traced out for Europe the true course of civilization and social prosperity. Two generations of great men, under his son and his grandson, were scarcely sufficient to realize the least part of his designs. But those admirable works undertaken during his reign to join the Seine and the Loire; after thirty years' interruption, were at length completed, under Richelieu. This minister revealed to Europe all the advantages of conceding to the citizens the government and execution of an artificial navigation. Colbert, in the best days of a reign which is indebted to him for so much splendour, taught the people how to unite the ocean to the Mediterranean, by patronizing the zeal and giving room to the genius of a private individual.* At last Louis XIV. introduced a system of legislation for these works, by referring all differences which might arise from private rights affected by a proposed work to a jury of the principal inhabitants; and an hundred years after, England acknowledged the wisdon of his laws, by following his steps: and shall not we, my countrymen, follow the example bequeathed to posterity by the fine reigns of Henry ÍV. and Louis XIV.? Shall we permit the stranger to enjoy more than ourselves by a prosperity invented by our ancesters? Let us not hesitate to follow the path of our hereditary glory."

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The author paid particular attention to every thing connected with the system of transportation; amongst which, the firm and even roads and the airy and spacious streets, which are now built in England, excited a large share of his regard. From the following severe hit at the Parissians, we can judge, in some degree, how the genius of improvement works in that capital. I must declare plainly, that in the new streets building in Paris, the undertakers show not the least intelligence of the proportions which belong to the public places of a great capital. Men of elevated ideas blush for these speculators, in seeing, that for the purpose of making the interior of their houses a little larger, instead of giving them a great value, by building them on streets where their dimensions would show to full advantage, they prefer building little courts (Rouelles) where the air and light seem to penetrate with regret and by charity. It is the duty of the local administration of Paris, to form less restricted views, and to prevent speculators from disfiguring, by their stupid and sordid system, a city rendered worthy, by its public monuments, to be placed amongst the finest cities of the world."

* Riquet, so well seconded by the experience and talents of Andrèossy.

He has gone at length into the several systems of roadmaking in England. Let us follow some of his details. It seems that the English are abandoning the plan of raising the middle of their roads much above the sides, which was formerly common. This method was once thought very useful for preventing the water from softening the roads, by standing upon them: but, after a little more experience and reflection, it has been found that, on the convex roads, every carriage takes the highest part, which brings all the wear upon the same lines and in a very short time deep ruts are formed, which will hold the water, however convex the road may be: these ruts are filled with water by the least rain, which assists in increasing them. The opinion of Mr Edgeworth seems now to prevail, that it is not necessary to give a new road more convexity than shall insure it from becoming concave, up to the time when it will require a covering of new materials. Dupin is no admirer of roads exactly straight, which gives one the constant view of the end of his journey, the identical and wearisome sight of which, is a greater evil than the little additional distance arising from small and gentle windings; and he accedes to the opinion, that small deviations from the horizontal line, in the course of a road, are less fatiguing, to horses and foot passengers, than a perfectly level way. He takes two degrees, however, as the maximum of inclination. which should be suffered in any road. This was the limit prescribed by Mr Telford in his improvements of the roads from London to Holyhead, and it gives an ascent of about one. thirtieth to each unit of length.

The great principle which is so necessary to follow for making a solid and hard road, seems to be, to suffer no clay or fine dirt to be mixed with the stony materials of which it is formed. The method employed to separate them, when they are found in the same bed, is by washing, or passing them over the hurdle or scive. Dupin declares that it is sufficiently proved, that, following this rule, the worst kinds of gravel will make a solid road. He says the perfection of the English roads is not to be attributed to the superiority of the materials, for these are of almost every kind; differing in the different counties, thus in Essex, Sussex, Shropshire and Staffordshire, they use large flints mixed with sand: while in Sommerset, Gloucester, and Wiltshires, the roads are made of limestone, which, although not hard, nor durable, produces, when properly prepared, a solid and uniform road, and has the excellent quality of becoming firm sooner than any other material. There can be no question, he says, as to the certaintly of

making a good road, of any kind of gravel or stones, if they are properly broken and spread, although the greater durability of some of them, renders them preferable in the economy of road making.

The method of forming roads wholly of stones broken to a uniform size, which has been reduced to a system and extensively practised by Mr McAdam, is described by Dupin. His opinion of the superiority of this system may give confidence to those who doubt the propriety of adopting it in this country; we shall therefore translate his description of it.

