Nor was Napoleon more
successful; and history affords abundant proof, that it is more easy to
build a city, or even to conquer a kingdom, than to alter an established
name.
Viewed in its present condition, no town in France unites more
advantages than Havre: it is one of the keys of the kingdom; it commands
the mouth of the river that leads direct to the metropolis; and it is at
once a great commercial town and a naval station. Possessing such claims
to commercial and military pre-eminence, it may appear matter of
surprise that it should be of so recent an origin; but the cause is to
be sought for in the changes which succeeding centuries have induced in
the face of the country--
"Vidi ego quae fuerat quondam durissima tellus
Esse fretum; vidi factas ex aequore terras."
The sea continually loses here, and, without great efforts on the part
of man to retard the operation of the elements, Havre may, in process of
time, become what Harfleur is. At its origin it stood immediately on the
shore; the consequence of which was, that, within a very few years, a
high tide buried two-thirds of the houses and nearly all the
inhabitants.
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