Paris 3 1 1 



proved principles after the English manner, he desired me to 

 accompany him and my friend Lazowski to Liancourt, to give 

 my opinion of the lands and of the best means towards executing 

 the project, which I very readily complied with. I was here 

 witness to a scene which made me smile : at no great distance from 

 the chateau of Liancourt is a piece of waste land, close to the 

 road and belonging to the duke. I saw some men very busily 

 at work upon it, hedging it in in small divisions; levelling, and 

 digging, and bestowing much labour for so poor a spot. I asked 

 the steward if he thought that land worth such an expense* 

 He replied that the poor people in the town, upon the revolution 

 taking place, declared that the poor were the nation; that the 

 waste belonged to the nation; and proceeding from theory to 

 practice took possession, without any further authority, and 

 began to cultivate; the duke not viewing their industry with 

 any displeasure would offer no opposition to it. This circum- 

 stance shows the universal spirit that is gone forth; and proves 

 that, were it pushed a little farther, it might prove a serious matter 

 for all the property in the kingdom. In this case, however, I 

 cannot but commend it; for if there be one public nuisance 

 greater than another, it is a man preserving the possession of 

 waste land which he will neither cultivate himself nor let others 

 cultivate. The miserable people die for want of bread in the 

 sight of wastes that would feed thousands. I think them wise, 

 and rational, and philosophical, in seizing such tracks: and I 

 heartily wish there was a law in England for making this action 

 of the French peasants a legal one with us. — 72 miles. 



()th. At breakfast this morning in the Tuileries. Monsieur 

 Desmarets, of the Academy of Sciences, brought a Memoire, 

 presenteparlaSocieteRoyale d' Agriculture, aV AssembleeNationale, 

 on the means of improving the agriculture of France; in which, 

 among other things, they recommend great attention to bees, to 

 panification, and to the obstetric art. On the establishment of 

 a free and patriotic government, to which the national agricul- 

 ture might look for new and halcyon days, these were objects 

 doubtless of the first importance. There are some parts of the 

 memoir that really merit attention. Called on my fellow 

 traveller. Monsieur Nicolay, and find him a considerable person; 

 a great hotel ; many servants ; his father a marechal of France 

 and himself first president of a chamber in the parliament of 

 Paris, having been elected deputy by the nobility of that city for 

 the states-general, but declined accepting it; he has desired I 

 would dine with him on Sunday, when he promises to have 



