of constructing the various kinds of mufical inftruments, and above all, for a nice and accurate inveftigation of the principles of harmonics, to the learning and industry of Merfennus, a Frenchman; but in the fcience of compofition the musicians of Italy have uniformly been the inftructors of all Europe.'

MM We fhall now conclude our account of the Preliminary Di course, after obferving that it contains evident marks of ex'tenfive knowledge, acute difcernment, and found reflection. From thefe confpicuous endowments of the author, joined to the prodigious mafs of materials which he has collected from every quarter, there is reafon to think, that, in our fubfequent Reviews, when we enter on the Hiftory, we fhall proceed with full fatisfaction to ourselves, and entertainment to our readers.

[ To be continued. ]

Travels through France and Spain, in the Years 1770 and 1771. in which is particularly minuted, the Prefent State of thofe Countries, refpecting the Agriculture, Population, Manufactures, Commerce, the Arts, and useful Undertakings. By Jo. Marshall, Esq. Vol. IV. 8vo. 6s. in boards. Corral.

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Pwards of four years ago Mr. Marshall favoured the public with an account of his Travels through Holland, Flanders, &c. * in which, as his defign was totally different from what is ufually the object of those who vifit foreign countries, his narrative proved particularly interefting to the greater number of readers. Continuing to adopt his former plan in the volume now under confideration, he proceeds to defcribe the prefent ftate of agriculture and rural oeconomy in France and Spain.

The narrative begins with the author's entry into Lorrain, the 10th of October, 1770, at Sar Louis, in his way to Metz, taking the road of Boulay. The country, he observes, is fine, but not well cultivated, and is likewife deficient in cattle. From Boulay to Ury the profpect continues to be plea fant. The foil upon the rivers is a moift good loam; at a distance from them it is ftony, yet not unfertile; the stones rather affifting than preventing vegetation. At Metz the author was introduced to a member of the Sociètè des Sciences & des Outs, established in this city by the duke de Belleifle, in 1760. With this gentleman, whose name was M. de Rochè, he converfed upon the fubject of the political oeconomy of Lorain

See Crit. Rev. vol. xxxiii. p. 303, 355.

fince the death of king Stanislaus; but the information he received appeared too much exaggerated to afford him the fatisfaction he defired. On leaving Metz we are presented with the following remarks, which appear to be authentic.

:

Near the river Nid the country improves, and fome cultivation appears, with a very fine range of meadows on the banks of the ftream, which had a countenance that proved the fertility of the foil: in thefe meadows were fome very fine cattle, much finer than I had feen fince I entered France. The hanging grounds on the fide of these meadows are very well cultivated under corn and vineyards; but the wine is bad, and the profit of an acre of vineyard does not exceed 21. 36. 6d. One circumftance relative to them, in this neighbourhood is obferv able; they are the property of peasants, who possess a few acres, upon which they maintain their families, though very poorly. It is a culture in which the wife, fons, daughters, brothers, fifters, nephews, and nieces, are all employed, in weeding, cleaning, digging, pruning, gathering, picking, paffing, &c. and all are able to live, though in poverry. This gives the ground the appearance of being admirably cultivated, as indeed it is; for no other fyftem can ever come in competition with it. The people employed are very numerous, in proportion to the quantity of land and, as they can find no other employment, the leaft benefit they can do to the crop, upon their little freehold, is fo much gain. The confequence of this fyftem is, great population, excellent husbandry, and much mifery among the lower claffes; for the neceffary confequence of this great divifion of employment on these little eftates, is juft giving the people an existence, and nothing more: so that a bad feafon, leffes of any kind, or any failure, reduces many to mifery and begging. The convents fupport them in fuch cafes; but very many find no refource but leaving the country, enlifting in the troops, or begging in the towns and highways. The misfortune is, that, upon a return of better feafons, or better fortune, the people do not return to their industry; for once they have been fupported in idlenefs, by charity, they will never return to work; and thus the whole nation fuffers amazingly. This is as clearly the confequence, as any thing can be deduced, and as clearly flows from population and good hufbandry. But, fay many, how can two fuch excellent circumftances do mifchief? It appears ftrange; but fo it is. And it proves, that populousness may be deftructive, whenever it goes beyond the amount of regular employment; and hufbandry, no longer beneficial than when carried on upon a large fcale, in order to carry the product of the earth in quantities to market, instead of raifing no more than fufficient to feed and fupport the husbandman and his family. It is furprifing to fee thefe little proprietors, almoft ruined by taxes,

not

not extremely heavy, which is owing to the fmallness of their property. It is difficult to devife a remedy for this evil, without edicts, that would be oppreffive; yet fome remedy, for the future, fhould certainly be thought of: it might be found, in preventing the future divifion of eftates beyond a limited value.'

Mr. Marshall obferves that Lunneville is greatly decayed fince the death of Stanislaus, who used to make it his refidence during a part of the year. It is however, he thinks, a most eligible place for thofe who are defirous of living in a cheap and private retirement. He could have hired a very good house, of five large rooms on a floor, with a garden of half an acre, an orchard well planted, and a small vineyard, for 151. a year; and of that rent, the fale of fruit, beyond what a family could confume, would generally pay 4, or 51. and the tenant be at no other expence than mere rent. Servants are alfo to be had for furprifing low wages, and provifions are cheap. Bread is about the fame price as in England, or fomething cheaper: beef, which is excellent, twopence halfpenny, and two-pence a pound; mutton, which is not fo good, two pence; veal, two pence; game, very cheap; and river fish, middling.

The account of Lunneville leads Mr. Marshall into the following reflections, which are worthy of being inferted.

