tendres que le caillou, avec des tuiles, des moillons, des platras, et autres décombres d'édifice, le tout battu dans un ciment d'alliage; pour la trosième couche, un piéd d'épaisseur d'un ciment fait d'une terre grasse, mêlée avec de la chaux; ces matières intérieures formoient depuis trois piéds jusqu'à trois pièds et demi d'épaisseur. La surface étoit de gravois lié par un ciment mêlé de chaux; et cette croûte a pu résister jusqu'à présent en plusieurs endroits de l'Europe."

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ran

"The Roman roads," says Mr. Tredgold, nearly in direct lines; natural obstructions were removed or overcome by the effort of labour or art, whether they consisted of marshes, lakes, rivers, or mountains. In flat districts, the middle part of the road was raised into a terrace.

"In mountainous districts, the roads were alternately cut through mountains and raised above the valleys, so as to preserve either a level line or a uniform inclination. They founded the road on piles where the ground was not solid, and raised it by strong side walls, or by arches and piers where it was necessary to gain elevation. The paved part of the great military roads was sixteen Roman feet wide, with two side ways, each eight feet wide, separated from the middle way by two raised paths of two feet each.” *

The funds for making roads were so well secured and so considerable, that the Romans were not

* See Tredgold on Railways, p. 6.

satisfied to make them convenient and durable, but they also embellished them.

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They had columns placed from mile to mile to mark the distance of one place from another; blocks of stone for foot travellers to rest upon, and to assist horsemen to mount their horses; and also temples, triumphal arches, mausoleums, and military stations. "Such was the solid construction of the Roman highways, that their firmness has not entirely yielded to the effect of fifteen centuries.

They united the subjects of the most distant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse; but their primary object was to facilitate the marches of their legions." *

After enumerating all the cities in the different parts of the empire, Mr. Gibbon says, "All these cities were connected with each other and with the capital by the public highways, which, issuing from the forum of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the provinces, and were terminated only by the frontiers of the empire.

"If we carefully trace the distance from the wall of Antoninus (in Britain) to Rome, and from thence to Jerusalem, it will be found that the great chain of communication from the north-west to the southeast part of the empire was drawn out to a length of 4080 Roman miles, or 3740 English miles. The public roads were accurately divided by milestones,

See Bergier, Histoire des grands Chemins de l'Empire Romain, liv. ii. cap. 1. p. 28.

and ran in a direct line from one city to another, with very little respect for the obstacles either of nature or private property: mountains were passed, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and most rapid streams. The middle part of the road was raised into a terrace, which commanded the adjacent country, and consisted of several strata of sand, gravel, and cement, and was paved with large stones, which in some places near the capital were of granite."

The following are Mr. Pinkerton's observations on the Roman roads :

"One of the grand causes of the civilisation introduced by that ruling people (the Romans) into the conquered states, was the highways, which form, indeed, the first germ of national industry, and without which neither commerce nor society can make any considerable progress. Conscious of this truth, the Romans seem to have paid particular attention to the construction of roads in the distant provinces; and those of England, which may still be traced in various ramifications, present a lasting monument of the justice of their conceptions, the extent of their views, and the utility of their power. A grand trunk, as it may be called, passed from the south to the north, and another to the west, with branches in almost every direction that general convenience and expedition could require. What is called Watling Street led from Richborough, in Kent, the ancient Rutupiæ, north-east, through London, to Chester. The

Ermine Street passed from London to Lincoln, thence to Carlile, and into Scotland.

"The Foss Way is supposed to have led from Bath and the Western regions, north-east, till it joined the Ermine Street. The last celebrated road was Ikeneld, or Ikneld, supposed to have extended from near Norwich, southward, into Dorsetshire."*

Mr. Eustace says, in his Classical Tour, "Thus the civilised world owes to the Romans the first establishment and example of a commodious intercourse; one of the greatest aids of commerce and means of improvement that society can enjoy." He further says, "The barbarians who overturned the Roman power were for many ages so incredibly stupid as to undervalue this blessing, and almost always neglected, and sometimes wantonly destroyed the roads that intersected the provinces which they had invaded. To this day the different governments of Germany (except Austria), Spain, Portugal, Sicily, and Greece, are still so immersed in barbarism, as to leave the traveller to work his way through their respective territories, with infinite fatigue and difficulty, by tracks and paths oftentimes almost impracticable.”+

Among modern nations, France is one of the most distinguished for her early attention to establishing numerous roads.

Pinkerton's Geography, vol. i. p. 20.

+ Vol. iii. p. 178.

The following account of her roads is taken from Peuchet's Statistical Account of France :-" The origin of our principal roads is generally attributed to Philip Augustus; it was under his reign, and by his orders, that the city of Paris began to be paved.

"Sully took great interest in the improvement of the roads. He first introduced the practice of planting trees on the sides of them, and established regular funds for their repair. Colbert neglected nothing to advance the extension of roads throughout France; and M. Desmartis, who succeeded him, caused the road from Paris to Orleans to be made. He was the founder of the corps of engineers, appointed to superintend the works belonging to the roads. Under the administration of the Duke de Noailles, the roads were improved and carried through the provinces. In 1726 the department of the Ponts et Chaussées fell into great disorder, and was in want of sufficient funds, but the Director-general, the brother of the celebrated Cardinal Dubois, recommenced the repairs of them, and continued them with great regularity.

"Under the administration of M. de Trudaine, in 1787, a number of new roads were made. He established the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées, under M. Perronet, as chief engineer, and at his death he left to this school his manuscripts and library. This school is under the minister of the Home Department; the scholars are fifty in number; these are selected from the Polytechnic School, and receive an allowance of seventy-five francs a month.