- between fifty-one and fifty-three. 
’ weuf or fix francs of France, is worth twelve 
a few of the principal ones excepted, are 
left with all their dirty honours thick 
upon them! The inhabitants go fo far 
as to affert, that, in confequence of the 
egleét which the public drains have fuf- 
fered, they have been affefted with fevers 
_and other illneffes to which they had hi- 
therto been ftrange's. 
I underftand, that the revenue of Ge- 
neva, fince it has been annexed to the Re- 
public of France, arifes chi se from the 
tollowing fources.—An excile duty is 
laid on all provifions (wheat-excepted), on 
wine and merchandile of every de{cription, 
which is brought into Geneva: the an- 
nual produce of this tax is about 120,000 
French Jivres*; a land-tax;.a tax on 
decors and windows ;'a tax on the fale of 
eftates ; a heavy tax on the collateral inhe- 
ritance of aneftate—where the inheritance 
is lineal and immediate, the tax is mode- 
rate. To thefe taxes or contributions, as 
they are called, mult be added /a contribu- 
tion mobiliére, which is a fmal] tax on per- 
fonal property, and produces annually 
about 75,000 livres. -The collectors of 
thefe taxes are appointed by the Firft Con- 
ful, ‘ard are paid very highly for their 
trouble: the Prefet, and all the principal 
public officers, are very regularly paid, 
but thofe in a fubordinate fituation feldom 
get above one-third of their fiipends. 
You muft excufe my flying from one 
fubje&t to another: I pick up faéts- and 
Jittle pieces of information, as I pick up 
flowers, and am forced to tie the one toge- | 
ther with as little arrangement as I fhould 
the other. 
Divorces feem to be obtained here with 
too much facility. But, in the firft place, 
as to marriages, they muft be celebrated, 
2 
* We area good deal puzzled about the 
value of money here: the coins are very dif- 
ferent from thofe of France, but French mo- 
ney iscurrent. ‘The value of any thing is 
reckoned in florins: a florin contains twelve 
fous of Geneva, and is worth aout four pence 
ha alfpenny Eng bith: ‘he common change of 
a Louis is fifty- one florins, but it huGuates 
An ecu-" 
florins nine fous ; an ecw of Geneva is worth 
ten florins fix fous 5 a piafres eleven florins 
fix fous ; datz de Swiffe, four fous of Ge- 
neva. A Louis of France is always worth 
half a florin.more thaa a Louis of Berne 
Here isa great number of {mall cojns, fuch as 
two, three, four, dix, twenty, and twenty-one 
fous pieces, fome of Swils, fome of Genévan, 
money. Paper-money is unknown here, 
The exchange againft Pianas is now fiveand 
2 quarter per cents - 7 
An cia ene France fo Geneva. 
(Dec. 1, 
according to the French law, before the 
municipality, at the Maifon de Ville. 
Marriage in France, you know, .s merely 
a civil ceremony, the parties being obliged 
to fwear before an appointed magittrate, 
that they are of age, and that they have 
confented to become man and wife. The 
Genevans, however, do not confder this 
ceremony as {fufficient: but, as our Gret- 
na Green couples, on their return to South 
Britain, think it neceffary, after the fer- 
vour of paifion is abated, and the mercury 
is fallen, inthe animal therivoeenee: fome-~ 
thing lower than ‘ blood-heat,” to have - 
the holy rites performed with the folemni- 
ty pre{cribed by law ; fo the Genevans, in 
addition to the civil ceremony prefcribed 
by the Jaws of the Republic of France, 
~voluntarily confcrm to the religious ordi- 
That a man - 
nance cf their own church. 
fhould be able te obtain a divorce from 
the wife who is unfaithful to his bed, 
highly reafonable :. but here, if a woman 
leaves her hufband, and refufes to return 
to his habitation, after being fummoned 
by him for that purpofe, he can repudiate \ 
her for difobedieace. This doubtlefs was 
grounded on the prefumption, that, if a 
woman fled from her hufband, and refifted 
his’ folicitation to return, it cpald only be 
for the purpofe of co-habiting-with fome 
other man: but an advantage is taken 
of this prefumption; and now, when the 
parties, for whatever reafons, are defirous 
of being divorced, the wife, with the 
knowledge and confent of her hufband, 
generally goes into Switzerland, where fhe 
remains fix months, during which time the 
- 
hufband fummors her to return, fhe refufes, ’ 
and at the end of that term a divorce i is de- 
clared between them. 
In the republic of letters, Geliced has 
obtained an honourable emimence. The 
works of Bonnet, Sauffure, Mallet,’ De 
Luc, &c. have imparted celebrity to the 
place which gave them birth. Here isa 
public library of very ancient eftablifh- 
ment, a Critical Catalogue of which was. 
publithed, fome few years fince, by M, 
Senncbier, who was then librarian. The 
gentleman who now fills that office is a 
clergyman of great refpectability, M. Le 
Cointe, whofe company we have feveral 
times had tie good fortune of enjoying: 
we regret to tara. on the authority of this 
gentleman, that the library “is, at prefent, 
very much Go the decline. 
T believe it has been frequently remark- 
ed, not only that Geneva has produced a 
lafae ao cene of men of letters, but 
that the buik of its imbhabitants have 
a mere ‘than ordinary fhare of underftand- 
ing 
8 
* 
