"The process was this: a book was submitted to him; he named a censor for it; on the censor's report the director gave or refused permission to print or required alterations.

Even after these formalities were complied with, the book was liable to a decree of the royal council, a decree of the parliament, or else a lettre-de-cachet might send the author to the Bastille" (Morley's _Rousseau_, p.

266).
[126] _Histoire naturelle, generale et particuliere._ 1st edition.
Imprimerie royale.

Paris: 1749-1804, 44 vols.4to.Tome iv., p.

357.
This is the best of all the editions of Buffon, says Flourens, from whose _Histoire des Travaux et des Idees de Buffon_, 1st edition (Paris, 1844), we take some of the quotations and references, which, however, we have verified.