'C 14 ] 
chines can be more usefully introduced than in 
France, since the labor of women and children is 
extremely low, and these alone are necessary to this 
manufacture. Should this ever be extensively done, 
it will be a fatal blow to the fabrics of Britain ; 
cotton being at present the most extensive branch 
of them. They however flatter themselves, that the 
scarcity of coal, and the dearness of fuel in this 
country tvill always aiford them great advantages o- 
ver France ; thougli I believe they will be more in¬ 
debted for them to their extensive capitals and their 
knowledge of business upon a great scale. Of this^ 
for the most part, the merchants of France are ex¬ 
tremely ignorant, nor, ifl may judge by the late 
commercial regulations, are they much better un¬ 
derstood by the governmentc 
On the third of December, I arrived at Paris, and 
have given you this general sketch of the country, 
that I might introduce those fev/ particulars that 
might afford you a comparative view of this coun¬ 
try and our own.—First, the peasantry, or more 
properly speaking, the cultivators all through Brit¬ 
tany, are difle-rent from what British prejudice has. 
represented them. They are a strong, healthy peo¬ 
ple the women, for the most part, fair and ruddy. 
Neither the men nor women are so tali as the 
Americans, but they are more spread, and they cer¬ 
tainly are not less hardy, than the people of our 
country ; since, at the season that I saw them (the 
.last of November) they were constantly in the field. 
