FRANCE. 227 



from their fyflem and their poverty, will 

 be 8;1. 19$.; fo that the revenue will lofe 

 above lool. a year. Nor is this all; the 

 ftate lofes the difference between the pro- 

 duel: of the foil in my hands, and in my te- 

 nants, which is very great. I am confident, 

 continued the Marquis, that, if the taille 

 was modified, fo as to be made a general 

 repartition of a fixed fum on every farm in 

 the kingdom, to remain, without altera- 

 tion, in the manner of the agreement I fup- 

 pofed between myfelf and the tax-gatherers, 

 I am confident the amount of the tax might 

 be prodigioufly augmented, and yet the 

 people greatly eafed. 



In anfwer to this, I mentioned fome of 

 the converfation I had had with fome noted 

 writers at Paris upon that fubjedr, and 

 named them. To which he anfwered, that 

 thofe gentlemen, with the beft meaning in 

 the world, had done far more mifchief than 

 good : their writings were, at one period, 

 fo much in efteem at Court, as aftually to 

 be in confideration as a matter of flate. But 

 when it was found, that, inftcad of confin- 

 ing themfelves to the abolition or alteration 

 of the taille and capitation, and to the free 

 z trade 



