that all plants whofe feeds yield oil, are exhaufters of foil ; an obfervation that has arifen, from the theory of oil being the food of plants. Experiments upon both have been fo few and unfa- tisfactory, as to be utterly infufficient for the foundation of any theory. Cole- feed, feeded in England, is almoft generally made a preparation for wheat ; fo it is in France, and we here find the fame efFedt with poppies. It can hardly be believed’, that wheat* which demands land in heart as much as almoft any other crop, fhould be made to follow fuch exhaufting plants as the theory of oil would make one believe thefe to be ^ it is the organization of the plant alone that converts the nourilhment into oil; which, in one plant, turns it to a fac- charine fubftance, and, in another, to an acid one ; but the idea that plants are fed by oil, and that they exhauft in proportion to their oil, is abfolutely con- demned by the olive, which yields more oil than any other plant, and yet thrives beft on dry arid rocky foils, of abfolute poverty, as far as oil is concerned. We {hall be wholly in the dark in this part of agriculture, treated as a fcience, till experiments have been greatly multiplied. Potatoes . Anjou.— Angers to LaFleche . — More than is common in France. Loraine. — Pont a Moufon . Throughout all this part of Loraine there are more potatoes than I have feen any where in France ; twelve acres were at once under the eye. To 73 PLANTS. "To Nancy.— Many cultivated through all this country, but degenerated, by being Town too often on the fame land ; and for want of new forts. A journal yields 20 toulins, or about 24 bufhels Englifh; and 2^ journals are equal to an arpent de France, which makes the acreable produce miferable. Price now, 3 liv. the toulin ; was only 2 $f. Luneville . — More flill; they plant them, after one ploughing, in April: for feed, cut the large ones only ; but fell the fmaller ones uncut. Always dung much. Every man that has a cow, keeps the dung carefully for this crop; and iuch as have no land, plant on other people’s, without paying rent, that being the preparation for wheat : the crop of that grain is, however, very moderate, for the potatoe pumps much, to ufe the French expreffion, — ■/. e. exhaufts greatly. Poor light foils anfwer belt for them, as they are found not to do on flrong land. Product per journal, 30 to 50 rafaux t which meafure contains i8olb. of wheat. I found an exaft journal, by ftepping, to be 1974 Englifh yards, or about 65 rods. At 40 rafaux , each 3 Englifh bufhels, it is nearly about 300 bufhels Englifh per acre. The price is now, 7 liv. the razal, heaped; when low, 3 liv.; and in common, 4 liv. 10 f. The culture increafes much. Alsace.— Savern to JViltenheim.—M&ny , and good potatoes. Strajbourg.— Produce of an arpent, of 24,000 feet, 75 facks to 100, at 36^ to 60 f. (at liv. and 90 facks, it is 15I. ios.7d. per Englifh acre). Sow wheat after them, if manured, otherwife barley. In the mountains they pare and bum for them. Schelejiat. — Produce 50 or 60 facks, at 3 liv. but 4 liv. or 5 liv. fometimes (55 facks, at 3^ liv. are 13I. 5s. iod. per Englifh acre). In planting, they think the difference is nothing, whether they be fet cut or whole. The people eat them much. Bejort . — The culture continues to this place. Franche Compte. — Befanyon . — And a fcattering hither. Orecha?nps. — Now lofe the culture entirely. Auvergne. — Villeneuve . — In thefe mountains they are cultivated in final! quantities. V el lay.— Le Buy to Bradelles . — Ditto. Bo Bhuytz.— They are met with every where here. Dauphine. — St. Fond . — Many are cultivated throughout the whole coun- try ; all planted whole; if fliced, in the common manner, they do not bear the drought fo well. They are plagued with the curl. Thefe minutes fliew, that it is in very few of the French provinces where this ufeful root is commonly found; in all the other parts of the kingdom, on inquiring for them, I was told, that the people would not touch them: experi- ments have been made, in many places, by gentlemen with a view to introduce them PLANTS. 79 them for the poor, but no efforts could do it. The importance, however, would be infinite, for their ufe in a country in which famine makes its appear- ance almoft periodically, arifing from abfurd reflations on the corn trade. If potatoes were regularly cultivated for cattle, they Would be ready for the poor, in cafe of very high prices of wheat j andfuch forced confumprion would accuf- tom them gradually to this root ; a practice in their domeflic oeconomy, which would prevent much mifery, for want of bread. This object, like fo many others, can only be effected by the exhibition of a large farm, highly flocked with cattle, by means of potatoes j and the benefit, in various ways, to the na- tion would make fuch an exhibition exceedingly advantageous. But fuch eflablifhments come not within the purview of princes or governments in this age : they mull be enveloped in the mift of fcience, and well garnifhed with the academicians of capitals, or nothing can be effected.. Racine de Difette\ Isle of France. — Dugny . — This plant, the beta cycla altijjima of Linnasus, Monf. Crette de Paleuel has cultivated with attention : he has tried it by tranf- plantation, as direted by Monf l’Abbe de Commere!!; alfo by fowing the feed broadcaft where it remains ; and likewife feed by feed, in fquares of 1 5 inches ; and this laft way he thinks is the belt and moft profitable. The common red beet, which he has in culture, he thinks yields a larger produce ; but it does not yield fo many leaves as the other, which is flripped thrice in the fummer by the hand, an operation which may anfwer where labour is excefiively cheap; but I have my doubts whether the value in England would equal the expence of gathering and carriage. Cows and hogs, Monf Crette has found, will eat the roots readily, but he has made no trial on it in fattening oxen or feeding fheep. Alsace. — Schelefiat. — The culture is common in this country: I viewed three arpents belonging to the mafler of the poft, which were good and clean. They gather the leaves by hand for cows, and then return and gather again, and the roots are the bell food for them in winter ; they come to 8 lb. and 10 lb. and are fown and planted like tobacco. Rice . Dauphine. — Loriol , — Sixty years ago the plain of Livron, one mile from Loriol, and half a league from St. Fond, more than a league long and a league broad, was all under rice, and fucceeded well, but prohibited by the parliament, becaufe prejudicial to health. Saffron* PLANTS. 8 # Saffron* Angoumois . — Angouleme . — Th e bed land for this crop is reckoned that which is neither drong not doney, but rich and well worked $ plant the rows fix inches afuader, and two inches from plant to plant; fow wheat over the planted land, and gather the Saffron among the wheat ; bloffom at All-Saints, when they gather it. In a good year, and on good land, a journal yields 3 lb. which fells, when dear, at 30 liv. per lb. but is fometimes at 16 liv. : lads two years in the ground, after which it is removed. They affert, that the culture would not anfwer at all if a farmer had to hire labour for it ; all that is planted is by proprietors. j Tobacco. Flanders. — Mod farmers, between Lille and Montcaffel, cultivate enough for their own ufe, which is now (November) drying under the eayes of their houfes. Artois. — St. Omers . — Some pieces of tobacco, in double rows, at 18 inches and 2 feet intervals, well hoed. Aire.'— A crop is worth three times that of wheat on the fame land, and at the fame time prepares better for that grain than any thing. Alsace.— -Strajbourg.— Much planted in all this rich vale, and kept very clean. Product 8 to 10 quintals per arpent of 24,000 feet, at 15 liv. to 30 liv. per quintal (9 at 23 liv. is 14I. 6s. 2d. per Englifli acre). Sow wheat after it; and the bed wheat is after tobacco and poppies. Benfeldt. — Great quantities here, and all as clean as a garden. Scheleftat . — Produce 6 quintals to 8 per arpent, at 16 liv. the quintal ( 81 . 15s. yd. per Englifh acre). This they reckon the bed crop they have for producing ready money, without wailing or trouble. There are peafants that have to 600 quintals. They always manure for it. They fow it in March on a hot bed covered with mats ; begin to plant in May, and continue it all June and the be- ginning of July, at 18 inches or 2 feet fquare, watering the plants in a dry feafon. When 2 feet high, they cut off the tops to make the leaves fpread. Their bed wheat crops follow it. Tobacco, as an object of cultivation, appears in thefe notes to very great ad- vantage; and a refpedtable author, in France, declares, from information, that, indead of exhauding the land, it improves it like artificial grades*; which feems to agree with my intelligence; yet the culture has been highly condemned by others. Mr. Jefferfon obferves thus upon it ; “ it requires an extraordinary * Del ’ Admimjlration Provinciate par M. le Drone. Tom. i. p. 26'. degree PLANTS. 81 degree of heat, and fiill more indifpenfably an uncommon fertility of foil : it is a culture produ&ive of infinite wretchednefs : thofe employed in it are in a con- tinued ftate of exertion, beyond the powers of nature to fupport : little food of any kind is raifed by them; fo that the men and animals, on thefe farms, are badly fed, and the earth is rapidly impoverished. The cultivation of wheat is the reverfe in every circumfiance : befides cloathing the earth with herbage and preferving its fertility, it feeds the labourers plentifully ; requires from them only a moderate toil, except in the feafon of harvefl ; raifes great numbers of animals for food and fervice, and diffuses plenty and happinefs among the whole. We find it eafier to make an hundred bufhels of wheat than a thoufand weight of tobacco, and they are worth more when made*.” This authority is respect- able; but there are circumstances in the paffage which almofi: remove the de- pendence we are inclined to have on the author’s judgment. The culture of wheat preferving the fertility of the earth, and railing great numbers of animals! What can be meant by this? As to the exhaufting quality of wheat, which is fufficient to reduce a foil almofi: to a caput mortuum , it is too well known, and too completely decided, to allow any queftion at this time of day; and how wheat is made to raife animals we muff go to America to learn, for j uft the contrary is found here; the farms that raife moil: wheat have feweft animals; and in France, hufbandry is at almofi: its lowefi: pitch, for want of animals, and becaufe wheat and rye are cultivated, as it were, to the exclufion of other crops. Tobacco cannot demand an uncommon degree of heat, becaufe it has been cultivated on a thoufand acres of land fuccefsfully in Scotland : and as to the demanding of too great exertions, the free hands of Europe voluntarily addidt themfelves to the culture; which has nothing in it fo laborious as reaping wheat. I take the American cafe to be this; ill hufbandry, not tobacco, exhaufted the land; they are now adopting wheat ; and, if we may judge from the notions of the preceding quotation, that culture will, in a few years, give the finifhing ftroke to their lands; for thofe who think that wheat does not exhaufi:, will be free in often fowing it, and they will not be long in finding out what the r-efult will prove. Monf. Bolz, in Swilferland, fays, that they are difgufted with the culture of tobacco, becaufe it exhaufts their lands : half an arpent gave 5 to 6 quintals of leavesf. Efti mated grofsly, this may be called a thoufand weight per acre, which Mr. Jefferfon compares with 100 bufhels of wheat; a quantity that would demand, in England, four acres of land to yield; and, as American crops do not yield in that proportion, it is one acre of tobacco being as expenlive as five or fix of wheat, which furpafifes comprehenfion. * Notes on the S'tate of Virginia. P. 278. f Mem. de La Soiciete Oeconomique de Berne. 1763. Tom. I. p. 87. Vol. II. M The 82 PLANTS. The Strafbourg produce of 9 quintals, in the notes above, equal 15 cwt. per Englifh acre. The Scheleftat produce of 7 quintals is about 1 2 cwt. per acre. Dr. Mitch el, many years before Mr. Jefferfon, gave the fame account of the exhaufting quality of tobacco *. The cultivation is at prefent fpreading rapidly into countries that promife to be able to fupply the world. In 1765, it was begun to be cultivated in Mexico* and produced, in 1778, to the value of 8oo,oool. and in 1784, i,2oo,oool.f ' Turnips . Guienne — Anjpan to Bayonne . — Raves are, in thefe wafte tra&s, at the roots of the Pyrennees, much cultivated ; they manure for them, by burning ftraw, as defcribed under the article manure; weed, and, as they told me, hoe them; and have lome as large as a man’s head. They are applied entirely to fattening oxen. Maiz is fown after them. The people here knew of the orders given by the King, for cultivating this plant, but I could not find they had had any ef- fect. The practice obtained here before the two laft fevere years, which were the occafion of their increafing it, much more than any orders could do. Flanders. — Valenciennes to Or chies. — Many fields of this root, but quite thick, though it was faid they have been hoed; thefe are all after-crops, fown after corn. Normandie. — Caen . — In going to Bayeaux, many, both flourifhing and clean, though too thick; but, on inquiry, found them all for the market, and none for cattle or fheep. I thought the colour of the leaf differed from our own, and got off my horfe more than once to examine them. They are the raves of the fouth of France; the roots, which ought to have been of a good fize, were carrot-fhaped and fmall. Bretagne. — Belle-ljle to Morlaix. — Here is an odd culture of raves amongft buckwheat ; fown at the fame time, and given to cows and oxen, but the quan- tity is very inconfiderable. Morlaix.’— Get their beft turnips after flax, fometimes to a very good fize; but, for want of fufficient thinning the crops, in general, very fmall roots muft be produced ; yet the leaves large, healthy, and vigorous. They fow them alfo among buckwheat ; but the product is trifling, and the ufe but momentary, as they plough the land for wheat. Anjou. — Migniame.— If one were to attend only to converfation, without going into the fields, a ftranger would be perfuaded that the culture of turnips * Prefent State of Britain and North America. 8vo. 1767. P.149,151. t Bourgoanne’s Travels in Spain , vol. i, p, 368. flourifhed PLANTS. 83 flourifhed here : they actually give fome, and cabbages too, to their cows, tor every man has a fcrap : but Town quite thick, and the largeft I faw not bigger than a goofe egg ; in general not a fourth of that fize ; and the larged: piece I faw was half an Englifh acre. They have, in like manner, patches of a fort of kale, which is the chou de Poitou ; this is in Read of the chou d' Anjou, of which the Marquis de Turbilly fpeaks fo much ; and which is quite ne- glected in this country now, in favour of this Poitou cabbage, that is found to produce many more leaves. To me it, however, appears inferior to the chou de Vache of Flanders. To La Fleche. — A fcattering of miferable raves all the way. Alsace. — Scheleftat to Colmar. — Some fcattered pieces, but in very bad order; and none hoed, which they ought to have been three weeks before I faw them. Auvergne. — IJfoire. — Raves are cultivated for cattle, but on fo fmall a fcale, that they fcarcely defervc mention. They fow them alfo among buckwheat, which is drawn by hand, when in blojfom, for forage , and the raves left. No hoeing, but fome are weeded. Brioude. — Many raves, and cultivated for cattle: common to 2 lb. weight. St. George's to Villeneuve . — Many raves, but miferable poor things, and all weeds. Perhaps the culture of turnips, as pradtifed in England, is, of all others, the greateft defideratum in the tillage of France. To introduce it, is effential to their hufbandry ; which will never flourish to any refpedable extent, and upon a footing of improvement, till this material objedl be effected. The Reps hitherto taken by government, the chief of which is didributing the feed, I have reafon to believe, failed entirely. I fent to France, at the requed of the Count de Vergennes, above an hundred pounds worth of the feed; enough Tor a fmall province. When I was at Paris, and in the right feafon, I begged to be fhewn fome effects of that import ; but it was all in vain. I was carried to various fields, fown thick, and abfolutely negle&ed ; too contemptible to de- mand a moment’s attention. Not one acre of good turnips was produced by all that feed. It is with turnips, as in many other articles ; a great and well cultivated Englifh farm, of 700 or 800 acres, fhould be edablifhed, on an in- different foil; and 200 acres of turnips cultivated upon it, and eaten on the land by fheep, fhould every year be exhibited; and a fucceffion of perfons educated on fuch a farm, difperfed over the kingdom, would do more to introduce the culture than all the meafures yet attempted by government. Walnuts . Berry. — Verfon to Vatan. — Many of thefe trees fpread over the country, which yield a regular revenue by oil. M 2 Quercy. PLANTS. 84 Quercy. — Soui/lac. — Walnut-oil cake the fineft food of all for fattening oxen. They export pretty largely of this oil, the trees being every where. Angoumois. — Rignac. — Walnuts fpread over almoft every field. Ruffec . — A common tree vields a boiffeau of nuts ; fold at 3 liv. or 4 liv. ; but a good tree 3 boilfeau. All for oil, which the people eat in foups, &c. Poitou. — M any through all parts of the province, which I paffed in croff- ing it. Oil univerfally made from them. This year (1787) all were fo frozen, that the crop will be very fmall ; fometimes get 16 boiffeau a tree, even to 20 boiffeau ; the boiffeau fells generally at 20 f There is, on an average, one tree to an acre. One tree gives 5 or 6 meafures of nuts, and each meafure makes fomething more than a pint of oil, which fells at 18 f. or 20 f. An joij.— A crofs this whole province they are found every where, but none through Bretagne. Al s age.' —Ifenheiw * — Great numbers fpread all over the country; for oil. Bourbon nois. — Moulin s. — Some eftates have a good many fcattered trees; the oil fells at \2f. the lb. Auvergne. — Clermont . — Many in every part of the country; a prime tree will, in a good year, give 20 lb. and even 30 lb. of oil; one of ten years 6 lb. ; common price 6 f. per lb. Lempde. — Here they finifh; as we advance from this village, no more are met with. Various Rlants. Quercy. — Brives. — Figs we met with here for the firfl time ; they are mat- tered over the vineyards, and wrapped up in mats, to preferve them from frofts. Creiffenfac. — Gieyfe much cultivated here ; it is the lathyrus fetifolius . Alfo jarajh , the vicia latharoides . They fow them both in September and the fpring, which are generally uled, mown green, for foiling. Souillac. — They have no meadows in many diftridts of this country, but fupply the want by the above-mentioned plants, which are always ufed green. They do not anfwer equally in hay, as it is faid that the leaf falls off in drying. Cahors. — Near this place meet with four new articles of cultivation ; one a vicia fativa varietas ; another the cicer arietinum ; the third the ervum lens ; and the fourth the lupinus albus. CauJJ'ade. — Here the trifolium rubens is cultivated, and continues through all the Pyrennees. On all thele articles I muff, however, obferve, that they do not feem to equal, for foiling, the common winter-vetch, which we cultivate fc much in England ; nor lucern, fo fuccefsfully fown in France. Guienne. PLANTS. *5 Guienne. — c Triticum Repens. Upon the banks of the Garonne I met women loaded with the roots of this plant, going to fell it at market ; and they informed me it was bought to feed horfes with. It is applied to the fame ufe at Naples. It grows with great luxuriance at Caygan Solo, in .latitude 7*; and being the great plague of Englifh hufbandry, may be called a uni- verfal grower. It feems, from a late account -f, as if they cultivated it in the ifland of Nantucket, in America. Isle of France. — Dugny. — Monf. Crette de Paleuel gave me fome notes of experiments he had made on various plants, in drying them for hay. The epilobium anguft folium makes hay that is readily eaten by Iheep, and lofes half in drying. They are very fond of the hay of the fpirea ulmaria , the lithum falicaria , thalilllrum vulgaris , pucedanumfilaus , and centaurea jacea ; all thefe lofe half, when-made into hay ; the althaea ojjpcinalis two-thirds. Monf. Crette is of opinion, from his trials, that thefe plants may be very ufeful in cultivation, for hay. He found, at the fame time, that an arpent of wet meadow gave 13,2001b. of green herbage, which loft two-thirds in drying. An arpent of winter- vetches 17,8001b. green. The common fun-flower he has alfo cultivated; he plants it in rows, at two feet afunder, and one foot from plant to plant ; an arpent containing 16,200 plants ; the leaves he gives to cows, the flowers may be ufed for dying ; of the ftems he makes vine props, or for French beans, and afterwards burns them ; and of the feed he makes oil, which leaves a cake good for fattening cattle. Six perch of land, each of 18 feet fquare, has given him 22 boifleau of feed, the boifleau tV of the feptier, that contains 2401b. of wheat; but the crop exhaufls the land exceedingly, and fmall birds devour the feed greedily. The fame gentleman compared cabbages and potatoes, in alternate rows : an arpent gave (half the ground) 62 feptiers of potatoes, which weighed 14,880 lb. ; the cabbages on the fame land, in number 5400, weighed 25,500 lb. Dammartin. — Summer-vetches cultivated here, they are mown for hay, and yield 800 to 1000 bottes per arpent; 1100 have been known. Artois. — La Reco '^.—Winter-vetches are found on every farm, on the good land from Calais to St. Omer : oats are mixed, to keep them up ; and every one foils his horfes in the liable. Afs. — Some hops here. Anjou. — In the way from Angers to La Fleche, the number of citroules is very great, even to acres, and the crop extremely abundant; the metayers feed their hogs with them. * For eft's Foyage to Flew Guinea , p. 16. t St. John’s Letters of an American Farmer . 8vo. 1782. P. 207. Auvergne. 85 PLANTS. Auvergne.— Jaroufle every where ffown, the end of Augufl or beginning of September, for hay. Dauphine. — Loriol . — The melilotus fibyrica , from Monf. Thouin, at the King’s garden, at Paris, makes, in the garden of Monf. Faujas de St. Fond, a moft faberb figure; nobody can view its prodigious luxuriance without com- mending the thought of cultivating it for cattle. The coronilla varia , a com- mon plant here, and of fuch luxuriance, that it is hardly to be deftroyed. The hedyfarum cor onar turn does well here. Provence. — Cages . — Capers are here met with, for the firft time, in going from Marfeilles to Italy. It is a low bu(h, planted in fquares of about 5 or 6 feet. This year they yield nothing, becaufe damaged by the froft; but, in conlmon, more profitable than vines ; they mentioned 1 lb. per tree, at 30 f. ‘Toulon. — Capers are not fo profitable as vines. The bufhes here are planted at 6| or 7 feet fquare ; and a good one will give 1 £ or 2 lb. of capers ; but the price varies prodigioufly, from 30 liv. or 40 liv. to 120 liv. the quintal ; average, 30 liv. or from 6 /. to 20 f. the pound. Hieres *. — Capers here are planted in fquares, at 6, 7, and 8 feet ; each good buihel yields 2 lb. from 6/. to 24 f. the pound ; but, in a grofs eftimate of a whole crop, are not fuppofed to pay more than 6 /. to 10 f. per buihel. Grajfe . — Here is one of the moft fingular cultures to be met with, that of plants for making perfumes; whole acres of rofes, tuberofes, &c. for their flowers, and a flreet full of Ihops for felling them : they make the famous otter of rofes, as good and as clear as from Bengal ; and it is faid now to fupply all Europe. Lyonnois. — ' The fromental of the French (avena elation J is cultivated in this part of France, and in fome diftridts ofFranche Compte. The feed is com- monly fold by the feedfmen, at Lyons, of whom I bought fome to cultivate in England. The firft perfon who mentioned it publickly was, I believe, Monf. Miroudot, who wrote an eflay upon it, in which he fell into an error, copied by many of his countrymen +, namely, that of calling it the ray-grafs of the Eng- Ifth. The great betanift, Haller, was miftaken in fuppofing it the avena jla - vefeens J. King Staniflaus made fome experiments on it in Lorainc. In Bre- tagne |j it has been found to yield ten times the produce of common meadows. That it is very productive cannot be doubted, but it is a very coarfe grafs : how- * The natural hiftorian of Provence mentions a fingular profit by this plant, at Hieres, of 200 Cannes fquare giving 200 liv. net, while the fame breadth, in common hufbandry, only 18 liv. Menu pour fervir a VHtJi. Nat. de la Provence , par M. Bernard. 8vo. Tom. i. p. 329. f Bomarre Dltt. d ’ Hijl. Nat. Tom. ii. p. 565 ; v. p. 225. X Mem. de la Soc. de Berne . 1770. P. 16. y Corps d ’ Obferv. de la Soc. de Bretagne. 1759, 1760. P.44,45. ever. WASTE LANDS. 8/ ever, it merits experiments, and ought to be tried upon a large fcale, as the qualities of plants cannot be afeertained upon a fmall one. Citroules, in this province and the neighbouring ones, are cultivated largely, and rarely fail. They may be preferved until the beginning of January: oxen, cows, and hogs eat them freely ; for lean cattle they are given raw, but com- monly boiled for fattening : from io lb. to 20 lb. a day, given to cows, foon fhews the efFeCt in the quality of milk. For fattening an ox, in Brefle *, with them, they mix the citroule with bran or pollard, or flower of buckwheat, and boil them together, and give 35 lb. to 40 lb. to each bead per diem. In fome places they apply them to feeding carp. The poor people eat them in foup, in mod parts of the kingdom, but not in great quantities. CHAP. XIV. Of the Wafle Lands of France . Sologne. — r T’HERE is, in this province, fuch a large mixture of wafle, even A in the moft cultivated parts, and cultivation itfelf is carried on upon fuch barbarous principles, that there will not be much impropriety in confidering the whole as wafle; to every fpot of culture called a farm, a much greater proportion of rough fheep-walk and wood (eaten down and deftroyed) is annexed; fo that any good farmer, who got pofleflion ©f 1000 or 1500 acres, would conclude the whole as wafle, and treat it accordingly: by much the moft unproductive and pooreft part of fuch a traCl would, in every cafe, be the lands at prefent under the plough. I may, in confirmation of this general idea, add, that there are many abfolute waftes in France, that yijfdd as good, and even a better produce than all Sologne, acre for acre. I know no region better adapted for a man’s making a fortune by agriculture, than this ; nothing is wanted but capital, for moft of the province is already inclofed. Berry. — Chateauroux . — Leaving this place for the fouth, enter vaft heaths of ling and furz, but much mixed with trefoils and grafifes. Some fmall parts of thefe heaths are broken up, and fo ill ploughed, that the broom and furz are in full growth. After this another heath, of feveral miles extent, where * Objerv. et Exp. par Fenille y 'p . 86 . the 83 WASTE LANDS. the landlords will not give leave either to build or break up, referving the whole for fheep, and yet not flocked ; for the people affert, that they could keep twice the number, if they had them. Limousin. — To Limoges. — The mountainous heaths and uncultivated lands are commons, and therefore every metayer fends his fheep in the common flock of the village. BiGORRE.-B^wm de Luchon.— The wafle traCts of the Pyrennees, by which are to be underflood, lands fubjeCt to common pafturage, are fo much fubjeCt to the will of the communities, that thefe fell them at pleafure. For- merly the inhabitants appropriated to their own ufe, by inclofure and cultivation, what portions they pleafed ; but this obtains no longer ; at prefent the com- munities fell thefe wafles, and fixing a price on them, nearly to their value, new improvements are not fo common as heretofore. Languedoc. — Narbonne to Nifmes. — This vale, which is by far the richeA cf Languedoc, in productions, is of no confiderable breadth, yet the quantity of wafte neglected land in it is very great. Monrejau to Lann-Maifon.—W^ wafles, covered with fern; the foil good; and land projecting into it cultivated to advantage. Bagneres de Bigorre. — Thefe immenfe fern -wafles continue for many miles, with many new improvements in them. They belong to the communities of the villages, which fell portions of them to any perfons willing to buy. The price moft common has been 20 liv. the journal, of 128 Cannes fquare, the canne 8 pans; the pan 8 inches and 4 lines, 4 journals making an arpent. The method of improving has been, fir 11 to burn all the fern and rubbifh, then to mattock it and fow rye, which is pretty good ; then oats for fix, feven, or eight years, according to circumflances ; after that they fummer-fallow and take wheat. Some they leave to grafs and weeds, after thofe eight crops of oats ; a detail of the hufbandry of barbarians ! They have all a right of com- monage on the wafles, as long as thefe continue uninclofed; confequently can keep cattle, and efpecially flieep, to any amount in fummer ; yet, in their in- clofed improvements, they give not a thought to raife winter food ! Such flu- pidity is deteflable. The parifli of Cavare has 104,000 arpents of thefe w'afles, without one metayer ; all are peafant proprietors, who buy morfels as it fuits them. The improvements are exempted from tithes for ten years; but not at all from the King’s taxes, which is fhameful. Bear n. — Pan to Moneins . — Vaft wafles of rich foil, covered with an immenfe produCl of fern, to the amount of five or fix waggon loads an acre. St. Palais to s 4 nfpan.—Va(\: wafles; belonging to the communities of the pa- rifhes, that fell them to whoever will buy : a common price 120 liv. per arpent ; but after they are brought into culture, they fell for at leaft 300 liv. 1 he ad- vantages WASTE LANDS* 89 vantages of this fyftem, which extends through the whole region of the Pyrennees, is prodigious : it excludes the rights of commonage, becaufe all is inclofed as fad: as bought ; and enables every induftrious man, that faves a little money, to become a land proprietor, which is the greateft encouragement to an adive induftry the world can produce ; it has, however, one evil, that of too great a population. Bayo?2neto St. Vincents. — In this line I came fir ft to the landes of Bourdeaux, becaufe they extend from the gates of Bayonne to thofe of Bourdeaux, and of which I had read fo much, that I was curious to view and examine them ; they are fa id to contain 1,100,000 arpents *. They are covered with pines, cork- trees (only half the value of pines), broom, whins, ling, and furz ; the foil fand, but the growth of trees fhews a moift bottom. There is a good deal of cultivation mixed with the wafte this firft ftage. There is much land alfo under water, a fort of fandy fen. Pafs a great fpace, without trees, covered with dwarf furz, ling, and fern. Others before Dax; one of them of five or fix miles long, by two or three broad : much rough grafs and ling on it : but none of thefe trads appear half flocked. Dax to Martas. — This diftrid is a deep white fand, the whole of which has evidently been lande , but part of it inclofed and improved ; much is, however, yet rough.— Singular feene of a blowing fand, white as fnow, yet oaks growing in it two feet diameter ; but a broken ground difeovers a bed of white adhefive earth, like marl, which explains the wonder. Learn at Tartas, that thefe immenfe waftes, the landes, without pines or wood, are to be purchafed, at all times, very cheap indeed, of the King, the great lords, and of the communities of many parifhes, even fo low as 3 liv. per arpent, with an exemption from tithes, and from taxes for twenty years. But every one here reckons them fo bad, that all the money fpent would be fure to be loft ; yet it is admitted, that there is a bed of marl or clay under all the coun- try. This opinion is chiefly founded on the attempts of Monf. Rollier, of Bour- deaux, having made a trial of cultivating them, and fucceeded very ill. I guefled how fuch improvements had been attempted, and told my informants what I fuppofed had been done ; and my guefs proved exactly right : corn — corn— corn — corn; and then the land pronounced good for nothing. It does not fignify telling fuch people, that the great objects, in all improvements of waftes, are cattle, and fheep, and grafs, after which corn will be fure. Nothing of this kind is comprehended from one end of France to the other. As I fhall here take my leave of thefe landes , I may obferve, that, fo far as they are covered with pines, they are not to be efteemed waftes; but, on the contrary, occupied with a very profitable culture, that does not yield lefs than from 15s. * De la Necejfite d’Occuper tous les gros Ouvriers , p. 8. N Voi. II. to 90 WASTE LANDS. to 25s. an acre annual revenue. Of the very extenfive trails not fo employed, and which are to be purchafed at fo cheap a rate, they are among the moft im- proveable diftriTs in the kingdom, and might be made, at a very fmall expence, capable of fupporting immenfe flocks of fheep. Cavignac to Pierre Brune. — Many fandy waftes, with white marl under the whole. To Cherfac. — -Great waftes, of many miles extent, covered with fern, ling, and fhrubby oak; all greatly improveable. To Mont lieu-. — Ditto. Many of thefe waftes belonged to the Prince of Soubife, who would not fell, but only let them ; the confequence has been, that no im- provements have been wrought. La Grauie . — The waftes in this country are fold at 10 liv. the journal, and lefs; fome better at 30liv. The journal here is to the Englifh acre as ten to thirty-eight ; it conftfts of 10 carraux, each 18 feet fquare. Normandie. — Valogne to Cherbourg. — Monf. Doumerc, of Paris, having bought of Monfieur, the King’s brother, 3000 arpents, part of 14,000 fold at the fame time, being parcel of an ancient, but much neglected, foreft, has made an improvement here, which, fo far, deferves attention, as it fhews the prin- ciples on which French improvers proceed. He has brought into culture 700 verges, which form his prefent farm, around a houfe for himfelf, and an- other for his bailiff, all built, as well as many other edifices, in much too expen- five a manner; for thefe erections alone coft 2500 louis d’or. Such unnecef- fary expenditures in building is generally fure to cripple the progrefs in much more neceflary matters. The firft bufinefs in the improvement, was to grub up the wood; then to pare and burn; and manure with lime, burnt with the furz, fern, and heath of the land; the ftone was brought from Valogne: as foon as it was cleared, it was fallowed the firft year for wheat. Such infatuation is hardly credible ! A man is commencing his operations in the midft of 3000 acres of rough ground, and an immenfe pafturage for cattle and fheep, begins with wheat; the fame follies prevail every where: we have feen juft the fame courfe purfued in England, and prefcribed by writers. Such people think cattle and fheep of no importance at the beginning of thefe improvements. This wheat, limed at the rate, per arpent, of 7 or 8 tonneaux, of 25 boifleau, each 18 pots of 2 pints; 4 boifleau of feed fown, and the crop 40 boifleau. After this wheat fown 5 boifleau of oats, the crop 40. Then barley, feed 4 boifleau, produce 20 to 25 boifleau. With this barley clover fown ; mown the firft: year twice, and paftured the fecond ; being then ploughed for wheat, which is inferior to the original crops; then oats and fallow again. From all thefe crops it is fufficiently evident, that French farmers efteem corn, and not cattle, the proper fupport of a new improvement. The foil which has been thus re- claimed. WASTE LANDS.' 9i claimed, is on a done quarry in general ; a friable Tandy loam, covered with a drong fpontaneous growth (where not fored) of furz, fern, and, in fome places, heath; mixed with much grafs, and even clover and millefolium ; which, if properly flocked by cattle, well fed in winter, would be of confiderable value in its prefent rough flate. Though the methods purfued have not been calculated on the bed prin- ciples, yet there is certainly a confiderable degree of merit in the undertak- ing. Lad year’s crop of wheat produced 40,000 gerbs : and this year (1787) there is one piece of oats, of 80 verges, which gives 12,000 gerbs, at 15 boiffeau per hundred; each boififeau 40 lb. and the price at prefent 4 $f. The prefent flock, 207 wethers, 10 horfes, 21 working oxen, 10 cows, 1 bull, 6 young cattle, are certainly fine, for a fpot where, ten years ago, Monf. Baillio, the bailiff, who has executed the whole, and who feems to be a truly excellent man, was in a hovel, with no other flock than a dog. The whole improved, would now let at 15 liv. ppr verge, 2J to the arpent. Bretagne. — Combourg to Hede.— Pafs an immenfe wafte for a league, but to the left a dead level, boundlefs as the fea ; high lands at one part, feemingly 8 or 10 leagues off. Every part which the road paffes, has been under the plough, for the ridges are as didindt as if made but laft year; and many ruined banks of hedges crofs it in various ways. The fpontaneous growth, furz, ling, and fern; the foil good, and equal to valuable crops, in a proper management. The King has part, Monf. de Chateaubriant part, and other feigneurs alfo ; but every body I talked with fays, it is good for nothing. Would to heaven I had 1,000 acres of it at Bradfield 1 I would foon put that affertion to the ted. Rennes. — The wade lands, which, in almod every part of the province, extend for many leagues, are almod every where to be bought, in any quantity, of the feigneurs, at lof. the journal, which is to the Englifh acre as 47 to 38, with a fmall quit-rent per annum. St. Brteux. — Inquiring here into the period of the cultivation which I every where remarked on the landes of Bretagne, I was told, that it was no antient culture, but common for peafants, who took them of the feigneurs, to pare and burn, with the ecoubu ; exhaud; and then leave them to nature: and this for forty, fifty, and fixty years back. Rented for ever at 20^ to 30 f. the journal. St. Nazaire to Savanal.— Immenfe bog marked on all the maps of Bretagne, and filling the fpace of many leagues, covered with vad growth of bog myrtle, and coarfe graffes, three or four feet high ; what a field for improvement, in a climate that gives fuch a fpontaneous growth ! 1 Tbo Nantes. — In the landes , which, drange to fay, extend to within three miles of Nantes, there was an improvement attempted fome years ago : four good houfes of done and date are built, and a few acres run to wretched grafs, N 2 which 92 .WASTE LANDS. which have been tilled, hut all fivage, and become almoft as rough as the reft: a few of the hanks have been planted. This may be the improvement I heard of afterwards at Nantes, made by fome Englifhmen, at the expence of a gentle- man, and all the parties ruined. I inquired how the improvement had been effected: pare and burn ; wheat ; rye ; oats ! ! ! Thus it is for ever: the fame methods, the fame failures, the fame folly, the fame madnefs. When will men be wife enough to know, that good grafs rnuft be had, if corn is the objedt? Nantes. — I have now travelled round the vaft province of Bretagne, and may obferve, that fo large a proportion of it is wade, as to be difficult to calculate: I have pafifed tradts of land, of three, four, five, and even eight miles in ex- tent, without any cultivation, and 1 have heard of much more confiderable, even to fourteen leagues in length. I have marked one diftridl in the map which contains fome hundred thoufand acres. Three-fourths of the pro- vince are either wafte, or fo rough as to be nearly the fame thing. This is the more furprifing, as here are fome of the firft markets in France- that is to fay, fome of the mod conliderable commercial towns ; and every where the vi- cinity of the fea. Thefe enormous waftes, which are faid to exceed two millions of arpents*, are found, as I have remarked, in my notes on the great road, within four miles of fuch a city as Nantes : vaft diftridls are to be had on leafes, or rather property for ever, on the payment of very flight fines. The foil is ge- nerally very improveable; I mean, convertible to cultivation, at a very fmall expence, and with great facility contrary to the aflertion of every body in the province, who have been fo ufed to fee it defolate, that they cannot readily be- lieve it capable of a better hufbandry than being burnt, exhaufted, and leftto nature. The means of improving thefe waftes are abfolutely unknown in France, and not much better underftood in England. The profit of the under- taking, however, when properly purfued, upon the never-failing principle of grafs — fheep — cattle — corn ; inftead of the common blunder, which puts the cart before the horfe (if 1 may ufe a vulgar proverb), will be found great and rapid. Anjou. — Turbilly, — In the journal-part of this work, I have explained the motives which carried me out of my road, to view the waftes of this vicinity, and particularly the improvements of the late Marquis of Turbilly, defcribed at large in his Memoire fur les Dejricbemens , which has been fo often cited in almoft every language. The immenfe heaths, or landes , are, in general, a fa ndy or gravelly loam ; fome on a gravel, others on a clayey, and others on a marley bottom ; and others, again, on imperfedf quarry ones: the fpontaneous growth would pre- dominantly be every where foreft, particularly of oak, if it were inclofed, and • * De la Necejfite d’Occuper tous lesgros Ouvrlers , par Monf. Boncerf. 17 89. P. 8. preferved WASTE LANDS, 93 preferved from depredation. At prefent, it is wood browfed and ruined, fern furz, broom, ling, &c. &c. In the defert flate in which the whole country is left at prefent, the value is nothing elfe but what it yields to a few cattle and fheep ; not the hundredth part of what might be kept, if any well regulated provifion were made for their winter lupport. I pa fifed ten miles over thefe heaths ; they were, in fome directions, boundlefs to the view ; and my guide affured me, I might continue travelling upon them for many days. When at Tours, I was told of their extending much in that direction alfo. The climate is good. There are dreams that pafs through thefe wades, which might be em- ployed in irrigation, but no ufe whatever made of them; there are marl and clay under them, for manure; and there is every whereto be found plenty of padurage, for the immediate dimmer food of large flocks. — In a word, there are all the materials for making a eonfiderable fortune except fkill and knowledge. Such was the country in which the late Marquis of Turbilly fat down, at an early period of life, determining to improve his edate of 3000 arpents in thefe deferts ; with all the neceffary activity of difpodtion ; every energy of mind ; and that animated love of laudable attempts, to give life and efficacy to the un- dertaking. Some meadows and plantations, which he made, fucceeded well, and remain ; but, of all his improvements of the heaths, to the inconfiderable amount of about 100 arpents, hardly any other traces are now to befeen, except from the more miferable and worn-out appearance of the land ; which, after cropping, was, of courfe, left in a much worfe condition than if it had never been touched. The fences are quite dedroyed; and the whole as much lande as before improvement. This flowed from the unfortunate error, fo common, indeea fo univerfal, among the improvers of wade lands ; and unexceptionably fo in France— that of improving, merely for the purpofe of getting corn. Pyron, the labourer who worked in all the Marquis’ improvements, informed me, that he pared and burnt, which is the common praClice of all the country, and then took three crops of corn in fucceffion ; that the firfl was very good, the fecond not good, and the third good for nothing, that is, not above three times the feed : from that moment there was an end of improvement ; it only crawled, during many years, to the amount of 100 acres; whereas, if he had begun on right principles, he would, in all probability, have improved the 3000 ; and, others copying his modes, the whole country might, by this time, have been under cultivation. It was reckoned a vafl effort in him to lold 250 fheep: and this was the beft engine he had in his hands; but giving the fold for corn, it was loft as foon as exerted. Inflead of 250 fheep, the Marquis fhould have had 500 the firfl year, 1000 the fecond, 1500 the third, and 2000 the fourth £ and all his paring, burning, manuring, folding, exerted to raile turnips (not their 94 WASTE LANDS. their contemptible raves) to winter-feed them) with fo much burning, fold- ing, and eating off the turnips, the land would have been prepared for grafs; and when once you have good grafs, good corn is at your command. Thus corn was the laft idea that (hould have entered his head: inftead of which, like other French improvers, he rufhed upon it at once— and from that inftant all was ruined. The particular advantages of the fpot are confiderable, if ever an improver fhould arife, with knowledge enough to purfue the methods that are adapted to the foil and fituation. The hills of all the country are fo gentle, that they are to be tilled with great eafe ; offering the advantage of perennial ftreams, that run at prefent to wafte in the vales. There are rich veins of white marl, with an under-ftratum, in many places, of clay. There is a hill of fhell fand, for improving the ftiffer foils and the moory bottoms. There is lime-ftone at the diftance of half a league, and plenty of peat to burn it. The Marquis of Galway’s father fpread fome of the fhell fand on a fmall poor field, and had an immediate luxuriance of crop in confequence. The prefent cure of the parifh has tried the marl, with equal fuccefs. But both thefe manures, and indeed any other, would be abfolutely loft, if a fucceftion of corn crops were immediately to follow. It is this valuable under-ftratum of clay and marl which gives fuch a growth to wood. In paffing from La Fleche to Turbilly, I was amazed, in fome fpots, at the contraft between the apparent poverty of the furface foil, and .the oaks fcattered about it ; they are, in general, eaten up by cattle, yet the bark is clean and bright, and this year’s fhoots four and even five feet long. A common mode, and indeed the only one, of attempting improvements here, is to permit the peafants to pare and burn pieces of the heath; to take five crops in fucceftion, but to leave the ftraw of the laft; to fence the piece around; and to fow whatever feeds of wood the landlord provides, ufually oak, for a copfe, which, in this villainous way, fucceeds well; but as fuch copfes are fenced with a ditch and bank only, and never any hedge planted, they are prefently open and eaten. Maine. — Guejjelard . — The landes of Anjou extend over a great part of Maine alio. Here they told me, that the extent in that neighbourhood is hardly lefs than fixty leagues in circumference, with no great interruption of cultivation. The account they give of the foil is, that it is abfolutely good for nothing but to produce wood, which it^ will do very well. The feigneurs fief it out for ever, in any quantity, at the rent of half a bufhel of oats an arpent (the bufhel 30 lb. of wheat), and fome at 10 f. lo 2 of. The peafants pare and burn, and get a very fine crop of rye; then another poor crop of rye; and after that a miferabie one of oats ; reckoning, in common, that a burning will give juft three crops ; after which the land is ftriftly good for nothing, but is left to na- ture f WASTE LANDS. 95 ture to recover itfelf. The price of paring and burning 30 liv. per arpent. I can hardly record thefe infiances of barbarifm with tulerable patience — without dealing execrations, not againft a poor unenlightened peafantry, but againft a government poftefiing, in demefne, immenfe tradts of thefe lands, without ever ordering any experiments to be made and publifhed, of the beft methods of im- proving them. But had it come into any fuch project, and had thofe experi- ments had French conductors, they would have been merely with a view of getting corn ! corn ! corn ! T ’0 Le Mans.— Much of thefe wafles here referable the fands of Sologne; upon a dead level, and water handing in many, places ; yet the foil a find; and, in fpots, even a running one : it arifes from the fame circumftance which makes them productive of oak timber, wherever preferved, viz. the bottom of clay and marl. Bourbonnois. — Moulins. — Three-fourths of the whole province wafte, or heath, or broom, or wood. St. Pourgain. — As I quitted the Bourbonnois in this vicinity, entering Au- vergne, it will not be improper to remark, that the whole province, as well as that of Nevernois, ought, refpeCting all the purpofes of improvement, to be deemed wafte. The culture that is carried on, without any exception, on the arable lands, is only fallowing for rye; and, after two or three* rounds, the land is fo exhaufted by this bleffed fyftem, that it is left to weeds : broom is the prevalent fpontaneous growth in fuch a cafe ; and if the broom be left for a number of years, it becomes a foreft. This rye-courfe produces the landlord, for his half (as all is in the hands of metayers), about 2s. 6d. or 3s. an acre through the whole farm, by corn, cattle , &c. ; and at fuch rates a vaft pro- portion of the province is chiefly to be bought. Confidering that the lands are all inclofed ; that wood enough is every where found ; that the country is furnifhed with a fufficient quantity of buildings; that the roads are excellent; that it enjoys a navigation to the capital ; that markets are good, and prices high; that there is marl or clay under the fands and Tandy gravels; that the climate is one of the fineft in Europe; and the country highly pleafant and beautiful: when all thefe circumftances are well weighed, it will be admitted that no part of France is fo eligible to eftablifh a great and profitable improve- ment ; but, as 1 muft again repeat it, the whole province appears wafte to the eyes of an Englifh farmer. Auvergne. — Brioude.— The mountains in this neighbourhood too much cul- tivated ; the earth is, by fuch means, wafhed away by ftorms, and torrents drive away every thing. V ivarais. — Pradelles. — Pare and burn old turf in these mountains. Great tradts burnt, exhaufted, and left to nature to recruit. To g6 WASTE LANDS. To Tbuytz : —Cultivation is carried on in thefe mountains to an incredible height; and is all by hand. In fome cafes, earth is carried, by hand, in bafkets, to form the terraced beds, that yield a difficult and fcanty crop, that is brought away on the back. Nothing could poffibly fupport fuch exertions, but the whole being fmall properties ; every peafant cultivates his own land. Provence. — Tour d'Aigues . — The mountains here are all calcareous, yet they are, from a vicious culture and management, deftroyed and abandoned, and yield fubfiftence to a few' miferable goats and ffieep only ; fuch mountains in the Vivarais, the Prefident remarks, are covered with fuperb chefnuts, that yield a good revenue; — this country would do equally well for them, as ap- pears from the very fine ones found in the park of Tour d’Aigues. The cutting of every buffi for burning the earth is the caufe; this fpecies of culture loofens the furface, and renders it a prey to torrents ; fo that all is waffied into the rivers, and becomes the deftrudion of the plains. The Durance, in its whole courfe, of near 200 miles, has deftroyed, on an average, to the breadth of half a league. General Objervations. In the preceding notes, mention is often made of great trads of country, fo miferably cultivated, that the whole would, by a good Engliffi farmer, be confidered as wafle. This is particularly the cafe in Bretagne, Maine, Anjou, Sologne, Bourbonnois, &c. ; and it is this circumftance which reduces the general average produd of France to folow a pitch, as appears in the chap- ter which treats of it, notwithftanding the immenfe trad of twenty-eight millions of rich land, the produds of which are, of courfe, very high. Here then ought to be the great effort of a new fyftem of government in France. The revolution has coft immenfe fums ; and has occafioned a happy defalcation of the revenue, provided it be replaced, wifely and equally, on fome objed of general confumption, and not on land ; but the public burthens of the king- dom are fo heavy (proportioned to its confumption and circulation), that every attention fhould be exerted to increafe and improve the contributing income ; and this can in no way, and by no methods, be effeded fo well and fo eaftly, a.s by fpreading improvements over thefe immenfe waftes, which are fuch a dif- grace to the old government. The waftes alone are calculated, in thefe ffieets, at 18,000,000 of Engliffi acres; if to thefe we add the trads, in the above- mentioned provinces, which, though cultivated, are no more produdive than waftes, and much of them not of equal profit, we cannot reckon for the whole less than 40,000,000 of acres that are in a wafte ftate: not abfolutely unpro- dudive, but which w r ould admit of being rendered four, five, fix, and even ten times more fo than they are at prefent. This extent is nearly equal to that WASTE LANDS. 97 of the kingdom of England; whence we may judge of the immenfe refources to be found in the improvement of the agriculture of France; and the wifdom of the meafures of the National Artembly ought to be ertimated in proportion to their exertions in this refpetrt, rather than in any other. If they give a ready, immediate, and abfolute right of inclofure; an exemption from all taxation whatever, for twenty-one years; and, by a w r ife fyrtem of imports, the future profpedt of not being too much burthened ; if fuch be their encouragements, in addition to the great ones already effeded, particularly in the abolition of tithes, they may exped to fee, in a few years, great undertakings on thefe defolate trads. But the policy of a good government will not, in this point, do the whole; it may encourage buildings, inclofures, manuring, and the inveftment of large capitals; but if thefe foils be attempted to be cultivated, as they have hitherto always been in France, failure, bankruptcy, and ruin, will be the con- fequence ; and the lands, after a few years, left in a worfe rtate than they are in at prefent. The government Ihould therefore not omit taking the neceffary rteps, to have inftrudions well diffufedfor the cultivation of thefe immenfe trads of country ; not in the fpirit of the old * fyrtem, by printing memoirs, which, if followed, probably would fpread more mifchief than benefit, but by the exhibition of a farm in each confiderable dirtrid, under a right manage- ment, and in that degree of perfedion of culture which is applicable to the prac- tice of all mankind; of the poor farmers as well as of rich ones : every other fpecies of perfedion does well enough for gentlemen to commend, but is not adapted for farmers to imitate. One large farm, taken entirely from warte, in Bretagne, another in Anjou, a third in Sologne, a fourth in Bourbonnois, and a fifth in Guienne, would be fufficient. If thefe farms were cultivated on right * The edid, exempting new improvements from taxation, was in the right fpirit. We are in- formed by Monf. Necker, that from 1766 to 1784, 110 Ids than 950,000 arpents were declared de~ Jriches . De L Adminijl. des Fin. 8vo. T. iii. p. 233* There can be no doubt but the greater part of thefe are long fince abandoned again to nature. I never met with a fingle perfon in France who had half an idea of improving wade lands ; and I may add, that, of all other pradices in the agri- culture of England, this is the lead underdood. See my Observations on the prefent State of the TVaJle Lands. 8vo. In regard to the excellent edid above-mentioned, there occurs a proof of the grofs and confummate ignorance which one meets fo often in France on all agricultural fubjeds. In the Cahier du Tiers Etat de Troyes , p. 38, they demand the abrogation of this edid, as prejudicial to the nourifhment and multiplication of cattle. Even the nobility of Cambray , Cahier , p. 1 9, are againft cultivating commons. The nobility of Pont-a~MouJfon , Cahier , p. 38, declare, that the encourage- ment of inclofures and defrichemens y is prejudicial to agriculture; lhame on their folly ! The clergy are wifer ; for they demand that the poflellors of wades fha.ll either cultivate them theinfelves, or let others that are willing, on reafonable terms. Cahier de Melun fcf Moret> p. 22 ; and that all com- mons {hall be alienable for the profperity of agriculture. Bayonne , Art. 51. And fome of the Tiers Etat alfo ; all commons to be divided. Cotentin ATS. And new defrichetnens to be exempted from all taxes for twenty years. Nimes, p. 19. La Rochelle , Art. 1 7, MS. VOL. II. Q practical 9 8 WASTELANDS. practical principles, on thofe of utterly difregarding corn till the ample fupport of fheep and cattle (but particularly the former) in winter, by means of green crops, and in fumrnerby grades, gave fuch a command and facility of action, that whatever corn was then fown, would, in its produce, be worthy of the foil and climate of France, yielding ten for one on thefe waffces, indead of five or fix for one, the prefent average of cultivated lands in that kingdom. If this were done, I fay, the profit of fuch improvements would be equally great and durable ; the practice exhibited would take deep root in the refpedlive provinces ; and extenfive and fpeedy improvements would be the confequence. By fuch a policy, the National Afiembly would prove themfelves genuine patriots; the kingdom would flourilh ; population, which, at prefent, is a burthen, would be rendered ufeful, becaufe happy; and the confumption and circulation of thefe provinces increafing, would give a fpur to thofe of the whole fociety; the weight of taxes would leflen, as the bafis enlarged that fupported it : — in a word, every good effedl would flow from fuch undertakings, if properly executed, that can add to themafs of national profperity; and confequently the mod worthy of the attention of an enlightened legiflature*. Attempts have been made to improve thefe waftes, but always with ill fuc- cefs ; I faw a neglected farm gone back nearly to its priftine ftate, not far from Nantes; the Marquis of Turbilly’s, in Anjou, had no better fuccefs; and equal failures attended thofe that were tried on the heaths of Bourdeaux; and I heard of fome others, fimilar undertakings, in different parts of the kingdom; but, in general, they were all equally unfuccefsful ; and no wonder, for all were con- duced on the fame plan, with no other objeC in view than corn ; but this is the lead important of the products, as it hath been above obferved, that fhould be found on new improvements. A French writer-f*, who fpeaks from experience, as well as the Marquis of Turbilly, prefcribes thiscourfe; — i, dig, at the ex- pence of 20 liv. perarpent, of 46,000 feet, in winter, and fummer-fallow, with many ploughings and harrowings, for — 2, wheat; — 3, oats ; — 4, fallow; — 5, * At prefent (Auguft 1793) we know what the blood-hound government of France have done for agriculture : completely ruined all that was good in it. 4 Experiences and Obfcrvations fur les Defrichemens. Par Monf. le Doffeur. Lamballe. 1775* 4 to« P. 26, 28, 33. This gentleman tells us, that paring and burning (hould be praCifed only on a cal- careous foil, for in Bretagne the peafants get but two or three crops of corn by it ; and if more, much dung is requifite. But if they can have two crops of corn, cannot they have one crop of turnips? Cannot they have grass, which feems never to be in his contemplation, though almoft the only thing that ought to be in view. De Serres knew better ; he recommends paring and burning, de- fcribes the operation, and anfwers the objection of thofe who urged a (hort continuance of the profit, by fhewing, that fuch cafes proceed from improper management, and do not occur, if the laws of good tillage be purfued, au cultiver & an repofer , Le Theatre D’Agriculture, par D’Olivier de Serres. 4to. 1629. P.64 to 70. , wheat ; WASTE LANDS. 99 wheat j— 6, oats, &c. &c. This gentleman, who tells us he broke up and improved 450 arpents, has not explained how real improvement is to be made without fheep or cattle. Where is his winter food in this prepofterous courfe ? If thefe45o arpents be really improved, they have coft him five times more than they are worth ; but I fufpedt they are — improved a la Turbilly. It is mere ro- mance to think of improving waftes profitably without a great flock of fiieep. The ideas of French improvers feem rooted in a contrary fpirit ; to the prefent moment, there is no other plan than the old one of corn. A publication of the year 1791, Memoir e fur VUtilite du Defrichement des Ter res de Caftelnau-d ? - Medoc, fpeaks of the fame methods— deraciner — labourer— herfer — enfemencer— froment—feigle , p. 5. The fame views in every part of the kingdom ; but when you inquire for cattle, you have, on fome hundreds of acres, feven cows, three mares, four oxen, and no fheep ! (P. 4.) As the fubjedt is one of the moft eflential in French agriculture, I will very briefly fketch the right principles on which alone wafte countries can be im- proved to profit. The rapid view which is pra&icable for a traveller to take, will allow no more than an outline ; fully to explain the procefs would demand a diftindl treatife. 1, The buildings, upon which fo much money is gene- rally fo ufelefsly employed, fhould, in a private undertaking, be adapted to that fized farm, which lets in the country moft ^dvantageoufly ; but, in a public un- dertaking, they fhouid be adapted to that fized farm which is moft favourable to a beneficial cultivation of the foil ; in the latter cafe from 400 to 600 acres. This attention to the fcale of the buildings flows from the plan of the im- provement, which is that of letting the land in farms, as faft as it is well im- proved, and brought into the cultivation in which it ought afterwards to remain. But whatever the fize of the future farms may be, the ftridteft attention ought to be had to keeping this part of the expenditure as low as poflible; it contri- butes little to the pjodudtivenefs of the land, except what 'arifes from conve- nient offices for cattle and fheep. — 2, The next objedl is to buy a large flock of fheep, to feed on the lands in their wafte ftate, that are to be improved; five hundred would be a proper pumber to begin with. Thefe fheep fhould be, as nearly as poflible, fuch as the South Downs of England; of the French breeds, the moft profitable, and the befl to procure, would be thofe of Roufiillon. It is cf more confequemee to have a breed not too large, and well clothed with a fhort firm fleece, than larger or more expenfive breeds. — 3, The firft fummer fhould be entirely employed in paring and burning, and cultivating, at leaf!, 100 acres of turnips and rape, for the winter fupport of the fheep and plough- oxen. After the turnip feafon is paft, the paring and burning to continue for rye, artificial grafles to be fown with the rye.