isters were to transact the business of their
departments, heretofore done with the King in person; and the Duke de
Nivernois, and M. de Malesherbes, were called to the Council. On the
nomination of the Minister principal, the Marshals de Segur and de
Castries retired from the departments of War and Marine, unwilling 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 seaport towns of France, along its Southern
and Western coast, to inform 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, Marseilles, Avignon, Nismes, Montpellier,
Frontignan, Sette, Agde, and along the canal of Languedoc, by Beziers,
Narbonne, Carcassonne, Castelnaudari, through the Souterrain of St.
Feriol, and back by Castelnaudari, to Toulouse; thence to Montauban,
and down the Garonne by Langon to Bordeaux. Thence to Rochefort, la
Rochelle, Nantes, L'Orient; then back by Rennes to Nantes, and up the
Loire by Angers, Tours, Amboise, Blois, to Orleans, thence direct to
Paris, where I arrived on the 10th of June. Soon after my return from
this journey, to wit, about the latter part of July, I received my
younger daughter, Maria, from Virginia, by the way of London, the
youngest having died some time before.

The treasonable perfidy of the Prince of Orange, Stadtholder and Captain
General of the United Netherlands, in the war which England waged
against them, for entering into a treaty of commerce with the Un