fuch a view of towns in France, but when you enter them, all is a clutter of entered Champagne, but the vin mousseux has abfolutely banished it. I had a 48. S letters for Monf. Cadot L'ainé, a confiderable manufacturer, and the poffeffor The 9th. To Chalons, through a poor country and poor crops. M. de Brouffonet had given me a letter to Monf. Sabbatier, fecretary to the academy of fciences, but he was abfent. A regiment paffing to Paris, an officer at the inn addressed me in English.-He had learned, he said, 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 neceffary-the tiers etât were running mad-and wanted fome wholefome correction ;- -they want to establish a republic-abfurd! Pray, Sir, what did you fight for in America? To establish a republic. What was fo good for the Americans, is it fo bad for the French? Aye, damme! that is the way the English want to be revenged. It is, to be fure, no bad opportunity. Can the English follow a better example? He then made many enquiries about what we thought and faid upon it in England: and I may remark, that almost every perfon I meet with has the fame. idea-The English must be very well contented at our confufion. They feel pretty pointedly what they deferve.-12 miles. The مت The 10th. To Ove. Pafs Courtiffeau, a small village, with a great church; and though a good ftream, not an idea of irrigation. Roofs of houses almost flat, with projecting eaves, refembling thofe from Pau to Bayonne. At St. Menehoud a dreadful tempeft, after a burning day, with fuch a fall of rain, that I could hardly get to Monf. l'Abbé Michel, to whom I had a letter. When I found him, the inceffant flashes of lightning would allow me no converfation; 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. 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 11th. 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.-25 miles. The 12th. 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; demanding her reasons, she said her husband had but a morfel of land, one cow, and a poor little horse, yet they had a franchar (42 lb.) of wheat, and three chickens, to pay as a quit-rent to one Seigneur; and four franchar of oats, one chicken and 1. to pay to another, befides very heavy tailles and other taxes. She had feven children, and the cow's milk helped to make the foup. But why, instead of a horse, do not you keep another cow? Oh, her husband could not carry his produce fo well without a horfe; and affes are little ufed in the country. It was faid, at prefent, that fomething was to be done by some great folks for fuch poor ones, but she did not know who nor how, but God fend us better, car les tailles & les droits nous ecrafent.-This woman, at no great distance, might have been taken for fixty or feventy, her figure was fo bent, and her face fo furrowed and hardened by labour,-but fhe faid fhe was only twenty-eight. An Englishman who has not travelled, cannot imagine the figure made by infinitely the greater part of the country women in France; it fpeaks, at the first 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 flaves into the world, deftroys abfolutely all fymmetry of person and every feminine appearance. To what are we to attribute this difference in the manners of the lower people in the two kingdoms? To GOVERNMENT.-23 miles. The 13th. Leave Mar-le-Tour at four in the morning: the village herdfinan 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 collecting as it advances. Very poor sheep, and the pigs with mathematical backs, large fegments of finall circles. They must have abundance of commons here, but, if I may judge by the report of the animals carcafes, dreadfully overflocked. To Metz, one of the the ftrongest places in France; pafs three draw-bridges, but the command of water must give a ftrength 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 asked 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 promised 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 bufinefs, they had the goodness to fit in council on my enquiries, and to refolve many of them. In the Almanach des Trois Evechés, 1789, 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 present age, have advanced that art. I found an Englishman, Dom Cowley, of London. Who is Dom Cowley ?-Dined at the table d'hôte, with feven officers, out of whofe mouths, at this important moment, in which converfation is as free as the prefs, not one word iffued for which I would give a straw, nor a fubject touched on of more importance, than a coat, or a puppy dog. At table d'hôtes 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 in 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 defcribed at Nantes, but not on fo great a plan; and they admit any person to read or go in and out for a day, on paying 4. To this I eagerly reforted, and the news from Paris, both in the public prints, and by the information of a gentleman, I found to be interefting. Verfailles and Paris are surrounded 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 easily by the people diftinguished from those they fufpect of being collected by monopolifts. This has aggravated their evils almost to madness; fo that the confufion and tumult of the capital are exA gentleman of an excellent understanding, and apparently of confideration, from the attention paid him, with whom I had fome converfation on the subject, lamented, in