— 4, Begin, as early in the fpring as poflible, to pare and burn frefh wafte, firft for a crop of potatoes, on fifteen O2 or 100 WASTE LANDS. or twerity acres, and then for 200 acres of turnips. The turnip land of lafl year to be fown with oats, on three ploughings; and with the oats, over fifty acres, clover-feed to be fown. After the turnip feafon is paid, continue paring and burning for rye, as before. The labourers employed in the fummer on paring and burning, to work in the winter on ditching, for forming inclofures ; the banks to be planted with white thorn, and willows for making hurdles. — This is fufiicient to ftate the leading principles of the undertaking. Oeconomy in the execution demands that the labourers employed fhould have work con- ftantly ; in fummer paring and burning, and managing the hay and corn har- veft ; and in winter ditching; quarrying, if there be lime-ftone on the premifes, for burning lime for manure ; and, if not, digging and filling marl, or chalk, or other manures which may be found under the furface. In like manner the number of mafons and carpenters fhould be fo regulated, in proportion to the works, fo as to find conftant employment through the building feafon. Thecourfes of crops will explain the whole bufinefsof tillage. On the land pared and burnt, and planted with potatoes iii the fpring, the following rota- tion : 1, potatoes; — 2, oats: — 3, turnips: — 4, oats, and grafs feeds for laying down. * On the land pared and burnt, and fown with turnips at midfummer :— 1, tur- nips ; — 2, oats ; — 3, turnips ; — 4, oats, or barley, and grafs feedsfor laying down. On the land pared and burnt, and fown with rye in autumn : — 1, rye; — 2, tur- nips ; — 3, oats ; — 4, turnips ; — 5, oats, and grafs feeds for laying down. All the turnips to be fed on the land with fheep, by hurdling, except the fmall quantity that would be wanted for the plough oxen. All the grades to be mown the firft year for hay, and then paftured by fheep, for two, three, four, or more years, according to circumftances. When they wear out, or betray indications of a want of renewal, they may be broken up with a certainty of yielding grain in plenty ; but no two crops of white corn ever to be fown in fuccefiion : by white corn is underftood wheat, rye, barley, and oats. A very eafy, and, infome cafes, effectual method of improving heaths, is by grubbing up the plants that grow fpontaneoufly, and fpreading lime upon the wafte without any tillage, fowing grafs feeds and covering them by the fheep- fold : it is furprifing what a change is thus effected at the fmalleft pofiible expence ; foils, apparently miferable, have been made at once worth the rent of 20s. per acre. It is not pofiible to give more than an outline in fuch a fketch as this; varia- tions, arifing from a difference of foil, will occur; which, though not confi- derable, muft be marked with care, or ufelefs expences will often be incurred. The method juft hinted at is particularly applicable upon thofe waftes, which are W A S T E LANDS. ICI are, T WAS here affured, that a vein of coal has, been ^ found at the depth only of 12 yards, which is 17 feet thick; but it is no where ufed, either in houfes or in manufactures ; the iron forges are all worked with charcoal. If this is fadt, what a want of ca- pital it proves ! Flanders . — Valenciennes. — There are mines worked here. The manco of 2401b. fells for 2 3/i 9 den. and the word of all at n\f. ; the largefl of all at 35/. and 3 6f ; they are more abundant at Mons. Wood is burnt here at the inns, and all the better private houfes, but the poor burn coal : the mines, they fay, are 700 feet deep ; the coal is drawn up by four horfes ; they have four fleam engines. Lille. — Coals, the raziere, 3 liv. Dunkirk. — Englifh, the raziere of 3001b. 8 liv. Thefe are burnt in every houfe in the town, and are one-third cheaper than wood: there is a canal to the coal pits at Valenciennes, but the diflance too great, and locks too numerous and expenfive to rival the import from England. Bethune . — Pits within a few leagues. Price here \\f. to 46^ the raziere, which, I have been told, holds about nine Englifh pecks ; but the raziere of St. Omers holds 1951b. of wheat. Rouen. — The boiffeau of 22 pots, each 2 bottles, 3 liv. 10 f. IJigny. — A mine newly opened, at which the coals fell at i\f. 1 liard, the boiffeau, of 90 lb. to 100 lb. Carentan. — Coals of the country only for blackfmiths, 14 f. the boiffeau of 80 lb. dry at the mine, but wet are 90 lb. or 100 lb. : they are not half fo good as what is brought from England. Cherbourg. — In the manufacture of blown plate glafs, a great quantity of Newcaflle coal is burnt; 13 keel, or 103 chaldrons, cofl, all Englifh charges included, about 7500 liv. ; the French duty 3600 liv. ; and port charges, &c. make it in all about n,ocoliv. which being near 5I. a chaldron, feems an enor- mous price, at which to buy fuel for a manufacture. The Coals of the Cotentin, they fay here, are good for nothing. Granville. — The blackfmiths burn Guernfey coals. Auray. — Englifh coals 3 liv. the boiffeau of about three Englifh pecks, which the blackfmiths ufe for particular purpofes* Nantes . 104 COALS. Nantes . — French coal 300 liv. the 21 barriqnes, each double wine meafure, or 480 pints, but one barrique of English is worth two of it. A coal mine worked by a Monf. Jarry, at Langien, five leagues from Nantes. Another at Montrelais, near Ingrande ; and at St. George, near Saumur. The French coals ufed in the foundry, near this city, come to 34 liv. the 2000 lb. La Fleche . — Price 16 f the boifieau, of 30 lb. wheat ; they are from Angers. Rouen . — Monf. Scannegatty works the common borer, w r ith a windlafs, in boring deep for coals, for which purpofe he has been employed by government : he (hewed me the model of one made at Paris, 300 feet long ; with this he has bored 160 feet, much of it in hard rock, without accident; his objection to fhafts, is the water riling; he would life fhafts until he comes to water, but after that mull: bore. He fays, the badnefs of the coal, in the mine near Cher- bourg, arifes merely from being ill worked; they have got at prefent only to the furface coal, indead of piercing through the bed. M. Scannegatty afierts, the confumption of Englilh coals, in the generality of Rouen, to be two millions a year. The price is 40 liv. for 6J- barriques, each barrique 150 lb. or 975 lb. or about 80 liv. a ton. Flbctuf . — Confumes 2co,oooliv. a year in Englilh coals. Nangis.— Brought from Berri. Price 4 liv. the Englilh bulhel. Lorraine. — Pont-d-MouJJbn. — From Sarbruck 18 liv. the 1000 lb. At the mine 5 liv. Als ace.— Befort. — Price atthe mine, four leagues from this place, 12 f. the 100 lb. ; here 1 6 f They are ufed only by blackfmiths. Bourgogne. — Chagny. — Coals from Mont Cenis ; at the mine 6 liv. the the wine queu ; here 10 liv. Nobody burns coals in their houfes. Mont Cents . — At the mine a ban \of. It is remarkable, that at the inn here, and at every houfe, except thofe of the common workman, wood is burnt; which Ihews the abfurd prejudices of the French, in favour of that fuel, in fpite of price. Bojjrbonnois.*— ilTW/w.— Price 30 f. the bachole , of which 4 make a poin^on. Auvergne. — Clermont.— Price 10 liv. the raze of 2 feet 2 inches, by 1 foot 6 inches, and nine inches deep. Ufed only in doves, or by blackfmiths; they are from Brioude. Brioude. — The raze , of 1501b. 16/; but the bed is 20 f* Fix*—' The carton , of 501b. 14 f. Vivar A is. — Cojleros. — The quintal 50 f. Fbuytz.— The blackfmiths here burn charcoal, yet are near the coal mine, which I pafled in the vale ; it is a done coal ; the price 7 f, the 100 lb. Dauphine. COALS. I0 5 Dauphine. — Montehmart. — Large coal i liv. i $f. the 1551b.; fmall, for blackfmiths and manufacturers, 22 f. the 1551b. The mine is at Givors, near Vienne, at five leagues from Lyon ; there is a canal to Vienne, but with a toll. Coak, made of coal, for melting, 5/ the quintal. Pierre-Latte, — Coals 3 liv. the meafure of about 6 pecks ; none ufed but by blackfmiths. Provence. — Tour d y Aigues.—*P rice 40./I the quintal. 16 f. or 18 _/7 at Aix. At the mine, three leagues from Aix, Marfeille . — Coals from Givors, in Dauphine, near Lyon, 33 f. for 210 lb. of Faveau, in Provence, 40 f. to 42^ for 3001b. Of Valdonne, 41 f. ditto: ufed in the foap fabric and fugar refineries. Of England 42 f. to 45^ on board the (hip, for 210 lb. ; on fhore6o/ for 195 lb. Lyonnois. — Lyon. — Coals 'pf. the 1301b. The mines are fix leagues offs price there 24^ for 160 lb. : there is a canal from the pits to the Rhone. The want of vigour in working the coal-mines in France, is to be attributed to two caufes ; 1, the price of wood has not rifen fufficiently to force this branch of induftry ; and, 2, the want of capital, which affeCts every thing in that king- dom, prevents exertions being made with the neceffary animation. But thefe evils will correCt themfelves ; the gradual rife in the price of wood, which, fo far from being an evil, as it is univerfally thought in France, is only a proof of national improvement, will by degrees force the confumption of coals ; and when thefe are in the neceffary demand, they will be produced in greater quantities. Voi. II. P CHAP. io6 WOODS. CHAP. XVI. Woods , Forefls , Timber , and Planting , in France. Pyrennees~* A Confiderable proportion of thefe mountains is under wood, and X a much larger has been ; for the definition of them making every day, is not credible to thofe who have not viewed them. Pafied frequently through feveral woods near Bagnere de Luchon, in which the wood-men were at work, riving and cutting beech ftaves for calks ; I was fhocked to fee the de- ftrudion they made, which could not have been more wafieful or lavifh if they had been in the midft of an American foreft. Large and beautiful beeches are cut off, 3, 4, and 5 feet high, and thofe noble ftumps left to rot ; whole trees, which, on trial, would not rive well, left for years, and now rotting untouched ; and in working thofe we faw, nothing but clean cuts taken, 3 or 4 feet perhaps in 50, and the reft left on the ground in the fame confufion in which it fell. The deftrudion fo general in this noble foreft of Lartigues, that it is almoft deftroyed ; there is no young growth for fuccefllon ; and in ten or twelve years it will be a bare moun- tain, with a few miferable fhrubs browzed by goats and other cattle. In fome trails which I paffed, at a few leagues diftance, towards the walks of the Spanifh flocks, there are fome forefts deftroyed in fuch a fhameful manner, that to a perfon, from a country where wood is of any value, muft appear incredible; feveral fcores of acres fo utterly deftroyed that not a tree remains ftanding ; yet the whole a foreft of ftumps, 3, 4, and 6 feet high, melancholy and fhocking to behold. The torrents every where roll down as much wood as ftone, and prefent a fpedacle of limilar ruin ; the roads are formed of fragments of trees, and are guarded againft the precipices by whole ones laid and left to rot ; you no where pafs many yards without thrufting your cane into bodies, rotten, or rotting ; all is ruin, wafte, and defolation ; and the very appearance one would fuppofe a wood to carry, in which a foreign enemy had, with the moft wanton malice, deftroyed every thing. Thefe woods are commons belonging to the communities of the parifhes, upon which every inhabitant affumes the right, and pra&ifes the rage of de- predation. So carelefs of the interefts of pofterity, or rather fo inflamed againft every idea but that of the prefent moment, that, in the general opinion, there will be an undoubted fcarcity in thirty years, amidft what have been, and yet are, in fome diftrids, very noble forefts. The communities fometimes fell woods ; an inftance occurred lately, that of Bagnere de Luchon fold aj^z//for 14,000 liv. but worth, it is faid, 35,000 liv. in which fome pilfering might take place ; this was WOODS. 107 was to pay their fliare of the new bathing houfe. Is it poffible that fuch a re- cital can be given of a country that imports pot-afh from the diftance of 2000 miles ! The number offaw mills, in thefe mountains, turned by torrents, is confider- able; they are of a very cheap and Ample construction, but exceedingly incom- plete, having no mechanical contrivance for bringing the tree to the faw, a man conRantly doing it by prefting with his foot on the cogged wheel. Languedoc. — LuneL — At the Palais Royal inn there is one, among many Rabies, which is covered by twelve large beams, 16 or 18 inches Square, and 45 feet long. The whole country is at prefent quajl fuch trees as thefe, de- nuded. Gascogne.— St. Palais to Anfpan.— An oak here fells for 30 liv. which would, in England, fell for 45s. to 50s. Isle of France . — Lieurfaint . — In the royal foreft of Senars, the oak copfes are cut every twenty years, and fell at 600 liv. the arpent (the cord of wood fel- ling, at Paris, at 50 liv.), which makes 30 liv. a year, but from this carriage is to be deducted, and there will remain about a louis d’or. ILiancourt. — W oods heie form a confiderable portion of the whole country. They are in general cut at twelve years growth, but in Some parts at fifteen and twenty ; they fell at twelve years from 100 liv. to 200 liv. the arpent (about ii acre) : at 150 liv. it may be called 12 liv. per annum ; as they are on the pooreft land this is much more confiderable than the fame land would let for, but it is much infenoi to what the pt odu&l of the fame lands would be, under a tolerable fyftem of cultivation. 1 he quantity of foreft Spread over the country, in almoR every direction, makes timber cheap : oak, afh, and elm fell at 30 f the cubical foot, a larger foot than that of England. The poorefi family 60 liv. a year in wood. Clermont. Near this place, in the foreft of la Neuville eu Haye, belonging to the king, there is an undertaking now (1787) going forward, which does honour to government : it is a plantation of oak for timber. The land is in- clofed with pales, wired to the rails, in the French manner, inftead of nailing: the land is all trenched 2 feet deep, for which the workmen are paid according to the foil, 20 f. to 40 f. the Square perch of 22 feet, and they earn about 22/ a day : as it was an old foreft where they work, there are many roots, for extract- ing which they are allowed Something more. The foil in general is a good light loam, except in Some parts, on a pure white fand. The whole expence, by contract (fencing excepted), digging, planting, filling vacancies, and hoeing twice a year, for five years, is 300 liv. the arpent, of about if acre. The fence is 3 liv. the toife, or about is. 2d. a yard, running meafure : 60 arpents are done, and they are Rill at work. I viewed the oaks with pleafure; they are P 2 moft io8 WOODS. mod of them remarkably fine ; they thrive well, and are very heabhy • fome are five years old from the feed, and others five years old from transplanting; the plants then three years old : thefe are the largefi, but not more fo than three years difference in age ought to make them : they are in rows at about 4 feet. There is alfo a fmall inclofure of chefnuts and Bourdeaux pines ( pinus maritimus ) 9 fown four years pad, which are now five feet high, which is a vaft growth. The only enemy which the oaks have hitherto met with, is the cock-chaffer grub, which has killed fome. Dngny.— Monf. Crette de Paluel has planted many thoufands of the poplar, with fuccefs, and has cut them when only twelve years old, large enough for building. Several of his farming offices, very well and fubftantially built, are of this wood, eredted twelve years ago : and the timbers are now as found as at the time of ufing ; but he has found, that when expofed to the weather, it does not lad. Normandie. — Bon . — The feat of the Marquis de Turgot, elder brother of the celebrated controleur-general. A large plantation of foreign trees, in which nothing is fo remarkable as the fuperiority of the larch to every other plant. Falaife . — Woods, at twelve years growth, pay 8 to 10 louis an acre, or 22 liv. a year. Harconrt . — The larch and Weymouth pine, of eighteen years growth, have thriven beyond any thing. I meafured a larch, of that age, 3 feet 6 inches in circumference, at 5 feet from the ground; and a Weymouth 2 inches larger. Woods throughout Normandie, on an average, pay 20 liv. the Norman acre (10s. 6d. per Englifh acre). La Rocbe-Guyon . — There is nothing in this country that pays better than plantations of willows for yielding vine props. The Dutchefs D’Enville has a piece of 3! arpents, which yields 400 liv. a year, by being cut every third year. New ones are fet as the old wear out ; the heads are cropped at three years old, and the great produdt is from nine to eighteen years of age. Lombardy pop- lars, planted by the prefent Dutchefs, of twenty-four years growth, are worth 11 liv. each, (landing only 6 feet afunder: it would be ufelefs to apply calcu- lation to this fadl, to fee what the acreable produce would be ; for if a man had a few acres to fell every year, he would be able to get no more than the price of a very bad fire wood, not faleable till after every better fort in a country was confumed. Could a demand be found, the profit would be enormous. They grow on the level of the Seine. They are cut into boards 10 inches wide, which fell at 2/ the foot. Isle of Fr ance.— Columiers. — Woods, at nine years growth, worth 180 liv. the arpent (9I. the Englifh acre). Champagne. WOODS. 109 Champagne. — Mareuil . — At twenty years growth, worth 300 liv. the ar- pent (iol. 1 os. per Englifh acre), at \\ or 2 leagues from the Marne, but if further, 4 liv. per arpent per annum dedudion. Epernay . — It is poftible to go from hence to Alface, with no great interrup- tion, through foreft, all the way. Lorraine. — Braban . — Woods are cut, at twenty years growth, and the pro- duce 12 liv. per arpent per annum (18s. 4d. per Englifh acre). Metz .— Woods cut, at twenty to twenty-five years growth, i2oliv. the journal. Lune'ville . — Woods cut, at twenty-five or thirty years growth, from 40 liv. to 100 liv. net the journal, 1974 Englifh yards. Franche Comte. — Befangon.— Cut, at twenty-five years growth, and yields 150 liv. to 200 liv. the cutting, or 8 liv. per annum per arpent; near the forges of the city, to 300 liv. (iol. 10s. per Englifh acre). Or champs . — A little auberge confumes from twenty to thirty waggon loads, each 8 liv. in a year, at one fire. Bourgogne. — Auxonne . — Pafs a wood felled and corded, 12 cords per Eng- lifh acre; the cord % feet by 4 feet, and two high ; and the price 8 liv. A little aubergifle confumes to the amount of 200 liv. a year, one fire. It would coil; a poor family 80 liv. a year, if they bought fairly all they burn. Calculate Four millions of families, at one cord, and at ten per acre, 400,000 acres. Cut, at twenty years. At two cords. At three ditto 8,000,000 16.000. 000 24.000. 000 Dijon .— Confumption of one fire, 5 or 6 mceul for the poor, the mceul 4 feet cubical. Of the whole town, of 24,000 people, 40,000 mceul. Bed; oak timber, 3 liv. the cubical foot. Inferior to 20/ Elm dearer than oak; ufed for wheel carriages only. Pine one-third cheaper. Bourbonnois. — Moulins . — Copfes cut, at fifteen years growth, and fell at 50 liv. the arpent, of 48,384 feet ; no expence except cutting. Oak timber, 18/ to 20 f. the cubical foot. Planks of 9, 10, and 11 inches wide, 45 liv. to 60 liv. the hundred toife (6 feet), £inch thick. Laths 14 f. the faggot of and 5 feet long. * 5 ’ Auvergne. — Riom.—Oriz fire, and a very poor one, 80 liv. if bought. Clermont . — A poor family, to fteal none, muft have ten cord, or 60 liv. and charcoal to the amount of 15 liv. ; but, in general, they fteal, or colled as well as they can. Vivar ais. Pradelles to Ehuytz.—G reat woods of pines in thefe mountains, with faw-mills for cutting them. Dauphine. — Loriol . — Oak 12 f. the 100 lb. Provence* I 10 WOODS. Provence. — Tour d' Aigues.'— Wood thrives greatly in this country. The Prefident has a great many oaks, and fome of a vaft fize ; alfo black poplar and beech. One by the farm-houfe, 13 feet 1 1 inches, French, in circumference, at 5 feet from the ground, and 80 feet high. Here alfo are evergreen oaks, 500 years old. He has platanus of a vaft growth, in twenty-five years, and the moms papyrifera , of a great fize. The pooreft family in this country con- fumes 60 quintals of wood a year, ftolen, or bought ; generally the former. A bourgeoife, that has foup every day atone fire, 150 quintals. Frejus to EJirelles.—'The pines, &c. in thefe mountains, hacked, plundered, and aeftroyed, almoft as wantonly as in the Pyrennees : and fpots every where burnt by the Ihepherds, though prohibited, in order to produce herbage for their flocks. Price of Wood and Char coal , &c. Price per Paris load of ft. liv. 1787. — Limousin. — Limoges. —Charcoal 30 f. the quintal. Angoumois. — Verteuil. — Cord of wood 10 liv. near a navigation ; 3 liv. at a diftance. Isle of France.— Montgeron.— Cord 44 liv. Flanders.— Lille. — Ditto 6oliv. Dunkirk. — Ditto 60 liv. the load of 100 meafures. 1788. — Normandy. — Caen. — Charcoal 20 f. the raziere, of 40 lb. of wheat. Cord of beech wood, 6 feet long, 4 broad, and 4 high, 24 liv. Other woods 18 liv. to 2c liv. - - _ - Faggots of 3^ feet around, and 5 feet long, with large wood in them, 60 liv. to 80 liv. per hundred. Bretagne. — Rennes. — Cord 8 feet long, 4 high, and z\ broad, 15 liv. to 17 liv. Landernau. — Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and z\ high, 24 liv. L’ Orient. — Cord 8 feet by four feet, and z\ high, 20 liv. Auray.— Charcoal 3 liv. the barrique. Iron $f. the lb. A horfe-fhoe izf. Auvergnac. — Cord of wood, 28 liv. - Nantes.— Ditto 30 liv. to 36 liv. - - - Swedilh iron 280 liv. the thoufand pound. Hemp 50 liv. the hundred ditto. Ancenis. — Cord 24 liv. _ - An jou.— Angers.— Cord 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 broad : a double cord, 40 liv. - - - » « Faggots 18 liv. to 24 liv. the hundred. La Fleche. — Cord 16 liv to 21 liv. - » - Charcoal 70 liv. to 80 liv. the 42 barriques. 35 2 7 28 42 35 49 57 42 42 39 Maine. WOODS. tu Jiv. 12 2 6 Price pet Paris toad of 140 ft. Maine.— Guefce?nrd .~ The cord, 6 feet by 3J feet, and 3J high, of pine, 6 liv. Ditto of oak, 14 liv. - Normandy. — Gace . — Charcoal 5 2 f. the barrique. Iron 23 liv. the hundred pound, or 1 Hard lefs than 5/. the lb. They charge 8/ the lb. for heavy work, and 32/ for (hoeing a horfe. Elbatuf .— The cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and t\ high, 24 liv. La Roche-Guyon . — Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high, is 30 liv. Isle of France. — Nangis . — Cord 12 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high : price 24 liv. to 28 liv. - - Champagne. — Mareuil . — Cord 8 feet long, 5 feet high, and 3 feet 7 inches broad, fells, oak 36 liv. - - _ White woods 24 liv. Charcoal 50/ the tonneaux, of 200 pints of Paris (quarts). Epernay . — The cord 40 liv. - _ St. Meneboud .— Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 3! inches: 18 liv. 10/; in the town 19 liv. 3 but twenty-five years ago it was 7 liv. 10 feet. - Lorraine. Braban . — Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high, is 19HV. Mar-le-Tour .— Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high, is 16 liv. 3 the befl: 21 liv. - _ Metz. Charcoal 30/ the fack: cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high; is 32 liv. : of beach and hornbeam, - Of oak, 22 liv. - Pont-a-MouJfon . — Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high : in town 16 liv. 10^4 In the forefl: 12 liv. Nancy . — Cord floated oak 20 liv. 3 other forts 23 liv. - Not floated oak 26 liv. 3 beech and hornbeam 34 liv. - _ Lunevdle. Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high : now 24 liv. to 28 liv. Beech, - * Oak 22 liv. to 23 liv. _ _ _ _ _ Alsace. Strajbourg.— Cord 6 feet by 6 feet, and 3 high; price 27 liv. Scheleflat . Cord 6 feet by 6 feet, and 3 high 3 price 24 liv. * IJle. Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high 3 price 12 liv. yet many iron forges, - Franche Comte. Befangon. Cord 8 feet by 4 feet, and 4 high, floated, 16 hv. 10/ - _ _ ^ ' Not floated, 25 liv. : _ - 42 32 - 18 3 * 21 40 24 20 20 35 24 18 28 37 28 24 38 3 1 H * Some fold 6 feet by 6 feet, and 6 high. 18 27 On champs. 112 WOODS. Price per Paris load °f i4 oft. Or champs . — Iron ; all ufed by blackfmiths; is of the country; 5/ the liv. lb. Charcoal only ufed in making it, at 40 liv. the load of four horfes, about 50 or 60 buthels ; there are forges fpread over the whole country : one within three leagues, which, with its furnace, ufes 50 loads of wood per diem. Shoeing a horfe 40/ Dijon.— Cord y\ feet by 4 feet, and 4J high, at 26 liv. the mceul, a cube of 4 feet, and the price 13 liv. - - 26 Price of carriage 20 f per thoufand pound for each league. - Ckagny.— Mceul, cube of 4 feet, 1 3 liv. to 16 liv. - 31 Iron: tier of wheels yf the lb. and 8 f. for the nails. Price of iron gf. 1 Hard. Moulins . — Cord, 2 to a coche, 30 liv. Charcoal 3/ to 3 \f. the Englifh peck. Iron 1 Hard under 5/ per lb. Call ditto 3 f Clermont.— 'Cord 3 feet 1 1 inches, by 7 feet 4 inches circumference ; price 6 liv. about one-fourth of a Paris cord, - - 24 Charcoal 2 f. the lb. Fix . — Iron the lb. Montelimart. Charcoal 5/ the hundred pound. Pierre Latte. — Wood 20 f the hundred pound. Avignon. — Wood 1 %f to 20 f the hundred pound. Charcoal 3 liv. the hundred pound. T our d'Aigues . — Charcoal 45/i the hundred pound. Marfeille. — Wood 3 liv. 17/.’ for 300 lb. and 8 f. carriage from the Ihip. In winter the fame, 5 liv. Charcoal, by {hipping, 50 f. the quintal, 120 lb. ; by land 70 f. Lyon. — Oak, the moeul, 3 feet 8 inches fquare, 23 liv. General average, - - - -30 To thefe data may be here added, that the woods and forefts of the kingdom amount to 19,850,5 1 5 acres, and that the average annual produce may be reckoned 14s. an acre. It here appears, that the average price per cord, of 140 cubical feet, is 30 liv. The price of wood has rifen confiderably in France.— Price of the lignier, equal to two Paris voies, at Bourg, in Brefle. In 1688, - - 3 liv. 1718, - - 3 1748, - - 7 1778, 9 1789, 21 of. 12 10 o o* * Obfervations fur l’ Agriculture, par Ma, Var£nne de Fenille, 8vo. p. 141. The WOODS. n 3 The fcarcity of wood in France, as marked in this rife of price, has occupied at lead an hundred pens during the lad ten years: alrnod all thecahiers complain heavily of it, and in that of the clergy of Meaux, they call it a real calamity. There is hardly a fociety of agriculture, in the kingdom, that has not offered premiums for memoirs that fliould explain the caufes of fuch an alarming want, and point out the bed means of remedying it. The opinion is univerfal ; I have met but one mind upon the topic, which, confidering the talents for political ceconomy, furprifed me a good deal ; for I mud declare myfelf of a direCtly con- trary opinion, and venture toaflert, that the price of wood is too low in France ; that it has not rifen fo rapidly as it ought to have done ; and that all ideas of encouraging plantations, to prevent a further rife, are ignorant and mifchievous, and founded in a total mifconception of the fubjeCt, for want of combining thofe circumdances which bear upon the quedion. The rent of arable land, in France, calculated feparately, and rejecting the parts left wade, and in negleCf, is 15s. yd. an acre; but the rent of woods is only 12s. How then in common fenfe can any one complain of a price of wood, which, indead of being, at its prefent rate, an injury to the confumer, is actually a material one to the landed intered, who do not make by their woods nearly what they would do by the land if it was grubbed, cleared, and converted to cultivation ; and I am fo w 7 ell perfuaded of this, that if I was the pofieflor of woods, in France, I would mod afluredly grub up every acre that did not grow upon land impracticable to the plough; and 1 fliould do this under the firmed conviction that my fpeculation would be profitable. If tillage improves, and freed from tithes and inequality of taxation, no one can doubt but it will improve, the price of wood ought to rife very confiderably to prevent landlords, who are well informed, from grub- bing up ; and let it be confidered, how vad a premium there is to induce them to fuch a conduCl, in all woods where the growth isantient, as forty, fifty, fixty and a hundred years, at which age many are found in France : the money which the faleof fuch would produce, placed at intered, and the land converted to tillage, would, in mod indances, treble, and even quadruple, the revenue to be gained from the fame land, while cropped with wood. Nor is it to be tor- gotten, that frefli wood-land is generally fertile; poffedmg dores that, with good management, in refpeCt to cropping, may be made to lad at lead twenty years, and in fome meafure for ever. We may fafely determine that the price of wood is not rifen to a fair par with other land products, until it can no longer be the intered of the land owner to grub up, and till woods yield as good a revenue as the lands around them, well cultivated . It is an undoubted faCt, that the price is not yet rifen near to fuch a par. There is yet another, and equally unquedionable, proof, that the price of wood is much too low in Fsance, and that is the coal mines, found in alrnod Vol. II. every WOODS. 114 every part of the kingdom, remain, for the greater part, unworked ; and that the people burn wood, even in the immediate vicinity of fuch mines; I was myfelf ferved with wood at all the inns, at and near the coal mines wrought, of Valenciennes, Mont-Cenis, Lyon, Auvergne, Languedoc, Normandie, Bre- tagne, Anjou, &c. &c. Is it polilble to fuppofe that this would be the cafe if wood was rifen to its fair par with other commodities ? The conclufion to be drawn, from this date of fads, is fufficiently clear, that the legiflature ought not to take any fteps whatever to encourage the production of wood, but leave it abfolutely free to rife gradually to that fair price to which demand will carry it; and that the focieties and academies of agriculture, com- pofed of citizens, that is to fay, commonly of mere confumers, uninterefted in the production, ought to ceafe their unjuft and impertinent clamour againft the price of a commodity which is much too cheap. Whenever the price of wood rifes too high, coal mines will every where be effectually worked, and the people in fight of them moft affuredly will not burn wood. We have of late had, in England, the fame vulgar apprehenfion of a want of wood, efpecially for fhip building, which has difgraced France. No wonder timber has been deftroyed in both kingdoms, while the price was inadequate to the expence of raifing it. Timber for fhip building, as well as cord-wood, ihould at leaft bear a proportion with corn, meat, butter, wool, &c. which the ground might yield if not occupied in a different manner. The comparifons made are by landlords, who look only at rent, but the national interefts require that produce fhould be confulted. The argument commonly ufed, by the pro- prietors of the landes of Bourdeaux, againft cultivating them, is, that they yield at prefent, in pines, a better rent in refin than they would do for cultivation, which is certainly true, if the culture introduced was not good ; but what a lofs to the nation to have lands employed to yield, like all the woods of the kingdom, a grofs produce of 16 liv. per acre, inftead of 40 liv. the produce of arable land ? Thofe who contend for encouragements to planting, becaufe wood is dear, call for the marvellous improvement of converting land, which now yields 40 liv. to the ftate of yielding 16 liv. ! It is juft the fame in England; our focieties offer premiums for planting, and, as far as thofe premiums are claimed, or induce men to think planting an improvement, they are attended with the mifchief and abfurdity of preferring a fmall to a great produce. There are tradts of imprac- ticable land, I will not fay wajie, becaufe nine-tenths of our wafte lands, like thofe of France, are fulceptible of cultivation, and therefore it is a public nui- fance to plant them : it may be profitable to the landlord to plant quick grow- ing trees, becaufe he confiders only rent , but focieties and the naticp fhould look at produce , and confequently difcourage all planting. The WOODS. 1 T S The common argument, that is founded on the fuppofed neceffity of a Royal Navy, I (hould he forry to beftow three words upon; for I hold every idea of a great naval force to be founded on very queftionable theories. Injurious to other nations in its objed:, which is that of extending to the moft: diftant parts of the globe the mifchievous effects of ambition; and all the horrors that attend the fpirit of conqueft, when flowing from the worfe fpirit of foreign commerce. A great navy affords the means of fpreading what may to Europe be called a domeftic quarrel to the moft diflant regions of the globe, and involving millions in the ruin of wars, who are in juftice as unconcerned in the difpute as they are removed by diftance from the natural theatre of it. And whatever commercial neceffity, founded upon the word principles, may be urged in the fupport of it, yet the expence is fo enormous, that no nation, it is now well underftood, can be formidable both at land and fea at the fame time, with- out making efforts, that throw our own burthens, by means of debts, on our innocent pofterity. Mr. Hume remarks, that the Britifh fleet, in the height of the war of 1740, coft the nation a greater expence than that of the whole military eftablifhment of the Roman Empire, under Auguftus, while all, that deferved to be called the world, was in obedience to his fceptre; but in the late war, the expence of our fleet amounted to more than the double of what at- tracted the notice of that agreeable and profound politician, for the naval ex- pence of 1781 arofe to 8,603,884]. The ambition of ftatefmen is ready at all times to found upon a great com- merce the neceffity of a great navy to protect it ; and the next ftep is, the fuppofed necelfity of a great commerce to fupport the great navy; and very fine arrange- ments, in political oeconomy, have been the confequence of this mifchievous com- bination. The delufive dream of colonies was one branch of this curious policy, which cofl the nation, as Sir John Sinclair has calculated, two hundred and eighty millions ! Rather than have incurred fuch an enormous expence, which our powerful navy abfolutely induced, would it not have been better had the nation been without commerce, without colonies; without a navy ? The fame mad- nefs has infefted the cabinet of France; a great navy is there alfo confidered as effential, becaufe they have in St. Domingo a great colony; thus one nuifance begets another. The prefent century has been the period of naval power. It will ceafe in the next, and then be confidered as a fyftem founded on the fpirit of commercial rapine. But whatever neceffity there may be for navies, there is none for railing oak to build them, which it is infinitely better to buy than to cultivate. There is no profpedt of exhaufting the oak of the north, of Bohemia, Silefia, Poland, Hun- gary, and the territories on the Adriatic, for centuries to come ; the price will rife as carriage becomes expen five, but thefupply will remain for ages. So long 0^2 ago WOODS. 1 16 ago as the beginning of the laft century, we ufed fir for building, from the fcarcity of oak*; and notwithftanding the immenfe confumption, fince the countries that fupply it promife to continue that fupply for five centuries to come. A veffel of the firfi rank is faid, in France, to demand 60,000 cubical feet of timberf* ; but a later account makes it much more confiderable. Cubical feet,— Firfi: fpecies. Quantity in a Ship of 116 Guns. 77, 5 2 ° — Quantity in a Ship of 74 Guns. 47>356 Second ditto. 39,840 — l6,l6l Third ditto. 5,896 — 12,300 Fourth ditto. 1,250 — 1,780 Fifth ditto. 1 80 — l 9 Plank, 1 >995 M97 Fir, 126,681 — 8,449 — 79>"3 6.3384: The common price of oak 3 liv. the foot. I cannot quit the fubjedt of woods without remarking, that many of the no- bility, in France, have given that attention to the introduction of exotic trees, which would have been a thoufand times better applied to improving the agri- culture of their diftridts : I faw many places, the owners of which affedted to make a reputation by their evergreens, and other plantations, while living in the midft of lands, under a cultivation difgraceful to the kingdom, and the fame even on their own farms. For one fol that France will ever be improved by their exotics, it was in their power to have improved her many louis, by very different exertions. * “ And now of late, for want of other timber, we begin to ufe fir for building of houfes.” An Old Thrift newly revived , or the Manner of Planting , &c. by R. C. 4to. 1612. Black letter. P. 7. f Rechenhes fur la Houille d’Engrais. T om. ii. p. 25. % Encyclopedic Methodique. 4to. Marine . Tom. i. part 1. p. 163. CHAP. BUILDING, 117 CHAP. XVII. On Some (Economical Practices, in France . COME fcattered minutes, not abfolutely ufelefs, may, perhaps, better be thrown together than burnt ; for ingenious men fornetimes catch hints from a flight mention of practices, and apply them to ufes not at firff thought of. Building . Languedoc.— Montauban to I’ouloufe . — At a brick-kiln, obferve that they burn only faggots of vine-cuttings. Bagnere de Luchon.—'For building the new bathing-houfe ereCting here, by the ftates of Languedoc, they work the lime (burnt from a fine blue hard flone) with gravel inffead of fand, of which they have none in the country ; and, on examination, I found this gravel to be a true lime- flone one, the fame fo often met with in Ireland. I could not find that the mortar was the harder or better for this; but, on breaking, rather fofter than that of fand. They have here a very effectual method of cementing flone; when fquared blocks break, they join them very eafily, by applying this cement; — refin, three-fourths; fulphur and wax, one-fourth ; powdered flone, of the fort to be joined, enough to give it the right confiftence when melted. This holds the flone fo firmly together, that the folid part will break rather than at the junction. Normandie. — Carentan to Coutances. — They build here the beft mud houfes I have any where feen ; very good ones, of three ftories, are thus railed : and confiderable offices, with large barns. The earth and ftraw well kneaded together, are fpread, about four inches thick, on the ground, cut in fquares of nine inches, and thefe tofled from a Ihovel to the man on the wall, who builds it ; it is finilhed, layer by layer, and left for drying, as in Ireland ; the layers three feet high, and the thicknels of the walls about two feet ; they make them projecting about an inch, which they cut off, layer by layer, perfectly fmooth ; if they had the Englifh way of white-waffiing, they would look as well as our lath and plaffer houfes, and be vaftly better and warmer. In good houfes, the doors and windows are in flone work. Bernay . — Mud walls to inclofe gardens, and for fruit, well built and thatched at top. Champagne. — Epernay. — Monf. Paretclaine’s new oak floor, which is the common fafhion of France, of lhort fcantlings, in a fort of Moftic, coffs 40 liv. the fquare toife of 6 French feet, including joifts and all. They are dove-tailed along 1 1 8 L I M E. F E N C E S. along the fides, but nailed at the ends; the nails knocked in, and a plug of wood driven in and plained off. Lime. Languedoc. — Bagnere de Luchon. — The lime-kilns here, while burning, have a remarkable fmell of burning fulphur, from the quantity of that mineral, with which the lime-flone is mixed. They build their kilns oval, fwellingdn the middle, with a mouth, not quite at the bottom, where they put in the wood : the upper part is covered with Hones, in order to keep the heat in. They are 24 hours burning the lime. When burnt, flop the mouth clofe, and leave it to cool, which takes three days; after which, they take the lime out. A kiln holds 400 feptiers, which may be fuppofed the feptier of Paris. They carry, with a pair of oxen, but 2 feptiers. Sell it at 40 f. to 45/^ the feptier. Such a quantity of lime takes 600 faggots to bum, and a little other wood. Flanders. — Armentieres to Montcaffel. — Heaps are lying in fome of the fields, ready for fpreading. It is burnt in the country. Maine. — La Fleche to Le Mans . — Lime burning ; the price 5 liv. the pipe, of 2 barriques. Beaumont. — Lime-flone plentiful, yet lime 10 liv. the pipe. Alentyon to Nonant. — Lime-flone every where, yet lime 16 liv. the tonneaux, of 2 pipes. BouRBoNNois.~Afi?z///«r. — Lime 55/ the poin^on, 30 inches high, and 22 diameter. Vi v aaais. — Pradellcs. — Lime 9 f. the meafure of 321b. Fences. Normandie.— Pays de Caux. — The fences here refemble more the double banks and ditches of Ireland than any I have feen: parapet banks are thrown up out of a double ditch, floped; and upon them are planted a hedge, and one or two rows of trees; and the foil is fo rich, that all thrive to fuch a pitch, as to form hedges 40 or 5c feet high, and perfectly thick. By means of fome fmall inclofures of this fort, around every houfe, every habitation is a redoubt, and would make the country very defenfible for a fmall army againfl a great one. Pont UEveque. — Many of the rich paflures here are fo well fenced, that one can no more fee through a fingle hedge, than through a wood; yet there are many willows in them, with only a mixture of thorns and bramble ; but they are fo well trained, and of fuch a luxuriant growth, as to be impenetrable to man or bead. In fencing little is to be learned in France, yet a confiderable portion of the kingdom is inclofed. In England we have carried that art to a perfection of which FISH PONDS. 119 which the French know little. It is only in a few diftri by being ftript from the trees, in order to undergo this operation. Mr. Profeflor Symonds, in the excellent paper quoted above, removed the common erroneous idea of the fine climate of Italy : I made many inquiries con- * The fame remark was made long ago, in 1540; MDXL Extru&um Annus his biflextilis fuit, et luminare majus- Fere totum eclypfavit A feptimo idus Novembris ad feptimum ufque Aprilis idus Nec nix nec aqua vifa de coelo cadere Attamen, prseter mortalium opinionem, Dei dementia', , Et meffis et vindemia multa. It is extraordinary, that in 1779 there was an almoft total edipfe of the fun, followed by a fine winter, the fame as in 1540. There was a fmall edipfe on the 7th of April, 1540, but an almoft total one the 15th. of April, 1539, and which, for quantity and duration, was very much like that the 24th. of June, 1779. The crop was abundant, as it appears by the prices of the year, in the Ledger of the Cifterfian Monks. Wheat, 1539, tlle mo gg ia > 5 liv * I n ^40} ditto, 4HV. In 1541, ditto, 6 liv. The ducat of gold, or zecchin, then at 5 liv. 15A Campi (IJloria di Cremona, anno 1540) fpeaks of the extraordinary drynefs of this year, the abundance of crops, and fubjoins, that the corn was cut the middle of May, and the vintage the beginning of Auguft. This is the harveft near forty days fooner than at prefent, and the vintage two months. Opufc. Seel. tom. ii. p, 136. -t The fame, pradice was known among the antients. See Straboy lib, vii. and Quint* Curt. lib. vii.. c. 3, cerning i5® LOMBARDY. cerning the leading faCls, and have every reafon to believe that it is, in point of health and agreeablenefs, one of the word: climates in the world : with the views of a farmer, however, it mud: be confefied, that the productions which the whole peninfula owes to its climate are very valuable ; to omit fpeaking of Sicily or Naples, I may remark, that planting the poor braflhy hills of Tufcany with olives is an advantage unequalled by any thing to be met with in the north of Europe ; that the produce of filk throughout Lombardy is an objeCt of the firffc importance — That rice is found to be an article of almod unrivalled profit. — That the productive date of the meadows is indebted almod as much to the heat of the fummers, as to the plenty of water $ and, for any thing I know to the contrary, the admirable quality of the cheefe alfo. Thefe are all objeCts of great magnitude, and entirely derived from climate. SECT. III. — I N CLOSURES. Piedmont. It is not very eafy, in many parts of Piedmont, to pronounce, on a fuperficial view, whether the country be open or inclofed ; but, on a nearer infpeCtion, the greater part by far found to be inclofed ; generally by ditches, and, in many didriCts, with hedges alfo ; which, in dome places, are as complete as in the bed Englidi counties. Milanese. Much the greater part of this territory is inclofed, either with hedges or by ditches, which ferve as conductors of the water ufed in irrigation. Thefe, in the Lodizan, and other didriCts to the fouth of Milan, are planted fo thickly, with willow and poplar pollards, that the country looks every where like a wood. Venetian State. Much of the country, from Bergamo to Brefcia, is very thickly inclofed with hedges. From Brefcia to the Lago di Guarda it is the fame ; but from thence to Verona not equally fo. Ecclesiastical State — Bologna. The whole Bolognefe is inclofed. They make and plath their hedges with the niced attention : made with dead dakes, about four feet high, and tied in crofs lines, with great neatnefs and drength. This care is, however, exerted for the boundary of the farm only ; fubdivifions of this kind are rare. Tuscany. LOMBARDY. 151 Tuscany. There are no rights of commonage in all Tufcany ; thanks to the wifdom of Leopold } every man has a right to inclofe his property as he pleafes. The Ap- penines, crolfed from Belogna to Florence, are, however* moftly uninclofed, and, almoft wafte. Modena. From the city of Modena to Reggio, the inclofures are very neatly formed, of well made hedges without any ugly fprawling ones; but all either trimmed, or made fo often* that they are not differed to fpread. Parma. To Firenzuola all the country is inclofed. Piedmont % °— ( Tortonefe. The fences from the Dutchy of Modena hither are greatly declined : there are fome hedges every where > but many large fields all the way, with only bad ditches or banks. Lombardy, upon the whole* mud be confidered as an inclofed country, and much of it elofely fo. It would indeed be a glaring abfurdity to keep land fo extremely valuable in an open date. The importance of inclofing is well under- dood, and where not pra&ifed in perfection, it arifes from caufes that form ex- ceptions rather than effedt the general rule. SECT. IV.— OF FARMS AND TENANTRY. The predominant feature in the farms of Piedmont is metayers , nearly upon the fame fydem which I have defcribed and condemned, in treating of the huf- bandry of France. The landlord commonly pays the taxes and repairs the buildings, and the tenant provides cattle* implements* and feed; they divide the produce. Wherever this fyftem prevails, it may be taken for granted that a ufelefs and miferable population is found. The poverty of the farmers is the origin of it ; they cannot dock the farms, pay taxes, and rent in money, and, therefore* mud divide the produce in order to divide the burthen. There is reafon to believe that this was entirely the fydem in every part of Europe; it is gradually going out every where ; and in Piedmont is giving way to great farms, whofe occupiers pay a money rent. I was for fome time deceived in going From Nice to Turin* and believed that more of the farms were larger than 1$2 LOMBARDY. than is really the cafe, which refulted from many fmall ones being collected into one home-dead. That belonging to the Prince of Corignan, at Billia Bruna, has the appearance of being very confiderable ; but, on inquiry, I found it in the hands of feven families of metayers. In the mountains, from Nice to Racconis, however, they are fmall ; but many properties, as in the mountains of France and Spain. The Caval. de Capra, member of the Agrarian Society, allured me, that the union of farms was the ruin of Piedmont, and the effect: of luxury; that the metayers were difmilfed and driven away, and the fields -every where depo- pulated. I demanded how the country came to have the appearance of immenfe cultivation, and looked rather like a garden than a farm, all the way from Coni ? He replied, that I fhould fee things other wife in palling to Milan : that the rice culture was fupported by great farms, and that large traCts of country were re- duced to a defert. Are they then uncultivated ? No ; they are very well culti- vated ; but the people all gone, or become miferable. We hear the fame dory in every country that is improving: while the produce is eaten up by a fuper- fluity of idle hands, there is population on the fpot ; but it is ufelefs population : the improvement banilhes thefe drones to towns, where they become ufeful in trade and manufactures, and yield a market to that land, to which they were before only a burthen. No country can be really flourilhing unlefs this take place ; nor can there be any where a flourilhing and wealthy race of farmers, able to give money rents, but by the dedruCtion of metaying. Does any one imagine that England would be more rich and more populous if her farmers were turned into metayers ? Ridiculous. The intendant of Bilfatti added an- other argument againft great farms ; namely, that of their being laid to grafs more than fmall ones ; furely this is a leading circumftance in their favour ; for grafs is the lad and greated improvement of Piedmont; and that arrangement of the foil which occafions mod to be in grafs, is the mod beneficial. Their meadows are amongd the fined and mod productive in the world. What is their arable ? It yields crops of five or fix times the feed only. To change fuch arable to fuch grafs, is, doubtlefs, the highed degree of improvement. View France and her metayers— View England and her farmers ; and then draw your conclufions. The Milanese. Wherever the country (that I law) is poor and unwatered, in the Milanefe, it is in the hands of metayers. At Mozzata the Count de Cadiglioni Ihewed me the rent book his intendant , (deward) keeps, and it is a curious explanation of the fydem which prevails. In fome hundred pages I faw very few names without a large balance of debt due to him, and brought from the book of the preceding year : LOMBARDY. l 53 year : they pay by To many moggii of all the different grains, at the price of the year: fo many heads of poultry; fo much labour; fo much hay ; and fo much ftraw, &c. But there is, in mod; of their accounts, on the debtor’s fide, a va- riety of articles, befide thofe of regular rent: fo much corn, of all forts, bor- rowed of the landlord, for feed or food, when the poor man has none : the fame thing is common in France, wherever metaying takes place. All this proves the extreme poverty, and even mifery, of thefe little farmers ; and fhews, that their condition is more wretched than that of a day labourer. They are much two numerous; three being calculated to live in one hundred pertichi, and all fully employed by labouring, and cropping the land inceffantly with the fpade, fora produce unequal to the payment of any thing to the landlord, after feed- ing themfelves and their cattle as they ought to be fed ; hence the univerfal diftrefs of the country. Thofe who are advocates for fmall farms, fhould come hither, and fee how they infallibly generate poverty in every cottage. The iurplus of population is not demanded by manufactures, or by towns ; the in- creafe, therefore, is only the divifion of a pittance of food amongft many mouths inftead of a few. It is impoAible to prohibit procreation, or to force emigra- tion ; but it is in a landlord’s power to introduce, gradually and prudently, a different lyftem — to occupy a large farm himfelf, cultivated accurately, by day- labourers, of all ages and fexes, well paid ; and if this be not fufficient, to eftablifh a manufacture of fome grofs and Ample kind, to employ the popula- tion already exifting ; and, by a gradual alteration in his farms, to proportion the food to the mouths that are to eat it*. There is at prefent an inducement to fuch a change, that ought to weigh very feriouiiy : the example of the French revolution will fpread, and will be much more apt to take effeCt in countries where there is nothing but the great land owner and the poor cottager, than in. others where there are intermediate ranks of men of subftance, who have an intered in preferving public order. What a temptation to confufion and re- bellion is it, to have a country full of miferable metayers, all deeply indebted to the feigneur ? Nine-tenths of the people, in fuch a cafe, have an immediate iuterefi in burning his caftle and his account-books, for he ftands Angle, on one hand, againll all the people, fwarming on the other; but in the v/atered plain, where the farms are large and not populous, from fo much being in grafs, there is every where a race of wealthy farmers, who have an interefl in keeping the people quiet, — who are united with the landlord. — and who, paying their men in money, without thefe long and dangerous accounts, have not the temptation to revolt ; or even if they were tempted, they would not have the difproportion of numbers to render it equally dangerous. The great objeCt of men who have * But inftead of the number of farms decreafing, they are increafed, as we learn from Sig. Lavizari, Annot. ful Mitterpacher , tom. i. p. 22 1. VOL. II. X property. LOMBARDY. *54 property, is at prefent to fecure it — and they can have no fecurity, while they fill the country, by metaying, with {warms of a ftarving and indebted peafantry. It fhould be remembered, that the mifchievous confufions, plundering, and burnings, in France, were not in the Pays de Beauce, nor in Picardie, nor in Artois, where metayers are unknown, and the farms large ; but in the Ma^on- nois, in Brefie, in Sologne, where all are in the hands of poor miferable me- tayers ; an infiance, furely, exprefs to the purpofe ; and which fhould have its weight with Italian landlords. But to work a change in this pernicious fyfiem, demands a refidence on their eftates in the country, infiead of abandoning them to the rapacity of fiewards ; it is not by living in the frippery of great cities, that their landed property is to be arranged on fafe principles *. In the watered parts of the Milanefe, great and rich farmers are found. Here are the particulars of a farm, I viewed, between Milan and Pavia ; viz. 3100 perticbi ; 1600 of rice; 200 flax ; 450 perennial grafs ; 450 clover; 400 arable crops, wheat, rye, maiz, millet, oats, &c. ; 12 horfes ; 8 oxen; 55 cows; 2 bulls; 4c labourers ; rent 20 liv. the’ pertica ; the whole capable of being watered. And at Codogno the following are the particulars of one, where 100 cows are kept: 2000 pertichi ; 100 cows; 1 cazaro; 1 fotte cazaro ; 6 others; 9 for corn; 1 agent; 1 guard againfl: thieves, and thofe who fieal water; 1 waterman. To ftock fuch a farm 50,000 liv. neceflary. By means of fuch farms they have rich farmers ; fome worth 100,000 liv. The general idea of profit, in thefe dairy diftridts, is 10 to 15 per cent.; fome dairy farms are occupied by proprietors, but the number is inconfiderable. Venetian State. All the lands in the Brefcian and Veronefe territory are let at half produce, a la met a ; even vines : but fome meadows are ufually referved, and alfo woods. The proprietor pays the land-tax, and the farmer provides live fiock, and pays the taxes on it. Sig. Locatelli has a farm of 100 campi, within two miles of the city, which yields him 250 zecchini nett ; this is fomething more than 30s. an acre. He has alfo another farm more diftant, of 600 campi, which yields 650 zecchini nett ; on which there are 8 cows, 22 oxen, and 150 fheep. In the Vicentine f, rent, when calculated in money, zecchini per campo. They have farms fo large as 2000 campi. * This whole paflage is left as originally written ; before French horrors rendered French poli- ticks objedls of deteftation rather than example. f Particulars of a farm of 120 campi: 20 of meadow, not watered ; 90 of corn; 10 of clover; 15 oxen and young cattle; 3 cows; 2 horfes ; 4 hogs; 7 men; 4 ditto, with oxen; 4 women; 2 children. In LOMBARDY. *55 In the Paduan, 100 campi are a large farm ; common 60 ; fmall 40 ; and they reckon fmall ones the bed cultivated; if this be fad!, and not a matter of opi- nion in the gentleman, my informant, it (hews that their hufbandry muft cer- tainly be efteemed bad ; it is, however, queftionable, for the reafon added was, that there were more people on fmall farms; a fure proof that the progrefs of improvement has not been carried far. To dock a farm, of a hundred campi, 1000 ducats are neceftary, reckoning the ducat at 3s. which is not exa<5t ; this is a poor dock, for it does not exceed 33s. the English acre. The arrangement of the farms, in the Paduan, may be gueffed at, in fome meafure, from the following particulars; there are found, in the whole diftricft, 288,300 fouls; 49,943 cows and fatting cattle; 41,000 plough oxen; 102,000 fheep; 16,598 hogs ; 731 mules; 2381 affes. One Profeffor informed me, that, in his opinion, the great mifchief of the country is, that of great land proprietors letting their eftates to undertakers or middle-men, who will hire to the amount of 10,000 ducats a year; and in re-letting to farmers will fqueeze them fo, that they cannot live, to the great degradation of the country. Another profeftor faid, that the diftridt of Padua is not fo well cultivated as the Vicentin, by reafon of the greater poverty of the farmers and peafants, who are miferable, and have no power to make the land yield well. Indeed I learned, from very good au- thority, that the Paduan is not equal to the Vicentin, except in the mountains, where the peafants are much more at their eafe than in the plain. Ecclesiastical State — Bologna. Eftates here are very generally let to middle-men, who relet them to the farmers at half produce, by which means the proprietor receives little more than one-half what he might do on a better fyftem, with a peafantry in a better fituation. The whole country is at half produce ; the farmer fupplies imple- ments, cattle, and fheep, and half the feed : the proprietor repairs. Silk, and even wine on the fame tenure. Particulars of a farm (Sig. Bignami’s) of 600 tornature; 360 on the hills; the reft on the plain: 6 metayers; 36 working oxen; 12 cows * ?o young cattle ; 100 fheep. Produce, 2000 corbiof wine; 3 to 400 corbi wheat. Tuscany. Letting lands, at money rent, is but new in Tufcany ; and it is ftrange to fay, that Sig. Paoletti, a very practical writer, declares againft it *. A farm in Tufcany is called a podere : and fuch a number of them as are placed under the / management of a factor, is called fattoria . His bufinefs is to fee that the lands * Penfteri , &c. p, 162, 164. X 2 are LOMBARDY. 156 are managed according to the leafe, and that the landlord has his fair half. Thefe farms are not often larger than for a pair of oxen, and eight to twelve people in one houfe; fome 100 pertichi (this meafure is to the acre, as about 25 to 38), and two pair of oxen, with twenty people. I was allured that thefe me- tayers are (efpecially near Florence) much at their eafe ; that on holydays they are dreffed remarkably well, and not without objects of luxury, as filver, gold, and filk ; and live well, on plenty of bread, wine and legumes. In fome in- flances this may poffibly be the cafe, but the general fad is contrary. It is abfurd to think that metayers, upon fuch a farm as is cultivated by a pair of oxen, can be at their eafe; and a clear proof of their poverty is this, that the landlord, who provides half the live flock, is often obliged to lend the peafant money to enable him to procure his half ; but they hire farms with very little money, which is the old (lory of France, &c. 5 and indeed poverty and mi- ferable agriculture are the fure attendants upon this way of letting land. The metayers, not in the vicinity of the city, are fo poor, that landlords even lend them corn to eat : their food is black bread, made of a mixture with vetches : and their drink is very little wine, mixed with water, and called aquarolle ; meat on Sundays only; their drefs very ordinary. Yet in all thefe particulars they were in a worfe fituation before the free corn trade. The richefl peafants are in the Valdichiano. The mod common agrement is, for the landlord to furnifh all the cattle and fheep, and to pay the taxes, except the capitation on the peafants family of 3 liv. for all above three years old. In a confiderable fattoria of 18 poderi, at Cadello Villa Bali Martelli, the larged is 200 diori (36 acres, at 5 \ ; 28^, at 7), and 70 the fmalled. Particulars of one of 190 diori; 1 pair of oxen; 2 calves; 1 horfe ; 1 mule; no cows, fheep, or hogs; 14 people, of all ages and fexes ; taxes, before the grand Duke’s redemption, 80 pauls, now 15; tithes 15 pauls, half paid by landlord, half by peafant; this is 6s. 8d. in the whole for about 30 acres. Produce corn, 180 fcudi; filk, 6J; wine, 58; oil, 60; in all 85I. ; the half, or 44I. is the landlord’s receipt for thefe articles, or above il. 5s. per acre, at 5J diori to the Englifh acre, and il. 1 1 s. if at 7. No fmall proprietor. * Villamagna . Sig. Paoletti; rector of this parifh, and author of fome valuable works on agriculture, which I have had occafion to quote, was fo obliging as to give the following detail of the 3 poderi belonging to his living, from which the arable ceconomy of this part of Tufcany will be well underdood. Three LOMBARDY. I 57 'Three Poderi ; three Families. Seed /own . — 48 ftaji of wheat 168 Jiiori of land. 3 ditto vetches 7 i 24 ditto beans 28 6 ditto oats — — 10 Artificial graffes ; viz. clover. great millet, vetch, and oats, all for forage - - 24 Wood, - 283 The ftajo of wheat, of 40 lb. English (52 lb. to 55 lb. Tufcan), fows 3J ftiori, and yields eight or nine times as much ; vetches four times the feed ; beans three times ; oats feven times; the wheat is a tolerable crop; all the reft miferable. If the farms, immediately under the eye of this able writer, yield no more in this meta fyftem, we may fuppofe the poverty of the common products ; we have, on the worft lands in England, no idea of fuch crops as thefe of vetches, beans, and oats. There are further on the 3 poderi, 36 fheep ; 1 mule ; 6 oxen ; and 4 cows ; alfo 50 barrels of oil, at 5 fcudi ; and 380 barrels of wine, at 10 liv. the barrel, vintage price, but at a year old 15 liv. or 16 liv. ; in filk 25 fcudi; and in wood 10 fcudi, for three-fourths of the woods are in a ftate of deftrudtion. Thefe poderi are let a la meta ; repairs are done by the proprietor; live ftock belong to the incumbent, and neither to the church nor to the peafants ; im- plements belong to the tenants ; feed wheat, three-fourths to them, and one- fourth to the owner; of fpring corn, all to the latter; alfo all forts that are put in with the vanga (fpade), as the land is fo much the better laboured. Let it be remembered, that the fpade being preferred to the plough, is the moft decifive proof that tillage is in a ftate of mediocrity, if not barbarifm. Modena. In the mountains there are many peafant proprietors, but not in the plain. A great evil here, as in other parts of Lombardy, is the practice of the great lords, and the poifeffors of lands in mortmain letting to middle-men, who re-let to metayers ; under which tenure are all the lands of the duchy. The tenant furnifhes one-half of the cattle, and the landlord one-half. To Reggio the num- ber of fcattered houfes very great ; good ; and with neatly hedged home-ftalls : apparently there is not a labourer’s houfe in all the country ; all metaying farmers. Farm a. i 5 B LOMBARDY. Parma. Appearances from Reggio to this place are much inferior to thofe from Mo- dena to Reggio ; the fences not fo neat ; nor the houfes fo well built, white, or clean. All here metayers ; the proprietor fupplies the cattle, half the feed, and pays the taxes ; the peafant provides the utenfils. In the whole dutchies of Parma and Piacenza, and indeed almoft every where elfe, the farms muft be very fmall ; the pradice I have elfewhere noted, of the digging the land for beans, and working it up with a fuperfluity of labour, evidently (hew it: the fwarms of people in all the markets announce the fame fad; at Piacenza, I faw men, whofe only bufinefs was to bring a fmall bag of apples, about a peck; one man brought a turkey, and not a fine one. What a wafie of time and labour, for a fiout fellow to be thus employed. Savoy. ' All the peafants are proprietors. So long ago as theyear 897, lands were let on leafe for twenty-two years, and not only for a payment of fruits or fervice, as in all the northern parts of Europe, but partly at a money-rent. This fhews how vaftly more forward Italy was in thofe early periods, than the reft of Europe *. It is faid, that in 1464 began the cuftom of letting lands on a three years leafe -f*. SECT. V. RENT AND PRICE OF LAND. This, as I have endeavoured to explain already, in the cafe of France, is one of the moft important inquiries in rural oeconomy. The vulgar notion is, that nothing raifes the value of land, but trade or manufacture. If the refult of my travels, were only to produce fads fufficient to overturn fo falfe a theory, my time would not be altogether loft. Pi edmont, — Chentale . Land, in general, is fold at 800 liv. or 900 liv. the giornata , which is to the Englifh acre as 7440 is to 7929. ( Pauttcn). At a diftance from towns, 600 liv. * Uncerto Donno, che cerca da P Abate di S. Ambrogio a nomo di livcllo, per ventidue anni, alcune terre nel Contado di JBrefcia, ch’erano del moniftero d’Orona; promettando di pagare a fi&o cioe per filTa annuale penfione tanta qu a ntita di generi, e di denaro. Secala modia decern, Seligine ftaria duodecem, faba, &c. &c. Giulini goes on; “Qui chiaramentc si comprende, che s’inganno il Mattioli il quale credette, che la fegale fofle la filigine degli antichi.” Memorie della Citta e della Camp, di Milano. Giulini, parte ii. p. 62. f Caro nelli fopr a /’ Jnjlituzione Agraria della Cioventu. 