been made upon the whole of the returns so made to the Stamp Office, and the licenses for which coaches were in operation at the end of the year 1834.* The method followed in making the calculation has been to ascertain the performance of each vehicle, supposing that performance to have been equal to the full amount of the permission conveyed by the license, reducing the power so given to a number equal to the number of miles which one passenger might be conveyed in the course of the year ;—for example: a coach is licensed to convey 15 passengers daily from London to Birmingham, a distance of 112 miles. In order to ascertain the possible performance of this carriage, during the year, if the number of miles is multiplied by the number of journeys, and that product multiplied again by the number of passengers, we shall obtain, as an element, a number equal to the number of miles along which one person might have been conveyed: viz. 112 × 365 x 15 = 613,200. In this case the number of miles travelled is 40,880, along which distance 15 persons might have been carried during the year; but, for the simplification of the calculation, the further calculation is made, which shows that amount of travelling to be equal to the conveyance of one person through the distance of 613,200 miles. Upon making this calculation for the whole number of stage-coaches that possessed licenses at the end of the year 1834, it appears that the means of conveyance thus provided for travelling were equivalent to the conveyance during the year of one person, for the distance of 597,159,420 miles, or more than six times the distance between the earth and the sun. Observation has shown that the degree in which the public avail themselves of the accommodation thus provided is in the proportion of 9 to 15, or 3-5ths of its utmost extent. Following this proportion, the sum of all the travelling by stage-coaches in Great Britain may be represented by 358,295,652 miles; if we exclude from the calculation all very young children, as well as persons who from their great age and bodily infirmities are unable to travel, there will probably remain in England 10,000,000 of persons by whom that amount of travelling might be accomplished; but it is well known that a very large proportion of the population are not placed in circumstances that require them to travel, and if even it were otherwise, that they would not avail themselves of a mode of conveyance so comparatively costly as a stage-coach. We shall probably go to the utmost extent in assuming that not more than 1-5th, or two millions of persons, travel in that manner, and it places in a strong point of view the activity which pervades this country when we thus arrive at the conclusion, that each of those persons must on the average have travelled on land by some public conveyance 180 miles in the course of the year 1834. This calculation was exclusive of

The progressive opening of railways since 1834 would interfere materially with the correctness of any calculation based upon the Stamp Office returns of later years.

all travelling in post-chaises, in private carriages, and by steam-vessels, the amount of which there are not any means for estimating.

It affords a good measure of the relative importance of the Metropolis to the remainder of the country, that of the above number of 597,159,420, the large proportion of 409,052,644 is the product of stage-coaches which are licensed to run from London to various parts of the kingdom. The licenses, which have formed the groundwork of the calculations, include all public conveyances proceeding between one part of England and another part of England, as well as those conveyances which travel between England and Scotland, but not such as begin and end their journeys in Scotland; and the travelling in Ireland is wholly excluded.

There were in 1837, 54 four-horse, and 49 pair-horse mail-coaches in England. The greatest speed attained by any of these was 10 miles per hour, and the slowest speed of any 6 miles, the average of the whole being 87 miles per hour. There were besides 30 four-horse mails in Ireland, and 10 in Scotland. The number of stage-coaches, including mails, licensed by the Commissioners of Stamps at the beginning of 1837, was 3026. Of this number about one-half (1507) began or ended their journeys in London.

CHAPTER III.

CANALS.

Beginning of Canal-making in England-Utility of the Duke of Bridgewater's CanalsLength of Navigable Rivers and Canals in England-Inland Navigation in Ireland— Neglect of Natural Facilities in that Country-Improvement of the Shannon-Traffic on Grand and Royal Canals and River Barrow-Ulster Canal - Caledonian CanalCrinan Canal-Canals begun and finished since 1801-Canals of France-Of America.

THE greatest era of canal-constructing in England was during the latter half of the last century. Some efforts were made at earlier periods for the introduction of this kind of inland navigation, but were without success; and we may fairly date the origin of English canals from the Act of 1755, under the authority of which a canal about 11 miles in length was executed, which commences in the river Mersey, at the mouth of Sankey-brook, alongside which it runs in a northerly direction to Gerrard's Bridge and St. Helen's.

In 1759, before the Sankey-brook Canal was finished, the Duke of Bridgewater obtained his first Act of Parliament, empowering him to construct those stupendous works which, from the boldness of their design and the masterly manner of their execution, have justly obtained for himself, and for James Brindley, the extraordinary self-taught genius by whom they were planned and executed, a renown of the highest order. These works, carried forward in defiance of natural difficulties, which were at that time deemed insurmountable, opened a new era in the annals of inland navigation, and though they may since have been equalled, have never been surpassed.

