and have together a lift of 40 feet. The three locks of the Little falls, are each 100 feet in length and 18 feet wide. That breadth is unnecessary, and consumes too much water, a defect which will be remedied, when stone locks will be substituted to those now in use, which being of wood, will soon be decayed.

Three other canals without locks have been opened around three distinct falls: the principal, at the Shenandoe falls below Harper's ferry, and at the place where the Potomac breaks through the Blue Ridge, is one mile in length around a fall of 15 feet. Between this and the Great falls another canal, three quarters of a mile in length, is opened around the Seneca falls. The third, 50 yards in length, has been cut around Houre's falls, five miles above the Shenandoe falls. Above this place, the navigation has been improved by deepening occasionally the channel, raising the water in shallow places by small dams, and opening sluices along the shore. It is believed that, by multiplying the number of those low dams, by throwing the channel along the shore, and, when necessary, opening canals with or without locks around the principal rapids, the navigation may be improved, perhaps as high up as Cumberland, 188 miles above tide water, to such a degree as to render the river passable for boats the greater part of the year. And if this be found practicable on the Potomac, which is the most rapid of the great Atlantic rivers, the same improvements may with greater facility be effected on any of the others. It will be indispensable, in order to attain that object on the Potomac, that additional canals with locks, should be opened at the Shenandoe or Blue Ridge falls, which, as has already been stated, fall 43 feet, in the distance of five miles.

2. The Shenandoe, a river nearly as large as the Potomac itself, after a course of 250 miles through the Great Lime-stone valley, unites its waters with those of the Potomac at Harper's ferry, just above the Blue Ridge. From Port Republic till within eight miles of the Potomac, a distance of near 200 miles, it affords a good navigation, the fall of the river being at the rate of less than two feet a mile. In the last eight miles it falls 80 feet, and was impassable before the improvements completed last year by the Potomac company. Six different canals, 20 feet wide, four feet and a half deep, and extending altogether 2400 yards, have been opened round the most difficult falls. Through those, and five stone locks, 100 feet long and 12 feet wide each, and effecting together a descent of near 50 feet, the communication is now opened, and will render the undertaking much more productive than heretofore. The water in all those

I am very far from believing that the excesses of your press have occupied for an instant the thoughts of the emperor and king my master-but as it respects this subject (à cet egard) I am here as the organ of the whole French empire, and, if I do not see without pain the ravages (ravages) which the delirium of the insolence of the greater part of your periodical writers occasions amongst yourselves, you will judge that I do not hear without indignation all that people permit themselves to say or to write against France, her institutions, and the sacred person of her august representative.

You will see, sir, that on this subject, as on all others, the redress of grievances is an indispensable pre-requisite to the formation of a new treaty between the two powers.

It was sufficiently painful to me to address you (entretenir) on the complaints of France against the United States, without laying them open to you in the form of an official note. I have thought that a simple letter, the tone of which would approach nearer to that of our conferences, would produce the same effect with you, sir, whose liberal principles and loyal character are known to me. I have thought that you would be afflicted, as I am, at the obstacles (entraves) which the preceding administration has been able to place in the way of a hearty reconciliation (à un rapprochement plus intime) between our governments, and which their mutual interest renders more necessary than ever.

I have thought, also, that I could, even on a subject so serious (grave), and without deviating from propriety (sans blesser les convenances), adopt a mode of communica tion more analogous to the conformity of our views and our efforts to maintain harmony between France and the United States; and have found here, too, the satisfaction of being able to offer to your sentiments a new tribute of respect. Receive, sir, the homage of my high consideration. (Signed)

TURREAU.

Columbia, either to tide water, or to the Delaware and Chesapeake canal.

A company incorporated by the state of Maryland, for opening a canal around the falls, in that part of the river which extends from the Pennsylvania line to tide water, has completed that part of the work, the utility of which is but very partially felt, whilst the bed of the river remains the only communication from its upper extremity to Columbia.

The canal, 30 feet wide, three feet deep, and admitting boats of 20 tons, is nine miles in length, with a fall of 59 feet. The descent is effected by eight stone locks, each of which is 100 feet in length, and 12 feet wide. The water is supplied by the river itself; and in order to cross the rivers Conawingo and Octorara, these, by means of dams, have been raised 10 and 12 feet to the level of the canal.

Its defects consist in the want of sufficient breadth of the locks, which do not admit the rafts and wide flat-bottomed boats, generally used in bringing down the country produce, and in want of water at the lower end of the canal. This last defect may be remedied by extending the canal 700 yards lower down along the edge of the river; and it is probable, that as timber will become more scarce and valuable in the upper branches of the Susquehannah, boats of a different construction will be used. In the mean while, the annual tolls have not yet amounted to $1,000, whilst the annual expenses are stated at $1,200, and the capital expended at $ 250,000.

