will not suppose it possible that any part of the Monockasey bridge should tumble to pieces like the other bridges built by the same company.

But in estimating the expense of a stone bridge, what allowances is to be made for all the mismanagements and misfortunes that so frequently befal them? Perhaps it would be too much to say, that they must build two before they can count one; and yet I fear it would be hard to point out one of bold construction, without a fracture, or other strong symptom of decay.

It is remarkable that in a science that has been maturing for thousands of years, and in which nothing is undertaken but by those who have been regularly brought up to the business, we should hear of so many misfortunes, and so much want of skill!

Upon the whole, will it not be allowed that the best material has been chosen, (iron) the strongest and cheapest metal in the world and applied in that way in which it possesses an hundred fold more power than it does in other positions?

Let the attentive mind be turned for a moment to the four chains erected to support a bridge of three hundred feet-here is the whole skeleton or frame of the bridge, and the whole strength, and what is it? Five hundred and forty tons at the lowest calculation!

May I not with some degree of exultation ask, who ever thought of the skeleton of a bridge so light and so strong, so permanent, and so easily erected and repaired or renewed in such parts as may require it?

I would invite a correspondence with any person who may have it in view to undertake a business of this kind. It would be pleasing to me, and might be of use to compare notes on a subject of so much importance. It is a great misfortune to be too wise before we get acquainted with the subject. And further, any observations honestly intended to point out an error in any of the above statements, will be gratefully received and punctually attended to.

A Table, showing the strength of Iron.

Cast Iron, at a direct pull endwise, or weight attached to an an}

inch bar,

Pounds wt.

42,000

In March 1808 I entered into an agreement with Mr. John Templeman, of Georgetown, Maryland, by which he was to receive one half of all the monies arising from what permits or patent rights he could dispose of for and during the term of five years. All contracts to be in my name, and the money payable only to my agent in the city of Washington, who should pay one moiety over to Mr. Templeman. But in delineating the principles of my bridge I spoke only of one arch or space, and it seems that Mr. Templeman took it into his head that I should go no further; accordingly soon after our agreement he took a patent for all continuations, but he has thought better of it since, for I have gone on to receive the perquisites for all the spaces, with his knowledge, and without any complaint from him on that head.

In the same article it is provided that the parties shall not grant permission to build bridges on this plan at less than one dollar per foot span, without any discrimination as to breadth.

But gentlemen have proceeded to build with design to pay when the work should be completed, and have always paid on demand.

TRAVELS IN FRANCE-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

LETTER LXXV.

Newport, R. I. July 20, 1806.

The few short lines I wrote you from Newyork will have informed you of our safe arrival after a passage of between six and seven weeks, and of our intentions to proceed to this place, where we are once more settled for the summer, after an absence of nearly three years.

It is a portion of my life, which, notwithstanding some moments of anxiety, I trust I shall always look back to with satisfaction; nor will you, my daughter, have been without your por

tion of amusement: you will have followed us through the south of France to Geneva, have accompanied us in imagination to the Glaciers, over Mont Cenis, and along the Simplon, and have rambled with me over Paris by means of the accurate plan I sent you; from Paris, our route will have carried you along a very interesting part of France which is not much known, to Nantes, where my last letter was dated.

I will now reassume my narration, and, as usual, from my notes, which bring back to me the events of every day, and the impressions of every moment.

There are still very evident vestiges of the war of La Vendèe on the way between Nantes and Paimbœuf, but a few years of peace would make every thing of the sort disappear. The churches and private houses would be rebuilt, and the materials of a ruined castle might be applied to some better purpose. My first visit to Paimbœuf was alone. There was something extremely agreeable in the view of the ocean, and in the breeze which came over its surface; nor was I sorry to find myself for the day with several of my countrymen, who were waiting for a fair wind to carry them out, or employed in putting their cargoes on board of barges to be conveyed to Nantes. I dined with them at the Table D'Hote, where they seemed to enjoy the abundance of good wine, but they would not agree that there was any thing else besides in all France equal to what our own country produced: as to French cookery it was their abhorrence: they could not complain however upon this occasion, for the people of the house, who knew the value of such guests, took care to comply with their taste, while the young women who attended, as servants, submitted to a robust sort of gallantry, as Thomson calls it, which is very rarely to be seen in France.

