R4. 



Robinson,] ^^ . [May 7, 



in the adoption of protective duties to a moderate extent for nascent indus- 

 tries, as in a patent-right or a copy-right for a limited time, for the protec- 

 tion of an author or inventor, and in the propriety of sucli duties as might 

 be necessary to Iseep up a few industries essential to the defence of a coun- 

 try in time of war.; but beyond tliis, he considered the protection given by 

 a tariff based on revenue principles, all that was justifiable or judicious. 

 Practical as he was in all things, I have little doubt that his preference for 

 an arrangement by a treaty between England and France, instead of the 

 action of the legislative bodies of the two countries, was founded on the 

 idea that what was advisable in the way of protection for each country, 

 might best be effected by treat3^ 



Mr. Chevalier's connection with governmental affairs ceased with the 

 Empire in 1870, and he consecrated himself for some time afterwards, to 

 his duties as Professor in the College of France, and as member of the In- 

 stitute ; but his taste for great and useful enterprises continued, and he de- 

 voted himself in 1875, with his accustomed zeal, to carrying out one of his 

 engineering conceptions, that of a submarine railroad between Calais and 

 Dover, as a means of binding together more closely France and England. 

 He organized during this ye&v a society for the purpose of making examina- 

 tions in reference to the work, of which the Messrs. Rothschild Brothers, 

 and the railroad companies of the North, were members. Tliis Society, of 

 which he was the initiator, and of which he continued until his death the 

 President, obtained of the government a concession of the submarine rail- 

 road, and Mr. Chevalier entered on the examination of the bed of the 

 Channel, and an ascertainment of the strata underneath, with that ardor 

 and perseverance which were parts of his nature. He had communicated 

 with me as an old friend and confrere, when he first conceived the idea 

 of the work, as to its practicability, and sent me, from time to time, 

 lithographed copies of the soundings, and statements as to the character of 

 the chalk formations, found at various depths below the level of the sea, on 

 the line of the tunnel on both sides of the Channel, whicli up to the time 

 of his death, were highly favorable. But the events in the East, and the 

 condition of things in England within the last three years, have prevented, 

 so far, the work itself being entered on, and it may not for some time, or 

 perhaps never, be executed ; but if it should be, the name of Mr. Cheva- 

 lier will be always connected with it, as its first jDrojector and promoter. 



This and other plans for the benefit of his country and the world, occu-. 

 pied, I might say, to the last moments of his life, the thoughts of Mr. 

 Chevalier. I speak knowingly on the subject, having been a recipient 

 during his last and fatal illness (after it had progressed to the point that he 

 could write onlj' in a recumbent posture), of eight letters in less than six 

 weeks, in which the submarine tunnel, and other subjects of public con- 

 cern, were referred to, and discussed by him. In one of them, he speaks 

 of an experiment he is making on his estate in the South of France, of 

 growing American grape vines for the purpose of engrafting French grape 

 vines on American slocks, as a means of arresting the Phj^loxera, at pres- 

 ent so destructive to the great wine industry of France ; and I find from 



