empire, possessor of the finest countries of the East, sees its factors reign over eighty millions of subjects. The conquests of its merchants commenced in Asia where those of Alexander terminated: while at this moment, from the banks of the Indus to the frontiers of China, from the mouth of the Ganges to the summits of Thibet, all receive and obey the law of a company of merchants confined within a narrow street in the city of London.

• Thus, from a single centre, by the vigor of its institutions and the advanced state of its civil and military arts, an island, which in the archipelago of the ocean can scarcely be considered as of the third order, demonstrates the effects which its industry and the weight of its power carries to the extremities of the four quarters of the world; while it peoples and civilizes a fifth part, which follows its laws, speaks its language, and receives its manners and its merchandise with its arts and its learning.'

The Introduction, of which some idea may be formed from this extract, occupies about thirty pages, and is followed by a table of English coins, weights, measures, &c. The author then commences his first part, in which he explains the nature of our legislation as connected with highways and roads, and illustrates the several acts passed by the government to regulate these great objects of public utility; as well as for the purpose of combining the general benefit of society with the local advantages of each particular town or borough. He speaks in the highest terms of the excellent system of surveying and maintaining in proper repair our several roads, by the individuals who at the same time defray the expence and receive the produce. In France, all this is under the direction of the government, and nothing is left to individual exertion and speculation: in England, the government simply regulates the conditions, but the execution is left to persons on the spot, most interested in the subject. The beauty of the English roads, the facility which they afford to carriages, and their convenience to travellers, are topics of high encomium.

The author next considers the laws which regulate the construction and administration of railways, and the management of commercial and military roads: of which latter the expences are defrayed by the government. As an example of what may be produced through the influence and authority of government, M. DUPIN mentions the public roads in the Highlands of Scotland, towards the construction of which the parliament annually grants sums equal to the voluntary subscription of the country. This chapter is closed by a luminous exposition of the inquiries which the legislature has frequently ordered, into the state of the roads of the kingdom: the means of forming them and maintaining them in repair, their construction, and

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the economy of their administration; and he afterward endeavours to shew to what extent the legislative chambers of France might exercise a similar salutary influence over all these great objects of public utility.

The parliament of England,' he observes, is not contented with general laws, and with establishing a police and regulating the construction of roads. It also frequently appoints special committees to inquire into the state of the public ways of the kingdom, and the means of rendering travelling easy, economical, and rapid: properly regarding as inseparable these great objects of public utility, of which no one independently of the other can attain to perfection.

This solicitude, the knowlege to which it gives birth, and the ameliorations which it produces, are worthy of the attention of statesmen in every civilized country; particularly in France, where we enjoy a system of government established on the same principles with that of England, and under similar forms. The labors of the British parliament shew to what extent this great legislative body appreciates the importance of perfecting the public roads, and maintaining them in repair; and it offers to our Houses of Peers and of Deputies, models of preparatory labors, and forms of inquiry, worthy of being taken for an example in the patient and laborious investigation of all the causes which may oppose themselves to the facility, security, and rapidity of conveyance, and all the means that can be devised for forming an efficient and a wise police.'

Having, in the first two books, fully investigated all the peculiarities of the English legislation on subjects connected with the formation, construction, and maintenance of roads, railways, canals, and bridges, the author enters in his third book on a description of these works, and of the plan and principles on which they are formed. The first chapter of this book relates to labor on the streets of towns; describing at the same time the construction, the streets, and the edifices in the principal cities and boroughs. The author then illustrates the advantages of this system, as affecting property and public salubrity, and the safety of circulation; and next he compares these points with the means employed to effect similar purposes in other countries. We have no doubt that this chapter will be found extremely interesting to the foreign reader; and it is by no means, devoid of such interest to the acute English observer.

The fourth book explains the general system of inland navigation in England, the principal basins, levels, &c. of the island; and the direction of the general line of hills by which the basins are separated. M. DUPIN then details the expedients which we have adopted to prolong and unité APP. REV. VOL. CIII. M m

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by canals these several valleys; pointing out, in strong commendatory language, the difficulties which we have had to encounter in the pursuit of these objects. He compares the population and superficies of the canalled and the uncanalled districts, both in France and England; thus manifesting the important advantages of the system, and its influence on the population, prosperity, and convenience of the parts in which it prevails. For the sake of this comparison, the author reduces his results to a concise tabulated shape, which we shall give in his own form and measures.

After this statement, he observes:

To how many important reflections does not this short table give birth? In England, the canalled part exceeds the half of the territory; in France, it is not equal to one fifth. In the canalled part, for the same extent of country, the developement of canals is four times less in France than in England. In short, comparing all France and all England, we have not, in proportion to the extent of the two countries, one-twentieth part of the canals that our rivals possess. England, with a sky less pure, a climate less genial, and a soil less fertile, has a mean population on a square myriameter of 8107: while in France the inhabitants on the same superficies extend only to 5680! In the part which has most canals, the population amounts in England to 10,814 per square myriameter; and in France, in the canalled part, it amounts only to 7,221. Yet, in England, agriculture is depressed because the superabundance of produce makes it fall to too low a price, What a vast field have we not to traverse, in order to attain that high degree of population and productive industry, which at this moment renders England so rich and so powerful! One of the first and the surest means of arriving at this term of our efforts, and of our wishes, will be to perfect, as much as we can, the general system of our artificial and natural inland navigation.'

In order to class the several artificial canals and the natural navigation of England according to the most simple and illustrative modes, the author forms them into separate divisions, as they have for their common centres our great

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manufacturing or our commercial districts, such as London, Manchester, Liverpool, Hull, &c.: a classification as novel in its form as it is conducive to just representation and perspicuity. We have, however, so lately reported the work of M. Huerne de Pommeuse on the canals of England *, that we shall not follow M. DUPIN over the same ground, but merely present our readers with the following table of the canals of Great Britain, and the respective length of each: a table, in the contents of which every Englishman ought to feel a high degree of pride, as forming one of the most interesting monuments of the power and commercial prosperity of his

The total length of these canals, in which are not included those of less than five miles, amounts to 2872 miles; besides which we have several other canals projected, and companies incorporated: forming altogether such a system of internal navigation as was never before equalled in any age or country, and which could only be supported by a commerce equally great and extensive. After having presented, with much precision and depth of thought, the general view of this multitude of canals, ramifying from different centres through almost every part of England, and having shewn their influence on the industry and commerce of the country, but particularly of the principal towns through which they pass, the author, in the sixth chapter of this book, draws into one single point of view all the consequences of these constructions; especially as far as they may be advantageously imitated by France, which he urges with the greatest force and eloquence.

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