4to, 17891 P.58. tc LOMBARDY. 159 to 850 liv. Some at 1000 liv. (53I. 6s. per Englifh acre.) Good watered meads, - 1000 liv. to 1200 liv. Turin, The price of land in the environs of Turin, as may be fuppofed, is very high. Four miles from the town, fomeis fold, without water, at 1200 liv. the giornata: with water, it depends on quantity, and the value is immenfe. Land that has one hour a week of fuch a ftream as will water five giornata in that hour, fells at 1500 liv. (79I. 19s. per Englifh acre) ; if it waters two giornata, 1000 liv. ; and if three, 1200 liv. And fuch watering adds, at lead, one-third to the value of the land. At Cambiano, five miles from Turin, arable land fells at 3000 liv. but this is uncommon. Near the town, fuch prices as 3000 liv. and 4000 liv. are known. But, in general, arable watered, near Turin, fells at 1000 liv.; at a diftance, and not watered, 200 liv. to 550 liv. If a general average were to be made, of all forts of land, except the very fineft, it would be about 500 liv. I11 regard to rent, but little is let for money ; chiefly at one- half produce; butfuch meadows as would fell at 1000 liv. would let at 70 liv. to 75 liv. If two-thirds are arable, and one-third meadow, 40 liv. will be about the rent in good lands. In the territory of Turin, arable lets at 30 liv. Vercelli, Rice-grounds, 500 liv. ; good wheat land, 800 liv. ; watered meadow, 600 liv. and 700 liv. per giornata. Milanese. The price varies from 15 liv. for thepooreft wafles, to 1000 liv. the pertica *; but from 600 liv. to 1000 liv. more common. As the livre is yjd. Englifh, 1000 liv. * The difficulty I have met with, in afcertaining the contents of a Milanefe pertica, is ftrange. Pau&on, in his Metrologie , makes it to the Englifh acre, as 0.14727 is to 0.7929, by which pro- portion, it fhould contain 8090 feet, or about 5 i-3d perticas in an acre. Count Alexander Cicogno, in the Memoirs of the Patriotic Society of Milan, vol. ii. p. 304, fays, that if feeds are planted at fifteen oncie one from another, 1479 wdl pl ant a pertica. As the oncia is two inches Englifh, this makes 9243 Englifh feet in a pertica. Monf. de la Lande fays, that it takes more than five perticas to make an arpent de Paris : now as that arpent is to the Englifh acre, 0,6694 is to 0,7929, there are confequently 36,775 Englifh feet in that arpent j at five perticas, it would confift of 7355 Englifh feet, or about fix to an acre. In the notes to the new edition of the Venti Giornata of Gallo ( 1775 )> ^ 1S P er d ca is faidto con- tain 6152 French feet, which will not differ materially from Dela Lande. Count Carli, who was prefident of the fupreme council of Finances at Milan, and has written in- telligently on the cenfimento , fays, L’ arpent di Franciajia alia pertica Milanefe come ii aduno proffima mente . i6o LOMBARDY. jooo liv. is 98I. 19s. 2d. per acre. It is ufually bought in fuch a manner as to pay 277 to 3 per cent, for the purchafe-money. Between Milan and Pavia, land rendered good by water, fome fells at 300 liv. to 500 liv. : at 300 liv. it lets at 12 liv. I 1 rom Milan to Mozzata, when you have palled the watered plain, which is in a few miles, the rent, in general, is not more than 4 liv. or 5 liv. the pertica. In every new leafe, for a long period, fuch as eighteen or twenty-one years there is always an augmentation of rent in every part of the Milanefe, and Ge- nerally to a pretty conliderable amount. There is alfo an undoubted augmen- tation in the fpecie current in the country ; and the prices of every thing have rifen at the fame time that money has increafed. It highly deferves noting, by the politician, that as the Milanefe fubfifts entirely by land produce, without trade (other than the fale of that produce), and without manufadure, it is re- markable that it has experienced an advance in its prolperity, as well as coun- tries that feem to engrofs both trade and manufacture ; even at a period Ion" after it had attained a height of cultivation and improvement, to which thofe trading countries have little to oppofe. Lodi . The belt land near this place, 600 liv. the pertica (59I. 8s. per Englifh acre) • but farther of, 300 liv. to 350 liv. The Spina , a farm I viewed, belonging to tne Caval. Don Baffiamo Bona Noma, lets at 30 liv. ; others at 25 liv.; but the common price 12 liv. to 15 liv. The belt land and higheft rent is all for cows. Codog no. Watered lands fell at 300 liv. the pertica ; and let at 10 liv. (19I. 9s. per Eng- lifh acre), nett rent, tenant paying cenfimento, &c. mente \ ( Dell « °pere del S. Conte Carli. 8vo. 1784. Tom. i. p. 223.) The arpent of France being to the arpent de Paris as 48 to 32, there are 55,162 Englifh feet in it, and in the pertica (at 11 to 1 ) 3 WO feet. But the fame author fays (p. 320) there are 4868 pertichi in a fquare Italian mile; if fo, there are 3628 in a fquare Englifh mile; this makes 5! and i-6th pertichi to an Englifh acre* Finding fo many contradiaions, I judged it neceffary to recur to different authority. The oncia of Milan is two Englifh inches; and the mealures thus arrange themfelves. One pertica 24 tavoli. One tavola 12 piedi. One piede 12 oncie. Of thel'e the tavola and pertica are fquare meafures, the former containing 12 piedi fquare', this makes >76 Englifh feet, which, multiplied by 24, the refult is 13,824 feet for a pertica, or about 3 i-6th to acre ; and by this eftimate I fhall calculate. Rent LOMBARDY. i&t liv. f. Rent nett, - - - io o Water-tax for distribution, - i o Cenfimento, - - - 2 5 Total rent, - 13 5 Venetian State— Bergamo. Price of land near Bergamo, 80 ducats the pertica. The ducat is 8 liv. and 50 liv. the pound derling ; and, if the editors of Agodino Gallo be not midaken, there are 6194 French feet in a pertica; on thefe proportions, land fells at 78I. 8s. per Englifh acre. Brefcia. The bed fells at 800 fcudi; commonly from 300 to 500 fcudi the jugero. This meafure containing 4 pertichi, and the Englifh acre 4^, makes 400 fcudi to equal 59I. per Englifh acre, at 7 liv. the fcudo. The bed; land, of 800 fcudi, amounts confequently to 118I. Rents, per jugero, 5 to 10 fcudi; the mean, 7I fcudi, equals 22s. Englifh acre. Verona . Land here commonly fells at 70 zecchini the campo (44I. 6s. per Englifh acre), and yields to the proprietor 3 to 4 per cent. I viewed an arable field clofe to the city, yet fowing with wheat, that would fell for 100 zecchini per campo : and fome other lands, juft out of the Porta Nouva, that are exceflively gravelly, would fell for 15 zecchini ; fuch poor land, at a didance, would not fell for more than 8 or 9 zecchini (5I. per Englifh acre): it is, however, not fo bad, but that good mulberry-trees are on it. Vicenza . The befl: watered meadows fell at 2400 liv. to 3000 liv. the campo, which is about 65I. per Englifh acre; the bed arable is nearly as valuable. The word arable 300 liv. : in the bed there are neither mulberries nor vines. Common, price 900 liv. to 1000 liv. ; and the produce no liv. per campo, about 55s. the acre. The highed rent in money is 3 zecchini the campo ; common 1, 1 J, or 2 zecchini. But, in general, land is let at half produce. To Padua . The bed land fells at 45 zecchini the campo: rice-grounds are at that price. VoL. II. Y Padua . 162 LOMBARDY. Padua. The beft arable land fells at 200 ducats, of 6 liv. 4 f. The campo is 840 per- tiche quadrate, each of 6 feet, confequently 30,240 feet ; but the foot is 1 inch longer than the Paris foot : it is, therefore, equal to about 35,280 Paris feet *, or about -rVth under an Englifh apre. Middling land, 95 ducats ; bad, 50 du- cats; rice-grounds, and confequently irrigated, 200 ducats; the fame land, before rice being planted, 100 ducats; watered meadows, 200 ducats; woods, 100 du- cats ; gardens, 400 ducats. Eftates pay 5 per cent. Ecclesiastical State — Bologna. Landlords are paid by half produce, which affords them about il. 6s. 5d. per tornatura, of half an Englifh acre, and as much is left for the farmer: this is about 5I. 5s. an acre, grofs produce, on an average ; but it is in the rich plain only. Through all the country, and including good, bad, and indifferent, it varies from 8s. 9d. to 26s. 5d. the tornatura, for the landlord’s fhare. The price for fuch land as yields the latter fum, is 2 1 1 . 17s. 6d. Englifh, the torna- tura: in general, from 81 . 15s. to 13I. 2s. 6d. The return for the value of land is 4 to 5 per cent, on the capital ; but in farms on the mountains, 7 per cent. Tuscan y —Florence. The landlord’s half of the produce, for all farms are let a la meta , is about 3 liv. nett (2s. ijd.) per ftiora on the plain (ns. 8|d. per Englifh acre) ■f* : it is 2 liv. on the hills (7s. 8|d. per acre), and 1 liv. on the mountains. No other proof is wanted of the poor ftate of agriculture in this country, ariflng, doubt- 3 efs, from fo wretched a mode of letting land. What muff it have been before the time of Leopold, who has done fo much towards the annihilation of its old fhackles ? Villamagna. Three poderi, containing 200 ftiori cultivated, and 283 of mountain wood, would fell at 12,000 fcudi (3400.I) ; and, per ftiora, for the whole, 7I. each : it alfo yields a rent, by metaying, of 500 fcudi ; and land is commonly fold to pay 3J per cent, intereft ; but, more commonly, in other parts, only 3. Dutchy of Modena— • The biolca, which is here the meafure of land, is 29 French toifes, by 26. or 754; or, to the Englifh acre, as 27,144 is to 38,300; or as 15 to 21. This * Mr. Pau&on makes it more than an arpent of France, 1,0866, How he proves this, 1 am not arithmetician enough to know. * This at the ratio of Si ftiod P er acre * meafure LOMBARDY. i% meafure of arable fells from 500 liv. to 1200 liv. — the livre half that of Milan, or about 4c!.; 800 would be 1 81 . an acre. Watered meadow fells at 1200 liv. to 3000 liv. j the latter equals 70I. an acre. Such are mown thrice; the firft cutting yields 1 carro, of 100 poid, or 2500 lb. (the pound about fths of an Englifh pound) ; and the price of hay 3 to 4 zecchini per carro. Parma. The beft land fells commonly at 50 zecchini the biolca (31I. 7s. per acre). To Firenzuola, the beft fells at 25 to 40 zecchini. Pi edmont— Vogara. From St. Giovanni to Vogara, the price of the beft is 500 liv. the journal. After that town, 24 fcudi di Milano per tavola (about 20I. to 25I. per acre). From Vogara, to within a few miles of Turin, the average value of land is 500 liv. (26I. 13s. per Englifh acre.) Savoy. At Montmelian, vineyards fet at 1000 liv. to 1200 liv. the journal, which about equals a French arpent. On the mountain tides to Chamberry, on a foil, to appearance, abfolutely ftones, that yield good wine, and fell as high as meadow. Cultivated land, at Modena, in the Haut-Savoy, at 1000 liv. Im- proved mountain fpots, 300 liv. to 500 liv. The moft carelefs examination of the preceding prices, will be fufficient to fliew, that land is fold, at prefent, in Lombardy, fome ages after it has loft both its commerce and its manufactures*, at prices that ought to mark the direCfc influence of immenfe induftry ; for it rifes from 30I. to iool. an acre, through a territory not comparable for foil, naturally to many others. I will venture to afleit, that the fame land in England, would not fell for half, perhaps, not for one-third of the money. And it is worthy of remark, that the cities which poflefs moft trade at prefent, as Leghorn, Genoa, and Venice, have little in- fluence on the lands which fell at the prices here noted. It is not the compe- tition of Venetian merchants that raifes the prices on the terra jirmai and what have thofe of Leghorn and Genoa to do with the Milanefe and Piedmont ? If Leghorn has not cultivated the Maremma, how was it to water the Lodizan ? * Every one knows, that, ftri&ly fpeaking, there are both trade and manufactures in all parts of Lombardy ; converting raw to organized filk, is certainly a manufa&ure ; and making a few velvets at Genoa, or glafs beads at Venice, are manufattures ; but, for all the purpofes of argument, Lom- bardy, when compared to fuch countries as England and France, muft be faid to be almoft deftitute of them. Y 2 Bologna LOMBARDY. 164 Bologna is, parhaps, the mod manufacturing town in Lombardy ; but has it drained the Commachio ? If you recur not to prefent, but to antient wealth, you mud turn to Florence *, Pifa, Genoa, and Venice ; the two fird are in one of the word cultivated countries in Italy ; of Genoa I know nothing, but by reading ; but I have read no author that lpeaks of great cultivation in the Li- gurian territory, free from /mall prefent proprietors : and let it be remembered, becaufe it is a circumdance that merits it, that great commerce and fabrics, efpecially when depending on a city that governs a territory , have a direCt ten- dency not to edablifh, but to annihilate fuch properties. The efFeCt of great wealth, flowing from indudry, is to extirpate little pro- perties, by the profits from trade being inveded in their purchafe ; one country- gentleman, with half a fcore farmers, and a hundred labourers, takes the place in countries, where the progrefs of wealth is in its natural courfe, of a number of little proprietors, who eat up all their produce, and yet are half darving for want. Is this the cafe in the Genoefe territory ? I am fure it is not at Venice. The fured proof of the want of diffeminating wealth in the country, is the al- mod univerfal practice of cultivating the land by metayers j if trade and com- merce did much for Italy, which cannot be doubted, you mud look for their effects, not in the country, but in towns. Thofe cities that poffeffed much in- duflry (which I have named), carry fure proofs of former profperity: go out of their gates, and you meet with none— from what did this arifie ? Probably from thofe cities being fovereign ones, and (hackling the country with every fpecies of monopoly, in favour of themfelves. What is it, therefore, that will diffufe wealth through all the claffes, and give verdure to the fields, as well as ludre to the towns ? An equitable government. Whatever wepoffefs in Eng- land, we owe to this origin ; and it highly deferves notice, that it is not a cul- tivation fuperior to that of other countries, which diflinguiihes our ifland fo * For the immenfe manufactures and wealth of Florence, in the fourteenth century, fee Giovanni Villani, lib. ii. cap. 93. “ In Firenze le Botteghe (anno 1330) deWarte della lana erano dugento e pin e facevano da fettanta in ottanta mila panni di valuta di piu di mille dugento migliaja di fiorini a’oro (fono a fcudi fiorentini 22,860,000) che bene il terzo e piu rimaneva nella terra per ovraggio fenza il guadagno de'lanajuoli. Del detto ovraggio vivevano piu di 30,000 perfone. Se per tutti i prodotti e manifatture dell’intera Tofcana prefentemente non entra piu di un milione due centomila fcudi ; chiaro e, che tempo fa la fola arte della lana in Firenze produceva venti volte piu utile di quello, che prefentemente ne faccia tutto lo ftato. Carli Saggio Sopra la Tofcana, op. i. p. 348. A molt fingular law palled during the republic of Florence, that no man fhould make proof of no- bility, who was not able to deduce it- from the manufacture of wool or filk. Carli , tomo v. p. 335. A more commercial idea could no where root itfelf much. LOMBARDY. 16 5 much, as the edablilhment of a race of men generally found no where elfe ; a fubdantial and wealthy race of tenantry ; a race found in every corner of Eng- land : in Lombardy, you mud go for fuch, not to Florence and Genoa, but to the Lodizan. CHAP. IL Of the Management of Grafs Lands . /^ATTLE and grafs lands are fo connected, that, I trud, it will not be deemed an impropriety to treat of them in the fame chapter, and as parts of the fame fubjedt. The obfervations I have made in Italy, will be divided eafily into — 1, irrigation 5—2, live dock. SECT. I. O F IRRIGATION. If there be one circumstance which gives a fuperiority to Lombardy, over all the other countries I have feen, it is this, and therefore merits the mod parti- cular detail. Piedmont — Nice. Such is the confequence of water here, that a garden of 4fedaradi (a fquare of 12 trebucchi, i. e. 1 44 is a fedarada, and 400 trebucchi a giornata, which is to the English acre as 0.7440 is to 0,7929), with a fmallhoufe, lets at 20 louis d’or per annum, or about 15I. an acre. Coni . For the lad ten miles from Nice to Coni, the country improves continually. The foil, near the mountains, is doney, but is a good fandy loam lower in the vale. It is perfectly level, and watered with the utmod attention, in a manner I had not noticed before j not, as in Spain, in beds, but the field is ploughed flat, fown with wheat, the clods broken with hoes and budi-harrowed, and then great deep trenches druck with the plough, for letting in the water ; thefe are 8 to 12 yards afunder. They are now (September) watering clover 8 inches high, by letting the water into thefe trenches, and conducing it in a Angular manner. 1 66 LOMBARDY. manner." A man walking backwards, draws, hyaline, a bunch of ftraw and weeds, juft large enough to ftop the water in the trench, and force it to over- flow on each fide. This is an expenfive and operofe method, and inferior to the Spanifh. The crops now on the ground are maiz ; good, but not extraor- dinary : millet, and a little hemp ; the male plants picked. A great deal of clover, but not much that is clean. But meadow abounds, which is the glory of Piedmont; and the conducting of the water, in multiplying conduits, feems well understood, and praCtifed in great perfection. Coni to C bent ale. In the watered meadows, much chicorium intybus and plantago lanceolata . W atered meadows are cut thrice commonly ; but in fome feafons, four times. Racconis. The watered meadows are now mowing for a third time; the predominant plants— the chicorium intybus, plantago lanceolata, acchillea millefolium, and tri- folium pratenfe . To Turin . From Coni to Turin, fomething more than half the country appears to be watered; poflibly two-thirds ; and wherever the water is carried, it is apparently with great Skill. It is, however, rather fingular, that more trenches are not cut for taking the water off the land; the attention is chiefly paid to bringing it on ; from which we may conclude, either that the heat of the climate renders fuch drains lefs neceftary than in England, — or that water is too valuable, from every one underftanding its ufe, to be brought on in the leaft fuperfluous quan- tity. The contrivance, towards Turin, for carrying the aqueduCts of irrigation acrofs tne roads, are beautifully executed : for convenience of diftribution, the water-courfe is raifed three or four feet, or more, above the general level: thefe aqueduCts are brought to the fide of the road, and feemingly finifh in a wall, but really fink in a fyphon of mafonry under the road, and rife on the other fide, behind another fimilar wall. Seeing thefe buttreffes of mafonry, without perceiving, at firft, any water, I wondered, for a moment, to what ufe they could be afligned ; but when I mounted the foot-way, this beautiful contrivance was, at once, apparent. Thefe are noble exertions. Turin. The irrigation in ail this vicinity, is extenfive, and carried to great perfection. Water is meafured with as much accuracy as wine. An hour per week is fold, and the fee fimple of the water is attended to, with the fame folicitude as that of the LOMBARDY, 167 the land. Rich meadows, without water, fell for 1000 liv, and nooliv. a gior- nata ; and arable, worth 500 liv. without water, is, in many indances, worth 2000 liv. with it. Such a meadow as will fell for 1100 liv. or 1200 liv. per gi- ornata, will yield, the firft mowing, 1 15 rubbii of hay, worth 9/ to 10 f the rubbio; the fecond, 90 rubbii, at 7/ to 8/ and the third, 80 rubbii, at 6/ to jfi the fourth growth is fold, to be eaten by Iheep, at 5 liv. This produce amounts to 120 liv. or 61 . Englilh, per giornata, which is under an acre. The intereft of 1100 liv. being at 40 liv. or 50 liv. there remains a fufficient profit, after all expences are paid. During the winter, as the meadows are commonly fed with Iheep, they do not water at all. Some experienced cultivators avoid watering in the fpring, till the frofts are over, which happen here as late as the 10th, and even the 15th of May, as a ftrong frefh vegetation is, in fuch cafes, entirely cut off; but, in general, no attention is paid to this circumftance; and watering goes on at all times, except when fheep are on the ground. Thofe who have water enough, let it on to their land once a week, during the whole fummer ; but if the weather is wet, once a fortnight ; and a day or two before cutting, if the water is perfedly clear. In regard to the quality of water, they make no other diflindion than that for mountains being cold ,• and that of the Dora, near Turin, being charged with fo much fand as to be bad. They attend to the cutting of weeds in the canals, that they may rot; and fome good managers harrow the bottoms in the fpring, to foul the water, which then ads more powerfully as a manure. Another pradice, which tends alfo to prove what excellent farmers they are in all that refpeds meadow-grounds, is that of paring and burning, which they perform on pieces that have a bad herbage, or want of improvement ; but do not fow them with corn, or any other plant, ex- cept hay-feeds, in order to renew the grafs, with no other interruption. It is impoffible to praife fuch pradices too much. They call this hufbandry motara. The power of effeding the great works in irrigation, which are vifible over this whole country, depends very much on the law, which fuppofes the right and property of all rivers to be veiled in the king ; confequently all canals taken from them, are bought of him ; and this enfures another regulation, which is the power of carrying the water, when bought, at the pleafure of thofe who buy it, where they think fit ; they cannot, however, cut acrofs any man’s ground, without paying him for the land and the damage; but the law does this by regulations known to every one, and no individual is allowed a negative upon a meafure which is for the general\good. The purchafers of water from the king, are ufually confiderable land owners, or communities that have lands wanting water ; and it is of no confequence at what diftance thefe lands may be from the river, whence the water is taken, as they have a right to condud it where they choofe, provided they do not cut through a garden or pleafure ground. 1 68 LOMBARDY. ground. Nor can they carry the water under that of others, whofe canals are already made, as they might in that cafe deprive them of a part of their water; they are obliged to throw aquedu&s over fuch canals. The benefit of water is lb great and well underftood, that nobody ever thinks of making obje&ions; and in cafe their lands are not already watered, it is no fmall advantage to have a new canal brought through them, as they have the opportunity of buying water of the proprietors. It is fold per hour per week, and even half an hour, and down to a quarter. The common price of an hour per week, for ever, is 1500 liv.— At Gruliafcho, four miles from Turin, there are many Perfian wheels that lift up the water by bulkets ; the wheels are double, with wafhers between for the ftreanKturning them ; the buckets or boxes on one out fide only ; they raife the water 8 or 10 feet, and about 2J Ihort of the full diameter of the wheel, and I could not perceive that they lofe a drop ; none falls, except what adheres to the wheel itfelf. To fave the expence of multiplying fluices, for the occa- fional ftoppage of water, in carrier trenches, to force it over the land, they have a moveable board that fits the trench, which is placed occafionally where wanted, and anfwers the purpofe well. They have none of the ramifications of carrier trenches common among us; and not fo many drains for taking the water of as with us ; and, on the whole, do not fhew any thing like our atten- tion in the ufe of the water, though twenty, or rather an hundred times more in bringing it from rivers, and diftributing it about the country ; and I could not but obferve, that their meadows have much bad herbage, and many places damaged by the water retling too long; this is more the cafe here than it feemed to be from Coni to Racconis, where the meadows carried a better countenance. Hurin to Chivafco. Not one-third of this country is watered. At Chivafco but little alfo. After eroding the Dora Belta, there are foon two confiderable canals of irrigation; one made two years ago only, inhich is as great a work as a navigation in England. Ciglione . Little land watered in this country ; but I obferved here fome meadows, with off channels, from the principle ones, for conducing the water, which I did not notice before ; but very few drains. The new canal erodes a gravelly wade, but none of it watered. frouchan. A very rich country much watered ; and many mulberries. St. 169 LOMBARDY. St. Germano . Mowing the third crop of grafs, and very poor ; not more than 15 cwt. an acre, and yet watered. The glory of Piedmont is from Coni to Turin. Thofe who pafs Mont Cenis to Turin, and Turin to Milan, fee, on comparifon, nothing. Vercelli. The new canal, now making, for taking water from the Dora Baltia, and con- ducing it to the rice grounds of Vercelli, is done by the king, and will coft three millions ; the water is fold to communities. The other I eroded neartho Dora, at the fame time, was made long ago, and belongs to the' Marquis de Bourg. Mi l a n e se — Buffalora. After eroding the Tefino, in feveral branches, and entering the Milanefe, we find a great fyftem of watering meadows to Buffalora, where that magnificent canal, the Navillio Grande is 20 yards broad, and though navigable, was ori- ginally made for irrigation alone. St. Pietro Olmo . Hence, for fome difiance, there is no watering ; but then there is fome- thing in our Berkfhire method j the lands are arched up, and juft in the centre, on their crown, are the carrier trenches for conducting the water, and on each fide a row of low fallows ; fome of thefe lands are two rods broad, and two feet higher in the ridge than in the furrow the land firm and the herbage good : wherever the meadows feem good, there is abundance of chicorium intybus , plant ago lanceolata, and trifolium pratenfe. Milan. As the irrigation of the Milanefe is perhaps the greateft exertion of the kind that ever was in the world, and certainly the firft that was undertaken in Eu- rope, after the decline of the Roman empire ; it merits every attention that a farming traveller can give 5 for it will be found, by very briefly recurring to records, which have been fearched, that great exertions (perhaps as great as ever known) were made in this country, at a period when all the north of Europe was in a ftate of barbarifm. In the year 1037, mention is made of the canal Vecchiabbia. In 1067, watered meadows were common, called prato roco, by Landolfo*. In 1077, there are notes of many ftreams ufed. In 1138, the * Giulini , tom. iv. p. 122.224. 225. z VoL. II. monks LOMBARDY. 170 monks of Chiarevalle bought of Giovanni Villano fome commons, woods, and meadows for 81 liv. under the contract (a parchment yet remaining) “ ut mo- naflerium poffit ex Vedlabia trahere ledtum ubi ipfum monafterium voluerit et fi fuerit opus liceat facere eidem monafterio foffata fuper terram ipfius Johannis ab una parte vias et ab alia. . . . &c. poffit firmare et habere clufam in prato ipfius Johannis, &c.” There is a fimilar contract of the following year, and various others, until the beginning of the 13 century; from which, and others, it ap- pears, that the Vecchiabbia was the entire property of the monaftery, and con- firmed in 1276 by the diploma of the Emperor Frederick If. The merit of thefe monks appears to have been great, for they gained fuch a reputation for their fkill and induftry, that they had many applications for affiflance in directing works fimilar to their own upon uncultivated lands ; and the Imperial Chan- cellor Rinaldo, in the time of the Emperor Frederick I. being appointed arch- biffiop of Cologne, found the poffieffions of his fee in fuch a deplorable Rate, that he applied for, and found the fame affiftance, as reported by Cefarior Eifterbacenfe. Their greateft exertions were in irrigation, which was fo well known, that they fold their luperfluous water, transferring the ufe and property of fome by the hour, day, and week. In two centuries they came to be pof- feffed of 6o,oco pertiche, moftly watered : there is reafon to believe that the practice, in the 13th century, did not materially differ from the prefent modes; becaufe, in the papers of the archives of the abbey of that period, mention is made of chiufe, incqftri , hochilli , foratoi * * * § , and other works, to diftribute the water, and regulate the irrigation •f'. In 1164, the Emperor Frederick gave various rights, in certain rivers, to the people of Pavia, for the purpofes of irrigation X • In II 77> ^e people of Milan enlarged and continued the Navillio Grande, from Abbiate Graffo to Milan, being 14 miles; it was brought from the Tefino, near the Lago Maggiore, to Abbiate Graffo, 20 miles, by the people of Pavia, long before the date of any records now known to remain §. In 1271, it was made navigable. It is thirty-two Italian miles long, and twenty- five bracchi wide, or forty-nine Engliffi feet. i| The fecond great work, was the canal called Muzza, which takes the waters of the Adda, at Cafiano, and carries them to Marignano, there dividing and * Chlufe , are fluices ; incajlri , are water gates, that are moved perpendicularly ; bockillt , openings in the banks to diftribute water; foratoi, difcharges for carrying off fuperfluous water; the fame a$ fcaricatori. f Memorie Storica ed Economica full' Irrrigazione dc Prati. Don, Ang. Fumagalli Atti di Milano , tom. ii. p. 215* % Giuiini , tom. vi. p. 330. § Nuova R;. colt a d' Autoriche trattano det moto dell' Acque . Parma. 1768. 4to. Tom. vii. P. Pi iff p. 97. | Ibid. p. 98. watering LOMBARDY. 171 watering much of the Lodizan. It was executed in 1220*, and done in fo ad- mirable a dyle, that Padre Frill, in the preface to Modo di regolare i fiumi y &c . fays, il meccanifmo d irrigar le campagne e dato ridotto airultimo grado di maedria e di perfezione nel canale di Muzza'f'.” And Padre Antonio Lecchi, another great engineer and mathematician, remarks , — “ De’nodri tre celebri canali di Muzza, e de’due navigli qual altra memoria ci rimane ora, fe non le quella del tempo della loro codruzione, e d’altre poche notizie, niente concer- nenti al maravigliofo artifizio della loro condotta J.” In 1305* the canal of Treviglio was made, which takes the water from the Brembo, and carries it, for feveral miles, about twenty-five feet wide, and about three deep; it irrigates the territory of Triviglio and the Ghiara d’Adda, And, within four or five miles, there are five canals, taken from the Adda and the Brembo, all of great antiquity. In 1460, the canal de Martefano was begun, under Duke Francis Sforza I. ; it was twenty-four miles long, and eighteen braccia (thirty-five Englidi feet) wide; dnce lengthened feven or eight miles more. It takes the waters of the Adda, a little before Trezzo, by means of a powerful wear (cbiufej founded upon the living rock; it is then fupported for five miles by a folid wall of done, forty braccia (eighty feet) above the bottom of the Adda, and parallel with it. At Gorgonzola, it paffes over the torrent Mol- gora, by a bridge of three done arches. At Carfenzago, it is eroded by the river Lambro, which enters and quits the canal with all its doods. And in order to prevent the furplus of water, which this circumdance occadons* from breaking the banks of the canal, or overdowing them, there are nineteen fcaricatori in the canal, above, below, and facing the junction, which are fo calculated, that they have not only powers fudicient to take off the waters of that river, but alio half of thofe of the canal itfelf. Thefe fcaricatori are canals which take the water, when duice-gates are opened for that purpofe, and con- vey it, at various didances, to the Lambro again; the fali in its courfe beino- condderable enough to free the canal from all fuperduity of water. Nea” Milan, this Navillio receives the torrent Sevefo } and, after furrounding the city unites with the Navillio Grande and the Olona. The duices which Bellidor fuppofed_ to be invented by the Dutch, were ufed, for the did time, near Padua, m 1481, by two engineers of Viterbo, Dionidus and Peter Domenico, brothers §. Leonardo da Vinci profited immediately of this great invention, for * Verri, Storia di M. t. i. p. 240. X lb. Piano , dfc. de tre torrenti , p. 141. t Nuova Raccolta, tom. vii. § Mots dell Acque, vol. v. Parma, 1766, p. 359. Mentioned by Zendrini in the tenth chapter, Sopra cqua onente. 1 his is the common fuppofition in Lombardy, and is thus recorded; but it appears to e an error, by a paffage in Giulini, tom. xii. P . 332, where, anno 1420, mention is expreiTly made of them, machmarum qua s conchas appellant, 7 Z 2 the LOMBARDY. 172 the union of the two canals of Milan ; and finding between them the difference of the levels to be eighteen braccia *, he, with fix flu ices, in the year 1497, under Ludovico il Moro, opened and facilitated the navigation from one to the other. The greateff fcaricatori' f* of the waters united at Milan, is the canal of Vecchiabbia, which, after having ferved fome mills and irrigation, falls into the Lambro near Marignano ; and if this canal were made ffraight, and fup- ported by fome fluices, the navigation might be continued to the Lambro, and thence to the Po and the fea. Both thefe canals, the Grande and the Marte- fano, are fo contrived, as to be completely emptied once a year, for cleaning and repairing whatever accidents may have happened to any of the works. I have entered into this digrefiion upon a very curious fubjed, little known in Englifh literature J, in order to {hew how well irrigation was underftood, and how admirably it was pra&ifed, when the countries on this fide of the Alps were barbarous. At .the fame time, however, that juflice is thus done to thefe great exertions, we muff bear in mind, that few diffridts in Europe are better, or fo well, fituated for irrigation. The lakes of Maggiore and Como , nearly upon the fame level, are three hundred feet (one hundred and fifty braccia) higher than Milan,— and that of Lugano two hundred feet higher than thole, with a nearly regular declivity to the Po §. There are authors who have aflerted, that agriculture is improved in confe- quence of great trade or manufa&ures only ; but the inffance of the immenfe irri- gation in the Milanefe, effe&ed by thefe and many other canals, too numerous to mention, will not allow of fuch a conclufion being general ; and to (hew that my opinion is not without foundation, a very brief review of the ftate of Milan, fo far as it refpefts thefe periods, will not be difpleafing to a reflefting reader. In 1 17 7, when the canal de Navillio Grande was made, the republic of Milan had been gradually forming for about two hundred years ft ; but thefe domi- nions were exceedingly confined j — Lodi, Pavia, Mantua, Verona, Crema, Tortona, Como, Bergamo, Brefcia, Piacenza, Parma, Genova, Afti, Vercelli, * P. 98. Frifi. f The fcaricatori are what I believe we call wears in England ; they are difcharges of fuperfluous waters. Mr. Brindley made them, in the Duke of Bridgewater’s canal, circular, and in the centre of the river, to convey the water, as into a well ; but in Italy they are cuts or openings in the banks of the canal, at places that allow a quick conveyance of the water ; for inftance, where a canal crofles the bed of a river : their powers are calculated with fuch a 'mathematical exa&nefs, proportioned to the quantity of water brought into the canals, by the rivers joining them, that no floods ever effed the furface, which is of an equal height. % One would naturally look for fome knowledge of thefe fads in Ander fords Deduction of Commerce j but we fhall look in vain. § Verri, Storia di Milano , 1783. Tom. 1. p. 5. \\ Storia di Milano. P. Verri. 4to. 1783. Tonxo I, p. 142, Novara, L OMBARDY. x 73 Novara, Cremona, Ivrea, Padua, Alba, Trevifo, Aquileia, Ferrara, Reggio, Modena, Bologna, Imola, Cefena, Forli, Rimini, Fano, and Ancona,— were, at that time, independent republics*; which united againft Milan, in 1162, with the Emperor Frederick I. and befieged and deftroyed it. This lingular fad: that in fifteen years after one of the moll: fignal deftrudions that could be brought upon a city, there fhould be found energy enough in a petty republic, to undertake a work which is, in the prefent age, regarded as an honour to Lombardy, muft be admitted as a proof, that the trade and manufadures of that period could have been but very inconfiderable. Milan, however, unqueftionably arofe to great power and prefperity ; and our bufinefs is to inquire into that period, whence we may judge how much its commerce might influence the perfedion to which fhe has carried her agri- culture. 1042, Civil war ; the nobility driven out by the peopl#. 1056, The government changed. 1067, Meadows watered. Guilini , IV. 122. rio8. War with Pavia. 1111, Lodi deftroyed by Milan 1127, Como deftroyed by Milan. 1153, Frederic Barbarofta interpofes. 1162, Milan taken and deftroyed. 1167, The people of Milan living in tents and cabins. To, 1 183, War with Frederic 1 1 77, Navillio Grande continued to Milan. 1191, Grant of waters to Pavia, for irrigation, by the Emperor Henry VI. 1204, The nobility expelled. 1210. The archbifhop’s revenue 80,000 fiorini d’oro, equal to 10 millions of livres now. 1216, A woollen manufa&ure. 1220, The canal of the Muzza made. 1221, The archbilhop and nobles expelled. 1237, War againft the Emperor Frederick II. 1240, Government reduced to pay in paper money; the origin of all that has pafted fince in Europe. 1257, The nobility expelled. — — , The Navillio Grande begun to be made navigable. 1263, Factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines now in full activity at Milan. 1271, The Navillio Grande navigable. * Vcrri, tomo. i. p. 175. 1277, Civil J 7 4 LOMBARDY. 1277, Civil war; — Toriani and Vi'fconti. 1281, Ditto. 1288, Milan buys wool from France, Flanders, and England. 1296, Decree, that gave to every one the power of conducing water acrofs all great roads, provided ftone bridges wereere&ed. [302, Revolution ;— the Toriani get the better of the Vifconti. I 3 ° 5 » Canal of Treviglio made. 1310, Revolution; the Vifconti prevail. 1327. Violent factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. 1332, Grant of water for irrigation to the people of Treviglio. T 35 ° T 3 ^ 5 > Tyranny of the Vifconti drives away the manufactures. I 395 > Great Power of Milan over the cities of Lombardy. * Through every part of the 14th century, the paffages in the Annals are numerous which prove how well irrigation was underflood, and how highly canals of water were valued. 1421, Milan exports cloths to Venice, f J 457 > Mofl of the conquefls of Milan loft. > 146 o. Canal de Martefano made. 1481, Sluices invented at Padua. I 4-97> Leonardo da Vinci joins the canals at Milan. It fhould feem, from this detail, that the exertions in irrigation were almo( purely agnculfural; the benefit enjoyed by the people of Pavia, from the Na VI ho Grande, was a conftant proof of the advantages to be derived from fimila canals; and they were executed at moments which will not allow us to attribut them to the influence of manufaCturing'or commercial wealth. * In 137S, Giovanni Galea**, Vifconti Conte di Virtu was declared Duke of Milan, his domi. r nS “”P r >fing Arezzo Reggio, Parma, Piacenza, Cremona, Lodi, Crema, Bergamo, Brefdl Verona, \ .ccnza, Feluo, Beliuno, Baffano, Bormto, Como, Novara, Aleffimdria, Tortona, Vercelli Pontremol,, Bobbro, Sarzana, Pavia, Valenza, Cafali, Padua, Alba, Afti, Bologna, Pifa Siena P, rugia, Nocera, Spoleto, and Ailifi. Verri. p.417. ’ 5 f As this woollen manufaaure is faid to have been in the hands of an order of friars, the frat , ; ,nn,an : we have no reafon to ftppofe it an objefl of'great confequence; the expreffions eeming t .mply its magnitude be, ng applicable to a compatifon with poorer neighbours. Count Gmlini l on occahon of ns being carried from Milan to Sicily, « cb, tanto fiorivafra noi," (tom. viii p egh but records do not explain the extent; though we are told that they worked up wool from France Handers, and England, in ra88 (tom. viii. p. 399.) , whic h trade had exifted to feme defree oi con .aeration m ,2.6. Count Verri ufes the expreffion— -« lavoro de pannilan. la quale forn 6 P ricchezza cop.caa d. Milano,” (Sioria di Milano, tom. i. p. 357 .) But it was Venice, Genoa m Amain, and Ancona that had the empire of the Tea, which gave that author reafon to fay, « che , 11 commercio dell’ Luropa era preffo gl’ Italian!.” (tom. i. p. 465.) To LOMBARDY. *75 To this may be added, that during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Italy was the perpetual fcene of bloody wars : the Venetians and Genoefe, the Venetians and the Milenefe, and, in their turns, the other republics, feem to have had no other bufinefs than that of cutting each other’s throat. A per- petual ftate of warfare, and fo many revolutions as were taking place in the go- vernments of the Italian cities, were little adapted to give a lecurity of pcflef- fion efientially necelfary to the eftablifhment of fuch manufacture; and com- merce, as {hall, by the overflowing of their furpl us, ameliorate the agriculture of a country . It was but fifteen years after the deftruCtion of Milan, that the Navillio Grande was made; and within three years after the lofs of all her conquefts, that the canal de Martefano was digged : thefe great undertakings were, there- fore, executed at periods when commercial profperity could leaft: of all effeCt them. There was no liability in that profperity. It is alfo to be remembered, that throughout this period of Milanefe hiftory, that people, even at the height of their power, were never mailers of a commercial fea-port. It is true, that they twice took Genoa; firft: in 1353, but kept it for a very fhort time; and again in 1421, when they were in pofleflion^of it but fourteen years; and amongft all the dominions of Galeazzo Vifconti, Sarzano was the only port, and that never a commercial one ; thus the fabrics of Milan were obliged to be exported through the Venetians or the Genoefe, who laid duties on the tranfport of their commodities. The conclufion of the whole feems fairly to be, that we are not to attribute the irrigation of the country to wealth derived from foreign commerce ; the fer- tility and excellent management of the lands fupported a great population, which proved as induflrious as public calamities and confufions would allow; but it does not appear that this induftry was ever continued through a long feries of peace and happinefs. An other idea has been ftarted, that Lombardy owed her irrigations to the effeCl of the crufades; that the mad enthufiafts, who went upon thofe expe- ditions, brought home with them the art of cutting canals, for this moft bene- ficial purpofe ; but hiftory does not give fufficient lights to allow of this con- clufion. I have already remarked, that the Navillio Grande was made by the people of Pavia, long before thofe of Milan made the cut to that city ; and fo long before, that no records in the archives were found of it by that moft * In the preceding periods it was probably worfe. Count Verri obferves, c * Dello ftato della populazione nel decimo lecolo — mi pare verofimile che dovefle eflere mediocremente popolata Mi- lano. Le terre erano coltivate parte da fervi e parte da liberti. Molte parti del ducato era bofco. In qualche luogo, che ora fi coltiva forfe, ancora v’erano deile acque flagnanti.” St aria di Milano , tom. i. p. 76* induftrious LOMBARDY. J 76 induftrious fearcher into antiquity. Count Giulini. This fad feems nearly decifive- for the firft crufade did not commence till 1096, nor terminate till 1100, before which period there is every reafon to fuppofe, the canal in queftion was cut as the refearches of Giulini go fo far back as 773. The crufades ended in 1291 ; and, had the effects been as great as poffible, yet they cannot be imagined to have taken place immediately 5 it muft be, after much confultation and long reafon- ing, that whole towns could be brought to co-operate in the execution of fuch plans for the common good, from mere reports of the effed in diftant countries and different climates. Another circumftance, tending to prove that irrigation in Lombardy was much more antient than the crufades, is that Theodoric, who began to reign in Italy, anno 493, publicly rewarded an African who had come thither, in order to inftrud the Italians in the art of irrigating lands, as Mr. Profeffor Symonds has explained, with his ufual elegance, in his mod: agreeable paper on the effed of water in the agriculture of Italy *. Now if this art had been thus introduced, or, more properly fpeaking, revived in Italy above fix hundred years before the crufades were thought of, there connot be much reafon for attributing that improvement to the obfervations of thofe frantic enthufiafts. It is remarkable, that Count Verri, in his Hiftory of Milan, fays, he had long conceived, that their irrigations were to be afcribed to the Cru- fades ; but, from paying more attention to the authorities quoted by Count Giulini, he gave up that opinion, and concurred in the idea of a greater anti- quity -f: for which alfo P. Frifi feems to contend, when he fays expreffly, that the canal made by the people of Pavia was more antient than 1177 J . And here it may be worth remarking, that Pavia was" the capital and refidence of Theodoric, whence there refults, at lead, a prefumption, if he fent to Africa for a perfon to indrud the Italians in irrigation, that here was the field of his exertions ; and that this very canal was the work of that fovereign, not the lefs celebrated for thus laudably applying himfelf, in a barbarous age, to works that would do honour to the polited. — But to return from this long digrefiion. Idle fame law that has been fo effedual in watering Piedmont, operates here alio, and has done even greater things. Pie who difcovers a fpring, conduds * Annals of Agriculture, vol. i.p. 421. 4 Storia di Milano , torno i. p. 354. % Con tutte quefto pero, fe imparzial mente fi vorra avere riguardo al tempo, alle circonftanze, alia maeftria del lavoro, il naviglio di Milano che forma la communicazione del Tefino, e dell’Adda, potra paiiare per il capo d opera, che abbiamo in quefto genere. Per quanto dice il Sigonio nel libro 14 del regno d’ltalia all' anno 1179, pare che il primo tronco dello fteffo Naviglio, del Tefino ad Abbiate Grailo, foffe gia dai tempi piu antichi incominciato e finito dai pavefi per irrigare le vicine loro cam- pagne.. Fu neU’anno 1177 che i Milanefi conduffero lo fteffo cavoda Abbiate a Corfico, e a Milano. Nuova Raccolti 7, vol. yin p. 97. It LOMBARDY. 177 it where he pleafes, paying a fixed compenfation * for cutting through the pro- perties of others. All rivers belong, as in Piedmont, to the fovereign, who fells the waters to fpeculators for this mod beneficial purpofe of irrigation. In the diftribution of it, by fale, they do not meafure by the hour, as in Piedmont, but by the ounce ; 12 oz. are a braccio, or 22 inches: an ounce of water is a ftream that runs one braccio long and one ounce deep; and the farther the wa- ter has run, the higher is the price, as being more charged with manure. As an example of the beneficial influence of this law, I was (hewn, between Milan and Pavia, a fpring that was difcovered two miles from the lands of the difcoverer, the properties of many perfons lying between him and the fpring. He firfl: bought the property of the perfon in whofe land it was fituated, which was eafily done, as it was too low to be there of any ufe ; then he condu&ed it by a trench at pleafure the two miles, paying the fixed price for cutting through his neighbours lands ; and, having gained it upon his own, prefently changed poor hungry arable gravel into a very fine watered meadow. Near Milan, a watered meadow fells at 800 liv. the pertica (32I. 15s. the Eng- lifh acre) ; and the rent of fuch is about 30 liv. (il. 5s. the Englifh acre.) This muft not, however, be clafled high ; for there are lands that rife to 4000 liv. (163I. the-Englifh acre.). In land at 800 liv. or 1000 liv. water often makes half of the value ; that is, the rent to the owner of the land will be 15 liv. to 20 liv. ; and as much to fome other perfon for the water. In viewing a great farm, fix or feven miles from Milan, in the road to Pavia, I found that all the watered meadow was mown four times ; and that what was watered in winter, prati di mercita , five times. Such is the value of water here, that this farm, which watered is rented at 20 liv. the pertica, would not let at more than 6 liv. without water, the foil being gravel. The irrigation of the mercita begins in October, and lafts till March, when it is regulated like all other meadows. All in general begin in April, and laft till September; and if there be no rain, once in feven to fifteen days. An ounce of water, running continually from the 24th of March to the 8th of September, is worth, and will fell for 1000 liv. When arable crops want water, it is always given. Milan to Mozzata . Every confiderable fpring that is found, becomes the origin of a new canal. They clear out the head for a bafon, and fink calks, by way of tunnels, for the * Thefe laws, relative to the conduct of irrigation, are as old as the republic of Milan ; firft com- piled into a colledtion of ftatutes and cuftoms in 1216 ( Verri , p. 239.) They were revifed and col- lected, by order of Charles V. and are in full force to this day. Conjlitutiones Dominii Mediolanenfis Decretis et Senatus Confultis, Gab. Verri, Folio, 1747. De aquis et fluminibus, p, 168. VoL. II. A a water LOMBARDY. 178 water to rife freely, and without impediment from mud or weeds. There are ufually three, four, or five of thefe tunnels, at the bottom of a bafon of twenty or thirty yards. Milan to Lodi . Of all the exertions that I have any where feen in irrigation, they are here by far the greateft. The canals are not only more numerous, more incelfant, and without interruption, but are conduced with the mod attention, fkill, and expence. There is, for moft of the way, one canal on each fide of the road, and fometimes two. Crofs ones are thrown over thefe, on arches, and pafs in trunks of brick or ftone under the road. A very confiderable one, after palling for feveral miles by the fide of the highway, finks under it, and alfo under two other canals, carried in Hone troughs eight feet wide ; and at the fame place un- der a fmaller, that is conduced in wood. The variety of directions in which the water is carried, the eafe with which it flows in contrary directions, the ©bflacles which are overcome, are objects of admiration. The expence thus employed, in the twenty miles from Milan to Lodi, is immenfe. There is but little rice, and fome arable, which does not feem under the beft management; but the grafs and clover rich and luxuriant : and there are fome great herds of cows, to which all this country ought to be applied. I cannot but efleem the twenty miles, as affording one of the moft curious and valuable profpedts in the power of a farmer to view; we have fome undertakings in England that are meritorious ; but they fink to nothing, in comparifon with thefe great and truly noble works. It is one of the rides which I wifh thofe to take, who think that every thing is to be feen in England. Lodi . Examining fome watered meadows, in high eftimation, I found the follow- ing plants moft predominant, and in the order in which I note them : — 1, Ra- ?iunculus repens ; 2, Lrifolium pr atenfe ; 3, Chicorium intybus ; 4, Plant ago lan - ceolata ; 5, Achillea millefolium *; and about one fifth of the whole herbage at bottom feems what are properly called grafles. Thefe rich meadows about Lodi are all interfered by ditches, without hedges, but a double row of pollard poplars; all on a dead level, and no drains to be feen. They are now (October) * There appeared but few figns of ray-grafs, yet it certainly abounds in fome of their fields : opi- nions in Lombardy differ concerning it; Sig. Scannagatta praifes it highly (Atti di Milano , , tom. ii. p. 1 14) ; but one of the beft writers in their language, Sig. Lavezari (tom. i. p. 82.) wonders rather at the commendations given of it in other countries : he miftakes the French name, it is not fainfoin\ the lojejja of Lombardy, and the ray-grafs of England, is the lolium perenne ; the French fainfoin is the Udyfarim onobrachis . cutting LOMBARDY. 179 cutting the grafs and weeds in the ditches, to cart home for making dung. The meadows are commonly cut thrice ; but the beft four times. The produce of hay per pertica, 6 fajji , of 100 lb. of 28 oz. at the three cuts. Price of the firft, 8 liv. per fafs ; of the fecond, 5 liv. ; of the third, 4J liv. They water immediately after clearing, if there be no rain. Without irrigation, the rent of the country in general would be only one-third of what it is at prefent. In forming thefe watered meadows, they have very Angular cuftoms all are broken up in rotation ; flax fown for the firft crop, and their way of laying down is to leave a wheat ftubble to clothe itfelf ; clover is prohibited by leafe, from an abfurd notion that it exhaufls the land ; and that it is not fo good as what the nature of the ground gives ; but on worfe land, the other fide of the Adda, they fow clover. Lodi to Codogno . All this country the fame as about Lodi ; a dead level, cut into bits of from three to ten acres, by ditches, without hedges, and planted with double rows of poplars and willows, all young, for they are cut as foon as the fize is that of a thin man : here and there one is left to run up to timber. I remarked, in the meadows fed, that the ranunculus is avoided by the cows as much as poffible. I expected, in one meadow, to find it the acris , but much of it was the repens , All this country is alternately in tillage; ridge and furrow every where : no per- manent meadow. After feven miles, the road being natural, fhews the foil to be a loamy fand, binding with rains *. Codogno. Thirteen pertiche of watered land neceflary fora cow; the hay of which is cut thrice and it is fed once ; fuch land fells at 300 liv. and lets at 10 liv. free from tax. The whole country is ploughed by turns, being down to clover for the cows four years.— 1, Flax, and then millet; 2, maiz ; 3, wheat and clover; and reft s then for feeding cows ; white clover comes, but it is bad for cheefe. The reader will note, that this opinion differs from that near Milan. * As well watered as this country is, yet in the fpring 1779 the feafon was fo dry, that, where the Lambro enters the Po, men and women croffed the Po itfelf on foot, as if merely a rivulet ; the rector of Alberoni himfelf paffed it, and the water reached only to his middle. The damage was great every where, but fatal in the Lodizan, where herds of cows were obliged to be fent out of the country to the paftured: the mifchief the greater, as from 177410 1779 they had augmented their cows 5000, (Opufcoli Sce/ti , tom. vi. p. 56.) The climate has, however, in all ages, been fubjeit to great droughts. From May 1158 to May 1159, there fell no rain in Lombardy; wells and fprings all dried up. The Emperor paffed the Adige, with his army, near Verona, without boats; and the Count Palatine of Bavaria paffed thus the Po, below Ferrara. Giulmi> tom. vi. p. 1 75. A a 2 Codogm i8o LOMBARDY. Codogno to Crema . Crofting the Adda, from the Lodizan, there is more arable, and much fewer cows. Milan to Vaprio . In this line there are fome dairies, but not many. Near the city there is much grafs, all cut into patch- work of divilions, and planted fo as to feem a wood of willows ; after that much tillage : though all is flat, and there are no great exertions in watering. But the road paffes by that fine navigable canal de Martefano from Milan, which, at Vaprio, is fufpended as it were againft the hill, twenty feet above the Adda a noble fpedacle. Before we quit the Milanefe, it will be proper to make a general remark on the conduct of their irrigation, that fome evils are obferved to attend the prac- tice for want of a better forefight and more attention; particularly from the gradual enlargement of the carrier canals and ditches ; they clean them with fo much care, for the fake of obtaining the mud, as a manure, that thefe are every where become too wide for the quantity of water they convey. Sig. Bignami has written upon this point very rationally, in his differtation Sul/’aLfo di fcavare i canali delle roggie ed ifojji nel Lodigiano ; where he afferts, that one- tenth part of their lands is occupied by canals and ditches. The evils are nu- merous ; it is not only a confiderable lofs of land, but it is an equal lofs of water, for when an oncia of a given run of water is purchafed, there is a great difference between its firft fitting a great or a fmall channel, as in proportion to the fize will be the quantity of ufelefs fluid. The atmofphere is alfo proporti- onably contaminated; for this great breadth, either of ftagnant water, when irrigation is not actually going on, or, what is worfe, of mud, in fo hot a cli- mate, muft be peftiferous ; and to this have been attributed the diftempers which have frequently made fuch havoc among their cattle. Another inconvenience is, the greater expence of all eredions, bridges, fluices, &c. &c. which are in proportion to the breadth of the channels. The remedy is obvious • it is to for- bear all clean fing for the fake of mud; to let all aquatic weeds, and other plants, grow freely the banks, edges, andfides of the canals, and to clear them in the middle only. Such a conduct would, in time, quite choak them up, and enable the farmer to keep his canals exactly to their right width. All thefe plants covering the fpaces, which, in canals often cleaned, are bare earth or mud, would be very beneficial towards preventing and decompofing that noxious, and mephitic, and inflammable gas, always iffuing from fuch mud, which is fo peftilential to animals, yetfo falutiferous to plants ; for mud, covered with plants that are ready to feed on its exhalations, is much lefs mifchievous - than LOMBARDY. 1S1 than that which is cxpofed to the rays of a burning fun. Count Carlo Bettoni, of Brefcia*, has pradifed a method which ads on fimilar principles ; namely, that of burying or fixing willows or poplars to the fides of the rivers whofe banks he wanted to preferve, with the precaution only of keeping the ends of the branches out of water ; he finds that they grow vigouroufly in this filia- tion, and, by flopping the mud of the current, form a folid bank ; this, on a fmall fcale, might certainly be executed : alfo in the canals of irrigation, as it has been remarked, by the author already quoted, in the Atti di Milano . Venetian Stat K—Vaprio to Bergamo. There is a mixture of watered meadow in this line, but the quantity is not confiderable. In fome which are old, I found a good fprinkling of trifolium repens , chicorium intybus , and plantago lanceolata ; but alfo much ranunculus and rubbifh. In the plain clofe to Bergamo, they clean the irrigation-ditches at the end of November, and harrowing them with a faggot, to thicken the water, let it immediately on to their meadows, which is faid to enrich then! much. To Brefcia . The Venetian State, thus far, is a confiderable falling off from the Milanefe, in refped to irrigation j the country is not without canals, but neither the num- ber, nor the importance of them, is to be compared to thofe of Milan. From Coquillio to Brefcia, there are many channels, yet the lands are not half watered. Brefcia to Verona . The road paffes, for fome diftance, by a very fine canal, yet the quantity of watered land in this route is but inconfiderable. Before we arrive at the Lago di Guarda, there are a few meadows never ploughed, that have a good appear- ance ; but none from the lake to Verona. On the whole, thefe forty miles, for want of more irrigation, are not comparable to the Milanefe or to Piedmont. This route, fo much to the north, gives the traveller an opportunity of feeing a chain of confiderable cities, and of obferving the effedsof one of the mod ce- lebrated governments that has exiftedj but a better direction forme, would have been by Cremona and Mantua. * Henfieriful Govern, de Fiutrti, Brefcia, 1782. V trma. LOMBARDY. 182 Verona . The meadows here are cut thrice, and fed once ; are never ploughed, if good' and well watered. Water for irrigation here, as in all Lombardy, is meafured with great care and attention, by what is called the quadrata, which is a fquare foot (the Veronefe foot is to the Englilh about as twenty are to twelve). Twelve quadrate are fufficient to water five hundred campi of rice-grounds (about three hundred and eighty Englilh acres), and the price of fuch a quantity of water, is commonly about three thoufand zecchini (T425I. fterling). The wheels ift thiacity, for raifing water for irrigating the gardens, are very complete ; they receive the water, as in Spain, into hollow fellies. There is one in the garden of the Daniele monaftery, for watering about four campi, which are faid to yield a revenue of three hundred zecchini; which is one hundred zecchini, of 9s. 6d. per Englilh acre. The wheel raifes the water about twenty-five feet, receiving its motion by the ftream ; a low wall eroding the garden, conveys the water in a trench of mafonry on its tops ; and a walk pafling along the centre of the garden, the wall there is open, to admit the path ; the water finking in a fyphon, and rifing on the other fide, to the fame height, pafies again along the wall, in the fame manner as canals are carried under roads in Piedmont, &c. The wheel has double fellies, for giving water on both fides into troughs, which unite in the fame receiver, and the walhers for giving the motion are placed between the fellies. The whole apparatus, complete, coft three hundred zecchini. To Vicenza , There are in this trad: of country, fome perennial meadows watered, quite upon a level, which have a very good afped : the exiftence of fuch Ihould make us queftion the propriety of the Lodizan fyftem of ploughing, where water is fo regularly at command. Padua . The country, from Vicenza to this city, is not watered, like many other dif- trids of Lombardy. The pradice is very well known; and there are rice- grounds about Padua, but not nearly the ufe made of water which is found in the Milanefe ; yet the rivers in the Venetian ftate belong to the prince, as well as in other parts of Italy, and water is confequently to be bought : but there is not the lame right to condud it at will, and confequently the water itfelf might almoft as well not exifh To Venice . In this trad I faw no irrigation, though the whole is very low, and quite lev e 1 Venice . LOMBARDY* 183 Venice . The fame admirable law, that takes place in the Milanefe, for enabling every man to conduit water where he pleafes, is found in the Venetian flate alfo, con- trary to my information at Padua ; but fo many forms are necelfary, and the perfon who attempts it, muft fight his way through fo much expenfive litiga- tion, that it is a dead letter, and nothing done in confequence. I was farther told, that it is a principle of the Venetian code, that not only all rivers, but even fprings, and rain itfelf, belongs to the Prince : an idea worthy of this ftern and tyrannical government. Ecclesiastical state. — Bologna. I faw no watered lands. Tuscany. I faw no irrigation in Tufcany; and, from the intelligence I received, have reafon to believe, that the quantity is not confiderable ; fome meadows, how- ever, are watered after mowing. The beft meadows I heard of, are about Pog- gio, Caiana, Villa Sovrana, ten miles from Florence. Dutchy of Modena. The quantity of irrigated land in the Modenefe, is but fmall ; it does not amount to more than fix biolche in eighty, nor have they more than fifteen per- petual water-mills in the whole territory. From Modena to Reggio, there is a fprinkling of thefe meadows, the canals for which, taken from the Lecchia, are not large $ all, whether watered or not, are manuring, with black well rotted compoft, and have a very neat countenance. Dutchy of Parma. The country from Reggio to Parma, is not without watering, but the quan- tity is inconfiderable * there is, in this line of country, a great inferiority to that from Modena to Reggio ; not the fame neatnefs nor attention, in any refped: ; there are mole-cafts in the meadows, a thing unfeen before ; and though there are much cattle and fheep, yet the features of the hufbandry are worfe. From Parma to Firenzuola, not an hundredth part of the country irrigated, yet there is a good deal of grafs, and in fome places in large pieces. Piedmont.