l i ] i'liiluillMl
a
A
which is most enchantingly seated on the summit of a hill, the basis of which is washed
by the lake, the view of the surrounding country, taking in the mountains of Chahlais,
the Glaciers, and the Lake, is superb 5 besides the advantage of having been the
favourite residence of the virtuous Bonnet, whose loss the sciences have to deplore, but
of whom the remembrance must be ever dear to the naturalist, philosopher, and philanthropist
: he was a man who possessed all the virtues of humanity, with few of its
defects. At no great distance from the same village, though rather more towards the
right, and nearer to the lake, stands another beautiful villa, delightfully seated on its
banks, the residence of monsieur de Saussure, a relative of the former, and a man
who may, with great justice, be pronounced a valuable member of the republic of
ietters.
Fiom thence I proceeded about a mile and a half further, previous to my entering
the French territory, and then crossed Versoix, or Villa Santinialis, a village pleasantly
situated at the extremity of a noble basin, or creek, formed by the lake. See drawing
N° H, which gives an idea both of that village and the ruins of the town and harbour,
begun by order of the French government, under the auspices of the comte de Ver^
gennes, then minister to Lewis the Sixteenth, and monsieur de Voltaire, who were the
patrons and supporters of a scheme for making those places serve as a magazine for
the merchandises exported or imported in or out of the French dominions. This project,
whose original motive was, in fact, only to take advantage of the dissensions which
at that time agitated the republic of Geneva, and thus to have erected a commercial
city on the ruins of the former, did not however succeed} for the Swiss, jealous of their
privileges on the lake, were not the least active in opposing the undertaking; arid it
was soon after totally abandoned, owing to a reconciliation taking place between the
contending parties in the republic, and to the death of the two great men who were
at the head of the enterprise. On this event the buildings were suspended, and left to
moulder into ruins;—a circumstance which, added to the mean and wretched appearance
of the village, wedged as it were in the Swiss territories, offers a woful contrast
to the happiness and prosperity displayed through every part of the cantons.
In the latter, neither beggars nor idlers are seen in either streets or roads, although the
states do not, I am convinced, pay even the hundredth part of what is given to the
poor in England (judging comparatively as to the extent of country), where they are,
unfortunately, 5