Auvergnac 107 



give a shilling to any agricultural project or projector; that 

 whether the minister was whig or tory made no difference, the 

 party of the plough never yet had one on its side; and that 

 England has had many Colberts but not one Sully. This led to 

 much interesting conversation on the balance of agriculture, 

 manufactures, and commerce, and on the means of encouraging 

 them; and in reply to his inquiries I made him understand their 

 relations in England, and how our husbandry flourished in spite 

 of the teeth of our ministers, merely by the protection which 

 civil liberty gives to property; and consequently that it was in 

 a poor situation comparatively with what it would have been in 

 had it received the same attention as manufactures and com- 

 merce. I told M. de la Bourdonaye that his province of Bretagne 

 seemed to me to have nothing in it but privileges and poverty, 

 he smiled and gave me some explanations that are important; 

 but no nobleman can ever probe this evil as it ought to be done, 

 resulting as it does from the privileges going to themselves and 

 the poverty to the people. He showed me his plantations 

 which are very fine and well thriven, and shelter him thoroughly 

 on every side, even from the S.W. so near to the sea; from his 

 walks we see Belleisle and a little isle or rock belonging to 

 him which he says the King of England took from him after Sir 

 Edward Hawke's victory, but that his majesty was kind enough 

 to leave him his island after one night's possession. — 20 miles. 



20th. Take my leave of Monsieur and Madame de la Bour- 

 donaye, to whose politeness as well as friendly attentions I am 

 much obliged. Towards Nazaire there is a fine view of the mouth 

 of the Loire, from the rising grounds, but the headlands that form 

 the embouchure are low, which takes off from that greatness of 

 the effect which highlands give to the mouth of the Shannon. 

 The swelling bosom of the Atlantic boundless to the right. 

 Savanal poverty itself. — 2)Z mi'es. 



215/. Come to an improvement in the midst of these deserts, 

 four good houses of stone and slate, and a few acres run to 

 wretched grass, which have been tilled, but all savage, and 

 become almost as rough as the rest. I was afterwards informed 

 that this improvement, as it is called, was wrought by English- 

 men, at the expense of a gentleman they ruined as well as them- 

 selves. — I demanded how it had been done? Pare and burn 

 and sow wheat, then rye, and then oats. Thus it is for ever and 

 ever! the same folUes, the same blundering, the same ignorance; 

 and then all the fools in the country said, as they do now, that 

 these wastes are good for nothing. To my amazement find the 



