Transcribed from the 1831 Effingham Wilson edition by DavidPrice,
LONDON:
PUBLISHEDBY
EFFINGHAM WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE:
SOLD ALSO BY R. WRIGHTSON, BIRMINGHAM;EBENEZER
THOMPSON & SONS, MANCHESTER;AND
G. & J. ROBINSON,LIVERPOOL.
1831.
[Price One Shilling.]
PRINTED BYRICHARD TAYLOR,
RED LION COURT, FLEET-STREET.
Without minutely inquiring into theorigin of the different modes of conveyance at present existingin this country and others for passengers and goods, I shallcontent myself with asking, Why were canals first established?and What was the great benefit arising from them, which caused somuch as fifteen hundred miles in extent to be executed in lessthan a quarter of a century, at a cost of nearly twenty millionsof money, and for the most part during a time of war, when thehighest rate of taxation prevailed?
Previously to the establishment of canals,—roads,waggons and horses were the means employed for the conveyance ofgoods; and the speed which they accomplished was greater than theaverage speed afterwards obtained by canals. Butnotwithstanding this advantage, it was found, that to carry a tonweight of grain, coal, or merchandize one hundred miles costupwards of 6l. Hence materials and goods, whoseweight bore a great proportion to their value, could only beconveyed a few miles p.4from the spot where they were raised or manufactured; andthus, sources of wealth that have since been highly productiveand profitable were shut up and useless. Baron Dupin in hisexcellent work on the Commercial Power of Great Britain,published 1825, states, “Up to 1756 England had not asingle line of artificial navigation; she possessed forcommunication by land, only a small number of roads injudiciouslycut and ill kept up. Of a sudden an individual conceivesthe idea to profit by the general impulsion which industry hadreceived, by cutting a canal to carry to Manchester the productof his mines. Shortly afterwards, a town which thrives, andof which the exuberant wealth seeks everywhere productiveoutlets,—Liverpool,—aspires to still higherdesigns. She is the first to form and realize the projectof opening a navigable channel between the Irish Sea and theGerman Ocean. Other channels even more extended are openedby degrees: thus, within the short space of half a century, adouble row of canals is formed, both for great and smallnavigation, for the purpose of uniting together opposite seas;basins separated by numberless chains of hills and mountains;opulent ports; industrious towns; fertile plains; andinexhaustible mines;—and this presents a development ofmore than a thousand leagues in length, upon a portion ofterritory not equal to one-fourth of France! The roadswhich already existed are enlarged, are reconstructed with moreart, and kept p.5up with