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PERFECTION in ſuch inquiries 1s not in the power of any body of men to E at once, whatever may be the extent of their views, or the vigour of their exertions. If Lewis XIV. eager to have his kingdom known, and poſ- ſeſled of boundleſs power to effect it, failed ſo much in the attempt, that of all the provinces in his kingdom, only one was ſo deſcribed as to ſecure the approbation of PS

it will not be thought frange that a Board, poſſeſſed of

© e,

means ſo extremely limited, ſhould find it difficult to reach

even that degree of perfection which, perhaps, might have

* See Valtaire’s Age of Lewis XIV. vol. ü- P- 127» 1285 edit. 1752.

The following extra from that work will explain the circumſtance above alluded to.

“« Lewis had no Colbert, nor Louvois, when about the year 1698,

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nſtrudtion of the Duke of Burgundy, he ordered e BEN of the

ants to draw up a particular deſcription of his province. By

« this means an exact account of the kingdom might have been ob- « tained, and a juſt enumeration of the inhabitants. It was an uſeful « work, though ail the intendants had not the capacity and attention « of Monfieur de Lamoignon de Baville. Had what the king dire&ed < been as well executed in regard to every province, as it was by this ce E in the“account of Languedoc, the colleétion would have «c been one of the mo oft valuable monuments'of the age. Some of them

are well done; but the plan was irregular and imperfed, becauſe all

cc t] nts were not refrained to one and the ſame. It were to c d, that each of them had given, in columns, the number of « inhabitants in each eledion; the nobles, the citizens, the labourers,

Ù «6 th I TE I vn nie] L Batrla Ê A 7 kind:] PT,] tl tne artiians»s the mechani„ the cattie oT every KINd; the good, the « indifferent, and the bad lands; all the clergy, regular and ſecular; « their revenues, thoſe of the towns, and thoſe of the communities, « AII theſe heads, in moſt of their accounts, are confuſed and im-

« perfect; and it is egutndl neceſſary to ſearch with great care and

ign was excellent, and would

ſ

< pains to find what is wanted. The deſig have been of the greateſt uſe, had it been executed with judgment

é and uniformity,??

been