upper part of the Rhine at Strasbourg, going through a most
interesting country by the way--then go down the Rhine to Cologne by
steamer; next, on by railway to Ostend; cross by steamer to Dover;
and, finally, reach London--thus doing in a few days, and all by force
of steam, what a short time ago must have been done imperfectly, and
with great toil and expense. Still more to ease the journey, a branch
railway from the Strasbourg line is about being opened from near Metz,
by Saarbrueck, to Manheim; by which means the Rhine will be reached by
a shorter cut, and be considerably more accessible. In a month or two,
it will be possible to travel from Paris to Frankfort in twenty-five
hours. All that is wanted to complete the Strasbourg line, is to
strike off a branch from Metz to Luxembourg and Treves; for by
reaching this last-mentioned city--a curious, ancient place, which we
had the pleasure of visiting--the traveller is on the Moselle at the
spot where it becomes navigable, and he descends with ease by steamer
to Coblenz. And so the Rhine would be reached from Paris at three
important points.

Paris, as a centre, is pushing out other lines, with intermediate
branches. Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Rouen, Dieppe, Boulogne,
Calais, and Lille, are the outposts of this series of radiation. The
latest move is a line from Caen to Cherbourg; it will start from the
Paris and Rouen Railway at Rosny, 40 miles from Paris, and proceed
through Caen to the great naval station at Cherbourg--a distance of
191 miles from Rosny. By the time the great lines in France are
finished--probably 3500 miles in the whole--it is expected that the
total expenditure will amount, in round numbers, to a hundred millions
sterling.

It is gratifying to know, that the small German powers which border on
France have been most active in providing themselves with railways;
not only for their own accommodation, but to join the lines of other
countries; so as to make great trunk-thoroughfares through their
dominions. There seems to be a cordiality in making these junctions,
for general accommodation, that cannot but deserve praise. The truth,
however, is, that all these petty states are glad to get hold of means
for bringing travellers--that is, money-spenders--to their cities and
watering-places, and for developing their long-hidden resources. For
example, in the district lying between Saarbrueck and Manheim, there
exist vast beds of coal, and powerful brine