XI 



PERFECTION in fuch enquiries is not in the 

 power of any body of men to obtain at once, what- 

 ever may be the extent of their views, or the vigour 

 of their exertions. If Lewis XIV. eager to have 

 his kingdom known, and pofTeffed of boundlefs 

 power to efFecl: it, failed fo much in the attempt, 

 that of all the provinces in his kingdom, only one 

 was fo defcribed as to fecure the approbation of 

 puflerity*; it will not be thought itrange that a 



Board, 



* See Voltaire's Age of Lewis XIV. vol. ii. p. 127, 128, 

 edit. 1752. 



The following extraft from that work will explain the cir- 

 cumftance above alluded to. 



<: Lewis had no Colbert, nor Louvois, when about the 

 " year 5698, for the inftruttion of the Duke of Burgundy, he 

 " ordered each of the intendants to draw up a particular de- 

 " fcription of his province. By this means, an exatt account 

 " of the kingdom might have been obtained, and a juft enu- 

 " meration of the inhabitants. It was an ufeful work, though 

 " all the intendants had not the capacity and attention of 

 «' Monfieur de Lamoignon de Baville. Had what the King 

 « directed been as well executed in regard to every province, 

 " as it was by this magiftrate in the account of Languedoc, 

 « the collection would have been one of the moft valuable 

 «« monuments of the age. Some of them are well done ; but 

 <c the plan was irregular and imperfeft, becaufe all the inten- 

 M dants were not refcraincd to one and the fame. It were to 

 *' be wifhed, that each of them had given, in columns, the 

 M number of inhabitants in each clcttion ; the nobles, the ci- 

 " tizens, the labourers, the artilans, the mechanics ; the cat* 



b 2 " tie 