the moft pathetic terms, the fituation of his country; he confiders 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 such confufion must be a civil war; and it is now only by torrents of of blood that we have any hope of establishing a freer conftitution: yet it must be eftablished; for the old government is rivetted to abuses that are infupportable. He agreed with me entirely, that the propofitions of the feance royale, though certainly not fufficiently fatisfactory, yet, were the ground for, a negotiation, that would have fecured by degrees all even that the fword can give us, let it be as fuccefsful as it will. The purfe-the power of the purfe is every thing; fkilfully managed, with fo neceffitous a government as ours, it would, one after another, have gained all we wished. As to a war, Heaven knows the event; and if we have fuccefs, fuccefs itself may ruin us; France may have a Cromwell in its bofom, as well as England. Metz is, without exception, the cheapest town I have been in. The table d'hôte is 36 J. a head, plenty of good wine included. We were ten, and had two courfes and a deffert of ten difhes each, and thofe courfes plentiful. The fupper is the fame; I had mine, of a pint of wine and a large plate of chaudiés, in my chamber, for 10. a horse, hay, and corn 25. and nothing for the apartment; my expence was therefore 71. a day, or 2s. 111⁄2d.; and with the table d'hôte for fupper, would have been but 97. or 4s. old.-In addition, much civility and good attendance. It is at the Faifan. Why are the cheapest inns in France the best?-The country to Pont-a-Mouffon is all of bold features.The river Mofelle, which is confiderable, runs in the vale, and the hills on either fide are high. Not far from Metz there are the remains of an ancient aqueduct for conducting the waters of a spring across the Mofelle: there are many arches left on this fide, with the houses of poor people built between them. At Pont-a-Mouffon Monf. Pichon, the fub-delegué of the intendant, to whom I had letters, received me politely, fatisfied my enquiries, which he was well able to do from his office, and conducted me to fee whatever was worth viewing in the town. It does not contain much; the école militaire, for the fons of the poor nobility, alfo the couvent de Premonté, 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 15th. I went to Nancy, with great expectation, having heard it reprefented as the prettiest town in France. I think, on the whole, it is not undeferving the character in point of building, direction, and breadth of streets.Bourdeaux is far more magnificient; Bayonne and Nantes are more lively; but there is more equality in Nancy; it is almoft all good; and the public buildings are numerous. The place royale, and the adjoining area are fuberb. Letters from Paris! all confufion! the miniftry removed: Monf. Necker ordered to quit the kingdom without noife. The effect on the people of Nancy was confiderable.-I was with Monf. Willemet when his letters arrived, 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 will be the re Sult Jult at Nancy? The answer was in effect the fame from all I put this question to: We are a provincial town, we must 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 ftarved, and are confequently ready for commotion.-This is the general feeling; 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 so that if a ftarving populace were not in question, no one would dream of moving. 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 faft working in France, could poffibly have had an origin. It is not in the villages of Syria or Diarbekir that the Grand Seigneur meets with a murmur against 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 speaks the want of better funds. He introduced me to a Monf. Durival, who has written. on the vine, and gave me one of his treatifes, and alfo two of his own on botanical subjects. He alfo conducted me to Monf. l'Abbé Grandpére, a gentleman curious in gardening, who, as foon as he knew that I was an Englishman, whimsically took it into his head to introduce me to a lady, my country woman, who hired, he faid, the greatest part of his house. I remonftrated against the impropriety of this, but all in vain; the Abbé had never travelled, and thought that if he were at the distance of England from France (the French are not commonly good geographers) he should be very glad to fee a Frenchman; and that, by parity of reasoning, this lady must be the fame to meet a countryman she 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; fhe was unaffected, and good enough not to be offended at such a strange 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 just given her, that she would, in all probability, be forced to move again, as the news of Monf. Necker's removal, and the new ministry being appointed, would certainly occafion fuch dreadful tumults, that a foreign. family would probably find it equally dangerous and disagreeable.-18 miles.. The 16th. All the houses at Nancy have tin eave troughs and pipes, which render walking the streets much more eafy and agreeable; it is also an additional. confumption, which is politically ufeful. Both this place and Luneville are lighted in the English manner, inftead of the lamps being ftrung across the treets as in other French towns. Before I quit Nancy, let me caution the unT wary |