"The system employed by Mr McAdam first near Bristol, then in the neighbouring counties, and afterwards in all parts of England, has completely succeeded. The roads constructed on this system have been considered so superior, that the name of their author has been given to the act of their alteration. In the environs of Bristol, to macadamize a road, is to form it after the method of Mr McAdam, and give it qualities of superiority altogether new. Cannot we macadamize a little, the roads of almost the whole of France? Mr McAdam breaks into small pieces the stones with which he intends to construct or repair the roads. This operation is performed by women and children, who sit while they work, breaking the stones with light hammers. He permits no stones to pass, measuring more than four cubic inches, if taken by their volume, or weighing more than six ounces, if taken by their weight.* To follow this rule the labourers are furnished with iron rings, such as are used by artillerists to determine the size of balls. They reject every fragment which will not pass through the ring. Besides this instrument, Mr McAdam makes the inspectors carry a balance, with a weight of six ounces, to weigh two or three of the largest fragments in each heap of broken stones, to assure themselves that no fragment exceeds the weight fixed for a limit.

"To construct a road, says the author of the system which we describe, a bed of ten inches in thickness composed of solid materials is sufficient. This will support every kind of load, whether the soil on which it is laid is firm or not. Mr McAdam even prefers a soil containing a mixture of hard and soft materials, to one that is entirely hard. He remarks that on

* In Dupin's work the volume is stated 64 centimètres, cubes and the weight 17 hectogrammes; numbers which are evidently wrong; we have therefore taken the maximum weight given by Mr McAdam at his examination before the committee of the House of Commons, and the volume deduced from that weight.

the former, the roads wear less, because, reposing on an elastic bed, which yields under too strong impressions, and softens over violent shocks. It is thus that an anvil fixed to a small piece of wood, will last longer than if fixed over a stone. We may cite a very remarkable example of such a difference. The road from Bridgewater to Cross is for the most part constructed over a marsh so moveable that one may see on each side of the road, when a coach passing over it, the water tremble in the ditches. After a slight frost the vibration of the water produced by the movement of the carriage is so great as to break the ice which had formed on the water in the ditches. At the end of that part of the road which is made over this fen, commences another part on a limestone bottom: now the expense of repairs on the first, is to that of the second, as five, to seven.

"Even in establishing roads over a bog, Mr McAdam will not use any fragments of stone that weigh more than six ounces, nor does he make his road any thicker: he declares that the stones will not sink into the soft earth, because the elements of the road assume such a juxtaposition, as to form one compact and solid mass, which has no more tendency to sink in one part than in another. The thickness of the bed of materials that he has employed has varied only from seven to ten inches. According to this engineer five tons of broken stones, thrown thus over a morass, will produce as good a road as seven tons put on a hard bottom. It is unfortunate that experience, far from confirming this specious theory, has demonstrated that it is erroneous.

"The most skilful engineers, however, have adopted the general method of Mr McAdam, but they do not join him in the opinion that it is not necessary to establish over soft ground, a bed of large stones or of fascines as has heretofore been customary."

It appears that Mr Telford on those parts of the Holyhead road which could not easily be supplied with hard stone, made disposition of the materials furnished by the country, which has been found to form a very solid road. The following table which represents a cross ration of the road, furnished by Dupin, indicates the materials and the manner of using them.

Where the road was carried over soft bottoms, Mr Telford laid a first bed of stones fairly adjoining each other, having their largest faces downwards, and over these he spread such materials as the country afforded, always taking care however to free them from any admixture of clay.

The

We may add to the above, a description of an admirable paved way, from our author's account of the commercial road. This road constitutes the great thoroughfare from the city of London to the docks; and it is calculated by Mr Walker, the engineer under whose direction it was built, that the loads which pass over it yearly amount to 250,000 tons. pavements of which it is formed are all of a cubic form. These are laid in uniform ranges, cach range consisting of stones of the same dimensions, this renders them more firm, besides giving them a uniform aspect. When they are driven any stone which sinks below the level of the others is taken up and replaced by another. Mr Walker found it very advantageous to fill up the joints of the pavements with lime water or for the same purpose, to mix a few scales or chips of iron with the gravel. This in a short time settles into the joints, and becoming oxidated, forms with the gravel a sort of stone, which adhering to the pavements renders them very firm.

There, are according to our author, about 115,000 miles of road in England, including paved streets and turnpikes. The expense of keeping these roads in repair, taking the mean of three years, viz. 1812, 1813, 1814, was £1,415,883 stearling, which is £12 per mile yearly.

With the increase of capital and of population, it is not unlikely that rail ways will be extensively established in this