MY DEAR SIR,

LETTER XXI.

Paris, April, 1820.

Having endeavoured in the preceding letters to sketch a moral and political portrait of the French nation during the last three centuries, and to trace more especially the causes of the various revolutions of their government in the last thirty years, I will now call your attention to the consequences of those systems as they stand embodied at present in France. Mankind have been recently astonished at the resources of this country, and at the recuperative energy with which it has risen under the pressure of unprecedented calamities. In order, therefore, to explain this mystery of power, it is necessary to examine the hitherto unobserved progress this nation has been making in civilization and wealth. The truth is, that the interests of the new governments were not always (as they seemed to be) in opposi tion to the interests of humanity; and that such was the accumulation of evils under the old regime, that in spite of the errors of the unwise and mischievous systems which were substituted in lieu of it, a great diminution of them took place. The present vigorous prosperity of France is the result of the comparative advantages she has of late enjoyed, and the surprise of foreign nations at it, arises from the illiberal prejudice with which they have hitherto confined their attention to the inconveniences only of her situation. So abundantly blessed is France in the mildness of her climate and the fertility of her soil, in the industry of her inhabitants and the philosophical gayety of heart, with which they throw off the cares of life and escape from the corrosions of ennui, that nothing less than the stupid restraints of an arbitrary regime and an inveterate adhesion to prejudice, could have limited to their present imperfect development the unfolding of her capacities.

Some remarks on the present state of France and the defects of her municipal regulations may explain the nature of the prejudices to which I allude; and may not, therefore, improperly precede an account of the great progress she has made in agriculture, manufactures, and internal commerce. The new territorial division of the kingdom by breaking down the barriers which prevented much intercourse between the provinces; the division of the great estates, and the placing them in the hands of persons immediately interested in their cultivation; and the abolition of the laws of Jurandes and Maîtrise, by removing the old restraints on the exercise of trades, have tended to advance immensely the productive industry of the kingdom. The shackles, on the contrary, which the monopoly of all action into the hands of the government, and the centralization of all power at Paris, have fastened on domestic industry and on the enterprize of private companies, have considerably retarded the development of the national resources.

France is at present divided into eighty-six departments, over each of which presides a Prefect or Governor, with a General Council for the execution of the laws and royal ordinances. The Departments are sub-divided into arrondissemens, in each of which there is a Sub-Prefect, with a local council. The arrondissemens are divided into cantons, and these are again divided into communes, over each of which presides a Mayor and municipal council for carrying the laws and ordinances directly into effect. This arrangement is admirably symmetrical in its parts, but detestably arbitrary in its operation. Under the semblance of an independent administration of justice, it subjects the interests of every commune in the kingdom to an absolute dependence on the orders of the Minister of the Interior. As all the municipal officers hold their places at the pleasure of the king, or his minister, none dare offend him, and there exists no responsibility for malversation in office, so that the salutary control of public opinion is in a great degree lost, for the previous consent of the government is necessary to the prosecution of its agents. Those municipal bodies have no discretionary powers, except in the execution of commands. As they can originate, and finally determine on no one thing, the inhabitants of a commune can execute no scheme of improvement without petition

ing through a concatenation of authorities, which occasions a delay that damps most terribly the ardour of social enterprize. The most trifling local repairs, equally with the most important works of general utility, are subject to this deadening paralysis. It is first necessary to apply to the mayor and his council, who, if they approve the plan, forward the petition to the subprefect and his council, where the matter is again discussed, and if approved, the scheme is forwarded to the prefect and his council, who in due time, after mature deliberation, pass their opinion on the proposed change, and forward the application to the minister of the interior, who in turn examines its merits, and if he finds any error, or unintelligible clause in the petition, sends it back, to begin its journey over again; if not, he submits it to the king in council, where it is either sanctioned or condemned. In either case, it is again sent back through the labyrinth of the Minister, the Prefect, the Sub-Prefect, the Mayor, &c. to the petitioning individual, who, if he should happen to be alive at the end of the two, or three, or four years elapsed since his scheme went out on its tour, has permission to -put a window in a church-to throw a bridge over a rivuletor to plant a tree on a promenade!