— Pavefe, &c. For fome miles in the Sardinian territories, there are a good many meadows, but very few watered. I paffed two fmall channels of irrigation, but the quan- 1 84 LOMBARDY. tity was inconfiderable. If a map of thefe countries be examined, there is thfe appearance of many rivers defcending from the Appenines, and falling into the Po, but the ufe made of them is fmall. It is remarkable, that all the way by Tortona, Alexandria, &c. to Turin, the quantity of irrigation, till almoft clofe to the laft mentioned city, is quite inconfiderable, not one acre, perhaps, in a thoufand. What an idea can be framed of Piedmont, by thofe who pafs through it from Mont Cenis, and quit it for Milan or Tortona, without feeing it from Turin to Coni ? Savoy. In the mountains of the Alps, by Laneiburgh, See. they mow their watered meadows once only, but in the plain twice. From this detail of the irrigation of Lombardy, it mu(l be apparent, that, for want of laws fimilar to thofe which take place fully in Piedmont, and the Mi- lanefe, and partially in the republic of Venice, no fuch exertions are ever likely to be made in a free country. We can in England form no' navigation, or road, or make any trefpafs or private property, without the horribly expenfive form of an a ft of parliament ; we cannot even inclofe our own property, without the fame ceremony. Nor is it only the expence of fuch applications, but the neceflity of them generates oppofition at every ftep, and a man muft fight his way through country-meetings, through attorneys, agents, council, witnefies, and litigation,— in a manner odious to every liberal feeling, and at a ruinous ex- pence, before he is at liberty to improve his own eftate, without any detriment to others j every idea of fuch works, therefore, in England, as we have feen common in Lombardy, is vifionary and impracticable and we mud continue to view, with eyes of envy and admiration, the noble exertions which have been made and perfected in that country, and which, in truth, very much exceed any thing we have to exhibit in any walk of agriculture in this ifland an ex- ample to hold up for imitation, and an ample field of practical ftudy. SECT. LOMBARDY. ^5 SECT. II.— OF CATTLE. Piedmont — Nice to Coni . In this part of the Alps, the breed of cows refembles the Alderney, in horn, colour, and fize. They are ufually cream-coloured, or pale yellow, but with black around their eyes ; black tail, and fome of them legs alfo ; like the Poi&ou breed in France. Turin. Price of a plough ox, 150 liv. to 300 liv. A good cow, 1 10 liv. The method of fattening, in the plain, the cattle called moggie , from the mountains ofSuza and Buflolino, as given by the Agrarian Society, deferves attention. They begin, by putting them in airy ftables, healthy, and well lighted ; bleed once or twice ; anoint the bodies of the cattle ; drefs them well at leaft twice a day ; give water mixed with rye-flour; in the evening, feed with a certain mixture called condut , compofed of elm-leaves, with fome hay of the fecond or third cut, or clover-hay ; to which they join a mefs of well pulverized walnut-oil-cake : on this mixture they pour lome boiling water, well falted, and ftir up the whole together ; and mixing, at the fame time, an ey- mena of bran, according to the number of moggie ; the pap, thus prepared, is turned into a tub, and, fome hours after, it is given to the cattle, who eat it with an avidity that marks a delicious food ; continuing this method fome time, they cafl: their hair, grow fmooth, round, fat, and fo improved, as to fell fre- quently at double the price *. Mi L a n e s e — Milan . Examining the ox-flalls of a farmer near the city, I found his Handings 6|-feet wide, and made almoft like my own at Bradfield ; except that, inftead of a ftep and gutter, he has a trench at their heels, in the Dutch method. I thought the houfe too clofe and hot ; yet there were air-holes, but all flopped, the farmer faying, that a cow gives more milk for being kept hot ; but in fummer the .(beds are open, and quite cool. They begin to work their oxen at four years old, and continue till ten, fometimes till twelve, but after ten they do not fatten fo kindly. They all draw, as in Piedmont, by the withers; fine ones fell at thirty louis the pair. A pair will draw 4000 lb. of hay, each pound 28 oz. on a waggon that weighs 1000 lb. more, with wheels not three feet high, and VOL. II. Memorie della Societa Jgraria, vol. i. p, 73* B b wooden LOMBARDY, 186' wooden axles. 40001b. at 28 oz. Milanefe, are 6777 lb. at 16 oz. Englifh; and three tons being only 6720 lb. this is a confiderable load, in fuch a vehicle, and fhould imply no bad method of drawing, yet I cannot like it fo well as by the fhoulders. They are never fhod, except on ftoney hills. This farmer fattens his oxen in winter with lintfeed cake, giving 51b. or 61 b. a day to each bead, and as much hay as they will eat ; the bed: for them, that of meadows not watered. When it is fcarce, they fubftitute forage of maiz, fown thick for mowing ; and this hay they cut in a chaff-box, to the length of one or two inches. But the great objed in the vicinity of Milan, as well as in the Lodizan, &c. is a dairy ; I viewed feveral confiderable ones, from four to feven miles from the city, and had my inquiries very fatisfadorially anfwered. Some of the par- ticulars' deferve noting, for I fhould remark, that all the dairies of the Milanefe are very famous ; and few produce cheefe, that is not fold under the general name of Parmefan. They buy in, about the end of October, Swifs heiffers, with calf, generally at two years and a half old, under contract, that if they do not calve, or do not give milk from four teats, the bargin is void : the price, on an average, 13! louis. They keep fo long as till fifteen years old, or fo long as they breed. Till the age of fix years, the milk augments annually, but af-% terwards diminifhes. They are fold lean at 15 to 36 crowns each, 6 liv. (at 8d.) The belt two or three cows, in a dairy of forty or fifty, will give thirty-two bocali of milk per diem ; but, in common, twenty-four, or eighteen Englifh quarts. The cows are mofily of a dark brindled red colour, with imall horns * ; and it delerves noting, that the befl made cow in fifty-five, quafi fattening, was the belt milker. In refped to cheefe, a dairy of fifty-five, which I viewed, make three hundred and twenty in a year, at 40 lb. on an average, or 12,800 lb. or 232 lb, per cow (3801b. Englifh), at 90 liv. per 100 lb.; in all, per cow, in cheefe, 7I. 10s. Englifh. The butter amounts to 12 Lb. to every cheefe of 40 lb. at 2 &f. per lb. : 3840 lb. which, at 26/ are 4992 liv. ( 1 661 . 8s. Englifh, or, per cow, 3I.) The calf, at eight or fifteen days, fells at 72 liv. per 100 lb. nett, and being weighed alive, 28 lb. per 100 lb. is the dedudion. I do not clearly underhand this note, on revifion, but as veal at Milan is about the fame price as in Eng- land, I fhall call the calf 10s. To fifty-five cows, feven fows and a boar are » kept, which breed forty hogs that are reared; twenty fold in fpring, and twenty in autumn, average 1 \ louis each ; in all for hogs, 60I. Englifh. f It is remarked by an Italian writer, that in chufing cattle, the horns muft not be overlooked ; the larger thefe are, the worfe. The Swifs cows that are reputed the belt, have fmall horns ; and, on the contrary, thofe of Sardinia, that are poor milkers, have very long ones. Elementi D’ Agricol- tura di Mitterpacber , tomo ii. p. 257, notes. Recapitulation, LOMBARDY. Recapitulation,'per cow. — Cheefe, Butter, Calf, Hogs, 187 £- s. d. ' 7 10 o 300 o 10 o 120 12 2 o The account of a dairy taken next door to me, in Suffolk, is complex, and fuch as not one man in twenty keeps accounts particular enough to afcertain; it may, therefore, be eafily fuppofed, that greater difficulties occur in a foreign country, through the medium, not only of a different language, but of different manners and cufloms. This account was given partly as an a&ual one of fifty- five cows, and partly by calculation ; but in fuch a number of cows, there will be fome dry ; there will not be fifty-five calves fold from fifty-five cows ; hogs muft, for fuch a produce, have fome corn given them, though not much; and I fhould confider this eftimate rather as what a good cow ought to do, barring accidents and exceptions, than as a fair average of a large number. The expences, however, are high, as well as the produce ; among others, there are the following to this dairy of fifty-five ; Chief dairy-man, the cazaro . — Wages, - Five moggii of maiz, at 20 liv. One ditto wheat, at 34 liv. Half ditto rye, at 18 liv. One ditto of white rice. One hog, of 120 lb. at 15^ Lodging, fuel, fait, and butter. The under dairy-man,' fotto cazaro % — Wages, - Board in the farmer’s houfe. Three men, at 70 liv. each, & 3J moggii maiz, at 10J liv. \ ditto rye, at 3J liv. | ditto rice, atajliv. i ditto mullet, i^liv. at 18 liv. Towards board, 20 liv. Land enough for their flax, Two children, for the hogs, at 30 liv. Five faggots per diem, at 5 liv. the too 4 liv. if large. liv. 130 100 34 9 44 90 127 210 210 6 3 99 27 60 60 60 B b 2 !3 2 3 Here » LOMBARDY. 1 88 Here are above 44I. Englifh, without knowing at what to calculate the three other articles; probably they would raife it to above 20s. a cow. There is likewife the wear and tear of the dairy implements, fait, oil, and many fmall articles; befides hazard, and the lofs by difference between the fale of old cows and the purchafe of young. In regard to the management of the cows, they eat in winter, that is, from the middle of December to the end of March, no- thing but hay, and the allowance is 21 lb. of 28 oz. each cow, per diem ; this is 21841b. of Milan, or 35591b. Englifh, or about \\ ton. This Angle article of expence, without any other confideration, would make a very great produce neceffary, or the farmer could not live. They milk at break of day, and fome- times before it : in the evening, two hours before fun-fet : the quantity moft in the morning. The bed; cheefe is made when the cows feed on white clover, which comes of itfelf the fecond year, where red clover was fown, which occa- fions a vulgar notion here, that red clover changes into white. This fecond year’s white clover is better than perennial meadows for cheefe. For one fort- night in a year, they foil their cows, — the laft half of March, — and the grafs goes thrice as far as when eaten in the field ; yet they never do it at any other Ibafon. The moft lingular circumftance, is that of their flailing their cows, to empty racks, moft of the day and all the night ; they are turned out at eight or nine in the morning, for three or four hours, and all the reft of the twenty-four they have nothing. I inquired particularly into the motives for this very extra- ordinary practice, and was allured, it was neceffary to make good cheefe ; as without it the milk would not have the requifite richnefs. During fome fea- fons of the year, and in very wet or bad times, they give them, during this fa ft, a fmall quantity of hay ; but the practice is confined to fuch times, and is an ex- ception from the general rule, which is decidedly that the cows muft not eat grafs at pleafure. It is fo very Angular a practice, as certainly to deferve expe- riment in England. The French pradice, of milking thrice a day, is quite un- known. The method of making the cheefe known in England by the name of Par- mefan, becaufe the city of Parma was once the entrepot* for it, was an obje£t I wifhed to underftand as well as poflible. The idea is, that all depends on foil, climate, and irrigation : and the boafted account, that the Kings of Spain and Naples, in order to make fimilar cheefe in their territories, at leaft for their own tables, had procured men of fkill from the Milanefe for this purpofe,— contri- bute to give a readinefs every where in anfwering queftions, as they are all very well perfuaded, that fuch cheefe can be made no where elfe. * This is the general opinion, but a late writer has (hewn that it is an error, and that Parma and Piacenza were once the country in which the beft was made. In LOMBARDY. 189 In order that I might view the procefs to the befl advantage, the Abbate Amoretti conducted me to the dairy in queftion, belonging to the houie of Lefi. It is, in the firfi: place, necefiary to obferve, that the cheefes are made entirely of Ikimmed milk; that of the preceding evening, mixed with the morning’s milk: the former had flood fixteen or feventeen hours; the latter about fix hours. The rennet is formed into balls, and diflolved in the hand in the milk ; the preparation is made a fecret of, but it is generally known, that the ftomach, of the calf is drefied with fpices and fait. The rennet was put to the milk at twelve o’clock, not in a tub, but in the chauldron or boiler, turned from off the fire-place at ten o’clock ; the heat 22 degrees of Reaumur’s thermometer, and common to 24 degrees (8if Fahrenheit’s), the atmofphere being at the fame time 164 (70 Fahrenheit’s). In fummer, the whole operation is finifhed by eight in the morning, as the heat fours the milk if in the middle of the day. At one o’clock the cazaro examined the coagulation, and finding it com- plete, he ordered his fotto cazaro to work it, which he did, with a (lick armed with crofs wires, as defcribed in Annals of Agriculture ; this operation is, inflead of cutting and breaking the curd, in the manner it is done in England, free from the whey. When he has reduced it to fuch a firmnefs of grain as fatisfies the cazaro, it is left to fubfide, till the curd being quite funk, the whey is nearly clear on the furface; then the cauldron which contains it, is turned back again over the fire-hearth, and a quick fire made, to give it the fcald rapidly ; a fmall quantity of finely powdered faffron added, the fotto cazaro dining it all the time with a wired machine, to keep it from burning ; the cazaro examined it, from time to time, between his fingers and thumb, to mark the moment when the right degree of folidity and firmnefs of grain is attained. The heat was 41 deg. ( 124^ Fahrenheit), but it is often 44 (131^ Fahrenheit). When the cazaro finds it well granulated by the fcalding, he orders his deputy to turn it off the fire; and, as foon as a certain degree of fubfidence has taken place, empties about three-fourths of the whey, in order the better to command the curd. He then pours three or four gallons of cold water around the bottom of the cauldron, to cool it enough for handling the curd; then he bends himfelf into the vefiel, in a formidable manner, to view it, refiing his feet againft the tub of whey, and with his hands loofens the curd at bottom, and works it into one mafs, fhould it not be fo already, that it may lie conveniently for him to Aide the cloth under it, which he does with much apparent dexterity, fo as to inclofe the whole in one mafs ; to enable himfelf to hoift it out the eafier, he returns in the whey, and taking out the curd, refts it for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour in a tub to drain. The vat, in the mean time, is prepared in a broad hoop of willow, with a cord round to tighten it, and widens or contra&s at pleafure, accordion to the fize of the cheefe. Into this vat the curd is fixed, and the cloth folddc over. LOMBARDY. 1 90 over it at top, and tucked in around. This is placed on a table; flightly inclin- ing, to carry off the whey that drains from the cheefe; around plank, three inches thick, (hod with iron, like the block-wheel of a barrow, is laid on the cheefe, and a done about thrice the fize of a man’s head on that, which is all the prefs ufed ; and there ends the operation. The cheefe of the preceding day was in a hoop, without any cloth, and many others faking in different hoops, for thirty or forty days, according to the feafon,— thirty in fummer and forty in winter. Whdn done, they are fcraped clean, and after that rubbed and turned in the magazine every day, and rubbed with a little lintfeed-oil on the coats, to be prelerved from infeds of all forts. They are never fold till fix months old, and the price 90 liv. the 100 lb. of 28 oz* The morning’s butter-milk is then added to the whey, and heated, and a flronger acid ufed, for a freffi coagulation, to make whey-cheefe, called here majcbo-pino . Little ones are kept in wooden cafes, in the fmoke of the chimney. Upon this detail I am to remark, that the rules that govern the operation of making cheefe in the Milanefe feem to be very different from thofe which are attended to in England. Thefe are marked diffindions. I. Starving the cows during fo large a portion of the day. II. Breaking and fcalding the curd. III. Light preffing. The mode of feeding, which thefe farmers purfue, they think effential to good dheefe ; and that if the cows were allowed to pafture all day long, it would be difficult, perhaps impoffible, to make cheefe of equal goodnefs. It would be idle to reafon upon a proportion, which demands in other countries experiment alone. The breaking of the curd and fcalding is abfolutely different from ours, and apparently a method infinitely fuperior; our breaking by the hand, and cutting into cubes and other ways, are grofs, and render it difficult for the fcalding whey to operate equally ; but in the Italian method it is broken minutely; and, by keeping the heating whey conftantly ftirring, the fcald is equal throughout ; and, operating on the minutely divided curd, mud take a more regular and a greater effed. I defcribed to the cazaro the method ufed in England, and a Iked his opinion, on which he replied—" II vofiro formaggio in quel modo non puol’effere troppo buono: come e la grana ?” By referring to the grain of the cheefe, it is plain he thought that the texture of it demanded this way of operating. In regard to prefiing; all with whom I converfed were much againfl: any very heavy weights; and feemed of opinion, that a good cheefe might be preffed LOMBARDY. i 9 r prefTed into a bad one. Firmnefs, weight, and folidity, they contended, fhould arife from the right fabric of the cheefe, and from adapting the fabric to the land and to the feafon, but never from much preffing, which would be a bad way of remedying either evils or miftakes. Hoved cheefes are very rare with them, which may poffibly proceed not only from the granulation given by their method of fcalding, but alfo from their moderate preffing. However it muft not be imagined that the excellency and peculiarity of Parmefan cheefe depend altogether upon the fabrication ; their own idea is probably very juft, that foil, climate, and irrigation come in for their ffiare; and that the abundance of cer- tain plants has an influence ; but this laft caufe will not have much ftrefs laid on it, fince clovers are found to be the chief plants. I (hall not quit this moft interefting diftritft, without recommending it ftre- nuoufly to thofe who would wifti to give themfelves a completely good farm- ing education. For fuch a purpofe, Codogno would be a proper Ration ; for it is furrounded by great dairies, and contains the largeft magazines of cheefe of any town in Lombardy ; the confequence of which is, a regular intercourfe with all the dairy mafters of the Lodizan. Much ufeful knowledge might here be gained in irrigation, and in making chdefe. The oxen of this dairy farm begin to work at four years old ; and are fold at eleven or twelve years old, fiom 9 to 12 louis each. A pair will plough eight pertiche a day ; and draw, waggon included, 3000 lb. of 28 oz. twenty miles. Mozzata. They prattife a Angular method of fattening oxen here. They put chopped ftraw, a little hay, the leaves of maiz, and alfo fome flour of it, into a tub, and pour in hot (not boiling) water; and as they give this foup to the beaft, they add for each a handful of oil-cake in powder, or, for want of that, of elm leaves in powder ; oak leaves they give green. Another food in ufe is, powdered acorns, which is given inftead of oil-cake, and with good fuccefs. Lodi . The cows here are generally of a blood red colour, long, lank, and ill made* In a dairy of ninety, they make, for one hundred and fixty days, one cheefe a day, of 60 lb. ; but in April and May it is of 701b. After St. Martin, the beginning of November, greater, but not every day: in feven months, 190 cheefes; and in the reft of the year, 170 ; in all, 360; this is 240 lb. pe/cow. In feeding, they give the cows nothing from four in the afternoon till nine the next morning, unlefs the weather be very bad, and then a little hay. In mak- ing the cheefe, I found very little variation in thepra&ice from that already de- ' fcribed. k;2 LOMBARDY. fcribed. For the coagulation, or what our dairy-wives call Jetting, they heat the milk gradually, and take care not to do it too much at once. In the great heats of fummer, they fet it without heating, and even put ice or fnow (with which every dairy is provided) to cool it ; but they do not confider the heat at letting to be a point of much confequence, as a little more or lefs heat makes no difference. The curd is broken exactly as defcribed before, with two ma- chines, one of wood only, the other armed with fine wires, and the fafFrori added during that operation. Scald it as at Milan, and, upon doing this with /kill, they aflert, that much depends ; as by more or lefs fcalding they can re- medy certain deficiencies in foils and plants. The reft of the operation is juft as already defcribed, and all the utenfils the fame; the weight fomething lefs than at Milan ; and here as great enemies to much prefling. The cheefe made yefterday is all honey-combed in the coat, and as yellow as was, a pale yellow: whereas at Milan the new cheefes are quite white. Thefe honey-combs wear out by fcraping after falting, which is for thirty-fix or forty days ; they are then coloured, and there is given to them an appearance of a whitifh cruft, or eflforefcence artificially. They are preferved by oiling, as at Milan. Good cows give about five gallons of milk per diem ; the beft of all, fix. Sixty cows require ico pertiche for fix months in fummer. Co dog no. The produce per cow is here reckoned at ioo lb. of cheefe*, at 28 oz. at 22 \f, per lb. and 80 lb. of butter, at 24^ The calf fells at 20 liv, at fifteen days old ; and the produce of hogs, r2 fows to 100 cows, which pay about 10 liv. per Milanefe . Sterling . liv, f £• s • 100 lb. cheefe, at 2 i\f. 112 10 — 3 15 ° 80 lb. butter, at 24 f, 96 0 ~ 340 Calf, - 20 0 ~ 0 l 3 4 Hogs, - - 10 0 — 068 238 10 7 19 ° 1 Thirteen pertiche of land are neceflary to carry a cow through the year, which they cut for hay thrice, and feed once. Such land bought, fells at 300 liv. * This is the general idea ; but let it be noted, that the particulars of two dairies I took, one of which was near Milan, were different ; one 232 lb. per cow; the other, near Lodi, 2401b, per cow; yet there is, near Milan, a notion, that the produce is 100 lb. per cow. The difference, probably, is this, that upon a general calculation of all the cows of a diftrift, good, bad, and indifferent, dry, and giving milk, the quantity is ioolb.j but in certain capital dairies, and reckoning only the cows in milk, it is more than double. and LOMBARDY. 193 and lets at ioliv, The greated dairy in the country, iio cows, and the price ten louis each. In fummer, they milk at four o’clock in the morning, and at fun-fet. Make the cheefe at eleven in the forenoon ; in winter at any time. Skim all the milk, and never fet it for coagulation without heating it by fire. In other refpedts, the manufacture is conducted as already defcribed. They colour the coats with earth, and the whitifh efflorefcence is given with rye-meal. When the grafs is olded, it always give the belt cheefe, but the produce, after being down four years, declines fo much, that the almod general practice is to plough it. View the magazine of cheefe, at Codogno, of Sig. Bignami, and ofSig. Sta- bilini ; — the latter are immenfe. Mod of it is fold in Italy, much in Spain, and lead of all in France ; there is not a folid cheefe in that kingdom that is eatable, and yet they confume little Parmezan ! Condogno to Crema . Meflrs. Bignami had the goodnefs to conduCt me to a great farm, two miles from Codogno, in the way to Crema ; — here I found, that coagulation takes, according to the feafon, from one to four hours; in fome parts of the Milanefe, the cazaro informed me, that they fet the milk without warming : here never; always heat it by fire. The caggio (rennet) is in balls about twice as large as a pigeon’s egg, put in a linen coarfe cloth, and rubbed, holding it in the milk, till it is difiolved. In this dairy, after three hours coagulation, the milk was as hot as if frefh from the cow. Quantity of faffron, | oz. to a cheefe of 6olb. — 945 lb. of milk, of 28 oz. make a cheefe of 60 lb. weighed fix months after. The fame quantity of milk, in fpring and in autumn, makes more cheefe than in fummer. Bed and mod from old grafs, but a cazaro who really un- derdands his bufinefs, will make all alike; and the idea here is that fabrica- tion is all in all. A cheefe of 30 lb. will be as good as one of 100 lb. The fcalding in their manner, is to granulate the curd, and, united with fo fmall a preflure, leaves cavities in the texture of the cheefe, that fill with an oleaginous liquid, and form the peculiar excellence of Parmezan cheefe. With the me- thods ufed in England, fueh cavities fpoil a cheefe. I mud, however, remark, that fuch Parmezan as was common many years ago, in which thefe cavities, and their contents were of a texture that would allow of drawing out like a thread of glue, is not fo common now. The folid cheefe, without cavities, common at prefent, is not much better than our North Wiltfhire, and is apt to dry much fooner, if equally kept. Quere, if this declenfion of quality is not to be imputed to their ploughing all the country ?" When their cheefe gained its great reputation, it was made from old meadows; now all is from arable land. Here it is kept five or fix years, — never till ten. Walking with the farmer, Vol. II. C c the LOMBARDY. 194 the matter of eighty cows, into his fields (175°) pertiche), I begged him to pick the plants in the order of his eftimation for cheefe, which he did; firft, trijo - hum repens ; fecond, trifolium pratenfe and plantago lanceolata equal ; third, chi- corium intybus. Thefe he efteemed capital. The ranunculus repens bad ; all the grafles, properly fo called, bad, on comparifon with thofe above ; but lolium perenne the beft, if it come naturally ; bad, if fown. Gallega officinalis bad. They fometimes do not fow any thing to make a meadow, leaving the wheat-ftubble to cover itfelf ; a barbarous pradtice, fince they confefs, that in the fit ft year it yields little. There were dung-hills in moft of the fields, well mixed and rot- ten, to be fpread in winter. Feed the cows, in winter, only with hay, and 20 lb. of 28 oz. the daily allowance ; the price now y\ liv. per. 100 lb. I forgot to remark, that all the milk-trays are ot copper : and that ice is in every dairy, to put into the churns with the cream. The cows are here fed, as every where elfe in the Milanefe, but a few hours in twenty-four; yet longer than in fome diftridts, for they are abroad feven hours ; they eat nothing while tied up in the fheds. ... . j n 1733, there were in the Lodizan 197 dairies : in 1767* there were 236, each of which had 120 cows, on an average, making 290 cheeies each dairy per an- num ; in thirty-four years, increafe — 39 dairies, 4680 cows, 1 1,310 cheefes, and value 848,210 liv * This is Count Carli’s account, but l fufpeft an error f. as I heard no hints of any decline ; and at Codogno, the dairies were calculated for me, apparently with attention, at 213 each, making 310 cheefes in a year, or 66,030 cheefes, of 50 lb. each, or 3,301,5001b. of 28 oz. at 1 liv. a lb. ; this makes 110,0471. and the account I received was, that, of this quantity, two- thirds were exported. In regard to the origin of this cheefe, it deferves notice, that it is not three centuries fince this great advantage of irrigated meadows has been here known; and I may obferve, that the Cifterfian monk who has written fo well— Sull’Ir- rigazioni de Prati 9 in the Jltti della Societa Pat. di Milano , feems to admit, that the original manufudtures of Parmezan cheefe was in the territory of Parma ; and refers to original papers for fhewing, that Milan was lupplied, three cen- turies ago, with this cheefe from Parma. A clearer proof of this cannot be produced, than that in the ledgers of the monaftery of Chiaravalle, there are entries of the purchafe of cheefe from Parma, which, mod aifuredly, could not havd taken place, if fuch cheefes had been made at home. And this feems to be confirmed by the account of the entry of Louis XII. into Pavia, in 1499, given by Francefco Muralto, juris confulto of Como, who fays,— “ Multa * Carlh tom. i. p. 317. 4 It mull be a grofs error to calculate the dairies at 120 cows, on an average ; ries, I heard but of one that reached 1 10. for in all my inqui- fuere LOMBARDY. *95 fuere per Papienfes dono regi tradita et inter cetera formae centum cafei Pla- centinse civitatis.” It is alfo worth obferving, that though they did not make good cheefe at this period (as we may judge, from their buying it elfewhere), yet fome cheefe was made at Tecchione, a farm belonging to them, of the weight of 141b. per cheefe, as it appears by their ledgers for the year 1494*. Venice, This city is fupplied with beef from Bofnia, Carinthia, Styria, and Hun- gary : at prefent the export from thofe countries is prohibited, on account of fupplying the Emperor’s armies in Hungary. Mutton from Dalmatia, and Bofnia. Ecclesiastical State. — Bologna , In their cow-houfes they have the fame Hep at the heels of the beads as I have in my own, and which I copied from Mr. Bakewell many years ago ; but they have applied it to their horfe-Aables alfo, which I never met with before; yet it is an obvious improvement, which well deferves imitation. The floors of their flails are level. Tuscany. Though the quantity of cattle of every kind in this country is much inferior to what it ought to be, yet is the art of fattening an ox well underftood. In fummer they feed on mown clover and faggina (the great millet, holcus for - gum) } alfo on maiz, and a mixture of all forts of corn and pulfe, called farrana . Price of an ox, 45 fcudi (at 5s. 8d. ) ; a cow, 30 ; a Iheep 1 ; a horfe, 20 j a hog, 7. Account of a Dairy of Eight Cows , at Vilamagna , in Tufcany , belonging to Conte Orlando del Benino, Eight cows coft - Produce, firft year, in butter and milk. Second year, value of the cows and 3 calves, Produce. — Calves, - Milk and butter, Cheefe, - Value of the cows, - * Attiy vol. ii. p. 220, 221. C c 2 Scud, liv. /. «S 2 0 83 4 2 92 3 4 44 3 7 8 6 9 1 1 |v2 3 4 3 0 4 84 3 4 214 6 12 Expences . 196 LOMBARDY. Expences . Value of the cows, Dairy man, Bran and bull, baggina and clover fown for them. Profit, Which, on 8 cows, is per cow. At 5 liv. 15/ the dollar, and 4yd. Which is per week. Scud. liv. /• - 92 3 4 - 12 0 0 - 6 5 4 i - 3 0 0 - - 100 5 , 1 214 6 12 12 10 8 a dollar fterling £. 3 3 6 0 1 3 In which experiment almoft the whol e of this was profit, becaufe no fewer cattle of any other fort were kept; but it muft be obvious, that is. 3d. a week is, according to our ideas, a very poor return for keeping a cow*. I copy this account from Sig. Paoletti, with whom I had the pleafure of conferring perfonally on agriculture, and who informed me, that at Villamagna they be- gin to work their oxen at two years and a half old ; they change fome every year; and gain by their improvement, while worked, about 6 fcudi (of 5s. 8d.) the pair, on an average, per annum ; buy at 70 fcudi, and fell at 76. Cows give two fiafce of milk per diem, during eight months ; price 4/. each. Modena. Regifter of all the live-ftock in the Dutchy of Modena, taken in June 1771 : — Oxen, 42,615; cows, 61,445; ca ^ ves one y ear > 2 4 > l 7 2 > ca l ves > 21,326; horfes, 8,313; mules, 836; afifes, 11,543; ^°S S > I 37>3 2 ^> fheep, 329,015; goats, 35*518. Augmentation in the reft of the year; great cattle, 12,000; l'mall, 38,000. Parma. Many and great dairies in the Parmezan ; fome to fixty cows, and numbers from twenty to thirty ; and thofe who have a few cows, carry their milk to fome neighbouring dairy, and receive cheefes in proportion to the quantity ; but this cheefe has not the reputation at prefent of being fo good as that of the Lo- dizan. As this country gave its name to the heft cheefe in Europe, and once certainly made the beft, I was defirous of knowing how far the mode purfued in the manufacture, differed here from that of the Lodizan : in the dairy of a Penfieri) p. 233, 236. firmer LOMBARDY. 197 farmer of the Count de Schaffianatti, I had this opportunity. The apparatus is nearly the fame, except that the flick with which the curd is broden, and which in the Lodizan is armed with crofs wires, is here only a bufh, the branches of which are drawn a little together by a firing; this is not fo effe&ive as fine wire, and is a variation in a point of importance in giving a fine grain. I have remarked already, that the board which in prefling is laid on the vat, is in the Lodizan one and a half or two inches thick ; here it is five or fix inches, and heavy ; and the ftone ufed to prefs it four or five times larger, yet the cheefes here are not often more than half the fize of the others ; this variation, in a circumftance that can- not be uneflential certainly deferves notice ; if fo very light a preflure in the Lodi- zan is given, the cheefe which is fuperior to ail others, it undoubtedly fhould lead the farmers of Parma to examine whether the inferiority of their cheefe does not arife wholly or in part from thefe variations ; the country, it is true, is not watered to one-tenth of what the Lodizan is, and the cows feed in perennial meadows, in- flead of the pafturage of arable land. The trays here are of wood, inflead of cop- per for the milk ; and it is fkimmed, as at Lodi, before making the cheefe. The coagulation is made ufually in three quarters of an hour, if the milk be what they call wholefome; that is, if it have no particular quality that demands a varia- tion, in which cafe it is coagulated in half an hour : they vary the fealding alfo ; for bad milk they feald with a fierce quick fire, but good is done more gently. In managing the lump of curd, when fettled to the bottom of the boiler, they vary alfo; they prefs it with a circular board, fixed at the end of a flick or handle, and then get a milk tray under it ; and when they have hoifted it out, they leave it to drain in that tray about half an hour; at Lodi, ten minutes, or at mofi a quarter of an hour. The common price of the cheefe 30 liv. (2^d.) the pefo ( 22 lb. Englifh.) 1 tafted it at the table of the Count de Schaffianatti, and alfo at Parma; and the inferiority to the Lodizan is great. The attention of giving fait to cattle and fheep here, as in every other part of Italy, is regular; they even confider a plenty of fait as fomewhat eflential to having proper flocks of thofe animals ; and gave me an inflance, which is re- markable. In the Coursi di Monchio, a valley in which the bifhop is the fove- reign, there is no gabelle on fait, and therefore given much more plentifully to cattle and fheep ; the confequence is, that the numbers of both are much greater, proportionably to all other circumftances than in any other difirift. Savoy. They reckon, at Lanefburgh, that three goats are equal to one cow ; the price here is 11 liv. or 12 liv. At Ifle, in Alface, a good goat fells from 12 liv. to 30 liv. French, in common 20 liv. Some there are fo good that two equal a cow; but at Tour d’Aigues, in Provence, it takes four to equal a cow, the price 10 liv. or 12 liv. French. SECT. LOMBARDY. SECT. III. O F SHEEP. Nice . I here obferved, what appeared very Angular, a flock of fheep brought down from the mountains to drink the fea-water, which is, I fuppofe, to fave fait. The gardeners near the town generally keep a few weep, confined in flies, juft as hogs in England, and fed with the offal of the garden. I took a fpecimen of the wool of one of thefe ftie-fed fheep ; more like goat’s-hair than wool ; it fells at 6 f. the lb. Turin. The price of fheep from ioliv. to 1 5 liv. The fleece is 8 lb. at 5/ unwafhed. Milanese. Throughout this country I fcarcely faw any fheep, and thofe few bad. Venetian State. — Bergamo . Here I met a flock ; an ugly breed ; large, long, and ill made ; without horns ; the wool coarfe and hairy ; large hanging ears ; and their throats fwollen almoft like wens. They have a fabric of woollen cloth here, but the wool comes from Apulia. Brefcia. The fleeces here are 4^ lb. (about 2§ lb. Englifh,) and fell at 25 liv. to 30 liv. perpeze, not wafhed, which is about is. Englifh the pound. Verona . Price 30 f. the lb. of 12 oz. (is. the pound Etiglifh.) To Vicenza . Meet leverai flocks ; ail are clipped twice a year ; the breed polled, and much like thofe, but not fo large, as on the other fide of Verona. Vicenza . The forts of fheep known here, are Gentili , which live only in the plain, not being hardy enough to refift the mountain cold ; their wool is longer than of the other forts. Tofetti , thefe. refift the cold well; have fhort wool, clipped twice. LOMBARDY. J 99 twice. Monte Padouana , are of a much greater fize ; the fleih excellent; are clipped twice. Price of wool, 2j liv. per pound un wafhed (the ounce of Vicenza, 12 to the pound is to the Englifh ounce as 690 is to 480, as I found, by buying an ounce weight there) ; this price is equal to about nd. the Englifh pound. It is remarkable, that they here feed their fheep in winter, with a mixture, made in a hole in the ground, trodden well in, of zucca (gourds) cut in dices; the mark of grapes, vine-leaves, and green grafs. — Price of wool here Gentili preparata, 6 liv. ; Gentili non preparata, 5 liv. 5/; Tofetta, 5 liv. to 6 liv. ; Tefino, 2, liv. 1 of.; Padouana, 4 liv.; all by the pound of 12 oz. The ounce is to that of England, as 690 to 480 ; the pound, therefore, equals 17 oz. Eng- lifh, — 5^ liv. is above 2s. 6d. Englifh. Padua. Price of fheep about 2 ducats. In common they clip but once a year; fleece 31b. Ecclesiastical State — Bologna . Price of a good fheep, 14 pauls (7s.) Produce, per fheep, of a flock lamb, 4 pauls ; wool, 3J; cheefe, 4; in all uj (5s. qd.) per annum 5 half to the proprietor, half to the peafant. The wool 3 lb. at twice fhearing, and at 13 baiocchi the pound (10 baiocchi to the paul, of 6d. lefs a fradion). It is wafhed on the back before lhearing. There are 25,000 to 30,000 fheep in the Ferrarefe. Tuscany— 'Bologna to Florence • Some flocks of fheep are fcattered on the Appenines, of a fmall and rather pretty hornlefs breed. Near Florence, they cut the lambs in June, and fell them in September, to thofe who keep them till March. Price, in September, 10 liv. (7s. id.) and in March, for 18 liv. (12s. 9d.) ; there are few, or none, of two or three years old. They clip but once ; weight of the fleece 4 lb. at paul per lb. ; wafhed before clipping (Englifh weight and money, the fleece is 3 lb. at is. id. per lb.) Wethers are, in fome places, fattened on oats, barley, and hay, and fometimes with a few raves. Villamagna . Thirty-fix fheep kept on 483 ftiori of land, each giving 3 lb. of wool (equal to lb. Englifh), at this year, ij paul, and lafl, i| (the paul $%d.) ; clipped but once a year, in May, and wafhed before. Each fheep | of a paul in cheefe. Thirty-fix bring, on an average, twenty lambs, which fell, at five or fix weeks, at pauls ; at fix months, 7 or 8 pauls. Two 200 LOMBARDY. Two hundred fheep from the mountains, that pafs the winter in the Ma- remma, the expence 1 57 fcudi, compofed of twenty rams, fifty ewe hoggits, one hundred and thirty breeding ewes j fifty lambs kept for dock. Scud. Ire. Fifty lambs for flock, - - “ " 39 2 Eighty lambs fold, - - ” " 12 o Wool, 71b. the pair, at 10 fcudi the 100 lb. - 70 o Cheefe, 2 § lb. to each fheep, at 6/ per. lb. - - no 132 2 Half to the proprietor - * Expence. Winter food in the Maremma, - - - 4° 0 Two hundred fheep to a fhepherd ; 24 ftari of corn for the winter, Ta o Paffes, charges, duties, regulated at 6 fcudi the 100 fheep, 12 0 Expences of travelling, utenfils, fees, &c. - ~ 80 Pufluring in fummer in the mountains, - - 4 0 76 o Half to the proprietor, - - - “ 3$ 0 Nett profit to proprietor, - ^8 * Which profit, being on a capital of 1 57 fcudi, is 18 per cent *. It is an obfervation of Sig. Paolettif, that draining the Maremma, and cul- tivating it, have leffened the number of fheep in Tufcany confiderably : great flocks, before that period, were kept in fome mountainous diftri&s in fummer, and paftured in the Maremma in winter ; but cultivation has changed this. He does not fay that the people of the Maremma have fheep of their own, but ob- ferves, that it is a diminution in number. This is fufficient to prove, that the improvements in the Maremma have been on falfe and vicious principles; for, if they had been on juft ones, fheep would have been increafedinftead of leffened. Sig. Paoletti recommends that all fheep fhould have 1 lb. of fait in March, and 1 in October, which makes them healthy, and to yield more wool J. * T ramontani Del Accriefcimento Del Bejliam e Tofcano , 8vo. p. 96. t Penfieri , p. 207. He mentions their being prodigiojamente piu numerofe , a century before, p. 221. t Penfieri , p. 208. i y Modena. LOMBARDY. 201 Modena. Wool here fells from 2 liv. to 3 liv. per lb. wafhed ; equal to I2jd. per lb. Englifh. There are many fheep in the mountains, but miferable things ; clip- ped twice a year. ’ Parma. In going to Firenzuola, I examined the wool of a flock, and found it more like the hair of a dog than wool ; and all I fee, which are but few, are alike hairy ; moft of them polled, but fome with horns ; not badly made, but feel worfe. Thefe are the flocks whofe wool, Monf. de la Lande fays, is eftimable ! Piedmont. — Pavefe. On entering the King of Sardinia’s country, and for many miles, fee little parcels, of from ten to twenty-five, of poor dirty houfed fheep, feeding on the young wheat. Afti was formerly famous for wool ; — nelli antichi tempi famofa per la fua lane * ; but the country contains none at prefent, to fupport that chara&er. Savoy. Unwafhed wool, 10 f. the lb. of 12 oz. ; fleece 31b. to 6 lb. 5 it goes to France or Piedmont. Sheep, 9 liv. to 12 liv. each. Though cattle and fheep are the great riches of all Savoy, yet no care taken of the breed, and the wool all bad*f\ The price of wool, regard being had to that only which is long, coarfe, and bad (but not the word:), may be ftated in Lombardy at is. Englifh, the Englifh pound; fuch would fell in England, I calculate, at about yd. or 8d. per pound. * Giulini , tom. xii. p. 19. f I may here add a minute on goats: Marquis Ginori introduced the Angora goats into Tuf- cany, for making camblets, which manufacture has fucceeded fo well, as to be termed rifpettabile ma - nifattura by Paoletti. Penfteri , p. 220. And it is obferved by aTiother writer, that if they are not fuperior to the antient camblets of Bruflels, they are, at leaft, equal to them. Ragionamente [opr a Tofcano , p. 167. V OL* II. Dd CHAP, 202 LOMBARDY. CHAP. III. Of the Management of Arable Land. r J'HE minutes I took, concerning the conduct of arable land, may, for the fake of clearnefs, be thus divided:— i, Of the courfes of crops. 2, Of feed and product. 3, Of the culture of certain plants. 4, Of implements. 5, Of manures. SECT. I. O F THE COURSES OF CROPS. Piedmont. — Ghent ale. A year of fallow common in five or fix years, during which year the land is never watered, only expofed to the fun. Wheat is fown on fallow ; on clover laud ; always after hemp, becaufe the land is in high order; the fame after maiz, if well manured ; in which cafe alfo after millet fown in June, other- wife meflin or rye. The fallow for wheat, commonly follows buck-wheat, called here fromentin , or millet. Clover is fown among rye in March, never among wheat. Millet de cottura is fown in June ; millet de reftuba the end of July, after wheat ; and then dung well for hemp. Turin. In fome arable land I viewed, a few miles from this capital, the following moft extraordinary courfe was purfued, and was mentioned to me as being not uncommon; 1, maiz; 2, wheat; 3, wheat; 4, wheat; 5, maiz; 6, wheat; 7, wheat; 8, wheat. The year of maiz being confidered as fuch a preparation, as to allow of three fuccefiive crops of wheat. The practice however is barbarous. Upon the farm ef Sig. Briolo, the following is the courfe; — 1, maiz; 2, wheat; 3, rye; and when the land wants repofe, clover is fown upon a fmall part. Vercelli . Upon good wheatland; — 1, maiz; 2, wheat; 3, wheat; 4, rye. And in the rice grounds; — 1, fallow; 2, rice; 3, rice; 4, rice. They have here an excellent practice, and it extends, more or lefs, over all Piedmont, which is to mow LOMBARDY. W mow clover by the ioth of May, and to plow the land and plant maiz, vyhich lucceeds greatly after clover. Mi l a n e s e —Milan. The arable lands never repofe ; but a quick fuccefiion is reaped. Two crops, of bread corn are gained in one year, by fowing maiz in July, after wheat. Milan to Pavia, The courfe common in the rice grounds, is, — i, rice;' 2, rice, 3, rice; 4, fallow, and dung ; 5, wheat, clover fown, either with it in autumn, or upon, it in fpring ; the former heft ; 6, clover; 7, clover; 8, clover; 9, flax, and then millet the fame year : and then rice again, as above. Alfo,— 1, wheat; 2, clover; 3, clover; 4, clover; 5, clover; 6, flax, and then maiz ; 7, wheat, and clover again. Sometimes after flax, colefeed for oil. Another courfe,'— 1, 2, 3, clover; 4, maiz ; 5, rice ; 6, rice; 7, rice; 8 fallow; 9, corn, and clover. In the Pavefe, 1, Rye, and then fallowed for, 2, wheat, fown with clover in February, mown with the ftubble, and then fed ; 3, clover , 4, clover ; 5, clover ; 6, flax, and then millet ; or, inftead of both, maiz ; 7, wheat ; 8, wheat, and left, then, fometimes, to pafturage under clover. Mozzata, A courfe common here,— 1, clover; 2, winter flax; 3, lupines; 4, maiz, for forage ; 5, colefeed ; 6, cabbages ; 7, panic ; 8, hemp ; 9, beans. This courfe will be found to occupy about twelve pertiche in one hundred, and to pafs in fucceflion over the whole, for the benefit of variation. Another,— 1, wheat, and millet after ; 2, common maiz ; 3, wheat and millet ; 4, common maiz ; 5, rye and quarantino ; 6, common maiz ; 7, rye and quarantino ; 8, common maiz. The afliduity with which they avoil a fallow, defervcs atten- tion ; and it is here efFe&ed, as in the fouth of France, by means of a plant that isaflerted by many to exhaufl. Lodizan . 1, Wheat, fown in O&ober and reaped in June, and the land ploughed thrice, and manured for, 2, wheat again, and clover, called fpianata agojiano , which is fed till the following fpring, but fometimes ploughed the end of autumn ; 3, flax; 4, millet. Another courfe, called coltura maggenga t — 1, break up the D d 2 layer 204 LOMBARDY. layer for flax ; 2, millet; 3, maiz ; 4, wheat, the Aubble of which remains in Jpianata agoflano . Cremojiefe. h Wheat, Town in Odtober, and reaped in June, the flubble ploughed thrice for, 2, wheat, upon which fow clover the end of February; 3, clover, ploughed in November for, 4* flax, and then millet; 3, maiz ; 6, wheat. Carpianefe . 1, Maiz ; 2, wheat town in the fpring with clover, which is mown with the flubble, and remains Jpianata agoflano ; 3, clover; 4, flax, and then millet; r, rice ; 6, rice ; 7, rice. ' ~ * Venetian State Bergamo. The land here is conftantly cropped;— 1, wheat; 2, clover, mown in the iprmg once, in time for maiz; 3, wheat; 4, clover. Alfo,— 1, clover, or millet ; 2, maiz ; 3, wheat. By which couries they have half or a third of their land in wheat every year. Brefcia. s, Wheat, and 20 lb. of clover-feed in March, perjugero, — the clover cut in Auguft with the wheat-Aubble, and then paftured ; in winter dunged : 2, clover, called this year prato graft , cut thrice; fir A in May, calle°d il mag- gtauco fecond in Auguft, called I'oflano j third in September, il navarolo 3, tn March fow flax, which is gathered in June ; then plough and fow quaran- tine, amongft which, at the focond hoeing, fow lupines for manure.— 4, plough in the lupines and fow wheat in November, which is reaped in Tune • cut the Aubble immediately, and fow lupines or colefeed for manure :*—r plough in October, and fow wheat mixed with rye; reaped in June, and then fow part with quarentino and part with panic :-6, if a crop of colefeed is taken, it is town amongA the maiz while growing, which cole is ripe in fpring, in time to clear the ground for manuring and fowing the common maiz ; if cole not -own, remains fallow in winter, and fow melica in fpring,— the great millet. Verona. Here, as in all other parts of Lombardy, the land is never fallowed;— i, maiz, called granoturco : —2, wheat, and, when reaped, millet, or cinquantino ; this is the quarintino of the Milanefe:— 3, barley or oats, and, when reaped, fome other fecond crop. Wheat is always fown after maiz, and that after barley or LOMBARDY. 205 or oats. No clover ufed here, except in rice-lands. In the' ricc-grounds, — 1, wheat, reaped time enough for a crop of cinquantino ; 2, maiz; 3, clover; 4, rice, &c. Sec. Beans are alfo fown inftead of maiz, and wheat after them, and prepare for wheat much better. On the dry lands, fuch as about the Lago di Guarda, &c. no clover, as the land is not good enough. To Vicenza . No fallow any where. There is a little clover, and very fine, but the quan- tity is fmall : all wheatand maiz, andfcarcely any thing elfe. Vicenza . Wheat is always fown after clover, and cinquantino after wheat ; but nothing prepares fo well for that crop as beans, fo that they are called the mother of wheat, madre della jormento . This idea, in Lombardy, is as old as Gallo, who remarks, that wheat fucceeds after nothing better than beans, which in grajfano maggiormente la terra , che non ja ogni altro legume * ; and this he re- fers to as a cuftom of the Cremonefe and the Mantuans. It is equally true in England; and fuch a combination of authority ought to convince fuch as yet want convi&ion, -of the utility of beans as a preparation for wheat; more, per- haps, to be depended on than any other preparation whatever. A common courfe near this city, introduced as a variety, is, — 1, maiz; 2, wheat and cin- quantino. A farmer cultivated a field, during fome years, in this courfe,— 1,. maiz; 2, wheat; 3, clover: and to preclude the necefiity of dung, he ufed only the vanga (fpade) : for five years his crops were good, but afterwards de- clined greatly, till he could not get even clover. They fow wheat in O&ober, and the clover-feed over it in March, if there is rain ; the end of June the wheat is cut ; the end of Auguft the clover is mown for hay ; and another fmall crop again in O&ober : here is, therefore, within a year, one crop of wheat and two of clover. Thegrafsis cut again in May, or beginning of the following June; a fecond time in Augufi ; and a third growth ploughed in for wheat, which is ufually a very great crop in this hulbandry. Padua. On all forts of land, the mod ufual hufbandry is, — 1, dung for maiz; 2,. wheat ; 3, wheat, and then cinquantino or millet, See. Clover is fown both in autumn and in fpring ; if the froft is not very levere, autumn is bell:, but fpring the moft fecure. It is cut once after the wheat is reaped. * Le Vcntl Giornate dell' Agrholtura. Brefcia , 1775. 4to» p . 59 * . Venice * 20 6 LOMBARDY. V mice. S.ig. Arduino afiures me, there is no fallow to be found in any part of the Venetian territory ; they have not even a word to exprefs the idea —I'anno di ri- pofo , is a different thing, and always means clover, or a (late of reft, without any tillage. That gentleman’s expreffion pleafed me much,— La jacbere e una fciocca pratica in agricoltura. The two great points on which the beft agricul- ture of the Venetian State turns, are maiz on clover, and wheat on beans. All thefe plants are equally necefiary upon a farm ; and there is a peculiarity in clo- ver, as a preparation for maiz, and equally in beans, as preparatory for wheat. Bologna . In a very rich field near this city, which I viewed, the courfe has been, in 1787, wheat, which produced 100 corbi, or twenty times the feed. In 1788, hemp 5000 lb. In 1789, it is now wheat, and perfectly clean. This courfe, of— 1, hemp; 2, wheat, is, perhaps the moft profitable in the world,— and brings to mind the noble vale of the Garonne, under the fame management. If land will do for hemp, they never fallow, but have fome fields in the courfe, — 1, fallow; 2, wheat, which ought to be confidered as a difgrace to Lom- bardy. 1, Maiz ; 2, wheat, is a courfe not uncommon. On the fallowed lands they fow beans, provided they have dung. Very little clover, preferring fenu- greek, which is fucceeded by wheat. Vetches they fow in autumn, and beans alfo, both for a crop, and alfo to plough in, in the fpring, as a manure for hemp. With equal quantities of manure, beans give better wheat than hemp. Beans, on Sig. Bignami’s farm, are now (November) fix inches high on the tops of narrow ridges, but none in the furrows ; thefe are for a crop, and infinitely too thick, I fhould apprehend. Lupines alfo, for ploughing in. Tuscany. In the Valdarno di Sura, Colini, Sienifi, Pifani, Volterrana, they fallow, and their courfe is, — 1, fallow; 2, wheat. After travelling fo long in Lom- bardy without a fallow, it hurt me to find them common here. Clover is ufually made a preparation for maiz in moft parts of this country ; and beans, where fown, are reckoned the beft for wheat. At Martelli, &c. the courfe is, — 1, beans, French beans, or maiz; 2, wheat; 3, wheat; 4, wheat and rye, and no after-crop. In the Valdichiana, the following courfe, I am informed, is purfued,— 1, maiz and French beans; 2, wheat, and nothing after it; 3, wheat and then raves,— and, in fome places, clover added. At Villamagna, the courfe is,— 1, biade, vetches, beans &c. ; 2, wheat; 3, wheat; 4, wheat. The LOMBARDY. 207 The firft wheat produces nine or ten times the feed, if after beans ; the fecond fix or feven ; the third three or four : —a degradation that ought to explain fully the abfurdity of fuch a fyftem. In fome diftricfts the following is the courfe, — firft: year, biadi, viz. beans, peafe, chick-peafe, French beans, tares, lentils, oats, maiz, the great millet, fmall millet, panic in part, clover and oats, and, after cutting for forage, plough for fome of the above. Second year, upon the land thus prepared, wheat is fown, called groJJ'o and ariftata mucked ; or with half grofjb and half gentili (white wheat). Third year, gentili wheat. Modena. The bad farmers in the Modenefe are fallowifts, and their courfe is, — 1, fal- low, ploughed frit in May or June, in Auguft the fecond time, and the third in Odober, for fowing, 2, wheat. But the better farms fubftitute beans, French beans, vetches, fpelt, maiz, particularly the laft inftead of a fallow. Upon foils that are very good, and manured, they have an execrable cuftom of taking three crops of wheat in fucceflion ; fometimes throwing in clover with the wheat, which is ploughed up in June for wheat again. When beans are fown in autumn, and ftand the froft, they yield much more than fpring fown. The hufbandry pradifed by Sig. Bertolini, which is the beft of the country, is, — 1, beans, fown in Odober, and harvefted in May : then French beans, or formentoni, for forage, or thick-peafe, or lentils; 2, wheat, the ftubble ploughed thrice for, 3, wheat; 4, maiz, fown in March. To Reggio they fallow fome of their land every third year ; but more commonly fubftitute maiz, beans, orfomething elfe in lieu. Parma. In the country about Vicomero, the common courfe is, — 1, beans; 2, wheat; 3, maiz ; 4, wheat. Piedmont.— T ortonefe. A common courfe here, is, — 1, beans; 2, wheat. Alfo, — 1, fnelga, (great millet) ; 2, wheat. But they have fome lands in fallow courfes. Savoy. At Lanefbourgh, the commcfn hufbandry is that of a crop and a fallow : they plough in May or June, and again for the feed in Auguft, when they fow the rye ; and they have no wheat. From thefe notes it appears, that there is fomething both to commend and to condemn in thefe Italian courfes. The rejedion of fallows is pretty general ; this is a good feature, and the great ftrefs they lay on beans, as a preparation for wheat. 20 8 LOMBARDY. wheat, cannot be praifed too much. On the other hand, there Teems to be no idea of fo proportioning the crops of a farm, as to make cattle and fheep (kept on arable land) the preparation for corn: the culture of clover is not unknown, 1 but fcarcely extends further than to produce fome hay. I no where met with artificial gralTes introduced on fo large a fcale as to fupport a good flock of fheep. In fome diftrids, the great plenty of watered meadow explains this deficiency; but there are more where it will not afford an apology. This objection, how- ever, does not hold good in the Lodizan, where their immenfe dairies are fup- ported on arable land, and certainly form one of the mofl: curious fyftems of hufbandry that are to be met with in Europe. SECT. II. OF SEED AND PRODUCT. That reader who thinks flightly of the ufe of colleding a great mafs of fads in thefe inquiries, has not, it is to be prefumed, reflected fufficiently on the great importance, in every fcience, of combining circumftances apparently un- con neded, in order for mutual illuftration. He who colleds fuch fads in fu- lated for a time only, may not live to fee the effed of fuch companions; but the gradation of knowledge is preferved without interruption, and the ufes will undoubtedly be difeovered. Savigliano . They reckon here, that a farm of ioo giornati, one-third watered meadow fhould yield 2300 liv. clear of taxes, landlord’s half. Piedmont. — Turin. Produds of Sig. Briolo’s farm Wood, eight giornata; meadow, four; wheat, five ; rye, five ; maiz, five. Yields to the proprietor, for his half. Ninety mines of wheat, at 3 liv. 10 f. One hundred and five ditto of rye, at 2 liv. 1 $f. One hundred and forty ditto of maiz, at 2 liv. Wood cut, at feven years growth. Vines planted about the farm, 45 brenta of wine, at 5J liv. 247 315 liv. 236 280 7i For landlord’s half. Total, 2298 liv. Wood, 71 2221 liv. produd of nineteen giornata of arable and meadow, or 116 liv. per giornata (about 61 . per Englifn acre) ; which is a very large produce. There are LOMBARDY. 209 are] alfo mulberries enough to pay taxes ; this land coft 750 liv* the giornata, and the wood 250 liv. Milanese — Milan to Pavia. The crops are — Wheat, feven or eight feeds. — Rye, eleven feeds.— Maiz, forty leedvs. — Ditto quarantine, twenty feeds. — Millet, fifty feeds. WHEAT. Piedmont — Chentale. A proverb in this country is, that a good peafant fhould finifh his wheat (ow- ing by the 19th of Odtober. After hemp, clover, or fallow, wheat yields forty to forty-five mina per giornata, eaeh mina 451b. to 521b. average 47 lb. and the common price 3 liv. to 3 liv. 10^ but at prefent 3 h v * including good and bad farmers, and all foils, the produce is not more than twenty-four mina y that is, twelve for the landlord and twelve for the tenant. They fow four to four and a half ; the common produce is, therefore, lix times the feed, which is miferable * the better crops between ten and eleven feeds. Allowing for the Piedmont pound, being about one-tenth heavier than the Englifh (though only of 12 oz.), and that the giornata is not equal to an acre, their bed: crops,, at forty-two or forty-three mina, will be near five quarters per Englifh acre; and their average near three ; which are not greater than might be expedted. Their quantity of feed appears, however, to be immenfe, for it amounts to 1991b. per giornata, which is extravagant: and makes it fufpicious, that the giornata here is larger that the legal giornata of the principality. • Savig/iano. They fow here, of wheat, 3J eymena, and reap eight times as much, in x good crop. Turin. They fow five mina, or nine rabbii, and rolb. to the giornata; of rye and oats, the fame quantity ; of hemp, three mina; maiz, one-half; millet, one- half. Wheat produces twenty-five mina; or five times the feed; rye, thirty; maiz, fifty to feventy ; millet, twenty. The mina at 45 lb. the crop of wheat is about 32 coombs per Englifh acre. For their land and climate, a miferable crop ; but as good, or better, than they deferve, when their CQurfe of crops is confidered. VOL. II. Ee Milanese- LOMBARDY. 410 M i l a n e s e — Mozzata . Produce of wheat, eight flajo per pertica on the bed land j five on middling j and three on the word. There is a fingular neglect in keeping wheat in this county: being (hewed the granaries at two houfes, in which the quantity was confiderable, I was fur- prized to find, that where fome of the windows were open, the room flunk very much ; the fcent particular ; and examining the wheat, I found the fur- face all either covered, even to (hining, with the webs of the wevils, or elfe in ropes, hanging together by it, and the flies bufy ; the wheat was two or three feet thick, and had not been ftirred. In a third granary, to which I went for fatisfying my curiofity, in the hands of the owner (for the other two belonged to noblemen, and were managed by intendants,) I found in the fame condition ; and all agreed, that to dir the wheat is bad, as it makes the whole heap alike : whereas, by not moving it, the furface only fufFers. On this, I thrufl my arm into the heap, to examine the interior, which all flunk dreadfully. Perhaps, neither the wevil, nor any other infect, may live deep in the heap $ but, for want of airing, the wheat (links ; not to mention the furface, which is a lofs of 5 or 6 per cent. A mod barbarous syftem of management. It is worth re- marking, that the only good way of keeping wheat is in the draw : flacks (hould be built on capt dones, to keep vermin out, and the corn threfhed as wanted. Mozzata . The produdl here, on the three divifions of foil, are, per pertica, the meafure the dajo, — Middling. ' 5 ' ' 5 ' 1 5 1 ■ 6 - Good. Wheat - 8 Rye 8 Millet - 8 Common maiz, 10 Ditto Quarantino, 6 Lupines, - 8 Panic, - 6 Clover hay, 3501b. of 28 oz. per pertica, at 3 mowings ; ii ton per acre. In money by corn, without mulberries or vines, 24 liv. — 15 J — 91 For the landlord’s (hare, I fuppofe. And, in refpedl to the country in general, if four fquare miles be taken around Mozzata, of fix parts, three are good, two middling, and one bad. Average corn produce, 18J liv. The common notion is. Bad. 3 4 3 4 2 4 2 LOMBARDY. is, that two-thirds of the grofs produce go towards maintaining the farmer, fupporting the cattle, wear and tear, taxes, &c. and that one third is nett to the proprietor. .. Deduct one-eighth of corn, for damage by hail; the produce of vines — — — mulberries, - Or, perpertica, 7^ liv. (3is.per Englifh acre, * *). Such land would fell for 145 liv. per pertica (28I. 16s. per Englifh acre). The feed and produce of the crops here, are, — wheat, fow one flara and reap fix times as much ; maiz, fow one fourth of a flara, and get twenty for one j millet, fow one eighth flara, and reap fix flara; rye, fow one-half flara, [ the produce eight flara ; rice fow one flajo, gain fixteen rough, or eight white. A Bergamafque writer obferves, that wheat cultivated with the plough, com- monly yields four, five, and fix times the feed ; but, cultivated with the fpade, twelve, fourteen, and fixteen times that quantity +, and this of greater weight ; a fure proof of their miferable tillage. * At 6 1 -6th pertica per acre Englifh, corrected from fome of the proceeding proportions, front intelligence very lately received. \ Cant uni •> lnjiruzioni Pratiche intorno al Jgricdtura, 8vo. 1788, Bergamo. P. 16. Produce of 100 pertiche, at iSJliv. Vines, proprietor, — — tenant. 