ROADS. 



351 



Road* and in their construction, the utmost difficulty is experien- 

 Highwaye. ( v<l in crowing that line country. In attfinpting tin's 

 V - - ^V^^^ 1 you at once get into 11 range of narrow lanes, beset with 

 luxmi.int fur/.r and wild shades, forming no doubt an 

 agreeable *hueli-, but proving, uj>on the whole, a ^; 

 U)II > the traveller as well as to the husband- 



man. The present state of the continental parish 

 roads forms a complete bar to the numerous advantages 

 which would follow the establishment of some syste- 

 matic mode of appointing trustees or commissioners 

 from among the country gentlemen, who would then 

 i a more immediate interest in the internal improve- 

 ment of their respective neighbourhoods. Such a system 

 would excite a spirit of enterprise, currying in its train 

 numerous enclosures, drainage, and many local advan- 

 tages, which in the present close and impracticable 

 late of the country, can neither be foreseen nor un- 

 dertaken. 



\Ve cannot withhold our admiration, however, of 

 the facilities of the traveller on the roads of France. 

 Takeaway the apparently useless and harassing system 

 of passports, (at least during periods of profound peace,) 

 and upon the French roads you proceed from the one 

 end of the kingdom to the other without annoyance, or 

 tha occurrence of a single toll-bar. The same thing 

 takes place with the mariner, who having cleared at 

 one port, may put into any harbour, and enjoy the 

 benefits of all the lights upon the coast without far- 

 ther trouble ; the whole community being considered 

 as one great family ; and the establishment for the 

 erection and maintenance of roads, bridges, harbours, 

 and light-houses being under one special board of 

 engineers. This proves also an excellent system for 

 training young gentlemen of talent, who having been 

 pl.iced at the polytechnic school in Paris, are, according 

 to their several propensities and tastes, brought forward 

 as civil and military engineers in all the departments 

 of the French service. The school for civil engineers 

 at Paris is somewhat analogous to our military college 

 at Woolwich ; by this means the country is supplied 

 with an organized body of engineers, whose science 

 and conjoined practice insure the systematic perform- 

 ance of all their public works. We cannot help ex- 

 pressing a wish that Britain and France, with regard 

 to this department, were in some measure blended 

 together ; that in the road department for example, the 

 French had, in connexion with their professional sys- 

 tem, the aid, patrimonial interest, and local knowledge 

 of the country gentlemen. 



Of Spain . The roads of Spain and Portugal are generally al- 

 and Ponu- lowed by travellers to be in a very indifferent state, 

 S* 1 ' and devoid, of all the more recent improvements. 



Their direction proceeds with very little regard to 

 the line of draught. Their surface is rough, and 

 their repair but little attended to. The political situa- 

 tion of these countries for the last twenty years has 

 been highly inimical to improvements of this de- 

 scription. They are every where nearer to the sea- 

 coast than France, and have, upon the whole, less de- 

 pendence upon the state of their roads for the trans- 

 portation of troops. It has indeed fallen to the lot of 

 few countries during periods of war, to proceed in 

 the advancement of interior communication. 

 Germany The chaussee, or paved road, similar to that of 

 and I'rus- France, is common in the most populous districts of 

 sia, &c. the German and Prussian dominions ; but over a great 

 pert of these countries, the roads are little more than 

 formed, being almost without any prepared surface. 

 Hence they are all run into deep tracks, which are ex- 

 tremely inconvenient to travellers ; and therefore it 



becomes necessary, in the different circle* or cantons Bo*da ad 

 to have different lengths of axles, to that a carriage Highway*, 

 properly fitted for a journey in Germany, requires that *""" ~<~" 

 the wheels should be made to thill out and in at 

 sure, to suit the tracks of different district*. The im- 

 provement of the roads has been undertaken in vari- 

 ous parts of these countries ; but it must be a work of 

 much time before this can take place very generally. 



In Holland the traveller generally betakes him*elf Holland 

 to the numerous water-ways or canals of the country ; * nd th 

 but here time and patience are both neceasary ; for . N 

 though the canals are spacious, the passage-boats move *' 

 slowly, and to suit a few trifling bridges by the way, 

 (for they never pass through the towns,) are made so 

 narrow that there is no more than sitting room in their 

 cabins : the traveller's walk through the town, how. 

 ever, accompanying his luggage in a good day, under 

 these circumstances, becomes rather a relaxation. The 

 roads in Holland are generally carried in undeviating 

 straight lines along that low flat country, between a 

 double row of trees, with a great ditch on each side. 

 Upon the tops of the national dykes, which defend the 

 land from the inroads of the sea, the traveller is often 

 upon pretty elevated ground, where his track take* 

 many tortuous directions. The Dutch are at great pains 

 in preparing as firm a foundation for their roads, as tb 

 nature of the country will admit. They are then 

 built with thin bricks called clinkers, which are laid in 

 lime, their longest direction being across the road; so* 

 that a carriage passes along in the same easy manner 

 as if it were upon a railway. The people of Holland ar 

 generally reputed to be very slow in their motions ; but 

 their land journies are certainly exceptions to this ; for 

 in going to market, and even in farming operations, 

 their carts are generally at speed. In the lower parts 

 of the Netherlands, the roads partake a good deal of 

 the Dutch construction, and in the higher parts, the 

 chaussee occurs, which in some districts is laid with th 

 greatest precision, and makes most excellent roads. 



The Swedes have long had the character of being S<vfrfe 

 excellent road engineers. Good rock is very generally and Ruasia. 

 met with in Sweden ; and they spare no pains in 

 breaking it small. Tlieir roads are spacious and 

 smooth ; and travelling in all their principal lines, is 

 as easy as on the best roads of England. Where the 

 country has been opened in Russia, the roads are form- 

 ed on scientific principles; but they bear no | compari- 

 son to the extent of that vast empire. Hence the un- 

 wieldy form of such a country, and the application of the 

 Abbe Raynal's remark, " Let us travel over all the 

 countries of the earth, and wherever we shall find 

 no facility of trading from a city to a town, and from 

 a village to a hamlet, we may pronounce the people to 

 be barbarous ; and we shall only be deceived respect- 

 ing the degree of barbar 



koads connected with Mexico and Peru have long America, 

 existed; and among the other peculiarities ofthesestates, 

 the description of the excellent condition of some of 

 their ancient roads has excited the surprise of Euro* 

 peans. But the advanced state of this department, lik 

 many other earlier accounts of the Xew World, has 

 been greatly exaggerated. More recent travellers have 

 not been |pe to discover Montaigne's famous road 

 from Quito to Cursoe, said to have been SOO leagues in 

 length, and 25 paces in breadth, constructed with 

 immensely large stones, with a running stream, and a 

 row of trees upon each side. 



In the cultivated parts of North America, the roads 

 have latterly been much improved ; ami some of the prin- 

 cipal lines are similar to the generality of English roads, 



