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expose abuses, and their representations, when united, would com mand respect. To the other advantages, might be added the precedent itself of calling the Assemblee des Notables, which would perhaps grow into habit. The hope was, that the improvements thus promised would be carried into effect ; that they would be maintained during the present reign, and that that would be long enough for them to take some root in the constitution, so that they might come to be considered as a part of that, and be protected by time, and the attachment of the nation.
The Count de Vergennes had died a few days before the meeting of the Assembly, and the Count de Montmorin had been named minister of foreign affairs, in his place. Villedeuil succeed- ed Calonne, as Comptroller General, and Lomenie de Bryenne, Archbishop of Thoulouse, afterwards of Sens, and ultimately Car- dinal Lomenie, was named Minister principal, with whom the other Ministers were to transact the business of their departments, here tofore done with the King in person ; and the Duke de Nivernois, and M. de Malesherbes, were called to the Council. On the no mination of the Minister principal, the Marshals de Segur and de Castries retired from the departments of War and Marine, unwil ling to act subordinately, or to share the blame of proceedings taken out of their direction. They were succeeded by the Count de Brienne, brother of the Prime Minister, and the Marquis de la Luzerne, brother to him who had been Minister in the United States.
A dislocated wrist, unsuccessfully set, occasioned advice from my surgeon, to try the mineral waters of Aix, in Provence, as a corroborant. I left Paris for that place therefore, on the 28th of February, and proceeded up the Seine, through Champagne and Burgundy, and down the Rhone through the Beaujolais by Lyons, Avignon, Nismes to Aix ; where, finding on trial no benefit from the waters, I concluded to visit the rice country of Piedmont, to see if any thing might be learned there, to benefit the rivalship of our Carolina rice with that, and thence to make a tour of the sea port towns of France, along its Southern and Western coast, to in form myself, if any thing could be done to favor our commerce with them. From Aix, therefore, I took my route by Marseilles, Toulon, Hieres, Nice, across the Col de Tende, by Coni, Turin, Vercelli, Novara, Milan, Pavia, Novi, Genoa. Thence, returning along the coast by Savona, Noli, Albenga, Oneglia, Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Frejus, Aix, Marstilles, Avignon, Nismes, Montpellier, Frontignan, Cette, Agde, and along the canal of Languedoc, by Bezieres, Narbonne, Cascassonne, Castelnaudari, through the Souterrain of St, Feriol, and back by Castelnaudari, to Toulouse ;
