ROADS ; BRIDGES.
In this important point France is considerably in ferior to England, her long tract of coast, opposite to the Atlantic and the Bay of Biscay, being indif ferently provided with sea-ports, and those on the southern shore of the Channel, forming a striking contrast to the spacious maritime inlets on the side of her rival. To begin from the north-east, Dunkirk has a small harbour in the interior of the town, ap proached on the Dutch plan by a canal leading from the sea. Bbulogne has a shallow road-stead, indebted for its celebrity under Bonaparte, to the facility of giving protection by land-batteries near its entrance to a numerous assemblage of small craft. The port of Dieppe is exposed, and, of course, unsuitable for winter ; that of St Malo is better, and, on doubling the projecting part of Brittany, we find, in the south west of that province, L'Orient, a port adapted to the entrance of large merchantmen. Proceeding farther to the south, we find at La Rochelle a small, but se cure harbour, and at Bordeaux, a river nearly equal in width to the Thames at London. From this there is no sea-port, until reaching Bayonne, a place of no easy access. On the Mediterranean, France has the ports of Cette and Marseilles, the latter spacious and secure. • Nantes, though a large commercial town, adjoins a shallow part of the Loire, and vessels of burden are obliged to load and unload at Paimbceuf. The great dock-yards and naval stations of the kingdom are at Brest and Toulon, both excellent harbours, and at Rochefort, which is situated on the river Charente, near its mouth. In all these the accom modation for shipping is the gift of nature; but at Cherburg the case is very different, that port con taining works, of which the labour and expence (see our article BREAKWATER) have been very great. Its road-stead, extensive but open, a sea-wall, which, though now in a state very different from its original destination, affords some protection from the swell of the sea ; and its spacious dock, excavated since the beginning of this century, at an expence of L.3,000,000 Sterling, is capable of containing fifty sail of the line. Havre de Grace, the best mercan tile harbour in the north of France, has also been formed at a heavy expence.
The square form of France, favourable as it is for military defence, subjects the greater part of the country to the want of those ready and economical means of transport by sea, which form the great physical advantage of Britain and Ireland. Un
luckily, this want is very imperfectly supplied by the inland waters, canals tieing very thinly spread, and the navigation of the great rivers subject to many obstructions; occurring in one part from rapidity, in another from shallowness ; at one season from drought, at another from overflow. The application of steam to navigation promises to correct in part this most inconvenient tardiness; but the accommo dation that will even then be afforded by the Loire in the interior, the Rhone in the south, the Seine in the north, and the Garonne, with its Canal du Lan guedoc, in the south-west, will be but a small portion of what is furnished by our numerous intersections in England, or of what is wanted for so extensive a territory as that of France.
The canal of Languedoc, excavated about the year 1668, was the first example in Europe of in land navigation on a great scale. Its length is about 150 miles; its general breadth 60 feet ; its depth only 6 feet. As a scientific work, it did ho nour to an age as yet little advanced in engineer ing, but in a pecuniary point of view, it was un productive, the tolls never having paid the interest of the very large sum (L.1,200,000 Sterling) expend ed on it. It extends from the Mediterranean, near Agde, to the Garonne below Toulouse, and will ere long be prolonged in a northerly direction to Mon. tauban.
The canal of Briare is of earlier date, and of much leas extent ; the object here was to open a naviga tion from the Loire on the south, to the Seine on the north, by a canal running almost due north, a distance of forty miles ; it then receives from the west the canal of Orleans, proceeding also from the Loire, after which the canal is continued to the north, under the name of Canal de 1'Oing, till reach ing the Seine. The canal of Picardy is a work of the present age. having been begun shortly before the Revolution, and prosecuted under Bonaparte; it extends from the Oise in a northerly direc tion towards Lille, and is remarkable for its long tunnel near St Quentin. The Canal du Centre unites the Saone and the Loge in the early part of for stage-coaches in France, are now replaced in - most frequented roads by coaches in the English style ; and the mails are now conveyed in a kind of chariot called a malle-poste.