to every cover that is spread in the kitchen, for the lowest order of pedestrian travellers. The expence of linen in England is enormous, from its fineness; furely a great change of that which is coarfe, would be much more rational. In point of cleanliness, I think the merit of the two nations is divided; the French are cleaner in their persons, and the English in their houses; I speak 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 bason to wash your hands, which is a trait of perfonal cleanliness I with more common in England; on the other hand their neceffary houses are temples of abomination; and the prac tice of fpitting about a room, which is amongst the highest as well as the lowest ranks, is deteftable: I have seen a gentleman spit fo near the cloaths of a dutchess, that I have ftared at his unconcern. In every thing that concerns the stables, the English far exceed the French; horfes, grooms, harness, and change of equipage; in the provinces you fee cabriolets undoubtedly of the last century; an Englishman, however small his fortune may be, will not be seen in a carriage of the fashion of forty years paft; if he cannot have another, he will walk on foot. It is not true that there are no complete equipages at Paris, I have seen many; the carriage, horfes, harness, and attendance, without fault or blemifh; but the number is certainly very much inferior to what are seen at London. English horfes, grooms, and carriages, have been of late years largely imported. In all the articles of the fitting up and furnishing houses, including those of all ranks in the estimate, the English have made advances far beyond their neighbours. Mahogany is scarce in France, but the use of it is profufe in England. Some of the hotels in Paris are immenfe in fize, from a circumftance which would give me a good opinion of the people, if nothing else did, which is the great mixture of families. When the eldeft fon marries, he brings his wife home to the house of his father, where there is an apartment provided for them; and if a daughter does not wed an eldest son, her husband is alfo received into the family, in the fame way, which makes a joyous number at every table. This cannot altogether be attributed to œconomical motives, though they certainly influence in many cafes, because it is found in families poffeffing the first properties in the kingdom. It does with French manners and customs, but in England it is fure to fail, and equally fo amongst all ranks of people may we not conjecture, with a great probability of truth, that the nation in which it fucceeds is therefore better tempered? Nothing but good humour can render fuch a jumble of families agreeable, or even tolerable. In drefs they have given the ton to all Europe for more than a century; but this is not among any but the highest rank an object of fuch expence as in England, where the mafs of mankind wear much better things (to use the language of common converfation) than in France: this ftruck me more amongst ladies who who, on an average of all ranks, do not dress at one half of the expence of English women. Volatility and changeablenefs are attributed to the French as national characteristicks,-but in the cafe of drefs with the groffeft exaggeration. Fashions change with ten times more rapidity in England, in form, colour, and affemblage; the viciffitudes of every part of drefs are phantastic with us: I fee little of this in France; and to inftance the mode of dreffing the gentlemen'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 and facile pliancy of difpofition with which they adapt themselves to the circumstances of life: this they poffefs much more than the high and volatile spirits which have been attributed to them; one excellent confequence is, a greater exemption from the extravagance of living beyond their fortunes, than is met with in England. In the highest ranks of life, there are inftances in all countries; but where one gentleman of small 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, I am disappointed from three circumstances, which I expected to find predominant. On comparison with the English, I looked for great talkativeness, volatile fpirits, and univerfal politenefs. 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 speak of certain claffes of people, but of the general mafs. I think them, however, incomparably better tempered; and I propose it as a question, whether good temper be not more reasonably 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; amongst whom, the duke de Liancourt holds the first place; a nobleman, to whofe uninterrupted, polite, and friendly offices I owe the agreeable and happy hours which I have passed at Paris, and whofe kindnefs continued fo much, to the laft, as to require a promife, that if I fhould return to France, his house, either in town or country, fhould be my home. I shall not omit obferving, that his conduct in the revolution has been direct and manly from the very beginning; his rank, family, fortune, and fituation at court, all united to make him one of the first subjects in the kingdom; and upon the public affairs being fufficiently embroiled, to make affemblies of the nobility necessary, his determination to render himself master of the great queftions which were then in debate, was feconded by that attention and application which was neceffary in a period, when none but men of business could be of importance in the ftate. From the firft affembling of the States General, he refolved to take the party of freedom; and would have joined the tiers at first, if the orders of his conftituents had not prevented it; he defired them, however, either to confent to that step or to elect another representative; and, at the fame time, with equal liberality, he declared, that if ever the duty he owed his country became incompatible with his office at court, he would refign it; an act that was not only unneceffary, but would have been abfurd, after the King himself had become a party in the