The greatest drawback of a flatboat was that it had no keel and no sturdy central spine. Though it could carry people and cargo through shallow waters, it was quite challenging to handle.
Britain did have flatboats, but they were mainly used for recreation, such as by the rowing teams at Oxford and the University of Cambridge. Unlike Belgium's mud-choked rivers, the bed of the River Thames flowing through Oxford was clear, with swans and wild ducks gliding through its waters.
Rivers full of silt and sand meant hidden currents lurked beneath. A natural river was, after all, not an artificial canal; it required superb boat-handling skills, and sailors like that were not easy to find. Of course, there was another solution: technological innovation. That would require professional designers.
Georgiana had wanted to spend money on this, but what she had seen at the University of Rouen yesterday had shattered that illusion. They had not even secured a charter to establish the school, and the buildings were in a dreadful state.
Napoleon received many people every day. If nothing had happened yesterday, they would already have set off for the next destination. How could he have had time to inspect a university buried deep in the wilderness and built in a cemetery?
Chaptal had come to speak to her about precisely this matter. After all, he was the Commissioner of Education.
France had school inspectors. Talleyrand had proposed the idea. That cleric, who had slipped out to chase women while studying at the seminary, now concerned himself with whether other people were studying properly.
The inspectors' supervision covered a broad range: school buildings, teachers, students, and discipline. Leaving aside the dispute between the inspectors and the liberals, inspectors only supervised; they did not handle construction. The rector who had welcomed