the same, if made from the same materials. A very simple and elegant method of ascertaining the proportion of vital air he explained to us, by making the experiment ; putting a morsel of phosphorus into a glass retort, confined by water or mercury, and inflaming it, by holding a bougie under it. The diminution of air marks the quantity that was vital on the antiphlogistic doctrine. After one extinction, it will boil, but not enflame. He has a pair of scales made at Paris, which, when loaded with three thousand grains, will turn with the twentieth part of one grain; an air pump, with glass barrels, but one of them broken and repaired; the count de Buffon's system of burning lens; an absorber; a respirator, with vital air in a jar on one side, and lime-water in another; and abundance of new and most ingenious inventions for facilitating inquiries in the new philosophy of air. These are so various, and at the same time so well contrived to answer the purpose intended, that this species of invention seems to be one very great and essential part of Mons. de Morveau's merit; I wish he would follow Dr. Priestley's idea of publishing his tools, it would add not inconsiderably to his great and well earned reputation, and at the same time promote the inquiries he engages amongst all other experimenters. M. de Morveau had the goodness to accompany me in the afternoon to the Academy of Sciences: they have a very handsome saloon, ornamented with the busts of Dijon worthies; of such eminent men as this city has produced, Bossuet, Fevret, De Brosses, De Crebillon, Pyron, Bonhier, Rameau, and lastly, Buffon; and some future traveller will doubtless see here, that of a man inferior to none of these, Mons. de Morveau, by whom I had now the honour of being conducted. In the evening we repaired again to Madame Picardet, and accompanied her promenade: I was pleased, in conversation on the present disturbances of France, to hear Mons. de Morveau remark that the outrages committed by the peasants arose from their defects of lumieres. In Dijon it had been publicly recommended to the curees to enlighten them somewhat politically in their sermons, but all in vain, not one would go out of the usual routine of his preaching. Quere, Would not one newspaper enlighten them more than a score of priests? I asked Mons. de Morveau, how far it was true that the chateaus had been plundered and burnt by the peasants alone; or whether by those troops of brigands, reported to be formidable? He assured me, that he has made strict inquiries to ascertain this matter, and is of opinion that all the violences in this province, that have come to his knowledge, have been committed by the peasants only; and much has been reported of brigands, but nothing proved. At Besancon I heard of eight hundred; but how could a troop of eight hundred banditti march through a country, and leave their existence the least questionable ? as ridiculous as Mr. Bay's army incog.

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 insignificant town of Nuys, forty men mount guard every day, and a large corps at Beaune. I am provided with a passport from the mayor of Dijon, and a flaming cockade of the tiers etat, and therefore hope to avoid difficulties; though the reports of the riots of the peasants are so formidable, that it seems impossible to travel in safety. Stop at Nuys for intelligence concerning the vineyards of this country, so famous in France, and indeed in all Europe; and examine the Clos de Voujaud, of one hundred journaux, walled in, and belonging to a convent of Bernardine Monks. When are we to find these fellows choosing badly ?* The spots they appropriate shew what a righteous attention they give to things of the spirit. 22 miles.

* Sold since by the Assembly, for 1,140,600 livres, or 5001. sterling, per Journal.

The 3d. Going out of Chagnie, where I quitted the great Lyons road, pass by the canal of Chaulais, which goes on very poorly; it is a truly useful undertaking, and therefore left undone; had it been for boring cannon, or coppering men of war, it would have been finished long ago. To Montcenis a disagreeable country; singular in its features. It is the seat of one of Mons. Weelkainsong's establishments for casting and boring cannon: I have already described one near Nantes. The French say, that this active Englishman is brother-in-law of Dr. Priestley, and therefore a friend of mankind; and that he taught them to bore cannon in order to give liberty to America. The establishment is very considerable; there are from five hundred to six hundred men employed, besides colliers; five steam engines are erected for giving the blasts, and for boring; and a new one building. I conversed with an Englishman who works in the glass-house, in the crystal branch; there were once many, but only two are left at present: he complained of the country, saying there was nothing good in it but wine and brandy; of which things I question not but he makes a sufficient use. miles.

25

The 4th. By a miserable country most of the way, and through hideous roads to Autun. The first seven or eight miles the agriculture quite contemptible. From thence to Autun all, or nearly all, inclosed, and the first so for many miles. From the hill before Autun an immense 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 themselves, in order to ask for news. The rumour of brigands here increased to one thousand six hundred strong. They were much surprised to find that I gave no credit to the existence of brigands, as I was well persuaded, that all the outrages that had been committed, were the work of the peasants only, for the sake of plundering. This they had no conception of, and quoted a list of chateaus burnt by them; but on analysing these reports, they plainly appeared to be ill founded. 20 miles.

