FRANCE. 13 



They aflured me that the weight of taxes was 

 very great, and felt more than to the natu- 

 ral amount, by coming at a time when their 

 market was every day deflroying both abroad 

 and at home. Their ratlines they make 

 principally for the home-confumption, 

 many alfo of their ferges, but their drug- 

 gets were in general for exportation. The 

 national poverty which arofe from the war, 

 deftroyed much of their own confumption ; 

 for every man was foon forced to retrench 

 every part of his expence, which fell heavy 

 on all the manufactures of the kingdom ; 

 and within three years from the breaking 

 out of the war, their great exportation was 

 reduced to a very trifle, fent by the Rhine 

 to Rotterdam. In this fituation they were 

 unable to pay their workmen, who, finding 

 no employment, either ilarved with their 

 families, enlifted in the army, or fled into 

 Switzerland and the South of Germany, 

 from whence none ever returned. In this 

 manner great numbers were cut off; and 

 from the beft accounts I could gain, this 

 part of France loft more men in this man- 

 ner than (he did by the war ; and yet the 

 drafts ficm the militia in all the frontier 



provinces 



