( xlv ) 



sesscci of incnns so extremely limited, should find It difficult 

 to reach even that degree of perfeiftion which perhaps 

 might have been attainable with more extensive powers. 

 The candid reader cannot expc<5t in these Reports more 

 ihari a certain portion of useful information, so arranged as 

 to render them a basis for further and more detailed in- 

 quiries. Tlie attention of the intelligent cultivators of the 

 kingdom, however, will doubtless be excited, and the minds 

 of men in general gradually brought to consider favoura- 

 bly of an undert.iking which will enable all to contribute 

 to the national stores of knowledge, upon topics so truly 

 interesting ;is those wliich concern the agricultural inte- 

 rests of their country ; interests which, on just principles, 

 never can be improved, until the present state of the king- 

 dom is fully known, and the means of its future iinprove- 

 uienc ascertained vvitli minuteness and accuracy. 



every province, as it wns by this magistrate in the account of Languedoc, the 

 colleftion would have been one of the most valuable monuments ot the age. 

 Some ot them are well done ; but the plan was irregular and imperfett, because 

 all the intendants were not restrained to one and the same. It were to be 

 vi-ished that each of them had given, in columns, the number of inhabitants 

 in each eledion ; the nobles, the citizens, the labourers, the artisans, the 

 mechanics; the cattle of every kind ; the good, the indifferent, and the bad 

 lands; all the clergy, regular and secular ; their revenues, those oi the towns, 

 and those of the communities. ' 



" All these heads, in most of their accounts, are confused and impertedl j 

 and it is Ireijuently necessary to search with gr«at care and pains, to find what 

 is wanted. 'I'he design was excellent, and would have been of the greatest use, 

 had it been executed with judgment and uniformity." 



I.N'TR.0- 



