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PERFECTION in ſuch inquiries is not in 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. cadzer to have his. kingdom known, and poſſeſſed of boundleſs power to effet 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 ſtrange that a Board, poſfleſſed of means ſo extremely limited, ſhould find it difficult to reach even that degree of perfe@tion which, per= haps, might have been attainable with more extenſive powers. The candid Reader cannot expectin theſe Reports more than a certain portion of uſeful information, ſo arranged as to render them a baſis for further and more detailed enguiries,‘The atten-

tion of the intelligent Cultivators of the kingdom, however,

* See Voltaire’s Age of Lewis XIV. vol. ii. p. 127, 128, 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, for «« the in{ttu@ion of the Duke of Burgundy, he ordered each of the inten- « dants to draw up a particular deſcription of his province. By this means sé an exa 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 Monſieur de La- « moignon de Baville. Had what the King direéted been as well executed «« in regard to every province, as it was by this magiſtrate in the account «c of Languedoc, the colleétion would have been one of the molt valuable «c monuments of the age. Some of them are well done; but the plan was « ¡rregular and 1mpertedt, becauſe 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; the nobles, the «e citizens, the labourers, the artiſans, the mechanics, the cattle of every e kind; the good, the indifferent, and the bad lands, all the clergy, regu- « Jar and ſecular, their revenues, thoſe/of the towns, and thoſe of the communities.

« All theſe heads, in moſt of their accounts, are confuſed and imper=- & fet; and it is frequently neceflary to ſearch with great care and pains to find what is wanted. The deſign was excellent, and would have been of the greateſt ule, had it been executed with judgment and unifor-

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