We noticed some time ago ...
The Times, 1824-03-18T00:00:00

We noticed some time ago a strikinag and interesting PaPer from the pen of AI. DunN, wahich had been read be- ?ore the Members of the French Institute in the course of year 1823. It was designed as an intredutltion to a vo- lume then forthcoming, by that distinguished tuthor, the fruiit of recentresearches into a dcpartment of Brit'sh power id prosperity which had not been embraced by any of his former investigations. The in troductory paper has since ?e-appeared, in company with the book of which it was destined to be an append1age, and vihicb has for its title, "Force Commnerciale'-the Commnereial Powver of Great Britain--comprehending X view of works under the head ofCivil Engineering, carried on by the public orby private associations. Tine introt uction we consider a perforp itnce no less wor- thv of attention thiau the body of the volume itself. M. Dis'IN combine3 some intellectual qualities but rarely -assembled within a single mind. It may be re- Marl-ed concerning many of his countrymen, that they are inordinately giveni to the use-we might say to the abuse-of whait they term " general principles." The works of Frenchmen are full of theory-for the most part ingeniottoftcsnunsupported by evidence-not seldom the result of idleniess, andl of impatience, as much as of ostenta- tion or ambition. 'I'hings are lookedl at au large by our vivacious neighboues, perhaps because details are both troublesome and ungracefui. i. Duriw, too, knows how to generalize; but he prepares, with few excep- timns, the groundwork of his porinciples by a patience, a diligence, a severity and honesty of practical research, above all praise, and almost witnout example. His Intro- ductory Essay to the present volume is a reduction to ge- neral heads and reasonings of the details exhibited throuzh- out the work. Possiblv the conclusions to which he has directed his readers msy not in all cases be borne out by the premises on wbich M. DUP;N has built them: it is like-wise conceivable, that some necessary bases of specula. tion on the visible interests or proceedings of a great, ma- tured, and highly complicated community, may have es. caped the eve of the most acute and experienced foreigner. W1-e doubt whether M. T)urPi has not extendled too far his contrast between the weakness of Rome and the strength of Britain, derived to these States respectivetv from the distance between the seat of empire and its extre- mities: we are sure that he has omitted one un- questionable element of that contrast, namely, the whole range of moral causes and considerations be- lonaing to the degeneracy of the Roman citizen, and the despotism by which his energies were extinguished. 1. D)urIN, in describina many of the most useful of our local monuments and lahours, seems not sufficiently struck with the fact, that it is the fearless enterprise growing out of conscious liberty of action, which sets in perpetual novement the resources andl powers of Englishimen, for the prosecution of schemes tlhrouglh which a joint or separate intere~st is to be promoted. M. Dii is a Frenchmani; but what, perhaps, may be more to thepurpose, he has written for France, and he must employ those peculiar modes of speech which have obtainetl from the national self-love of France the authority of public taste and ofprescription. Thius M. DurIN is pleased to desigmate the immense system of internal navigation throuAiout Englandl, imitations only of those canals under- taken by HENsI;l QUATraE, and resumed by Louis XIV. Again, M. DUPiN is exceedingly careful to deiiominatc, towards the latter end of his work, our noble monu- ment of "W'aterloo-bridge" by the name of " Strand"- bridge ; and observe, "' the English have, since I 1f 6, surnamed the Strand-bridge, ' Waterloo-bridge,' for the sake of imituting the French-who in their * days of triumph designated the bridges and streets " bv whicb their capital was adorned, by the names of " Xusterlitz, Jena, Wl'agram, Fontenov, &c. &c.": but if the baptism of WVat! rloo was a servile imitation of Auster- litz, what afflrded a precedent for Blenheim ?