The cheapnefs of living in fome parts of France cannot well be thought of, without fome reflections arifing on the comparifon with England, which is fo much dearer; yet it is a certain fact, that more foreigners refort to England than to France. Is not this furprising? It cannot be the liberty of England that attracts low people: they are no judges of it. Great numbers of Frenchmen, in the lowest circumftances, go to England; moft certainly not on account of the government: they do not philofophize enough for that. I can attribute it to nothing but national wealth. Men will fly to countries where money is plen tiful, almost as naturally as the needle to the north: it matters not telling them that every thing is fo dear in rich countries, that 6d. a day at their homes, is as much as is. abroad. It is not that they cannot, but they will not, comprehend this: they think, that, where there is fo much money ftirring, fome of it must come to their fhare; whereas, by ftaying at home, they are fure of getting nothing but their old pay. And this, I think, is a ftrong reafon against thofe who urge the danger of England lofing her manufacturers from the high prices of the neceffaries of life. If they emigrate, it must be from 1s. to 8d. a day, which is fuch an obvious change, that no other confideration will make it up to them. But there is another circumftance attending cheapnefs, which deferves to be confidered;

where

where it arifes, as it generally does, from the lowness of national wealth, the employment of the poor must be more uncertain and hazardous, and they must experience a total want of it oftener than where money is plentiful. This is certainly the cafe in France, where, in no manufactures, nor in agriculture, are they employed with regularity; whereas, in England, they do not experience this variation near fo much. And it is to this I attribute the amazing number of beggars to be met with in every part of France. I have heard gentlemen in England complain of their beggars were they only to land at Calais or Bologne for one half hour, they would change. their ideas. Nor can you go into the most unfrequented parts of the kingdom, without finding it the fame. It is melancholy to fee fo, many beggars in the midft of the fertile plains of Lunneville and Nancy; and yet more melancholy, to reflect on the great tracts of wafte forest-land in Lorrain, especially in the fouthern parts which, cultivated, would maintain fo many more people. Th want of improvement is as much owing to the want of wealtn as to the government. But it must be allowed, that their poverty is partly owing to the ill adminiftration of government. In all abfolute monarchies, there must be great inequality among mankind: the nobility will be immenfely rich, and the lower claffes in poverty; and, as the great fpend their wealth in the court and the capital, and fcarce ever fee their eftates, the money that is in the nation gets into a wrong channel: manufactures of luxury receive great encouragement, and the, inferior ones, of utility and agriculture, are neglected. Thus, in the midst of wealth, thefe may be poor, which in England, cannot be the cafe, from the great diffufion of wealth.”

The author next relates his journey to Nancy, Verdun, and Clermont, defcribing the ftate of the country, and the im provements in agriculture. From Clermont he conducts us to Chalons, and gives an account of the famous vineyards of Verzenay, with thofe of Sillery and Mailly, the manufactures of Rheims, &c. He afterwards prefents us with information: relative to the prefent ftate of France, refpe&ting agriculture, revenues, manufactures, commerce, and many other nationals objects.

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The following obfervations on the comparative greatness of France and Britain, we fubmit to the perufal of our readers.

When we spread a map of France before us, confider the admirable fituation of that kingdom, upon both feas, with a moft extenfive coaft, the compactness of its form, the strength of its natural boundaries, except in one part, and there its artificial works, fo as to be called the very horns of the bull. When we look upon the numerous, large, deep, and navigable rivers which interfect it in every part in fine, when we VOL. XLII. Dec. 1776.

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calculate the extent of its territory, and find it to amount to above an hundred millions of acres, when England is not thirty, and England, Scotland, and Ireland, not above fixty; that, in all the vaft territory of France, the foil is far better upon an average than that of the British iflands-that the climate is infinitely fuperior, and its productions much richer.When all thefe things are confidered, is it not amazing, that, any national wars or difputes, in which each kingdom tries the depth of its refources, that the fcale of France fhould fo far preponderate, as to make Britain, and all her neighbours, tremble

in

In fact, this was once the cafe, while the territory of this great kingdom was well cultivated, and agriculture tolerably encouraged, which was, from the time of Henry the Great's acceffion, to the days when Colbert was placed at the head of the miniftry, while every branch of induftry was left to take its own courfe, and no one facrificed to the other; the body of the people drew great riches from the earth, and it was upon the foundation of this that Lewis XIV. was able afterwards to make fuch prodigious exertions; and his overftraining his power, at the fame time that he funk (by the edict prohibiting all tranfport of corn) the price of the farmers products, were what ruined the power of France. But, to return to the comparifonIt would feem, from the above parallel of the two kingdoms, that Britons could never attempt to measure the fword with her neighbour; but, upon a nearer view, there are circumstances which certainly give a different turn to the conclusions natural at firft. By the inclosures of England, her farmers are enabled: to practife whatever hufbandry they pleafe-by the fyftem of letting their lands, the tenants are wealthy, and confequently able to work great improvements. M. de Mirabeau, who has been in England, and gained much information refpecting our agriculture, infifts on it, that an inclofed acre there yields four times the produce of an acre of the fame goodness in the small culture in France; and, from all the accounts I have had, I am inclined to believe the calculation a juft one. Here, therefore, is a comparison which multiplies the territory of the smaller kingdom. A fmall county in England yields as much produce. as a great province in France, and confequently is as powerful, fince the country will certainly be able to pay as much in taxes* as the province. There is much truth in this in large; fince the taxes in England yield ten millions nett income, from shirty millions of acres; and, if we call Scotland five millions of acres, proportioned to its fhare of taxes, the total foil is thirty-five millions; whereas France does not yield more than twelve millions from above an hundred millions of acres; whereas, to be as rich as England, it ought to yield juft thirty millions fterling per ann. This proves the importance of encouraging agriculture and industry, and fhews, that it is not the extent of terri

tory