revolution. By espousing the popular cause, he acted conformably to the principles of all his ancestors, who in the civil wars and confufions of the preceding centuries, uniformly opposed the arbitrary proceedings of the court. The decifive fteps which this nobleman took at Verfailles, in advising the King, &c. &c. are known to all the world. He is, undoubtedly, to be esteemed one of those who have had a principal share in the revolution, but he has been invariably guided by constitutional motives; for it is certain, that he has been as much averfe from unneceffary violence and fanguinary measures, as those who were the most attached to the ancient government. With my excellent friend Lazowski, I spent my last evening; he endeavouring to perfuade me to refide upon a farm in France, and I enticing him to quit French bustle for English tranquility. The 20th-25th. By the diligence to London, where I arrived the 25th; though in the most commodious feat, yet languishing for a horse, which, after all, affords the best means of travelling. Paffing from the first company of Paris to the rabble which one fometimes meets in diligences is contraft fufficient,but the idea of returning to England, to my family, and friends, made all things 272 miles. appear fmooth. The 30th. To Bradfield; and here terminate, I hope, my travels. After having furveyed the agriculture and political resources of England and Ireland, to do the fame with France, was certainly a great object, the importance of which animated me to the attempt: and however pleasing 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 greatest satisfaction I feel, at present, is the profpect of remaining, for the future, on a farm, in that calm and undisturbed retirement, which is fuitable to my fortune, and which, I trust, will be agreeable to my difpofition.72 miles. PART PART SE CON D. THE CHAP. I. Of the Extent of France. HE circumftances which are most apt to command the attention of mankind, for giving importance to a country, are really valuable no farther than as they contribute to the ease and profperity of the inhabitants. Thus the extent of a kingdom is of no other confequence than affording nourishment for a people too numerous to be reasonably apprehenfive of foreign conqueft. When a territory is much more confiderable than for this purpose, it tends to infpire ambitious projects in the minds of the men that govern, which have proved, perhaps, more difaftrous than the deficiency of power that endangers the national defence. France, under Lewis XIV. was a remarkable inftance of this fact. The fituation to which the ambition of that prince had reduced her immense territory, was hardly preferable to that of Holland, in 1672, whofe misfortunes flowed from the fame origin. Of the two extremes, France has undoubtedly more to apprehend from the ambition of her own rulers, than from that of any neighbour. Authorities vary confiderably in defcribing the extent of this fine kingdom. The Maréchal de Vauban makes it 30,000 leagues, or 140,940,oco arpents; Voltaire 130,000,000 arpents.-The accuracy of round numbers is always to be doubted. Templeman gives it an extent of 138,837 fquare geographic miles, of fixty to a degree; a measurement, which renders all his tables abfolutely useless for any purpose, but that of comparing one country with another, a degree being fixtynine miles and an half, which makes it 119,220,874 acres.-Paucton reduces his measure to French arpents, and makes the number 107,690,000. The Encyclopædia, article France, affigns 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 at 135,600,000. None of thefe accounts feem fufficiently accurate for the purpose of giving a correct idea. The authority on which I am inclined moft to rely is that of M. Necker ‡, who 192 * L'Impôt Abonné. 4to. 1789. + Apologie fur l'edict de Nantes. Oeuvres. 4to. p. 326.. calculates calculates it (without Corfica) at 26,951 leagues fquare, of 2282 toifes; this, I find, amounts to 156,024,213 arpents of Paris, or 131,722,295 English acres. Paucton, by covering his map with fhot to every indenture of outline, with the greatest care, found the kingdom to contain 103,021,840 arpents, each of 100 perch, at 22 feet the perch, or 1344 toifes fquare to the arpent; instead of which, the arpent of Paris contains but 900 toifes :-this measurement makes 81,687,016 English acres *.-Notwithstanding the credit ufually given to this writer for his accuracy, I must here reject his authority in favour of that of M. Necker. Paucton's calculation, which gives 81,687,016 English acres to France, affigns by the fame rule to England 24,476,315 †; yet Templeman's furvey, at 60 miles to a degree, and therefore confeffedly below the truth, makes it 31,648,000, which, at 691 to a degree, are 42,463,2641; a greater difference than is found between them in estimating the furface of France, which, by Paucton, is made 81,687,016 English acres, with a general admiffion of about a million more; and by Templeman, 88,855,680; or at 69, is 119,220,874383. It is in vain to attempt reconciling these contrary accounts. I fhall therefore adopt, with the author of the Credit Nationale‡, the estimation of M. Necker, which fuppofes 156,024,113 arpents of Paris, or 131,722,295 English acres. For a comparison of the French and English dominions, I must for the latter adopt Templeman's measurement, who gives to Calculated at 60 to a degree; but at 69% these numbers become, Hence it appears, that France, according to these proportions, contains 29,312,964 acres more than the three British 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 méafurement at 131,722,295 English acres, which is * I have made this reduction, by valuing, with Paucton, the French arpent at 1,0000, and the English 0,7929. + That is 30,869,360 arpents royale, of 22 feet to the perch. Monf. Jorré. 8vo.. 1789. He calculates on 27,000 leagues, at 2282 toifes, 5786 arpents of Paris in a league; or in France 156,225,720 arpents. P. 95. confequently |