The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1866-03-22
French Enterprise in Virginia.

IT re are not very much mistaken,
the arrangements which have recently
been completed in Virginia by Messrs.
Bellot des Minieres d Co. will do more
to restore the prestige of the Latin
races in America" than twenty Maxi
mIlians. These French capitalists, who
are propTietors of vast tracts of land IN
the Old Dominion, including extensive
coal and iron fields, have succeeded al
last in obtaining a charter from both
the Virginia legislatures, emitting them
To complete the James River and Ka-
nawha Canal, that property having
passed into their hands by transfer
from the original corporation. By
means of this great work the Ohio will
be connected with the seaboard, and a
safe, cheap, and very Direct communi-
cation be opened up TO the West Nor
is this all. France needs coal, iron and
ship-timber, and these are TO be found
in immense quantities along the line of
the proposed highway. 1t is the inten-
ton of the French company to avail
itself of these resources, and with the
active cooperation of the home govern
ment TO proceed at once, as Dol as the
canal shall be cut through, to q systes
matte development of the untold min
eral and agricultural wealth Of the Al
leghany region. The Richmond Re
public thus sets forth some of the adj
Yantages which will accrue to that sec
ton by virtue Of the new enterprise:
"Here then, will be the trade, and
traffic, and transport, of an immense
amounto of N merchandise passing through
Virginia, through Richmond, and down
the James river, and so to the sea
Like the golden river of Greece, the
Yellow Pactolus whose sands were
gold, this stream, if once set allow,
must leave along its banks the fTucti-
fying influence of its waters. The d.
rect outlay Of the company for work,
for food, for labor, for machinery and
tools and for material, must be, for
years to come, enormous Beside all
this, the Messrs. Bellot propose TO bring
large colonies Of French people TO labor
on the work and to settle on the soil;
not only laborers Of all sorts and of
both sexes, but skilled mechanics and
manufacturers, and business men Of
education and enterprise. Most OF
them bring q little capital with them.
and always in gold. These artisans
farmers, laborers and peasants from the
rural parts of France are a simple, la.
borious. frugal, temperate and moral
peopIe. and we shall hail their aces
sion with no dissembled qualification.
The Republic is right An immigra.
ton of thrifty French artisans and az.
riculturists will be an essential national
benefit. The skilled workmen and the
peasant class of that country are among
the most industrious in the world, and
their one fault, a certain narrowness o.
vision, which is a consequence of thelI
poverty, and which leads them into q
sort of Poor Richard wisdom, will wear
away under the sharp attrition of new
circumstances. They will give and
take. They will give us what is sorely
needed careful habit of economy in
the small transactions of life; and they
will receive something of the national
energy and breadth of ideas. If they
come in any considerable number.
there must spring upa common feeling
between the two nations, which viii
make war more and more impossible
The interests of both America and
France lie on the side ofindustrial and
not military glory. And the people o.
the latter country are well aware o.
this, despite the policy Of Napoleon Ill
We see, therefore, in the project o.
Messrs. Bellot de Miners, a peace
movement of gigantic proportions, and
one that will be very helpful towards 8
wise solution Of the diplomatic Difficult
ties now existing.