114 3Ir. John H. Balfour Browne [March 17, 



mission has gone further, and proposes to improve the waterways of 

 England, and these great new or improved canals are to connect the 

 Midlands and South Staffordshire with the estuaries of the Thames, 

 the Humber, the Mersey, and the Severn. These four routes, which 

 are, after all, only to be large barge canals, suited for barges of, in 

 one scheme, 100 tons burden, and in another of 300 tons burden, are, 

 in the Report, referred to as the " cross," and if this gigantic scheme 

 is carried out at an expense, according to Sir John Wolfe Barry's 

 estimate, of, for the small scheme, £13,393,483, or for the large scheme 

 of £24,513,823, certainly England would be financially crucified. 

 But criticism of that imaginative proposal forms no part of my 

 present purpose. It is only interesting to me to note that after the 

 Commission had adumbrated this idea, and ascertained approximately 

 the cost of constructing the " cross," which, as I have said, would 

 be a cross greater than England could bear, they bethought them- 

 selves how they were to get water for their canals — in the deplorable 

 absence of the Alps — and they instructed an engineer to survey and 

 inquire and to give them an estimate of the cost of getting the 

 water. I have no doubt he did his work as well as he could. He 

 found ready to his hand the admirable statistics as to rainfall which 

 are collected by Dr. Mills, but complains, rightly enough, that " other 

 questions connected with the national water supplies appear to receive 

 less attention." Of course, it is quite an exception to find anywhere 

 river gaugings, and the engineer in question says : — " This inquiry 

 has shown the necessity, if such problems as those which the following 

 Eeports attempt to solve are to be thoroughly investigated in future, 

 of some public authority being charged with the duty of recording 

 the flow of rivers, and of the proportion of the rainfall available or 

 run off in catchment basins overlying different geological strata in 

 various parts of the country." 



But this claim to water for canals which, according to the reporter, 

 would involve an expenditure of £1,194,000, without including the 

 cost of obtaining the power or the cost of water compensation, and 

 which is, of course, in addition to the sums estimated for construction 

 by Sir John Wolfe Barry, raises again in an acute form the whole 

 question of our national supplies, and points to the absolute necessity 

 now of some systematic dealing with this great question. The nation 

 is being forestalled by municipalities, and here is a suggestion that a 

 Canal Board should lay a gigantic hand upon some of our sources of 

 supply. The time for dealing with the matter is noiv ; but, as in 

 other cases, it is quite likely that the matter will be postponed until 

 it is " too late." Indeed, in many directions, those last tragic words 

 of Gordon at Khartoum seem to be adopted as the motto of England. 



We all know that the British pride themselves on being a practical 

 people. But we often believe ourselves to be possessed of virtues we 

 have not got. One of the best indications of the practical ability of 

 the English people as a nation is to be found in connection with 



