The report notes that the Pays de Gex is freed from the taxes on salt and tobacco as it is landlocked between Geneva, Switzerland, and Savoy, and is separated from the other provinces by Mount Jura. The village of Lelex is not included in this exemption because it is located beyond Mount Jura but the inhabitants claim that they should enjoy the same favour as the inhabitants of the Pays de Gex.

The report notes that the Pays de Gex is freed from the taxes on salt and tobacco as it is landlocked between Geneva, Switzerland, and Savoy, and is separated from the other provinces by Mount Jura. The village of Lelex is not included in this exemption because it is located beyond Mount Jura but the inhabitants claim that they should enjoy the same favour as the inhabitants of the Pays de Gex.

Voltaire writes that he, ‘the sixty-eight-year-old man, very sick and near blind, received in the middle of the snows of the Alps and Mount Jura, the verses and prose with which Mr. De Scévole honours him. If something could revive him, it would be by the pleasure he felt reading them. The state in which he is does not allow him to express as he would like the recognition with which he is penetrated.’

Voltaire begins with a discussion of suicide, before turning to the health of his recipient and himself. He notes that the marquise has lost two eyes but has retained friends, wit, imagination, and a good stomach. He, on the other hand, is much older, can’t digets, is going deaf, and is being made blind by the snows of Mont Jura. Voltaire adds that he can neither stay in nor leave Ferney, noting that he has wanted to found a colony there and establish two fine watch factories. He then discusses his financial woes, concluding that he will not kill himself and noting that philosophy is good for something- it consoles. He then discusses his desire to please the recipient’s grandmother and her husband and die as their vassal. He briefly remarks on the visits of Mr. Seguier and Mr. d’Alembert before bidding the marquise farewell.