136 
continual mift. In Breft and Morlaix, it 
rains almoft inceflantly ; and the natives 
are fo habituated to,dampnefs and wet, 
that too dry feafons prove prejudicial to 
their healgh. The heat in fummer is ne- 
ver exceflive ; and the cold likewife is be- 
twixt fix and feven degrees lefs than in’ 
Paris, which is 324 miles diftant from 
this province. Notwithftanding the equa- 
lity of the climate, there is a very ftrik- 
ing variety in the character of the natives. 
Thus, for inftance, the inhabitants of the 
diftri& of Treguier are fanguine, lively, 
volatile, and gay: the found of a bagpipe 
er of a drum irrefiftibly incites them to 
dancing. On the contrary, the inhabitants 
of Leon dance more rarely, and are of 
a ferious melancholy turn, and cold tem- 
perament ; and yet only a {mall rivulet di- 
vides thefe two communes. Not lefs ftriking 
is the difference of the foil. The moft 
fertile fields and meadows border imme- 
diately on rocks and fandy tracks. 
Bretagne is more fertile than a travel- 
Jer at firft fight would imagine: but the 
prevalent mode of agriculture and rural 
economy is bad; and the beft lands are 
not improved to the greateft advantage. 
The immenfe heaths give the country the 
* 
appearance of barrennefs, poverty, and 
depopulation, Moft of the farm-houfes 
are fituated at the bottom of hollows for 
the purpofe-of colle&ting water to rot the 
dung, and hidden by trees and bufhes. A 
fhed, thatched with ftraw, fhelters the 
ploughs and other implements of agricul- 
ture. There are no barns; the corn is 
threfhed out in the open air, and preferved 
in granasies or ftacks. Around the 
buildings excellent orchards are planted. 
But in the midft of thefe charming or- 
chards dwells a moft rude and filthy race 
of men. Their huts are not above thirty 
feet long and ‘fifteen broad, full of fmoke, 
and admit only a few rays of day-ligit 
through a fmall window cighteen inches 
fquare. A flight wicker partition divides 
the houfe, into two parts: one end is oc- 
eupied by the father of the family, his 
wife, children, and grand-children; the 
other is inhabited by the oxen, cows, &c. 
On both fides of an.immenfe chimney are 
placed large preffes, with two thelves, and 
without doors. Here are the beds, into 
which fathers, mothers, women, and chil- 
dren creep,—for the divifions are fome- 
times only two feet high. All fleep on 
oat or rye-ftraw, without mattreffes, fea- 
ther-beds, or blankets. The floors of the 
cottages are neither paved nor boarded. 
“The five departments into which Bre- 
tagne is divided are reckoned to contain 
2,211,250 inhabitants, on a fuperficial 
extent of 1609 French {quare miles. The 
z 
Account of the Department of Finiflerre in France. [March t, 
cultivated land amounts to lefs than one-. 
third. The heaths, confifting of 3,006,000 
acres, might be improved to great advan- 
tage: but the fea and land-fervice takes 
away therequifite hands. Another caufe of 
the decreafe of population is -the want of 
cleanlinefs, and the unhealthy fituation of 
the houses in the low damp places : whence 
the itch has become endemial, being 
tranfmitted through whole generations 
from father to fon, and perpetuated by the 
coarfe and bad food of the peafants. 
‘There are not, however, wanting beauti-_ 
ful, heaithful and charming fpots, as like- , 
wife inhabitants, who diftinguifh them- 
{elves from the common herd by diligence, 
cleanlinefs, and a better ufe’of their un- 
derftanding. Only in re{pect to devotion 
and fuperitition they are all alike: and 
they would be rendered unhappy by being 
all at once deprived thereof. = / 
( To be continued. ) 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ed ae 
DID not, by accident, fee tillthe other 
day, in your Magazine for January laft, 
fome remarks with which a correfpondent 
from Norwich has honoured my attempt te 
account for the prefent extraordinary price 
of provifions. As it may be fome time 
before I fhall be able to give another edi- 
tion of the Effay on the Principle of Po- 
pulation, or rather a new work on that 
fubject, from the general manner in which 
I with to illuftrate it, I will take the li- 
berty of ftating a few ideas which occur 
to me on the fubjeét of your Correfpon- 
dent’s letter. Speaking of the infufficiency 
of our prefent produce to fupport our po- 
pulation, he feems a little at a lofs to ac- 
count why this event has not happened be- 
fore, and why it has happened in the pro- 
grefs of a bloody and deftrutive war. I 
am inclined to think that we are apt to 
exaggcrate prefent evils, and to overlook 
thoie that are paft. In the earlier periods 
of our hiftory, the variations in the price 
of corn, and the confequent diftrefies of | 
the people, were much greater than any — 
that have occurred in modern times. In _ 
a later period, during the feyen dear years 
ending in 1699, and the two ‘dear years 
of Queen Anne in 1709 and 1710, Ihave. ~ 
little doubt that the diftreffes of the lower 
clafics of the people were by no means lefs 
than at prefent. Even in the twelve years 
that your Correfpondent mentions, I find, oat 
by a reference to the Tables that Lor en) 
Sheftield has publifhed with his pamphlet” 
= as Z a Pei 
on the Deficiency of Grain, that in one of — 
them, 1767, the average price of wheat 
per quarter was 31. 48. 6d. and only fix 
ycars before it was at 11, 6s. In the fame ie 
Tables 
FA 
ia 
Pee Va 
