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apartments at Versailles. He was the son of a ploughman; and having passed his early years in the country, retained for its pursuits a strong predilection, which perhaps helped to bias his political doctrines. His disciples or followers, the Economists, reverenced him as the ancient philosophers did the founders of their sects; they called him le Maître,' and used to say le Maître l'a dit. Of a most active and indefatigable nature, he required new food for his mind, and began to cultivate the mathematical sciences with success, when he was upwards of seventv. He died in 1774, at the age of eighty: and the Marquis de Mirabeau (distinguished by the name of Mirabeau here from his well-known son) pronounced a funeral discourse upon him to a great assembly of Economists in deep mourning. Our author terms it a 'chef-d'œuvre d'absurdité et de ridicule.' He adds the following particulars respecting this celebrated personage.

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Quesnay avoit beaucoup de gaieté et de bon hommie; il se plaisoit dans la conversation à faire des especes d'apologues qui avoient en generale pour principe quelque objet de la campagne. Il dissertoit avec beaucoup de chaleur sans envie de briller. Logé dans un petit appartement qui tenoit de tres pres à celui de Mad. de Pompadour, il y recevoit quelques gens de lettres et quelques personnes de la cour. On y parloit tres-librement, mais plus des choses que des personnes. Le roi l'appeloit son penseur : il lui accorda des lettres de noblesse ; et voulant lui-même composer ses armes, il fit mettre sur l'ecusson la fleur appelée pensée.'

It is singular how complete an account of a man, pleasing and even delightful in society, these few particulars contain; and that this character was possessed by the founder of the Economists, we were certainly little prepared to expect. Every thing relating to him in the Journal, however, confirms the remarks of the Editor, and only makes us regret that more is not known of Quesnay, perhaps, too, that he did not apply himself more to lighter studies. Mad. du Hausset introduces him to our notice at the very beginning of her narrative, with her usual simplicity. J'étois devenue en peu de temps l'amie du docteur Quesnay, qui venoit souvent passer deux ou trois heures avec moi. Il recevoit chez lui des personnes de tous les partis, mais en petit nombre, et qui toutes avoient une très grande confiance en lui. On y parloit très-hardiment de tout; et ce qui fait leur eloge et le sien, jamais on n'a rien repeté.'-' Quelquefois, mais rarement, j'ai voyagé dans sa voiture avec le docteur, à qui Madame (de Pompadour) ne disoit pas quatre paroles, quoique ce fût un homme d'un grand esprit." Mr Crawford mentions the Doctor's way of amusing himself in society, by conveying his

arguments, or giving instructions, in the form of fables. Mad. du Hausset has in this Journal preserved one of these, which is interesting enough, from the economical tinge of the ideas, We shall extract the passage, as it shows, moreover, the way in which this singular little groupe, the King, the mistress, the maid and the philosopher, all lived together.

Le Roi sortit pour aller à la figuerie avec Madame, et bientôt après entra Quesnay, ensuite M. de Marigni. Je parlai avec mepris de quelqu'un qui aimoit beaucoup l'argent; et le docteur s'etant mis à rire, dit: "J'ai fait un drôle de rêve cette nuit. J'étois dans le pays des anciens Germains; ma maison étoit vaste, et j'avois des tas de blé, des bestiaux en grand nombre, et de grands tonnéaux pleins de cervoise; mais je souffrois du rheumatisme, et ne savois comment faire pour aller a cinquante lieues de là à une fontaine dont l'eau me queriroit. Il falloit pas chez un peuple etranger. Un enchanteur parut et me dit: "Je suis touché de ton embarras ; tiens, voilà un petit paquet de poudre de Prelinpinpin; tous ceux à qui vous en donneras, te logeront, te nourriront et te feront toutes sortes de politesses. Je pris la poudre et le remerciai bien." Ah! comme j'aimerois la poudre de prelinpinpin, lui dis-je ; j'en voudrois avoir plein mon armoire. "Eh bien, dit le docteur, cette poudre, c'est l'argent que vous meprisez. Dites moi de tous ceux qui viennent ici quel est celui qui produit le plus d'effet?" Je n'en sais rien, lui dis-je. "Eh bien! c'est M. de Montmartel* qui vient quatre ou cinq fois l'an "-Pourquoi est-il consideré ? "Parce qu'il a des coffres plein de prelinpinpin" (il tira quelques Louis de sa poche) "tout ce qui existe est renfermé dans ces petites pieces, qui peuvent yous conduire commodement au bout du monde. Tous les hommes obeissent à ceux qui ont cette poudre, et s'empressent de les serviṛ. C'est mepriser le bonheur, la liberté, les jouissances de tout genre, que de mepriser l'argent, Un cordon bleu passa sous les fenetres; et je dis: Ce, seigneur, est bien plus content de son cordon que de mille et mille de vos pieces-" Quand je demande au roi une pension," reprit Quesnay. "C'est comme si je lui disois: Donnez moi un moyen d'avoir un meilleur diner, d'avoir un habit plus chaud, une voiture pour me garantir de la pluie, et me transporter sans fatigue. Mais celui qui lui demanda ruban, s'il osoit dire ce qu'il pense, disoit: "J'ai de la vanité, et je voudrois bien, quand je passe, voir le peuple me regarder d'un œil bêtement admirateur, et se ranger devant moi; je voudrois bien, quand j'entre dans une chambre, faire un effet et fixer l'attention de gens qui se moqueront peut-être de moi à mon depart, je voudrois bien être appelé Monseigneur par la multitude. Tout cela n'est-il pas du vent? Ce ruban ne lui servira de rien dans presque tous les pays; il ne lui donne aucune puissance: mais męs