1850 150 15 ° Mulberries, 2000 lb. leaves, at 4 liv, per hundred. 300 80 2230 Deduct one-tenth of corn produdl, damaged by vines. 185 2045 is nett, this is allowed for. 209 Total nett produce. Hence, therefore, it does not quite reach i8| liv. on the average Proprietor — one-third of corn, — vines. 555 150 80 Codogno, E e 2 Brefcia - 212 LOMBARDY. Brefcia. Arable products in this vicinity, are, — wheat, three facchi, of fourteen peze each peze 25 lb. being about fix feeds. The peze, of 25 lb. Brefcian, being equal to 14* French, makes 206 lb. French per fack, or 224 lb. Englifh : the three facks, therefore, are 6721b. Englifh, on a jugero of four pertiche ; this is fcarcely twelve bufhels the Englifh acre, reckoning four one-fourth pertiche in that acre *. Maiz, fown in March, produces fix, eight, ten facchi, each twelve peze of 25 lb. This is about twenty-eight bufhels to the Englifh acre, fuppofing a bufhel of maiz to be 50 lb. ; but quarantine) does not yield more than five fuch facks. Melico (the great millet), fifteen facchi, of ten or eleven fuch peze. Flax, fix to nine peze, at 20 liv. to 25 liv. the peze; this is about 125 lb. the Englifh acre, and 170 liv. at 6d. Englifh, 4I. 5s. and per Englifh acre 4I. Millet gives three facchi, of eleven peze. Clover, three hundred peze of hay, at three cuts ; meadows yield the fameas clover, but are paftured in au- tumn. Price of hay 70 liv. the carro, of one hundred peze. Three hundred peze equal 4827 lb. Englifh, and per Englifh acre, 4522 lb. which we may call grofsly two tons ; a very poor crop for three mowings. To Verona . In this line of country, the Lombardy fyftem, of planting all the arable lands with rows of pollards, for training vines, is at its height. There is a good deal of it from Bergamo to Brefcia; and fome are feen in palling from Yaprio to Bergamo, but not fo univerfally as here. It is a moft fingular fyftem ; rows of maple, afh, or poplar, are planted, from four to feven yards afunder, and rows of vines at their feet, which are trained up thofe trees, and in feftoons from tree to tree ; the fpace is cultivated for corn. They do not feem to approve of a finale Item for thefe pollards fo much as feveral, for they have three or four, about fix feet high; cropped every fecond year, to prevent too great a fhade. In fome places, mulberries are mixed with thefe common foreft trees : one mul- berry, and then two afh or maple. In fome rows, beyond all doubt, the vines * In the new edition of Agoftino Gallo, the editors give a line for the length of a Brefcian inch (oncia) 1 ■ which is the length of 1 5-8th inch Englifli. Twelve of thofe oncia make one braccio, and fix braccia make one cavezzo ; confequently there are 9^ feet in a cavezzo. A pertica is an oblong fquare, twenty cavezzi long and five wide ; now multiply 9 1 by 20 = 19 5 ; and multiply 95: by 5, = 48I ; and the one produdl by the other, = 95061. fquare feet for a pertica ; and 44 pertiche equals an Englifh acre ; perhaps the editors of that new edition have made an error, in {fating 30,709 French feet in their jugero of 4 pertiche. are LOMBARDY. 213 are trained equally on the mulberries as on the other trees; but not generally, being fattened only to the ftems of the mulberries. The better the land, the farther afundeu are thefe rows, even to fixty or feventy feet ; but, in worfe land, much nearer. All the way, the foil is a ftoney gravel, of a different appear- ance in quality, but where holes are dug for trees, it looks better. Verona. Wheat here yields five or fix times the feed. They fow one hundred Vero- nefe pounds upon a campo of land, and reap five hundred and fifty, which is about two bufhels of feed per Englifh acre, and the produce eleven bufhels. We have not, upon the pooreft lands in England, fo wretched a crop : to what are we to attribute it, if not to general bad management, united with the exe- crable fyftem of incumbering their fields with pollards and vines. They fleep their wheat feed in lime-water twelve hours, to prevent the fmut. Vicenzd. The thirty-two miles from Verona hither, are all, except a fmall quantity of irrigated land, lined into the fame rows, as already defcribed, from twenty - five to thirty yards afunder. Wheat is fown clofe under them ; but with maiz, fix yards are left on each fide not cropped ; and, in fome pieces, thofe twelve yards are fown thick for forage, as not equally wanting fun ; a fure proof that they admit the damage of the trees, and provide againft it as well as they can. In fome grounds preparing for wheat, manure is fpread as far as the roots of the trees extend, but no further. What a fyftem, to give dung to elms and maples, and to force wheat to grow under their fliade ! Wheat has now (October 23) been fown a month or fix weeks ; it is high, and thick enough to hide a hare. The borders of thefe fown lands are dug clean away, as deeply as in Eftex. Maiz produces about nine one-half facchi the campo. Inquiring here into the eftimated damage refulting to corn from the plantations of trees in arable land, I was told, that the lofs in one-tenth of wheat, and one-half of maiz, but to clover none. The trees here are all walnuts, for training vines to, the damage done by them, agreed to be very confiderable. Of wheat they fow three ftari, and the produce eighteen to twenty ; of maiz one, and the crop thirty to thirty-five ; of cinquantino, half a ftara, preduce fixteen ; of buck- wheat one-fourth, the return fix. In the farms around the celebrated Rotunda, , maiz produces five facks, each of 1501b.: a fack is four ftari, and the ftara about three pecks ; this is fifteen bufhels, and not fixteen, the acre. They are fometimes troubled with the fmut; Sig. de Boning, Preftdent of the Academy of LOMBARDY. 214 of Agriculture, has tried liming and lime water, as a prevention, but without any fuccefs. Of maiz they have a new fort, that carries a male flower on the top of the cone, and this fort always fills with grain to the very point, which is not the cafe with other kinds. In refpedt to the exhaufting quality of crops, they reckon that the maiz which carries the flower at top takes moft from the land : 2, millet: 3, common maiz: 4, wheat. It feems remarkable, that they fhould confider the crops which are preparatory to wheat as exhauftrng, more than the wheat itfelf. Padua. Of wheat they fow three ftaji in middling land, two in fertile foils, and four in bad ones, per campo: as the ftajo is equal to forty-one French pounds, and the campo about one-tenth lefs than an Englifh acre, it makes three ftaji equal to two and a half bufhels per acre, which is pretty exactly the quantity we ufe in England. The crop is two mozzi on the beft land, and one and a half on a medium: each mozzo twelve ftaji : this is about fifteen and a half bufhels the acre or under feven times the feed. Thus thefe wretched products purfue me through all Lombardy. Of maiz they fow three quarti, or three-fourths of a ftajo, but if planted, two : the produce, good five mozzi, middling three, bad one. Of lucern (the quantity very inconfiderable) and of clover they fow 12 lb. grojfo. This pound is to the French one as 9150 is to 9216; this is between 14 lb. and 15 lb. per acre. Clover gives three carri, each 1000 lb. at three cuts. Lucern four carri, at four or five cuts. Almoft the whole country is lined into rows of pollards, as already defcribed •, yet they admit that every fort of tree does very great damage to all arable crops 5 but to grafs the mifchief is not great. rfo Venice . The fame level at this city that reigns about Padua, equally enclofed and planted ; much of it arable, and almoft the whole cut into little fcraps of fields, with many gardens. Near the Adriatic, a dead level marfh, covered with marfh grafles. Ecclesiastical State. — Bologna. In a famous field near the city, remarkable for yielding great crops of hemp, wheat yields one hundred corbes for five of feed. In general, they fow two and a half tornature of land, or one acre and a quarter, with a corbaof feed, or 1 50 lb. to 160 lb. (fomething under the Englifh pound) ; and in all the Bo- lognefe, on an average, the produce is about five feeds, fome only three ; but on LOMBARDY. 215 on the beft hemp lands twelve to fixteen, on a medium ; but twenty for one are fornetimes known. Tuscany. — Florence. In the plains, the general produce is eight times the feed ; the whole dutchy through, not more than five or fix: in the depofits of rivers, or fpots remark- ably rich, twelve, fifteen, and even twenty. All thefe are wheat. Beans four and a half and five. On one ftioro of land they fow three-fourths of a ftajo of wheat, which weighs 521b. to 551b. of 120Z. (this pound is equal to three quar- ters of a pound Englifh.) On the hills they fow one-fourth more. Suppofing the ftiora * to be, according to De la Lande, 7056 French feet, about 5^ make an Englifh acre; three-fourths of a ftajo therefore per ftiora, equals 165 lb. per acre, or very near three bufhels. * There are three accounts before me of the contents of a Tufcan ftiora. Monf. De la Lande, tom. ii. p. 314. fays, “ le ftiora =» 196 toifes quarres en fuperficie thefe-. are French toifes, each fix feet: this makes about 5i ftiori to an Englifli acre; that is to fay, 7056 French fquare feet, of which 38,300 are an acre. In La S quadra mobile F Arithmetic a e F Agricoltura, del S. Sangiovanni , 4to, Vicenza, 1759, p. 11. and 132. is the meafure of the foldo of Florence, which equals 1 i-eighth inch Englifh; the braccio is 20 foldi, or 22! inches Englifh, (by another account 23I; 6braccia make a canna: and 8 canne long, by 6 broad, make a ftiora. Hence there are 6075 Englifh feet in the ftiora; confequently there are fomething above 7 ftiori in an acre. Monf. Pau&on, in his Metrologies p. 794, compares it to the arpent of France of 48,400 French feet, and makes it to thatarpentas 0.11461 to 1.0000; by this account it will be about 27,800 French feet, of which feet 38,300 are an acre, or above 1 i-third ftiora. In the Giornale Fiorentino di Agricoltura , 1786, p. 253. “L’acre al noftro ftioro fta come 18,992 a 10,592;” by this ratio, an acre is about ii ftiora. All thefe accounts differ therefore greatly. To compare other circumftances — At Martelli, they fow one-third of a ftajo of wheat feed on a ftiora; and at Villamagna, they fow 3 1 ftiori with 1 ftajo, which quantities nearly agree. By DelaLande’s account, this will be per acre Englifh 73 lb. which appears to be a fmaller quantity than any where ufed. By Sangiovanni, it will be about 94 lb. ftill under the common quantities. By Pau&on, it will be about 17 lb.; a portion not to be named as the feed of an acre. And by the Florentine author, about 23 lb. which is almoft equally abfurd. Seed wheat will agree with none of the meafures; fuppofe they fow 2I bufhels per acre, then there are 15 ftiori in an acre. If 2 bufhels, then there are 12 ftiori. All is confufion. At Villamagna, they fow 24 ftaji of beans on 28 ftiori of land; this is about 3 bufhels Englifli per 5£ ftiori, which agees very well with an acre being 54 : they fow alfo 6 ftaji of oats on 10 ftiori, this would be 2 bufhels on 5 : they fow oats therefore rather thinner, proportionably to the Englifh pra&ice, than beans. Upon my getting a friend to write to Tufcany for information, I received fuch as proved of no ufe; fimply this table, — 1 quadrate, 10 tavole ; 1 tavola , 10 pertiche ; 1 per tic a, 1 0 deche ; 1 deca, 10 brace ia f quadra. This makes the quadrato under 40,000 feet Englifh. But what is thejliora? Such are the endlefs difficulties in every thing concerning meafures. Where authorities, apparently good, differ fo greatly, the reader will of courfe receive all eftima- tions with many doubts. But 2l6 LOMBARDY. But I found at Martelli, near Florence, that they fowed but one-third of a ftajo per ftiora, which would not be more than two bufhels per acre. Beans would be much more cultivated, but for the pernicious plant the cufcuta — a pa- ralite that feeds on and deftroys the crop, fo that even the feed again is not reaped ; in the old botany called orobanchis ramofa , and in Tufcany fucca mala , and fiamini. Of faggini they fow if ftajo of feed, and the produce fifty to fixty. Offormentone (maiz) they fow half a ftajo, and reap twenty-five. On the plains in Tufcany, the chief produdt is wheat, the fecond wine, and the third oil ; but on the fouthern fide of the hills, olives on fpots bad for them, and wine. Silk no where enough to be a chief objedt. Modena. The country from Modena to Reggio conftantly improves in its features, and muft be reckoned among the beft cultivated in Lombardy ; the fields are thrown into arched lands, like Flanders, about twenty-five yards broad, and fmall ridges on thofe: a row of trees is planted on the crowns of fome, and along the furrows of others: in fome there are neat grafs trenches ; and as the fences are equally well made, and the meadows with a good afpedt, the country carries the general features of being well cultivated. The appearance of thefe broad ridges, in two of the beft cultivated countries in Europe, Lombardy and Flanders, juftly gives a high idea of the pradtice. Parma. From Reggio to Parma, there are many lands, three or four yards broad, now (November) deeply ploughed, and the furrows cleaned out by fpades, laid up in this manner, for planting beans in the fpring ; excellent management. There are alfo a good many autumn fown ones, three or four inches high: produce in general, about Yicomero, wheat four or five times the feed, and beans five or fix. To Firenzuola this pradtice takes place yet more, and is better done. The merit of their hufbandry appears to be greater about Parma than at Piacenza ; there is a vifible decline as you advance. Savoy. At Lanefbourg, they fow only rye, which they harveft in July, the produce about fix for one. If the intelligence concerning the produce of wheat be reviewed, it will be found, on an average, varying from five to feven and an half times the feed ; generally between five and fix. Suppofe the latter number, and we fiiall, with reafon LOMBARDY. 217 reafon, be amazed at the miferable products of this rich plain, in every thing except grafs and (ilk. The average foil of England cannot be compared with the average foil of Lombardy, yet our mean produce is eleven times the feed, perhaps twelve. Everyone muft be curious to know the caufe of fuch wretched crops : I attribute them to various circumftances — but the predominant caufe muft be fought for in the fmall farms occupied either by little peafant proprietors, or, what is more general, by metayers. This abominable fyftem of letting land is the origin of moft of the evils found in agriculture, wherever the method prevails. Such poor farmers, who, in every part of Italy where I have been, are fo miferable, that they are forced to borrow of the landlord even the bread they eat before the harveft comes round, are utterly unable to perform any ope- ration of their culture with the vigour of a fubftantial tenantry ; this evil per- vades every thing in a farm ; it diffufes itfelf, imperceptibly to a common eye, into circumftances where none would feek it. There are but few diftridts where lands are let to the occupying tenant at a money rent ; but wherever it is found, there crops are greater; a clear proof of the imbecillity of the metaying fyftem. Yet there are politicians, if they defer ve the name, every where to be found, who are violent againft changing thefe metayers for farmers ; an apparent de- population is faid to take place ; and the fame ftupid arguments are heard, that we have been peftered with in England, againft the union of farms. Men rea- fon againft that improvement of their lands, which is the natural progrefs of wealth and profperity ; and are fo grofsly abfurd as to think, that doubling the produce of a country will deprive it of its people. SECT. III. OF THE CULTURE OF CERTAIN PLANTS. Gallega Officinalis. Commonly fpontaneous in the fields, between Milan and Pavia, and when- ever cattle have admiflion all clofely eaten. Paliurus. I know no plant that makes a better hedge than this in the north of Lom- bardy- Sig. Pilati, near Brefcia, has one of fix years growth, as good as an excellent white thorn one in England would be in ten. j Trigonella Fcenum Gr cecum. Cultivated in the Bolognefe in preference to clover ; foil with it ; and fow wheat on the land. Vol. II. Ff Sainfoin . LOMBARD Y. 218 Sainfoin . In Tulcany, the coline di Pifani are much under this plant, which is called lupinello j particularly about Cartel Fiorentino, where it was introduced about twenty years ago, by Sig. Neri; one of the good deeds which delerve a nation’s thanks, better than a victory, or the taking of half a dozen towns. A thou- fand facks of the feed were fent thence to Naples and Sicily. Will thofe king- doms awaken at laft ? Sig. Paoletti, at Villamagna, has a piece of good fain- foin on a rteep Hope ; but I found one-third of it burnet. Larch, In the Milanefe, at Mozzata, the Count de Caftiglioni having 200 pertiche of wafte heath, and a community 200 more adjoining, he took a leafe of it for ever ; and ploughing the whole, fowed acorns, planting alder, larch, and other trees, which do well ; but the fown oak, in eight years, exceeded every thing, and are beautiful trees : the foil a poor gravel. We have in England fo many prejudices, that a man who does not travel is apt to think that every thing Englilh is better than the fame things in other countries ; and, among other follies, that for oak England is fuperior to all the world : but timber wants fun as much as wheat ; and I have no where in England feen fuch a growth of timber, as in many places abroad. Larch abounds greatly in the mountains, and is reckoned an admirable wood for water- works 5 all ports are of larch. I have read in fome writer, that there is a law, in many parts of Lombardy, which allows a land-proprietor, whofe eftatc is entailed, to plant, on the birth of a daughter, a certain number of Lombardy poplars, which are her portion on coming of age, or being married, in fpite of any entail. I en- quired, both in Piedmont and here, into the truth of this, and was allured there is no fuch law $ nor did they ever hear of the cuftom, even when ertates have not been entailed. In the arfenal of Venice, is fome quantity of larch, kept under cover ; and valued greatly for all works expofed to water. They are not very large, but coft twenty-two ducats each. The marts are very fine pine-trees, from the up- per Trevifano; I meafured one thirty-eight yards long, and two feet diameter at the butt, and one foot at the other end* Lucerne * I mention this plant, for an opportunity of obferving, how very rarely it is cul- tivated in Italy : I faw a little near Padua $ and there is an inconfiderable quan- tity in the Parmefan, where it is cut five or fix times ; they find, that cows give more milk on it, than on any other grafs. Raves, LOMBARDY, SI£ Raves . I was fomewhat furprized, to find turnips, or rather the French raves (for I fear they are not the genuine turnip), cultivated in Tufcany. I was aflured, that in the Valdichiana there are many, fown immediately after wheat, but never hoed, yet come generally from 2lb. to 51b. $ fome to 301b. (2olb. Englifh), an^ that they are applied to the feeding and fattening of oxen, which fell at 140 Jcudt the pair (391. 13s. 4d. Englifh); nothing befide is given, except a little hay, Cyprus Tree. At Soma, near the Lago Maggiore, there is a very famous Cyprus tree, which Corio, in his Storia di Mtlano , fays, was the place where the people aflembled in congrefs in the thirteenth century ; it was then the moll celebrated tree for fizc and age in the whole Milanefe ; and mull therefore be immenfely old at prefent. It is now in good health, except a few branches that have fuffered a little towards the top 1 it is nine braccia in circumference. CULTURE OF SILK, Nice. Eight roups of cocoons, or 841b, make 241b. of filk (iif oz.), which fells at to liv. 5/. the lb. 5 a roup of leaves fells at 20 f. and 250 roup arc neceffary for 8 0 z. of grain (eggs). Coni . The whole country, after afcending the Alps, is planted with mulberries, around every field, and if large, in lines acrofs. I remarked great numbers from ten to fifteen years old. To Chentale, 1 oz. of grain requires 360 roup of leaves ; each roup 25 lb, and yields 4 or 5 roups of bozzoli or cacata (cocoons), and x roup of cocoons makes 3 lb. of filk. The price of organzine 20 liv. to 24 liv. per lb. j the offal pays the fpinning. Gathering the leaves cofts 2/ to 3/ the roup , Chentale. The feed of the mulberry is fown in nurferies, and the trees commonly planted out at four years old. The firft, fecond, and third year, they are pruned, for giving the branches the right form ; the fourth, they begin to gather the leaves. Some which were fhewn me by the Count de Bonaventa, of eighteen years old, F f 2 give 220 LOMBARDY. give 6, 7, and to 8 rub bit of leaves each. One old tree, a very extraordinary one, has given 53 roups . A large tree, of fifty or fixty years, commonly yields 25 rubbii. They never dig around them, nor wafh the ftems as in Dauphine ; but they have a practice, not of equal merit, which is to twift draw-bands around the ftems, to defend them againft the fun. For one ounce of grain 65 to 80 rubbii of leaves are necefiary, which give i\ rubbii of cocoons and fometimes fo far as four. One rubbio of cocoons yields 20 to 21 oz. of lilk organzine, of the price of i 81 iv. per lb. For gathering the leaves, from 1 f 8 den . to if, the rubbio is given. The offal (morefca and chocata) pays the winding and fpinning. They never hatch the worms by artificial heat ; ufing only that of the fun, or of the human body. The common method of carrying on the bufinefs is, to provide, as in France, grain and mulberries, and to receive half the cocoons. The cultiva- tion is fo profitable, that there are many lands to which mulberries add a value of 200 liv. or 300 liv. more than they would fell for if they contained none ; and it is farther thought, that they are but little injurious to corn, the fhade not be- ing fo prejudicial as that of the walnut, and of fome other trees. The common eftimation of profit is, that trees of all ages yield from the time of beginning to bear, from 30 f, to 4 liv. each nett to the landlord for his half produce. 'Turin, One ounce of grain gives 2 to 4 rubbii of cocoons, and demands 120 rubbii of leaves ; 1 rubbio of cocoons will give 22 oz. of commonly well fpun filk. The price of grain 12 liv. the oz. when very fcarce, but in common 30 f; that of leaves 7 or 8/ per rubbio . Cocoons 21 liv. per rubbio . When I afked the price of the filk, the anfwer was. Oh ! for that ! it is the price the Englifh choofe to pay for it. The common price of organzine, 16 to 20 liv. firft quality; raw, 12 liv. For gathering the leaves, if, per rubbio is given. Of the different forts of mul- berry, the wild is the beft, in point of quality of filk. A tree of twenty years, will give 24 or 25 rubbii of leaves ; fome to 35 rubbii. The trees are grafted in the nurfery, and planted out at four years, at the beginning of April; price, 10 f to choofe out of many; and in four years after, begin to gather. When planted in watered meadows, the gathering damages the hay almoft to the value of the leaves, yet many are fo planted ; and many peafants think they lofe in corn by the fhade of the trees, as much as they get by them. From the 22d to the 26th of April, is the feafon for hatching ; never by fire ; nor have they any method of retarding the hatching, in cafe of a want of leaves. Endive, lettuce, and elm leaves, have been often tried as a fuccedaneum, but always killed the worms; fuch things mud never be depended on. The peafants generally fell the cocoons, not one in a hundred fpinning. A chamber of twenty feet by twelve LOMBARDY. 221 twelve feet is neceffary for 3 oz. of grain ; and fix tables, one trebucco long and two-thirds wide. Novara. Pafled this place towards Milan, which is a great trad: of mulberries for fe- veral miles. Milanese. — Buffalora to Manienta . Many mulberry hedges, but they are bad and ragged ; fome new planted in the quincunx pofition. For feveral miles, the country is all planted in rows of vines, at twelve, fixteen, and twenty feet, and fruit trees among them, for their fupport ; among which, are many mulberries, and the vines running up them. This muft be a moft profitable hufbandry indeed, to have filk and wine not only from the fame ground, but in a manner from the fame tree. Between the rows, the ground is cultivated j millet, maiz (cut), holcus forgum , the great millet, lupines, with dung amongft them, to be ploughed in for wheat, with young maiz, fown thick, as if for fodder. Citric ho. A beautiful mulberry hedge, and in good order; fix to eight inches from plant to plant, and cropt at fixteen or eighteen from the ground. It is clear therefore, that the plant will do, with care, for a good hedge. Towards Milan, mulber- ries decline, oak and other pollards being found in their ftead. Mozzata . The culture of mulberries and making filk, being here much attended to, were principal objects in my inquiries. The fruit is well wafhed, the end of June, to make the feed fink ; it is then fown in rows, in a bed of earth well manured, and finely laboured, in the rich nurferies near Milan ; covered very lightly, and the furface lightly flattened ; flraw is fpread to defend it from the fun, and much water given. When the young plants appear, they are weeded by hand. The fecond year, they grow to two or three feet high, and hoed and thinned. The third year, they are cut to the ground above the buds that are to pulh, and tranfplanted from thofe nurferies, in the vicinity of the city, to others that are fcattered all over the country, in ground well dug and manured, and at two feet fquare ; here they are kept clean by hoeing. The fifth year, in the fpring, they are cut again to the ground ; they then fhoot very powerfully, and attention muft be given, to keep but one good fhoot, and the ground is dug or hoed deeper than common, and alfo dunged. The fixth year, thofe that are high enough, are grafted; and the reft, the year following. Thofe that took the 222 LOMBARDY. the fixth year, ought to reft in the nurfery three years, including the year of grafting, that is, the feventh and eighth year. They do not like to plant large trees, and have a proverb, Se vuoi far torto al tuo vicino, Pianta il moro groflo e il fico piccolino. As to plant fmall fig trees is as bad as large mulberries. The holes are made in winter for receiving them where they are to remain ; thefe are nine feet fquare and two feet deep, and have at the bottom a bed of broom, bark of trees, or other rubbifti ; then the beft earth that can be had, and on that dung, one load of fixteen feet to four trees ; this is covered with more good earth, and this levels the hole with the reft of the field ; then prune the roots and plant, fetting a pole by the young tree to the north, and a fpur poft on the other fide, to guard it from the plough. Twine no ftraw the firft year, becaufe of the infedt forficula auricularia , L . ; but in November bind ftraw around them againft the cold, or, as ftraw is dear, the poa rubra, which abounds. Never, or very rarely, water. Much attention to remove all buds not tending in the right direction. The fourth fpring after planting, their heads are pollarded, in March, leav- ing the (hoots nine inches long of new wood, and feeking to give them the hollow form of a cup, and that the new buds may afterwards divide into two or three branches, but not more. The next year, they begin to pluck the leaves. They are attentive in pruning, which is done every fecond year, to preferve as much as they can the cup form, as the leaves are gathered more eafily. Thus it is about fourteen years from the feed before the return begins. After gathering the leaves, a man examines and cuts away all wounded (hoots* and if hail damage them, they are cut, let it be at what time of the year it may. Old trees are pruned after gathering, but young ones in March. In autumn, the leaves are never taken for cattle before the nth of November, as the trees after that time do not fuffer. The third year after planting young trees, they fow about a hat full of lupines around the ftem, and when about ten inches high, dig them in for manure. The opinion here is, that the mulberry does very little barm to rye or wheat, except that when cut the falling of branches and trampling are fomewhat injurious. Maiz, millet, and panic are much more hurt. A tree, five years after tranfplanting, gives jolb, of leaves, each 28 oz. At ten years, j8 lb. At fifteen years, 25 lb. At twenty years, 301b. At thirty years, 50 lb. At fifty to feventy years, 70 lb. There are trees that give 80 lb. and even ioo lb. The price of leaves is commonly 4HV. per joolb, (28 oz,). For one ounce of grain 5,00 lb. of leaves are neceflary, and yield 171b. of cocoons * but among the rifings in the mountain of Brianza, 251b. To make a pound of filk, of u oz. LOMBARDY. 223 5 lb. or 61 b. of cocoons, of 28 oz. are required. Price of cocoons, in the low watered country, 2liv. per lb. (28 oz.). At Mozzata, 2 i liv. At Brianza, 3 liv. The grain is hatched in a chamber, heated by a chimney, and not a ftove, to 17 deg. of Reaumur (70* Far.) ; but before being placed in this chamber, they are kept eight days under a bed, with a coverlet upon them, in boxes covered with paper pierced : and when hatched lay the young leaflets of the mulberries on the paper, to entice them out. The method of conducting the bufinefs here is the fame as in France, the landlord furnifhes half the grain, and the peafants half, and they divide the cocoons. Price of grain, 2 liv. the ounce. Mulber- ries, of all ages, are pollarded every fecondyear; a mifchievous cuftom, which makes the trees decay, and leflens their produce ; it is never done in Dauphine* where the culture is fo well underftood. Milan. Sig. Felice Soave made fome interefting trials on filk worms. At Lambrate, near Milan, 2 oz. of feed in rooms, kept to the heat of 23 and 24 deg. Reaumur, hatched well, and kept healthy : the 28th of April, the feed was placed in the rooms, and hatched in the third, fourth, and fifth day : tho 21 ft of May, the firft cocoon feen, and at the end of the month all were at work. The product gathered the 3d of June; the product 92 \ lb. cocoons (28 oz.) ; eighty-four of them having been fpun from four and five cocoons, gave 2of lb. (12 oz.) of filk, ftronger and more fhining than common : the confumption of leaves, 14201b. of 2802. Wood ufed for fire, 2800 lb.; but the two rooms would have ferved for 4 oz. of feed. In the common method, without ftoves, the confumption of leaves is 500 lb. for an ounce of feed, and the medium pro- du& is not above 15 lb. of cocoons; and by this new method, the confumption of leaves has been 710 lb. each ounce, and the produce 461 lb. cocoons. Sixteen or feventeen cocoons weigh an ounce in the common method, but in this only thirteen or fourteen. The filk cannot commonly be fpun from five or fix co- coons ; thefe were fpun eafily from four or five, and might have been done from three or four. To gain a pound of filk, in common, 5 lb. of cocoons are necef- fary; but here the fame quantity has been gained from 4 lb. Lodi to Codogno.. In this dead level and watered diftrid, there are very few mulberries; none except near the villages ; many of them, not all, appear unhealthy ; perhaps by reafon of their not exerting the fame attention as in Dauphine, where there is, in irrigated meadows, mounds made to keep the water from thefe trees. Codogno i 224 LOMBARD Y. Codogno to Crema . Mulberry treft here have large heads, as in Dauphine, inflead of being pol- larded inceffantly, as to the north of Milan. There is an idea in the Milanefe, that filk was introduced by Ludovico il Moro. Francefco Muralto reports, “ Prasdia inculta infinita duobus fluminibus ad no- valia (Ludovicus), reduxit infinitas plantas Moronum ad conficiendas fetas, feu fericas plantari fecerat et illius artis in ducatu, primus fuit auCtor It is faid to have been introduced into Europe by fome Bafilian monks, from Sirinda, a city of Indoftan, to Conftantinople, under the Emperor Juftinian, in the year 550, by one account “f* ; and by another, in 525 J. In 1315, the manufactory of filk was brought in Florence to great perfection, by the refugees of Lucca || ; but during the fifteenth century, no filk was made in Tufcany; for all ufed in that period was foreign, filk worms being then unknown §. In 1474, they had eighty-four fhops that v/rought gold and filver brocaded filks, which were exported to Lyons, Geneva, Spain, England, Germany, Turkey, Barbary, Aha, See.** Roger I. King of Sicily, about the year 1146ft, having con- quered fome Grecian cities, brought the filk weavers from thence into Palermo; and the manufacture was foon imitated by the people of Lucca, who took a bale of filk for their arms, with the infeription — Dei munus diligentet ' curandum pro vita multorum ff. In 1525, the filk manufacture at Milan employed twenty- five thou fan d people ; and it feems to have augmented till 1558 ||||. In 1423, the Republic of Florence took off the duty of entree upon mulberry leaves, and prohibited the exportation ; and fome communities of Tufcany have re- cords concerning filk anterior to that period §§. In almoft all the diftricls of the Milanefe, mulberry trees are met with, very old, with towering branches ; among which are thofe of Sforzefca, planted under Ludovico il Moro *f, who lived at the end of the fifteenth century. Venetian State . — Vaprio to Bergamo . There are many mulberries, mixed with the cultivation of corn and vines, in this traCt of country. * Atti Societa P atniotica^ vol. ii. p. 220. -f- Baggio fopra la Replicata Raccolta della Foglia del Gelfo , 1775, p. i. % Dizionario del Filugello, i2mo, 1771, P- 43* II Ragionamente fopra Fofcana , p.4.9. § Decima , tom. ii. fez. 5. cap. 4. ** Benedetto Dei* Giannone Storia Civ. Y. ii. lib. 11. cap. 7. p. 219. Giulini , tom. v. p. 461. Baggio , &c. p. 56. (HI Opufc. Scelte , vol. vii. p. 12. Bartolozzi. §§ Corfo di Agricoltura Pratica. Lajlrif tom. i. p.285. *f Elementi d* Agricoltura. Mitterpacber , tom. ii. p. 5 I 3* Bergamo . LOMBARD *Y. 1225 Bergamo. Four ounces of feed are here given to each poor family, which yield four pefi of cocoons* Brefcia . One hundred pefi of leaves are neceflary to 1 oz. of feed ; and four pefi of boz- %oli, or cocoons, are the produce of 1 oz . ; and th t pefo of cocoons gives 28 to 30 oz. of filk. Cocoons fell at 45 liv. per pefo. Leaves at 1 liv. $ and iilk at 22 liv. to 24 liv. per lb. The trees are lopped every three years j yet fome are known that give 20 pefi of leaves. Small ones half a pefo and one pefo, Verona . One ounce of feed demands feventeen or eighteen facchi of leaves, each one hundred Veronefe pounds (or 741b. Englilh). Twelve ounces of feed are given to each family ; and each ounce returns 60 lb. of cocoons, at 12 oz. the lb . ; the price 24 f. the lb. To each ounce of feed fixteen to eighteen facchi of leaves, each 100 lb. of 12 oz. are necefiary. The 60 lb. cocoons, at 24 J. are 72 liv. or 36s. j which is the produce of eight trees, or 4s. 6d. a tree, the half of which is 2s. 3d. It muft however be remarked, that thefe prices of cocoons vary fo much, that no rule can be drawn from them : this price of 24 f the pound is very low, and muft arife from fome local circumftance. One ounce of filk to one pound of cocoons. They are here, as in the preceding diftricfts, in the cuftom of finding the trees, and half the feed, and the peafants the reft ; and they divide the cocoons. A tree of forty years old will give four facchi j and if a plantation confift of one thoufand trees, they will, one with another, give two facchi. They make filk in the Veronefe to the amount of a million of pounds of 12 oz. There are, near the city, fome trees in a rich arable field feventy years old, that yield from four to fix facks of leaves each this is about 10s. a tree, at the loweft price of cocoons. fo Vicenza . There are many rows of mulberries in the meadows, that are never dug around, and yet quite healthy, which proves that they might be fcattered iuc- cefsfully about grafs lands, if any proof were wanting of fo undoubted a faff. In the arable lands, the foil all gravel, they are planted twelve ridges apart. Some of the trees are aid, that fpread leven or eight yards acrofs. G g VoL. II. .Vicen^fti', n6 L €> M B A R B Y, Vicenza , The produce of-filk amounts here to about 61 iv. the campo , over a whole farm; this is about 3s. an acre. The facco of leaves weighs 75 lb. and forty facchi are necefiary for one ounce of feed ; which gives iqq lb. ot cocoons, and 10 lb. of filk. One hundred trees, of twenty years old, yield forty facchi ; price 3. liv. to ii liv. ; commonly 3 liv. Price of cocoons 30 f, to 50 f the pound. I was glad here to meet with fome intelligence concerning the new filk worm, faid to have come from Perfia, which they have had here eight years, but is in the hands of fo few perfons, that I could get none of the feed j and I fufpedf that it is loft ; for, on repeated inquiries, I was referred to other parts of Italy, While they had this worm, they had four crops of cocoons a year ; — 1. In the beginning of June. 2. The end of the fame month. 3. The middle of Auguft. 4. In October. This worm is efientially different from the com-* mon ones in the circumftance of hatching : no art will hatch the eggs of the common fort the firft year, that is the year of the flies dropping them ; they can be hatched the year following only j but of this new fort, the eggs will hatch in fifteen days the fame year, if they be in the proper heat. But it is to be obferved, that they ufe this fort of worm not really to command fcveral crops in the fame year, for mulberry trees will not bear it without deffruCtion, but merely as a fuccedaneum to the common fort of worms, if by frofts in the fpring they be loft for want of food ; this new fort is in referve, to apply the leaves to profit once in the year. Theoretically the plan is good; but there mud have been fomething in practice againfl it, or we may conjecture that after* many years the ufe of them would have been generally introduced. This will not be an improper place to introduce fome remarks on this fubjeCt, by an author much efteemed, but quite unknown in England. It appears from the work of Count Carlo Bettoni, of Brefcia, that the difeovery of the new filk worm arofe from experiments made with a view of finding out a cure for the ficknefs of mulberry trees, called moria ; this was fuppofed to arife from gripping the leaves in the fpring annually; it was thought, that if fome means could be difeovered of poftponing the gathering much later in the year, it would greatly favour the vegetation and health of the trees ; an effeCt that could only take place by means of a worm that would hatch much later than the common one. In 1765, a fecond hatching of the eggs of the common worm is faid, by the fame author, to have been made; part of which were fed with the fecond growth of leaves, and part with the leaves of trees that had not been gathered in the fpring. Thofe fed with the old leaves gave a greater number of cocoons, and of a better quality than the others. Thefe experiments were repeated by many perfons ; and it was found, that in the heats of July ' and LOMBARDY. 227 and Auguft the worms would not do well ; but in September much better,, and that the trees did not fuffer from having their leaves gathered in September. The fame author lays, that the new worms (which he calls farefiierij will hatch three times a year, and that no art will prevent it ; no cellars, no cold will keep them from it, though it may retard them fome time, as he tried in an ice-houfe, by which means he kept them inert till Auguft. But, on the contrary, the common fort cannot in general be hatched a fecond time the lame year, even with any heat that can be given ; yet he admits, that they were hatched by certain perfons in 1765. The new ones fleep four times, like the common ones, but begin to fpin their cocoons five or lix days fooner: they eat lefs in quantity, but give lefs filk ; and as this defed: is balanced by the ad- vantage in food, they ought not, fays the Count, to be prolcribed. Their cocoons are fmall, but the conliftency is good and fine ; and their filk is fine and fofter than the common : he fold it for 4HV. or 5 liv. a pound more than common filk. There is, however, an evil attends them, which is the uncer- tainty of their hatching the fecond and third time ; fometimes all the feed will hatch, but at others only a part; even only the feventh and tenth of the quan- tity : but the firft hatching is regular, like that of the common worms. A circumftance in the courfe of his trials deferves noting, that he found the worms of both the old and new forts would drink water when offered to them, and that the cocoons were the larger for their having had the water. They have had a fort in Tufcany that hatches twice a year ; and the Count writing thither for information concerning them, found that their filk was coarfer than the common, and of lefs value ; and he judges them to be a dif- ferent kind from his own, which hatches three times. The Count concludes nothing determinate concerning them ; but refolves to continue his numerous experiments and obfervations. As there may be perfons who think, as I did at firft, when I heard of this fort of worm, that if any fucceed in England it would probably be this ; it is proper to obferve, that Count Bettoni had no- thing in view but the difeafes of the mulberry trees, and does not feem to have had at all in contemplation the evils attending late frofts, depriving the worms of their ufual food ; and if the common fort may be retarded in hatching (which he fhev^s) till Auguft, equally with the new fort, there does not feem to be any extraordinary advantage in this fort, for a northerly climate, more than in the others. The Count’s book * was printed at Venice in 1778* Sig. Pieropan has made an obfervation, which deferves noting ; mulberries, and likewife other trees, are generally found to fucceed much better when grafted a little before fun-fet than at any other time : the reafon he attributes Progetto per prefervare i Gelji, &c. Co% Carlo Bettoni, 8vo. Various pafiages. G g 2 to 228 L’OMBARDT, to the heat of the earth after fun-fet; he kept a journal fome years, of the com- parative heat of the atmofphere and the earth, at the depths of four, twelve, and twenty-four inches ; and has found, that immediately after the fetting of the fun the mercury in thofe thermometers under ground had always rifen fome degrees gradually till the rifing of the fun, when it as regularly falls. The following is the Account of the Profit and Lofs of Six Ounces of Seed , for Three Tears , at Vicenza , by Sig . Carlo Modena . *778. Expences . Semenza—tezd, 6oz. Foglia — leaves, 26,475 lb. Spefa — gathering leaves and attendance, Filare— Spinning 9921b. cocoons, which give 1591b. 5 oz. filk, 557 18 o Produce . 1591b. 502. of filk, - Refufe ditto, 41 lb. — Seed, 55 oz. Expence, - Profit, - 1779. Expences . Seed, fix ounces, half given to the peafants, three ounces. Leaves, 15,6071b. - Spinning — the produce 4461b. cocoons, half of which, 223 lb to the proprietor, 29 lb. of filk, - - Produce. Jiv. / den * 36 0 0 *545 4 0 868 16 0 557 18 0 3007 I CO ! M 1 0 4144 *5 0 102 10 0 33 ° 0 0 4577 5 0 3007 18 0 ij6g 7 0 l8 0 0 753 9 0 101 10 0 872 l 9 0 29 lb. of filk, Refufe ditto. 75 4 o o 21 20 Lofs, 775 * o 97 l 7 o LOMBARDY 1 29 1780.— Upon bis own account. Expences. liv . / den. Seed, 6oz. 3 6 0 0 Leaves, 370 facks, - 957 *3 0 Gathering and attendance. - I 3°3 12 0 Spinning 9101b. of cocoons. - 265 0 0 Reducing 118 lb. 6 oz. of filk into organzine, 451 10 0 , 3 01 3 15 0 Produce . Refufe filk, - - - 1 1 6 4 0 ^18 lb. 6oz. of organzine. - 43 2 5 5 0 Leaves fold, - 28 0 0 Silk kept for own ufe, 2 lb. 3 oz. 49 10 0 4518 l 9 0 Expences, - 3 OI 3 *5 0 Profit, - 1505 4 0 This year the profit would have been much greater j but through the negli- gence of the women in the night, not attending to the degrees of heat (from 25 to 27 deg. Reaumur), many were fufFocated *, To Padua. One ounce of feed gives 60 lb. of galetta (cocoons), and 81 b. to 10 lb. of galetta 1 lb. of filk : the ounce of feed requires fixteen facks of leaves, of four pefi , each 25 lb. ; and twelve fmall trees yield one fack, but one great tree has been known to yield fix facks. Price of gathering, 20 f the fack. Expence of making 60 lb. of filk, 250 liv. Spinning, 30 f. the pound. Cocoons fell at 30 f. to 36 f. Silk this year, 25 liv. the pound, fotik. Padua . One ounce of feed gives in common 301b. of cocoons, and 81 b. of cocoons 1 lb. of filk : twenty facks, of 80 lb. of leaves, are neceflary to feed the worms of an ounce of feed. Price of gathering, 2.0 f. the fack. The greatefi: trees give ten facks of leaves each •, a tree of twenty years four or five facks. It is not * Opufcoli Scelti , tom. iii. p. 33. the 230 LOMBARDY. the general cuftom to divide this bufinefs with the peafants. The common fort of filk worm is hatched about the 25th of April ; the others the middle of June ; but filk demands a more cxpenfiv-c operation in the latter feafon. Venice. There are three forts of filk worms: — 1. The common one, which calls its epiderm, or fleep as it is called, four times. 2. A fort known at Verona, that calls only three times ; the cocoons fmaller than thofe of the other fort. 3. The new fort mentioned by Count Carlo Bettoni, the feed of which hatch two or three times a year ; but the others only once. The feed of the two firft forts cannot be hatched the fame year it is dropped ; but that of the third will hatch of itfelf, if it be not carefully kept in a cool place. Bologna. One hundred pounds of cocoons are made from 1 oz. of feed, and yield 7I lb. to 8i lb. of filk, of 12 oz. Price of cocoons, 20 to 25 baiocca. Silk, 34 pauls, at 6d. the pound. Tuscany .'—'Florence. Making inquiries here concerning the new fort of filk worm, I found that they were not, as I had been before told, a new difeovery in Italy, but known long ago j and, what is remarkable, is prohibited by law, in order to preferve the mulberry trees from being dripped more than once. The lilk made from them is not more than half as good as the common, and very inferior in quan- tity alfo. They aflert here, that by means of heat they can hatch the eggs of the common fort when they plcafe, but not for any ufe, as they die dire&ly ; which is not the cafe with the new fpecies, or that as it is called di tre volte. Their contrivance for winding filk is very convenient, and well adapted to fave labour ; one man turns, for a whole row of coppers, the fires for thofe which * x are without the wall j and the clofets with fmall boilers of water, for killing the J f Inimal in its cocoon by fleam, are equally well adapted. At Martelli, near Florence, on a farm of 190 fiiori (34 acres) there are forty or fifty mulberries, enough for 1 oz. of grain, which gives 50 lb. or £olb. of cocoons, and 61 b. or 71b. of filk. Price of cocoons this year, 2 paiils the pound ; lafl year 2I ; and in 1787 it was 3 pauls. In the culture of the trees they do not pradlife fuch attentions as the French in Dauphine; they never dig about them, except when young ; never wafh the flems $ they prune the trees when neceflary, but not by any rule of years. The befl fort is the wild mulberry, but it yields the leaft quantity; next, the white fruit. In 235 LOMBARDY. In 1782, Si g. Don Gio. Agemi di Giun, prelate of the Greek Catholic church, on Mount Libanus, exhibited to the academicians Georgofili of Florence, the 4th of December, fome filk worms, in number thirty-eight, part of which had already made their cocoons, and part ready to make them, as accuftomed to do in his own country, with the leaves of the wild mulberry. The feed was hatched in October j the worms fed with leaves, procured from warm gardens 5 cocoons were made in November $ mallow leaves were ufed alfo *, Modena. The export of filk from the city 46,000 lb. at 38 liv, (4,d. each) ; from the whole territory, 60,000 zecchinu Piedmont . — Pave/*. Immediately on entering the dominions of the King of Sardinia, within two miles of St. Giovanne, mulberries are found regularly every where, and con- tinue to Turin. Seven-eighths of them are about twenty or twenty-five year^ old 1 fome however are amongft the largeft I have feen. LOMBARDY POPLARS. They are very fcarce throughout Lombardy j there is a fcattering between Modena and Reggio j and Count Tocoli, five or fix miles from Parma, planted feveral thoufands along a canal, on the birth of his daughter, for her portion $ but there is not, in any part of Lombardy, any law which in fuch cafes fecures the property of the trees thus planted, to the child they are intended for ; it is merely private confidence. CLOVER. Piedmont .—Chentale, Such is the power of climate united with the advantages of irrigation, that clover is here mown for hay once after harvefting the corn it grew with 5 the hay is not of the beft quality, but ufeful. Milanese. — Milan to Pavia . On the rich dairy farms, the cows are fed much on clover. The red fort is fown, which wearing out, white clover comes fo regularly, that the country people think the one fort degenerates into the other. # Corfo , vol, Ui. p.123. Vicenza, LOMBARDY. 23a Vicenza . They fow 12 lb. of feed per campo with wheat $ it is cut twice the firft year, yielding 1 carro each cut the lecond year it is mown thrice: price 44 liv. the carro , which is 100 peji> of 25 lb. Padua . Sow 12 lb. groffo per campo (141b. or 151b. per English acre) it gives three carri, each 1000 lb. at three cuts (if ton the acre Englifh ;) but they have crops that go much beyond this. figs. Piedmont . — Nice to Coni . On this range of the Alps, there are, in favourable fituations, a great quantity ©f fig trees ; and the extreme cheapnefs of the fruit mud: be of no trivial im- portance in fupporting the people, not only while ripe hut dried. HEMP AND FLAX. P 1 e d m o N T . — C bent ale. A giornata (to an acre as 7440 to 7929) produces 200 lb. for the proprietor, and as much for the farmer ; and feme crops rife to 650 lb. They gather the female hemp from the 25th of July to the 4th of Auguft: the male the be- ginning of September. Of fome pieces I was informed that a produce not uncommon was 30 rubbii of female, and 17 of male, worth 4I liv. to 5 liv. the rubbio , both of the fame price ; and alfo 25 to 30 mine of feed, if well culti- vated ; but if not, 12 to 15. The mine 35 lb. and the price 4! liv. to 5 liv. the mine. The common calculation is, that a giornata is worth 150 liv. to 200 liv. which may be called iol. per Englifh acre. Their contrivance for fteeping is > very fimple and effectual : there are many fquare and oblong pits with ports in them, with open mortifes for fixing poles to keep down the hemp, which is vartly preferable to our fods and rtones. I’urin. They fow 3 mine (451b. of wheat), and get 30 rubbii , at 4 liv. 10 f. to 5 liv. the rubbio grofs ; but ready for fpinning 12 liv. 10 f. the finert; the fecond qua- lity is 7 liv. 10 /.; and the third 5 liv. ; befides 3 mine of feed, at 2 liv. each. This product is above 81 . the Englifh acre. Milanese. LOMBARDY. 2J3 Milanese .— Mozzala . Winter flax is here efteemed the properer for land that is not watered; they fow it the middle of September ; they have had it in this country two years only, and call it lino ravagno. It gives a coarfer thread than fpring flax, but a greater quantity, and much more feed. The price of the oil 22 /. the pound, of 28 oz. ; of the flax, ready forfpinning, 25/ or 26/j of the thread, 4liv. and 4! liv. A quartaro of feed is neceffary for a pertica , for which it returns eight times the quantity of feed, and 20 lb. of flax ready for fpinning, at 25 f. the pound. Codogno, When they break up their clover lands they fow flax on one ploughing, which is worth rent 2oliv. and crop 4oliv. per pertica, being 241b. of 28 oz. and feed three times more than fown. Much winter flax now green. Venetian State.— Bergamo. Winter flax green in October. Ecclesiastical State.— Bologna. The territory of Bologna produces from 12 to 14,000,000 lb. of hemp. They manure for it highly with dung, feathers, the horns of animals, and filk worms refufe. The befl hemp-land is always dug; the difference between digging and ploughing is found to be very great. If ploughed, three earths are given ; when the fpade is ufed, the land is firfl ploughed and then dug. For this crop five or fix yards are left anjown under the rows of trees. The foil agrees fo well with this plant, that the crop rifes ten feet high ; they gather it all at once, leaving only a few ftands for feed. It is watered in ffagnant pools. A good product is from 100 lb. to 200 lb. of 12 oz. per tornatura , #f half an acre. The price of the befl: is from 2oliv. to 27 liv. the 100 lb. At prefen t 25liv. (the Englifli pound one-fifth larger than the Bolognefe, and the livre of the Pope's dominions is ten to the zecchin , of 9s. 6d.) ready for combing. When ready for fpinning, the price of the befl is 12/ the pound; and they pay for fpin- ning fuch 6 f, to 1 $f. the pound. Near the city, I viewed a field famous for yielding hemp : no trees are planted acrofs it, which is fo common in the coun- try in general ; a fure proof of the pernicious tendency of that fyftem* fince in very valuable fields thefe people themfelves rejedt the method. -Little or no hemp on the hills near Bologna, but feme autumnal flax for family ufe. VOL. II. H h MAIZ. 234 LOMBARD Y. MAIZ. Piedmont. — Chentale . Maiz produces here 25 to 30 mine , which holds 471b. of wheat, and the price 2 liv. each. It is fown on three feet ridges. Savigliano. Maiz, in a good year, will yield three hundred fold, but in a dry one fome- times fcarcely any thing. Turin . Made every where the fallow, which prepares for wheat. Cbivafco to VerceiL A great deal of maiz through all this country, and all foul with grafs and Weeds, even to the height of two or three feet. Milanese. — Milan . They fbw much maiz, of the fort called quarantino , from its ripening in forty days (which however it does not). They fow it the middle of July, after wheat, which they cut the firft week of that month. If the common maiz were •fown at this time, they affert that it would yield no ripe feed : this is a very cu- rious circumftance. The culture has been often recommended to England ; if ever any thing were done, it muft alfuredly be with this fort j but even with this I fhould put nb faith in the power of an Englifh climate. Mozzata. They cultivate three forts : — 1. Formentone maggengo , fown the beginning of May, and reaped in October. 2. Formentone agoflano 0 formentone de ravettone, becaufe fown after taking off the rave or colefeed for oil, the end of May, and harvefted the end of September. 3. Formentone quarantino , fown after wheat or rye, and cut the end of October. Venice . This plant was cultivated in the Polefine de Rovigo, towards 1560 $ and fpread through Lombardy the beginning of the 17th century * Jgoji , Gallo, Notes, p. 534. OLIVES. LOMBARDY. OLIVES. State of Venice. On the banks, of the Lago^di Guarda are the only olives I have feen fince I left the country of Nice j but the number is not confiderable, and moft of them are dead, or nearly fo, by the froft: of laft winter, which made fuch deftrudtion like- wife in France. ! Tufcany . Near Florence, at Martelli, the produdt of a farm of 190 ftiori was as follows : in 1786, thirty barrils . In 1787, it was no more than three. In 1788, it yielded eight. In 1789, it was twenty-live 5 but on an average ten j for which produce there are two hundred trees. They are dunged every two or three years, and dug about once in three years. They are reckoned to lelfen the product of corn one-fifth ; this is a notion of the country, but I believe very far from accurate. The average price of oil is §fcudi per barril, of 150 lb. (il. 8s. 4d .) ; ten barrih amount to 14I. 3s. 4d . ; and as there are about thirty-four acres in 190 Jiiori, the product of oil is 8s. to 9s. per acre : a fum that yields no very favourable im- preftion of the culture and, divided amongft two hundred trees, it does not amount to is. 6d. a tree. The plain of Florence is all lined into rows of thefe trees, with vines be- tween and upon them ; in fome places, an efpalier of vines between the rows of olives * and when all are well cultivated, the olives yield the greateft pro- duce, next the wine, and then the corn. I viewed, near Florence, fome fields, in which I found twenty olives on a Jliora of land, but this is not common : and on a very bad ftoney foil, though in the plain, I found that it took twenty trees, of twenty-five years growth, to yield a barril of oil. But in a fine foil, and with very old trees, a barril a tree has been known. Vines are fuffered here alfo to run up the trees, but they reckon it a bad cufiom. The price of oil is more than doubled in forty years. Very few olives were loft by the laft hard froft, but great numbers by that of 1709. Landlord’s half produce, of fome fields I viewed — oil, 10 pauls ; grain, 7; wine, 1 ; in all, 18 pauls per Jiiora (2I. 5s. per English acre.) This year, 1789, the Grand Duke, for the firft time, has given a gold medal, of the value of 25 zecchini , for the greateft number of olives planted j no claimant to be admitted for lefs than five thoufand : in confequence of this premium, above forty thoufand trees have been planted. It will be continued annually. Hh 2 There LOMBARDY. 236 There is, in the Maremma, fome remarkable inftances of the vaft age to which olives will attain: Sig. Zucchino, profeflor of agriculture at Florence, informed me, that, upon examining the hills in the middle of that tra&, he found in the midft of woods, and almoft over-run with rubbilh, olives of fo immenle an age and magnitude, that he conjectures them to have been planted by the ancient Hetrufcans, before the Romans were in pofieflion of the coun- try ; there muft, of courfe, be much uncertainty in any conjectures of this kind i but a great antiquity of thefe trees is undoubted. RICE. Piedmont. — Ciglione to Ver ceil. They are now threfhing rice with horfes, as wheat in Languedoc threfti as much in the night as in the day : — meet alfo gleaners going home loaded with iti About five miles before Verceil, the rice-grounds are in great quan- tities : their culture, however, of this crop feems to want explanations. Here is, for infiance, a great field, which was under rice laft year, now left to weeds, with hogs feeding. — Why not fown with clover among or after the rice ? They never plough but once for rice. The peafants are unhealthy from the culture ; yet their pay not more than 24/ to 30/. a day. The foil of the rice-grounds here, is that of a fine loamy turnip fand$ there is a mound raifed around them, for the convenience of flooding at will. Vercelli, Rice is here reckoned the mod profitable of all the cultivation of Piedmont 5 for it yields a greater value than wheat, and at a lefs expence. It demands only one ploughing, inftead of feveral. Seed only 4 mine , at 1 liv. Watering, at 2 liv. 5/ Cutting, the end of July, lof. The product is 60 mine rough, or 21 white ; the latter at 4 liv. or 84 liv. 5 and 4 mine of a fort of bran, at 1 or 3 liv. ; in all 87 liv. (fomething under 5I. an acre). It is fown three years in fucceflion ; and the fourth a fallow ; during which the land is dunged. The price of thefe lands, 500 liv. or 600 liv. the giornata. As rice can be fown only on land that admits watering at pleafure, I do not fully comprehend this account. Why, for inftance, is not the land laid down for meadow, which evidently pays much better 5 and fells at a higher price ? I fuppofe rice is ready money on demand, and meadows muft be converted to cafti circuitoufly. Good wheat land fells at 800 liv. To LOMBARDY. 237 To Novara. Patting the Sefia, which exhibits a bed of five times as much gravel as water, in three or four miles the quantity of rice is confiderable : the ttubble is green, and in wet mud ; the fheaves thin. It extends, on both fides the road for fome difiance ; the whole inclofed by ditches, and rows of willow poplar pollards, as bad to the eye, as it can be to the health. One or two fields are not yet cut ; it looks like a good crop of barley, being bearded. After Novara, fee no more of it. Milanese . — Milan to Pavia. The rice-grounds receive but one ploughing, which is given in the middle of March, and the feed fown at the end of the fame month, in water to the feedfman’s knees, which is left on the ground till the beginning of June, when the crop is weeded by hand, by women half naked, with their petticoats tucked to their waifis wading in the water; and they make fo droll a figure, that parties in pleafantry, at that feafon, view the rice-grounds. When the weeding is finifhed, the water is drawn off for eight days ; and it is again drawn off when the ear begins to form, till formed ; after which, it is let in again till the rice is nearly ripe, which is about the end of Augufi, when it is reaped, or in the beginning of September ; and by the end of that month, all is finifhed. Quantity of feed, the eighth of a moggio per pertica, produce 25 to 30 moggio rough, or 11k or 12 white. Price 37I: liv. the moggio, (17I. 8s. per Englifh acre), which produce is fo large, that this minute I fufpedt the higheft crop gained, and not an average one. The moggio of rice weighs 160 lb. of 28 ounces. The ft raw is of ufe only for littering cows; and the chaff, like that of all other grain, from a notion of its being unwholefome, is thrown on to the dunghill. They fow rice three years in fucceflion, and then a courfe of fomething elfe. S tt Courfes of Crops. The rice is rendered mer- chantable by being pounded in a mill by (tampers, turned by a water- wheel. In the great road there is a (tone, at five miles from Milan, nearer than which it is prohibited to fow rice. State of Venice. — Verona. Of the produce of the rice-grounds in the Veronefe, they reckon one- third for expences, one-third for water, and one-third profit. Parma. Count Schaftienatti has fown rice, at Vicomero, eighteen years in fucceflion, on the fame land, without any reft or manure. Sow on 54 biolcchi 90 ftaji-, and LOMBARDY. 