j 803. ] 
the harveft-time in Beauffe. His induftry 
furnifhed him with the means of pafling 
the reft of the year in a competence to 
which he had been long a ftranger. He 
was alfo enabled to purchafe a plain fuit 
Proceedings of Learned Societies. 
449 
of cloaihs, and to vifit Paris once more. 
He became a fervitor in one of the colleges 
of the univerfity. And the learned world 
necd not be told of the rapid progrels 
he made in that fituation. 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES, 
ee 
Synopfis of a Topographical, Political, A- 
gricultural, Hiftory, &c. of the De- 
partment of La VENDEE, lately read to 
the Clafs of Moral and "Political ScI- 
ENCES, by Citizen REVEILLERE Le- 
PEAUX. 
N this eflay, citizen Reveillere Lepeaux 
does not enter into the caufes, or the 
events, or confequences, of the late civil 
war in La Vendée.—‘* Rather,” fays he, 
¢* than contemplate my country disfigured 
by the horrible wounds that have been in- 
fligted on her, I chufe to reprefent her to 
anyfelf happy and tranquil, fuch as the 
was before that pride and avarice had 
converted her into an akeldama, a field 
of carnage. This is fo pleafing an illu- 
fion, that it will, doubtiefs, be conceded 
to me.” 
After a general glance over the depart- 
ment of La Vendée, its pofition, i its limits, 
population (in the year 1792, this amount- 
ed to 306,610 inhabitants ; at prefent it 
hardly contains 260, ,000) and its ‘tempe- 
rature, the author enters into details. 
The mof elevated points of this depart- 
ment are fituated at its ea(tern extremity, 
ranged in a line of 5 or 6 myrameters 
from fouth-eaft to north-weft ; thefe points 
are St. Pierre du Chemin, “Moanvnttaing 
the environs of Poufages, &c. The 
country at firft has a pretty ftrong decli- 
nation towards the north, the fouth, and 
the weft. .The most rapid declihiutey 
is towards the fea, to the fouth-wett. 
The two others, longer and lefs rapid,. 
inclines one to the weft as far as the 
ocean, the other to the north, as far as the 
Loire. 
The fuperficies of the territory of La 
Vendée includes three grand divifions: 
1. The granitic and fehittous country ; 
this is covered with wood, thick hedges, 
and broom, and bears the name «f Bocage. 
2. The calcareous country: this is the 
{malleft, and is flat, open, and called the 
Plain, and 3. The fubmerged country cal- 
led the Marfh. Bes 
The author afterwards treats of the 
minerals and quarries of La Vend ¢; is 
mines of antimony, lead, coal, ochre, kage 
Jin, &c ; its mineral waters and rivers ; 
the inclination of the coaft; the ports, 
harbours and roads of the COneIBENL ; the 
ports and anchorage grounds of the ifle 
of Bouin, the ifle of Noirmoutier, and the 
ifleof Yea. ‘Thefe details are followed 
by thofe which relate to the vegetables 
and animals, 
The civil hiftory of La Vendée is con- 
nefted with that of the entire province of 
Poitou. Citizen Reveillere Lepeaux, af. 
ter having difcuiled the opinions relative 
to the origin of the Poitevins, traces the 
moft importint faéts of their annals, 
both before their union to the monarchy 
of the Franks, and likewife under the 
counts appointed to govern them by the 
kings of the fir& dynafties. Towards 
the middle of the 12th century, this pro- 
vince, like that of Guienne, and fome 
others, was placed under the immediate 
government of the king of France, Louis 
the Young, hufband of Eleanor. That 
king, by an impolitic divorce, loft thofe 
rich domains, which Eleanor tranterred 
to the king of England, by marriage, 
Poitou was afterwards pakes from Joha 
Sans Terre, or Lack-land, by Philip Aue 
gultus, ceded to. the Englifh By the treaty 
of Bretigny, after the battle of Poitiers, 
reconquered by the French under Charles 
V. Charles VI gave it to one of his 
fons, who died wichout pofterity, and Poi- 
tou has remained unto our days united 
with the crown, 
In the recital which the author makes 
of the principal events of all the! le epochs, 
the calamities which they produced, in 
this, as in other fimilar defcriptions, cru- 
fades and religious diflentions occupy a 
large {pace. 
Poitou, faysthe author, was one of the 
firft Eman oe that embraced the reform- 
ing ideas of Caivin, and one of thofe which 
Malntained then with the greateit con- 
fancy and courage. ‘The thick woods, 
deep ravines, impraéticable marthes of 
La Vendée, the neighbourhood of Ro- 
chelle, a place.of aims for the Reformed, 
the 
