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RAILWAYS AND CANALS. 



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ALTHOUGH the splendid advantages of the railway system have 

 become already apparent in the mining and manufacturing districts 

 of England, we regret, that more than ordinary opposition has been 

 arrayed against its progress. In the vast and immensely varied and 

 complicated commercial interests of this great nation, it is certain 

 that no improvement can ever arise without producing a partial loss to 

 the few whose capital is invested in works which the improvement 

 supersedes; and in proportion to the extent of the change, is the 

 corresponding disadvantage to former speculators. Thus, the rising 

 powers of the railway system, are bringing on the entire annihilation 

 of many millions of property invested in canals, the alarmed pro- 

 prietors of which are struggling by Parliamentary opposition, and by 

 distorted and unfounded statements and calculations, through the 

 medium of the press, to stay the progress of these splendid under- 

 takings. Among other publications on this subject, we have been 

 particularly interested by two pamphlet letters upon the compara- 

 tive merits and advantages of railways and canals, by Mr. Thomas 

 Grahame, a gentleman connected with the Ardrossan, or Paisley canal ; 

 and containing a description of certain experiments and observations 

 made at Glasgow in 1832. This writer details the particulars of a 

 novel discovery in the practice of canal navigation, from which it 

 appears, that contrary to all former calculation, the facility of draught 

 is immeasurably increased by the adoption of a rapid pace upon 

 canals ; for, in the words of Mr. Grahame, " two horses on the 

 Paisley canal, draw with ease, a passage boat with its complement 

 of seventy-five or ninety passengers, at the rate of ten miles an hour, 

 whilst it would kill even double that number of horses to draw the 

 same load along the canal at the rate of six miles an hour ; and it 

 would be decidedly easier to draw the load at the velocity of fifteen 

 miles an hour than at the rate of six miles. The ordinary speed for 

 the conveyance of passengers along the Ardrossan canal, has for two 

 years, been from nine to ten miles an hour j and, although there are 

 fourteen journeys along the canal per diem, at this rapid speed, the 

 banks of the canal have yet sustained no injury." This important 

 change in the practice jof inland water-carriage, is made the foun- 

 dation by Mr. Grahame, of certain calculations tending to demon- 

 strate the greater cheapness of transit by canals than on railroads ; 

 and before proceeding to expose the delusive nature of his 

 statements, we acknowledge with great pleasure, that the pamphlets 

 of Mr. Grahame are only too late to effect any material service to the 

 nation, and would have formed an invaluable communication about 

 twenty or five-and-twenty years ago. 



Let us examine a few of Mr. Grahame's other statements: " the 

 canal conveyance to London," says he, "is already far cheaper than 

 that on railways ; arid the Liverpool and Manchester railway com- 

 pany, in their competition with the water carriage, have obtained but 

 a very trifling proportion of the traffic from the canals. The ex- 