238 and the produce 18 for 1. He digs the ground, as it is too marfhy to plough it well; this cods 3000 liv. (each 2fd.) The ftraw fells at 80 liv. the load, of 80 peji, of 251b. (|lb. Englilh). Oxen alfo eat it. Rice is reckoned to yidd four times over more nett profit than any other hufbandry ; more even than watered meadows. VINES. Piedmont. — Antibes to Nice . A lingular cultivation of this plant furrounding very final! pieces from fix to twenty perches, trained up willow trees; and the fcraps of land within them cultivated. What a fun mull fhine in a country where thick inclofures are counted by perches and not by acres. Ghent ale to Racconis . In rows at twelve to twenty feet, and appear like thofe of hops in Kent, fup- ported on willow poles, twelve feet high, fome of which take root, but are after- wards pulled up. Chivafco . Vines fattened from mulberry to mulberry, but not running up thefe trees, only up willows, &c. that are between them. Milanese . — Mozzata . Half this country is lined with vines, and it is reckoned that they will damage to the amount of one-tenth of the produce: each pertica of vines, in a common year, will give 50 lb. of grapes, worth 6 liv. the 100 lb. of 28 oz. hail allowed for ; and of this half is the pealants fhare, for the expence of culture. At Lei- nate, I viewed fome wine prefles, which are enormous machines, the beam of one is forty-five feet long and four feet fquare ; and at the end, where the fcrew is, a ftone of vaft weight, for which there is a paved hole in the pavement, that it may keep fufpended ; the cuves cafks, and all the apparatus great : the quan- tity of vines 1000 pertica . The feeds of the prefTed grapes are kept till dry, and then pretted for oil ; the feed of the grapes that yielded 70 brenta of wine will give 10 lb. of oil : it is ufed for lamps. The poor people, who bring their grapes to be pretted, pay one-twelfth of the wine. Price at prefent, 6 liv. the brenta ; but only 3 liv. for what is latt pretted. The firfl flow is trod out by men’s feet. Common price, 10 liv. or 12 liv. the brenta . Venetian LOMBARDY. *39 Venetian State. — Bergamo . From entering the Venetian territory, near Vaprio, the country is almott all planted in lines of vines, and the fpaces between tilled for corn. "To Brefcia . This country, inclofed with hedges, befides which it is lined in ttripes of vines, that are trained to low afh and maple trees, with mulberries at the end of every row ; but the vines are not trained up thefe trees, though fattened to their trunks. Vicenza . The country, for 32 miles from Verona to Vicenza, except the watered parts, which are not a tenth of the whole, is lined into rows of pollards, each with three or four fpreading branches, and at the foot of each two vines, many of them very old, with ttems as thick as the calf of a man’s leg ; and many of the elms, maples, &c. are alfo old. They ftand about a rod afunder, and the rows from twenty-five to thirty yards ; and around the whole ^mulberries. Where the vintage is not finifhed, the vines hang in feftoons from tree to tree, garnifhed with an aftonifhing quantity of bunches of grapes. Vines, near Vicenza, produce 2 majiati , each of 240 bottles, per campo ; the price 16 liv. the majiato ; the campo here is larger than at Verona, amounting to near an Englifh acre ; this is about 17s. an acre; a produce very eattly lott, in the damage done to the corn. Padua . The fame hufbandry, of pollards and vines, continues hither. They reckon that vines pay better than mulberries ; but in the dittridts of Verona and Vi- cenza mulberries are more advantageous than vines. This does not correfpond with foil, for that of Padua is deeper and richer, for the moft part, than the other, and therefore lefs adapted to vines. In converfation with Abbate Fortis, on the wine of the Paduan, &c. being fo bad, he fays, it is owing merely to bad management in making. They tread the grapes with their feet; put the juice in a great cuve; and will keep it fermenting there even fo long as fifteen days, adding every day more and more, till the ftrength is exhaufted, and the wine fpoiled ; no cleanlinefs, in any part of the operation, nor the leaft atten- tion in the gathering, or in the choice of the grapes. He further added, that Sig. Modena, a Vicentino cultivator at Vancimuglio, adjoining the rice-grounds, and confequently as little adapted as poflible to vineyards, provided the foil and trees 240 L O M B A U D Y. trees were the caufe of bad wines, makes that which is excellent, and which fell fo high as 30/. French per bottle : that Sig. Marzari, and Sig. il Conte di Porto, in the high Vicentino, with many others, as well as he himfelf, Abbate Fortis, has done the fame with raifins from vines that run up the higheft trees, fuch wine as fells from 20 f. to 35/ French the bottle : and that fome of thefe wines are fo good, that the Venetian ambafladors, at different courts, ufe them inflead ©f Madeira, &c. ; and the wines of Friuli as thofe of Hungary, which they refemble j yet thefe vines are all on trees. He alfo obferved, that it has been found, by experiment, that vines in thefe rich lands, trained near the ground, as in France, have yielded raifins and wine good for nothing ; that the grapes even rot ; that the land is too rich for the vines to have all the nourifhment, unrivalled by the roots of the trees. It is very much to be queflioned, if the experiments here alluded to, have been made with due attention: if the land is too rich for vines, plant them upon foils that are proper ; and keep thefe low diftricSts for grafs and corn ; but that vines, hidden from the fun amongfl the branches of trees, can ripen properly to give a well-concodted juice, appears very dubious ; and the fadt of all the wine, com- monly met with in this country, being bad, feems to confirm the reafoning. Ecclesiastical State. — Bologna . All this country, where I have viewed it, is lined into rows of trees for vines, ten or twelve yards afunder, on the mountain, but more in the plain. But Sig. Bignami has his vineyards planted with echalats (poles), in the French way, about four or five feet fquare, and he finds that thefe always give better wine than the vines trained to trees ; and the land by tornatura gives a great deal more wine ; though each vine feparately on trees, gives more than each in this method. Theobjedt, in this in fta nee, was the goodnefs of wine ; Sig. Bignami thinks the common method mofl profitable. The vines are now (November) trained and pruned, and turned down five or fix feet and tied ; if allowed to mount, they yield much fewer grapes. Vines on the mountains yield thrice the value of the wheat ; and the double of all other produ&ions, wheat included. T uscany, — Bologna to Florence. Vines in this route are planted differently from any I have yet feen. Some are in efpaliers, drawn thinly acrofs the fields; others are trained to fmall polls, through which, at top, are two or three flicks fixed to hold them up ; others are in fquares of five or fix feet, and fix or feven high, without fuch polls ; but all in the arable fields are, generally fpeaking, in lines. Florence . LOMBARDY, 24* Florence. I here met with a cafe abfolutely in point, to prove how mifchievous trees are to corn, even in this hot climate.— A field under olives, which yielded in corn 6f for 1 fown, was grubbed, after which the common produce was 14 for 1. Now, as the olive is by no means one of the word; trees for corn, this fhews the great lofs that accrues from the practices I have noted throughout Lombardy. Yet, in common converfation here, as elfewhere, they tell you the injury is fmall, except from walnuts, which do more mifchief than any other, Modena. It appears to be a fingular circumflance, that in the parts of this territory near the hills, corn pays better than wine ; but in the plain, wine better than corn : I fufpeCt that fome mifmanagement occafions this apparent contradiction. From Modena to Reggio the country is planted in rows, as in the Venetian State, &c. and the trees that fupport the vines being large, the whole has the appearance of a forefl. Parma From Reggio to Parma, the fame fyftem holds, but executed in an inferior manner. And from Parma to Vicomero, the trees that fupport the vines are pollards, with old heads, like many we have in England ; contrary to the prac- tice of the Venetian State, where they are kept young. To Firenzuolo, the vines are all buried in like manner ; fbme here are planted for props, and the poles which ferve as fuch are fet in rows : in both methods the fhoots are equally buried. A fcattering of golden willow in the rows, I fuppofe for attaching the vines to the props. From Borgo St. Domino to Firenzuola, there is a decline both of vines and wood $ the country is not as hitherto, regularly lined, and many large fields are without any $ this is the more to be remarked, as here begin fome inequalities of country, the gentle ramifications of the Appenines. To Caflel Giovanne, mod of the fields have no vines, only a fcattering; fhoots buried as before ; but the inclofures have many pollards in the hedges, like the woodlands of Suffolk. From Piacenza, after palling the Trebbia, the rows of vines are thirty to forty yards afundcr, with heaps of props, ten feet long, fet like hop-poles; very few or no vines trained to trees. Piedmont.— Pave/e *. The country is all the way hill and dale ; the flat of Lombardy finifhing with the Dutchy of Piacenza, It is about half inclofed, and half with rows of * The country ceded by Auflria to Sardinia, part of the diftridl of Pavia. VOL.II. Ii vines,' LOMBARDY. 242 vines. There are alfo vineyards planted in a new method; a fingle row of vines, with a double row of poles, with others flat, fo as to occupy four ridges, and then four to ten of corn. Some vine fhoots buried for a few miles, but afterwards none. Near Stradella, the props appear like a wood of poles. Savoy. The vineyards of Montmelian yield 1 \ tonneau per journal , which fell at 4! louis the tonneau : all, not in the hands of peafant proprietors, is at half produce. SECT. IV. OF IMPLEMENTS AND TILLAGE. Com. The ploughs have a fingle handle, twelve or thirteen feet long, which throws the ploughman to fuch a diftance behind, that his goad is fixed in a long light pole. The oxen are yoked in the fame manner as ours; but the bow is of iron under the neck, and the prefliire is received by two bits of wood. Some ploughs drawn by a yoke, others by two yokes of oxen. Chentale . The names which are given to the parts of a plough here are,— long handle, of fourteen feet, Jiiva ; beam, bura ; head, cannonlia ; coulter rivetted to the (hare, cultor ; (hare, majfa ; ground-reft, on which the ftiare fheathes, feven feet long, dent ale ; earth-board, five feet long, oralia . The Count de Bonaventa, in explaining to me their tillage, fhewed the cri- terion, as old as Columella, of good ploughing, by thrufting his cane acrofs the ridges, to fee if reft-baulked. They plough moftly on the three feet ridge, forming and reverfing at one bout ; i. e. two furrows; the work ftrait. Ufe no reins, and have no driver, though the ploughman is above twenty feet from the oxen. Two fmall beafts cut a good furrow on the top of the old ridge, feven inches deep ; and thefe ploughs, long as they are in the ground, cer- tainly do not draw heavily. The oxen, whether at plough or in the waggons, do not draw, as I con- ceived at firft fight, by the fhoulder, but in a method I never faw before, nor read of ; they draw by prefting the point of the withers againft the yoke, and not at all by the bows ; and in examining them, the mafter and man contended that the ftrength of an ox lies there, and not in his Ihoulders, nor in his head, or LOMBARDY. 243 or roots of the horns. It appears a ftrange pra&ice ; but it is yet Granger, that yoke a bead how you will, he does his work, and apparently without diftrefs. Chentale to Racconis. They have here a rnofl lingular cuftom, which is that of (hovelling all the moveable foil of a field, into heaps of a large load, earth, Hubble, and weeds ; they fay, per ingrajfare la terra. To Turin . The lands fown with wheat on three feet ridges, is worked fine with a ma- chine of wood, at the end of a handle, formed nearly like a hoe. Wherever one fees thefe operofe niceties, we may conclude the farms are very fmall. Turin . Plough with a pair of oxen, no reins, no driver; go to work at five in the morning, and hold it till night, except if hour at dinner ; that is twelve hours work, and do a giornata a day, fomething under an acre, one bout to a three feet ridge, reverting. Vercelli . Price of a ploughing, 3! liv. per giornata, this is about 3s. 4d. per Englilh acre. Milanese . — Milan to Pavia . Hire of a ploughman and pair of oxen, 4 liv. a day ; but if no food for the oxen, 6 liv. The ploughs here vary from thofe of Piedmont. The handles are not above half as long, and are called Jliva ; the beam, buretto ; the coul- ter, coltura j the lhare, fnaj]’a ; the earth-board, orechio ; the land-board, orechini . There is a moll grofs and abfurd error in all the ploughs I faw, which is the pofition of the coulter, 18 or 20 degrees too much to the land ; every one who is acquainted with the right Rru&ure of a plough, know that it fhould juft clear the lhare; this great variation from the right line, ntuft add greatly to the draft ; and, in difficult land, fatigue the cattle. Mozzata . A light poor plough, the (hare with a double fin, but fo narrow as to cut only four inches of the furrow; the heel of the plough is nine or ten inches wide; the work it performs is mere fcratching ; and the land they were fowing I i 2 with LOMBARDY. 244 with wheat, a bed of triticum repens and agrojlis Jlolonifera . They have here a great opinion of digging 3 and a proverb, which fays, La •vanga ha la punta doro — The fpade has the point of gold. Codogno. Here, as near Milan, the coulters are many degrees out of the line of the fhare 3 and the (hares not more than four inches wide. Shocking ! Codogno to Crema , The harrows in this country have handles to them of wood 5 I am amazed this practice is not univerfal 3 yet I never faw it before, except on my own farm. Venetian State. — Bergamo . In palling from Vaprio to this place, they are ploughing with a pair of oxen a-bread, and two horfes before them in a line 3 wheel-ploughs 3 (hare five inches wide, and with a double fin. Near the town of Bergamo, I faw them ploughing a maiz dubble for wheat, as full of grafs almod as a meadow : a lad drives, and another dout one attends to clear the coulter from grafs, &c. ; the plough low on the carriage, with wheels 3 the bread all iron, and not ill formed 3 the fin of the fhare double, and about eight inches wide 3 the coul- ter nearly in the fame direction as the fhare, but clearing four inches to the land fide 3 two fhort handles. The furrow full nine inches deep; but crooked, irregular, and bad work. Notwithdanding this depth, they are great friends to the fpade. From four to fix for one, are common crops with the plough, but twelve to fourteen for one, are gained by the fpade. There mud be an inaccuracy in this 3 the difference cannot be owing merely to dig- ging. We may be certain, that the hufbandry, in other refpedts, mud be much better, Vicenza . They here plough with four oxen in harnefs 3 many of them $re of an iron-grey colour, with upright thick ugly horns. Some, however, are fine large beads. Their plough is a drange tool 3 it is two feet four inches of Vicenza wide, (their foot is above if Englifh) : the fhare has a double fin, of a foot wide3 confequently cuts half a foot in the furrow of more than two : has wheels, but no coulter. The land-board is called fondelo 3 the fhare, vomero-, the earth-board, or bread, arfede?nan- i two fhort handles, the left finiftrale-, the right bran cole 3 the beam, per tic a. Ecclesiastical LOMBARDY, 245 Ecclesiastical State.— Bologna. The coulter of the ploughs here ftand 16 degrees from the right line; an incredible blunder, had I not before met with it in the Milanefe. The beam, pertic- a; the handles, Jiiva; the mould-board, qffa-, the fhare, gomiera', the ground-reft, nervo del focco ; the coulter, coutre, Tuscany. — Florence . Here the beam is called Jlanga , and bur a ; the Angle handle, Jlagola ; the body of the plough, chicapo di aratro ; the fhare, •vangheggiola . The body is hewn out of one large piece of wood ; the fin double, and feven or eight inches wide. — I fee no ploughing but on three feet ridge-work ; reverfing. They are now fowing wheat among tares, about fix inches high, and plough both in together at one furrow, fplitting the ridges with a double-breaft plough. Oxen are ufed, that draw by the nape of the neck ; then women, with a kind of half pick, called marona, work the ridge fine. No drefling of the feed againft fmut, &c. Parma. The plough here has wheels ; a fingle-breaft, that turns to the right, and pretty well ; a double finned fhare ; and the coulter ftanding three inches to the left of the right line; drawn by two oxen, and two cows, with a driver. Savoy. The oxen in the vale of Chamberry, draw not only by the horns, the yokes bound to them in the common way by leathers, but they have a double bar, one againft the fhoulders, as if the beaft might be able to draw by both at pleafure. MANURES. Nice . There is here a greater attention paid to faving and ufing night foil, than even in Flanders itfelf. There is not a necefiary in the town which is not made an obje to forty families, their fubjedts, who poffeffed 1200I. a year in land; provided there were four degrees of nobility, on the fide of both hufband and wife. Great numbers of families were eligible, but not ten in the whole would agree to the propofal. To offer a fhare in the legiflature of fo celebrated a republic, which in paft periods would have been fought for with fingular avidity, and to fuffer the mortification of a refufal, was exhibiting a fign of internal weaknefs, and of want of judgment, adapted to reduce the reputation of their policy to nothing. The motives for the refufal are obvious : thefe families mu ft of courfe remove to Venice; that is, to go from a city where they were old and refpedted, to another where they would be new and defpifed. Their eftates alfo would not only fuffer from their abfence, but would be fub- jedt to new entails, and held by other tenures ; no mortgage of them is al- lowable; and they are fubjedt to peculiar . laws of inheritance. In addition to thefe difadvantages, they are cut off from ferving foreign princes; whereas the nobility of Terra Firma engage in fuch fervices. The Emperor’s ambaffador at Turin, is a fubjedt of Venice ; and one of the Pellegrini family, a field marfhal in his army. Nor did the noblemen of Terra Firma refufe the favour, for thefe reafons alone; they dreaded the power which the State exerts over the noble Venetians, in fending them upon expenfivc embaflies, in which they muft fpend the whole of their income, and, if that be not fufficient, contract debts to fupport themfelves; for thefe. reafons, and many others mentioned to me, which I did not equally underftand, the government might have known be- fore they made the offer, that it would fubjedt them to the difgrace of a refufal. Long before the period in queftion, confiderable additions had been * Voyage en Italie , tom. vii. p. 7. Kk 2 made 252 LOMBARD Yv made to nobles of Venice, from the Terra Firma, but thefe honours were paid for; the price 17,0001. fterling; 7,0001. in cafh, and io,oool. lent to the State in perpetuity. It is a curious circumftance, which marks undeceivingly the general features of the Venetian government, that about forty years ago, as well as at other periods, there were negociations between the Court of Vienna and the Vene- tians, relative to an exchange of territory ; the diftridt of Crema was to have been given by Venice, for a part of the Ghiara d’Adda; the rumour of which, filled the people of the latter with the greateft apprehenfions ; they felt even a terror, at the idea of being transferred to the government of Venice; knowing, certainly, from their vicinity, that the change would be for the worfe. This afcertains the comparative merit of two governments, that one is lefs bad than the other. Upon the whole it may be remarked, that the wifdom of the Venetian go- vernment flows entirely from its interior organization, which is admirably framed ; but abufes, in fpite of this, have multiplied fo much, that the firffc real {hock that happens will overturn it. The fall of a goverment, however, which has fubfifted with great reputation fo much longer than any other exift- ing at prefent, ought to be efteemed a great political lofs, fince the eftablifh- ment of new fyftems is not at prefent wanted for the benefit of mankind, fo much as the improvement of old ones ; and if by any amelioration of the Vene- tian ariflocracy, the benefit of the common people could be better fecured, it might yet laft in enlightened ages, as well as through thofe of darknefs and ignorance. Bologna. The government of the church, though in fo many refpedts confidered as One of the worft in Europe, ought not to be condemned too generally, for fome diferimination (hould be ufed. Thus, in point of taxation, there are few coun- tries that have lefs to complain of than this, as I have fhewn in the proper place; and another circumftance was mentioned to me here, which proves that it is not the Pope's fault that it is not better — his Holinefs was ready to abolifh all fetes, confining them to Sunday ; and made the offer to the Senate of Bologna, if they would apply to him for the purpofe ; great debates enfued in that body, and it was determined not to make the application. Tuscans. The government of the Grand Duke is, as every one knows, abfolute ; it admits therefore of no other diferimination, than what refults from the perfonal character LOMBARDY. *53 chara&er of the Prince. The circumftances I noted, during my refidence at Florence, will fhew that few fovereigns have deferved better of their fubjeds than Leopold : the details, however, which I fhall enter into, will be very flight, not that the fubjed wants importance, but becaufe many other books contain large accounts of this period ; and efpecially the collection of his* laws, of which I wifh to fee a complete Englifh tranflation, for the ufe of our legifla- tors. The encouragements which this wife and benevolent fovereign has given to his fubjeds, are of various defcriptions ; to clafs them with any degree of re- gularity, would be to abridge that collection ; a few, that bear more or lefs upon agriculture, I fhall mention. I. He has abolifhed tythes, which will be explained more at large, under the proper head. II. He has eftablifhed an abfolute freedom in the trade of corn. III. He has for many years contributed one-fourth part of the expence of buildings, in the Val de Nievole, and the lower province of Siena. IV. He has this year made the culture of tobacco free, and engaged to buy all that is raifed at 16 f. the pound. V. He has extinguifhed the national debt of Tufcany, which had exiffed from the time of the republic; for it deferves noting (in order for fome future hiftorian of the*f* modern ages, to mark the fad that the richeft people run in debt the molt) that the republic of Florence was one of the mod commercial and rich in Europe. Two evils attended this debt, which the Grand Duke bent his operations to remove; firft, three or four millions of it were due to foreigners, particularly to the Genoefe, which carried much money out of Tufcany; and, fecondly , there were diftind bureaus of col- ledion and payment, for tranfading the bufinefs of thefe debts. To remedy this double mifchief, he firft bought up all that part of the debt due to ftrangers, which he efFeded by the operation of a fteady and wife oeconomy ; he then called on the Tufcan creditors to liquidate their debts, in the ratio of 3 per cent.; thofe who had money did it; and to thofe who had none, he lent the neceffary fums : by this method, the diftind receipt and payment were abolifhed; the accounts were melted into the land-tax; and a number of reve- al* Collezione di Leggi , 8 vo. 10 vols. — Siena. f There is no work in the whole range of literature, more wanted than a Modern Hiftory of Europe, written philofophieally ; that is to fay, with due attention to the progrefs of arts, fciences, and government ; and with none paid to wars, battles, lieges, intrigues, generals, heroes, and cut-throats, more than briefly to condemn them in fuch a work, the circumftance of the richeft countries in Europe, having plunged themfelves the deepeft and moll ruinoufly in debts, to fupport wars of commerce and ambition, fhould be particularly explained and condemned. nue 254 LOMBARDY, nue officers, See. were reformed : nine or ten millions of crowns were thus extinguished. VI. He has aboliffied all rights of commonage throughout his dominions, and given the powers of an univerfal inclofure. VII. He has fold a confiderable portion of the eftates belonging to the fove- reign, which has occafioned a great increafe of cultivation, and the fettlement in his dominions of many rich foreigners *. VIII. In levying taxes, he has aboliffied all the diftindtions of noble, igno- ble, and ecclefiaftical tenures ; and all exemptions are fet afide. IX. He has built a magnificent lazaretto at Leghorn, and fpent three mil- lions on roads ; but it would be entering too much into detail to fpecify his works of this fort; they are numerous. The eftedts of fuch an enlightened fyftem of government have been great ; general aflertions will not deferibe them fo fatisfadtorily to a reader as particular inftances. Sig. Paoletti, who has been cure of the pariffi of Villamagna forty- three years, aflured me, that the forty farms, of which it confifts, have rifen in their value full 2000 feudi each in that time, which is about cent . per cent . of their former value ; this great improvement has been chiefly wrought of late years, and efpecially in the laft ten. It highly merits notice, that the countries in Europe, whofe whole attention has been given exclufively to their commerce and manufactures, and particularly England, where the commercial fyftem has been more relied on than in any other country, have experienced nothing equal to this cafe of Tufcany, the government of which has proceeded on a principle directly contrary, and given its encouragement immediately to agriculture, and circuitoujly to manufactures. In the tours I made through England, twenty years ago, I found land felling on an average at 32I years purchafe ; it fells at prefen t at no more than 28. While Tufcany therefore has been adding im- menfely to the money value of her foil, without trade and without manufactures (comparatively fpeaking to thofe of England), we have in the fame period, with an immenfe increafe of trade, been lofing in our land. This fact, which is un~ queftionably true, is a curious circumftance for political analyfis : it proves fomething wrong in our fyftem. Population in Villamagna has augmented about a feventh, in the fame period. I ffiall not quit this article, without giving the preference decidedly to Leopold, Grand Duke of Tufcany, as the wifeft of the princes, whofe power admits a comparifon in the age in which he lives : thofe are mean fpirits, or * By the general regulations for the diftrit of Florence, of May 23, 1774, cap. 35. it is ordered, that all the landed property of the communities, kept in adminiftration, or let, fhall be fold or let on Jong leafe. Paoletti) p. 85. fomething LOMBARDY. 255 fomething worfe, that will hefitate a moment between him and Frederic of Pruffia : a fovereign no more to be compared to him, than the deftroyers and tyrants of mankind are to be placed in competition with their greateft bene- factors*. Modena. In an age in which the fovereign s of Europe are incumbered, and fome of them ruined by debts, a contrary conduct deferves conliderable attention. The Duke of Modena-, for ten years part, has praCtifed a very wife ceconomy : he is fuppofed, on good authority, to have faved about a million of zecchins , (475,0001.) and he continues to fave in the fame proportion. This is a very lingular circum dance, and the effeCt of it is obfervable ; for I was allured at Modena, that this treafure was much greater than the whole circulating cur- rency of theDutchy; and they fpoke of it as a very mifchievous thing, to withdraw from circulation and ufe r fo conliderable a fum, occalioning prices generally to rife, and every thing to be dear. By repeated inquiries, I found this dearnefs was nothing more than what is found in the States around, which have all experienced, more or lefs, a conliderable rife of prices in ten years. But how could withdrawing money from circulation raife prices ? It ought, on the contrary, in a country that has no paper-money, to lower them. That this effeCt did not follow, we may ealily conclude, from thefe complaints. But the very perfons who complained of this treafure could not alfert, that money was more wanted in the Dutchy than before it was begun to be faved. They even gave a proof to the contrary, by affirming the rate of intereft to be at prefent 4! per cent. only. Upon the whole, the effeCt is evidently harmlefs ; and it is a mod: curious faCt in politics, that a government can gradually draw from cir- culation a fum that in ten years exceeded the current coin of the State, with- out cauling an apparent deficiency in the currency, or any inconveniency what- ever. Conclulions of infinite importance are to be drawn from fuch a faCt ; it feems to prove, that the general modern policy of contracting public debts, is abfurd and ruinous in the extreme ; as faving in the time of peace, is clearly without any of thofe inconveniences, which were once fuppofed to attend it ; and by means of forming a treafure, a nation doubles her nominal wealth, that fort of wealth, which is real or imaginary, according to the ufe that is made of it. The reputation, preventing attacks, is perhaps the greateft of all. How * The conduCt of this Prince in his new fituation, to which he acceded at a raoft critical and dangerous moment, has been worthy of his preceding reputation, and has fet a ftamp on the rank in which I have fuppofed him. A few years more added to the life of Jofeph, would have fhivered the Auftrian monarchy to nothings Leopold has, by his wife and prudent management, every where preferved it. contrary LOMBARDY. 25 6 contrary to the funding fyftem, which carries in its nature, fuch a probability of prefent weaknefs, and fuch a certainty of future ruin ! Parma. The river from Parma to the Po has been furveyed, and might be made na- vigable for about 25,0001. Iferling ; but to the honour of the government which has been diffufed through fo many countries by the Houfe of Bourbon, no fuch undertaking can here be thought of. Don Philip’s hiftory, it is to be hoped, will be written by fome pen that can teach mankind, from fuch an in- stance, of what duff men are fometimes made, whom birth elevates to power. The prefent Duke fpends too. much money upon monks, to have any to fpare for navigations. Piedmont. The Houfe of Savoy has, for fome centuries, poffeffed the reputation of govern- ing their dominions with lingular ability ; and of making fo dextrous a ufe of events, as to have been continually aggrandizing their territory. The late King was among the wifeft princes of his family, and Shewed his talents for govern- ment in the practice of an enlightened and Steady ceconomy : it deferves no flight attention among the princes of Europe, in the prefent ferment of men’s minds, whether there be any other criterion of a wife government. The late King of Sardinia faved 12,000,000 liv. ; paid off a great debt ; repaired all his fortreffes ; adorned his palaces ; and built one of the moft fplendid theatres in Europe ; all by the force of ceconomy. The contrail of the prefent reign is Striking ; his prefent Majefty found himfelf in poffeffion of the treafure of his predeceffor. He fold the property of the jefuits, to the amount of 20,000,000 liv. ; he has raifed 7 or 8,000,000 liv. by the creation of paper-money; thus, without noticing the por- tions of the Queen and the Princefs of Piedmont, he has received 40,000,000 liv. extraordinary (2,000,000!. Iterling) : all of which has been lavilhed, and a debt contracted and increafing ; the fortifications not in good repair; and report fays, that his army is neither well paid, nor well difciplined. Thefe features are not to be miffaken ; the King, though free from the vices which degrade fo many princes, and poffefiing many amiable virtues, is of too eafy a difpofition, which expofes him to fituations, in which ceconomy is facrificed to feelings — amiable for private life, but inconfillent with the feverity of a monarch’s duty. It is a molt curious circumltance in the King of Sardinia’s government, that there is in this court, a great defire to fell the illand of Sardinia. A treaty was opened with the Emprefs of Ruffia for that purpofe, after line was difappointed in LOMBARDY. 257 in her negotiation with the Genoefe, in the projected acquifition of Spazzie, and of Malta : but in all thefe fchemes of a Mediterranean eftablilhment, fhe was difappointed by the vigorous and decisive interference of the courts of Verfailles and Madrid. One cannot have any hefitation in the opinion, that to improve this ifland, by means of a good government, would be more political than fo ftrange a meafure as its fale *. I fhall * It may not here be unufeful to the reader, if I note fome minutes taken at Turin, concerning that ifland, one of the moft negle&ed fpots in Europe ; and which, of courfe, betrays the effe&s of a vicious fyftem of government fufficiently, for conclufions of fome importance to be drawn. The marfhes are fo numerous and extenfive, that the intemperia is every where found ; the mountains numerous and high; and waftes found fo generally, that the whole ifle may be confidered as fuch, with fpots only cultivated. Eftates in the hands of abfentees are large, the rents confequently fent away, and the people left to the mercy of rapacious managers. The Duke of Aflinaria has 300,000 liv. a year: the Duke of St. Piera 160,000 liv.: the Marquis of Pafcha as much; and many live in Spain. M. de Girah, a grandee, has an eftate of two days journey, from Poula to Oleaftre. The peafants in a miferable fituation ; their cabins wretched hovels, without either win- dows or chimnies; their cattle have nothing to eat in winter, but brovvzing in woods, for there are no wolves. The number of wild ducks incredible. Shooting them was the chief amufement of an officer, who was nine years in the ifland, and who gave me this account. Provifions cheap ; bread, if. the pound; beef, 2/; mutton, 2 \f\ a load of wood, of 10 quintals, 4s. 9d. fterling. Wheat is the only export ; in this grain the lands are naturally fertile, yielding commonly feven or eight for one, and fome even forty. No filk ; and oil, worfe than eafy to conceive. They have fome wine almoft as good as Malaga, and not unlike it. The great want of the ifland, is that of water : fprings are fcarcc, and the few rivers are in low bottoms. To thefe particulars, I fhall add a few from Gemelli. Sardinia is a real defert, for the moft part; and where cultivated, it is in the moft wretched man- ner: every thing confumed in the ifland (except the immediate food of the day), is imported, even their flax* and wood, from Corfica and Tufcany ; the miferable inhabitants know not even the art of making hay ; their crops are deftroyed by wild animals, for the very notion of an inclofure is un- known. Leafes are annual f. The tunny fifhery produces from abroad, 60,000 feudi J. They have no mules ; and the cities, as they are called, have been fupplied with corn from abroad ; with plenty in the ifland, which could not be brought, for want of mules to convey it ; infomuch, that a fourth part of the corn has been offered as a payment, for carrying the other three parts to the towns, and not accepted }|. In 1750, there were about 360,000 fouls in Sardinia;' in '1773, they were' 421,597'; 'fo' that in twenty-three years, the increafe was 61,597 » occafioned by an inftitution called Monti Frumentarii , which furnilhes feed on credit to the poor farmers, who cannot afford to buy it §. Cattle in the ifland, in 1771; cows, Sec. 1,710,259; oxen for work, horfes, mares, and calves bred for work, 185,266 **. • Rifiorimente Della Sardegna Gemelli , 4to, vol. i, p. 50. || lb. p. 5. § lb. p. 46. ** lb. p. 350. Vol. II. L 1 f lb. p. a i l U>, p. 54. Working LOMBARDY. 258 I fhall not quit the fubje£t of Italian governments, without remarking, that fuch deferts as Sardinia, under a defpotic monarch, and Iftria under a defpotic ariftocracy, are to be clafTed among political leflons. The tendency and refult of fuch cafes, are fuflicient to {hew the principles of government : the leaders fhould fpeedily correct the negledt of fuch fyftems. When people are well go- verned, things cannot be thus. The wifdom applicable to the prefent moment, is to watch the colour and fpirit of the age ; to compound ; and to yield, where yielding is rational. Working oxen, Cows in calf. Calves, ammanfite, Horfes and mares, Hogs, Oxen and calves, rudiy Cows and cow-calves, ruddy Goats, He-goats, Sheep, Rams and wethers *, The miferable ftate of this ifland, will beft appear from calculating the number of acres. Temple- man tells us, that it contains 6,600 fquare miles. England he makes 49,450 ; the real contents of which, in acres, are 46,915,933 j Sardinia, in the fame ratio, contains 6,261,782: the number of goats and fheep in the ifland, is 1,332,5505 there is, therefore, about one flheep or goat to every five acres. Without viewing the ifland, I will venture to pronounce, that it would, without culti- vation, fupport a fheep per acre 5 above fix millions} and reckoning the fleeces at 3s. 4d. each, the wool only would produce one million fterling a year. It is faid, the King of Sardinia offered to fell the ifland, to the Emprefs of Ruflia, for a million fterling. The purchafer of it would have a noble eftate at twice that price, feeing the immenfe improvements of which it is capable. The fee Ample of moft of the eftates are to be purchafed at a very eafy rate, as well as the fovereignty. The cli- mate would admit of wool, as fine as the Spanifh ; if it were made into an immenfe fheep-walk, with culture only proportioned to their winter fupport, it would yield an exportable produce of full two millions fterling annually. Gemelli mentions the ifland being capable of producing as fine wool as Spain ; they rear them only for fupplying their tables with lambs and cheefe ; and to have /kins for dreffing the people ; and no attention whatever is paid to the quality of the wool, which is good for nothing, but to make the Sardinian ferges. * Gemelli , tom. ii, p. 148, 97*753 13,099 - 8,080 66,334 - 152*471 58,770 166,468 - 378,201 42,597 - 768,250 -143*502 1*895*52 5 ACADEMIES. LOMBARDY. 259 ACADEMIES. There is an agrarian fociety at Turin, which has publifhed four volumes of papers : a patriotic fociety at Milan, which has publifhed two volumes ; nei- ther of thefe focieties hath any land for trying experiments. At Bergamo, Brefcia, and Verona, there are alfo focieties, — without land. At Vicenza, the republic has given four campi for the purpofe of experiments. At Padua, I viewed the experimental garden, of about a dozen acres, under the direction of Sig. Pietro Arduino; the expence of which is alfo paid by the State. At Flo- rence, a fimilar one, under the conduct of Sig. Zucchino ; this was in good order. Venice . Perhaps no country ever had a wifer plan of conduCt than the Venetians, in appointing a gentleman, fuppofed, from his writings, to be well {killed in agriculture (Sig. Arduino), to travel over all their dominions, to make inqui- ries into the Rate of agriculture; its deficiencies, and practicable improve- ments ; and the idea was, that the academies of agriculture, in all the great towns of the republic, would have orders to take fuch fleps to effeCt the im- provements, as would mofl conduce to national profperity. The plan was ad- mirable ; all, however, depends on the execution ; as far as the academies are concerned, I fhould expeCt it to fail, for none of them are eftablifhed upon principles, that will allow us to fuppofe their members {killed in pradhcal huf- bandry ; and, without this, their ideas and their experiments would of courfe be vifionary. It will not, perhaps, be improper to remark, under this head, that there is at Venice, an inftitution appointed by the State, which, though not an academy, has much the fame object, but with more authority, called the Beni Inculti . Their origin was about 1556, and in 1768 they added the Deputati di Agricoltura. I was informed, that they had once great power, and did much good, but that now there lies an appeal from their tribunal, to the council of forty, which is attended with a confiderable expence, and has done mifchief. L 1 2 SECT. LOMBARDY. 260 SECT. II. OF TAXATION. Piedmont .— C 'bent ale. The land-tax, near the town, is 6 liv. or 7 liv. per giornata , per annum, on fuch land as fells at 800 liv. to 1000 liv . ; which may be called about one-fixth of the rent, fuppoling land to pay 5 per cent. The landlord, of courfe, pays his own capitation of 1 liv. for himfelf, and every one in family : and the tenant pays as much for his family, being more than feven years old. But what is abun- dantly wo rfe, he pays 25 f. a head for each cow, and 50 f. for each ox. Salt is a monopoly : the ratio per head, is 8 lb. for every one in family, after five years old ; 41b. for each ox and cow ; and 1 lb. for each fheep and goat; and 1 lb. more per cow, for thofe that give milk : the price, 4 f. the pound. "Turin, No capitation in Turin. The entrees are %f. the brent a, 50 bottles of wine ; 4 den, per pound, meat. Salt, 4/ the pound. Hay, if, the rubbio , to the Ho- tel de Ville, for lighting the city. No taxes except the entrees . The land-tax in common, is 4 liv. the giornata. Salt, 8 lb. each ox or cow, and 41b. each goat, fheep, or calf, at 4 f . ; and if they want more, the reft 2 f. the pound 5 alfo 8 lb. per head of the family. Capitation in the country, 1 liv. per head, for all above feven years. The following is a correct Detail of the "Revenue of the King of Sardinia, which in 1675 amounted only to 7,000,000 liv. ( 306,250 1.) Liv* Cuftoms— excife and fait. Land-tax, which is between 7 and 8 per cent. Since 1781, the clergy their thirds of the land-tax. Addition to the land-tax, for the Nice road. Contribution of the Jews, - Sale of demefne lands falling into the crown. Fees in the courts cf juftice. Salt in the provinces of Alexandria and Novara, 14,000,000 6,000,000 500.000 100.000 15,700 800.000 110.000 65,460 Carry forward, • 21,591,160 LOMBAR D Y, 0.61 Liv.- Brought forward, - - - 21,591,160 Enrollment of all public ads and contracts, - 276,100 Poft-office, - - — - 300,000 Lotteries, royal powder works, glafs houfes, mines, falines, &c. about 3,000,000 Total, exclufive of the laft article* Expenditure . Intereft of the public debt. Army, - - Carry forward. * 22,167,260 Sterling, - 1 ,158,81 3 *4,738,840' •f. 10,700,000 15,438,840 3>504»233Ji¥* Tobacco,, ~ 2,4*5,297 Dogana,, - 2,377^73' Carne, - 1,240,230 Carta bollata, - - 249,103. Polveri, - — 215,788 Contravenzioni, — 22,340 Gabella giaochi,. - *37,3% Reggio lotto del feminario, 388,487 Gran cancelleria, 162,537; Dritti infinuazioni, , - 44,647 Regie pofte, - 394,214- Domaniali, - 442,884 Cafuali, - 1,449,548 i3>044, 37° Sardinia, in 1783, produced 1,318,5191m; the population 450,000 fouls., * The debt amounts to 58,000,000 liv. originally at 4, now at 3I per cent, and the fund is above par. There are 17,000,000 of bank notes,, which at firft bore 4 per cent, then 2, and now none. f Guards,- - - - 1,397 Fifteen regiments of the line,. - 17, 784 Twelve regiments of militia, • - 7,200 Legion,, . 1,718 Invalids, - Sundries, ~ - 28,099 - 2,400 1,141 Infantry,. Cavalry and dragoons, , 31,640 3,289 34,929 0 f which foreigners, 7>S3$ 262 LOMBARD Y. Liv . Brought forward. - 15,438,840 Ordnance, - . - 359>°44 Fortifications, royal houfes, and public buildings. - 1,458,998 Houfhold, - - - 2,500,000 Collection of the revenue, - - 3-572.398 King’s privy purfe, - - 7 IJ , 425 24,040,705 Sterling, - £. 1,202,035 If, as calculated, there are 2882 fquare French leagues in the King’s con- tinental dominions, the revenue amounts to 10,920 liv. per league ; and as the population is 3,000,000, it is 8 liv. per head. Savoy produces 2,432,1 37UV. Piedmont, 11,444,578 liv. ; and the provinces acquired by the treaties of Worms and Vienna, 1,972,735 liv. Milanese . — Milan . One liv. on the manufacture of each hat; duty of ykf. per lb. on the ex- port of filk. There are entrees at the gates of Milan, upon moft commodities. Wine pays 42 f. the brenta , of 96 bocali , of 28 oz. or fomething under a com- mon bottle. Salt in the city, is 12 J. the pound, and iikf. in the country. No perfon is obliged to take more than they think proper. Mozzata . The land-tax throughout the Milanefe, is laid by a cadajlre , called here the cenfimento ; there was a map and an aCtual furvey of every man’s property taken parochially, and a copy of the map left with the community of every parifh. It was finifhed in 1760, after forty years labour, under the Emprefs Maria Therefa. The lands were all valued, and the tax laid at 26 deniers ; 1 f. 6 den . per ecu, of the fee fimple. There is at Milan itfelf, as well as in the accounts of travellers, ftrange contradictions and errors about this tax ; as foon as I ar- rived, I was told, even by very fenfible men, that it amounted to full 50 per cent, of the produce. Monf. de la Lande, in his Voyage en Italie, tom. i. p. 291, 2d edit, fays, that it is one- third of the revenue, or half the produit net ; this is the confufion of the economies, with that jargon which feems to have enveloped the plained: objeCts in a mift; for one- third of the revenue, is not half the produit net . Monf. Roland de la Platerie afierts, that it exceeds the half of th q rcvenu net but all thefe accounts are grofs errors. The in- ftruCtion of the commifiaries originally, who valued the country, was to efti- mate LOMBARDY. 263 mate it below the truth; of which thefe gentlemen feem to have known nothing. Nor do they take into their confideration, the improvements which have been made in near thirty years ; for the cenfimento remains as it was, no alteration having been made in the valuation ; when they talk therefore of 50 per cent, or a third, or any other proportion, they muft of necefiity be incor- rect, for no one knows the value of' the whole Dutchy at prefent; nor can tell whether the tax be the fifth or the tenth, or what real proportion it bears to the income. When I found the fubjeCt involved in fuch confufion by preceding travellers, I faw clearly that the way to come at truth,” was to enquire in the country, and not depend on the general aflertions fo common in great cities. At this place (Mozzata) therefore, I analyzed the tax, and by gaining a clear comprehenfion of the value, rent, produce, and tax of 100 pertiche , was ena- bled to acquire a fair notion of the fubjeCL Under the chapter of arable pro- ducts, I have Rated that 100 pertiche yield a grofs produce, in corn, wine, and filk, of 1836 liv. ; of which the proprietor receives for his fhare, 785 liv. This land would fell for 128^ liv. per pertica-, or 12,833 l^v. for the 100. Now this 100 pertiche, of fuch a rent and value, pays cenfimento i$kf per pertica, or 77 liv. This tax is paid by the farmer in the above-mentioned divifion; but if there were no tax, the landlord would receive fo much more as his portion ; add therefore the tax, 77 liv. to his receipt, 785 liv. and you have 862 liv. for the fum which pays 77 liv.; which is 8|4L or 81 . 18s. per cent, or is. 9d. in the pound. So utterly miflaken are the people of Milan, and the French tra- vellers, when they talk of 50 per cent, and one-third, and one-half, th eproduit net and revenu net ! And it is farther to be conlidered, that only half this pay- ment of 77 liv. goes to the fovereign ; for half is retained by the communities for roads, bridges, and other parochial charges ; and in fome cafes, the partial fupport of the curees is included. When this happens, the payment of is. 9d. in the pound, is in lieu of our land-tax, tithe, and poor-rate ; three articles, which in England amount to 8s. or 10s. in the pound. But though the bur- then is nothing, compared with thofe which cruih us in England, yet is. 9d. is too heavy a land-tax — it is throwing too great a burthen upon landed pro- perty, and lefiening too much the profit which Ihould arife from inverting capitals in it ; for it muft be remarked, that this proportion is that of the im- provements included ; this is. 9d. might probably, twenty-five years ago, be 3s. or 3s. 6d. : it is improvements which have lowered it to is. 9d. at the pre- fent moment. Thofe filent and gradual improvements, which take place from what may be termed external caufes, from the growing profperity, and rife of prices in Europe in general. Were 8 £ per cent, to be laid on new inveftments, not one livre would be inverted. Lands belonging to ecclefiaftics and holpitals are exempted. It LOMBARDY. 264 It mud be diffidently apparent, that this cenfimento mud vary in every pariffi in the dukedom ; it varies proportionably to the variation, in the accuracy of the original valuation ; and to the improvements that have been made ; and to many other circumdances. As it is at prefent, the land-owners are well fatisfied, for the tax, though too heavy, is certainly not enormous ; and it gives an ac- curacy and fecurity to property that is of no flight value ; as all mutations are made in reference to the parochial map of the cenfimento . They very properly confider any alteration in it, as a certain dep to the ruin of the Milanefe. It has been reported, that the Emperor has entertained thoughts of having a new valuation ; but the condition and mifchief that would flow from fuch a fcheme, might go much farther than the court could imagine ; and might be attended with unforefeen confequences. In thefe opinions, they are certainly right ; for of all the curfes that a country can experience, a variable land-tax is perhaps the heavied. Befide the dired land-tax of the cenfimento, there is a capitation that is in- cluded in the roll, like the cudom in England, of putting feveral taxes into one duplicate or affeffment. On 15,173 pertiche of land, at Mozzata, there are three hundred and eighty-two heads payable, and one thoufand three hundred fouls. It may be calculated, that 100 pertiche pay the capitation of three per- fons, or 22j liv. Codogno. The watered dairy lands, taken in general, fell here at 300 liv. the pertica ; and lets, net rent, at 10 liv.; the tenant paying all taxes. — The account is thus : Rent to landlord, - 10 liv. of Water-tax for didribution, - - -10 Cenfimento to the prince and the community, -2 5 J_3 5 The 1 liv. we mud throw out, being local, and then 12 liv. $f pays 2 liv. ,5/. which is i8 t V°t P e r cent, or 3s. 8d. in the pound; this is therefore doubly higher than in the poor country of Mozzata; one would fuppofe beforehand, that the cafe would be fo. The improvements in the Lodizan are not modern ; probably there are no other but fuch as are common to the whole Dutchy, and which arife from the general profperity of Europe, rather than from any local efforts in this diftridt; but in much poorer countries, the improvement of wade fpots, and a huibandry gradually better, are more likely to have this ef- fect; the fadt, however, is fo ; there was no fuch difference as this, when the cenfimento was laid, which fufficiently proves that the hufbandry of the poor diftridts, has advanced much more in thirty years, than that of the rich ones, which LOMBARDY. a6$ which, once well watered, admitted of little more. We may remark, that even here the accounts which MefTrs. de la Lande and Roland de la Platerie have given, are grofs exaggerations. 'reviglio. Upon 400 pertiche of land and fix houfes, the cenjimento amounts to43oliv. Rent, 7, 9, and I2liv. the per tica, average 8 liv. or 3440 liv. about 12 per cent, or 2S. 4d. in the pound. Upon the land-tax in general in the Milanefe, I fhould obferve, before I quit that country, that in 1765 it was calculated * that the Dutchy of Milan con- tained 14,000,000 of pertiche , and that lakes, roads, &c. deduced, there re- mained 11,367,287, of which 5,098,758 were arable. It has been further Rated •f*, that the cenfimento of the Dutchy, raifed, liv. f. den , For the Emperor, - - - 5,106,004 n 9 Suppofe as much more for the communities, - 5,106,004 n 9 10,212,009 3 6 Eleven millions of pertiche , paying ten millions of livres, is about 18 fold!' per per tic a J. In the Epilogo della Scrittura Cenfuaria della Lombardia Auflriaca , MS. fent by Count Wilizek, prime minifter of the Milanefe, to the Board of Agriculture at London, the general valuation of the territory, in the cenfimento , is thus Rated : Milano, - 40, 1 39,942 fcudi. Mantova, - - 14,487,423 Pavia, - 6,173,740 Cremona, - - 15,112,042 Lodi, - 11,014,562 Como, - - 2,153,626 Value of the fee fimple. 89,081,337 If therefore the tax produces but about ten millions of livres, it is not more than 2 per cent, on the above capital. * Bilancio dello Stato di Milano prefentato a S. E. Conte di Firmian , i2mo. + Delle Opere del Conte Carli , tom. i. p. 232. % Upon the taxes of the Milanefe, it fhould be in general noted, that every father with twelve children living, or eleven living and his wife with child of a twelfth, is exempted from all perfonal taxes ; and upon all others favoured 45 per cent, that is to fay, on all royal, provincial, municipal imports. Delle Opere de S, Conte Carli , 8vo, tom. i. p. 254. Vol. II. M m State 266 LOMBARDY. State of Venice. — Brefcta, The land-tax amounts to if liv. per jugero , about yd. the Englifh acre ; but there is a tax on all products, viz. wheat and rye pays the foma or facco , equal to 2 fiara of Venice, or 88 lb.; iif foldi equal to 18 foldi correnti ; this tax ffenza portata in Villa) is about 5d. Englifh the bufhel. Millet, maiz, &c. pays 12 foldi the facco , of or about 3§d. the Englifh bufhel. Hay, the carro of loo peze, pays 12 f ft den, or about 6d. a ton Englifh. Verona, Meadows, throughout the Veronefe State, pay a tax of hay to the cavalry ; fur- nifhing it at a lower price than the common one. The land-tax here, 24 f, for each campo, or about iod. the Englifh acre ; befides which, there are entries (dazio) for municipal charges on all products, amounting to about 2 per cent, of the value ; alfo others payable to the State. Hay pays 24/ the carro : the fack of wheat, 10 f: of maiz, if f. There is a mofl mifchievous tax on cattle ; a pair of oxen pays half a zecchin per annum ; cows fomething lefs ; and fheep alfo pay a certain tax per head. Vicenza, Salt is 6 f the pound : flefh, 3 f. entree (dazio): a fack of wheat, 4 \f: of flour, of 1 80 lb. 3 liv. 2 f: and every thing that comes in pays. Land-tax, 2 liv. the campo : and a poll-tax of 2 liv. a head, on all above feven years old. Padua, The land-tax, 20 f the campo ; and 10 f, or 15/ for the expences on rivers; but this tax uncertain. Venice. No tax on cattle in the Polefine. The land-tax on all the Terra Firma ; arable, 2 liv. the catnpo : meadow, 1 liv. 10 f: woods, 10 f. The fale of meat in the city is a monopoly, no other perfons but thofe appointed being allowed to fell. Entrees are paid on every thing that comes in; on wine it is heavy. Tobacco is a monopoly, at a heavy price, referved by the State throughout all the Venetian territory, producing 50,000 ducats a month, and guarded by the fame infamous feverities, that are found in other defpotic countries. Salt the fame. Inheritances, except from a father, pay 5 per cent, on the capital ; a woman pays this cruel impofition, even upon her receipt from a father, or a hufband. Infamous tyranny ! The city of Venice pays about one-fixth of the whole revenue. Eccle LOMBARDY. 267 Ecclesiastical State. — Bologna. Taxation, at Bologna, is one of the moft remarkable circumftances I met in Italy. I had often read, and had been generally given to underftand, that the government of the church was the word: to be found in Italy ; what it may be in the Roman State, I know not, but in the Bolognefe it is amongft the lighted: to be found in Europe. There are four objeds of taxation:— 1. The Pope. 2. The municipal government of the city. . 3. The fchools in the univerfity. 4. The banks, &c. of the rivers, againft inundations. Of all thefe, there is fome reafon to believe that the Pope receives the lead fhare. The common land-tax is only 2 baiocchi the tornatura ; this is about 2d. the Englifh acre. Lands fubjed to inundations, pay 5 baiocchi more. Among the imports levied in the city, wine only, and a few trifles, belong to his Holinefs. Salt, fifh, meat, cocoons (for there is a fmall duty upon them), and grinding corn, thefe are municipal •, and among the heavieft articles of the cities ex- pence, is the interert of about a million fterling of debt. In general, the re- venue of the dogana , or curtom-houfe, is applied towards fupporting the ledures in the public fchools, and the botanical garden. There is a light capitation, which is paid in the country, as well as in the city. Upon the whole, the amount of the taxes of every kind is fo inconfiderable, that the weight is felt by nobody, and was efteemed to be exceedingly light by every perfon I converfed with. Tuscany . — F lorencc. Every circumftance concerning taxation, in the dominions of the moft en- lightened Prince in Europe, muft neceflarily be interefting. If the reader is at all converfant with the works of the economiftes , with which France was fo deluged fome years ago, he will know, that when they were refuted in argu- ment, upon the theory of a univerfal land-tax, to abforb all others, they ap- pealed to pradice, and cited the example of Tufcany, in which dominion their plan was executed. I was eager to know the refult the detail I fhall give, imperfed as it is, will fhew on what fort of foundations thofe gentlemen built, when they quitted the fields of fpeculation and idea. I was not idle in making inquiries ; but the Grand Duke has made fo many changes, no year parting without fome, and all of them wife and benevolent, that to attain an accurate knowledge is not fo eafy a bufinefs as fome perfons may be inclined to think. The following particulars I offer, as little more than hints to infiigate other travellers, whofe longer refidence gives them better opportunities, to examine a fub ; a of fo much importance to the bottom. Mm2 The LOMBARDY. The estimation on which the prefent land-tax is colledted is fo old as 1394 j of courfe it can bear no proportion with the value or with the produce of the land; whatever improvements are made, the tax remains the fame; much of it has been bought off in payments made by proprietors, who have paid at dif- ferent periods certain fums, to be exempted forever from this tax ; a lingular circumftance, and which marks no inconfiderable degree of confidence in the government. That part of this tax which is paid to the communities for roads, &c. is not thus redeemable; and, without any breach of faith, the tax has received additions ; it amounts to more than one-tenth of the net rent. A capitation from if liv. to 4 liv. per head (the livre is Bfd. Englilh). EvePy body pays this tax in the country, except children under three years of age ; and all towns, except Florence, Pifa, Siena, and Leghorn, which are exempted, becaufe they pay entrees. Nothing is paid on cattle. Butchers in the country pay a tax of if. per lb. (fomething under fd. per lb. Englilh) ; in a diftridt of feven miles long by four or five broad, the butcher pays 500 fcudi per annum to the prince ; as this tax implies a monopoly, it is fo far a mifchievous one ; and even a countryman cannot kill his own hog without paying 5 liv. or 6 liv. if fold. Bakers pay none. Cuftoms on imports, and fome on exports, are paid at all the ports and frontiers ; and the entrees at the above-mentioned towns are on moll kinds of merchandize and objedts of confumption. Houfes pay a dixme on their rents. Stamped paper is neceflary for many tranfadfions. The transfer of land and houfes, by fale or collateral fucceflion, pays 7 per cent, and legacies of money and marriage portions the fame — a very heavy and im- politic tax. There is a gabelle upon fait, which however the Grand Duke funk fix months ago from 4 to 2 gras ; he, at the fame time, made Empoly the only emporium, but as that occafioned much expence of carriage, he augmented the land-tax enough to pay the lofs, by felling it to the poor only at 2 gras $ the rich pay the fame, but with the addition of carriage. Tobacco was alfo a revenue, and, with fait, paid 1 liv. per head on all the population of the Dutchy* or one million. The entrees above-mentioned are not inconfiderable ; a calf pays 6 liv. ; a hog, 5 liv. per 100 lb. ; grain nothing ; flour, 10 Joldi (there are 20 Joldi in 1 liv.); beans, 2/.-, a load of hay, of 30001b. 4 liv.; of draw, under 2000 lb. 2 liv. Houfes are alfo fubjedted to an annual tax ; Florence pays 22,000 fcudi a year to it : it may be fuppofed to be levied pretty ftridtly, as the Grand Duke ordered all his palaces, the famous gallery, &c. to be valued, and he pays for them to the communities. What a wife and refined policy ! and how contrary to the exemptions known in England ! When the capitation was increafed in France, in a bad period, Louis XIV. ordered the Dauphin himfelf, and all the princes of the blood, to be rated to it, that the nobility might not claim ex- emptions. Lotteries, to my great furprize, I found eftablilhed here. The domains LOMBARDY. 269 domains of the fovereign were confiderable. It was always a part of the policy of Leopold, to fell all the farms that could be difpofed of advantageoufly ; he fold many ; but there are yet many not difpofed of. I found it a queftion at Florence, whether this were good policy or not ? A gentleman of confiderable ability contended againft thele fales, judging the pofteftion of land to be a good mode of railing a public revenue. The opinion I think ill founded ; if it be carried to any extent (and if incapable of being fo, there is an end of the queftion), the lofs by fuch poffeflions muft be great : every eftateis ill managed, and unprofitably, and ufually badly cultivated, in proportion to the extent.— And when this evil extends to fuch immenfe pofteftions, as are neceftary to conftitute a public revenue, the inquiry is decided in a moment; and it muft; on all hands be agreed, that there cannot be a more expenfive mode of fupport- ing the fovereign. From the preceding catalogue of taxes, which is very far from being com- plete, it may eafily be concluded, that Monf. de la Lande was not perfectly accurate in faying, “ Le projet du gouvernement eft de reduire toutes les taxes dans la Tofcane a un impot unique, qui fe percevra fur le produit net des terres.” This is the old aftertion of the economijles ; but if it be the project of govern- ment, it is executed in a manner not at all analogous to fuch a fyftem ; for there is hardly a tax to be met with in Europe, which is not to be found in Tufcany. I was told, however, that the Grand Duke had formed an opinion, that fuch a fcheme would be beneficial if executed ; but from his conduct, af- ter a reign of twenty years, it is evident that his good fenfe convinced him that fuch a plan, whether good or bad in theory, is abfolutely impracticable. He may have made it a fubject of converfation ; but he was abundantly too prudent to venture on fo dangerous, and what would prove fo mifchievous an experiment. The Grand Duke gave to all the communities, the power of taxation for roads, bridges, public fchools, reparations of public buildings, falaries of fchool- mafters, 6cc. Among the long lift of taxes, however, there are no excifes on manufactures, fuch as leather, paper, &c. The whole revenue of the Grand Duke may be eftimated at one million of Jcudiy (5s. 8d. each), paid by about a million of fouls, fpread over a thoufand fquare miles of territory; or 283,333b: this is the received opinion at Flo- rence; but there are reafons for believing it under the truth, and that, if every kind of revenue whatever were fairly brought to account, it would amount to 400,000b a year. At this fum the Tufcans muft be confidered amongft the lighted; taxed people in Europe ; for they pay but 8s. a head. The people of England pay fix times as much. Modena. 