The attempts made to open a communication from Middletown, in the Lime-stone valley, to Philadelphia, partly by canals and partly by means of the Schuylkill, will be noticed under the head of "Interior Canals."

VI. Ohio.

The navigation of the Kenhawa, and of the eastern branches of the Tennessee, Monongahela, and Allegheny, in their course through the mountains, may at a future period be improved. But from the foot of the mountains, all those rivers, and particularly the Ohio, flow with a much gentler current than the Atlantic rivers; a circumstance easily accounted for, when it is recollected that Brownsville on the Monongahela, and at a distance of 2000 miles by water from the sea, is only 115 feet more elevated than Cumberland on the Potomac whilst this river, with all its meanders, reaches tide water within less than 200 miles. All those rivers at the annual melting of the snows rise to the height of more than 40 feet, affording from the upper points to which they are navigable, a safe navigation to the sea for any

The Secretary of the Treasury, in obedience to the resolution of the Senate of the 2d March, 1807, respectfully submits the following report on Roads and Canals.

The general utility of artificial roads and canals, is at this time so universally admitted, as hardly to require any additional proofs. It is sufficiently evident, that, whenever the annual expense of transportation on a certain route in its natural state, exceeds the interest on the capital employed in improving the communication, and the annual expense of transportation, (exclusively of the tolls,) by the improved route, the difference is an annual additional income to the nation. Nor does in that case the general result vary, although the tolls may not have been fixed at a rate sufficient to pay to the undertakers the interest on the capital laid out. They indeed, when that happens, lose; but the community is nevertheless benefitted by the undertaking. The general gain is not confined to the difference between the expenses of the transportation of those articles which had been formerly conveyed by that route, but many which were brought to market by other channels, will then find a new and more advantageous direction; and those which on account of their distance or weight could not be transported in any manner whatever, will acquire a value, and become a clear addition to the national wealth. These and many other advantages have become so obvious, that in countries possessed of large capital, where property is sufficiently secure to induce individuals to lay out that capital on permanent undertakings, and where a compact population creates an extensive commercial intercourse, within short distances, those improvements may often, in ordinary cases, be left to individual exertion, without any direct aid from government. There are, however, some circumstances, which, whilst they render the facility of communications throughout the United States an object of primary importance, naturally check the application of private capital and enterprize to improvements on a large scale.

The price of labour is not considered as a formidable obstacle, because, whatever it may be, it equally affects the transportation, which is saved by the improvement, and that of effecting the improvement itself. The want of practical knowledge is no longer felt and the occasional influence of mistaken local interests, in sometimes thwarting or giving an improper direction to public improvements, arises from the nature of man, and is common to all countries. The great demand for capital in the United States, and the extent of territory compared with the popu

lation, are, it is believed, the true causes which prevent new undertakings, and render those already accomplished, less profitable than had been expected.

1. Notwithstanding the great increase of capital during the last fifteen years, the objects for which it is required continue to be more numerous, and its application is generally more profitable than in Europe. A small portion therefore is applied to objects which offer only the prospect of remote and moderate profit. And it also happens, that a less sum being subscribed at first, than is actually requisite for completing the work, this proceeds slowly; the capital applied remains unproductive for a much longer time than was necessary, and the interest accruing during that period, becomes in fact an injurious addition to the real expense of the undertaking.

2. The present population of the United States, compared with the extent of territory over which it is spread, does not, except in the vicinity of the sea-ports, admit that extensive commercial intercourse within short distances, which, in England and some other countries, forms the principal support of artificial roads and canals. With a few exceptions, canals particularly, cannot in America be undertaken with a view solely to the intercourse between the two extremes of, and along the intermediate ground which they occupy. It is necessary, in order to be productive, that the canal should open a communication with a natural extensive navigation, which will flow through that new channel. It follows that whenever that navigation requires to be improved, or when it might at some distance be connected by another canal to another navigation, the first canal will remain comparatively unproductive, until the other improvements are effected, until the other canal is also completed. Thus the intended canal between the Chesapeake and Delaware, will be deprived of the additional benefit arising from the intercourse between New York and the Chesapeake, until an inland navigation shall have been opened between the Delaware and New York. Thus the expensive canals completed around the falls of Potomac, will become more and more productive in proportion to the improvement, first of the navigation of the upper branches of the river, and then of its communication with the western waters. Some works already executed are unprofitable, many more remain unattempted, because their ultimate productiveness depends on other improvements, too extensive or too distant to be embraced by the same individuals.

The general government can alone remove these obstacles.

With resources amply sufficient for the completion of every practicable improvement, it will always supply the capital wanted