152 TRAVELS THROUGH 



tention. They informed me, that the ma- 

 nufactures of the kingdom had received fo 

 great encouragement, that agriculture feemed 

 to have been forgotten : in a word, that the 

 fyftem of M. Colbert, of the laft century, 

 had ever fince been adhered to, of confi- 

 dering commerce and manufactures as the 

 principal objects, whenever thofe and agri- 

 culture come in competition. Yet, what 

 is extremely ftriking, with all this favour, 

 the fabrics of the kingdom have been in a 

 conftant declenfion : every war, from 1672 

 to 1756, has been mifchievous to them; 

 every one has left them in a worfe fituation 

 than it found them ; until the laft reduced 

 them fo near to ruin, that it will be long 

 before they are well revived. The manu- 

 factures of Lyons fupported the evil day 

 better than any, working principally for the 

 home-confumption of luxurious articles, or 

 in branches of export, which did not fuffer 

 equally with the reft -, yet, with this ad- 

 vantage, it was found, upon a nice exami- 

 nation in 1764, that the declenfion of looms 

 in that city, from 1755* was no lefs than 

 three in eight. In the manufactures of 

 Champagne and Burgundy, which are nu- 

 merous 