The great public utility of these canals of the Duke of Bridgewater, and the immense revenues which they have continued to produce to their proprietors, have acted as powerful incentives to the undertaking of similar works. The navigable canals used for the transport of goods and produce in England alone are estimated now to exceed 2200 miles in length, while the navigable rivers exceed 1800 miles, making together more than 4000 miles of inland navigation, the greatest part of which has been created or rendered available during the last eighty years.

In the Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the State of the Poor in Ireland, which sat in 1830, it was with truth remarked, that "the effect of opening lines of inland navigation, when

formed upon proper scientific principles, and executed with due economy, has been, on the concurrence of all testimony, the extension of improved agriculture, the equalisation of prices of fuel and provisions in different districts, the diminishing the danger of scarcity in both of these necessaries of life, and advancing the general improvement of the condition of the people by the creation of a new, vigorous, and continued demand for labour.".

Most of the works of this kind that have been executed have produced to the adventurers an adequate return for the capital expended. This in itself may be considered a sufficient test of their utility; but even where the proprietors have not reaped a fair advantage for their outlay, it does not necessarily follow that, as regards the country at large, the money has been ill bestowed. On this head, the remarks of the late Mr. Nimmo, upon the effects of the canals cut in Ireland, will be found, with some modifications, to be generally applicable. He observes, "the inland navigations of Ireland are chiefly remarkable for being undertaken, not to facilitate any existing trade, but chiefly to promote agriculture in the fertile districts of the interior, to create a trade where none had previously existed, and to furnish employment for the poor. The success in this way has been wonderful, and though the adventurers have not yet been repaid, and perhaps never will be, the benefit to the public and landed property of the kingdom has been great and manifest. The nation has been saved the payment of a bounty of 100,000l. per annum for bringing corn to Dublin, for in place of this being the case that city has now become one of the first corn-ports of Europe; and Ireland in general, which half a century ago imported corn to the value of half a million annually, has now a surplus produce in that article to the value of 4,000,000l. per annum, while the whole expenditure, whether in public or in private works of navigation, even including the interest paid on loans, hardly amounted to 3,000,000Z."

The advantages thus strikingly brought forward by Mr. Nimmo have resulted from means of internal intercourse, which, when contrasted with those accomplished in England, must appear insignificant. The whole. extent of navigable canals at this moment available in Ireland does not exceed 300 miles, and, including navigable rivers, the entire water-communication is not much beyond 500 miles for the whole island. What the condition of that fertile country might become if its means of communication were placed upon an equal footing with those of the midland and southern counties of England, is a question of the highest interest to every one who has at heart the moral and intellectual advancement of the Irish people, and, as a consequence, the general prosperity of the United Kingdom.

It is not the least singular part of the case, that, while so much has been done in England to supply a natural deficiency of water-communi

cation, the existing facilities for executing such works in Ireland have, on the contrary, been of the most encouraging description. The neglect which these facilities have met with is not to be accounted for upon the generally operating principle, that where nature has done much, there human ingenuity is less called forth. The neglect of the people to take advantage of the boons of nature has for the most part been such as to render them of none effect. The Shannon, the most majestic river in the United Kingdom, which, with its lakes and lateral branches, receives the drainage of a considerable portion of Ireland, and appears formed by nature to act as the great artery of the island, for facilitating its agricultural and commercial operations, by marking out a line for the expeditious and cheap conveyance of produce and merchandise, required only a little assistance from art to bring all its usefulness to bear upon the prosperity of the country; yet this little was long withheld, and the grand designs of nature frustrated through the apathy, or something even less excusable, of the people or government, so that this river was not inaptly compared to a sealed book. This noble stream flows during its course 230 miles through the centre of the island, and may be said to offer the blessings of commerce and its civilizing results to 10 out of 32 of the counties into which Ireland is divided.

The great capabilities of the river Shannon have been long acknowledged. At the Summer Assizes of 1794, the High Sheriffs and Grand Juries of the counties of Roscommon, Leitrim, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Limerick, King's County, and Tipperary, resolved that "the completing of the navigation of the river Shannon, and the great rivers adjoining thereto, from Lough Allen to Limerick, will tend effectually to improve and open the home and foreign markets to the produce of more than 2,000,000 of acres of land in the heart of the kingdom; and that the execution of this great navigation will effectually advance the commerce, manufactures, agriculture, and population of this kingdom, and the consequent strength of the empire at large."

Through an unaccountable want of enterprise and even common worldly forethought on the part of those landholders whose properties would have been improved by following up the recommendation embodied in the foregoing resolution, nothing effectual to that end was done during the forty years that followed this declaration. In the three years from 1818 to 1820 Parliament indeed voted 21,000/. for making or repairing works on the Shannon, but these grants appear to have been expended with but little judgment.

In a Report addressed to the Government so recently as the 30th of April, 1833, by Colonel Burgoyne, the Chief Commissioner of the Board of Public Works in Ireland, the neglect here mentioned is thus noticed: "It is indeed surprising to find so noble a river, running through so fine a country, in such a state of neglect. The soil on its