270 LOMBARDY. Modena. The common calculation in the Modenefe is, that all taxes whatever equal one-fifth of the grofs produce of the land; as the duties are various, fuch calculations muft neceffarily be liable to a good deal of error. In the cenfimento , or cadajlre of the Dutchy, eftates are valued at the half of their real worth, and the tax is laid at i per cent, annual payment of their fee Ample ; this amounts to 6s. in the pound land-tax ; but it may be fuppofed that the real payment does not amount to any thing fo enormous as this. It appears by the cenjimento , that in the plain, there are 67,378 pieces of land, and 738,809 biolca . The total revenue of Modena at prefent amounts to 300,000 ze echini, (142,0001.) ; 200,000 of which go to the Duke’s treafure, and 100,000 for rivers, roads, bridges, communities. See. Among the taxes, many are heavy, and complained of; befide the land-tax above-mentioned, the general farms amount to 55,000 zecchini: all corn muft be ground at the Duke’s mills, and 3 pauls paid for each fack of 3001b. of 12 oz. There is a gabelle on fait; it fells, white, at 22 bol . the pound ; black, 8 bol. Snuff is 1 paul the pound. They have ftamped paper for many tranfadions. Every horfe pays 20 bol . ; each ox, 10 bol. Sheep and hogs, 4 bol. \ and if any perfon be abfent from the State for the term of a year, he pays an abfentee tax. Entrees are paid by every thing that comes into the city; a load of wood, 20 bol.', a fack of wheat, 3 bol.', a load of hay, 20 bol . ; of faggots, 20 bol. All meat, 4 bol. the pound. - Wine, 1 4 liv. the meafure, of 12 poids> each 251b. of 12 oz. Coffee, x paul per lb. The fale, j&c. of land, pays 5 per cent. Parma. The revenues of this dukedom are two-thirds of thofe of Modena. The land-tax is 50 f. the biolca , (about 9d. an acre). The peafants pay a capitation ; this varies, if they are enrolled, or not as foldiers. A man pays 18 liv. (each sfd.) per annum, if not a foldier, but 3I liv. or 4 liv. if enrolled. A woman, not the wife of a foldier, 15 liv. Thefe foldiers, or rather militia-men, pay alfo 24 f. a month, as an exemption from fervice. He is enrolled for twenty- five years, after which he has the fame advantage. He pays alfo but half for his fait, 6/ only the pound; others 12 f. A metayer, who is a foldier, pays all forts of taxes, about 60 liv. SECT. 27 * LOMBARDY^ SECT. III. OF TITHE AND CHURCH LANDS. Piedmont. Throughout this principality, tithe is an object of no account. I made in- quiries concerning it every where : the greateft part of the lands pay none; and upon the reft it is fo light, as not to amount to more than from a twentieth to a fiftieth of the produce *. Milanese. In the country from Milan to Pavia, no tithe of any kind, but the curses are fupported by foundations. In the village where I made inquiries into the dairy management,— the curse has 21 ftara of rice, 12 ftara of rye, 4 ftara of wheat ; 300 lb. of the beft hay from one large farm ; and he has fome other little fti- pends in nature ; the amount fmall, and never paid as a tithe. At Mozzata, the tithes, as every where elfe, are fo low as to be noobjecft; grain pays, but not on all land ; it is confined to the lands antiently in cul- ture f ; for even the anceftors of thefe people were much too wife, to allow the church to tax them in fuch a fpirit, as to take tithes of new improve- ments. Never did fuch a meafure enter their heads or hearts ! The titheable lands are fmall diftridts ; are near to the villages that have been in cultivation many centuries ; and in fome of thefe, tithe is not taken on all forts of corn ; only on thofe forts antiently cultivated. The variations in this refpedt are many ; but on whatever it is taken, it never exceeds a fixteenth, ufually from one-feventeenth to one-twentieth ; and of fuch as are levied, the whole does not belong to the cure'e , not more perhaps than one-fourth ; one-half to the canons of fome diftant church, to which the whole probably once belonged ; and one-fourth fold off to fome lay-lord, with a ftipulation to repair the church. The variations are fo great, that no general rule holds ; but they are every where fo light, that no complaints are heard of them. The church lands feized by the late Emperor in the Milanefe, were of im- menfe value. From Pavia to Plaifance, all was in the hands of the monks; and the Count dc Belgiofo has hired thirty-fix dairy farms of the Emperor, by * Tithe in Sardinia is heavy. They pay one-tenth of the corn, and one-ninth of that one-tenth for threfhing, and one-fifth of the one-tenth for carnage.— Rifioriments della Sardegna^ tom. i. p. 146. f A remarkable paflage in Giulini deferves noting here ; under the year 1 147, he gives finale - menu fi prohibifce a ciafcheduno ejjigere le deeima dal terreni di nuove coltivati , tom. v. p. 459. which LOMBARDY. 272 ■which he makes a profit of 50,000 liv. a year. The revenue that was feized, in the city of Milan only, amounted [ to above 5,000,000 liv. ; and they fay in that city, that in the whole Auftrian monarchy, it amounted to 20,000,060 florins. At Codogno, and through mod of the Lodizan, tithe is fo very inconfider- able, that it is not worth mentioning ; the exprefiion of the gentlemen who were my informants. State of Venice. In the didrift of Verona, mulberries pay no tithe; wheat one-twelfth in fome places, in others lefs ; maiz, millet, &c. from one-fifteenth to one-thirtieth ; but if for forage only, they pay none, no more than vetches, chich-peafe, mil- let, &c. as it appears by a late memoir printed at Venice*. Meadows pay a light tithe, becaufe they are taxed to find hay for the cavalry at an under price. In the djdrift of Vicenza, tithe varies from the one-tenth to the forty-firft. About Padua, wheat alone pays the tenth : vines a trifle, at the will of the farmer : mulberries, fheep, and cows, nothing. Ecclesiastical State. — Bologna . Tithes are fo low throughout all the Bolognefe, that I could get no fatisfac- tory account of the very fmall payments that are yet made to the church ; every one aflured me, that they were next to nothing; but that in the Fer- rarefe they are high. Tuscany. In many of the countries of Europe, the feizure of eftates and eflefts of the jefuits was a rapacious aft, to the profit of the Prince or State ; in Tufcany it was converted to a more ufeful purpofe. The Grand Duke fet afide thefe re- venues for forming a fund, called the Ecclejiaftical Patrimony, under the manage- ment of a new tribunal, that fhould enable him gradually to abolifh tithes. This great reform, equally beneficial to every clafs of the people, has been in execution for many years : as fad as the prefent incumbents of the livings die, tithes are abolifhed for ever ; their fucceflors enter into pofleflion of moderate fa- laries, payable out of thofe funds, or raifed by an addition to the land-tax; and thus an impofl, of all others the mod mifchievous, is fpeedily extinguifhing, and the agriculture of Tufcany improving in confequence; proportionably to fuch extinction of its former burthens. Many monaderies have been alfo fup- prefled, and their revenues applied, in fome cafes, to the fame ufe ; but this * Raccolto di Memorie Delle Pubbliche Accademie , 8vo, 1789, tom. i. p. 197. has LOMBARDY. 273 has not been attended with effeds equally good : the lands are not equally well cultivated ; nor do they yield the fame revenue as formerly ; for the farms of the monks were in the beft order, adminiftered by themfelves, and every thing carefully attended to. This was not the cafe, however, with convents of wo- men, who being obliged to employ deputies, their eftates were not equally well managed. A proportion was lately made by the court, to fell all the glebes belonging to the livings, and to add to the falaries of the curies in lieu of them ; but at a public meeting of the Academia di Georgofili, Sig. Paoletti, a cure in the neighbourhood of Florence, a pradical farmer, and author of fome excellent treatifes on the art, made a fpeech fo pointedly againft the fcheme, fraught with fo much good fenfe, and delivered with fo much eloquence, that the plan was immediately dropped, and refumed no more ; this was equally to the ho- nour of Paoletti and of Leopold. When good fenfe is on the throne, fubjeds need not fear to fpeak it. The lightnefs of the old tithes may be eftimated, by the payment which forty farms at Villamagna yield to the fame Sig. Paoletti, the cure , which is 40 fcudi (each 5s. 8d.), and this is only for his life ; to his fucceffor nothing in this kind will be paid. Having mentioned Sig. Paoletti, and much to his honour, I muft give another anecdote of him, not lefs to his credit ; after his Sunday’s fermon, it has long been his practice to offer to his audience, forne inftrudion in agriculture ; which they are at liberty to liften to, or abfent themfelves, as they pleafe. For this pradice, which deferved every commendation, his arch- bifhop reproved him. He replied, that he neglected no duty by offering fuch inftrudion, and his congregation could not fuffer, but might profit, and inno- cently too, by what they heard. A lovereign that receives fo much merited praife as the great Leopold, can well afford to hear of his faults; fir ft, why did he not reprove this prelate, for his conduct ; and by fo doing encourage an attention to agriculture in the clergy ? fecondly, why did he not re- ward a good farmer, and worthy prieft, and excellent writer, with fomething better than this little redory ? Talents and merit in an inferior fituation, which might be better exerted, are a reproach, not to the poffelfor, but to the prince. The Grand Duke took the adminiftration of the lands belonging to hofpitals and the poor into his own hands alfo ; but the effcd of this has not, in the opi- nion of fome perfons, been equally beneficial ; the poor remain as they were, but the revenue gone; this, in thediocefe of Florence only, amounted, it is laid, to three or four millions of fcudi : if this be true, the mifchief attending fuch revenues muft be enormous; and taking them away, provided the really ufeful hofpitals be fupported, which is the cafe, muft be beneficial. Too many and Vol.IL Nn great LOMBARDY. 274 great eftablifhments of this nature nurfe up idlenefs ; and create, by de- pendency and expectation, the evils they are defigned to cure. Poverty always abounds in proportion to fuch funds j fo that if the fund were doubled, the rnifery it is meant to prevent would be doubled alfo. No poor in the world are found at their eafe by means of hofpitals, and gratuitous charities ; it is an induftry, fo Ready and regular, as to preclude all other dependence, that can alone place them in fuch a fituation, as I have endeavoured to (hew in my remarks on France. The patrimony of almoft all the pariffies in Tufcany, confifts in lands affigned them : the reCtor is administrator and guardian of them j and, both by law and his oath on induction, he is ftriCtly obliged to maintain and fupport them ; and alfo to manure them, and to increafe the produce *. Dutchy of Modena. No tithe here ; a voluntary gift only to the fub-curee . The ecclefiaftical lands have been largely feized here, as well as every where elfe in Italy ; but the Duke gave them to the towns, to affift them in the expence of the munici- pal adminiftration, Dutchy of Parma. No real tithe j the payments in lieu very fmall, and not proportioned to the crop ; a farm pays a flajo of wheat, (about 88 lb. Engliffi), two parcels of raifins, and twenty faggots, between the two curies. Upon this detail of the tithe paid in Lombardy, &c. one obfervation Rrongly impreffes itfelf, that the patrimony of the church is, under every government in Italy, confidered as the property of the State, and feized or affigned accord- ingly. It highly merits attention, that in the free countries of Holland and Switzerland, (exempt at leaf; from the defpotifm of a fingle perfon), the fame principle has been adopted ; with what reafon therefore can the firfl National Affiembly of France be reproached, as guilty of a fingular outrage, for doing that which every neighbour they have (England and Spain only excepted) had done before them ; and which may poffibly, in a better mode, be fol- lowed in every country in Europe ? They have in Italy rid themfelves of tithes, though not half, perhaps not upon an average a third, of the bur- then they amount to in England, where their levy has been carried to a * Paoletti Penfleri fopra V Agriculture 8vo. Firenze, 1789* p. 50, ad edit. much LOMBARDY. 275 much greater height. If the legiflature of that kingdom would give a due encouragement, they will remove fuch burthens gradually, and with wifdom. All I converfed with in Italy, on the fubjedt of tithes, exprefied amazement at the tithes we are fubjeCt to ; and fcarcely believed that there was a people left in Europe, who paid fo much : obferving, that nothing like it was to be found even in Spain itfelf. SECT. IV. OF MANUFACTURES AND COMMERCE. Piedmont. Two-thirds of the rice raifed is exported : I met carts loaded with filk and rice on the great road to France ; and demanding afterwards concerning this trade, I was informed, that the coft of the carriage was 30 f, per rubbio , to Lyons or Geneva, and 3 liv. to Paris.— The following are the principal exports : Liv. - 17,000,000 - 500,000 3.500.000 1.500.000 2 , 000,000 24,500,000 Oil and wine from Nice ; walnut- oil, cobalt, lead, and copper ore, add fome- thing. France commonly takes 10,000,000 liv. in filk, and England 5,000, oooliv. of the fined: fort. The balance of trade is generally fuppofed to be about 500,000 liv. againfi: Piedmont ; but all fuppofitions of this fort are very conjec- tural; fuch a country could not long continue to pay fuch a balance; and, confequently, there cannot be any fuch. By another account, wheat exported is 200,000 facks, at 5 eymena ; 5000 facks of rice, at 3 eymena ; hemp, 5000 quintals ; and 10,000 head of oxen. Turin, The Englilh woollen manufacturers having fworn, at the bar of the Houfe of Lords, that the French camblets, made of Englifh wool, rivalled the Eng- lish camblets in the Italian markets, and even underfold them, I had previoufiy N n 2 determined Unwrought filk, Damalks, &c. Rice, Hemp, Cattle, LOMBARDY. 276 determined to make inquiries into the truth of this affertion. I was at Turin introduced to Sig. Vinatier, a confiderable fhopkeeper, who fold both. His account of the French and Englifh camblets was this ; that the Englifh are much better executed, better wrought, and more beautiful ; but that the French are ftrongeft. I defired to know which were the cheapeft. The Englifh, he faid, being much the narrower, it was a matter of calculation ; but he fuppofed the confumers thought the Englifh cheapeft, as where he fold one French, he fold at leaft twenty-five Englifh. He fhewed me various pieces of both, and faid, that the above circumftances were applicable both to fluffs mixed of wool and filk, and alfo thofe of wool only. I afked him then con- cerning cloths : he faid, the Englifti ordinary cloths were much better than the French, but that the French fine cloths were better than the Englifh. Thefe inquiries brought me acquainted with an Italian dealer, or merchant as he is called, in hardware, who informed me, that he was at Birmingham in 1786 and 1789, and that he found a fenfible diminution of price ; and that the prices of Englifh hardware have fallen for fome years paft ; and that, for thefe laft three or four years, the trade in them to Italy has increafed confiderahly. He has not only bought, but examined with care, the fine works in fteel at Paris, but they are not equal to the Englifh ; that the French have not the art of hardening their fteel j or if hardened of not working it ; for the Englifh goods are much harder and better polifhed, confequently, are not equally fub- je p. 39* + lb. p. 39, from Giovanni Villani, Francefco Balducci, Giovanni da Uzzano Benedetto Dei. £ Crijlofano Landino apologia di Dante . § Ragionamente Sopra lojcanoy p. 61. alone LOMBARDY. 281 alone, that fatisfa&ion can be gained. No wonder that the rich deep foils of Lombardy and Flanders have been well applied ; but the more ungrateful and jfteril hills of Tufcany remain (at lead what I have feen of them) wild and unimproved. There is yet a woollen manufacture of fome confideration, and they make line cloths of Vigonia wool ; alfo hats ; and various fabrics of filk. The export of woollens from Tufcany in 1757, was 120,000 lb. ; and in 1762, it was 180,000 lb.* Among the filk manufactures, here are fome good, and pretty fatins, 18 pauls (the paul 5ld.) the braccio , (about two feet Englifh), the width one braccio four inches. The filk fpun in Tufcany in ten years, from 1760 to 1769 inclulive, amounts to 1,676,745 lb. ; or per annum, 167,6741b. ; and in the firft fum is comprifed 286,9791b. of cocoons, bought of foreigners f. The filk manufacture amounts to a million of crowns, (7 liv. ioyT of Tufcany J). Of oil, the export is about 100,000 barrils . The year following the edict for the free commerce of oil and grain, the export amounted to 600,000 Jcudi §. Next to oil, hogs are the greateft export, to the amount of from 20 to 30,000 in a year. The average of the quantity of filk made in Tufcany, and regiftered in the tribunal of Florence, from 176910 1778, was 165,1681b.; and the import of foreign filk, 48,4701b.; together, 213,6491b. yearly ||. Modena. In 1771, the following were the exports of the Modenefe : Liv . Brandy, 50,000 poids. Wine, 150,000 ditto. Oxen, 5,232 head. Cows, 3,068 ditto. Calves, one year, 500 ditto. Wethers and goats, 23,500 ditto. Hogs, 1 1,580 ditto. Pigs, 21,900 ditto. Linen, hemp, facks, &c. 1,800,000 braccio , Carry forward. 593.280 428,222 1,569,600 613,400 69,150 141,048 347.280 3 2 9> I 45 1,442,327 5 > 533 > 45 2 Hogs Oo LOMBARDY. 282 Llv. Brought forward, - J» 533 > 45 2 Hogs falted, 1,900 poids. - 24,479 Poultry, - - 24»342 Hats of draw and chip. - 145,308 Ditto of woollen. - 23,205 Grofs fabricks of wool. - 83,362 Butter, - - - - 106,240 Hemp, ^>un or prepared, 13,900 poids t - 348,000 Wax, - - 74,400 Silk, 77,6501b. - - 3,897,312 Honey, - - * 5 > 35 ° Cheefe, - - 98,556 Chefnuts, - - 17,440 Ifruit, - - - - - 81,320 10,472,766 All thefe are by the regifters of the farms ; the contraband is to be added.- Exportation is now greater than in 1771. Parma. The firft trade and export of the country is filk ; the next cattle and hogs. There is but one conclufion to be drawn from this detail of the commerce of Lombardy, namely, that eighteen-twentieths of it confift in the export of the produce of agriculture, and therefore ought rather to be efteemed a branch of that art, than of commerce, according to modern ideas ; and it is equally worthy of notice, that thus fubfifting by agriculture, and importing manufac- tures, thefe countries muft be ranked among the mod flourifhing in the world ; abounding with large and magnificent towns j decorated in a manner that fets all comparifon at defiance : the country every where cut by canals of naviga- tion or irrigation ; many of the roads fplendid ; an immenfe population ; and fuch public revenues, that if Italy were united under one head, fhe would be claiTed among the firfb powers in Europe. When it is confidered, that all this has been effeded generally under govern- ments not the bed in Europe ; when we farther refled, that England has for a cen- tury enjoyed the bed government that exids, we fhall be forced to confefs, per- haps with adonifhment, that Great Britain has not made confiderable advances in agriculture, and in the cultivation of her territory. The waftes of the three king- doms are enormous, and far exceeding, in proportional extent, alL that are to be found LOMBARDY. 283 founcKn Italy ; while, of our cultivated diftriCts, there are but a few provinces remarkable for their improvements. Whoever has viewed Italy with any de- gree of attention, muft admit, that if a proportion of her territory, containing as many people as the three Britifh kingdoms, had for a century enjoyed as free a government, giving attention to what has been a principal object, viz. agri- culture, inftead of trade and manufacture, they would at this time have made almofl every acre of their country a fertile garden ; and would have been ill every refpeCt a greater, richer, and more flourishing people than we can poffibly pretend to be. What they have done under their prefent governments, juftifies this affertion : we, bleffed with liberty, have little to exhibit of fuperiority. What a wafte of time to have fquandered a century of freedom, and la- vifhed a thoufand millions fterling of public money *, in queftions of com- merce ! He who confiders the rich inheritance of a hundred years of liberty, and the magnitude of thofe national improvements, which fuch im- menfe fums would have efFe&ed, will be inclined to do more than queftion the propriety of the political fyflem, which has been adopted by the legiflature of this kingdom, that in the bofom of freedom, and commanding fuch fums, has not, in the agriculture of any part of her dominions, any thing to prefent which marks fuch expence, or fuch exertion, as the irrigation of Piedmont and the Milanefe. SECT. Y. OF POPULATION. Milanese. In all Auftrian Lombardy there are 1,300,000 fouls. In 1748, the population was about 800,000; and in 1771, it was 1,130,000. The Milanefe contains 3000 fquare miles f* In 1732, there were 800,000 pertiche uncultivated; in 1767, only 208,000. In a fquare mile, of lixty to a degree, there are, in the Milanefe, 354 fouls. There are in the Dutchy, 11,383,121 pertiche^ at 4868 pertiche in a fquare mile; and there are in the State, exclulive of roads, lakes, rivers, &c. 2338 fquare miles J, and 377 per- forms per fquare mile, which h certainly very confiderable ; and, that my readers may have a clearer idea of this degree of population, I (hall remark, that to equal it, England fhould contain 27,636,362 fouls §. * Sir John Sinclair's Hi/lory of the Public Revenue , vol. ii. p. 98. 4 Delle Opere del S. Conte Carli , 1784, tom. i. p. 132. % lb. p. 319. § At 73,306 fquare miles each of 640 acres. O O 2 Venetian LOMBARDY. a 8 4 Venetian State. — Padouan. In the whole diftridt of the Padouan, there were, in 1760, 240,336 fouls : in 1781, they were 288,300: increafe 47,914. There is probably no corner of Europe, barbarous Turkey alone excepted, in which the people do not increafe confiderably — we ought not therefore in England, to take too much credit for that rapid augmentation which we experience. It is found under the worft go- vernments, as well as under the beft, but not equally. Venice . The population of the whole territory, 2,500,000 : of the city, between 143 and 149,000, the Zuedecca included. In Friuli, in 1581, there were 196,541 ; and in the city of Udine, 14,579. In 1755, in Friuli, 342,158; and in Udine, 14,729*. The population of all the States of Venice, by another authority, is made 2,830,000 ; that is 600,000 in Bergamo, Brefcia, &c. : in the reft of the Terra Firma, 1,860,000: in Dalmatia and Albania, 250,000 : in the Greek iflands, 120,000 f. In the time of Gallo, who died in 1 570, there were faid to be in the Brefcian, about 700,000 fouls y in 1764, there were 310,388 Tuscany. The progreflive population of Florence is thus fhewn, by Sig. Laftri : 1 47° §» i622, l660, 1738, 1767. 4o.3 2 3 76,023 56,671 77.835 78. 6 35 II The total population of the Dukedom, is calculated at about 1,000,000 **. Two centuries ago, the population of the fields in the mountains, and on the * Gemelli-y vol. ii. p. 16. f Del/a Pin* utile Ripartizione de’ Terreni , &c, San Martino , 4to, p. 13. + Gallo Vinti Giornata , Brefcia, 1773, p. 413. § Decima y tom i. p. 232. jj Ricerche full ’ Antica e Moderna Popolazione della Citta di Firenze , 4to, 1775, p. 121. Sig. Paoletti is a fenfible writer, and a good farmer, but he is of Dr. Price’s fchool,— “ L’ antica popola- zione della Tofcana era certamente di gran lunga fuperiore a quella de’ noftri tempi — from Boc- caccio, he makes 100,000 to die in Florence, of the plague in 1348 ; yet, in little more than a cen- tury after, there was not half the number in the city ; he admits, however, that this is efagerato . Penfieri Sopra V Agricolt ura y p. 18. ** Ivere Mezzi Paoletti , p. 58 fca-coaft. LOMBARDY. 285 fea-coaft, was little lefs than double what it is at prefent. And there is laid to have been the fame proportion in the cultivation and cattle Modena. State of the Dutchy in 1781 : Ecclefiaftics, - - 8,306 Infants, under fourteen years of age, - 50,291 Girls, ditto, - - 4 9>5i6 Men, - 115,464 Women, - - - 124,822 Total 348,399 Marriages, 2,901; births, 12,930; deaths, 10,933. Multiplying the births therefore by 27, gives nearly the population ; or the deaths by 41 .—Of this total, the following are in the mountain diftridts : Carrara, - Mafia, Garfagnana, Varano, Cartel Nuovo, Frignano, Montefiorino, Montefe, 8,865 11,070 22,242 629 14 >57 6 19,526 15,721 19,694 Total 112,323 The reft in the plain. Piedmont. Subjects in the King of Sardinia’s territories, 3,000,000. In Savoy, 400,000. In Sardinia, 450,000. In Turin, in 1765, 78,807. In 1785, it was 89,185. In 1785, births 3394; deaths 3537. * DiJJcrtazione fulla la Moltiplicazione del Bejiiame Tofcano.- Andreucci, 8 vo, 17 73? P* *4* OF LOMBARDY. 286 OF THE POOR. Milanese . — Milan. Charitable foundations, in the city only, amount to 3,000,000 liv. (87,5001. flerling). In the great hofpital, there are commonly from twelve to fifteen hundred fick : the effed is found to be exceedingly mifchievous, for there are many that will not work, depending on thefe eflablifhments. Mozzata . The labourers here work in fummer thirteen hours. Breakfaft one hour; dinner two hours ; merenda one hour ; fupper one hour ; fleep fix hours. They are not in a good fituation. I was not contented to take the general de- fcription, but went early in a morning, with the Marquis Vifconti and Sig. Amoretti, into feveral cabins, to fee and converfe with them. In this village they are all little farmers : I afked if there were a family in the parifh without a cow, and was anfwered expreffiy there was not one, for all have land. The pooreft we faw had two cows and 20 pertiche\ for which fpace he paid five moggio of grain, one-third wheat, one-third rye, and one-third maiz. Another, for 140 per tic he, paid 35 ?noggio , in thirds alfo. The poor never drink any thing but water ; and are well contented if they can manage always to have bread or polenta ; on Sunday they make a foup, into which goes perhaps, but not always, a little lard ; their children would not be reared, if it were not for the cow. They are miferably clad; have in general no fhoes or flockings, even in this rainy feafon of the year, when their feet are never dry ; the other parts of their drefs very bad. Their furniture but ordinary, and looks much worfe from the hideous darknefs from fmoke, that reigns throughout; yet every cabin has a chimney. They have tolerable kettles, and a little pewter ; but the general afped miferable. Fuel, in a country that has neither fo- refls nor coal-pits, muff be a matter of difficulty, though not in the moun- tains. They were heating their kettles, with the ears of maiz, with fome heath and broom. In the cold weather, during winter, they always live in the flable with their cattle, for warmth, till midnight or bed-time. For day la- bour they are paid 10 f a day in winter, and 12/. in fummer. For a houfe of two rooms, one over the other, the farmer of 20pertiche pays 24 liv. a year; that is to fay, he works fo much out with his landlord, keeping the account, as in Ireland, with a tally, a fplit flick notched. They are not, upon the whole, in a fituation that would allow any one to approve of the fyflem of the poor being occupiers of land ; and are apparently in much more uneafy cir- cumflances. LOMBARDY. 287 cumfiances, than the day labourers in the rich watered plain, where all the land is in the hands of the great dairy farmers. I drew the fame conclufion from the ftate of the poor in France ; thefe in the Milanefe ftrongly confirm the dodtrine ; and unite in forming a perfect contrail:, with the fituation of the poor in England, without land, but with great comforts. State of Venice. The people appear, in the diftridts of Bergamo, Brefcia, Verona, and Vi- cenza, to be in better circumftances than in the Padouan. And from thence to Venice, there are ftill greater appearances of poverty : many very poor cottages, with the fmoke ifluing from holes in the walls. Villamagna. The peafantry, a term which, in all countries where the landlord is paid by a (hare of the produce, and not a money rent, includes the farmers, who are confequently poor, live here better than in diftridts more diftant from the capi- tal ; they eat flefh once a week ; the common beverage is the fecond mafh, or wort, of the wine ; eat wheaten-bread ; and are cloathed pretty well. SECT. VI. OF PROHIBITIONS. Piedmont. The exportation of the cocoons of filk is prohibited ; and the effedt highly merits the attention of the politician, who would be well informed, from practice, of the principles of political ceconomy. It is a perifhable commodity, and therefore it is not at all likely, that if the trade were free, the quantity fent out would be any thing confiderable ; yet, fuch is the pernicious effedt of every fpecies of mo- nopoly, upon the fale of the earth’s products, that this prohibition finks the price 30 per cent. While the cocoons fell in Piedmont at 24I1V. the rubbio , they are fmuggled to the Genoefe at 30 liv. ; which export takes place in con- fequence of the monopoly having funk the price. The objedt of the law is to preferve to the filk-mills, the profit of converting the filk to organzine ; and for this objedt, fo paltry on comparifon with the mifchief flowing from it, the land-owners are cheated in the price of their filk 30 per cent. : the State gains nothing ; the country gains nothing for not a fingle pound would be exported if the trade were free, as the motive for the export would then ceafe, by the price $88 LOMBARDY. price riling: the only poflible effeCt is, that of taking 30 per cent, on all the filk produced out of the pockets of the grower, and putting it into thofe of the manufacturer. A real and unequivocal infamy , which reflects a fcand RISE OF PRICES. Milan. In 794, a decree of the Senate and Diet of Frankfort, canon 4, that corn fhould fell at the following prices, no regard to fcarcity and abundance : — Moggio of oats, 1 denaro ; one of barley, 2 denari j one of rye, 3 denari ; one of wheat, 4 denari: proportion 1080 to 1. In 835, hogs, 20 denari . In 857, one pound of filver, lira , 20 foldi of 12 denari ; one denaro , now at Milan, on comparifon of an antient denaro , of half a paolo> was as 1 to 90 ; for 90 denari make half a paolo . The value of filver now, to that of antient times* as 1 to 12; therefore it is 1 to 1080*. In 975, un fiajo di vino , 1 denajo nn moggio di frumento , 4 denaji ; un carro di legna, 1 denajo , equal to 18 liv. at 1 to 1080 ■f*. In 1152, rye and panic, 3 liv. the moggio j 1 denaro equal to 130 ; confe- quently 3 liv. is equal to 13 liv. 10 f 10 den. J In 1165, 500 hogs, each 6 Joldi which now we muft call 65 liv. eacb||. Cart load of wood, drawn by a pair of oxen, 12 denari j equal now to 61 liv. In 1272, 1 moggio of wheat, the common price, 19 foldi. Millet, 12 foldi and this, to the money of the prelent time, is as a livre for a fol ; that is, wheat, 19 liv. and millet, 12 liv. § In 1315, 1 foldo for a mafs, equal to 20 nowj 1 fiorino d’oro , 30 f. now 60 liv. as 1 to 40: the fiorino d’oro antient, and the prefen t zecchino , the fame thing. From this time to the prefent, the proportion of the money of thofe times to the prefent, is as 1 to 4**. In 1402, the fiorino 0 ducato d’oro , worth 42 foldi, equal to 1 6 liv • 8 f at pre- lent ff. Bologna . The prices of every thing are now, at Bologna, from 10 to 15 per cent, dearer than ten years ago ; here attributed to the increafed plenty of money, from a rife of the price of the proauds of the country, hemp and filk felling much higher. Twenty years ago, hemp was at 30 pauls , now at 50. And in Tufcany, the prices of every thing doubled fince the free corn trade. * Giulini, Storia di Milano , vol. i. p. 268. t lb. vol. ii. p. 380. % Ib - v °l* v - P- 5 2 7 - U lb. vol. vi. p. 332. § lb. vol. viii. p, 254. ** lb. vol. x. p, 87. ff lb. vol. xii. p. 63. It LOMBARDY. 301 It is worthy of the reader’s obfervation, that the general prices of provifions, and of living , as it may properly be called, have rifen, perhaps, as much in Italy, as in any country of Europe ; certainly more than in England, as I could fhew by many details, if they were confiftent with the brevity of a traveller. A faCt of fo much importance, would admit of many reflections; but I fhall obferve only, that this fign of national profperity, (and I believe it to be one), is not at all confined to the countries in the poflefiion of extenfive manufac- tures, and a great trade, fince we find it in thofe that have none. I fhall not enlarge upon it, but barely hint, that the pofleflor of a landed eftate in Lombardy, has raifed his rents, to the full, as much in the laft ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years, as his brother landlord has in England, who has blefled himfelfwith the notion, that manufactures and commerce have done more for him, than for any other fimilar clafs in Europe. It is very common in the Englifh parliament, to hear the deputies of our tradefmen expatiate on what the immenfe manufactures and commerce of England have done for the landed intereft. One faCt is worth an hundred aflertions : go to the countries that pofiefs neither fabrics nor commerce, and you will find as great a rife per- haps in the fame period. SPAIN. PAIN [ 3 °s 3 SPAIN. CULTIVATION, &c. T HE vale of Aran* is richly cultivated, and without any fallows. Follow the Garronne, which is already a fine river, but very rapid : on it they float many trees to their faw-mills, to cut into boards; we faw feve- ral at work. The vale is narrow, but the hills to the left are cultivated high up. No fallows. They have little wheat, but a great deal of rye ; and much better barley than in the French mountains. Inftead of fallows, they have maiz and millet ; and many more potatoes than in the French mountains. Haricots (French beans) alfo, and a little hemp. Saw two fields of vetches and fquare peafe. The fmall potatoes they give to their pigs, which do very well on them; and the leaves to their cows; but aflert, that they refufe the roots. Buck-wheat alfo takes the place of fallow, many crops of it were good, and fome as fine as poflible. The whole valley of Aran is highly peopled ; it is eight hours long, or about forty miles Englifh, and has in it thirty-two villages. Every one cultivates his own land. A journal of meadow fells in the valley for 800 liv. irrigated, but by no means fo well as in the French mountains, nearly an arpent of Paris, which is fomething more than an Englifh acre. The lower arable lands are fold for 500 liv. or 600 liv. ; the fides of the hills proportionably ; and the higher lands not more than 100 liv. Their crops of all forts, vary from 2 % to 3 quarters Englifh the acre. Hay harveft no where begun. * The route in which thefe obfervations were made, is marked in the journal inferted in the firft volume ; alfo the dates. Vol.IL Rr The 306 S P A I N. The mountains belong, as in the French Pyrenees, to the pari/hes j each inhabitant has a right to cut what wood he pleafes for fuel and repairs, in the woods affigned for that purpofe ; others are let by leafe at public auction, for the benefit of the pariflh, the trees to be cut, being marked ; and, in general, the police of their woods is better than on the French fide $ when woods are cut, they are preferved for the next growth. Have fcarce any oxen ; what few they kill, they fait for winter. Taxes are light ; the whole which a confiderable town is afTefled at being only 2700 liv. which they pay by the rent of their woods and paftures let : but if calculated by tallies, houfes, &c. and including every thing, the amount would be about 3 liv. a year, on a journal of 600 liv. value. This is the proportion of an acre of land worth 30I. paying 3s. a year, in lieu of land and all other taxes. Coming out of Veille, fee to the right fome of the mod ftoney land I have ever beheld, yet good hemp and buck-wheat were growing on it. In the hedges, many of the plants common to them in England. The paftures on the moun- tains good, quite to the fnowj but the low meadows not watered with the atten- tion given them by the French in their Pyrenees. Pafs feveral of the thirty-two villages of thp valley of Aran ; population very great, for they croud on each other } and this refults here from the divifion of property, and not from ma- nufactures, which have more than once been fuppofed the only origin of great population. Much millefolium here, and other plants common with us. Plough with bullocks $ all we faw, pale reddifh, or cream-coloured, and with horns. No wood at the top, but pafturage and rocks of micaceous fchiftus ; met a great herd of dry cows and oxen, cream-coloured. It is remarkable, that a pale reddifh cream-colour holds from Calais quite acrofs France hither, with very little variation. Flocks of fheep, and a penn for oxen and cows—the latter milked for cheefe. Plough with oxen in yokes and bows, as in England, and not yoked by the horns as in the fouth of France. Come to fallows (which is a point of worfe hufbandry than we have feen for fome time), manuring by afles, loaded with baikets. The trees here (pines) are finer than on the French fide ; they are all cut for the Toloufe market, being carried over the mountains, and floated down the Garronne $ from whence we may draw conclufions on the compa- rative demand of the two kingdoms. Land here fells from 400 liv. to 500 liv. the journal. Come SPAIN* 30 7 Come to the valley d’Efteredano, where wheat and rye are cut. Every ferap on the defeent is cultivated; an extenfive favage view of mountain, with patches of culture fcattered about the declivities : but fallows are found here. Pafs Rudafe, on the top of a rocky mountain, come prefently to vines, figs, and fruit trees ; fnow in fight. As we defeend to the vale, every fpot is culti- vated that is capable of being fo. Crofs the river to Realp ; about which place is much cultivation, as the mountains flope more gently than hitherto. Hedges of pomegranates in blof- fom. The town is long and has many {hops. Hemp is the great object in it; of this, they make ropes, twine of all forts, bags, and have fome looms for con- verting it into cloth. Corn and hay all carried on panniers. Pafs Sort, a vale fpoiled by the river, which exhibited the depredations of the Italian rivers, fo excellently deferibed by my learned friend, Mr. Prof. Symonds. Hitherto, in Catalonia, we have feen nothing to confirm the character that has been given of it ; fcarcely any thing has a tolerable appearance. It is much to be queftioned, from the intelligence, whether they have any fuch a thing as a farmer who rents land: only patches of property— no maiz, and French beans very poor— fallows every where on the hills, and yet the rye after them miferable. Old vineyards, of late, quite negledted, over-run with weeds, yet the grapes of a fize that lhew what the climate is ; they are now as big as peafe. In the towns every thing as bad ; all poor and miferable. Rifing up the mountain, which is all of pudding flone, we find it is all cut into terraces, fupported by many walls, with rows of vines on them for raifins, not wine, mulberries, and olives : but here are fallows, and I thought I per- ceived traces of thefe hills having been formerly more cultivated than at prefent. Pafs Colagafe. Come to a regular vineyard, the rows twelve feet afunder, the intervals alternate fallow and corn. The features of the country now begin to relax, the mountains are not fo high, and the vales are wider. The leaves of a good mulberry-tree fell for 44/ or 22d. Englifh. Many walnut-trees full of fruit. Much is tithed by the church : lee much corn threlhing every where. Crofs two pieces that had rye lafi: year, left now to weeds, and will be under rye again next year; an extraordinary courfe. Mulberry-leaves never fold, but if fo, the price Would be about 4! liv. a tree. Cows all red. Land in the vale fells from 20I. to 25I. Englilh, the journal. The road leads up Monte Schia, R r 2 the 308 SP AIN. the whole of which confifts of a white (lone, and argilaceous marl. Snow on the diftant mountains. Look back over a great profpeft, but totally to the eye without wood. Crofs a hill to another great vale, where is much, and fome rich cultivation, as the bills are not deep, but doping. Pafs in fight of St. Roma, near it the road leads by a fmall round lake, but it is on very high ground, no hills near it ; it is faid to be very deep. Here they were hoeing a barley ftubble, juft ploughed, to form ridges, on which they fow French beans. This diftridt is called that of (hells : millet juft up; pafs a large wafte almoft entirely covered with lavender ; com on a part of it; but after a crop, they leave it to weeds to recover again. Here alfo they pradtife the alternate husbandry of one bed, or broad-ridge, corn, and another fallow. Plough with cream-coloured oxen. In breaking up the waftes here, they cut the fpontaneous growth to dry, then pile it into heaps with the earth pared and placed on it ; this is all burned ; we faw heaps ready to be burned to the quantity of five hundred loads an acre : but the crops are wretched for many miles, fcarcely the feed again. In our inquiries, meet with fome traces of what, in France, are called Me* tayersy that is, a fort of farmers who cultivate the land for half the produce ; the landlord taking one half, and the tenant the other. For two hours and a half, pafs a wafte mountain covered with fhrubs, and fcattered with ever- green oaks, and lower down, the evident remains of old terraces, which have once been cultivated, but now over-run with weeds. To Fulca; the ploughs here have all long beams, as in the fouth of France, which reach to the yokes of the oxen, and confequently they have no traices; two fmall (ticks form the mould-board ; they plough all flat. In this diftridt, not one acre in an hundred cultivated, all rocks, (hrubs, and weeds, with patches of wretched oats on the mountain (ides. The road leads up one which is all of (lone, covered with rofemary, box, brambles, &c. As the top break at once on the view of a deep vale, or rather glen, at the bottom of which, a muddy river has fpoiled the little land which might have been cultivated. The hills are deep, and all is cultivated there that could be fo, but the quantity very fmall. Defcend into a very rich vale, and to the town of Paous. There we faw many perfons winding filk, the cocoons were in warm water, and wound off by a well-contrived reel, fomething different from thofe ufed in France. Prices Prices. Bread, per lb. of 12 oz. Mutton, 6 f. per lb. of 48 oz. Pork, 1 $f. per lb. of 48 oz. Bottle of fweet white wine, $f. Bottle of fweet red wine, 2 f. Here they were threftiing, by driving mules around on a circular floor of earth, in the open air $ a girl drove three mules round, and four men attended for turning, moving away the draw, and fupplying the floor with corn. Their crops are all brought home by mules or afles with panniers ; met feveral ; they each carried fix fheaves, equal to twenty common Englifti ones ; where roads are bad, this is the only way in which it can be done. Pafs a great wafte of argillaceous marl, in which are ftrata of talc -much of it a foft white rock ; the ftrata in fome places clear and tranfparent, fhining, break in thin flakes ; the country for many miles wafte, fo that there are not more, I guefs, than one acre in two hundred cultivated. More deferts for feveral miles. Some alternate fallow hufbandry between vines, and the crops fo contemptible, that they produce not more than the feed. Pafs fome vineyards furrounded on every fide by deferts ; no water, and yet the vines and grapes are of the moft beautiful luxuriance ; from which I conclude, that immenfe trails of thefe wafte lands, might be applied with equal profit, if there were men and capitals enough in the country. Meet a farmer, who pointed out to us a piece of land, containing exadly a Catalonia journal, from which, it appeared to be pretty nearly the fame meafure as an Englifti acre. They ftack their corn by the threftiing floor, drive mules, &c. around upon it, and draw the ftraw, when cleared, with ropes, by a mule to the ftack, in which it is depofited for winter ufe. To Beofca, moftly defert hills, but fome broad vales, which are cultivated 5 about that place, many mulberries, vines, and corn, but all the laft gained by fallow. A farmer here, pays a feigneur, who lives at Barcelona, 2000 liv. a year for his farm, which is reckoned a large one. Through all this country, they colled: from every wafte fpot, amongft their cultivated lands, Ihrubby wood and weeds, with which they burn heaps of clods and earth, and fpread the afties on the fallow as a'manure for corn. There feems every where to be inclofures fufficient for afcertaining diftindl properties, but not for fecurity againft any fort of cattle. No where any wood 3io SPAIN. to be feen, except fruit trees, olives, or ever-green oaks, which are almoft as fad as the olive ; altogether, nothing for beauty of landfkip. The hills all rocks, and the vales vines, fcattered with thofe trees. Some new plantations of vines. Towards Toora, the country is much more cultivated 5 the fides of the hills covered with olives. The vale has many mulberries, and much til- lage; and for fome miles paft, there are many fcattered houfes, which has not been any where the cafe before : remarked one great improvement, which was a vineyard, with vetches fown in the alternate husbandry between the rows, inftead of a fallow, to be followed by corn. Leave Calaff. — Crop and a fallow; fome vetches; much cultivation; and better corn than we have in general met with ; fome fown in fquares, as if in clufters, but could not learn the fad. In fome parts, many vetches inftead of fallow; they are planted by hand, and wheat fown after. The foil, a good adhefive loam, brown with a reddifh hue, better than the white land, which travelled with us fo long yefterday : moft of the corn cut. Great wafte, and mount a hill, from whence an extenfive view; all thr country alike, no wood ; and not one acre in ten cultivated. Pafs four or five cream-coloured bullocks, and one or two blood-coloured. I note them, having feen fo few in fo many miles. French beans, eighteen inches by twelve; a good deal of cultivation; but vaft waftes, and country of a rocky, favage afped ; many pines, but poor ones. Within four hours of Montferrat, vines at fix feet afunder, the firft we have feen planted in that manner, which fhews the proprietor content with having one produd only on the ground. Waftes continue; not one acre in a hundred cultivated. All broken country, and fcarcely any vales of breadth. At the bottom we came again to olives. Meet two very fine cream-coloured oxen, which the owner fays would fell for about eighteen guineas ; feeds them with ftraw, but gives oats or barley when they are worked ; they are in fuch good order, that the ftraw muft either be much more nourishing than ours, or their work very light indeed. From the marks in the pine-trees, conjedure that they draw refin from them. Pafs Orevoteau, where is a hedge of aloes about four feet high. A gradual defcent, for fome time, on a wretched ftoney defert, of nothing but aromatic plants, thin, and fcattered with the difmal ever-green oaks, more dull and difagreeable, if poflible, than the olives. Near SPAIN. 31® Near Efparagara, vines at five or fix feet, which cover the ground ; red loam, mixed with ftones. This town is the firft manufacturing one we have met with, or which feemed to be animated with any other induftry than that of cultivation. The fabric is woollen cloths and fluffs. Spinners earn 6 f. a day, and food. Carders, 11 f. They have alfo many lace-makers, who earn 9 f. a' day. Thefe are Spanifh money j their fol is fomething higher than the French, which is our half-penny. Fallow every where, yet many of the ftubbles full of weeds. Corn yet in the field, and poor. Some vines promifeuous, at four feet ; fome in rows at fix feet. Country difagreeable ; many beds of torrents, without a drop of water, and fhocking to the eye. Apricots, plumbs, melons, &c. ripe, fold in the ftreets, from the open ground. A pair of very fine cream-coloured oxen, 24I. Englifh : the amazement is, how they can be kept in fuch order, in a country fo arid and defert, and that has not a pound of hay in it. The country now is far more populous and better built; many vines and great cultivation, but with fallows. The foil all a ftrong red loam ; a way cut through a vineyard of this foil, which fhewed it to be feven feet deep •, at the bottom, was a crop of fine hemp * indeed, the foil to the eye, was as good at the bottom as on the furface. They plough with mules abreafl, without a driver, having a line for reins, as in England ; the beam of the plough is long enough to reach to the circular iron, about nine inches under the yoke, to which the mules are collared. The yokes are like thofe in which oxen are worked, only with collars inftead of bows. This method, which is very common in France alfo, has both its ad- vantages and difadvantages 3 it will be a light draught, when the pitch of the beam is proportioned to the height of the mules, but if the fhare muft be raifed ©r lowered according to their height, it will be bad both for the land and the animals. To have the line of tra&ion, from the draught to the body of the plough, is not quite correct, but it is much better than the common plough beams, made either too long, or too fhort ; in this cafe, the length of the beams is afeertained ; but the chief origin and intention of it, is cheapnefs. * The mould-board of the plough here, has no iron on it, and is fixed to the left fide ; the fhare is double, as if to work with a mould-board on either fide ; this is a great fault •, only one handle. It did its work tolerably. The wheat in fheaves is yet in the field, but the ftubbles all ploughed, a narrow flip only left, on which the wheat remained ; this fhews good attention to the fuccef- fion of crops. Prices 212 SPAIN. Prices of Provifions , &c, at Barcelona . Bread, 4 f and a fra&ion, per lb. of 12 oz. Mutton, 22\f per lb. of 36 oz. Pork, 4.5 f per lb. of 12 oz. That of the poor people, very little lefs $ but they buy the foldier’s bread, which comes cheaper ; they live very much on ftock-fifh, &c. Hams fometimes 3 ©r 4 pejettos, or (hillings, per lb. of 12 oz. Wine, 4 f. or 5/I the bottle. Common day wages, are 25/. French} fometimes rife to 33/.} the very loweft, 22 if. Stocking weavers earn 33 f. Cream-coloured oxen in carts, their horns fawn off to the length of fix inches, two yoked abreaft, and one mule before. A pair of good oxen fell at 25I. Englifh. Vale from a quarter to half a mile broad. All the corn in the country, is left in the field till it is threfhed, and they fay it never takes hurt. A hill cut through, thirty feet deep, for the road, and walled on each fide. The fea clofe to us on the right, all the way } and the vale I fpeak of, is between that and the hills : fome of them are fandy, and planted with vines, which yield, per journal, four charges, the charge felling at 13 or 14 pefettOSy and a journal for 300 Spanifh livres } this is the journal, felling for 35I. 8s. qd. and producing about 2I. 14s. very inadequate to the va- lue of the land } there are great quantities of fruit-trees of all forts. At Gremata } after which, a vale for a mile and a half, or two miles, the foil fandy } and much cultivation. On the hills, many vines. Some corn without fallows ; it is all cut, but not carried, and the land all ploughed. — Vines. A wheat flubble ploughed up, and the land fown with buck-wheat, which is now up. Part of a vale highly cultivated, but a great part wafte, though on the fame level to the eye, but much fpoiled by a torrent, for a quarter of a mile broad ; it is entirely ruined, yet there is no water now, nor any channel, all being level } in fuch cafes as thefe, and indeed in moft others, induftry, united with good capitals, would remedy the evil. Eight men working a fandy field, by way of digging with an inftrument very common here, a fort of hoe, fixteen inches long, and nine broad, with a handle fo fhort, that the body is bent very much in ufing it. Vale two or three miles broad, and unites with an opening in the mountains. French beans often under maiz, but that crop much thinner. thinner, and nothing gotten by it. Some very fine orange-trees, near twenty feet high, large items, and thick round umbrageous heads. All this vale before Ma- turo, is under a very fine cultivation. They have much lucern ; and an article of -attention, I had not before obferved, was, tubs made on purpofe for carrying the riddance of privies and urine to their fields. Hemp yields ten quintals the journal. Vineyards give three, four, and five charges of wine per journal, and fell for 200 or 300 Spanilh livres the journal : other lands, not irrigated, from 100 liv. to 150 liv. For above a league, vines on fand ; very little other cultivation ; the vale is two miles broad ; fells at 1 50 liv. Spanilh, the journal ; on the hills, and near the fea, vines ; mountains cultivated, imperfe&ly, almofi: to the top ; but there is much wafte. Houfes fcattered every where. The cultivators are jnetayers , that is, they pay a portion of [the crop inftead of rent : the produce is divided into three parts ; two for the farmer, and one for the landlord, in which cafe, the farmer is at every expence whatever. Some vineyards are let at from 15 to 40 pefettos ; I have not met any where in France with vineyards let, for they are all in the hands of the proprietors. Land in ge- neral lets from 15 liv. to 35 liv. Come to a great cultivated vale, but no water, or but little; maiz, fix inches to two feet high, in fquares, on land from which the corn has been cleared; the account we received. I fufpedt the higheft to be previoufly fown in a bed, and tranfplanted as foon as the land was ready to receive it ; millet alfo after corn ; the foil a rich black loam. Pafs Malgra. Vale two or three miles broad ; vines and cultivation. A great deal of fine maiz, called, all over Catalonia, Milia. I found the fame name for it afterwards in Languedoc, where they fpeak the fame language as the Catalans. Lets for 15 liv. one with another. Maiz is fown, grain by grain, after corn ; the foil a granite fand. A thick woodland, all inclofed. Pomegranates make very fine thick hedges. Much wood and vines — no water- ing nor fallows— houfes fcattered every where — foil Tandy, but good. Very bad ploughing — cream-coloured oxen. Inclofures become ftill thicker. Poplars planted over fome fields, and vines trained to them, and from one to another : reading accounts of this husbandry in books, I had formed an idea, that it mull be Angularly beautiful to fee feftoons of vines hanging from tree to tree, but there is nothing either pleafing or ftriking in it, and the wine is never good for want of fun, and owing to its being dripped on by another plant, which robs it alfo of its nourifhment; corn is fown under them, which is damaged ftill more. Broad flat vale, formed of the ruins of granite. Vol, II. S f Pafs Pafs for feveral miles in a vale, where the country has different features. It is all inclofed — much oak— a few vines, trained up trees. Soil bad. Two poor bits of meadow I noted, for they were the firft I had feen bad in Spain. Many fields over-run with fpontaneous rubbifh. Maiz and harricots cultivated here together, as in many other quarters. Some fcattered houfes. Much wafte on gentle hills that have vineyards on them, and would all yield that production, if planted. A Hoping hill of granite fand, well cultivated. Vines, trained to oak and poplars, with many fruit trees. The price of wheat here is 1 5 or 16 pefettosy for the 3! quarterons , weighing 5! quarters, and each quarter 261b. ; this is 1431b. of wheat, cofting \$\ pefettos, which will be 50s. the Englifh quarter. Barley half the price. Come to a great wafte, fpreading over many hills, for feveral miles ; to northern eyes, a molt extraordinary fcene. It is a thicket of aromatic and beautiful flowering fhrubs, with very little mixture of any that are common with us. Large fpreading myrtles, three or four feet high, and covered with their fweet-fcented flowers, jefiamines, bays, and other fhrubs, with which we croud our fhrubberies, are here worfe nuifances than heath with us, for we faw neither fheep nor goats. View after this, a large plain, bounded by mountains, and fcattered every where with houfes — a good deal of cultivated inclofure. But, on entering, find much wafte in this plain. Vines now form hedges, and furround the fields. Come now to cattle, of which we have hi- therto feen very little ; faw feveral fmall flocks of fheep, moft of them entirely black, fome without horns, others with, and curling round the ears. All the oxen cream-coloured except two, with the necks and end of their tails black ; all well made, and in fine order. Large breadth of corn, and fome fields left apparently to grafs. I fufpedt fallows. The country ftill thickly inclofed, fome pieces of grafs, and a few of mea- dow, which are not burned, hot as the climate is. More cattle here than we have yet feen. They keep their fheep and hogs (all black) together, and the girls, &c. who attend them, fpin hemp. Pafs Goronota ; and many waftes for fome miles on gentle Hopes ; the foil good, but covered with aromatic fhrubs ; no cattle feen in any of them. Level vale with much culture, and much pafture : many large oaks on old double banks ; alfo tall poplars : all inclofed, and like many parts of England, as maiz and vines are not here ; a thick woodland. In this part, the foil is a deep, rich, brown, adhefive loam : the corn not carried, but the land ploughed and Town with French beans. They have peafe, beans, maiz, hemp, &c. without watering, and, that circumftance conftdered, the crops are good. The ploughs SPAIN. 3*5 ploughs are drawn by cream-coloured oxen, guided by a line, and without a driver. Some meadows without water ; with many quails. They are me- tayers, paying the landlord one-third of the produce ; but not of phang, which is for oxen phang is their name for clover j and this the firft time we met with any information about it. It puzzled us much to difcover, what phang could be ; but I found, by accident, a plant of trifolium alpejlre , and fhewing it to a farmer, found, by his defcription, that it was clover ( trifolium pratenfe) beyond all doubt. They were now ploughing a wheat ftubble, in order to fow it diredly with phang. Their culture of it is Angular, and very good ; it is mown for hay once in the fpring, yielding a fine crop ; the land diredtly ploughed, and planted with monget , which is their name for fallow-hoeing crops, fuch as French beans, millet, peafe, &c. This monget is kept very clean, and wheat fown after it, which is off foon enough for a fecond crop of French beans. A courfe with them is, 1. Maiz. 2. Wheat, and fown after with clover. 3. Clover and French beans. 4. Hemp and French beans. , 5. Wheat and millet. Vines are here planted in efpaliers ; fmall poles are laid on pegs driven into polls, which ftand at fix or eight feet afunder, and the vines trained to them ; corn is fown between the rows ; good land, yet wafle join it. Many hedges are planted with the yellow-blofibmed prickly acacia, which anfwers perfectly well for that purpofe. Within four miles of Gerona, hufbandry continues good. Trees have vines trained to them. Much cattle, mules, horfes, fheep, and hogs, kept in the ftubbles : fine cream-coloured oxen in the ploughs. The foil, fine deep red- difh loam. Now reaping a crop of fquare peafe, three feet high, flout as lu- pines, with pods like that plant j all here, an inclofed woodland. Hemp, fix feet high, and not watered. To the left of Gerona, mountain beyond moun- tain, branches of the Pyrenees, and very high ; but feemingly a good deal of cultivation on them. Fine rich deep foil in the vale before Gerona ; the fame hufbandry — crops of corn, very fine, not carried, though all the land quite green with young millet ; this extreme confidence in the climate, fhews clearly what it muft be. A journal of the vale land fells for 200 Spanifh livres, or 23I/12S. 6d. and lets at 8 liv. to idiv. that is, il. is. Englifh; but none of it is irrigated. They do not tithe either lambs or other live flock. S f 2 Price SPAIN. 316 Price of Provi/ions at Gerona.. Bread, 3/ per lb. of 12 oz. ; and excellent. Beef, 10 f Mutton, 6 f Pork, 8/ per lb. ofi6oz. Cheefe, 20 f per lb. of 12 oz. They have no mutton or beef, except what comes from France. The poor live chiefly on vegetables, and a little pork: their labour, 20/ a day. Leave Gerona.— Fine maiz, planted thin, with good cabbages under it : this is a fyftem which promiies well ;. but cabbages here, are only for the people, and not for cattle. Three meafures and a half make a journal, and a pair of oxen plough three meafures a day ; buy their oxen in the French mountains, at a year old. Their hills are either wood, or cultivation, but mixed with part rocky wafte. Crofs fome hills, which contain a great deal of wafte, but fee a broad valley to the right ; all inclofed, and well cultivated * to the eye rich ; houfes fcattered. At Marenia, iron, 4/ or 5/ per lb. of 16 oz. The road up a hill ; twenty or thirty women giving it a winding direction, by levelling earth; on inquiry, find it is done by the communities, and that they earn nothing; hence it is by corvees. Enter a wood of cork-trees ; many of them barked half way up ; the texture of this tree is remarkable, it feems formed of layers of bark, one under another.. The country now generally cultivated ; the fields ploughed, but have had a crop. Some well-planted olives, ploughed under. All the corn we fee is wheat; as to barley, it was cut and threfhed the fkft week in June, and the land ploughed and fown with fomething elfe. From Gerona to Calderoles, three hours and a half, generally cultivated ;, but waftes fcattered, and mountains every where in fight. The courfe here, is* 1. Barley, left to weeds, &c. for cattle. 2. Wheat and millet, or French beans. 3. Oats or barley, and maiz for cattle. No fallow, orphang ; French beans are called phafols.. Leaving Calderoles, the country all cultivated ; many olives, and under them vines';, all well inclofed ; no wafle. Pafs SPAIN. 