The 5th. The extreme heat of yesterday made me feverish; and this morning I waked with a sore throat. I was inclined to waste a day here for the security of my health; but we are all fools in trifling with the things most valuable to us. Loss of time, and vain expence, are always in the head of a man who travels as much en philosophe as I am forced to do. To Maison de Bourgogne, I thought myself in a new world; the road is not only excellent, of gravel, but the country is inclosed and wooded. There are many gentle inequalities, and several ponds that add to the beauty of the country. The weather, since the commencement of August, 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 not regard the heat. This circumstance may, I think, be fixed on as the test. In Languedoc, &c. these heats, as I have experienced, are attended by myriads, and consequently they are tormenting. One had need be sick at this Maison de Bourgogne; a healthy stomach would not easily be filled; yet it is the post-house. In the evening to Lusy, another miserable post-house. Note, through all Burgundy the women wear flapped men's hats, which have not nearly so good an effect as the straw ones of Alsace. 22 miles.

The 6th. To escape the heat, out at four in the morning, to Bourbon Lancy, through the same country inclosed, but wretchedly cultivated, and all amazingly improveable, If I had a large tract in this country, I think I should not be long in making a fortune; climate, prices, roads, inclosures, and every advantage, except government. All

from Autun to the Loire is a noble field for improvement, not by expensive operations of manuring and draining, but merely by substituting crops adapted to the soil. When I see such a country thus managed, and in the hands of starving metayers, instead of fat farmers, I know not how to pity the seigneurs, great as their present sufferings are. I met one of them, to whom I opened my mind: he pretended to talk of agriculture, finding I attended to it; and assured me he had abbe Roziere's crops complete, and he believed, from his accounts, that this country would not do for any thing but rye. I asked him, whether he or abbe Roziere knew the right end of a plough? He assured me, that the abbe was un homme de grand merite, beaucoug d'agriculteur. Cross the Loire by a ferry; it is here the same nasty scene of shingle, as in Touraine. Enter the Bourbonnois; the same inclosed country, and a beautiful gravel road. At Chavanne le Roi, Mons. Joly, the aubergiste, informed me of three domains (farms) to be sold, adjoining almost to his house, which is new and well built. I was for appropriating his inn at once in my imagination for a farm house, and was working on turnips and clover, when he told me, that if I would walk behind his stable, I might see, at a small distance, two of the houses; he said the price would be about 50 or 60,000 livres (26251.) and would altogether make a noble farm. If I were twenty years younger, I should think seriously of such a speculation; but there again is the folly and deficiency of life; twenty years ago, such a thing would, for want of experience, have been my ruin; and, now I have the experience, I am too old for the undertaking. 27 miles.

The 7th. Moulins appears to be but a poor ill built town. I went to the Belle Image, but found it so bad, that I left, and went to the Lyon d'Or, which is worse. This capital of the Bourbonnois, and on the great post road to Italy, has not an inn equal to the little village of Chavanne. To read the papers, I went to the coffee-house of Madame Bourgeau, the best in the town, where I found near twenty tables set for company, but, as to a newspaper, I might as well have demanded an elephant. Here is a feature of national backwardness, ignorance, stupidity, and poverty! In the capital of a great province, the seat of an intendant, at a moment like the present, with a national assembly voting a revolution, and not a newspaper to inform the people whether Fayette, Mirabeau, or Louis XVI, were on the throne. Companies at a coffee-house, numerous enough to fill twenty tables, and curiosity not active enough to command one paper. What impudence and folly! Folly in the customers of such a house not to insist on half a dozen papers, and all the journals of the assembly; and impudence of the woman not to provide them! Could such a people as this ever have made a revolution, or become free? Never, in a thousand centuries! The enlightened mob of Paris, amidst hundreds of papers and publications, have done. the whole. I demanded why they had no papers? They are too dear; but she made me pay 24s. for one dish of coffee, with milk, and a piece of butter about the size of a walnut. It is a great pity there is not a camp of brigands in your coffee-room, Madame Bourgeau. Among the many letters for which I am indebted to Mons. Broussonet, few have proved more valuable than one I had for Mons. l'abbe de Barut, principal of the college of Moulins, who entered with intelligence and animation into the object of my journey, and took every step that was possible to get me well informed. He carried me to Mons. le count de Grimau, lieutenant-general of the balliage, and director of the Society of Agriculture at Moulins, who kept us at dinner. He appears to be a man of considerable fortune, of information, and knowledge, agreeable and polite. He discoursed with me on the state of the Bourbonnois; and assured me, that estates were rather given away than sold: that the metayers were so miserably poor, it was impossible for them to cultivate well. I started some observations on the modes