separates St Quentin from Cambray, the road passes over the
great canal from Antwerp to Paris, which is here carried for many miles
through a tunnel under ground. This great work was commenced under the
administration of M. Turgot, but it was not completed till the time of
Bonaparte, who employed in it great numbers of the prisoners whom he had
taken in Spain. The magnitude of the undertaking may be judged of from
the immense depth of the hollow which was cut for it, previous to the
commencement of the tunnel, which is so great, that the canal, when seen
from the top, has the appearance of a little stream. The course of the
tunnel is marked on the surface of the ground by a line of chalky soil,
which is spread above its centre, and which can be seen as far as the
eye can reach, stretching over the vast ridge by which the country is
traversed.

At the distance of three miles from the town of Cambray, the road
crosses the ancient frontiers of French Flanders. We had long been
looking for this transition, to discover if it still exhibited the
striking change described by Arthur Young, "between the effects of the
despotism of old France, which depressed agriculture, and the free
spirit of the Burgundian provinces, which cherished and protected it."
No sooner had we crossed the old line of demarcation between the French
and Flemish provinces, than we were immediately struck with the
difference, both in the aspect of the country, the mode of cultivation,
and the condition of the people. The features of the landscape assume a
totally different aspect; the straight roads, the clipt elms, the
boundless plains of France are no longer to be seen; and in their place
succeeds a thickly wooded soil and cultivated country. The number of
villages is infinitely increased; the village spires rise above the
woods in every direction, to mark the antiquity and the extent of the
population: the houses of the peasants are detached from each other, and
surrounded with fruit trees, or gardens kept in the neatest order, and
all the features of the landscape indicate the long established
prosperity by which the country has been distinguished.

Nor is the difference less striking in the mode of cultivation which is
purified. Fallows, so common in France, almost universally disappear;
and in their place, numerous crops of beans, pease, potatoes, carrots
and endive, are to be met with. In the cultivation of these crops manual
labour is universally