PARIS A SEAPORT.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 105, 23 October 1863, Page 6

PARIS A SEAPORT.

(Prom the Times.) Tbe design of making Paris a seaport \ has been repeatedly entertained for more than two centuries past. It was first proposed in the time of* Louis XIV., and Colbert had surveys made to ascertain whether the Seine could be made navigable for seagoing vessels. The engineers of tbat time, with Vauban at their head, decided that it was impossible to obtain a sufficient depth of water in the Seiftei but that a direct communication with the sea might be established hy means of a canal from Dieppe." The state ofthe public finances, however, did not. then adoi't of undertaking so expensive an enterpiize. Thissohe'me wasagain revived by the Marquis de Crecy, in 1779, and, 'in the following year, the government authorised the project, but nothing was -done Tor the want of funds. When Napoleon became Emperor, the project of making Paris a seaport, was submitted by him, and he remarked that, if the canalisation of the Seine could be realised, "Paris, Rouen, ' and Havre would become one city, with! ; the river for its principal street." Po- ; iitical events, however, prevented the ex- | ecution of the design, and nothing more' \ was heard of it till the reign of Charles X. j when a company was formed; with; a! capital of 200,ft00,Q0O£, for making YParis ; a seaport by the canalisation of- the river.'; \ The course*, of events,:* howeverj-again hio-- | dered the realisation of the scheme. It is • now propos2-ditom*<keacanal/rom3>ieppei passing along the. valley of the" 'Beth line, ■ by St. Aubin. Dampierre, and Neufchate', thence to the valley of the Therwni passing south of Beauvais, through 'the marshes of Bruneval to the Qise, and by ■j He Adam, St. Denis, and St, Ouen, to the ! fortifications near Neiu-lyy^here it is proI posed to forma port fdir, Merchant ve^ ifj-om which a canal is to oe made to 'the. JTernes,in brdejfttp diminish larid--carriage- ' as far as possible.