where persons coming from infected places, are obliged to
perform quarantine. The harbour has been declared a free-port, and it
is generally full of tartans, polacres, and other small vessels, that
come from Sardinia, Ivica, Italy, and Spain, loaded with salt, wine,
and other commodities; but here is no trade of any great consequence.

The city of Nice is provided with a senate, which administers justice
under the auspices of an avocat-general, sent hither by the king. The
internal oeconomy of the town is managed by four consuls; one for the
noblesse, another for the merchants, a third for the bourgeois, and a
fourth for the peasants. These are chosen annually from the
town-council. They keep the streets and markets in order, and
superintend the public works. There is also an intendant, who takes
care of his majesty's revenue: but there is a discretionary power
lodged in the person of the commandant, who is always an officer of
rank in the service, and has under his immediate command the regiment
which is here in garrison. That which is here now is a Swiss battalion,
of which the king has five or six in his service. There is likewise a
regiment of militia, which is exercised once a year. But of all these
particulars, I shall speak more fully on another occasion.

When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce help
thinking myself inchanted. The small extent of country which I see, is
all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain presents nothing but
gardens, full of green trees, loaded with oranges, lemons, citrons, and
bergamots, which make a delightful appearance. If you examine them more
nearly, you will find plantations of green pease ready to gather; all
sorts of sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses,
carnations, ranunculas, anemonies, and daffodils, blowing in full
glory, with such beauty, vigour, and perfume, as no flower in England
ever exhibited.

I must tell you, that presents of carnations are sent from hence, in
the winter, to Turin and Paris; nay, sometimes as far as London, by the
post. They are packed up in a wooden box, without any sort of
preparation, one pressed upon another: the person who receives them,
cuts off a little bit of the stalk, and steeps them for two hours in
vinegar and water, when they recover their full bloom and beauty. Then
he places them in water-bottles, in an apartment where they are
screened from the severities of the weather; and they wi