The Bishop Of Clermont Is A Liberal Man Also, And As It Seems
The Wish Of The Present Public Functionaries Here To Conciliate, It Is To
Be Hoped That Their Example Will Not Be Lost On The Bons Vieux
Gentilshommes Of Auvergne.
I find an inexhaustible fund of entertainment from the conversation of M.
C - - .
He has so many interesting anecdotes to relate respecting the French
Revolution. With regard to his present occupations, which are directed
towards rural economy, he tells me that he has succeeded in a plan of
cleansing the town from its Augean filth, and making it very profitable to
himself; and that he calculates to obtain a revenue thereby of twenty
thousand franks annually. He has, in short, undertaken to be the grand
scavenger of the town, and the Government, in addition to a salary of
2,500 francs per annum, which they give him for his trouble, give to him
the exclusive privilege of removing all the dung he can collect in the
precincts of the city, and of converting it to his own advantage. He began
by fitting up a large enclosure, walled on each side, and in which he
deposits all the filth he can collect in the stables, yards and streets of
Clermont. He sends his carts round the town every morning to get them
loaded. All their contents are brought to this repository, and shot out
there. Straw is then placed over this dung, and then earth or soil
collected from gullies and ravines, and this arranged stratum super
stratum, till it forms an immense compact cake of rich compost; and when
it has filled one of the yards and has completed a thickness of five feet,
he sells it to the farmers, who send their carts to carry it off.
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