3*7 Pafs Bafera ; a torrent has here deftroyed a vale half a mile broad ; pafs it by a ferry. Country now neither fo rich, nor fo well cultivated, as on the other fide of that town. Maiz planted at fix feet, and two rows* French beans in the intervals ; olives fcattered ; but the maiz very poor under them. Country more poor and ftoney, yet but few waftes. Olives and many tall pines. Waftes with pines ; the fea two miles to the right, and the ridge of mountains in the front, feems to end abruptly at it. Many vineyards, and planted with olives 5 all under culture, and well inclofed with acacia hedges 5 feveral with ditches to them. The vale of Figuera bounded finely by the mountains ; many olives and vines, and a good deal of corn ; but neither foil nor cultivation equal to what have pafied ; the former is more of a ftone brafti. Reach Figuera. The 21ft left Figuera, and breakfafted at Jonquieras. Enter the bottom of the mountains very foon ; pafs through many olive grounds; the trees are large, and ftand about fixteen feet afunder ; foil good red loam, but ftoney; no watering. A quart of oil, 2§ lb. of 12 oz. fells, retail, for a psjstto . Olives bear only every other year. Our guide fays, he knows a tree, in Arragon,. which yields from 50 lb. to 80 lb. for a crop. In thefe twelve miles to Jon- quieras, vines fcattered all the way on the hills ; fome few olives ; many cork- trees, latterly : much cultivation, but a good deal of wafte alfo. French beans in rows, and ploughed between with oxen. Soil all the way a granite fand. The firft leading feature of the minutes, is the immenfe quantity of moun- tains, and other waftes, which are found in every part of Catalonia. We tra- velled about three hundred and forty miles through the province, and may conclude, from what we faw, without any danger of being deceived, that not one acre in an hundred is under any fort of cultivation ; in fuch grofs calcula- tion, one would take care to be within the truth, and if I faid, not one in one hundred and fifty, I believe I fhould ftill be on the fafe fide of tfie afiertion. When this fadt is connected with the reputation which the province has, of being next to Valentia, the beft cultivated, and, without exception, the mod induftrious in Spain, conclufions, very unfavourable to the ftate and policy of that monarchy, muft neceftarily be drawn by every reader. The advantage of poftefling the fecond city of the kingdom, a place of great trade, and contain- ing one hundred and twenty thoufand fouls, is very confiderable, and muft have done much,, to bring the province even to its prefent fituation. At the fame time, that thefe boundlefs waftes were offending the eye, in every quar- ter, we could, in no part of Catalonia, condemn the people for want of induf- try ; on the contrary, they feem very well to merit the character they have gained : SPAIN. gained: the activity which is feen through all the towns upon the coad, and they are very numerous, and very populous, can hardly be greater, in a coun- try fubmitted to numerous fedival days, by its religion : the fifhery in all thofe places is confiderable, and attended to with an unabating fpirit. The wo- men and children make lace ; and wherever the foil is good, or water con- ducted, cultivation is in a high date of perfection. Even in the interior country, we faw, every where, figns of much indudry ; and, amidft a poverty which hurt our feelings, we generally faw fomething to convince us, that it was not the fault of the poor people, that greater exertions were not made. Thofe in- terior parts depend entirely on their agriculture; and the height to which they climb the mountains, in order to find a fpot tolerably level for cultivation, fhews that their minds and bodies are ready for laborious exertions* whenever there is a profped of enjoying the reward. With fo much indudry among the people, to what are we to attribute the wafte fiate of their country ? The in- quiries neceflary for a complete inveftigation of fuch a queftion, were not to be made by travellers : a longer refidence would have been neceflary ; but a few circumftances fhould be mentioned, which are, probably, connected intimately with it. Firfi, the poverty of the people in the interior country is driking; their towns old, ill built, dirty, and wretched ; the people ill drefled, and gene- rally deficient in the wealth, beft adapted to fuch a country, cattle : in the higher Pyrenees, this is not fo much the cafe ; they have cattle, and are in every refpeCt in a better condition, owing to the plenty which great commons give in a country of good padurage, and where wood is in profufion. The number of fheep we faw in general, was not the twentieth part of what the wades, bad as they are for that animal, would maintain; and that of goats, fo final], as to indicate the fame thing drongly. This poverty, not being the effeCt of a want of induftry, mult refult from a government inattentive to their intereds, and, probably, oppreflive ; and from a total want of the higher clafles refiding amongd them. Till we came to the rich country, near Barcelona, that is to fay, in about two hundred miles, we faw nothing that had the lead refem- blance to a gentleman’s country feat ; thofe who have eftates let in it are ab- fent ; thofe we heard of, live at Barcelona ; and the whole country is thus abandoned to the very lowed clafles; and the wealth and intelligence, which might contribute to its improvement, diverted into diftant and very different channels ; this is a great misfortune to the people, and which will long contri- bute to keep things in their prefent date. To the fame caufe it is owing, that the roads, fo eifential in the improvement of a country, are left in a date which precludes the ufe of wheel carriages ; which, with the unnavigable date of all the the rivers, except for rafters of timber grofsly put together, cuts off that fydem of reciprocal purchafe and fale, that interior commerce, which is the bed a country can poflefs. Thefe are alfo evils, which the refidence of men of for- tune is the mod likely to correct j and much above the power of peafants and mountaineers. With all thefe difad vantages, there are dill circumdances which make it furpridng, that more land is not cultivated. Vines and olives fucceed very well on the poored, and mod arid foils ; their growth and luxuriance, in fpots furrounded on every fide with wades, and in foils not better, yield a convic- tion, which leaves no doubt, that the adjoining lands would, if planted, give a dmilar produce. The profit of doing it will not be fufpeded, if the revenue and value of cultivated lands, on comparifon with the wades, be con- fidered. Two points here, force themfelves on our notice; fird, the want of capital for undertaking the work ; and, fecondly, the wade being in all pro- bability in pofleflion of abfent landlords, who will not give fufficient encou- ragement to others to do what they negled doing themfelves. Where cultivation climbs up the mountain fides, it is by fmall proprietors, who purchafe of the communities of the parifhes the property of the land; wherever the foil is in hands that will fell jud the portion, which is in the power of a man to buy, great exertions are fure to be the confequence. There is no fpur to indudry fo great, as the pofleflion of a piece of land, which, in a country where the means of fubfidence are contraded for want of more diffu- flve and more various employments, is the only comfortable dependence of a man, who wifhes to be the father of a family. The parifh that will fell a wade, at a moderate price, will be almod fure to fee it cultivated ; but the great lord, who rarely, or never, fells any of his property, unlefs ruin forces him to fell the whole, is equally fure of perpetuating the deferts, which are the difgrace of his country. He would let them, and perhaps upon advan- tageous terms ; but it demands confiderable capitals, and a very enlightened date of agriculture, for fpeculations of that fort to take place ; the only capitals, which can be found in Catalonia, for fuch a purpofe, are the hands of men willing to work ; aided, perhaps, by fome little favings, which have originated from the view of wades that are to be purchafed. All that has been done, and it is much in fome didrids, is to be traced dearly to its origin. That thefe obfervations are jud, will be confirmed by the prices of all the neceflaries of life in that province ; they have nothing very cheap ; every arti- cle of confumption is fomewhat dearer than in France ; and it is more than once noted, that all the meat they eat comes from that kingdom. Their mules are bred in France, and great , imports of cattle and (heep are common. This is a dired premium upon every fpecies of rural indudry, and its not having 3*o S P A I N. having operated greater improvements, muft be owing to the caufes on which I have touched. To cultivate their wades, to fpread irrigation wherever it is poflible to carry it, are the two fird objeds in Catalonian improvement ; all others are inferior; they have, however, fome which ought not to be negleded. Their wine and oil are objeds of the greated importance ; for it is by thefe, probably, that all the lower wades fhould be improved, which are not capable of irrigation ; to improve the manufadure of thefe two articles, in fuch a manner as to increafe the demand for them, would be one great means of accelerating the cultivation wanted ; they are both bad ; the wine is thick, muddy, and poifoned by the borachio ; and the oil is generally rancid ; both would otherwife be excellent; to remedy thefe defeds, and force thofe commodities, by their merit, into commerce, would tend powerfully to enrich the province; and to enrich it in the very bed method, by one, which would, at every dep, accelerate its im- provement. Wool is another commodity, which is of confiderable value, and might be produced in an in finitely ^greater quantity than at prefent. The reader will not exped from a traveller, who throws his ideas on paper amidd the movements of a journey, that corred attention which leaves nothing untouched ; I attempt no more than to glance at fome prominent features, and to delineate them roughly ; to draw into one point of view, the conclufions which ought to be the objed of all ufeful travels, it would be necefiary to fee much more, to refide longer, and to travel with greater advantages than I pof- fefis. This little journey has been very far from affording fuch materials, but it has not to me been barren ; it has removed many falfe ideas from my mind, which the writings of men, who have either been inattentive to, or ignorant of agriculture, had placed there, relative to this province ; and I know better how to appreciate the praifes or condemnation, which are given of this or other countries, in fimilar climates. There are many perfons who travel, for enjoying the beauty of profped and there are others, who feek for a refidence better adapted than their own, to their health or their fortune; to fuch I will add a few words. To the tade of a man that is fond of a country in a northern climate, there are few objeds more pleafing to the eye, or more refrefhing to the imagination, than the natural landfcape fcenes of a well-cultivated and well-peopled country. Thefe have, in England, features that charm and indrud. Inequalities of country, not too abrupt ; woods that prefent rich maffes of fhade ; rivers that offer the contrad of their filver bofoms, gliding gently through vales of con- dan t verdure, which are neither hurt by their rapidity, nor rendered marfby by SPAIN. 321 by their fiuggifhnefs ; inclofures, which mark the value and the culture of the foil ; and fcattered habitations of the poor, clean and comfortable, mixed with the houfes of farmers, in a ftate of eafe and profperity ; and with the feats of gentlemen, who find fociety and liberal pleafures, without deferting the fields which gives them their fupport, for the profufion and wafte of a capital. No philofophical eye can view fuch a fcene without pleafure, nor contemplate it without inftrudion. Such a fcene is not to be met with in Catalonia ; the latitude which fpreads over their heads a clear expanfe of blue, which lightens up in their heavens a blazing fun, with rays of which we have no feelings, which bids the perfumes of the eaft breathe over their waftes, and gives to their gar- dens a profufion of moft delicious fruits, forbids it. Infinitely the greater part of the province is rock or mountain, without verdure, and without other wood, than ever-green oaks, olives, or pines ; and no where, except in the Py- renees, with any mafies of fhade that give effed to the profped. The only verdure in the country, tolerably durable, is that of the vineyards. Great waftes are covered with ftirubs, which, however beautiful, when detached, have very little effed in a general profped. To look for neat cottages, or good farm- houfes, is to look in vain ; and to find the landlords of the country, you muft go to Barcelona and Madrid. The deficiency of verdure, deftroys half the idea of rural beauty; the eye, dazzled with the unvarying fplendour of the folar beams, and tired with wandering over arid heaths, aches for cooler and more quiet fcenes, and languishes to repofe on the verdant mead. When watered, where alone there could be verdure, all is a crowded fcene of trees, and corn and hemp ; of glorious fertility, but forming the good feature of a landfcape, only when looked down upon from an eminence immediately above it. Hence, I own, that in refped of beauty of profped, I muft prefer many parts of France, and more in England, infinitely to any thing I law in Catalonia, a country whofe moft ftriking features arc its rocks. I take the climate to be equal to any thing that is known in the world ; I was there in the hotteft feafon of the year, and travelling twelve and fourteen hours a day, yet bore it without any fuch oppreflion as could give an idea of its ever being infupportable ; and both men and women ftood their field bufmefs through the day, except two hours, which they take for repofe. Suppofing, however, that July and Auguft are efteemed much too hot, ftill the reft of the year muft, from every circumftance we heard, be delicious— they fpoke with rapture of the pleafantnefs of the month of May ; and no doubt but the winter muft be a charming Feafon, where fuch vegetables as green peafe are gathered through every month of it, from the open fields. In regard to wholefomenefs for invalids, one circumftance Ihould be confidered, which may be applied Yol. II. T t equally S P A I Ni 322 equally to all watered arable lands : I fhould conceive, that they muft of ne- ceflity, in fo hot a climate, be very unwholefome ; and little better than rice- grounds, which are known every where to be peftiferous. The land is kept conftantly watered, it is therefore little better than an earth fponge, or mafs of mud ; innumerable fibres of vegetables are mixed with it ; the heat, the moifture, and the rich foil form a putrid fermentation, which gives health and luxuriance to vegetables, but mull fill the air with phlogiflic effluvia, I fhould apprehend far from wholefome to the human body. This is a confideration for phyficians, and for thofe whom they fend to fouthern climates. IRRIGATION. THE profpedts down the vale of Aran beautiful ; it is without fallows, fine hemp inftead of them. Look down on the town of Efteredano, around which, culture rifes pretty high up the mountains. All the corn cut, is reaped, and bound in fheaves— Walnuts. Defcend into the vale— Figs. Watered meadows. Ray- grafs predominates ; much common clover, white clover, trefoil, vetches, &c. A caufeway for irrigation acrofs the vale ; the meadows are uncut, and have 2f tons per acre, on an average ; the corn all through, 3 quarters an acre. Pafs a rich flat common ; part of this vale fed by horfes, mules, hogs, afles, and a few oxen. Advancing— what meadows there are, are well watered ; as are French beans, hemp, and a fmall quantity of lucern. Leave Poeblar ; they have lucern, but not good ; the gardens are all wa- tered; mulberries; prices of filk this year, 18 liv. the pound. Cultivation all around, among the olive trees ; but it is corn one year, and fallow another. Crofs the river, which is here fixty yards wide. Wheels for raifing the water of it into the gardens, ten or twelve feet high ; they are of a very fimple conftru&ion ; fomething like the common water-wheels of a mill, but made very light ; the fellies of the wheel are hollow in divifions, taking the water in through holes at equal diftances, and as the ftream turns the wheel, it delivers the water out of the fame holes at the top of its revolution, into a trough, which conducts it where wanted; it is cheap, fimple, and effectual. Many peach-trees fcattered about the gardens, &c. Mount the hills; pafs two SPAIN. 3*3 two large trails, of above one hundred acres, deftroyed by the torrents. Great quantity of pudding-ftones. The mountains around are of interefting and bold features. The country in general here has a great mixture of cultivation and wafte ; it is for fome fpace pleafing enough to the eye, but the produce is, I believe, very low ; we faw many oats, and fcarcely any that will produce more than a quarter an acre. They have no meadows; and I fhould obferve, that our mules have not found fuch a thing as hay ; flraw and barley are their food ; in all thofe fpots which would give grafs, corn and legumes are fown, as more neceffary and more valuable ; and this, I am told, is the cafe over all Spain, lucern excepted. Near Monte Schia — they have here poor crops of flat barley : of water, they know well the value, a fpring of any account being carefully conducted into a refervoir, and let out at feven in the morning and at night to water. Advancing — there is fome good hemp, watered 5 and I fee enough of the country to find that water is all in all ; where that is to be conducted, they get crops that pay well ; but where no water, they have not the power or the know- ledge to turn the foil, however good it may be, to a profitable account ; fallow the only effort, and the fuccefs every where miferable. Crofs a fine ftream with many acres under it, yet no watering ; the reafon I cannot tell, unlefs the land is common ; if fo, it is eafily explained. The foil floney 5 the large, of the pudding clafs ; but, in the midfl of this arid wretched defert, come to a fpring, which rifes out of the earth into a fmali refervoir, and is immediately ufed for irrigation ; maiz, hemp, cab- bages, beans, and all fine ; the contraft fliews the aflonifhing effeCt of water, and that in this climate, the foil is the leaf! object— the fun and water do the whole. Pafling Paous; every thing changes the features; the vale, on comparifon with thofe we have feen, is wide, and alfo flat, and water plentifully conduced in canals, which pafs every quarter, fo as to let into the field of every proprietor ; having pafled above one hundred miles of dreary mountain, this valf, fo great was the contraft, had the appearance of enchantment; the care and attenton given to irrigation, cannot be exceeded. The land is prepared for it, by levelling with a nicety as curious as for making a bowling-green, and this (conducting the water excepted, which is common to every one), is the only expence : this general level is divided into oblong beds, from fix to eight feet wide, by little ridges of fine mould, drawn up nicely with a rake every time the ground is fown, in order that the water may not fpread over too much at once, in which T t 2 cafe. 324 SPAIN, cafe, the irrigation would be unequal ; there would be too much of a current at the part where the water enters, a circumftance of no great importance in watering grafs land, but which would be mifchievous in arable; fmall trenches take the water from the carrier canals, and paffing by the ends of thole beds, the farmer opens them at pleafure, to diftribute the water where wanted. As foon as the land is fown, it is watered, and periodically, till the plants are up ; moderately while they are young ; but every day, and fometimes twice a day, when full grown : the effedt is furpriiing, and infinitely exceeds that of the very richeft manures that can be fpread upon any land. The rapidity of vege- tation is fo great, that there are but few crops, which demand all the fummer for coming to perfection ; I believe hemp is the only one ; that plant is now five to feven feet in height, and of fo thick a luxuriance, that nothing can be imagined finer. The rye ftubbles are ploughed and fown with French beans, which are up and watered. After hemp, wheat is the crop. Watered maiz here, feven to nine feet high. Every time we fee any irriga- tion, we are (truck more and more with the importance of water, even on foils which are apparently mere rock, and on the mod arid deferts, it gives at once the utmofl: luxuriance of vegetation. Vines and olives, however, (land in no need of it, but thrive admirably on the dried foils without it : not one acre, however, in twenty, is planted with them that might be. Come to more watered grounds ; gardening and hufbandry mixed; peaches; apples ; ripe pears ; pomegranates in the hedges, as large now as walnuts in the fhell ; onions and lettuces in great plenty. Some watered lands have been fold at 1 300 liv. the journal. Near Martorelle is a fine irrigated valley ; French beans, feven feet high. Good lucern, cut three or four times a year ; onions, cabbages, and lettuces but the hemp, every where a principal crop, not great. The land all formed into the beds for watering ; which I have already defcribed. Exceeding fine hemp, watered. Maiz thick, and in ear. Many fine and tall poplars by the river. They are now (July) ploughing their dubbles for French beans. Their courfe is, 1. Hemp. 2. Wheat ; and after wheat, French beans. Three crops are therefore gained in two years. The products good. Very fine mulberries. A journal, which is here alfo about an Englifh acre, of rich land in the vale, not watered, fells for 500 liv, : watered, for xooo liv. Leaving SPAIN. J25 Leaving Barcelona, enter immediately an extraordinary fcene of watered culti- vation, and which muft have given the general reputation to the province. No- thing can well be finer. The crops in perpetual fucceffion — and the attention given to their culture great. Not the idea of a fallow ; but the moment one crop is off, fome other immediately fown. A great deal of lucern, which is cut four, five, fix, and even feven times in a year ; all broadcafl, and exceedingly thick and fine, from two and a half to three feet high, when cut. It is all watered every eight days. We meet many mule loads of it going into the town, each 450 lb. or 4I quintals, which fells for 4 pefettos, or near 4s. Englifh ; fuppofe it 4s. for 500 lb. it will not be difficult to calculate the produce of an acre. All I faw would yield 10 tons, green, per acre, at each cutting, and much of it a great deal more; let us fuppofe five cuttings, or 50 tons per acre, at 16s. a ton, this is 40I. flerling per acre. It is to be remembered, that the growth we faw, was the third, perhaps the fourth, and that the firfl and fecond are in all probability more confiderable, it will not, therefore, be thought any exaggeration to cal- culate on five fuch. I by no means affert that lucern yields always, or gene- rally fo, as I fpeak only of what I fee. I have very little doubt, however, but this is the amount of that portion, which is thus cut and fold to Barcelona ; poffibly one-third, certainly one-fourth, is to be dedu&ed for the expence of carriage; this is the moft difficult part of the calculation, for it depends on how many times the mule goes in a day, which mull: alfo depend on the readi- nefs of fale, and other circumflances. The profit is, however, amazingly great. All the other lucern I have any where feen finks, in my idea to nothing, on comparifon with the vafl and luxuriant burthens given by thefe watered grounds. The fined crops I have known in England, are drilled, but there is a fallacy to the eye in the drilled crops, in proportion to the diflance of the rows ; they appear thick while they are really thin, but in broadcafl ones, which fatisfy the eye, there is no deception ; and thefe immenfe burthens, through which the fcythe is with difficulty moved, produce more at one cut- ting, than two feet drills would at three, with the advantage of the herb- age being finer and fofter. But weeds in England and Catalonia are two very different things; it well deferves, however, with us, a better trial than it has yet generally received; I have viewed broadcafl crops; particularly Rocque’s, on a very rich garden foil; and Dr. Tanner’s, on a common turnip loam, which, though not to be named with the Spanifh, were certainly en- couraging. Hemp, through all thefe watered lands, is the predominant crop, it is feven feet high, and perfectly fine ; fome of it is already harvefled, I am forry to fee that the watered part of the vale is not more than a mile broad. Indian fig, called SPAIN. 326 called here, figua de maura , grows fix or feven feet high, very branching and crooked, the arms at bottom as thick as the thigh of a common man ; thofe and many aloes in the hedges. Every garden or farm has a fmall houfe, with a refervoir for water, which is filled in moft by a water wheel, with jars around the circumference. The gardens between Barcelona and the fort, and alfo within the walls, are watered in the fame manner ; the water is let into every little bed, in the fame way as I have already defcribed. They are crowded with crops, and kept in moft beautiful order j thofe in and clofe to the town, fcattered with mulberry-trees. But in the diftriCt of which I am fpeaking at prefent, among the hemp and lucern, neither vine, olive, nor mul- berry. Thefe watered lands belong generally to proprietors who live in Barce- lona, and are let at 30 to 40 Spanifh livres the journal. The valley, in its wideft part, is three miles broad. Here it lets at 34 Spanifh livres a year the journal, and fells from 600 liv. to 1000 liv. ; each of thefe livres being about 54^: (1000 Spanifh livres makes 2700 French ones). Taking the medium, or 800 liv. and the French livre at io|d. this makes the price of a journal 90I. 2s. 6d. ; and the rent of it 4I, The grofs rent of the land, therefore, pays nearly 4! per cent. ; but whether this is clear rent, the tenant paying all taxes, and doing the fmall repairs of his houfe, &c. or whe- ther there are deductions on thefe accounts, are queftions which were neither forgotten nor refolved. To fhew the quick fuccefiion of their crops, they have corn in ftooks on the borders of fome of the fields, and the land ploughed and fown with millet, which is already nine inches high. Many bleaching grounds. Advancing— the irrigated land lets from 24 to 40 Spanifh livres : that not irrigated, at 15 liv. Water, therefore, here more than doubles the rent of the land ; and in other places, we have found the difference yet greater. The foil all the way a red and brown deep friable loam, with a fufficient adhefion for any crops. They fow French beans after hemp, and then fow wheat. At Ballalo, two hours from Barcelona, we meet with the firfl vineyards, but the hills here come down to the fea ; and where they do not, the vale is not more than half a mile wide. Lycium in the hedges ; fome few mulberry- trees. Oranges in the gardens ; a few palm-trees, with vines around them. A journal of watered hemp, produces from 10 to 12 quintals; if not wa- tered, the produCt much inferior ; the price, 14 to 17 Spanifh livres the quin- tal, or 35s. Englifh, which makes 19I. 5s. an acre. This is, however, to be underftood of a very fine acre. The mountains are at half a mile diftant, and partly SPAIN. 327 partly cultivated to the top. All the way inclofed, and the men mending gaps in their hedges. Every fcrap of flat land well watered, from wells and refervoirs > the hill covered with vines. Land, near Canet, well watered, fells for 500 Spanifh livres the journal ; vine- yards for 300 liv. They give, in good years, to 12 charges. Unwatered land, 100 to 150 liv. Enter a flat vale, half a mile broad, not watered. Hemp, very poor j maiz, feven feet high. Vineyards, under regular plantations of olives ; corn cut, in ftooks, and the land ploughed. A journal fells for 200 liv. and further on, where irrigated, for 1000 liv. which is an aftonifhing difference. While the mountains and wafte parts of the province prefent an unfavourable profped:, the watered diftri&s are, on the contrary, fcenes of moft exuberant fertility. To a perfon, from the north of Europe, there can hardly be a more flriking fpe&acle than the effect of watering in thefe fouthern climates ; it converts an arid ftoney wafte, which would yield nothing but vines and olives, and on which every fort of grain would hardly return the feed, at once into fields, pregnant with the richeft harvefts ; on fuch foils, it gives almoft the whole value of the land ; and on the richeft, it raifes it, at the leaft, double ; and, in fome inftances, five times. It enables the cultivator to have a fuccef- fion of crops, more important than any thing we know in the north. The reaping one crop is but the fignal for immediately putting \n another ; in doing which, they exert themfelves with the utmoft activity ; ploughing univer- fally as foon as the corn is cut ; and are, by this means, enabled to have con- ftantly two crops a year. The extreme fertility of thefe lands has, however, led many travellers into great or ignorant exaggerations ; they have aflerted, that the land yields many crops at the fame time, one under another, which is both true and falfe. It is fadl, that corn, wine, oil, and filk, are produced by the fame field, in fome few inftances $ but it is not from hence to be concluded, that the goodnefs of the land, or the importance of irrigation, is at all fhewn by that circumftance. The fa< 5 t is, that it is impofiible to raife one crop under another, without lofing in one nearly as much as you gain in the other j the olive, being a large tree, cultivation may be carried on under it, but the crop gained is poor, and fhews, that exactly in proportion to the (hade s the in- jury fuftained by the produce which is fhaded. If the trees are thick, the corn is hardly worth reaping ; it is the fame in other cafes, and I was well convinced, from viewing their grounds with this defign, that the foil can carry. SPAIN. 328 carry, profitably, but one crop at a time j feveral may be crowded on it, but nothing is gained ; with grafs under trees, this is not the cafe fo much in a hot climate ; but even grafs is damaged., and it is not the queftion, at prefent, as they have none. A country to be fupported, and in a hot climate, without meadows or paftures, founds very ftrange to EngliSh ears, and it is among the curious circumftances of this part, and I am told of the reft of Spain. If they applied to grafs the land that is proper for it, they could not pofiibly have bread to eat ; ftraw here is given inftead of hay, and entirely fupplies its place, and the oxen and mules, which we faw, did not fhew in the leaft, by their looks, any deficiency in .nourishment. Lucern is not at all common through the in- terior part of the province, and where they cultivate it, it is ufed green. Maiz is fometimes fown merely for its herbage, as it might be, I believe, profitably in England, late in the fpring, to avoid our frofts $ it is one of the moft nou- rishing plants in the world. The confequence of water being fo apparent in the province, I could not but attend particularly to their exertions incondudting it, and I concluded, that not one acre in twenty, perhaps in forty, is watered, that might be. In the flat vales, where canals of irrigation are made, at a fmall expence, a very good, though by no means a complete, ufe is made of them ; but on the declivities of the mountains, it is neceflary to eredl a mound of folid mafonry acrofs the river, and to cut the canal partly out of rocks, and to Support it by walls of Stone, as I have feen in France ; and having thus diverted a large portion of the water of a river, to carry it on its level, along the fide of the mountain as far as it will go ; Such exertions demand a much greater capital, than is to be found upon the lands of Catalonia : it could be done only by a great lord, who knew the importance of fuch undertakings, who refided on his eftate, and whofe income was fpent in fomething elfe than the tafte and pleafures of a capital. But leav- ing fuch exertions to individuals, who either have not the money, or not the will to employ it, is to perpetuate waftes. It is the King only who can make thofe efforts ; a monarch, who Should be determined to improve his kingdom, would prefently find the means of doing it. The importance of wa- ter is fo well known, that if a canal is made to condudt it, the proprietors, or farmers of the lands below, would readily and fpeedily make ufe of it, paying proportionably for the quantity they took ; this is the fyftem in Lombardy, and the effiedt is great. It would be the fame in Catalonia, but the capital, for the great work of the canal, muft probably be fupplied by the king, if not the whole, at leaft a confiderable portion. Such money fhould be lent to undertakers, at a moderate intereft. Exertions of fuch a nature, with a proper general attention given to thefe objedts, would make them SPAIN. 3*9 them fafhionable among the great lords of the kingdom, and fertile provinces would foon be created out of barren and defolate wafles. Arbitrary power has been exerted for ages, in efforts of barbarity, ignorance, and tyranny; it is time to fee it employed in works, that have the good of mankind for their aim. A beginning, and a very good one, is made in the conftruCtion of fome great roads, on a fcale of true magnificence, which is never exhibited with fuch effeCt, as in works of public utility ; and whenever the importance of cultiva- tion is well underflood in Spain, and the right means of advancing it clearly analyzed, irrigation will then receive an attention that has not, hitherto, been given. Such is the necefiity of water, for various productions in this climate, that rivers ought to be no more than infinitely multiplied channels, and col- lected in one flream only, as a refervoir for frefh, and repeated deviations.. SHEEP. ON the northern ridge of the Pyrenees, bearing to the well of Bagnere de Luchon, are the paflures of the Spanifh flocks. This ridge is not, however, the whole ; there are two other mountains, in a different fituation, and the fheep travel from one to another as the paflurage is fhort or plentiful. I examined the foil of thefe mountain paflures, and found it in general floney ; what in the well of England would be called a Jione brajh, with fome mixture of loam, and in a few places a little peaty. The plants are many of them untouched by the fheep : many ferns, narciffus, violets, &c. ; but burnet (poterium fanguiforba), and the narrow-leaved plantain (plant ago lanceolata), were eaten as may be fuppofed, clofe. I looked for trefoils, but found fcarcely any : it was very apparent, that foil and peculiarity of herbage had little to do in rendering thefe heights proper for fheep. In the northern parts of Europe, the tops of mountains half the height of thefe, for we were above fnow in July, are bogs ; all are fo, which I have feen in our iflands, or at leafl, the proportion of dry land is very trif- ling to that which is extremely wet : here they are in general very dry ; now a great range of dry land, let the plants be what they may, will in every coun- try fuit fheep. The flock is brought every night to one fpot, which is fituated at the end of a valley on a river, and near the port or paflage of Picada : it is a level Ipot fheltered from all winds. The foil is eight or nine inches deep of old dung ; not at all inclofed, and, from the freedom from wood all around it, feems to be chofen partly for fafety againfl wolves and bears. Near it is a very Vol, II, U u large SPAIN. jjo large Pone, or rather rock, fallen from the mountain. This the fhepherds have taken for a fhelter, and have built a hut againft: it ; their beds are fheep- fkins, and their doors fo fmall that they crawl in. I faw no place for fire ; but they have it, fince they drels here the flefh of their fheep; and in the night fometimes keep off the bears, by whirling fire-brands : four of them belonging to the flock mentioned above, lie here. Viewed the fheep very carefully, and by means of our guide and interpreter, made fome inquiries of the fhepherds, which they anfwered readily, and very civilly. A Spaniard, at Venafque, a city in the Pyrenees, gives 600 liv. French, (the livre is iofd. Englifh), a year, for the pafturage of this flock of two thou- fand fheep : in the winter he fends them into the lower parts of Catalonia, a journey of twelve or thirteen days ; and when the fnow is melted enough in the fpring, they are conduced back again. They are the whole year kept in motion, and moving from fpot to fpot, which is owing to the great range they every where have of pafture. They are always in the open air, never houfed, or under cover, and never tafte of any food, but what they can find on the hills. Four fhepherds, and from four to fix large Spanifh dogs, have the care of this flock ; the latter are in France called of the Pyrenees breed; they are black and white, of the fize of a large wolf ; a large head and neck ; armed with collars fiuck with iron fpikes ; no wolf can fland againft; them ; but bears are more potent adverfaries ; if a bear can reach a tree, he is fafe, he riles on his hind legs, with his back to the tree, and fets the dogs at defiance. In the night, the fhepherds rely entirely on their dogs ; but on hearing them hark, are ready with fire-arms, as the dogs rarely bark if a bear is not at hand. I was furprifed to find that they are fed only with bread and milk. The head fhepherd is paid 120 liv. a year wages, and bread; the others, 80. liv. and bread. But they are allowed to keep goats, of which they have many, which they milk every day ; their food is milk and bread, except the flefh of fuch fheep or lambs as accidents give them. The head fhepherd keeps on the mountain top, or an: elevated fpot, from whence he can. the better fee around, while the flock traverfes the declivities. In doing this, the fheep are expofed to great danger in places that are ftoney ; for by walking among the rocks, and efpecially the goats, they move the ftones, which, rolling down the hills, ac- quire an accelerated force enough to knock a man down, and fheep are often killed by them. Examine the fheep attentively. They are in general polled, but fome have horns ^ which in the rams turn backwards behind the ears, and project half a circle forward; the ewes horns turn alfo behind the ears, but do not project; the legs white or reddifh ; fpeckled faces, fome white, feme red- difh; they would weigh fat, I reckon, on an average, from 15 lb. ta 18 lb., a quaster. SPAIN. 33 * quarter. Some tails left long. A few black fheep among them ; fome with a very little tuft of wool on their foreheads. On the whole, they refemble thofe on the South Downs ; their legs are as fhort as thofe of that breed ; a point which merits obfervation, as they travel fo much and fo well. Their fhape is very gcod j round ribs, and flat llraight backs ; and would with us be reckoned handfome fheep $ all in good order and flefli. In order to be ftill bet- ter acquainted with them, I defired one of the fhepherds to catch a ram for me to feel, and examine the wool, which I found very thick and good of the carding fort, as may be fuppofed. I took a fpecimen of it, and alfo of a hoggit, or lamb of lad year. In regard to the mellow foftnefs under the fkin, which is a flrong indication of a good breed, with a difpolition to fatten, he had it in a much fuperior degree to many of our English breeds, to the full as much fo as the South Downs, which are, for that point, the bed fhort- wool led breed which I know in England ; the fleece was on his back, and weighed, as I guefled, about 8 lb. Englifh ; but the average, they fay, of the flock, is from 4.1b. to 51b. as I calculated by reducing the Catalonian pound of 12 oz. to ours of 16 oz . ; and is all fold to the French, at 30^ per lb. French. This ram had the wool of the back part of the neck tied clofe, and the upper tuft tied a fe- cond knot, by way of ornament ; nor do they ever fliear this part of the fleece for that reafon ; we faw feveral in the flock with this fpecies of decoration. They faid that this ram would fell in Catalonia for 20 liv. A circumftance which cannot be too much commended, and deferves univerfal imitation, is the extreme docility they accuflom them to ; when I defired the fhepherd to catch one of his rams, I fuppofed he would do it with his crook ; or probably not be able to do it at all ; but he walked into the flock, and Angling out a ram and a goat, bid them follow him, which they did immediately, and he talked to them while they were obeying him, holding out his hand as if to give them fomething. By this me- thod, he brought me the ram, which I caught, and held without difficulty. The mountain paflures belonging to the Spaniards, not ufed by themfelves, they let to the owners of large flocks, who bring them from the lower part of Catalonia, as with the French mountains ; thefe flocks rife to 4000 fheep ; the rent, in general, being from to jf, a bead, for the fummer food. Every in- habitant poflefles cattle, which he keeps in the common mountains in what quantity he pleafes ; but others, who do not belong to the pariffi, pay 5/ to -jf. a head for the fheep, and \of. for a cow ; which difproportion they explain, by faying, that fheep muff have a much greater range. They have good fheep in various parts of Catalonia, but all are fent to Sara- gofa or Barcelona. The mountains and waftes in fome parts have no fheep ; only goats. Uu 2 Crofs SPAIN. 332 Crofs great waftes, which in other countries would be (beep-walks $ but none here ; for five-fixths of the fpontaneous growth are aromatic plants. See two fmall flocks of fheep, exa&ly like thofe in the Pyrenees, defcribed the firfl day of this journey. A fmall flock of fheep, that give 5 lb. or 61 b. of wool each. Several fmall fheep-folds.— Such notes as thefe, fhew how few they are, on comparifon of what they ought to be. In travelling over the lower mountains, after quitting the higher Pyrenees *, the deficiency of fheep flruck me very much j the climate is too dry to think of a luxuriant vegetation of grafs ; but if the rofemary, lavender, and other aromatic ufelefs plants were deftroyed, and the land, by cultivation, properly adapted, was to be laid down to fuch plants as would feed fheep, fine paftures might not be gained, but much valuable fheep-walk would be created, and the quantity of wool increafed an hundred fold. Such a fyflem would unite well with olives, which might be thinly fcattered over fuch improvements. To import immenfe quantities of fheep from France, and to take no fleps to increafe them at home, is a blind condud, efpecially when it is confidered, that in a proper fyflem, they cannot be increafed, without being at the fame time, the means of improving frefh land. Produce of the Kingdom of Valencia in 1787. Engliflj Moneyv Silk, 2,000,000 lb. at 60 reals, Reals de Velkn. 120,000,000 . £• 2,000,000 t, 0 A O Hemp, 25,000 quintals, at 160 reals, — 4,000,000 - 66,666 13 4 Flax, 30,000 quintals, at- 200 reals. 6,000,000 - 100,000 0 0 Wool, 23,000 quintals, at 160 reals. 3,680,000 - 61,333 6 8 Rice, 140,000 car gas, at 150 reals. 21,000,000 - 250,000 0 0 Oil, 10,000 quintals, at 18 0 reals. 1,800,000 - 30,000 0 0 Wine, 3,000,000 arrobas , 84,000 000 - 1,400,000 0 0 Dry raifins, 60,000 quintals, at 40 reals , 2,400,000 - 40,000 0 0 Figs, 60,000 quintals , at 32 reals , 1,920,000 - 32,000 0 0 Dates and palms, - 1,200,000 - 20,000 0 0 £. 4,100,000 0 0 * There is no line of boundary to be fixed, with any precifion, to the Pyrenees ; I am inclined to think, that all the mountains we faw, Montferrat perhaps excepted, are branches of that fta- pendous chain, uniting in fome direction. The whole mountainous part of the province, that is, eighteen-twentieths of it, is properly the Pyrenees, Pricts SPAIN. 333 Prices at Madrid , 1788. Eng. Money. Average . s. d. Beef, 14 to 15 quartos per lb. - - 15 quartos . - 0 3 * Veal, 24 to 30 quartos per lb. - 27 0 6| Mutton, 15 quartos per lb. - - *5 0 3 * Frefli pork, 15, 17, to 20 quartos per lb. - 1 7 0 4 * Salted pork, 17 to 20 quartos per lb. - l 7 O Ham, 18 to 22 quartos per lb. - 20 O 5 Tallow candles, 15 quartos per lb. - *5 O 3 * Soap, 16 quartos per lb. - 16 O 4 Butter (Mantica de Flandes), 8 reals per lb. - 8 reals. 2 8 Goat’s milk, 6 toy quartos per el quarto. - 7 quartos . - O i£ Mancha cheefe, 18 quartos per lb. - 18 O 4 * Turkey, 12, 20, to 45 reals a piece. - 25 reals. 8 4 Fowl, 8, 11, to 14 reals a piece. - 11 3 8 Hare, 5 to 9 reals a piece. - 7 2 8 Rabbit, 5 to 8 reals a piece. - 6 2 0 Partridge, 4 to 8 reals a piece. - 6 2 0 Pigeons, 5 to 6 reals a piece. - 5 1 8 Eggs, 21 to 42 quartos a dozen. - 31 quartos . - 0 7 * Potatoes, 4 to 6 quartos per lb. - 5 0 H Garvanzos (large peafe), 10 to 12 quartos per lb. - 11 0 2i Wheat flour, 13 quartos per lb. - 13 0 3 l Rice, 11 to 12 quartos per lb. - 11 0 2| Brandy, 2 reals per el quarto , - — 0 8 Common wine, 26 to 28 r. the arroba (about 18 bottles), 27 reals. 9 O Valdefunas wine, 36 reals per el quarto,- - — 12 O Charcoal, 4 reals and 5 quartos the arroba , - — 1 5 ! Wood, 3 reals the arroba , — _ 1 O Common bread, 6 quartos per lb. - — 0 If Pan candial, 6 quartos per lb. - — 0 If Common oil, 15 quartos per lb. — 0 3 i Valencia oil, 4 reals per lb. 1 4 French oil, 7 reals per lb. - — _ 2 T 4 Coffee, 34 quartos perlb. - - _ — 0 8f Sugar, 30 to 38 reals per lb. 34 reals. 11 4 Chocolate, 6, 8, to 10 reals per lb. - 8 2 8 Tea, 11 quartos per oz. . — 0 2i Hair-powder, 2 reals per lb. MB — 0 8 MAJORCA. 334 SPAIN. MAJORCA. COME circumftances relating to this ifland, which I procured from good ^ authority at Barcelona, and at Bayonne, from Spaniards who had refided many years in it, I think too intereding to be omitted, as they may ferve, it for no other purpofe, at lead, to point the inquiries of fome future traveller, who (ha’ll have an opportunity of vifiting that ifland. Climate . The moft delicious that has been experienced by various perfons well ac- quainted with France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal; and refulting in a good meafure from the variety of the face of the country, which rifes from fome beautiful plains to gentle flopes, which, after many undulations of furfacc, flnifli in the mountains. In the greated heats of July and Augud, the hills preferve the temperature almod vernal : nor are the heats ever luffocating in any part. The winters, except on the highefl parts of the mountains, are mild and pleafant, as may be gathered from circumdances of vegetation, al- monds bloflbm in December, are in full bloom in January; and many wild flowers are in all their beauty quite through the year. Spinnage, green peafe, beans, lettuce, endive, cellery, 6cc. are in perfection the year round. In the depth of winter, ice is feen to the thicknefs of one-tenth of an inch, but melts before the day is much advanced. No fharp cutting winds are ever felt, either in winter or in fpring ; and a perfon who reflded there fixteen years, never faw a fog. The houfes have no chimnies ; but when artificial warmth is wanted, almond-fhells are burnt in brafieres. This extremely agreeable temperature of the climate, was confirmed to me by General Murray and his Lady, who re- fided there many years; and the former mentioned a circumftance, which (hews how erroneous it would be to judge of any climate by the latitude ; Leg- horn is nearly in the fame parallel, but the fevered cold he ever felt, in March, was at that place, where, in wafhing, the water became ice before a towel could be well dipped in it. Culture and Products. The hills are formed into terraces, and planted and cultivated with great at- tention. Olives are planted, and under them wheat fown ; in the flats, many almonds and mulberries. Oranges and lemons are in fuch quantities, that they export many to France. They are in great profufion, and the mod beautiful to SPAIN. 33S [ to be imagined. The mountains of Soleya are famous for peaches, and all forts of fruit. Hedges of pomegranates are attended with medlar and quince trees, alternately on one fide, and on the other mulberries ; but the belt fence is the prickly pear, the fruit of which is ripe in July, which is eaten, both leaf and fruit, by cattle, and are fupported on it in fine order, when other things fail in the heat. Mufk and water melons are in great perfection. Sugar-canes do well ; but no fuch thing as rice, as neither fwamp, marfh, nor bog. Irrigation is well underflood, and: much praftifed. A common courfe of crops, 1. Wheat. 2. Barley, j. Beans. 4. Peafe. Capers (which are a weed), come up in the wheat ftubbles, which give a crop ; then the ftubble and caper-bufhes are burnt, and the barley and le- gumes fucceed, and after thofe artichokes. They plough with a pair of oxen, or mules. The proprietors in general keep the land in their own hands. Living, This ifland, which, by every account, might be made a paradife, is one of the cheapeft fpots in Europe to live in j upon an income of 150I. a year fterling, men of the better fort live very comfortably, and bring up a family. Every vegetable production for the table, with all kinds of fruits, are not only in uncommon profufion, but excellent of their fort6. Poultry no where better; turkies are kept in great droves, and driven to feed on berries, as regularly as fheep to pafture ; they are fattened on myrtle-berries, and are not only of a delicious flavour, but a great fize, even to 361b. weight. Mutton is excel- lent ; fome fheep are fa fmall from the ifland of Yuvica, that three legs are fometimes ferved up in one difli. All thefe circumftances united, feem to point out this ifland as an excellent winter refidence for thofe who can no longer refort to Nice or Hyeres, and is probably a better climate than either of them. Produce 336 SPAIN. f Produce of the If and of Majorca in 1786. - Englilh Money. Pefos . s . d . Wheat, 475*336 fanegas - i>5 21 >°75 - 342,241 1 7 6 Barley, 152,880 - 300,664 - 67,649 8 0 Oats, 122,068 - I34>274 - 30,21 1 *3 0 Pulfe, 102,037 - 244,888 - 55»° 99 16 0 Almonds, 60, coo - 129,066 - 29,039 *7 0 Oil, 193,030 arrobas - 476,140 - 107,131 10 0 Wine, 1,665,660 - 322,829 - 72,636 10 6 Hemp, 24,446 - 83,180 - CO 10 0 Flax, 5,0 38 - . 1 5.3^7 - 3*457 1 1 6 Carobs, 500,000 - 83.333 - 18,749 18 6 Figs, 175,000 - 62,000 - 13.95° 0 0 Cheefe, - 25,000 - 56,250 0 0 Wool, 472,795 lb. - 61,341 - 13,801 *4 6 Straw of wheat and barley. - 125.045 - 28,135 2 6 Silk, 5,3471b. - 24,06l - 5*4i3 14 6 Sweet oranges. - 45,000 - 10,125 0 0 Fruits of all forts, - 170,000 - • 33* 2 5° 0 0 Pimienta, - 13,000 - 2,925 0 0 Capers, - 4,500 - 1,012 10 0 Increafe of Iheep, by birth. - ■ 126,942 - 28,561 l 9 0 - 3 ‘>43° - 7*°7 I *5 0 - 25.704 - 5,783 8 0 ■ of hogs. - 240,000 - 54,000 0 0 of horfes, mules, and affes. - 74, too - 16,672 10 0 Many articles are not mentioned in this account, and are reckoned to amount (the fpecified produce comprifed) to 4,983,326 - 1,121,248 7 0 The extent of Majorca is i 2 ^f fquare leagues, whereof twenty to one degree. Majorca is reckoned to be the T | T part of the continent of Spain ; and the whole of Spain does not amount to 250,000,000 pefos per annum, acccortling to the opinion of many well-informed Spaniards. Majorca* 316,011 3 Spain* SS’ 933 ’ 9 88 17 o o INDEX. X I N D E TO THE SECOND VOLUME. A CADEMIES, at Turin and Venice, 259 Agriculture, encouragement and depredion of, in Lombardy, 247. Effeft of govern- ment upon it, ib. Almonds, pay better than mulberries in Rou- verge, 27. More fubjedf to accidents than olives, 5b. Yield a good crop only once in ten years, ib. Culture very hazardous, ib. Arable land, management of in Piedmont, 202. 207. Milanefe, 203. Venetian State, 204. Tufcany, 206. Modena, Parma, Savoy, 207 Arabian horfes, imported into the Limoufin, 53. never faddled till the age of fix, nor eat corn till five, 54 Auvergne noted for fine apples, grafted on crab Rocks, 7'2 B Beans, in the Soiflonnois, 56. Drilled in Artois, /ilface, ib. The culture not fo common as it ought, 57 Belleifle (Due de), experiments on filk in Nor- mandy, 29 Bengal oxen travel fix miles an hour in coaches, 53 Berry fine oxen, 42 Bologna, government of, &c. 252 - Bretagne, famous for good dairy maids, 46. Three-fourths of it wafte, 92 Broom, cultivated in Bretagne and Bourbonnois for faggots, 57. Sown with oats, as clover in other places, ib. Improves land, ib. 1 he principal fupport of cattle in Bourgogne, ib. Building materials, &c. 117 C Cabbages, in Flanders, for cows, 59. Six feet inheighth in Normandy, ib. in .^retagne, An- jou, and Alface, ib. The culture of, one of the moil important objects in Englifh Agricul- ture, bo Vol. II. X Capers in Provence, 86 Carrots for cows, in Flanders, 57. Stacked, againfi: the froit, 58. Cultivated with great fuccefs in Suffolk, 59 Cattle, in France, 41. All cream coloured in Berry, ib. The importance of, well under- flood in Normandy, Bas, Poitou, Limoufin, Quercy, Guietine, and no where elfe in France, 52. Confined the whole year in flables, ib. Not one-tenth part of what there ought t© be in F ranee, ib. In Piedmont and the Milanefe, 185. Tufcany, 195 Cheefe in the Milanefe, 188 Chefnuts, in Berry, Limoufin, boiled and made intopafte, good food, 61. For fatting pigs, ib. Diftrefling to the Poor when the crop fails, ib. Method of cooking, ib. Excellent timber, ib. The poor live on them in Poitou, 62. The Vivarais the greateft region of, in France, ib. Chicory, method of fowing, 62. Luxuriance of, ib. Cut three and four times a year, 63, Lofes three-fourths by being made into hay, ib. Good for foiling, ib. Cows eat it greedily, ib. Not hurt by drought, ib. Lafts good, ten years, ib. The Author introduces it into Eng- land, and cultivates it with great fuccefs, at Bradfield, ib. Climate, ©f Piedmont and the Milanefe, 148. T ufcany and Parma, 149. Majorca, 334 Clos de Vaujeau the mold famous of all the vine- yards in Burgundy, 16 Clover, exhaufts land by bad management, 60. The proper method of culture, ib. In Pied- mont and the Milanefe, 231 Coals, in France, 103. Not half fo good as Englifh, ib. Colefeed, in Flanders fown and tranfplanted on oat flubbles, 64. Method of cultute, ib. More valuable than a crop of wheat, ib. Pro- digious quantity cultivated near Lille, and Bail- leul, ib. Never cultivated in F ranee for fheep- feed, 65. The proper method of culture, ib. C ommerce, INDEX. Commerce, of Piedmont, 275. Milanefe, 276. Venice, 278. Ecclefiaftical State, 279. Mo- dena, 281. Parma, 283 Corn, price in Piedmont and Tufrany, 295 Cows, fed with chick-weed boiled in bran and water, in the Pay de Beauce j and with weeds in Sologne, 41. Worked in Berry, 42. Goats and ewes milked for cheefe in Languedoc, 44. Fattened upon carrots in Picardy, 47. Bran and water their principal drink in Flanders, ib. Produd of milk in Normandie, 48. Thrice milked, 50. Salt given them twice a day in Auvergne, 51 Crette de Palleuel (Monf. de), his chaff cutter a very powerful one, 54. His experiments on chicory, 62 E Ecclefiaftical State, foil of, 147. Tenantry, 155. Rent, &c. 162. Seed and product of, 214 Economical practices, 117 Englifh hufbandry fupported by interweaving thofe crops which fuppoit cattle with thofe of corn, 52. Farm, eftablifhment of, in France, 139 F Farms in Piedmont, 151 Fences, 118 F ern made into hay for horfes, mules, and young cattle in Gafcoigne, 45 Figs in Piedmont, 232 Fifli ponds well underftood in France, 119 Flax, in Picardie, 66. Languedoc, ib. Never watered, ib. A crop of, has fetched the fee- fimple of the land in SoifTonnois, ib. Has pro- duced near iool. per acre, 67. Great atten- tion paid to the culture of, ib. V ery fine in Artois, not watered, ib. Spread on grafs or Bubble, ib. Every where cultivated in Bre- tagne for domeftic purpofes, ib. Beans fown to fupport it, 68. In the Milanefe, 233 Fuel, price of in Piemont, Milanefe, Modena, and Parma, 296, 297 Fuller’s thiftle very profitable, 65 Furz for horfes in Gafcoigne, 65. Sown with wheat and barley, ib. G Gallega officinalis, 217 Garonne, the vale of, the richeft diftrid in France, 66 Grafs, little underftood in French hufbandry, 53. Great importance of it as a preparation for corn, ib. H Hay, price of, in the Milanefe, Piedmont, Par- ma, and Modena, 296, 297. Hemp in Qiiercy, 66. In the Vale of the Ga- ronne the moft productive in the Kingdom, ib. Produce of, 66. Great Trads in Guienne, ib* In Maine, 68. Much cultivated in Lorraine, ib. Chinefe hemp in Dauphine, 69. Price of, at Marfeilles, ib. At Piedmont, 232. In the Ecclefiaftical State, 233 Hogs in Gafcoigne fed on acorns and fattened on maiz, 55. Which make the famous Bayonne hams, ib. Horfes not fo applicable to the purpofes of huf- bandry as oxen, 53. The beft light horfes from the Limoufin, ib. Bean ftraw excellent for, 54. Never give chaff to, in Sain- tonge, ib. Chaff the beft food, in the Ifle of France, ib. The fineft in Bretagne not worth two guineas and a half, ib. The Norman for draught, and the Limoufin for the faddle — the beft in the kingdom, 55. Great import from England, ib. I Implements of hufbandry, 122. Sort of, 130. In Piedmont, 242. V enetian State, 244. Ec- clefiaftical State, Tufcany, Parma, and Sa- voy, 245 Inclofures in Piedmont, Milanefe, Venetian and Ecclefiaftical States, 150. In Tufcany, Mo- dena, Parma, and Tortonefe, 15 1 Irrigation in Piedmont, 165. Of Piedmont the greateft exertion of the kind in the world, 169. . Venice, 181. Spain, 322 L Labour, price of in Piedmont, Milanefe, Venice, Tufcany, Modena, and Parma, 297, 298, 299 Languedoc, produce of filk in, 37 Larch in Normandie, 108. In the Milanefe, 218 Leaves for fheep, 120 Liancourt (Duchefs de) her dairy of Swifs cows, 46 Lime, 118 Limoufin, beft light horfes in France, 53. The breed much recovered by Arabians, ib. Lodi, rent. Sic. 160 Lombardy, notes on the agriculture of, 145. Poplar, 231. One of the richeft plains in the world, 146. Soil of, ib. Looms (filk), number of in France, 37 Lyons, number of filk looms in, 37 ' M Madder in Alface, 69. The culture notflou- rilhing in France, 70 Maiz, heat rieceffary to the culture of, 70. Me- thod of culture, 70. Highly manured, 71. The people live on it, ib. Mowed for foil- ing, ib. Majorca, climate of, 334. Culture and pro- duds of, 335 Manufadures INDEX Manufactures and commerce of Piedmont, 275. Milanefe, 276. Venice, 27B. Ecclefiallical State, 279. Modena, 281. Parma, 283. Manure, 133. Of Piedmont, 245. Milanefe, 246. V enice, ib. Melilotus Siberica, its prodigious luxuriance, 86 Metayers in Piedmont, 1 5 1 Milanefe, foil of, 147. Syftem of farming, 151. Rent and price of land, 159. Irrigation, 169. Cattle, 185. Cheefe and dairies, 186, Sheep, 198. Management of arable land, 203. Seed and product, 209. Silk, 221 Modena, foil of, 148. Tenantry, 157. Sheep, 201. Management of arable land, 207 Mulberries, 26. Produce of, 27. 34. Stripped for leaves four years after planting, 31. Sow- ing, tranfplanting, fort, and grafting, 32. Soil, planting, and,, cultivation, 33. Eggs of filk- worms and hatching, 34. f eeding, 35. Im- practicable to feed fillc— worms with any other than mulberry leaves, 38 Muftard mowed in full blolTom for cows, 72. Much in Artois, ib. N Normandie, large dairies in, 48. Fineft pallure in Europe, ib. Expence and profit of an acre of pallure in, 49 O Oil, the idea that thofe plants that produce it, com- bated, 77 Olives in Roufillon and Languedoc, 72. Dau- phine and Provence, 73. The largeft trees near Antibes, 74. The bell oil in Europe made in Provence, 74. The culture of, in a fmall part of France, ib. In the Venetian State, 235. Tufcany, ib. Oranges at Hyeres, the only fpot in France where they are cultivated in the open air, 74. Pro- duce of the King’s garden, ib. Orchards in Normandie, 72. Damage the corn, ib. In Lorraine and Auvergne, ib. Otter of rofes made at Graflc, equal to that in Bengal, 86 Oxen, price of in Berry, 41. Food to fatten a pair, 42. b attened with maiz in Quercy, 43. With hogs greafe, 44. Walnut-oil-cake the bell food for fattening, ib. Method of lhoe- ing, 45. F attened upon carrots in Picardie, 47. Upon linfeed cakes in Flanders, ib. Drawn by the horn in Bourgogne, 51. Fattened with the lathyrus Jbtivus made into palte, in Provence, 52. Travel lix miles an hour in coaches, in Ben- gali, 53> Comparifon between oxen and hor- fes, 1 28 P Paliurus, 217 Parma, foil of, 148. Tenaitry, 158. Irriga- tion, 183. Sheep, 201. \jovernment, 256. Parfnips for horfes in Bretagne, 58. The peo- ple fubfifl on them, ib. he bell of all food for horfes, ib. Fatten bullocks faller than any other food, ib. Pallure in the Pay d’Auge the richell in Eu- rope, 48 Piedmont, foil of, 146. Farms, 151. Ufeful population, ib. Rent and price of land, 158. 163. Irrigation, 183. Cattle, 185. Sheep, 201. Management of arable land, 202, 207. Seed and produ6f, 208. Silk, 219. Govern- ment, 256. Pines in Galcoigne for refin, 75. In Guienne, Bretagne, and Auvergne, 76. The mountains of Provence covered with, ib. Ploughing, method of in France, 125, 126, 127 Pont (Madame), her dairy of cows fed with lu- cem, 4b. Method ol making butter, ib. Pon- toife veal the fine!! in France, 46. Why, ib. Pomegranates in the hedges in Provence, 75. Produce, ib. Poor, Hate of in the Milanefe, 286. Venice, 287 Poplar, cut at twelve years growth, 108. Lom- bardy, 231 Poppies for oil in Artois, 77. In Alface, ib. Population of the Milanefe, 283. V enetian State, Tufcany, 284. Modena and Piedmont, 285 Potatoes in Anjou, 77. Much cultivated in Lor- raine, ib. Pare and burn for in the mountains of Alface, 78. Produce, ib. In Dauphine planted whole, ib. Cultivation of, not gene- ral in France, ib. Prices, rife of, in the Milanefe and Bolognefe, 300 Prohibitions in Piedmont, 287. In the Milanefe, 288. Venice, ib. Ecclefiallical State, 289. "Tufcany, 290. Modena, 292, Parma, 293 Provifions, price of in Lombardy, 293 Pruffia, King of, his exertions to produce filk in Germany, 38. His little fuccefs after forty years exertion, 39. His attempts a lelfon to England, ib. Pay d’Auge, the richefl pallure in Europe, grazed by oxen, 48. Syflem of, ib. Pyrenees much covered with wood, 106. Great havock made of the beech there,, ib. R Racine de difette, culture of, 79. Produce, ib. Cows and hogs it, ib. Culture of it common in Alface, ib. Raves, cattle fattened upon, in La Marche, Li- moufin, Languedoc, &c, 42, 43, 44, 45 Rent of land in Piedmont, 158, 163. Miianefe, 159. Lodi and Codogno, 160. Venice, 161. Ecclefiallical State, Tulcany, and Modena, 162. Parma and Savoy, 163 Ri .e in Dauphine, 79. Prohibited, ib. In Pied- mont, 236. Milanefe, 237. Venice and Par- ma, ib. Saffron INDEX. S Saffron in the Angoumois, So. Bell foil for it, ib. Sainfoin in Tufcany, 218 Salt for cattle and iheep univerfal in France, 44 Savoy tenantry, J 58. Rent, 163. Irrigation, 184. Cattle, 197. Sheep, 201. Arable land, 207 Sheep in the Milanefe, Venetian and Ecclefiafti- cal States, Tufcany, 199. Parma, Savoy, and Piedmont, 20 1. Spain, 329 Silk In Quercy, 26. Guienne, 27. Encouraged by government, but unfuccefsful, 29. In Nor- mandie, Bourbonnois, Vivarais, 31. Culture more profitable than vines, ib. Silk the great produce of Dauphine, ib. Import and price, 37. Home growth, and value, ib. Frofl pre- judicial to the culture, ib. Futility of the at- tempt to encourage the growth in England, 38. Culture in Piedmont, 219. Milanefe, 221. Venice, 224. Tufcany, 230 Soil of Lombardy, 146. Milanefe, 147. Venice, ib. Sologne, wretched flate of, 87 Spain, cultivation of, 305. Irrigation in, 322. Sheep, 329 Straw, price of, in the Milanefe, Piedmont, Mo- dena, and Parma, 296, 297 T Taxation in Piedmont, 260. The Milanefe, 262. Venetian and Eccleffaftical States, 267. 1 uf- cany, ib. Parma, 270 Tenantry, 1 5 1. Of the Milanefe, 152. Vene- tian and Eccleffaftical States, 154, 155. Tuf- cany, 155. Modena, 157 Threfhing, 121 Tillage of France, 122. Piedmont, 242. The Milanefe, 243. Venetian and Eccleffaftical States, 244,245. Tufcany, Parma, and Sa- voy, 245 Timber to build a man of war, 116 Tithe in Piedmont and the Milanefe, 27 1. Ve- netian and Eccleffaftical States, Tufcany, 272. Modena and Parma, 274 Tobacco in Flanders, 80. Artois, ib. Alface, ib, Inftead of exhaufting, improves land, ib. Trigonella foenum Graecum, 217 Triticum repens in Guienne for horfes, 85 Turbiliy, Marquis de, his improvements, 92 Turnips in Guienne, 82. Normandie, ib. The culture of, as prailifed in England, the greateft deffderatum in the tillage of France, 83 Tufcany, foil of, 147. Tenantry, 155. Rent,' 162. Sheep, 199. Arable land, 206. Silk, 230. Government, 25a V Valencia, produce of, in 1787, 33 2 Venice, foil of, 147. Tenantry, 154. Rent, 161. Irrigation, 181. Sheep, 198. Arable land, 204. Silk, 224 Vines, cultivation of, 2. Vin de Grave, 3. Af- ferted to be the worft of all eftates, 8. Two- thirds of the country round Epernay under vineyards, 9. The wine provinces afferted to be the pooreft, 12. Burgundy, 16. Clos de Vaujeau the moft famous of all the vineyards in Burgundy, 16. Great trails of land under vineyards, too fteep for the plough, 21. Ge- nerally fftuated in the pooreft foils, ib. High amount of the produil, ib. The reafons for aflerting that the wine provinces are the pooreft combated, ib. The culture more profitable than fugar, 22. Great objeit of the home con- fumption, 23. Companion between beer and wine as a beverage, 24. Vineyards divided into unufual fmall property, produilive of great mifery, which is the origin of the complaints .^againft them, 25. In Piedmont and the Mi- lanefe, 238. Venetian State, 239. Eccleffaf- tical State, 240. Modena and Parma, 241 Vivarais, the greateft chefnut region in France, 62 W • Walnuts in Berry, 8 3. Oil cake for fattening cattle made of it, in Poitou and Auvergne, 84 Waftes in Sologne, 87. Languedoc, &c. 88. Vaft trails in Bearne, &c. many miles in length, 90. Improvement of in Normandie, ib. Im- menfe in Bretagne, many leagues in extent, 91. Amount of in France, nearly equal to the whole kingdom of England, 96. Method of improving fuggefted, 99 Wine, price of, in Piedmont and the Muaneie, 296. . Woods, 106. Produce of, 108, 109. Price, 1 1 0, Scarcity of very alarming, 113. THE END.