young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
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terefl of the ffate ; combinations fo curious, as to convert, in fome cafes, well cultivatedfields into fcenes of mifery, and accuracy of hufbandry into the parent of national weak-nefs. Thefe are fubjecls that never will be underflood from the fpeculations of the merefarmer, or the mere politician; they demand a mixture of both; and the inveftiga-tion of a mind free from prejudice, particularly national prejudice; from the love offyftem, and of the vain theories that are to be found in the clofets of fpeculators alone.God forbid that I fltould be guilty of the vanity of fuppofing myfelf thus endowed ! Iknow too well the contrary; and have no other pretenfion to undertake fo arduous awork, than that of having reported the agvicukure of England with fome little fuccefs.Twenty year’s experience, fince that attempt, may make me hope to be not lefs qualifiedfor fmiilar exertions at prefent.
The clouds that for four or five years pad, have indicated a change in the politicalfky of the French hemifphere, and which have fince gathered to fo fingular a florm,have rendered it more interefling to know what France was previoufly to any change.It would indeed have been matter of aflonifhment, if monarchy had rifen, and had fetin that region, without the kingdom having had any examination profeifedly agricultural.
The candid reader will not expert, from the regifters of a traveller, that minute analyfisof common practice, which a man is enabled to give, who refides fome months, oryears, confined to one fpot; twenty men, employed during twenty years, would not ef-fect it; and fuppofing it done, not one thoufandth part of their labours would be wortha perufal. Some fingularly enlightened diftri&s merit fuch attention: but the numberof them, in any country is, inconfiderable; and the practices that deferve fuch a fludy,perhaps, Hill fewer; to know that unlightened practices exifl, and want improvement,is the chief knowledge that is of ufe .to convey ; and this rather for the flatefman thanthe farmer. No reader, if he knows any thing of my fituation, will expeft, in this work,what the advantages of rank and fortune are necelTary to .produce—of fuch I had noneto exert, and could combat difficulties with no other arms than unremitted attention,and unabating induftry. Had my aims been feconded by that fuccefs in life, whichgives energy to effort, and vigour to purfuit, the work would have been more worthyof the public eye ; but fuch fuccefs mud, in this kingdom, be fooner looked for in anyother path than that of the plough ; no?i ullus aratro dignus honos , was not more appli-cable to a period of confufion and bloodffied at Rome, than to one of peace and luxuryin England.
One circumfiance I may be allowed to mention, becaufe it will fhew, that whateverfaults the enfuing pages contain, they do not flow from any prefumptive expe&ation offuccefs; a feeling that belongs to writers only, much more popular tnan myfelf: whenthe publiffier agreed to run the hazard of printing thefe papers, and fome progrefsbeing made in the journal, the whole MS. was put into the compofitor’s hand to be ex-amined, if there were a fufficiency for a volume of 60 fheets ; he found enough preparedfor the prefs to fill 140: and I afiure the reader, that the fucceffive employment offlriking out and mutilating more than the half of what I had written, was executedwith more indifference than regret, even though it obliged me to exclude feveral chap-ters, upon which I had taken confiderable pains. The publifher w ould have printed thewhole ; but whatever faults may be found with the author, he ought at leaft to be ex-empted from the imputation of an undue . confidence in the public favour; fince, toexpunge was undertaken as readily as to compofe. So much depended in the fecondpart of the work on accurate figures, that I did not care to truft myfelf, but employed afchoolmafter, who has the reputation of being a good arithmetician, for examining thecalculations, and I hope he has not let any material errors efcape him.
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