+—

«

PER FECTTON in ſuch enquiries is not 1n the power of any body of men to obtain at once, whatever may be the extent of their views, or the vigour of their exertions- If Lewis XIV. cager to have his kingdom known, and poſſeſled of boundleſs power to efffett 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 poſterity*, it will not be thought frange that a Board, poſſeſſed of means ſo extremely limited, ſhould find it difficult to reach even that degree of perfeétion which perhaps might have been attainable with more extenúve powers. The candid Reader cannot exped in theſe Re- ports more than a certain portion of uſeful information, ſo arranged as to render them a baſis for further and more detailed enguiries. The attention‘of the intelli-

* See Voltaire’s Age of Lewis XIV. vol. il. p. 127, 128, edit. 1752,

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

« TJ ewis had no Colbert, nor Louvois, when, about the year 1698, « for the inſtruétion of the Duke of Burgundy, he ordered each of the « intendants to draw up a particular deſcription of his province. By « this means an exact account of the kingdom might have been obtained,

« and a juſt enumeration of the inhabitants. It was an uſeful work, « though all the intendants had not the capacity and attention of Mon-

« ſieur de Lamoignon de Baville. Had what the king directed been as

« well executed in rd to every province, as it was by this magiſ- « trate in the account of Languedoc, the colletion would have been

«« one of the moſt valuable monuments of the age. Some of them are « well done; but the plan was irregular and imperfect, bec uſe all the «“ intendants were not reſtrained to one and the ſame. It were to be « wiſhed, that each of them had given, in columns, the number of « inhabitants in each eleCtion 5 the nobles, the citizens, the labourers, « the artizans, the mechanics; the cattle of 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.

« All theſe heads, in moî of their accounts, are confuſed and 1moer- « fe; and it is frequently neceſſary to ſearch with great care and pains « to find what is wanted. The deſign was excellent, and would have & been of the greateſt uſe, had it been executed with judgment and «“ uniformity,” Si gent