It is this complication of difficulties, entangling every attempt at local improvement in this country, that deters rich proprietors and enlightened capitalists from forming themselves into companies for the accomplishment of any particular work. The labour is so disproportioned to the end, and the procrastination so discouraging, that they turn their attention from objects of general utility and local embellishment to the dissipations of society, the charms of literature, or the fascinations of the theatre. Where would have been the greatness and glory of England today, if her government had imposed similar restraints on the spirit of association among her subjects? Where would have been her roads and canals; her noble public charities and her hospitals; her banks; her companies of insurance-her commerce-her manufactures, and her agriculture?

The governmental discouragement of the spirit of private association for purposes of public good, is not less strikingly manifest in Paris than in the provincial towns. Societies for the purpose of protecting individuals against casualties which can

neither be foreseen nor prevented, are extremely rare. Insur. ance on lives, and against the risk of fire, are only just beginning to establish themselves. The good people of Paris are content to drink even at this day the water of the Seine, after it has passed through the city, and become always clouded, and sometimes putrid with filth! In this state it is raised by machinery for the supply of the few large fountains that adorn the city. It is not conducted into the houses by pipes, but carried through the streets in hogsheads, on hand-carts, and distributed to purchasers at a sous a bucket, which is four times higher than in London. It is ascertained that Paris might be supplied with water from the Yuette at an expense of about a million and a half of dollars; and yet, under what is called a paternal government, whilst vast sums are squandered to celebrate the fête of St. Louis, or the marriage of a prince; or to erect water works over the heights of Marly to animate the fountains of Versailles, not a sous is appropriated to supply the metropolis with the first necessary of life. Bonaparte being fond of great undertakings, attempted to conduct the waters of the Beuvronne and Ourq to Paris, and expended about four and a half millions of dollars without accomplishing it. Since his abdication, this enterprize has been suspended. Twelve millions of dollars are yet necessary to complete it. A company of Englishmen offered to advance that sum about four years ago, and finish the works, but the jealous vanity of this government rejected their proposals. They offered to leave the fountains of Paris as they now stand; to adorn the city with new ones, as well as to conduct the water into every house, and asked no other reward than the privilege of selling water at the present price to those who chose to buy it, until their capital, and the legal interest on it, should be reimbursed. The principal motive of this company for making the proposal, was to give employment to the iron works in England, and therefore they were to furnish the tubes or pipes of their own manufacture. Hence arose a variety of difficulties and jealous suspicions in the minds of the municipal authorities, for it was necessary to consult the prefect of the Seine-the general council of Paris-the director of bridges and highways-the engineers who were called in the owners of forges-and lastly, the grand supervising corps, the royal council. Such security, how

ever, was given by the company for the fulfilment of their engagement, as seemingly allayed suspicion, and a contract was nearly completed, when the government suddenly imagined they would be able, in time, to do the work themselves, and ordered the Moniteur to announce, with a triumphant flourish of "pleasure," that the rumour of the proposed contract with an English company was entirely without foundation! The agent attempted in vain to contradict this assertion. The censors rejected his paragraph, and he consequently remitted back the funds to England. The owners of the forges in France, soon afterwards declared it would not be in their power to furnish more than one fourth of the necessary pipes in four years, and a second English company then offered to buy that one fourth of them, and to furnish the remainder themselves. They also offered to cut the two canals of St. Denis and St. Martin, which would save two days in the navigation of the Seine from Rouen to Paris, with the vast expense of horses now incurred by the six hundred boats that annually ascend this river, and also to build magnificent commercial magazines on their banks. But the government again refused, and thus deprived the labouring class in Paris of employment to the amount of twelve millions of dollars! To those whose imaginations are fond of magnifying the advantages of despotic power, and the great works it occasionally performs, it may be worth while to remark, that a single company of Englishmen offered to expend on these water works, in four years, nearly three times as much as Napoleon laid out on them during the fourteen years of his absolute domination! Had the vast treasures, which the Emperor squandered away in his schemes of mad ambition, been appropriated to the internal embellishment of France, how different would have been his fortunes, and how much nobler the halo of glory which would have environed his memory in the eyes of posterity!

The internal communication between the departments of France is so defective, that two thirds of their productions are supposed to be valueless for the want of canals. There are not more than twenty canals at present in this country, and seven hundred and fifty are supposed necessary for completing the internal communication,* Some great shew canals, which have

*Delaborde, p. 375.