12 TRAVELS THROUGH 

 taxes were light, and adminiftered with the 

 moft perfect equity; a circumftance which 

 I knew from other information to be abfo- 

 lutely falfe ; and I had before received ac- 

 counts, that the people were difcontented- 

 The cafe 'is, they are, in this country, ex- 

 cept on the Mofelle, in great want of com- 

 merce : that river being navigable, to Toul 

 Nancy, and fome other considerable places, 

 and communicating with the Rhine, gives 

 fome trade to Metz, which animates the 

 induftry of that place, and its neighbour- 

 hood j but when you get out of reach of 

 the river, there is a vifible deadnefs, an 

 evident want of a quick market. 



At Metz there are carried on fome brifk 

 manufactures of rattines, ferges, and drug- 

 gets : of thefe I made Several enquiries, and 

 found, that, fi nee the peace of 1^62, they 

 had been much revived, but had not yet 

 near recovered the profperity they loft by 

 the war. The account they gave me of 

 the deftruction the ill fuccefs of their 

 country in the quarrel with England, brought 

 on the manufactures of all this territory, I 

 can eafily believe, as I am clear the truth 

 much exceeded any thing they would own. 



They 



