els to sink into them, rises, however in a much higher proportion.
It may be assumed, that wheels which sink but half an inch, would
require an increased draught of an eighth, or, in the above instance,
of 2-1/2 tons; if an inch, they would require a fourth more, or 7-1/2
tons; if two inches, a half increase, or fifteen tons; and at three
inches, the power would be required to be double. Different soils, and
different wheels, would indicate different proportions, but the above
may be taken as averages; and, when contrasted with the small increase
of power, rendered necessary by the ascent of an inclined plane, the
latter, on the ascending half of any road, will appear to be
unimportant.

The Emperor Napoleon, who endeavoured to apply philosophy to all the
arts of life, decreed, that no public road in France should exceed an
inclination of 4 deg. 46', or rise more than one metre in twelve. This
proportion, it was estimated, would combine the maxima and minima of
the powers; and, in spite of those malignant confederacies which he
was so often called upon to overthrow, the labour of reducing many
steep roads of France to this practicable inclination was
accomplished, and hence the praises of the roads of that country which
we read in the narratives of our tourists. England, which set the
first example to Europe, in this branch of economy, ought not to allow
itself to be outdone by the measures of a reign which it asserted was
incompatible with regal dignity; but, proceeding on correct
principles, it ought in this case to imitate even a _bad_ example, and
to correct its system of patching up its roads under the direction of
surveyors, ignorant of general principles, and at the expence of local
commissioners, who are interested in making their improvements on the
narrowest scale. The rapid advancement of Great Britain in social
comforts, within the last sixty years, may be ascribed to the turnpike
system, which took the jurisdiction of the public roads out of the
hands of parish-officers, and transferred it to commissioners of more
extensive districts. A still further improvement is now called for by
superadding the controul of a #NATIONAL ROAD POLICE#, which should
equalize the tolls, or apply the whole to the unequal wants of various
districts; so that roads of nearly equal goodness might characterize
all parts of an empire which ought to be rendered one great
metropolis, and to be united in means and fraternity by all the