Nothing can give a better idea of the small degree of military skill among the Vendeans during the late war, and the extreme inferiority of their means, than that a place, as Paimbœuf, with nothing better than field fortifications, such as we threw up in Charleston at the approach of general Prevost, should have resisted all their efforts to become masters of it. The possession of this or any seaport would have enabled them to keep up a constant and open intercourse with England, and it was what

the princes of the house of Bourbon required, in order that one of them should land. This is perhaps what at all events ought to have been done. A prince of the royal family determined, like Cyrus, not to seem unworthy of a crown while he was endeavouring to obtain one, and with the fearless gallantry of Henry IV, or the heroism of Charles Edward, and with such materials to make soldiers of as the enthusiasm and courage of the Vendeans afforded, would have been invincible.

You must now, with that pliancy of disposition which I have always given you credit for, figure yourself at the little fishing town of Paimbœuf. Before you, on the other side of the Loire, is the lower Britanny of former times, the seat of the war of the Chouans, and now divided into a number of new names. Behind you is the country formerly the province of Poitou and the principal seat of the war of La Vendèc, and on the left is the great Atlantic. About south cast from Paimbœuf is the little island of Noirmontiers, where the inhabitants, though poor, and taught by their own experience alone, have recovered a great deal of valuable land from the ocean by means of dykes. Their mode is, when they begin a work of this sort, to construct it at first so low that the tide passes over it at half flood; openings are left for the discharge of the waters, but it is very gradual, and a great deal of sediment and of seaweed is deposited. When this has continued for some time, and the land to be reclaimed appears cultivable, the dyke is raised, it is made as strong as the means within the reach of the inhabitants will admit of, and is sometimes even faced with stone. Noirmontiers is also remarkable for the quantity of salt made there, and you will see the process very well explained in the Encyclopedia. Some of the canals which have been dug to carry the salt water for this purpose, are as much, I am told as three miles in length. The island was twice in possession of the Vendean army; but these troops, who were excellent among woods and rocks, and who were remarkable for a cheerful submission to every want, and for their daring courage, elevated as it was by a degree of religious enthusiasm, were unfit to defend lines, and upwards of two thousand surrendered after a very poor defence, to die in a much less glorious manner, for not to one of them, or to any one of the inha

bitants, who were suspected of having in any degree favoured their cause, was mercy shown. In the midst of twenty or thirty officers, who were led to execution upon this occasion, was D'Elbie, one of the most illustrious of the Vendean chiefs: he had received fourteen wounds in a late action on the main, and had retired to Noirmontiers as to a place where he might secure, and with some degree of tranquillity, the regular attendance of a surgeon. It was a melancholy sight, says the author I copy from, to behold this distinguished officer, whose weak state of health made it necessary that he should be carried in an elbow chair, followed by two or three faithful friends who wished to accompany him in death, supporting himself with heroism on this most trying of all occasions, and striving to support the spirits of a beloved wife, who, together with a lady at whose house D'Elbie and herself had been received, was told that they must die. I have been assured by a person, who was an unwilling spectator of this sad scene, that these interesting women surveyed with countenances unmoved the platoon of soldiers, which was drawn up before them, that they held each other by the hand to the last moment, and requested only as far as they were listened to, that their remains might be treated with decency.

The letter of general Turreau in which he communicated to the government the success at Noirmontiers, gives a minute account, and in all the language of exultation of the shocking scenes which were perpetrated there by his order; nor could the report of a victory at sea have been received with greater joy and satisfaction by the convention, who meanly bending under the despotism of Robespierre, applauded as he gave the signal; they thus joined in training their officers to blood, and became participators in all the cruelties which were committed.

You may form an accurate idea of the country, over which this worst of all civil wars was extended, by looking a moment at the map, I suppose you to have before you. A line from Saumur down the Loire, and along the sea coast to La Rochelle, and reaching again to Saumur, would comprehend nearly the whole, and you will perceive near Fontenoy, now honoured with the name of Napoleon, the little stream which has given name