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* Alors banquier de la cour, qui laissa une fortune de trente-deux millions à son fils le Marquis de Brunoy.-Ed.

pieces me donnent partout les moyens de secourir les malheureux. Vive la toute-puissante poudre de prelinpinpin!" A ces derniers mots on entendit rire aux eclâts dans la piece d'à coté, qui n'étoit separée que par une portiere. La porte etant ouverte, le roi entra avec Madame, et M. de Gontant. Il dit, Vive la poudre de prelinpinpin! docteur, pourriez vous m'en procurer? Le roi étoit entré, et il lui avoit pris fantaisie d'ecouter ce que l'on disoit. Madame fit des grandes amitiés au docteur, et le roi, riant et parlant de la poudre avec eloge, sortit. Je m'en allais et le docteur aussi. Je me mis aussitôt à ecrire cette conversation. On me dit depuis que M. Quesnay étoit fort instruit de certaines choses qui ont rapport aux finances, et qu'il étoit un grand Economiste: Mais je ne sais pas trop ce que c'est. Ce qu'il y a de certain c'est qu'il avoit beaucoup d'esprit; il étoit fort gai et fort plaisant, et tres habile médécin.

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The sect of Quesnay, as is well known, were very far from being enthusiasts on certain subjects which fill ordinary men with anxiety and delight; they were no lovers of liberty; on the contrary, a regular despotism, despotisme legal,' was the government of which they rather approved. So ignorant has been the clamour raised against them by senseless partisans in this country, and even in France, where they have been ridiculously confounded with the promoters of the Revolution. But, erroneous as their views were upon some of those great questions which most nearly concern the happiness of mankind, they could ill brook, in the government, any base or sordid artifices, inconsistent with, and inimical to publick morals. Quesnay is represented as always ready boldly to bear testimony to the truth on such matters, even within the precincts of the court. Thus the Journal, giving a pretty minute detail of the method pursued systematically by the government to obtain the contents of letters sent by post, and which had grown into a regular department, with a superintendant and six or seven clerks, Mad. du Hausset adds-Le docteur Quesnay, plusieurs fois devant moi, s'est mis en fureur contre cet infame ministere, comme il l'appeloit; et à tel point que l'ecume lui venoit à la bouche. Je ne dinerois plus volontiers avec l'intendant des postes qu'avec le bourreau, disoit le docteur. Il faut avouer (she adds naturally enough), que dans l'appartement de la maitresse du roi il est etonnant d'entendre de pareils propos; et cela a duré vingt ans sans qu'on en ait parle. C'etoit la probité qui parloit avce vivacité, disoit M. de Marigni, et non l'humeur ou la malveillance qui s'exhaloit.'

