imposition of aubergistes on the road, unless it be very flagrant. So
sure as you enter into disputes with them, you will be put to a great
deal of trouble, and fret yourself to no manner of purpose. I have
travelled with oeconomists in England, who declared they would rather
give away a crown than allow themselves to be cheated of a farthing.
This is a good maxim, but requires a great share of resolution and
self-denial to put it in practice. In one excursion of about two
hundred miles my fellow-traveller was in a passion, and of consequence
very bad company from one end of the journey to the other. He was
incessantly scolding either at landlords, landladies, waiters,
hostlers, or postilions. We had bad horses, and bad chaises; set out
from every stage with the curses of the people; and at this expence I
saved about ten shillings in the whole journey. For such a paltry
consideration, he was contented to be miserable himself, and to make
every other person unhappy with whom he had any concern. When I came
last from Bath it rained so hard, that the postilion who drove the
chaise was wet to the skin before we had gone a couple of miles. When
we arrived at the Devises, I gave him two shillings instead of one, out
of pure compassion. The consequence of this liberality was, that in the
next stage we seemed rather to fly than to travel upon solid ground. I
continued my bounty to the second driver, and indeed through the whole
journey, and found myself accommodated in a very different manner from
what I had experienced before. I had elegant chaises, with excellent
horses; and the postilions of their own accord used such diligence,
that although the roads were broken by the rain, I travelled at the
rate of twelve miles an hour; and my extraordinary expence from Bath to
London, amounted precisely to six shillings.

The river Var falls into the Mediterranean a little below St. Laurent,
about four miles to the westward of Nice. Within the memory of persons
now living, there have been three wooden bridges thrown over it, and as
often destroyed in consequence of the jealousy subsisting between the
kings of France and Sardinia; this river being the boundary of their
dominions on the side of Provence. However, this is a consideration
that ought not to interfere with the other advantages that would accrue
to both kingdoms from such a convenience. If there was a bridge over
the Var, and a post-road made from Nice to Genoa, I am very co