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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 LewisXIV. eager to have his kingdom known, and possessed of boundless power to effect it, failed so much in the attempt, that of all the provinces in hiskingdom, only one was so described asto secure the approbation of posterity*; it will not be thought strange that a Board, possessed of means so extremely limited, should find it difficult to reach even that degree of perfection which, perhaps, might have been attainable with more extensive powers. The candid reader cannot expect in these Reports more than a certain portion of useful information, so arrang-

edas to render them a basis for further and more detailed

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

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

‘¢ Tewis had no Colbert, nor Louvois, when about the year 1698, for « the instruction of the Duke of Burgundy, he ordered each of the in- << tendants 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 << Monsieur de Lamoignon de Baville. Had what the king directed “6 Seen as well executed in regard to every province, as it was by this “‘ magistrate in the account of Languedoc, the collection 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, be- “¢ cause 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 citizens, the «¢ Jabourers, the artisans, the mechanics, the cattle of every kind; the <¢ good, the indifferent, and the bad lands, all the clergy, regular and “6 secular, their revenues, those of the towns, and those of the com- 6¢ munities.

<< All these heads, in most of their accounts, are confused and im- “¢ perfect; 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.”

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