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Upon another occasion, she relates some information which she had from this upright and able man, respecting what had recently passed between the King and several of his most powerful ministers. At the time, no doubt, the anecdote bore the high

est value; but the ministers and their master too are now almost forgotten; and the anecdote has lost its interest, or only retains any importance from the circumstance of a truly eminent person having related it, and being thus accidentally brought into our view. ، Voila (says the Journalist), ce que le roi avoit dit, a ce que me confia mon ami Quesnay, qui étoit, par paranthese, un grand genie suivant l'opinion de tous ceux qui l'avoit connu, et de plus un homme fort gai. Il aimoit causer avec moi de la campagne ; j'y avois été clevée, et il me faisoit parler des herbages de Normandie et du Poitou, de la richesse des fermiers, et de la maniere de cultiver. C'étoit le meilleur homme du monde, et qui étoit eloigné de la plus petite intrigue. Il étoit bien plus occupé à la cour de la meilleure maniere de cultiver la terre que de tout ce qui s'y passoit. ' She adds, that M. de la Riviere was the man whom he esteemed the most, and whose capacity he thought the highest; deeming him the only fit person for the administration of the finances. The reader is aware, that this able minister, who had been Intendant at Martinique, was the most early, and among the most distinguished followers of Quesnay. Quesnay appears, like the rest of his sect, to have been impressed with a peculiar dislike and dread of the bigotted party in France. When they had failed in their attempt to make the King dismiss Madame de Pompadour, after the affair of Damiens, they meanly paid the utmost court to her, though in private: They came in great numbers to wait upon her; and female devotees were peculiarly anxious to show their respect. ، The doctor made himself very merry, says our authoress, with this change of operations; and, when I urged in defence of those good ladies, that they might, after all, be sincere, Aye, said he, but then they must take care how they ask for any thing;'-a sagacious remark, which we recommend to the attention of our statesmen in the present day, to those especially who may turn their minds towards the political history of the rat species. About this time, Mad. du Hausset relates a curious conversation respecting the Dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI., occasioned by the fears of the philosopher, that persecaution would revive. ، Un jour j'étois chez le docteur Quesnay pendant que Madame étoit à la comedie. Le Marquis de Mirabeau y vint; et la conversation fût quelque tems fort ennuyeuse pour moi, n'y etant question que produit net; enfin on parla d'autres choses.' As the alarms which occupied them have been more than falsified by the event, we need not give the conversation; but Quesnay's opinion of the Dauphin is worth recording. He thought him virtuous and full of good intentions, and a man of parts, but likely to be ruled by the bigots; and he expected that the Molinists and Jansenists

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would unite against the philosophers, and be supported by the new Queen, Marie Antoinette. A saying of M. du Muy, that Voltaire deserved the punishment of death, alarmed him with the prospect of a persecuting reign; and he added, that he hoped he should not live long enough to see those evil days. There is much good sense in Mirabeau's remark upon this occasion. He said, the philosophers on their side were pushing matters too far; and they both agree in commending a late saying of Duclos Ces philosophes en feront tant qu'ils me forceront à aller à vêpres et à la grande messe.' They all agreed, too, in regarding the continuance of Louis XV.'s reign as of extreme importance to the cause of toleration and liberality; but a little incident occurred, which one should have thought calculated to give them some doubts of that monarch's gentleness, where he was himself concerned, and even to create a suspicion, that their favourite form of government, absolute monarchy, was not always safe for philosophers, any more than for the bulk of mankind. One day Quesnay came in all in despair. Mirabeau had been suddenly carried off by the agents of the best of possible systems, and shut up in the castle of Vincennes, for some expressions in his work on Taxation. The constitutional means of redress adopted on this melancholy occasion, according to the true principles of the most perfect government, are worthy of notice; the more so, because, as extremes often meet, it happens, that, in our times, some of the lowest and most ignorant understandings in the world are recommending France to renew the very same order of things, which they agree with the truly enlightened Economists in holding to be the purest kind of constitution. First, Mad. de Mirabeau was to throw herself at Mad. de Pompadour's feet; '-these are Quesnay's own expressions. Then he himself, through the femme-de-chambre, interceded with the same illustrious lady for his noble and philosophical friend; and the conversation is given at full length. At first, the worthy concubine was pleased to speak favourably of the Marquis, and to observe, that his work L'Ami des Hommes had done him credit. At this moment opportunely entered the Lieutenant of the Police, of whom she asked whether he had read the new book on Taxation. Yes, said the Lieutenant,but justly deeming himself officially an object of suspicion, he added, that it was not he who had denounced the author. ing further asked his opinion of it, he cited the passage which seems to have caused the arrest. It is simply a remark, that the King, with 20 millions of subjects, could not obtain their services for want of money. At this the doar lady takes the alarm Quoi! il y a cela, docteur?' she exclaims. He tries

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